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… The video of American cities is shocking: endless landscapes of filth, trash, homelessness, open fires on the street, drug-addicted zombies. It doesn’t look like the America most of us remember. Watching Biden bragging about sending billions of dollars to corrupt leaders overseas with American cities looking like bombed-out Iraq or Libya is US foreign policy in a nutshell. The Washington elites tell the rest of America that they must “promote democracy” in some far-off land. Anyone who objects is considered in league with the appointed enemy of the day. Once it was Saddam, then Assad and Gaddafi. Now it’s Putin. The game is the same, only the names are changed … As Washington salivates over fighting Russia in Ukraine, the rest of America feels like we’re becoming Zimbabwe.

… Many have accused Putin of historical revisionism and denied that the West ever promised Russia that, if a unified Germany were permitted to join NATO, NATO would not expand east. But, as these three quotations from the highest level of NATO show, the declassified documents firmly establish that NATO was lying when it said in a 2014 report that “No such pledge was made, and no evidence to back up Russia’s claims has ever been produced.” … There are four other declassified statements that now solidify the evidence against Baker’s claim. The most important is Baker’s own interpretation of his question to Gorbachev at the time. At a press conference immediately following this most crucial meeting with Gorbachev, Baker announced that NATO’s “jurisdiction would not be moved eastward.” … The clarity of the documentary record is still relevant …

… The hard truth is the introduction of new weapon systems won’t change the strategic outcome in Ukraine. Even if NATO’s European members, together with Washington, D.C., provided Ukrainian troops with a new avalanche of weapons, and it arrived at the front instead of disappearing into the black hole of Ukrainian corruption, the training and tactical leadership required to conduct complex offensive operations does not exist inside Ukraine’s 700,000-man army … In war and peace, human capital is everything. Sadly, Washington places almost no value on it, eagerly lowering standards of admission for soldiers and officers. If this attitude persists, and it probably will, relaxed standards will catch up with America’s military when our forces finally confront a capable opposing force in battle.

Today — seven years after it was negotiated — Iranian public opinion is split on the 2015 nuclear deal. Some 48 percent disapprove of the agreement while 47 percent approve of it, according to a new poll by the Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland (CISSM) and IranPoll. The deal had a much higher approval rating – 76 percent – in mid-2015, when Iran and the world’s six major powers concluded two years of diplomacy. It subsequently declined in popularity because it failed to deliver the economic benefits promised in the deal. Iranians were also divided on whether Iran should develop nuclear weapons. A majority, 56 percent of respondents, said that Iran’s nuclear program should only be for generating energy. Some 36 percent of respondents said that Iran should develop both atomic bombs and nuclear power.

CNN’s Dana Bash has what she calls “a very, very Jewish response” to the question of why she’s hosting a special for her network on antisemitism in America. “The bad news is there is antisemitism in America,” Bash told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “The good news is I work in a place that wants to shine a spotlight on it, and allow for an investigation into what is happening, why it’s happening and what are the solutions.” Bash, a member of Temple Micah in Washington, DC, is the great-granddaughter of Hungarian Jews who were murdered at Auschwitz. She told JTA that having the opportunity to report a special on modern antisemitism was “one of the most important things I’ve ever done.” The hour-long special, “Rising Hate: Antisemitism In America,” will air on CNN …

… Kevin MacDonald, a professor of psychology at California State University at Long Beach, has published a remarkable volume [Separation and its Discontents] that tackles head-on what may be the most diligently suppressed question of our time: Why do people hate Jews? In contrast to the generally available treatments of this issue, MacDonald has produced a study of rare, even shocking forthrightness and scope … MacDonald’s brilliant, well-referenced study, with its bounty of eye-opening facts and insights, is the most important work on the perpetually troubling “Jewish question” to appear in many years … Without an understanding of the real Jewish role in history, we remain dangerously ignorant of how the world actually works.

… For many, the Holocaust Mythos conjures up the hope of universal redemption from the absolute evils of racism, anti-Semitism, and militant White nationalism. Arising out of the allegedly planned extermination of the Jewish people by “Nazi” Germany and its collaborators, the story has acquired canonical status in officially-constructed “memory cultures” throughout the West … Even before the criminal law was amended to outlaw the “[w]ilful promotion of antisemitism,” schools, universities, churches, and the media in Canada routinely stigmatize anyone who publicly dares to doubt the truth of the Holocaust Mythos … Is it merely coincidence that this restriction of free speech reflects the power and serves the interests of one particular, highly-visible, economically well-endowed, socially privileged, and politically powerful ethnic group?

