Giving her first address as the US State Department's new special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt told a gathering in New York City that she insisted on ending her oath of office with "so help me God." Lipstadt will need every bit of support she can get, she said.

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Speaking on Thursday at an antisemitism conference hosted by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Lipstadt laid out her perspectives on the interconnectedness of antisemitism and her plans for changing its course. It was her maiden speech, coming nearly two months after she was confirmed by the Senate.

"We are reminded, almost daily, by the news we read and watch, in the conversations we have with each other and through our work, that antisemitism is on the rise – and tragically, it is on the rise here at home in America, not just overseas, where I am tasked to tackle the problem," said Lipstadt, noting the avenues through which antisemitism is linked to other hatreds, including those on the far-left and far-right.

"We must recognize and identify that interconnectedness because unless we fully understand this aspect of the malicious poisonous nature of antisemitism, we cannot see it for what it truly is. And unless we see it for what it really is, we cannot fight it," she said.

Lipstadt recalled her testimony before told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during her confirmation hearings, in which she warned of ignoring or minimizing the dangers of antisemitism when it came from one's preferred political wing.

"We must never delude ourselves that antisemitism comes from only one political, social, ethnic or religious direction. One of the striking features about the ubiquitous nature of antisemitism is that irrespective of where it is coming from, it relies on the same template of charges. People who agree on nothing else or, better put, disagree on everything else agree on the evils of the Jew. The fact is that some extremists on both ends of the political spectrum share a diabolical view of the Jew strengthens antisemitism," she said.

Lipstadt closed with warnings against the double standards frequently applied to Israel and the Holocaust distortion that has emanated from Russia in its three-month-long war on Ukraine. She also committed to encouraging other countries to embrace the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's working definition of antisemitism.

The envoy is scheduled to deliver the commencement address at Yeshiva University's graduation ceremony later on Thursday.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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Starting this week, around 14,000 Taglit-Birthright Israel participants from nearly 900 universities and colleges in North America are expected to land in Israel over the coming months. The flights mark Birthright Israel's long-awaited return after a series of suspensions since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Birthright expects to bring about another 5,000 young adults from North America for a total of 19,000 visitors, in addition to 7,000 more participants from other parts of the world during this summer.

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"We started trips last May, but it was up and down," Noa Bauer, vice president of global marketing at Birthright Israel, said.

Due to the 11-day conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip last May and the highly contagious Omicron coronavirus variant, said Bauer said, "We had to restart and cancel. It was very challenging. We made sure we kept trip organizers and partners on their toes and stayed in touch with participants and applicants who were ready to travel."

Currently the largest educational tourism organization in the world, Birthright offers free, 10-day trips to Israel for young Jews between the ages of 18 and 26 to give every Jewish young adult the opportunity to visit Israel.

Harvard University student Zachary Lech, 20, will travel to Israel in two weeks. "This pandemic definitely affected my plans to an extent. It just seemed slightly more dangerous to go to the country, seeing how the restrictions might be affecting things. I was more just waiting for my opportunity to go," he said.

"I'm excited to have the chance to be able to connect with those from other universities who are also joining us. Obviously, a chance to visit the historical sites, experience the culture, have a chance to even try the food. And I'm definitely hoping to have a chance to be a part of meaningful conversations."

The Polish-born Lech, who is active in the Harvard Jewish community, including at Hillel, said, "It's more than a sightseeing trip for me. It's also a chance to connect to Jewish heritage and culture."

While this summer's participants are unlikely to notice much of a difference, Bauer stressed that for Birthright staff, the pandemic has changed how they prepare for trips.

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"The world has changed, as it has for us as well, both in terms of logistics and from a health perspective. We still have smaller groups than pre-COVID, and we mostly are using direct flights because things travel-wise around the world are still challenging," she said.

As the Israeli tourism sector looks to make a full return, Birthright officials believe that their program will help set the foundation in the coming weeks and months.

"I think we will be a massive percentage of tourism, especially in May. The challenge for us is mainly internal tourism; also, a lot of Ukrainians are coming to Israel and staying in hotels, so that is taking part of the hotel availability," said Bauer.

She noted that some space remains on select campuses, though most of the trips are already full. There are also trips for those who require accessibility considerations.

Birthright Israel CEO Gidi Mark said: "After a long hiatus, we are excited to bring back so many students from North America to these important and exciting tours to Israel. Many of these students are coming from college and university campuses where incidences of antisemitism are increasing, leaving them feeling beleaguered and isolated. We know that after going on a Birthright trip, these students feel more confident."

Israel, of course, offers the dichotomy between the resort-like atmosphere along the Tel Aviv beach and the more spiritual side of Jerusalem.

For his part, Lech said he is looking forward to touring and "being able to connect. I feel like it's going to be a great experience going to the Western Wall in Jerusalem and being able to actually be at one of our most sacred sites."

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

The Adelson family, which has donated hundreds of millions of dollars to Taglit-Birthright Israel, owns the company that is the primary ‎shareholder in Israel Hayom.‎

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The United States federal government is ready to help ahead of the Passover holiday as too many Jewish institutions are wondering if they'll be next. Too many in Brooklyn, NY, and elsewhere already deal with the reality of antisemitic attacks that keep on coming.

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Marcus Coleman, director of the US Department of Homeland Security Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, sat down one-on-one with JNS to explain what resources are available for those looking to secure their facilities and worshippers, and what steps can be taken to ensure that this Passover is a safe one for American Jews.

"We had a conversation last week with faith leaders and really focused on practical steps to do self-assessment for facilities – how to take care of your people – and then just some reminders. I think one of the things that I've been humbled by in speaking with faith leaders across the country is that a lot of places still are operating at maybe 50% capacity, or they have just a few people coming in," 

"We know those folks are preparing for the spring. They're expecting big crowds. So, we want to provide all available resources from the federal government to help make sure that they can gather safely," said Coleman, who hosted a webinar last week titled, "Protecting Places of Worship: A Religious Observance Briefing on Safety and Security."

He indicated that as many as 1,200 people attended the webinar – one of a number of engagements on the issue of synagogue security. More than 1,800 people have attended an ongoing webinar series on the Nonprofit Security Grant program since the start of the calendar year.

