Weekly roundup of world briefs

Jewish Journal of Los Angeles ceases print edition

By Tom Tugend

LOS ANGELES (JTA) — The Jewish Journal of Los Angeles, the largest American Jewish weekly west of New York, has ceased print production as of its Oct. 16 issue and become an online-only publication.

In an announcement to staff, readers and advertisers, publisher and editor-in-chief David Suissa said he hopes the print version of the paper will return once synagogues open again.

As a free community paper, the Journal has been distributed primarily through the area’s network of far-flung synagogues, where congregants could pick up the paper on Fridays, its day of publication.

“I’m excited about the possibilities of online, but I haven’t forgotten the power of paper. There’s role for both. That means the next time you show up at your favorite synagogue on a Shabbat or holiday, expect to be greeted again by your favorite Jewish paper,” Suissa wrote in his announcement note.

Simultaneously the Journal plans to ramp up its online offerings and provide a Jewish Streaming Guide, curating the most interesting Jewish events that can be watched online during the coronavirus crisis.

In post-World War II Los Angeles, Jewish residents had a reading choice of four Jewish weeklies – B’nai B’rith Messenger, Jewish Voice, Heritage and Jewish Journal. Of these, only the latecomer Jewish Journal, founded in 1985 and initially subsidized by the local Jewish federation, has survived.

According to recent figures, the Jewish Journal had a pre-pandemic circulation of 50,000 printed copies, shared by an estimated 150,000 readers.

Israeli company signs deal to transport oil from UAE to Europe via Eilat

(JNS) — Israel’s state-owned Eilat Ashkelon Pipeline Company (EAPC) announced on Tuesday that it had signed a preliminary binding memorandum of understanding to transport oil from the United Arab Emirates to Europe via a pipeline that connects the Red Sea city of Eilat to Ashkelon on the Mediterranean Sea, Reuters reported.

According to the report, EAPC said that it had signed the agreement on Monday in Abu Dhabi with MED-RED Land Bridge, a jointly owned Israeli-Emirati company, in the presence of U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

The plan is to transport oil from other countries, as well, and avoid crossing the Suez Canal—something that could provide Asia buyers speedier access to the resource, the report noted.

“MED-RED is in advanced negotiations with major players in the West and in the East for long-term service agreements,” EAPC said.

Israeli health officials: Country no longer contains COVID-19 ‘hotspots’

(JNS) — Israeli health officials said on Tuesday that the country no longer contains “red” coronavirus hotspots that require local lockdowns.

The officials made this claim, according to Ynet, ahead of a coronavirus cabinet meeting to discuss the additional easing of restrictions since some aspects of the month-long nationwide lockdown were lifted on Sunday. Israel is planning on a phased re-opening of the economy—including schools and small businesses—with intervals between each step, to allow for an assessment of the COVID-19 morbidity rates.

Coronavirus Project Coordinator Ronni Gamzu said on Tuesday that though the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) cities of Bnei Brak and Elad still have significant morbidity rates, they are eligible to lose their “red” classification.

As of Tuesday afternoon, according to Israeli Health Ministry figures, there were 23,612 active cases of coronavirus from a total of 305,633 since the onset of the pandemic in Israel. There were 631 patients in serious condition, with 231 on ventilators, and a death toll of 2,271.

Top Palestinian official Saeb Erekat in ‘critical’ condition with COVID-19 in Israeli hospital

By Josefin Dolsten

(JTA) — Saeb Erekat is in “critical” condition at an Israeli hospital after being diagnosed with COVID-19.

Erekat, who has served as the chief negotiator for the Palestinian Liberation Organization for decades, was admitted to Hadassah Ein Kerem in Jerusalem on Sunday after a Palestinian Authority request.

A Monday statement from the hospital said the 65-year-old was in “critical” condition and that he was on a ventilator, the BBC reported. On Sunday, the hospital said he had been in “serious but stable” condition.

“Because of the chronic health problems in Erekat’s respiratory system, he is being transferred to a hospital in the 1948 areas [Israel], because his condition requires special medical attention and supervision,” the PLO Negotiation Affairs department said in a Sunday statement, according to the Times of Israel.

Erekat, who was diagnosed with COVID-19 earlier this month, is considered especially vulnerable because he received a lung transplant in 2017.

The Palestinian Authority cut ties with Israel and the United States in February after rejecting the peace plan presented by U.S. President Donald Trump, with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas calling it a “disgrace.”

Jewish Republican congressional candidate calls George Soros a ‘Nazi sympathizer’

By Ben Sales

(JTA) — The latest political candidate to condemn George Soros, the Jewish billionaire Democratic megadonor, is Jewish himself.

Eric Early, a Republican who is running for Congress in California, tweeted Sunday, “Nazi sympathizer Soros is a danger to our nation.” Soros, who is a frequent target of Republican officials, in fact survived the Holocaust as a teenager.

The false accusation that Soros aided Nazis is not uncommon among criticism of him, which has become unrelenting in this election cycle and frequently veers into anti-Semitism. In reality, Soros was hidden as a child by a Hungarian bureaucrat and once accompanied him to survey the property of a Jewish household.

The Republican Jewish Coalition confirmed in an email to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency Sunday that Early is Jewish. He is running against California Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, who is also Jewish, in a heavily Democratic district.

On Saturday, Schiff had criticized Early for sharing a meme that falsely claimed Schiff was related to Soros. He is not. Schiff called the meme anti-Semitic.

“This week, my opponent shared a “meme” about me. A well-circulated anti-Semitic lie,” he tweeted, adding that “the Republican Party’s willingness to traffic in bigotry and hate has caused lasting damage.”