… In Germany, France, Austria, Belgium, Switzerland and several other European countries, as well as in Israel, it is a crime publicly to dispute the official version of Holocaust history … “Holocaust denial” laws violate ancient and universal standards of justice. They criminalize even factual or truthful statements that “play down” or “whitewash” the Holocaust. They are selective and one-sided. In countries where they are on the books, the Holocaust is the only chapter of history that cannot be freely discussed. They inhibit historical inquiry and restrict free speech. They are a disgrace, and should be repealed.

According to a recent poll from Pew Research Center, more than 70% of American adults believe that the next generation will be poorer than their parents. The poll was conducted across 19 countries and the data from the United States closely tracks with the global trend: 72% of Americans believe kids will be worse off than their parents, compared to a median 70% of respondents. … Japan was the least optimistic nation surveyed, with 82% of respondents stating that they believed their children would be worse off than they were, while only 12% thought they’d be better off. Israel and Singapore were the most optimistic countries … Eleven of the 19 countries reported record high levels of pessimism, with Australia, Hungary, and the Netherlands reporting an increase of more than 10% from last year.

… Consider this anomaly here: South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Australia and New Zealand all rely on the United States as their No. 1 ally in defending them against China, but all boast of China as their No. 1 trading partner … From Beijing, the message sent to the U.S. was clear. China regards Taiwan as its detached province. It will confront any power, including the United States, that is perceived to be challenging that political reality. It will respond to any Taiwanese move to establish its independence of Beijing as a casus belli, a justification for war … When 21st-century China stakes a claim to something in Asia, it backs up its claim with action. The trend is unmistakable and points to a future confrontation over Taiwan.

In addition to escalating brinkmanship with Russia and China, President Joe Biden’s administration is flirting with war against Iran. The clearest evidence of this includes the ever expanding “maximum pressure” sanctions campaign, as well as the development of a U.S.-led, NATO style alliance encircling Iran … Last year, former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett told Biden his “strategic vision” for Iran was “death by a thousand cuts,” or myriad military and diplomatic attacks, as well as clandestine attacks, “the gray-area stuff.” Bennett went on to demand U.S. troops remain indefinitely in both Syria and Iraq. …. Americans aware of Israel’s arsenal, which includes 200 or more nuclear weapons and makes U.S. aid illegal, are considerably outnumbered statistically by those who falsely believe Iran has the bomb.

As Israel unleashed a surprise wave of air strikes on Gaza last Friday, the two remaining Conservative politicians vying to replace disgraced Prime Minister Boris Johnson publicized letters vowing fealty to Israel. Their timing underscored the degree to which British politicians on both sides of the aisle have now joined their American counterparts in making commitment to Israel a defining issue in their campaigns for highest office … In fact, though it is never mentioned by western politicians or media, Palestinians, unlike Israel, actually have a right in international law to resist Israel militarily – and not only because Israel has been belligerently occupying their lands for decades.

When she appeared in a German court last month, Irmgard Furchner sat in a wheelchair clutching her handbag. Her mask and kerchief made it difficult to see the face of the 97-year-old — who has been charged with more than 11,000 counts of “aiding and abetting” murder during the Holocaust. The nursing-home resident was a secretary in the commandant’s office of the Stutthof concentration camp near Danzig, and is now among the latest former Nazis to be prosecuted in Germany. The defendants are in their late 90s or even centenarians … Schuetz’s prosecution was made possible after the German government changed its policy on Nazi war criminals more than a decade ago. Previously, prosecutors had to prove a specific crime against a specific victim.

An Emirati royal has compared the Holocaust to the deaths of Muslims in various wars, suggesting Jews have leveraged the Nazi genocide for sympathy and victimhood, while Muslims “move on.” Princess Hend bint Faisal Al-Qasimi, a royal from the Al-Qasimi dynasty that rules Sharjah, the United Arab Emirates’ third-largest city, tweeted her complaint on Saturday, the latest in a long line of statements that have included scathing criticism of Israel, as well as antisemitism. The princess has a following of over 533,000 people on Twitter … “6,636,235 Jews were killed in WW2, killed in Europe,” she tweeted. “At least 12.5M Muslims died in wars in past 25 years. You never hear a Muslim writing books, movies, starts a law that if you don’t sympathize with our plight you are less of a human. We forgive & move on.”