'Increased threats on the Jewish community'

Coleman told JNS that the focus for religious leaders, including those preparing for Passover, Easter and Ramadan, should be one of three areas of concern, the first being the threat landscape.

"There's been increased threats and attacks on the Jewish community and on multiple faith organizations, and we gave a briefing that provided a sense of the threat landscape and the types of threats particular faith communities have faced over the past few years. The Department of Homeland Security, under the leadership of Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, has developed a Mitigating Attacks Against Houses of Worship Guide and that includes the self-assessment. And, so, using that self-assessment, check your facility to make sure that you're thinking about inflow and outflow, having the right relationships with local first responders, and then, of course, taking care of your people.

"And so, we presented some information on a training called 'Until Help Arrives.' We know a lot of people like to take trainings, and it's been encouraging to hear faith leaders finding some of our DHS trainings around active shooter and active assailant threats valuable. But in addition to that, we have trainings and help people know what to do before help arrives. In addition to calling 911, being able to stop bleeding, if necessary, and just being that first responder because usually, we're going to have citizen first responders until the actual first responders arrive," Coleman explained.

Funds to protect synagogues and other religious institutions are available through the Nonprofit Security Grant Program. The recently passed federal budget includes a 40% increase in funding available for the program.

"It's a program that essentially is responsible for helping to provide funding for what we talk about in terms of facility hardening activities – that's everything from purchasing security cameras to affording people the opportunity to take on additional trainings and get contract support for security for their facilities. We know a number of people may not have the means to afford a full-time, private institutional security organization on their own. And so, that particular grant program also provides opportunities to get contract security as well.

"We are [holding] webinars and outreach virtually as well on that particular program. I believe it's upwards of $250 million for this grant cycle, and we anticipate we're going to get a lot of need there. We know that that's not the only source of funding available for houses of worship, but that is the part that the federal government is making as a contribution to help those security professionals keep their facilities secure, and more importantly, their people safe," Coleman said. 

He added that "we've gotten a number of inquiries – upwards into the thousands – in terms of not just what to do to apply for the grant program, but what other partners and resources and steps can people take today. And that's something that we're going to continue to be committed to doing."

'Making sure people are prepared'

DHS and other law-enforcement agencies around the country get put under a microscope each time there is a terror attack on a synagogue that garners headlines. Coleman said federal agencies are listening to religious leaders and implementing the lessons learned from such tragic incidents.

"I was asked a similar question by the US Senate when we talked about domestic violent extremism – what we're doing across the government institutions. And I appreciated the senators' passion across the board for making sure that we're listening to faith leaders in applying those lessons learned. I'd say, number one, that we've given faith leaders, especially those that have been successful either applying for the nonprofit security grant – or in Congregation Beth Israel's case, to have the best possible outcome from an attack like that – is make sure that you really take the time to not only test, but practice and have conversations within your facility."

"Oftentimes, for many faith leaders, it's overwhelming," acknowledged Coleman. "We don't want faith leaders to go alone. And so, we have actually consolidated a lot of the resources on fema.gov/faith that walk through the federal resources and information available from across government."

"Number two, in terms of making sure people are prepared, you may have a security lead for your Jewish community center, for your synagogue, for your place of worship or another facility, but it's not just that person's responsibility to know how to keep a facility safe and secure. Keeping other people involved in providing opportunities to connect to trainings and resources, particularly those leaders of other programs in your facility, is helpful," he said.

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"And then the third piece is relationships. I've been touched by hearing not just from the rabbi of Congregation Beth Israel; there's been a number of faith leaders that I've connected with. They talk about the value of building relationships before incidents occurred. It's those types of relationships that really help you get connected. And so, you may be talking to local law enforcement because there's something that recently happened … build that relationship with local first responders now, build that relationship with DHS," he encouraged. "In our webinar, we talked about how you can get connected to fusion centers that provide information for threats and specific areas. Those relationships are going to be incredibly important."

'Better outcomes for many of our faith partners'

DHS also provides protective security advisers across the country. According to Coleman, these are individuals responsible for helping with assessments for facilities, which include houses of worship, and are resources to help facilitate introductions to other state and local law-enforcement officials, if that is needed as well.

In terms of preventative measures, there has been a call to create some sort of federal task force – either under the auspices of DHS, FBI or other law enforcement agency – to connect the proverbial dots before there's an attack, allowing for interagency connection and information sharing that may have prevented missing the type of red flags that could have been spotted prior to the Colleyville attack. Coleman told JNS that he supports that type of call and that the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships is spearheading an Interagency Policy Committee (IPC) to work on such issues.

"We've been able to meet with several faith leaders, including leaders representing Agudath Israel of America, Secure Communities Network, which now sits on the DHS Homeland Security Advisory Council, and others. IPC, from the federal government's position, is providing us an opportunity to really help and hone in on what are some practical things that we need to be doing in a more coordinated fashion that's going to result in better outcomes for many of our faith partners," Coleman said. 

"One example is we're looking at is doing an even more robust effort to have a one-stop-shop of best practices and information similar to schoolsafety.gov for faith-based and community-based organizations," he noted. "That's something that's also been called on from Congress, and many faith leaders and community leaders have asked for something similar as well."

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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Avi Zinger was so upset after Ben & Jerry's pulled the rug out from under him that he never picked up the phone to speak with them. Instead, he's taking them, and their parent company Unilever, to a US district court.

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The longtime Israeli manufacturer and distributor of the Vermont-based ice cream company's products wants his license agreement renewed, and damages for the losses he's suffered since Ben & Jerry's succumbed to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, and refused to renew its agreement with Zinger unless he broke Israeli and US law by pulling his products from both Israeli and Palestinian customers in Judea and Samaria.

"There was no discussion, but not because they didn't answer my calls. It's because I never called them. I guess I took it so hard. If they could do it to me, after so many years of such a fantastic relationship, so what should I say? Why should I call?" Zinger told JNS, in response to a question regarding whether there was any attempt to negotiate with Unilever or Ben & Jerry's before the matter was taken to court.

Last July, Ben & Jerry's announced it would no longer allow its products to be sold in "occupied Palestinian territory" and would not renew its unique licensing arrangement with Zinger, which had run in one form or another for 34 years, beyond its current term, which expires at the end of 2022. Ben & Jerry's, which has its own quasi-independent board under the terms of its 2000 purchase by Unilever, said it was "inconsistent with our values" for its product to be sold in what it deemed to be "occupied Palestinian territory."

