Monday, May 25, 2020

Bad blood

Haaretz's must-read commentary on the day's hottest topics
Opinion Editor's Choice
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Esther Solomon  
Esther Solomon
 
 
When Donald Trump praised infamous Nazi sympathizer and crude anti-Semite Henry Ford’s ‘good bloodlines’ last week, he resuscitated - after a gap of perhaps only weeks – the perennial question about how he relates to Jews and how that should affect the vote in November 2020. Mona Charen asks: If Trump loves Jews so much, why does he keep celebrating America's biggest anti-Semites?Jonathan Tobin responds: Short of dropping a bomb on Israel, Trump’s pro-Israel Jewish vote is so rock-solid that any dog-whistling has no effect.
 
And what about Israel’s fervent evangelical allies? The GOD-TV controversy, a cable channel in Hebrew aimed at converting Jews, has caused a wobble in Orthodox and right-wing Jewish enthusiasm. Is missionizing a fair price for their pro-Israel support? The evangelical Michael Brown asks why Jews in Israel welcome Christian Zionist love, money and political influence – but call their proselytism poisonous. For Avi Bell, targeting Jews for conversion isn’t evangelical friendship at all, but a barely disguised hatred for Judaism.
 
With annexation on the horizon, Muhammad Shehada rues the complete lack of a Palestinian strategy to confront it, while for Keith Kahn-Harris, annexation means the extinguishing of hope for liberal Zionists in the Diaspora – and for fractious big tent organizations like AIPAC. Eric Yoffie derides Netanyahu’s decision to engage evangelicals, rather than U.S. Jews, in his annexation strategy. George Zeidan declares that a Biden administration would freeze the Democratic party’s pro-Palestinian pivot – so better to vote Trump.
 
And if you missed them, both Daniel B. Shapiro and David Rothkopf had fierce op-eds on what Mike Pompeo’s lightning mid-pandemic trip to Israel was all about.
 
Lastly, Toby Greene explores why the Netanyahus, father and son, are embracing the far right’s vision of a ‘Christian Europe,’ and Tobias Grunberg describes what it’s like to a German Jew, caricatured, exploited, courted and vilified by both hard left and far right.
 
 
 
 
U.S. President Donald Trump addresses workers and guests during a visit at a Ford plant now making ventilators and medical supplies for the COVID-19 pandemic in Ypsilanti, Michigan. May 21, 2020

If Donald Trump Loves Jews So Much, Why Does He Keep Celebrating America's Biggest anti-Semites?

Mona Charen | 25.05.2020
 
 
 
U.S. President Donald Trump pauses in front of a diagram while touring the Ford Rawsonville Components Plant, repivoted towards ventilators and medical supplies, in Ypsilanti, Michigan, U.S., May 21, 2020

Pro-Israel Jews Will Still Vote Trump. Even When He Promotes anti-Semites and Holocaust Deniers

Jonathan S. Tobin | 25.05.2020
 
 
 
GOD TV broadcast promoting its Israel-focused programming, featuring 'Discovering the Jewish Jesus with Messianic Rabbi Schneider'

Evangelicals Trying to Convert Jews: A Fair Price for Christian Support for Israel?

Jonathan S. Tobin | 11.05.2020
 
 
 
Pro-Israel Christian evangelical parade on the festival of Sukkot in Jerusalem. 27 September 2018

Jews Welcome Evangelical Love, Money and Influence for Israel. But Call Our Christianity 'Poison'?

Michael L. Brown | 17.05.2020
 
 
 
Screenshot of God TV CEO Ward Simpson discussing its new Israeli channel, Shelanu TV.

God TV Evangelicals: Please Stop Pitching Your Hatred of Judaism as 'Love'

Avi Bell | 19.05.2020
 
 
 
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas heads the Palestinian leadership meeting at his headquarters, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, May 5, 2020

From Abbas to Hamas, Palestinian Leaders Have No Strategy Against Annexation

Muhammad Shehada | 20.05.2020
 
 
 
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at an AIPAC conference in Washington, D.C. March 6, 2018.