A leading German university has voted to keep the name of a notorious antisemite as part of its official title — prompting fury among students and Jewish groups. Eberhard Karl University in Tübingen, near Stuttgart, made the decision not to scrap its formal name despite calls for the change. Count Eberhard Im Bart was a virulent 15th-century antisemite who expelled all the Jews living in the city and surrounding area.
Hanna Veiler, vice-president of the Jewish Student Union of Germany (JSUG), told the JC the university’s decision was “utterly disappointing”, while Michael Blume, the commissioner against antisemitism for the state of Baden-Württemberg, where the university is located, called it “wrong”.

… The sprawling system of military government created by Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip is a world many Israelis are learning about for the first time, after the publication of testimonies from veterans exposing the “permit regime” that rules over Palestinian people and land … Along with the use of direct violence, Palestinians and veterans say the military governing body is an integral part of a system of oppression … While putting together the project, Breaking the Silence’s interviewers found that repeated themes began to emerge: the use of collective punishment, such as revoking an entire family’s travel permits; the extensive network of Palestinian agents cooperating with Cogat’s Civil Administration, which governs parts of the West Bank …

Intentionally waving a Nazi flag in [the state of] New South Wales or displaying memorabilia bearing swastikas could now land a person in jail for up to a year, along with a fine of over $100,000. The Crimes Amendment (prohibition on display of Nazi symbols) Bill 2022 swiftly and unanimously passed the NSW upper house on Thursday. The legislation was drafted in April, after an inquiry recommended a ban on the public display of Nazi symbols in a bid to tackle rising antisemitism. NSW becomes the second state in Australia to pass the landmark legislation after Victoria in June. NSW Jewish Board of Deputies CEO Darren Bark described the passing of the law as a historic day for NSW.

In a striking expression of the profound pessimism and polarization currently afflicting U.S. politics — as well as a growing aversion to both parties’ presidential front-runners — a plurality of registered voters now say it would be “the worst thing that could happen” if either President Biden (39%) or former President Donald Trump (41%) were to win the White House again in 2024, according to a new Yahoo News/YouGov poll. Only about half as many voters say a second Trump term would be “the best thing that could happen” (22%). A mere 8% say the same about a second Biden term. Respondents were also given a chance to say that either president’s reelection would be “mostly bad,” “mostly good,” “a mix of good and bad” or “I’m not sure.” More chose “the worst thing that could happen” than any other option.

President Joe Biden is the foreign policy equivalent of an alcoholic. He can’t get enough of U.S. meddling around the world. Although he withdrew American forces from the endless Afghan imbroglio, he has taken the U.S. into a dangerous proxy war against Russia, announced that he is prepared to fight China over Taiwan, and threatened Iran with attack. Where would he get the money necessary to fight so many conflicts? The U.S. is heading toward national bankruptcy.

… Washington has set aside reliance on diplomatic persuasion in favor of coercive policies based on dollar sovereignty. The United States now imposes sanctions on any and all countries that defy its policies. This practice and the lawless confiscation of a growing number of countries’ dollar reserves have put America at odds with much of the world … The United States no longer teaches geography or foreign history in its schools, has ever fewer foreign correspondents, glorifies war, and seems to view diplomacy as nothing more than foreplay before a military assault. Our habit of plotting foreign policies as vectors of ill-informed popular perceptions and passions belies reality … Americans now feel free to indulge solipsistic fantasies that justify foreign policies so out of line with trends and events abroad that they gain more blowback than traction.

… Since the end of World War, the world has come close to seeing another nuclear attack several times. The most serious among these was the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, when the US and the Soviet Union confronted each other in a 13-day intense political and military standoff. In 2022, nine countries possess over 13,000 nuclear warheads … According to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), Russia has 6,255 nuclear warheads, the highest in the world. It is followed by the US with 5,550 such bombs. And China comes in a distant third place with 350 nuclear warheads. The US and Russia combined own nearly 90 per cent of the world’s nuclear weapons. Other countries that possess or claim to possess nuclear bombs are France, the UK, Pakistan, India, Israel, and North Korea.

The U.S. use of nuclear weapons against Japan during World War II has long been a subject of emotional debate … The fact that Japan had 68 cities destroyed in the summer of 1945 poses a serious challenge for people who want to make the bombing of Hiroshima the cause of Japan’s surrender. The question is: If they surrendered because a city was destroyed, why didn’t they surrender when those other 66 cities were destroyed? … The Soviet invasion invalidated the military’s decisive battle strategy, just as it invalidated the diplomatic strategy. At a single stroke, all of Japan’s options evaporated. The Soviet invasion was strategically decisive – it foreclosed both of Japan’s options – while the bombing of Hiroshima (which foreclosed neither) was not.