While Ben & Jerry's said it would seek an alternate arrangement for distribution in sovereign Israel going forward, its statement had run afoul of Israeli law, and its brand became instantly tarnished, likely burning its worth in the Israeli market. Sales at supermarket chains, IDF bases and ice cream shops have all plummeted, according to data in the lawsuit, despite an initial push by some to buy Ben & Jerry's in support of Zinger's stance and predicament.

"The double standard is that Unilever themselves are selling their product, their ice cream in the same territories in the West Bank, in what they called occupied territory, in east Jerusalem. So, how come Unilever is selling the product and are asking me to stop selling. And some people think that if I stop selling the product, I will stop selling to the Jewish settlers. It has nothing to do with it, because when I sell the product anywhere in the West Bank, selling to the supermarket chains, to grocery stores, most of the customers there are Palestinian. So, should I banish the Palestinian customers? Should I boycott them? It's unacceptable," said Zinger.

Since Ben & Jerry's announcement, the states of New Jersey, New York, Arizona, Florida, Illinois and Texas have acted on their existing anti-boycott laws and divested from Unilever, withdrawing investments and holdings worth upwards of $1 billion. Unilever's stock plunged more than 20% during the six months following Ben & Jerry's announcement, and the company posted a $26 billion loss in January. Unilever has failed to substantially respond to any of the state actions, instead choosing to send out a boilerplate response to state agencies detailing its stance and refusing further contact. Unilever CEO Alan Jope said on a conference call with journalists last month that the board of Ben & Jerry's aims to work out a "new arrangement" for sales in Israel before the end of the year, without going into specifics.

The two co-founders of Ben & Jerry's were subjected to widespread ridicule following a TV interview last October in which they struggled to articulate why their social mission standards apply to Israel and not in other markets.

It begs the question of why Zinger still wants the license renewed at all.

"As an Israeli, I am looking at this and saying, 'Wait a minute.' All the high-tech companies, the global companies, are here in Israel. If BDS will go after and put some pressure on these companies and will make the Israeli branch or licensee stop selling or get the company to leave the country altogether, or for a branch to stop servicing part of Israel, what will happen? So, that's why. So many people in Israel are behind me," Zinger said.

The lawsuit reveals claims that other ice cream manufacturers, including one within Unilever's portfolio, have poached Zinger's business. It also outlines how uncertainties felt by his employees, including Palestinians and African refugees, have affected his bottom line and ability to operate. Zinger claims he's had difficulty obtaining financing from banks as a result of the plummeting sales and unsure future of his contract.

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"We are responsible for almost 50% of the sales of home packaging in Israel, meaning almost every second person that buys ice cream and brings it home buys Ben & Jerry's, which is very unusual. We've done a great job and I've done nothing wrong here. I'm fighting not only for me, but my suppliers, who have been with me for so many years. We use fresh cream and fresh milk, eggs and many other ingredients from the surrounding area. It's for my employees, who have been with me for so long that a 10-year employee is considered junior here. Now, they have to think about finding another job. When the statement [of licensing termination] came out, I couldn't look them in their eyes. The company that we love and we work for, after so many years, they're just dumping us. So, now I have to go one step up and to sue them for what they did," said Zinger.

Among the interesting claims in the lawsuit, Zinger says that he acquiesced to the demands of Ben & Jerry's about sales in Judea and Samaria by suggesting that a Palestinian distributor could handle that operation. But Zinger said that when Ben & Jerry's learned that the proposed distributor wanted to expand sales in the territories, the ice cream company rejected the proposal. Zinger said he also proposed to change the language in a proposed renewal contract, replacing "the State of Israel, including the occupied territories under sole Israeli control" to "the state of Israel," with a wink-and-nod agreement with Ben & Jerry's management that the change would be cosmetic in nature, solely to appease boycott movement activists. Zinger says he was provided with a copy of the amendment in writing Ben & Jerry's management, even as a complete renewal agreement never materialized.

The lawsuit was filed in the US District Court of New Jersey, where Unilever's US branch is headquartered. Zinger is asking the court for an injunction that would enable his company, American Quality Products, to continue manufacturing and distributing Ben & Jerry's products in all of Israel. Zinger is also seeking unspecified damages for breach of contract, wrongful termination and breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, claiming that the Ben & Jerry's announcement coming a year-and-a-half prior to the end of their arrangement with Zinger has kept Zinger from enjoying the benefits of the deal.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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Neo-Nazis in Florida. Synagogue desecration in Chicago. Regular assaults in Brooklyn, NY When it comes to antisemitism in America, it's time to start connecting the dots.

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"If we're going to better understand the nature and scope of the threats, we need the FBI to lead, taking everyone out of their silo, getting all the information that they're uniquely positioned to get, and then having a desk that's going to review things and have access to other agencies – domestic and otherwise – in order for us to quantify and qualify what's going on," Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean and director of global social action at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, told JNS.

Cooper met this month with top FBI officials from the counterterrorism and criminal divisions at FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C. They included Luis Quesada, assistant director of the criminal investigative division; George Beach, assistant director of the office of partner engagement; and Jay Greenberg, deputy assistant director of the criminal division. One of the officials Cooper met with was among those who scrambled the FBI SWAT team in Washington and positioned the team in Colleyville, Texas, within three hours during the Jan. 15 hostage situation at Beth Israel Congregation. Cooper said he also met with an undersecretary from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

He went to the capital with two asks. Firstly, to urge the immediate creation of a special FBI Taskforce Against antisemitism, which would make it easier for local law enforcement and other agencies to be able to have a single address in dealing with antisemitism and to allow for the FBI to utilize its immense resources to begin piecing together the broader picture of Jew-hatred in America. The Simon Wiesenthal Center made a similar request to former President Donald Trump following an escalating series of antisemitism violence in 2019.

"Maybe it's just social media that has that immediate punch to the gut for every Jew who sees [increasing antisemitism]. But there are a lot of different things that are roiling, and we need to know if the individuals perpetrating this are working in concert or are they just inspired because of the 24/7 hate on social media."

