According to the Investigative Project on Terrorism, whose House of Lies – the Baseless Campaign to Smear Israeli Police Exchanges went live this week, groups such as Jewish Voice for Peace have spent years trying to end programs that which take American police leaders to Israel to interact with counterparts there, claiming that these exchanges lead to the deaths of Black people in America.

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These claims gained traction this summer during protests over George Floyd's death at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer.

For years, JVP's website claimed that American police return from Israel more violent, leading to "extrajudicial executions, shoot-to-kill policies, police murders ..."

Now, however, JVP has reportedly acknowledged that these claims further "an anti-Semitic ideology."

"JVP tried to sweep its own words – that it now admits fuel anti-Semitism – under the rug," said executive editor of the Investigative Project on Terrorism Steven Emerson. "But we'll show viewers exactly what was said. Unfortunately, the false, hateful rhetoric has been repeated often enough to be accepted as true."

The IPT interviewed four American police chiefs – two active and two retired – who participated in exchanges with Israel and said that their experiences were the exact opposite of the narrative that the exchanges fostered police violence.

The chiefs say the exchanges included no tactical training, and emphasized the value of community policing and building relationships among diverse constituencies. They also learned how to best minimize terrorist threats and investigate in the aftermath of an attack.

No critic of US-Israel police exchanges has ever produced a whistleblower who says otherwise, IPT says. Organizers of two police exchange programs say the narrative stems from a deep-seated anti-Israel bias, combined with an intersectionality campaign to equate the Palestinian cause with the struggle for civil rights in America.

The series can be viewed here.

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While a traditional brand of blatant anti-Semitism is on the rise, a newer anti-Semitism that emanates from progressive movements is temporarily declining. The underlying shift directly relates to the current anti-racist struggle, which advances an inclusive call to stand behind a demand for black rights.

The Reut Group's 'policy intervention' paper highlights a current decline of 'progressive anti-Semitism' within the context of the anti-racist struggle, which presents an opportunity to meaningfully and authentically engage with black and anti-racist movements. In an anticipated resource-challenged period precipitated by the coronavirus pandemic, the community relations field will be the key area that the Jewish community cannot afford to fail to cultivate.

In stark contrast to the aftermath of the Ferguson Riots 2014, which were marked by the slogan #from-Ferguson-to-Palestine, attempts by anti-Israel groups during current anti-racist protests to draw parallels to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have not gained notable traction.

The report acknowledges the rise of a more 'classic' blatant anti-Semitism, also in forms specific to some black communities. These often echo expressions of Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam. However, these statements are broadly condemned within political and social discourse. Most high-profile celebrities who quoted Farrakhan, for example, apologized and entered into constructive dialogues following broad public condemnation.

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Daphna Kaufman, an expert on the positioning of the Jewish and pro-Israel communities in the US progressive movement and one of the writers of the document, added that "anti-Semitism that has emanated from the progressive movement in recent years has an insidious effect because it has failed to garner widespread outrage from society-at-large or to generate a cohesive and united front of Jewish communities that stand against it. Far more subtle than 'classic' forms, progressive anti-Semitism is characterized by prejudice or discrimination against Jews related to their association with the Jewish state; as well as a rejection of claims of Jewish collective historic and continuous vulnerability, in fact denying a Jewish voice in defining their own experience."

The paper concludes that the ability of the Jewish community to engage in the anti-racist struggle can significantly impact Jewish identity and continuity; Israel's relations with world Jewry; and, ultimately, Israel's relations with the US.

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Israel Hayom learned Sunday that as part of authorities' efforts to help their officers, both the NYPD and the FBI have contacted Israel's largest crisis center for assistance in how to help their law enforcement officials psychologically deal with the highly volatile situation.

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Natal – the Israel Trauma and Resiliency Center is an NGO specializing in the fields of war and terrorism-related trauma, post-traumatic stress disorder, and resiliency-building among civil society.

The organization was established in 1998 by the late Dr. Yossi Hadar and Judith Yovel Recanati, who serves as its chairperson. Defense Minister Benny Gantz currently heads Natal's public advisory board.

In 2013, Natal was honored with the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies Public Advocacy Award for outstanding and fundamental contributions to advancing social understanding of trauma.

Since its foundation, the organization has helped hundreds of thousands of Israelis of all ages deal with the country's complex security reality.

