Israeli policy can’t be guided by fear of world criticism, deputy foreign minister says

Israeli policy should not be guided by fear of international criticism, a senior Israeli official said at a U.S. synagogue last weekend…writes Rafael Medoff. Read more

New wave of anti-Israel and antisemitic activity emerges on campuses across US

Jewish college students returning after their summer break are encountering a wave of swastika daubings and anti-Israel activity on campuses across the country—and there are signs the hostility may intensify in the weeks ahead. Read more

Court ruling deals blow to Palestinian efforts to restrict Jews in Jerusalem

Palestinians are vowing to continue their efforts to prevent Jews from living in large parts of Jerusalem’s Old City, despite a July 31 Israeli court ruling permitting a Jewish purchase of several properties there…writes Rafael Medoff/JNS.org. Read more

Pro-Hamas conference in Netherlands could encourage antisemitism, critics warn

The mayor of the second-largest city in the Netherlands is refusing to block a conference by a pro-Hamas group, despite warnings by Dutch Jewish leaders and political figures the event could encourage antisemitism and embolden terrorists. Read more

Negotiator: peace talks failed due to Palestinian demands, Kerry’s approach

The most recent round of Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations failed because the Palestinian Authority (PA) responded to each Israeli concession with new demands and the Obama administration kept taking the Palestinians’ side, according to a veteran Israeli negotiator…writes Rafael Medoff/JNS.org. Read more

Jerusalem schools, synagogues would be shut if UN resolution is implemented

The human consequences of implementing the recent United Nations resolution about Israel would be devastating, say American representatives of Israeli schools, synagogues and other institutions in parts of Jerusalem that Israel captured in 1967…writes Rafael Medoff/JNS.org. Read more

Controversy erupts over ex-diplomat Indyk’s statements about Israel and Jews

Several Jewish organisations and leaders are expressing alarm over former U.S. diplomat Martin Indyk’s role in the Obama administration’s recent Israel policy moves…writes Rafael Medoff/JNS.org. Read more

Palestinians say “two states” but not “for two peoples”

Palestinian Authority officials have been using a deceptive version of the “two states for two peoples” motto when they speak to different audiences, according to a leading Israeli scholar…writes Rafael Medoff/JNS.org. Read more

U.S. State Department calls Mahmoud Abbas’s Palestinian Authority antisemitic

For the first time, the U.S. State Department has explicitly accused the Palestinian Authority (PA) of promoting antisemitism, a signal Jewish groups are hoping will lead to change in U.S. policy…writes Rafael Medoff/JNS.org. Read more

Deleting inconvenient words, from Arafat to Iran

The U.S. State Department’s admission that it altered an embarrassing video exchange about its nuclear negotiations with Iran is disturbing—but it’s not the first time that the Obama administration, or some of its predecessors, have tampered with words that it deemed politically inconvenient. Read more

Did Jonathan Pollard really cause antisemitism?…asks Rafael Medoff/JNS.org 

Did jailed Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard’s actions provoke antisemitism in the United States? Read more

Ralph Nader targets ‘the Jews’ and linguistically hijacks antisemitism

Ralph Nader, the famous crusader against fraud and corruption, believes he has uncovered a horrific new injustice—and the perpetrators are “the Jews.”

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Answering Pope Francis’s question about Auschwitz

The great powers had photographs of the railway routes that the trains took to… Auschwitz,” Pope Francis remarked this week. Read more

French rejection of Tel Aviv students echoes 1942 Benzion Netanyahu episode

The world-famous Louvre art museum stands accused of discriminating against Israeli students, after being exposed by some clever amateur investigative journalism that echoes a 1940s incident involving the father of Israel’s current prime minister. Read more

Little left of Cuban Jewry’s rich past

The new U.S. policy of rapprochement with Cuba, which was accompanied by the celebrated release of imprisoned Jewish aid worker Alan Gross, probably will give Jews greater access to a Jewish community with which few are familiar. But visitors will find that the years have not been kind to once-thriving Cuban Jewry. Read more

Accusations against Israel are latest disservice to coiner of the word ‘genocide’…writes Rafael Medoff

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan claims Israel is carrying out “systematic genocide” in Gaza. South Africa’s ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC), asserts that Israel’s actions in Gaza “remind [us] of the atrocities of Nazi Germany.” Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas is accusing Israel of “genocide,” and the PA’s newspaper is calling the current war “Israel’s Holocaust.” Read more

D-Day and the bombing of Auschwitz…writes Rafael Medoff/JNS.org

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Spielberg genocide award for Obama…writes Rafael Medoff

In his recent remarks upon receiving an award for fighting genocide, President Barack Obama explained why he is not fighting genocide. He didn’t mean it to sound quite that way, of course. But that was the indisputable meaning of his words. Read more

‘A death sentence for the Jews’: 75 years since the British White Paper…writes Rafael Medoff

“We know we are going to be bamboozled,” a despondent Stephen Wise, the foremost American Jewish leader of his time, confided to a friend before boarding a ship bound for England in early 1939. The British had invited Wise and other Zionist leaders from the United States and Palestine to take part in a “peace conference” with Arab leaders. Read more