He continued, saying that "when you have these kinds of violent attacks, the issue of the possibility of coordination, and to what extent and whether there are overseas players or not needs to be looked at. Thankfully, Congress and many state local governments have and are enabling synagogues and community centers to harden the target, get more cameras, etc. All of that is good. But we don't want to live in an armed camp. We want to understand the nature of the threat."

Cooper lamented the current law-enforcement trend of going from antisemitism incident to incident without an ability to collect data in a coherent fashion, analyze it, and help the broader law-enforcement and Jewish communities to better understand the nature of the threats.

Cooper's second request is the adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism by federal law-enforcement agencies.

"We can't expect the agencies that we're dealing with to understand every aspect of antisemitism or to see it from the perspective of the world Jewish community. So, having that working definition means we're all on the same page. I think it would be extremely useful to create some training for the FBI and for Homeland Security as to the nature of antisemitism, how it's unique, and how and where it interconnects with other extremists and other hate groups," said Cooper.

Ultimately, the decision as to whether or not to take action will lay with FBI director Christopher Wray, with whom Cooper has requested a meeting, as he departed Washington with no concrete commitments in hand. Still, the vast majority of antisemitism in America doesn't rise to the level of a crime, meaning that it can be tricky for federal law-enforcement agencies to put out broad trackers when looking for trends and threats.

Cooper noted that law-enforcement officials he spoke with estimate that more than 95% of the antisemitism material they're looking at is not actionable. But he believes that those kinds of postings and platforms do add up to a picture that is resurrecting old antisemitism conspiracies and finding new recruits to target the Jewish people. antisemitism hate crimes in New York City almost quadrupled in January 2022 compared to the same month last year, according to New York Police Department statistics. The Simon Wiesenthal Center is close to releasing its annual report with a snapshot of current trends in antisemitism (though it recently released its global antisemitism 2021 "Top Ten" list). Cooper sounded glum about the nature and direction of the data in the report.

Still, he insists that he's not asking the FBI and Homeland Security to become the thought police, but rather, as coordinating agencies.

"We don't need the FBI for the ideologies. They're not going to prosecute it. This is the United States of America. But when you sit with people who are in these kinds of agencies and say, OK, someone from London parachutes into Texas, stays in a homeless shelter, buys a gun. Who told that individual that that particular synagogue was near the penitentiary where 'Lady ISIS' is being held?" said Cooper, referring to the hostage-taking situation in Colleyville, Texas, which saw 44-year-old British citizen Malik Faisal Akram fly into America from the United Kingdom two weeks before the attack, eventually traveling from New York to Dallas before purchasing a gun and taking hostages during Shabbat services at Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville.

During hostage negotiations, Akram stated that his motivation was to free Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani national and alleged Al-Qaeda operative formerly dubbed "Lady Al-Qaeda." Siddiqui has a documented history of antisemitism, and Congregation Beth Israel is close in proximity to the penitentiary where Siddiqui is incarcerated.

Jewish community leaders have largely lauded the recent movement on the nomination of Deborah Lipstadt to the post of U.S. State Department's Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat antisemitism. After a six-month delay largely believed to be a result of a personal animus held by an individual senator against Lipstadt, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved her nomination earlier this month, setting her up for a final confirmation vote before the full Senate.

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The office of the special envoy, however, deals with antisemitism abroad. Some have suggested that it is time to create a government post to deal with domestic antisemitism, as well, in part to assist law enforcement. Cooper said he feels otherwise, dismissing the notion that hate can be defeated by any legislation or particular personality in government.

"I hope we don't come to that. We're free citizens. We have the right to assembly and freedom of religion, thank G-d, in the United States. And the idea of offloading that kind of responsibility domestically to one person, I don't know that it's going to be a big game-changer, and I think psychologically, it's the wrong way to go," said Cooper.

He pointed out that "you have in Germany a federal antisemitism czar. You've got now in every major city someone who's designated to lead the fight against antisemitism. How's that going?"

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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Israel's Ra'am Party leader Mansour Abbas prefers to focus on the future, not the past.

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"You can't go back … to make changes, to come to compromises, to try and heal all the wounds," said Abbas. The past, he continued, should be learned from, so that "in the future, we will be able to heal the wounds and correct the stereotypes people have, and to create a future."

This was the theme Abbas returned to time and again as he addressed a US audience last week for the first time since his stunning and historic choice in June to help form an Israeli government in June. The Washington Institute for Near East Policy said the Feb. 10 Zoom session, in which Abbas, head of the Islamic Movement-aligned Ra'am Party, spoke in Hebrew, was believed to have drawn the largest online audience for any of the think tank's programs.

Ra'am is the first Arab party in history to join an Israeli government coalition.

"The discourse of the [Israeli] Arab parties has been a discourse of opposition. We have seen ourselves always as the opposition to whatever there is. It doesn't matter who is in government – Left or Right – we have always seen ourselves in opposition and we've always said, we want to see change, and then we will see how we can develop a partnership," he said.

"Now, Ra'am says the exact opposite. It says, actually, that it is impossible to proceed towards a change like this only on one side. We say that you cannot expect a change if we are always opposed to each other and never are in touch with each other," said Abbas, describing his thinking as his faction became the first Arab party to join an Israeli government," he continued.

Abbas cited the difficult give-and-take in Israel's brittle governing coalition, which effectively has a mere two-seat majority in the Knesset and which contains centrist and leftist elements, together with right-wing parties. It requires coalition discipline on virtually all matters, including those that can be difficult for an Arab party to accept.

One example is Israel's "Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law," known as the "Citizenship Law" and the "family reunification law." Sponsored by Israel's Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked, the controversial bill passed in its first reading on Feb. 7.

The legislation, first passed in 2003 at the height of the Second Intifada and renewed subsequently each year, failed to pass in July 2021 and is now being resurrected. Its purpose is to stem the flow of Palestinians entering Israel through marriage, usually to Arab Israelis, after which they are eligible for Israeli citizenship or permanent residency.

"We are really at the beginning of this partnership, and the citizenship law, which I think is a very difficult law, hurts basic rights that Arab society has. It means that I, as an Israeli citizen but also as a Palestinian Arab, cannot marry an Arab Palestinian from the West Bank. And that is pretty difficult," said Abbas.

