Lebanon flotilla rallies at Israel sea border ahead of talks


Lebanese protesters ride in a yacht with an Arabic banner that reads "No compromises No waivers, No negligence, Our maritime resources belong to us," during a demonstration demanding Lebanon's right to its maritime oil and gas fields, in the southern marine border town of Naqoura, Lebanon, Sunday, Sept. 4, 2022. The protest came days before the mediating U.S. envoy is scheduled to land in Beirut to continue maritime border talks. 

(AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)More

KAREEM CHEHAYEB
Sun, September 4, 2022 at 10:06 AM·2 min read

BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanese protesters on Sunday sailed down the country’s coast in dozens of fishing boats and yachts toward Israel, days before a U.S. envoy is expected in Beirut to continue mediating in a maritime border dispute between the two countries.

Lebanon and Israel, which have been officially at war since the latter's creation in 1948, both claim an area of some 860 square kilometers (330 square miles) of the Mediterranean Sea. Lebanon hopes to exploit offshore gas reserves as it grapples with the worst economic crisis in its modern history. Lebanon and Israel kicked off maritime border talks almost two years ago.

Sunday's flotilla carried Lebanese flags and banners, with slogans in Arabic, French, and Hebrew expressing what they say is Lebanon’s right to its maritime oil and gas fields.

“We are demanding our right to every inch of our waters,” Aya Saleh, one of the protesters on a fishing boat, told The Associated Press. “And we are sending a message from the Lebanese people.”

Lebanese and Israel navy vessels were present, though no tensions occurred.

Amos Hochstein, a senior adviser for energy security at the U.S. State Department, has shuttled between Beirut and Jerusalem to mediate the talks. He was last in Beirut in late July, when he informed Lebanese officials of Israel's response to a proposal Lebanon made in June, and signaled optimism after his trip.

According to Lebanese President Michel Aoun’s office, Hochstein notified adviser and deputy parliament speaker, Elias Bou Saab, that he will visit Beirut later this coming week. Lebanese media have speculated that both countries could soon reach an agreement.

However, tensions between Lebanon's Iran-backed militant Shiite group Hezbollah and Israel have also simmered in recent months surrounding the border talks.

The Israeli military in early July shot down three Hezbollah unarmed drones flying over the disputed Karish gas field in the Mediterranean.

Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati criticized Hezbollah, saying the move could pose risks to the country. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in an interview that month said the militant group can locate and strike Karish and any other Israeli gas field.

Christians against Christian nationalism say the ideology distorts both American and Christian values

Kelsey Vlamis
Sun, September 4, 2022 

Christian nationalism has been embraced by some of former 

President Donald Trump's supporters.

Michael Arellano/Associated Press

Some GOP lawmakers are embracing Christian nationalism and dismissing critics as the "godless left."

Christians Against Christian Nationalism represents 27,000 Christians who have rejected the concept.

The organizer of the campaign told Insider Christian nationalism violates core Christian values.

Proponents of Christian nationalism have suggested those expressing concerns about the ideology are simply the "godless left," but tens of thousands of Christians maintain the concept directly defies the teachings of their faith.

Christian groups launched a campaign in 2019 aimed at denouncing Christian nationalism — the belief that the US and Christianity are intrinsically linked and therefore the religion should have a privileged position in American society and government.

Christians Against Christian Nationalism has since had more than 27,000 Christians of different denominations and political philosophies sign their statement of principles rejecting the concept. The principles include assertions like "one's religious affiliation, or lack thereof, should be irrelevant to one's standing in the civic community" and "government should not prefer one religion over another or religion over nonreligion."

"Many of our signers believe that pushing against Christian nationalism is essential not just for our democracy but also for the preservation of our faith," Amanda Tyler, the executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty and the lead organizer of the campaign, told Insider.

She said the effort was the result of growing concern over Christian nationalism becoming more violent, citing the 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue shooting and the 2019 mosque shootings in New Zealand. In both cases, the suspects espoused Christian nationalist ideas.

Despite dismissive claims made by supporters of the ideology, opponents of Christian nationalism say it violates core American and Christian values.