The unprecedented scope of the events rattling the US over the past few weeks has taken its toll on police officers, who are also dealing with increased anxiety and stress. This has prompted the FBI and NYPD to seek Natal's help due to its unique experience in treating members of the security forces who suffer from these conditions.

The sessions between American police officers and Natal's team of psychologists take place via video conference and focus on the ongoing crisis in the US, the coronavirus pandemic, the economic situation, the violent riots, and the burnout and fatigue wearing down law enforcement in the US.

So far, over 120 sessions have been held.

Natal CEO Orly Gal said the collaboration attested to the organization's professional experience and international reputation.

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Pompeo said the 47-member-state forum's unanimous resolution on Friday on policing and race was a new low for the council and reaffirmed the United States' decision to withdraw from the organization in 2018.

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"The United Nations Human Rights Council, now comprised of Venezuela and recently, Cuba and China, has long been and remains a haven for dictators and democracies that indulge them," Pompeo said in a statement. "It is a grave disappointment to those genuinely seeking to advance human dignity."

The death of Floyd, a 46-year old Black man who died on May 25 after a white Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes, has led to widespread demonstrations in the United States and across the globe against police brutality and racial injustice. Pompeo said the civil discourse was a sign of the United States' democracy, strength, and maturity.

"If the Council were serious about protecting human rights, there are plenty of legitimate needs for its attention, such as the systemic racial disparities in places like Cuba, China, and Iran," he said.

"If the Council were honest, it would recognize the strengths of American democracy and urge authoritarian regimes around the world to model American democracy and to hold their nations to the same high standards of accountability and transparency that we Americans apply to ourselves."

The resolution adopted by the Human Rights Council was brought by African countries. Floyd's brother, Philonise Floyd, had urged the Council to investigate US police brutality and racial discrimination.

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The president, who revels in large crowds and had predicted that his first rally in months would be epic, blamed the media for discouraging attendees and cited bad behavior by demonstrators outside, but did not specifically acknowledge that many seats in the 19,000-seat BOK Center arena were empty.

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Trump has brushed aside criticism for his decision to hold his first rally since March 2 in Tulsa, the site of the country's bloodiest outbreaks of racist violence against Black Americans some 100 years ago.

The president, who has encouraged a militaristic response to the nationwide demonstrations while being accused of showing a lack of empathy for the plight of black Americans, used his speech to take aim at some of the protesters.

"The unhinged left-wing mob is trying to vandalize our history, desecrate our monuments - our beautiful monuments - tear down our statues and punish, cancel, and persecute anyone who does not conform to their demands for absolute and total control. We're not conforming," Trump told cheering supporters.

Ahead of the Nov. 3 election, the Republican president is trailing in opinion polls to Biden, who has hammered Trump for his response to the protests and the pandemic.

Trump defended his response to COVID-19, saying more testing had led to identifying more cases, seemingly to his chagrin.

"When you do testing to that extent, you're going to ... find more cases," he said. "So, I said to my people, 'Slow the testing down, please.'" A White House official said he was "obviously kidding" with that remark.

Hours before the rally, Trump's campaign announced six members of its advance team had tested positive for COVID-19. Only a handful of attendees wore masks inside the arena.

Oklahoma has reported a surge in new coronavirus cases in recent days, and the state's department of health warned that attendees face an increased risk of catching the virus.

While Trump campaign officials said prior to the event that demand far outstripped the capacity of the venue, Trump and Vice President Mike Pence canceled speeches to an expected "overflow" crowd after a few dozen supporters showed up to a space prepared for thousands. Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh said protesters had "interfered with supporters" trying to enter the rally.

There were some shouting matches and scuffles outside the event between around 30 Black Lives Matter demonstrators and some Trump supporters waiting to enter. There was no sign that any Trump supporters were prevented from entering the arena or overflow area.

Trump warned that, unless he was re-elected, all Americans would endure the "chaos you're seeing in our Democratic-run cities."

"When you see those lunatics all over the streets, it's damn nice to have arms," he said, vowing to protect Americans' rights to bear arms. "Our people are not nearly as violent, but if they ever were it would be a terrible, terrible day for the other side."

The country's racial divide remains a political vulnerability for Trump. His "law and order" reaction to the protests triggered by Floyd's death has put him at odds with the views of most Americans.

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Earlier this week, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee former vice president Joe Biden symbolically embraced these genuflecting denunciations of "white privilege" as the official position of the Democratic Party. Biden had himself photographed on bended knee with a group of African Americans standing behind him during a visit to a church in Wilmington, Delaware.