While Ra'am voted against the bill, Abbas didn't break up the government over the bill's approval by the Cabinet. Instead, Abbas saw it as a moment to negotiate, helping to secure 10,000 "family reunification" permits for illegal Arab immigrants to become citizens of the Palestinian Authority.

"Almost every party got what they wanted. We made sure that 10,000 families will get rights, that their issues will be addressed. And on the other side, the parties that support this [citizenship law] got it through [the Cabinet]," said Abbas.

"Really, an ideal situation would be that there will be peace in the region, and then we would be able to have relationships between all groups, but where we are is in a transitional stage where we come out of a situation that is not desirable into a desirable situation, and this requires us to enter into a compromise," he added.

He was asked about his recent comments recognizing Israel as a Jewish state, which caused a stir both inside Israel and in the surrounding region. This notion has historically been anathema to Israel's Arab political parties, who have frequently railed against Israel's very existence as a Jewish-majority nation. Abbas said his statement had been a simple recognition of the facts on the ground, which was needed in order to advance his agenda of securing advancements for Israel's Arab society, which comprises roughly 20% of Israel's population.

'We cannot change the narratives'

"Today, there is a majority of Jews in Israel, and they established that identity without consulting us. Now, what am I going to do about it? … I am saying I accept the other. I am looking forward to the future, and I am not stuck in the past. We cannot change the narratives," said Abbas, adding that bold decisions are what is needed to propel Israel's Arab communities forward.

"Our Arab society is not used to this. I've always said it is easiest to be a member of the Knesset in the opposition. You come whenever you want, you go whenever you want. You can just be pure. But in politics, there is no such thing. The key word is compromise. A political leader must lead, otherwise, he's [just] a politician," said Abbas, citing high polling numbers in support of his actions in the coalition, even among voters of other Arab parties.

In the government's must-pass budget, which was voted on in November, Abbas secured a five-year, $9.5 billion plan for the socio-economic development of the country's Arab sector; an $800 million national plan to tackle crime and violence in the Arab sector; and the creation of a new Bedouin city in the Negev and the recognition of three Bedouin villages.

Abbas was asked on Thursday about Amnesty International's recent report labeling Israel an apartheid state. Critics say the report was littered with inaccuracies and double standards and lacked any semblance of context, essentially casting Israel's existence as a Jewish state as an evil enterprise. Amnesty officials struggled to defend the basis and timing of the report, with one etching out a conspiratorial web of Jewish power for why the international community has supposedly failed to take action against Israel prior to the report's release.

For his part, Abbas refused to label Israel an apartheid state.

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"I prefer to describe the reality in objective ways. … If there is discrimination in a certain field, then we will say that there is discrimination in that specific field," he said.

"I am not proposing to disregard what is being said. But what has been published in the Amnesty report? Or other international reports or even local Israeli reports? This is an opportunity for us to look at what is happening, to be introspective, to see what we can fix, what we can change," he continued.

"What is true in my view is not to say what is right or not right, but to do whatever is useful. I do not have this privilege to judge people, but I have a wish and the desire to do change together with them," he said.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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Ellen Germain, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, assumed her duties as Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues in late August. A New York native, she has served in a variety of postings in Tel Aviv, Krakow, Baghdad, Moscow and elsewhere.

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The Office of the Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues, established in 1999, develops and implements US policy to return Holocaust-era assets to their rightful owners, secures compensation for Nazi-era crimes, and ensures that the Holocaust is remembered and commemorated appropriately.

The interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Q: Thank you in advance at such a busy time – so many activities, so many remembrance events right now. What are you feeling after such an exhausting week on such a mentally exhausting topic?

"It really has been an exhausting but inspiring week. It seems as if all over the world, including for the first time in Cairo and in Abu Dhabi, people are [holding] remembrance ceremonies and commemorations for Holocaust Remembrance Day, and that's terrific because Holocaust survivors are naturally diminishing in number. And it's so especially important now for us to hear their stories and honor their experiences."

Q: Part of the role of the special envoy is to make sure countries that may have had some culpability in the Holocaust continue, or in some cases, start efforts towards restitution. US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield made note of that in her speech at the United Nations on Jan. 27. What more can countries still do at this point to ensure that restitution is made – not only to the dwindling number of survivors but to their descendants as well.

"That's a big part of what we do. My office deals with what I like to call 'two baskets of issues.' One is restitution, and the other is promoting Holocaust education and accurate commemoration because there is so much distortion and denial these days. So on restitution, a lot of European countries have done very good things and made excellent progress on restitution or compensation for private property – things like houses or buildings that people owned and lived in before World War II. But there's also communal and religious property – things like synagogues, schools, cemeteries, and then you have things like artwork – movable property, as we say. And so, all of those are areas that we promote and encourage countries to either set up methods or processes for people to enter claims or to pass laws, if that's the way it's going to work most easily in the country, so that survivors and their heirs have a method for pursuing claims. Most of the time, we're not necessarily talking about restitution these days. Some countries have set up foundations or funds to sometimes pay out claims and sometimes to provide support to the remaining small Jewish community in the country. So, there are a lot of creative ways to make that acknowledgment that a great and terrible wrong was done and to provide, as we like to say, a measure of justice for Holocaust survivors and their heirs".

Q: You said you need to make sure the Holocaust is accurately commemorated. That's a key phrase because as many experts have pointed out, there is less out-and-out Holocaust denial, but more and more Holocaust distortion, which in many ways, can be even more dangerous. How has your office made that transition from battling Holocaust denial to the more prevalent distortion that we've seen more of, especially through social media?

"It's a good question, and the two are very closely intertwined. But on Holocaust distortion, part of the issue is educating people and teaching them to recognize what Holocaust distortion is. And so, we work, for example, very closely with the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, which is an organization of 35 countries dedicated to the accurate and truthful commemoration of the Holocaust. IHRA has produced, essentially, toolkits for policymakers [and] for educators to help them identify Holocaust distortion, and then suggest how they can counter it. How you can teach people to recognize it. And so, for example, particularly now during the pandemic, we've seen a lot of protesters wearing yellow Stars of David with anti-vaccination or other COVID-19-related slogans on them. And that comparison to COVID-19 restrictions, which are meant to protect public health, to Nazis forcing Jews to wear yellow Stars of David in order to identify them, round them up, deport them, and ultimately, murder them, is no comparison at all. It demeans and trivializes the uniquely horrific nature of the Holocaust".