Annexation Means AIPAC Can Pack Up and Go Home

Keith Kahn-Harris | 21.05.2020
 
 
 
Demonstrators at the "Black Flag" protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and government corruption. Rabin Square, Tel Aviv. April 25, 2020

Netanyahu Can't Sell the Idiocy of Annexation to U.S. Jews, So He Went to the Evangelicals

Eric H. Yoffie | 24.05.2020
 
 
 
U.S. President Donald Trump leaves a press conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on May 19, 2020

Care About Palestinians? Don't Vote for Joe Biden. Vote for Donald Trump

George Zeidan | 24.05.2020
 
 
 
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and son Yair meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin in Jerusalem, January 23, 2020

Why the Netanyahus Are Embracing 'Christian Europe'

Toby Greene | 13.05.2020
 
 
 
Protestors at a demonstration with the slogan "#unteilbar" (indivisible) against anti-Smitism, racism and nationalism in Berlin. October 13, 2019

I'm a German Jew, and I'd Love to Be Normal

Tobias Ginsburg | 19.05.2020
 
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Thursday, May 14, 2020

Hot air: On lethal weather and human evolution

New light shed on the fate of the early Christians farming the desert, giant viruses and the disposition of squids
Haaretz Archaeology & Science
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A lower molar that belonged to the oldest known modern human in Europe, some 45,000 years ago
Ruth Schuster  
Ruth Schuster
 
 
Lethal heat and humidity isn’t futuristic, it’s already here and no, I am not talking about the heat wave about to bake Israel this weekend. A new study identified thousands of brief but brutal bouts of weather approaching unsurvivability in all the continents except the Antarctic. And no, the Middle East won't be blessedly cooled by the breeze of El Niño storms predicted to revive in the Indian Ocean.

Apropos unsuspected new truths, exactly one tooth found in Bulgaria may change the paradigm regarding the prowess of the Neanderthal. Maybe we can retain our crown as the acme of the Homo line after all, though to be human is also to err, as we learn from the evolution of, and corrections to, biblical texts in antiquity. While on new insights, manuscripts from the Second Temple Period too brittle to even touch and gummy to boot (really) may be deciphered using cutting-edge physics. 

This week Haaretz also dived through the stargate in the giant virus, and while you read all about it, a word of helpful advice: think twice about getting a pet squid. As an extraordinary fossil from 200 million years ago shows, they never did brim with bonhomie.
 
 
 
 
The virtually unwrapped Ein Gedi scroll compared to the size of a penny. The original scroll is on the right.

Particle Accelerator to Help Read Dead Sea Scrolls Too Fragile to Unroll

Ariel David | 05.05.2020
 
 
 

Israeli Scholars Discover Corrections, Erasures, Revisions in Oldest Biblical Manuscript

Nir Hasson | 14.05.2020
 
 
 
A smoggy sunrise, Mexico City, May 8, 2020.

Deadly Heat and Humidity Emerging Decades Ahead of Forecasts

Ruth Schuster | 12.05.2020
 
 
 
Close-up of the damaged head and body of the proto-herring with the arms of the squid clamped around

Fossil of Moment Jurassic Squid Attacked Fish Found in England

Ruth Schuster | 08.05.2020
 
 
 
Shivta

A Perfect Storm: How Early Christian Farming in the Negev Collapsed

Ruth Schuster | 12.05.2020
 
 
 
A lower molar that belonged to the oldest known modern human in Europe, some 45,000 years ago

A Tooth Changes Everything We Know About Humans Reaching Europe

Ariel David | 13.05.2020
 
 
 
When hares get hungry...

What Happened to Neolithic China's Farmers? Bad Hare Days

Ruth Schuster | 12.05.2020
 
 
 
The fourth coin minted by the Bar Kochba to be found in Jerusalem

War Trophy of a Roman Soldier? Rare Bar Kochba Coin Found in Jerusalem

Ruth Schuster | 12.05.2020
 
 
 
Mimivirus, the first giant virus ever found, in 2003, inside an amoeba living in a water tower in Bradford.

Mystery of the Giant Virus' 'Stargate' Solved

Ruth Schuster | 14.05.2020
 
 
 
a tsunami floods over the breakwater protecting the coastal city of Miyako at Heigawa estuary area after northeastern Japan was hit by a powerful earthquake.

Build Hills Instead of Seawalls to Defend Against Tsunamis, Team Suggests

Ruth Schuster | 06.05.2020
 
 
 
The sunset clam

Forecasting Dissolving Clams, and What Does Warren Buffett Know?

Ruth Schuster | 03.05.2020
 
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