Violating two core Christian beliefs

There are numerous ways in which Christian nationalism defies Christianity, according to Tyler, but the most overt involves two of Jesus's most fundamental teachings: first, to love God above everything else, and second, to love your neighbor as yourself.

"Christian nationalism creates this false idol of power and leads us to confuse political authority with religious authority," Tyler said. "And in that way causes us to put our patriotism, our allegiance to America, above our allegiance to God."

Christian nationalists believe the US has a special relationship with God. This overlap of patriotism, politics, and Christianity was on full display at the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021. Supporters of former President Donald Trump carried flags with messages like "Jesus is my savior, Trump is my president" and "Make America Godly Again."

Tyler said Christian nationalism "leads people to idolatry of the country over worship of God."

"One can be a patriot as I am. We can love God and we can love country at the same time, but if our patriotism causes us to sacrifice our theological conviction then it ceases to be patriotism. It becomes nationalism," she said.

Christian nationalists also believe that the government should declare the US a Christian nation, advocate for Christian values, and return prayer to public schools.

But these ideals "create this second-class status for our neighbors who aren't Christian," Tyler said — and sends the message that in order to be a true American you have to be a Christian.

"That causes harm to our neighbors who are not Christians, and also causes us to violate our call to love our neighbor," she said.

She added Christianity is also a global religion, so the Christian nationalist belief that God has a special plan for the US dismisses members of the faith around the world.

'Troubling' embrace of Christian nationalism

As for American values, the separation of church and state has long been considered a defining characteristic of religious freedom in the US. But recently some on the right, such as Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, have suggested that separation has been taken too far. Boebert went as far as to say "the church should be controlling the government."

Meanwhile, GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has openly identified as a Christian nationalist and said the Republican party should be the party of Christian nationalism.

Though the concept is not new, Tyler said she was concerned with the way it's been increasingly embraced in recent months, noting she saw numerous instances of Christian nationalism at the Conservative Political Action Conference last month.

"It was always present but the fact that they're openly embracing the label is different and troubling," she said, adding: "Unfortunately I'm seeing this almost one-up game in some circles, who can be the bigger Christian nationalist."

Tyler said the overt support for the ideology makes it especially important for Christians to speak out against it to show that people of faith also view it as dangerous.

"We're at risk of normalizing Christian nationalism," she said. "It's even more incumbent on us to explain why that is un-American and a departure from Christian values as well."

Trump could be charged with crimes he suggested Edward Snowden should be executed for, says former Fox News analyst

Alia Shoaib
Sat, September 3, 2022

Trump could be charged with crimes he said Edward Snowden should be executed for, a legal analyst said.


The DOJ is investigating if Trump broke federal laws, including the Espionage Act, by taking government records.

Trump said there should be a "death penalty" for Wikileaks and that Snowden "should be executed."

According to a former Fox News analyst, former President Donald Trump could be charged with the same crimes that he suggested a National Security Agency whistleblower should be executed for.

"In a monumental irony," former New Jersey Superior Court judge Andrew Napolitano wrote in an op-ed in the New Jersey Herald, both Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and the NSA's Edward Snowden "stand charged with the very same crimes that are likely to be brought against Trump."

"On both Assange and Snowden, Trump argued that they should be executed. Fortunately for all three, these statutes do not provide for capital punishment."

The FBI searched Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence in August as part of a Department of Justice investigation into whether Trump broke federal laws, including the Espionage Act, when he took government records.

While the former president is yet to be charged with any crimes, Napolitano said that a federal grand jury could indict him for three alleged offenses. They include removing and concealing national defense information, giving the information to those not legally entitled to possess it, and obstruction of justice by failing to return the information.

Assange and Snowden face charges which include violations of the Espionage Act. Assange is currently in prison in the UK, fighting extradition to the US on espionage charges. Snowden, who leaked highly classified information on surveillance, is wanted in the US but remains in Russia, where he has been granted asylum.

Trump wrote on Twitter in 2013 that Snowden was "a spy who should be executed."  Snowden, an American former computer intelligence consultant, leaked highly classified information from the National Security Agency.