Today marks the anniversary of U.S. President Harry Truman’s atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan. The atomic bombing of Nagasaki took place three days later [August 9] in 1945. Some 90,000-160,000 individuals were killed in Hiroshima. The Nagasaki bombing killed 39,000-80,000 human beings … There isn’t much to be said about those unspeakable atrocities against civilians that hasn’t been said many times before. The US government never needed atomic bombs to commit mass murder, but it dropped them anyway. (Remember this when judging the official US moralistic stance toward Iran.) … Conservatives, ironically, were among the earliest critics of Truman’s mass murder. It’s also worth noting that the top military leaders of the day opposed the use of atomic bombs.

America’s leaders understood Japan’s desperate position: the Japanese were willing to end the war on any terms, as long as the Emperor was not molested. If the US leadership had not insisted on unconditional surrender — that is, if they had made clear a willingness to permit the Emperor to remain in place — the Japanese very likely would have surrendered immediately, thus saving many thousands of lives … General Curtis LeMay, who had pioneered precision bombing of Germany and Japan (and who later headed the Strategic Air Command and served as Air Force chief of staff), put it most succinctly: “The atomic bomb had nothing to do with the end of the war.”

… Over the weekend, a Jewish contestant on Israel’s “Big Brother” reality show walked into a room, delivered a Nazi salute and declared: “Heil Hitler.” … Producers of the show, which airs on Reshet 13, opted against kicking out the contestants – despite their violation of show’s rules … Last year [though], a contestant on “Big Brother” in Portugal repeatedly gave a Nazi salute in an attempt at humor. He was immediately kicked off the show, which said it could not tolerate such behavior … In 2016, a contestant on the UK celebrity version of “Big Brother” was evicted for making a Holocaust joke to a Jewish housemate. The move was welcomed at the time by the Board of Deputies of British Jews … Is there a double standard at play? … Is it legitimate for Jews to employ Holocaust references and humor yet still take offense when non-Jews do the same?

A school district in Virginia has apologized for designing and distributing a logo that resembles a swastika, in the second case this month of a district releasing a logo that bears a resemblance to a Nazi emblem. Hanover County Public Schools, just north of Richmond, this week unveiled T-shirts and conference materials with a logo of what the superintendent said was “four hands and arms grasping together.” But local Jewish groups and others, including a Jewish candidate for Virginia’s House of Delegates, instead saw something that looked too much like the swastika. “We are deeply sorry for this mistake and for the emotions that the logo has evoked by its semblance to a swastika and, by extension, to the atrocities that were committed under its banner,” Michael Gill, the district’s superintendent, said in a statement …

The University of California, Irvine, has received a $4 million matching pledge donation to its Center for Jewish Studies, announced the school. The gift from Henry and Susan Samueli is the largest donation made in support of Jewish studies at UC Irvine, the university said on Monday. It will be used to increase three areas: programming that supports educators of grades kindergarten-12 who teach about the Holocaust; funding for an endowed chair in the study of contemporary anti-Semitism and another in Israeli studies; and partnerships with universities in Israel to bring scholars to UC Irvine. “Expanding Jewish studies on campus falls under a campus-wide priority of ‘growth that makes a difference,’ facilitating interdisciplinary, problem-based scholarship and teaching,” said university chancellor Howard Gillman.

Rural school districts in Texas are switching to four-day weeks this fall due to lack of staff. Florida is asking veterans with no teaching background to enter classrooms. Arizona is allowing college students to step in and instruct children. The teacher shortage in America has hit crisis levels — and school officials everywhere are scrambling to ensure that, as students return to classrooms, someone will be there to educate them. “I have never seen it this bad,” Dan Domenech, executive director of the School Superintendents Association, said of the teacher shortage … In a January report, the Illinois Association of Regional School Superintendents found that 88 percent of school districts statewide were having “problems with teacher shortages” — while 2,040 teacher openings were either empty or filled with a “less than qualified” hire.

There are some things that I believe to be true about the anarchy that purports to be US foreign policy … The US and British governments in particularly have been relentlessly lying to the people … The lies include both the genesis and progress of the war and there has also been a sustained effort to demonize President Vladimir Putin and anything Russian … All of the above and the politics behind it has led me to believe that the United States, assisted by some of its allies, has become addicted to war as an excuse for domestic failures as well as a replacement for diplomacy to settle international disputes. The White House hypocritically describes its role as “global leadership” or maintaining a “rules based international order” or even defending “democracy against authoritarianism.”