Q: There was a somewhat historic resolution just passed in the UN General Assembly with the support of the United States to combat Holocaust denial and distortion. It's an Israeli resolution that, in part, seeks to pressure or place some sort of leverage on social-media companies, in order for them to take responsibility for the disinformation, the distortion and the Holocaust denial that has permeated their platforms. Does the State Department have a position on pressuring social-media companies like Facebook, Twitter, etc., to clamp down on Holocaust denial and distortion? Has there been any discussion of that?

"As I'm sure you know, there's a big debate these days in the United States about whether social media companies and platforms should be held in any way responsible for the content that third parties – mainly, their users – post. And there's a whole debate about whether they should be regulated more. It's an issue that's very much under discussion in the United States, generally. For the State Department, what we're trying to do is help educate and promote awareness of what Holocaust distortion and denial are, and work with both other countries and international organizations to help amplify and educate about the problem. And some companies have started taking action on their own. Sometimes, it's after campaigns by Jewish groups or other international groups. I think it was at the end of 2020, Facebook agreed to take down posts that were Holocaust denial posts; I believe another social-media company followed suit. But even when companies do try to do that, it's very hard to identify everything that would fall under that rubric."

Q: A new State Department social-media public campaign launched last week to highlight State Department employees who are descendants of Holocaust survivors. I didn't realize – probably the general public doesn't realize – that there are enough of these employees to develop a campaign of this kind. Can you give us some more insight on it, as well as any findings from speaking with them about their related experiences through their families?

"I'd be delighted to, because we're very proud of this campaign. And I have to tell you, it was actually inspired in part by the Israeli 'Zikaron BaSalon' ["Memories in the Living Room"] [social] initiative because we heard [it] was starting to bring second- and third-generation survivors and descendants of survivors into small intimate discussions about the Holocaust, sharing experiences. And, of course, [US] Secretary of State [Antony] Blinken is the stepson of a Holocaust survivor. So, putting those two together, we decided that it would be unusual and really meaningful to see if we could get State Department employees who were also descendants of Holocaust survivors to talk about how their experience influenced them to enter public service. I was surprised as well that we had as many people in the Foreign Service and in the Civil Service in the State Department who have some kind of personal connection. And what we're finding is that these stories are one of the best ways for people to understand what the Holocaust means and how it affected – and still affects –their colleagues at work, their friends. It's a very direct way of making people understand at least a little bit of why the Holocaust matters and why its consequences reverberate to today."

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Q: We see the phrase "Never Again" trending, and then the next week, it disappears. How does your office and those who work on these issues year-round keep that idea and Holocaust-related issues in general in the spotlight to make sure that memory is kept alive and justice served? How is a full calendar kept on an issue such as this?

"Unfortunately, there is always enough – in fact, too much – to do on these issues. There are so many that the State Department has a separate Office of the Special Envoy for Countering Antisemitism because we place such a focus on antisemitism and on Holocaust issues. And, of course, we work very closely together. Much of our work involves working with other countries in classic diplomatic fashion to talk to them about how they are formally commemorating the Holocaust in their countries, are they establishing educational programs on it? And, of course, we work with other countries to encourage them to set up a process for restitution. That's ongoing. Just last year, Luxembourg signed a groundbreaking agreement on certain aspects of restitution. So, there's unfortunately always more work to be done on all of these issues. I started really focusing my office more on Holocaust distortion and denial and how we can work together internationally to counter and alert people to how much of a problem it really is."

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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Indirect talks between the United States and Iran on returning to the 2015 nuclear agreement are entering the "final stretch," with all sides having to make tough political decisions, a senior US State Department official said on Monday.

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The latest talks in Vienna were "among the most intensive that we had to date" on returning to the deal formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which former US President Donald Trump pulled out of in 2018, the official said.

"We made progress narrowing down the list of differences to just the key priorities on all sides. And that's why now is the time for political decisions," said the official.

US President Joe Biden came into office a year ago promising to re-enter the deal, but Iran has continued work on its nuclear program and a deal has remained elusive.

The official said Washington has already laid out what it was prepared to do in terms of lifting sanctions that are inconsistent with the nuclear deal and that the ball was more in Tehran's court.

"Now is the time... for Iran to decide, whether it is prepared to make those decisions necessary for a mutual return to compliance with the JCPOA."

"We are in the final stretch," the official added. "Given the pace of Iran's advances, its nuclear advances, we only have a handful of weeks left to get a deal."

In the event of no deal with Iran, the official said Washington would have to step up pressure – "economic, diplomatic and otherwise" – in the face of Tehran's unconstrained nuclear program.

The official repeated Washington's willingness to engage with Iran through direct talks, saying it would be very much in the interest of the process given the limited time frame but added that there was no sign that they were close to doing that.

"We have not met directly yet. We have no indication that's going to be the case when we reconvene," the official said.

On Tuesday, Qatar's foreign minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani told al Jazeera TV his country was using its open channels with Washington and Tehran to bring their views closer.

His remarks come after Biden and Qatar's emir met in the Oval Office on Monday to discuss bilateral ties and pressing regional issues.

Al-Thani visited Iran on Thursday, just days before the ruling emir's diplomatic visit to Washington.

Qatar's emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani ended his visit to Washington after sealing a Boeing freighter deal and meeting separately with Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas

A senior US State Department official told reporters that there are a "handful of weeks left" to seal a deal with Iran.

"After that, it won't be possible to return to the JCPOA and recapture the benefits of the deal," said the official, claiming that Iran's continued progress towards nuclear breakout will soon make it impossible for a return to the parameters of the 2015 original agreement. Negotiators headed back to the capitals for consultations after another round of European-brokered indirect negotiations between Washington and Tehran in Vienna.

"We are willing to lift sanctions inconsistent with the JCPOA. We have been clear. This is not a difficult call in that respect," said the official, adding that the Biden administration was willing to make the hard choices in order to secure an agreement and that the regime is taking part in a "serious, businesslike negotiation."