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These videos point to a socio-political phenomenon that sparked the riots throughout the country following George Floyd's brutal death at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer. They also make clear the reason that the liberal media in the US continues to back the protests despite the fact that from the outset they have involved wide-scale violence, destruction and looting.

Contrary to the narrative being pushed by the media and America's elites, the riots are not a consequence of increased police brutality towards African Americans. As Heather McDonald documented this week in the Wall Street Journal, over the past several years, police violence against black people has decreased significantly.

The violence we are seeing is a result of the steep radicalization of progressive white Americans. Biden gave voice to this radicalization last summer when, during a campaign appearance in Iowa he said, "We choose truth over facts."

Last year, political scientist Zach Goldberg published an article in Tablet online magazine where he presented statistical data demonstrating the depth and breadth of the radicalization of white progressives over the past 10 years. Goldberg revealed that between 2010-2019, white progressives became the only demographic group in US history to prioritize the interests of other groups over its own interests. White progressives prioritize the advancement of the interests of minorities and immigrants over their own and over those of American society as a whole. Moreover, as Goldberg showed, white progressive positions on race and immigration are more extreme than the positions black, Latino, and Asian progressives hold on these issues.

Goldberg argues that the massive increase in internet usage by white progressives over the past decade is responsible for the radicalization. Online platforms have created an information bubble that has created a warped presentation of reality to those inside the bubble. In this warped reality, race relations are far worse than they are in reality. Hence, those who inhabit this bubble prefer "truth" as presented in the bubble to facts.

Goldberg is undoubtedly correct that the more time people spend inside their internet bubble the more removed they become from objective reality. But the internet isn't the only source of the radicalization. The Obama presidency was also a factor.

When Barack Obama won the presidential race in 2008, many Americans believed his victory was proof the United States had overcome its racist past. Obama however, did not support this view. Throughout his tenure in office, Obama used the power of his position to resonate and legitimize positions on race that until then had been relegated to the leftist margins of American politics.

Obama cultivated the view that far from being a post-racial society, America is inherently racist and that American racism is structural – that is, it was baked in and impossible to overcome. In so doing, Obama gave credence to the false claim at the heart of the riots: that black Americans are under continuous, existential threat from the state as a whole and from law enforcement bodies first and foremost. Calls by Hollywood celebrities and Obama administration alumni to defund the police take this view to its logical endpoint.

A third cause of the radicalization of white progressives is the higher education system. The more radicalized campuses are the more radicalized graduates become.

The radicalization of white progressive politics has been given its most dramatic expression in the refusal of progressive mayors and governors to act forthrightly to end the violence in their streets. Instead, we had the likes of New York Mayor Bill DeBlasio (whose daughter was arrested for participating in the mayhem), stand with those burning his city.

In a letter to police sergeants in the New York Police Department, Ed Mullen, President of the Sergeants Benevolent Association gave expression to the distress of New York police officers. "I know we are losing our city," Mullen wrote.

"We have no leadership, no direction, and no plan. I know that you are being held back and used as pawns," he continued.

He then asked the sergeants to hold the line.

"Remember," he added, "you work for a higher authority."

For American Jews, the violent riots constitute a challenge on several levels. First, there is the challenge of squaring their political identity with their Jewish identity. As the 2014 Pew survey of American Jews showed, around half of American Jews identify as progressives. As progressives, many American Jews share the views of their non-Jewish progressive counterparts regarding the need to prioritize the interests of minority communities over their own interests.

But the Jews' progressive desire to work on behalf of those demonstrating for African Americans places their political identity on a collision course with their Jewish identity. Black Lives Matter, the radical group leading the demonstrations, is an anti-Semitic organization. BLM was formed in 2014 as a merger of activists from the anti-Semitic Nation of Islam, the anti-Semitic Black Panthers and Dream Catchers. In 2016, BLM published a platform that has since been removed from its website. The platform accused Israel of committing "genocide" and referred to the Jewish state as an "apartheid" state. The platform accused Israel and its supporters of pushing the US into wars in the Middle East. The platform also officially joined BLM with the anti-Semitic BDS campaign to boycott, divest and sanction Israel. BDS campaign leader Omar Barghouti acknowledged this week that the goal of the BDS campaign is to destroy Israel. BDS campaigns on US campuses are characterized by bigotry and discrimination directed against Jewish students.