… America needs to reflect long and hard upon what it is we will fight China to defend in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea. China, after all, is a nuclear-weapons nation with a manufacturing base larger than our own, an economy equal to our own, a population four times ours and fleets of warships larger in number than the U.S. Navy … Consider: China, in this 21st century, has grown massively, both militarily and economically, and in both real and relative terms, at the expense of the United States. Nor are the growth trends for China, with four times as many people as there are Americans, favorable to the USA. What guarantees are there that 2025 or 2030 will not bring a more favorable balance of power for China in what is, after all, their continent, not ours?

Israel plays a larger-than-life role on America’s silver screen. From big-budget epics such as Paul Newman’s 1960 hit “Exodus” to Adam Sandler’s raunchy “You Don’t Mess With the Zohan” in 2008, Hollywood films about the Jewish state can evoke a cluster of competing reactions. A new book takes in the panorama — “Hollywood and Israel: A History,” by professors Tony Shaw and Giora Goodman … “It’s not just film production, but also philanthropy, diplomacy and celebrity advocacy, the whole kind of relationship that can be built between the global entertainment capital and a state, Israel.” … Beginning in the 1920s and ’30s, the narrative examines a small but growing number of Hollywood films supporting Zionism and opposing Hitler. After Israel achieved independence, Christian-themed biblical epics such as “Ben Hur” became in vogue …

Half a century before the Internet was invented, an American Jewish organization was asking how news media might be harnessed in the fight against anti-semitism. Their answer, launched in 1937 as the Nazis rose to power in Germany, was a 15-year effort to spread the message of tolerance through comic books, radio, advertising, newsstands and eventually television spots. The organization was the American Jewish Committee, and its pioneering effort to combat prejudice through mass media is the subject of an exhibit, “Confronting Hate 1937-1952,” which opens July 29 at the New-York Historical Society.

… The Jews are so dominant, I had to scour the trades to come up with six Gentiles in high positions at entertainment companies. When I called them to talk about their incredible advancement, five of them refused to talk to me, apparently out of fear of insulting Jews … As a proud Jew, I want America to know about our accomplishment. Yes, we control Hollywood. Without us, you’d be flipping between “The 700 Club” and “Davey and Goliath” on TV all day … I don’t care if Americans think we’re running the news media, Hollywood, Wall Street or the government. I just care that we get to keep running them.

President Richard Nixon and the Rev. Billy Graham – the nation’s most prominent Christian evangelist – frankly discuss the Jewish role in the US media during a private meeting in the White House. This recording of their conversation in Feb. 1972 was made public 13 years later. Nixon says: “It’s all run by Jews and dominated by them in their editorial pages. The New York Times, The Washington Post – totally Jewish too.” Graham responds: “This stranglehold has got to be broken or the country’s going down the drain.” In response to that, the president says: “You believe that?” “Yes, sir,” says Graham. “Oh, boy,” replies Nixon. “So do I. I can’t ever say that [publicly], but I believe it.” MSNBC television news report. Runtime: 1:03 mins.

Billionaire David Rubenstein’s philanthropic efforts trash the Founding Fathers, even though his own business has made a fortune from deals that have profited off the less fortunate. Since 2013, Rubenstein, 72, who co-founded the private equity giant the Carlyle Group, has given millions to entities that repair and upgrade historical monuments and landmarks like the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument as well as Monticello and Montpelier, the homes of US presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. But some say the restoration at the presidential homes has recast the presidents as sinister racists while downplaying their accomplishments.

Jan Koum, the Ukrainian-born Jewish inventor of WhatsApp, donated a record-high $2 million to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s campaign on the Democratic primaries in June. Koum, whose net worth is estimated at between $9.8 billion and $13.7 billion, is considered among the richest people in the world. His gift doubles the previous high donations to AIPAC’s United Democracy Project Super PAC from mega-donors Haim Saban, Paul Singer and Bernard Marcus. The 46-year-old retired entrepreneur, who sold his messaging app to Facebook for $19 billion in 2014, was born in Ukraine and immigrated to the U.S. when he was 16-years-old. His family foundation has quietly but actively increased its giving to Jewish and Israel-related causes over the past several years …

… Thus was born one of the great myths of modern history — that the Nazis set fire to their own Parliament to provide an excuse for curbing the activities of the Communists … The trial of Van der Lubbe and the other suspects should have dispelled any suspicion of Nazi guilt. It was a scrupulously fair trial which resulted in the acquittal of all the defendants except Van der Lubbe himself … When considering the facts, it seems incredible that the myth of Nazi responsibility for firing the Reichstag could ever have been accepted at all. Yet it was, and by reputable historians …