Although significant unspecified gaps remain between the US and Iranian positions, the official avenue remains "where we can see a path to a deal if those decisions are made and made quickly." The official said the sequencing – the order by which each side executes their end of the bargain – will not be an obstacle to a deal, as many experts have long claimed.

The last round of discussions was the most intensive to date, according to the official, after negotiations crawled along or completely stopped through much of last year.

After Iranian negotiators recently opened the door to possible direct negotiations, the State Department official said such face-to-face communication would be beneficial if the "goal is to reach an understanding quickly and to avoid miscommunication. The optimal way to do that is to take the parties that have the most at stake and have them meet directly. This is not about asking Iran for a favor to have direct talks. Given how little time is left and how critical the decisions are, it would be deeply unfortunate if the opportunity to have a direct conversation was lost. But it's Iran's decision," the official said.

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The official laid the blame at the feet of the Trump administration for withdrawing from the nuclear accord in 2018, saying Iran's nuclear program has grown largely unchallenged and unwatched since then due to the lack of constraints brought on by a broken deal.

"You can even look to the number of [former] Israeli defense and government officials who have said recently that the withdrawal was a mistake and they regret it. … It was a catastrophic error to withdraw, and the way it was done left us with wholly unsatisfactory tools to deal with it," according to the official, who said the Biden administration was concerned by the loss of visibility over Iran's nuclear activity since the regime largely shut out the monitoring program of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The official addressed the recent departure of the US negotiating team's deputy, Richard Nephew, who departed the staff, along with two others, amid reported disagreements with lead negotiator Robert Malley over Malley's reluctance to enforce existing sanctions and to walk away from negotiations. Nephew developed the original web of Iran sanctions and helped to formulate the JCPOA under the Obama administration.

"Richard was and is an exceptional colleague and will do extraordinary work in his new position elsewhere in the State Department. … The [negotiating] team presents a wide range of options and arguments, but at the end of the day, the team implements the policies of the president, secretary of state, the National Security Council and other cabinet members. There weren't personal differences here. There were policy differences," said the official.

Issues supplementary to the nuclear deal were also raised. The official said that talks on the release of several American hostages held by Tehran continue on a separate track and that "it's hard to imagine a return to the JCPOA without the release of those hostages."

Part of this article was reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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The annual International Holocaust Remembrance Day is set for Thursday – a day the world acknowledges the massive attempt by Nazi Germany to exterminate European Jewry in the middle of the 20th century. But, as the Jewish man in charge of security on America's soil said on Monday, "We know that remembrance is every day, as is the work that must accompany it."

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US Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas was among the heavyweights who addressed B'nai B'rith International's yearly Holocaust remembrance event on Jan. 24, in conjunction with the UN's Holocaust Remembrance Day. The global Jewish service organization held a virtual session titled "Holocaust Remembrance: Responsibilities for All Society," which included a keynote address by new German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, who spoke to an international Jewish audience for the first time in her new role.

Germany "is firmly committed to preserving the memory of the Holocaust, today and in the future. We will shoulder our responsibilities, and we will keep facing our past," she said. "For the new German government, the security of Israel is and will remain inherent to our reason of state. We speak out against unfounded criticism and hate against Israel."

Mayorkas, whose mother's family escaped World War II and the Holocaust from Romania, shared memories of his family's story. He spoke of the broader foundational principles that define antisemitism and various forms of hate, and the existential threat that bigotry presents.

"An attack born of hate against one minority is an attack against all," said Mayorkas, himself a Cuban refugee.

B'nai B'rith has led an International Holocaust Remembrance Day event each year since the occasion's founding at the United Nations in 2005.

"We were present at the founding of the UN in San Francisco. In 1960, we were the first Jewish organization to open a UN affairs office. B'nai B'rith is accredited at the UN, and when it declared it would have an annual Holocaust Remembrance Day, we inaugurated the event," Dan Mariaschin, CEO of B'nai B'rith International, told Jewish News Syndicate, stressing the organization's leading role in coordinating Jewish communal engagement with the United Nations.

"This year, because of COVID, we weren't able to go back into the UN building. But with Zoom, you can bring in people from all over the world and have a longer program," he noted.

Monday's event featured a pair of panel discussions, including one focused on government action across the world. Among the participants were Canadian Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combating Antisemitism Irwin Cotler; US Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues Ellen Germain; Organization of American States Commissioner to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism Fernando Lottenberg; and European Commission Coordinator on Combating Antisemitism and Fostering Jewish Life Katharina von Schnurbein.

"Antisemitism is toxic to democracies. Holocaust distortion is toxic to democracies. We need a global constituency of conscience to combat it," said Cotler.

Mariaschin told JNS that Monday's event marked the first time that the OAS antisemitism envoy participated.

'Protect our societies from any attempt to rewrite history'

The second panel focused on best practices from other fields and featured International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Secretary-General Kathrin Meyer; Daniel Lörcher, head of corporate responsibility of German professional sports club Borussia Dortmund; Tracey Petersen, manager of the United Nations and the Holocaust Outreach Program; Auschwitz Institute for the Prevention of Genocide executive director Tibi Galis; and Sharaka USA CEO Omar Al Busaidy.

Lörcher's participation was particularly notable, representing the popular Borussia soccer team, which participates at the highest level in Germany.

"Fighting antisemitism comes from various places and different disciplines. It runs the gamut. We have seen antisemitism rear its head in soccer in places like the Netherlands and in England with different chants by spectators," Mariaschin told JNS, noting that participation in the effort to fight antisemitism was needed outside the traditional NGO and Jewish nonprofit environment.

European Commission vice president Margaritis Schinas also appeared, pointing out that unchallenged Holocaust distortion "nourishes antisemitism."

He said that "we need to protect our societies from any attempt to rewrite history, and support open and independent research on all aspects of the Holocaust. At the same time, we must step up our efforts to fight antisemitism in all its forms, using the definition of IHRA as our starting point."

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IHRA has adopted widely recognized working definitions of both antisemitism and Holocaust denial. A historic Israeli-led resolution fighting Holocaust denial, which passed the UN General Assembly by consensus last week, included a provision using the IHRA description of Holocaust distortion and outright denial.

"Holocaust distortion desensitizes people to antisemitic acts, and it's a disgrace toward the victims and the survivors. To remember the Holocaust is a responsibility of humankind," said Meyer.