He also said in 2010 that he thought there should be "a death penalty or something" for Wikileaks, although he did not mention Assange, who exposed secret US activities during the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, by name.

Andrew Napolitano, then judicial analyst for the Fox News Channel, testifies during a Federal Spending Oversight And Emergency Management Subcommittee hearing June 6, 2018 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.Aaron P. Bernstein/Getty Images

In his op-ed, Napolitano noted that Trump's claim that he declassified all of the documents he took is irrelevant, as the charges relating to handling national defense information do not require proof of classification.

He notes that Trump did the FBI "a favor" when he inadvertently admitted to knowing he had the documents when he made his claims about declassification.

"He committed a mortal sin in the criminal defense world by denying something for which he had not been accused," Napolitano said.

Former judge Napolitano was a legal analyst for Fox News for 24 years before parting ways in 2021.

He told friends in 2017 that he was on Trump's shortlist to be nominated as a Supreme Court justice, according to Politico. Trump ultimately chose Brett Kavanaugh. Napolitano's name did not appear on any public list of Trump's possible nominees.

California governor signs bill to keep last reactors running


 One of Pacific Gas & Electric's Diablo Canyon Power Plant's nuclear reactors in Avila Beach, Calif., is viewed Nov. 3, 2008. California legislators and Gov. California Gov. Gavin Newsom and a group of legislators reached a late-hour compromise bill released late Sunday, Aug. 28, 2022, to extend the lifespan of the state's last operating nuclear plant by up to five years, but the proposal faces an uncertain future even if it manages to clear the Legislature in the final days of a two-year session. 

(AP Photo/Michael A. Mariant, File) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)More


MICHAEL R. BLOOD
Fri, September 2, 2022

LOS ANGELES (AP) — California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation Friday intended to open the way for the state’s last operating nuclear power plant to run an additional five years, a move that he said was needed to ward off possible blackouts as the state transitions to solar and other renewable sources.

His endorsement came one day after the plan was approved in a lopsided vote in the state Assembly and Senate, and despite criticism from environmentalists that the plant was dangerous and should be shut down as scheduled by 2025.

Newsom has no direct authority over the twin-domed plant, which sits on a bluff above the Pacific midway between Los Angeles and San Francisco. PG&E must obtain approval for a longer run from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which oversees plant safety, as well as a string of state agencies.

There are other questions, including whether PG&E will qualify for a share of $6 billion the Biden administration set aside to rescue nuclear plants at risk of closing. The state could back out of the deal if the reactors don’t qualify for federal dollars.


PG&E officials have said they are eager for certainty about the plant’s future because of the difficulty of reversing course on a plant that was headed for permanent retirement, but now needs to prepare for a potentially longer lifespan. Among the challenges: Ordering sufficient nuclear fuel and casks to store spent fuel, which can take up to two years to obtain.

Newsom's plan also restarted a long-running debate over seismic safety at the site. Construction at Diablo Canyon began in the 1960s. Critics say potential shaking from nearby earthquake faults not recognized when the design was first approved — one nearby fault was not discovered until 2008 — could damage equipment and release radiation. PG&E has long said the plant is safe, an assessment that the NRC has supported.

Also unknown is how much it will cost to update the plant for a longer run. PG&E has been deferring maintenance because the plant was expected to close by 2025.

Antisemitic Conspiracy Theories Are Going Mainstream

Steven Lubet
Sat, September 3, 2022 

Photo Illustration by Erin O'Flynn/The Daily Beast/Getty

What is the difference between anti-Zionism and antisemitism?

When are fiercely delivered rhetorical attacks on Israel an acceptable part of intense political discourse, and when do they amount to anti-Jewish invective?

It is crucial, although challenging, to distinguish between the two—given the passions understandably aroused by every aspect of the Israel-Palestine dispute—especially when the speakers seem otherwise credible and accomplished. The controversial recent comments by the director of Middle East Studies at Denver University provide a good opportunity to identify the line between criticism of Israeli policies and allusions to age-old anti-Jewish conspiracy theories.

Does Anti-Zionism Equal Anti-Semitism?