The meme is gone from Early’s Twitter feed, and Early responded to Schiff’s criticism by writing that “there’s nothing antisemitic at all about the retweet (whoever did it).” Early told the Washington Times that Soros is “flat-out scum” and called Schiff “one of Soros’ many tools.”

A spokesperson for Schiff’s campaign, Patrick Boland, said in a statement in response, “We are glad that Mr. Early deleted his retweet of an anti-Semitic meme, the likes of which should never have shared by a candidate for elected office in the first place.”

British trade union leader sorry for telling Jewish ex-banker to go ‘count his gold’

By Cnaan Liphshiz

(JTA) — A prominent trade union leader and ally of former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn apologized to for telling a Jewish former Labour parliamentarian to go “count his gold.”

Len McCluskey, general secretary of Unite the Union, made the remark about Peter Mandelson in an interview aired Monday on the BBC.

“I stopped listening to anything Peter Mandelson says years ago,” said McCluskey, whose union has over a million members. “I would suggest Peter goes into a room and counts his gold and not worry about the Labour Party. Leave that to those of us who are interested in ordinary working people.”

McCluskey was responding to criticism Mandelson had leveled at Keir Starmer, a centrist who replaced Corbyn as Labour leader and reversed several of his policies. Corbyn had been accused of espousing and tolerating anti-Semitism within Labour prior to his resignation as party leader in April.

Mandelson is a a former Cabinet secretary who later worked as a senior investor for an investment banking firm. Following protests on social media and by British-Jewish groups, McCluskey said he was referencing Mandelson’s stint in banking rather than his ethnicity.

“Before this gets out of hand, let me say language is important and I apologize to Peter Mandelson and anyone else if mine has caused hurt,” McCluskey said.

Both the Labour Against Antisemitism group and the Board of Deputies of British Jews accused McCluskey of using an “antisemitic trope.”

French chief rabbi praises government’s crackdown on radical Islam

By Cnaan Liphshiz

(JTA) — French Chief Rabbi Haim Korsia praised his government’s crackdown on radical Islamists, writing in an op-ed that it makes clear that “things are changing — belatedly, but all the same.”

Korsia’s op-ed Wednesday in Le Figaro followed news that the French Interior Ministry has dissolved a Hamas front group as part of a slew of actions prompted by the Oct. 16 beheading of a history teacher near Paris. The teacher, Samuel Paty, had been killed by a Muslim refugee from Chechenya after showing his students the same caricatures of the prophet Mohammed that had prompted a deadly assault on the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine in 2015.

“There are no lone wolves … [and] there is no auto-indoctrination,” Korsia wrote. “On the contrary: The spirit of those made-in-France terrorists is part of an elevation of heroes, an affinity for horror, a glorification guaranteed by a multinational of fanatics. That is what’s being targeted.”

The Hamas front, Collectif Cheikh Yassine, was named for one of the founders of Hamas who was killed in an Israeli strike in 2004.  Several suspected Islamists have also been arrested by French authorities and at least one mosque was temporarily shuttered.

Even before Paty’s murder, French President Emmanuel Macron had announced a plan that he called an “attack on Islamist separatism,” and which aimed to ban underground Muslim schools among other venues of Islamist indoctrination that Macron said endanger the integrity of the republic.

Biden winning Jewish vote by over 50 points in Florida and Pennsylvania, polls show

By Ron Kampeas

(JTA) — Joe Biden is winning the Jewish vote by over 50 points in the key swing states of Florida and Pennsylvania,  two polls commissioned by the liberal Jewish Middle East lobby group J Street have found.

In Pennsylvania, 75 percent of respondents said they would vote for Biden and 22 percent picked Trump, tracking exactly with a nationwide American Jewish Committee poll published this week. In Florida, the gap was 73 percent to 22 percent.

Both states have large Jewish populations, and both the Biden and Trump campaigns have focused substantial resources on Jewish voters there.

All three polls track within the margin of error of Hillary Clinton’s showing with Jewish voters in 2016, when she garnered 71 percent to Trump’s 24 percent.

The polls also show that Jewish voters rate the economy and the handling of the coronavirus pandemic as their top issues, and the U.S.-Israel relationship as among their lowest.

The polls, conducted by GBAO, reached 600 Florida Jewish voters by phone between Oct. 12-14 and 710 Pennsylvania Jewish voters between Oct. 12 by phone and text-to-web. The Florida poll had a margin of error of 4 percentage points and the Pennsylvania poll had a margin of error of 3.7 percentage points.

TikTok becomes latest social network to crack down on anti-Semitism ahead of the election

By Ben Sales

(JTA) — Following the lead of Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, the video platform TikTok announced that it is expanding the range of hate content that it will ban from the network.

The move comes less than two weeks ahead of the American election and amid official warnings of potential violence by extremist groups during and after the vote. It also comes following complaints that TikTok users were demeaning the Holocaust by portraying themselves as concentration camp inmates in videos.

TikTok said in a blog post Wednesday that it already bans Holocaust denial and works to remove neo-Nazi and white supremacist content. Now it will remove posts advocating similar ideologies like white nationalism, male supremacy and “white genocide theory,” which falsely claims that there is a conspiracy to eliminate white populations with a flood of immigrants.

The site also said it would ban “misinformation about notable Jewish individuals and families who are used as proxies to spread anti-Semitism.” It did not specify names, but figures such as George Soros and the Rothschild family are common avatars for anti-Semitism. The site also said it will ban anti-Muslim and anti-LGBTQ content.

In recent weeks, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have all announced steps to ban Holocaust denial, hate groups and posts advocating QAnon, a growing conspiracy theory with anti-Semitic overtones. The measures come following campaigns by activists charging that the platforms were not doing enough to combat hate.