BLM's platform's publication was greeted with wall-to-wall condemnations by Jewish organizations from across the political spectrum. But today, Jewish progressive are hard-pressed to turn their backs on the group, despite its anti-Semitism. As white progressives, they believe they must fight America's "structural racism" even at the cost of empowering social forces that reject their civil rights as Jews. As Jews, they feel that their rights should be protected. One progressive Jew tried to square the circle writing in the Los Angeles Jewish Journal, "Today Jews need to support Black Lives Matter; tomorrow we can talk about Israel."

As white progressives radicalized over the past decade, radical Jewish progressives built a formidable Jewish organizational framework whose mission is to advance the progressive revolution. They have worked to recast Judaism itself as the apotheosis of progressive revolutionary ideals under the banner of "tikkun olam."

Last week Tablet published a 20,000-word essay titled "Bend the Jews," on Bend the Arc, the flagship organization spawned by those efforts.

Bend the Arc first rose to the attention of the general public in 2018 in the wake of the massacre of worshippers at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. The organization quickly put out a statement blaming President Donald Trump for the massacre. When Trump came to the congregations to pay his respects, Bend the Arc organized demonstrations against him.

Bend the Arc may not have members. But it has an annual budget of tens of millions of dollars. $28 million of its budget comes from three non-Jewish foundations that have no other foothold in Jewish organizational life. On the other hand, one of the funders, the Rockefeller Foundation, is well known for its generous support for radical anti-Israel and BDS groups.

To achieve its goal of reshaping the world views of American Jews, among other things, Bend the Arc trains Conservative, Reform and Reconstructionist rabbinical students. It also pays the salaries of associate rabbis in various communities. With many synagogues long steeped in financial crisis due to dwindling membership, Bend the Arc's ability to pay rabbis makes its involvement with synagogue hiring an attractive option for many communities. This is doubly true for synagogues whose members are progressive.

As progressive politics paralyze Jews from acting against anti-Semites in their political camp, levels of anti-Semitic sentiment among white progressives are rising. As Goldberg reported, as white progressives became radicalized on issues related to minorities and immigration, they also turned against Israel. Today white progressives are hostile to Israel. And Goldberg argued that while they express support for Jews, "their sympathy toward and concern for Jews has become more conditional."

What is it conditioned on? On Jews not being opposed by blacks or other minorities that are considered by white progressives to be less privileged than Jews are.

On the burning streets of America today, leftist Jew-hatred is on clear display. Although New York Mayor Bill DeBlasio has prevented New York police from taking firm action against looters and arsonists, he did instruct them to use all necessary force to prevent ultra-Orthodox Jewish children from going to school. Earlier this week, police in Brooklyn chased a group of Hassidic children and their mothers off a playground in Williamsburg.

Even worse, synagogues have been vandalized in New York and Los Angeles. According to Yeshiva World News, 75% of Jewish-owned stores in an Orthodox enclave of Beverly Hills were looted last weekend. Graffiti in Los Angeles made clear that the businesses and neighborhoods were targeted deliberately because they are Jewish.

Between BLM's establishment in 2014 and the publication of its platform in 2016, anti-Israel activists went to great lengths to create an utterly false conceptual linkage between the Palestinians and African Americans. Today, anti-Israel activists in the US have stepped up their efforts to capitalize on the riots. Anti-Israel activists in Bethlehem painted a picture of George Floyd wearing a khaffiyeh and draped in a Palestinian flag on the separation barrier. Photos of the picture are being heavily promoted on social media.

Democrats believe the riots will wreck President Trump's reelection hopes. Polls this week indicate that at least in the short term, the unrest is hurting Trump's chances of being reelected. Then again, it's possible the chaos in the streets will strengthen public support for President Trump, who voters may view as the last bulwark separating them from national destruction.

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Whether Trump wins or loses in November, the radicalization of white progressives at the heart of the mayhem represents the greatest short and long-term threat to social cohesion in America. It also represents the greatest threat to the communal future of American Jewry, to relations between the American Jewish community and the rest of the Jewish world, and to US-Israel relations.

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This was a week in which America brought us back to the 1960s: a SpaceX spaceship lifted off with two astronauts on board, while the streets were rocked by impassioned protests. We would have forgone the second. First of all, because of Floyd's needless and terrible death, but also because of the serious riots, pictures of which are flooding social media and doing nothing to serve the African American community.