Shortly after the vicious stabbing of Indian-British-American author Salman Rushdie, Prof. Nader Hashemi, a specialist on Islam-West Relations, opined on the Iran Podcast that Israel was probably behind the life-threatening attack, as an attempt to derail renewed nuclear negotiations with Iran.

Hashemi’s claim was quickly condemned by Jewish organizations, and it drew a tepid response from a Denver University official, who said that “his comments do not reflect the point of view of the university.” Otherwise, however, Hashemi’s unsupported accusation drew little attention from the mainstream media, perhaps because similarly conspiratorial charges have become almost commonplace in recent years.

Because of the perceived blasphemous nature of his novel The Satanic Verses, Rushdie has been living under a clerical death sentence for decades, due to a fatwa issued by Iran’s then supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989. At least 45 people were later killed in riots in Mumbai, Kashmir, and Islamabad. Rushdie’s Japanese translator was murdered, his Italian translator was stabbed, and his Norwegian publisher was shot. In 2005, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards declared that the death sentence remained valid. As recently as 2019, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Khamenei announced that the verdict against Rushdie is “solid and irrevocable.”

Demonstrators in Tehran call for the death of Indian-British writer Salman Rushdie after a fatwa was issued by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini condemning him to death for blasphemy after the publication of his novel The Satanic Verses, February 1989.
Kaveh Kazemi/Getty ImagesMore

Although Rushdie’s alleged assailant, a 24-year-old Lebanese-American named Hadi Matar, was said to have made social media posts sympathetic to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard (and carried a phony driver’s license with the name of a Hezbollah commander), Hashemi opined on the Iran Podcast that it was “much more likely” that Matar had been “lured” into attacking Rushdie by a “Mossad operative” who deviously claimed “to be affiliated with the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

The supposed false flag operation, according to Hashemi, could have been part of an Israeli scheme to prevent renewed U.S. negotiations with Iran. “Israel has taken a very strong position against reviving the Iran nuclear agreement,” he said, which “could explain the timing of this at this moment during these sensitive political discussions related to Iran’s nuclear program.”

Hashemi told the Denver Post that he also condemned the attack on Rushdie, which he described as “heinous.” But, he added, “My training is in political theory… I get paid to theorize.” He also called his employer’s very mild distancing of itself to his statements “deeply offensive, false and defamatory.”

In fact, there is precisely zero evidence that Israel had anything to do with the vicious attack on Rushdie, or that Mossad agents have made a practice of luring young Muslims into terrorism. Hashemi’s assignment of likely blame is about a half-step away from the enduring accusation that Israel was behind the 9/11 attacks. Apart from the non-existent technology, it is not too far from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s belief that California’s 2018 wildfires were caused by the Rothschilds’ space lasers.

Hashemi’s claim was obviously unfounded and irresponsible. But was it antisemitic, or merely ridiculous?

Two widely circulated definitions of antisemitism provide a useful answer.

In 2016 the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) issued a “working definition” of antisemitism that has been adopted or endorsed by 37 countries, including the U.S.,and many non-governmental organizations.

One of the IHRA’s illustrative examples is “using the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism… to characterize Israel or Israelis.” In 2021, a group of over 200 scholars of Jewish and Holocaust Studies issued the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism (JDA) in response to the IHRA definition, which they considered too ambiguous—and potentially open to misuse—regarding the relationship between Israel and antisemitism. But even the more permissive JDA definition provides that “applying the symbols, images and negative stereotypes of classical antisemitism… to the State of Israel” is antisemitic “on the face of it.”

Hashemi’s image of a conniving Israeli operative, exercising nefarious control over an apparent act of Islamic terrorism, is a classic conspiracy theory that could have been lifted, with only a few vocabulary changes from a contemporary introduction to the Protocols of the Elders of Zion—the notorious forgery, originating in early 20th-century Russia, that claims to be proof of an international Jewish conspiracy for world domination.

Experts on Iranian politics have pointed out that the Islamic Republic often attempts to shift blame to Israel, only occasionally saying the “antisemitic parts out loud.”