Dani Dayan, chairman of Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem, appeared at the conclusion of the event.

"I leave this program encouraged. It's clear we have an effective, committed worldwide community of Shoah remembrance," said Dayan, using the Hebrew word for the Holocaust. He stressed the importance of Yad Vashem's ongoing mission of documenting and researching the Holocaust. "Documentation is ultimately the testimony of the Six Million," he said.

The official UN Holocaust Memorial Ceremony will taplace on Thursday morning, with seminars and concert events also planned for this week.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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It was a ministerial-level meeting for which almost no one sent a foreign minister. And it seems to be reflective of how stale and tired the United Nations' regular debates on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have become.

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Norway, the longtime UN penholder of the Israeli-Palestinian file, holds the presidency of the UN Security Council this month and sought to upgrade the monthly meeting on the issue to, in its words, refocus the Council's attention on the topic.

"My hope is to contribute toward renewed efforts to solving the conflict. The two-state solution is the only viable path to peace and security for both peoples. I invite the Security Council to join me in calling for this. The current situation is volatile and could flare up at any time, bringing violence and hostilities. … My fear is that we forget this conflict, and it is in Norwegian interests to keep attention on it," said Norwegian Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt before the open debate got underway on Wednesday.

Despite Norway sending its foreign minister to chair the discussion, Ghana was the only other Security Council member to bring its top diplomat to New York. Norway set the tone early, chiding Israel for settlement activity and evictions of Palestinians in Jerusalem, while lamenting the Palestinian Authority's "severe financial difficulty," leaving unmentioned the Ramallah-based government's rampant corruption and its policy of paying a substantial portion of its budget to terrorists who kill and maim Israelis, including civilians.

"When the Palestinians see the support and honor that their leaders give to terrorists, they clearly see that terror pays. … The Palestinian Authority continues to pay the salaries of terrorists in a 'pay to slay' policy that means, the more Jewish blood you spill, the more money you and your family get," Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan said in the Security Council Chamber.

Erdan sought to counter the narrative of PA Foreign Minister Riad Al-Maliki, who, among other things, accused the Security Council of allowing Israel to act with impunity through the failure to enforce any number of its own resolutions.

"We heard from the Palestinian foreign minister. We heard all the regurgitated accusations and baseless claims. But as he stands here and points the finger at Israel, what the minister conveniently ignores is that in the last month, just one month, more than 200 terror attacks have been carried out by Palestinians against Israeli citizens – 143 rock-throwing attacks in just a month, 20 grenades and Molotov cocktails in just a month. And dozens more stabbings, car rammings, shootings and other violent physical attacks risking and claiming Israeli lives all in just a month. That ended a year which saw thousands of other violent attacks against Israelis; attacks that are, at best, only marginally mentioned to the Council."

Erdan put an emphasis on rock attacks, noting their deadly, violent nature. He brought a large rock to the podium while addressing reporters, noting that a stone of that size claimed the life of four-year-old Israeli Adele Biton. Maliki later called Erdan's presentation a gimmick as he struggled to explain to reporters the "engineering" of how difficult it would be to throw such a rock more than a meter.

Erdan also took to task the Council and reporters for swallowing the "false Palestinian narrative" surrounding this week's eviction of a Palestinian family from a home in the Shimon HaTzadik/Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem, noting that Israel's independent judiciary found that the home was illegally built and that the land is to be used for a special-needs school for the neighborhood's Palestinian residents, as well as six kindergartens and other public facilities.

From clean-water concerns to an uptick in antisemitism

There was some notable balance in the debate.

Civil society organizations who are invited to present at these meetings are nearly invariably slanted towards extreme criticism of Israel. This time, the Israeli and Palestinian co-directors of EcoPeace Middle East, a regional environmental peacebuilding organization that includes Jordan, were brought in to speak.

Palestinian director Nada Majdalani spoke of seeking a "green-blue deal" for the Middle East, including the restoration of the Jordan River watershed, noting that failures in the peace process enable further water scarcity, putting pressure on the Palestinian economy. Israeli Gidon Bromberg urged an end to "zero-sum" thinking on water issues as climate change creates fresh scarcity and conflict threats, citing Israeli leadership on water security but also a "sanitation crisis" in the Palestinian-governed territories.

US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, who has previously called for less obsession with the Israeli-Palestinian file at the council, reiterated her opposition to the council's often laser-focus on purported Israeli violations, asserting that a trust gap between Israelis and Palestinians is "the single biggest obstacle to political progress and peace," and that most of the work of rebuilding that trust needs to be done directly between the Israelis and Palestinians themselves.

"Let me start by reaffirming our strong support for a two-state solution, one in which a Jewish and democratic Israel lives in peace alongside a sovereign, democratic and viable Palestinian state. And as I've noted before, I look forward to the day when we do not find the need to single out Israel for this type of unfair focus in this council," said Thomas-Greenfield, who added that, for the first time in many years, all Security Council members have diplomatic relations with Israel, serving as a testament to Israel's global contributions.

She spent a substantial portion of her statement focused on antisemitism, noting that International Holocaust Remembrance Day is approaching on Jan. 27.

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"The harrowing events in Colleyville, Texas, this past weekend brought this home for us Americans. It reminds us that we all must work together to stand against antisemitism and extremism. The United States will continue to champion justice for victims of antisemitism, and for Holocaust survivors and their descendants. We are committed to building a world where the lessons of the Holocaust are taught universally, where survivors live out their days in dignity and comfort, and where all humans' lives are shown decency and compassion," said Thomas-Greenfield.

Notably, United Arab Emirates Ambassador to the UN Lana Nusseibeh, whose family has ties to Jerusalem dating back centuries and whose uncle was supposed to run on a UAE-backed electoral list opposing the PA last year before PA leader Mahmoud Abbas again canceled elections, addressed the council on the conflict for the first time since the UAE joined it this month.

Nusseibeh was mild in her criticism of Israel and gave no praise to the PA, spending the opening portion of her statement denouncing this week's terror attack by Iran-backed Houthi rebels on the UAE capital of Abu Dhabi. Erdan offered his condolences to the UAE at the outset of his own remarks, placing the blame on Iran for the actions of its proxy in Yemen.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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