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President Trump has been attacked and is launching a counter-attack. He was attacked, as usual, for his style, and for not projecting empathy toward the demonstrators in the streets. He, for his part, attacked the bullies and anarchists, the radical leftist group Antifa – which he intends to declare a terrorist organization – and the weakness of state governors.

Floyd's death, his family's suffering, and the violence that followed are not good. Full stop. The question of who profits politically is cynical and unfair to the black community. But it seems that it cannot be avoided, and the prevailing belief is that the main beneficiary will be presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden, who will enjoy the protesters' empathy. Many (mostly in the media) are wishing that these events will cause Trump to lose the November election. They might be disappointed. Republican candidates have always been identified as the natural defenders of law and order. Dr. Omar Wasow of Princeton expressed that well this week, when he said, "One of the big lessons of the '60s is [that] order has, for a long time, been a Republican issue."

Biden, who is considered popular among black voters, described this week's events as a "wake-up call" for the nation. But to a large extent, he represents a party whose welfare policies, some claim, locked black Americans into dependence on government largess and perpetuated their situation. In electoral terms, in order to win Biden needs more than mass enlistment by the US black community. He also needs the suburban white vote in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania – all purple states that voted for Trump in 2016. And in these places, there is concern that the rioting might spread, horror at the images, and strong demand for law and order.

Politics aside, why does racial tension still exist so strongly in America in 2020? Why do the police employ such brutality against black suspects? And how did the black protests deteriorate so quickly into looting and violence? Can America find a vaccine for this?

Barack Obama's presidential win in 2008 brought great hope, maybe too great. Even during his term, interracial tensions didn't die down, and his administration saw some dire incidents. In 2014, toward the end of his term, Eric Garner was choked to death in New York while being arrested on suspicion of selling cigarettes without a license. His last words were "I can't breathe," exactly the same as George Floyd's. Garner's death, like the death of the teenager Michael Brown from Ferguson, Missouri, triggered protests and rioting and strengthened the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement.

During the time of Bill Clinton, a president beloved by the black community, there were incidents of police abusing and killing black Americans – as in the case of Abner Louima in 1997, who was sexually abused while in police custody, the killing of Anthony Baez in 1994, and the killing of Amadou Diallo, who was shot to death by police. Riots broke out then, too.

In the 1960s, the civil rights movement, led by Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Vietnam War protest movement joined forces and led then-President Lyndon Johnson to forgo another term in office in 1968. Johnson, who supported the African American community's struggle for equal rights and passed landmark legislation on the issue, was not deterred from calling in the National Guard to quash massive riots in Detroit (1967) and Chicago (1968). Even President George H.W. Bush sent the National Guard into Los Angeles to repress rioting that erupted after four white police officers who seriously injured Rodney King were acquitted.

Racism and protests, riots and their repression are not a product of the Trump era. No administration, Democratic or Republican, is in charge of them. The attempt to see in the current riots a sign of social disintegration under Trump is as superficial as the attempt to blame the Obama administration for the riots in Ferguson and Baltimore. That doesn't mean that the person in the White House is detached from the social reality during his years in office.

Racial tension is a historic wound, and all attempts to heal it thus far have failed. It seems as if the situation will never be resolved without addressing the social problems that leave them in the caboose of the social train. Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act under Johnson, and even Obama's healthcare program addressed legislative wrongs, but not the core of institutionalized racism. The black leadership has been left without tools to confront discrimination, police violence, and life in poverty-stricken neighborhoods.

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The protesters held signs reading "Black Lives Matter," "All Lives Matter" and "If you aren't livid, you're not listening." Some carried placards with Floyd's name written.

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Floyd, who was black, died May 25 after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee against Floyd's neck as Floyd said he couldn't breathe and became motionless.

Derek Chauvin has been charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. But members of Floyd's family and many others are calling for more serious charges, as well as charges against the three other officers who were there.

The killing sparked a wave of violent protests and riots that have rocked the US for a week.

Some protesters also wrote the name of Solomon Teka, an 18-year-old Ethiopian Israeli who was fatally shot last year by an off-duty officer who claimed he felt threatened by a group of teenagers.

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Ethiopian Israelis complain of racism, lack of opportunity, endemic poverty and routine police harassment.

Ethiopian Jews began arriving in large numbers in the 1970s and many were airlifted to Israel in clandestine operations in the 1980s and '90s. The community is now estimated at approximately 150,000, or around 2% of the country's population.

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