It is certainly possible to be critical and even hostile toward Israel without drifting into antisemitism, as was demonstrated by law students at the University of California, Berkeley. Nine student groups (of over 100) adopted bylaws pledging never to invite “speakers that have expressed and continued to hold views… in support of Zionism, the apartheid state of Israel, and the occupation of Palestine,” and calling on other organizations to do the same. These resolutions are immature, counter-productive, and contrary to academic freedom, but they are squarely aimed at Israel’s actions, and are not by themselves antisemitic.

Call it What You Want, "Post-Zionism" is Anti-Zionism—David Frum

Hashemi, I’m sure, is a person of good will, with no ill intentions. But that makes it even more troubling that he would reflexively turn to an anti-Jewish stereotype without recognizing its bigoted implications (even when pointed out to him). Instead, he has doubled down. Rather than admit a mistake, which would probably have ended the controversy, Hashemi claims that he has become a “political target” for refusing to fall in line with Israeli-friendly policies. He described his Mossad attribution as part of a “nuanced and critical discussion of world politics.” Criticism of the theory, he complained, was “an attempt to silence public debate,” presumably over whether Rushdie’s stabbing had indeed been part of a cunning Israeli plot.

The term “antisemitism” itself was originally almost a euphemism, conceived by the German journalist Wilhelm Marr in 1879. Anti-Jewish hatred, of course, dates back to Antiquity, but Marr sought to modernize it by reframing the basis of discrimination from religion—which was out of fashion following the Enlightenment —to racialism. In an essay titled “The Way to Victory of Germanism over Judaism,” Marr laid the groundwork for the theory that Jews sought to dominate Aryans and other Europeans through control of finance and industry. “Jewish spirit and Jewish consciousness,” he warned, “have overpowered the world.” Antisemitism was substituted for Judenhass (Jew hatred) because it was secular and therefore more “scientific,” but it meant the same thing.

We increasingly see a similar phenomenon today, as in Hashemi’s remarks, when classically anti-Jewish themes are recast in the “nuanced” language of anti-Zionism, as though that was sufficient to cleanse the comments of their ancient implications.

That is the beauty of a conspiracy theory. It is all nuance and no proof.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for ANTI-ZIONISM 

In Basel, the Zionist movement looks to Israel’s future

 

Isaac Herzog, the Israeli president.

 Michael Buholzer/Keystone

“We must reclaim the term Zionism for ourselves,” the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, declared in Basel. During events in the Swiss city last week marking the 125th anniversary of the First Zionist Congress, ideas flowed as to how this should be done. But many of them are hard to reconcile.

This content was published on September 9, 2022 

Benjamin von Wyl

To access the congress centre, guests first had to get past military and police forces from all across Switzerland. After that, however, Swiss German was scarcely to be heard. Over 1,000 delegates and guests, including entrepreneurs and philanthropists, had travelled to the gathering from almost all corners of the globe. In addition to Hebrew, English was the lingua franca. Two words in particular resounded from the podiums, mainly as exclamations: “Dreamer! Visionary!”

The terms sometimes referred to all the early Zionists, but mostly to Theodor Herzl. On August 29, 1897, he convened the First Zionist Congress in Basel. Herzl was the initiator and later the founding president of the World Zionist Organisation. “If you will it, it is no dream,” he wrote afterwards in reference to a Jewish state that would protect Jewish people from anti-Semitic persecution and discrimination.

On August 29, 2022, the words “If you will it, it is no dream” were omnipresent on posters and in projections. Yet the country has long been real. Next year, the State of Israel will celebrate its 75th birthday. The country has also long had to face all the ups and downs and contradictions of everyday life. However, Herzl’s dream did not end with the founding of the state.

Two participants embrace during the celebrations. 

Michael Buholzer/Keystone


Switzerland’s delicate stances on Israel

This content was published on May 15, 2018

Switzerland, one of the first countries to recognize the state of Israel,

 is alarmed by the level of violence in Gaza Strip.

What does the Zionism of the future look like?

“Remembering the past and building a vision for the future” was the moderator’s slogan as she greeted the audience on Sunday. The two-day conference at times resembled a TED Talk event. There were accomplished speeches that combined a personal story with big ideas. But even during the panel discussions, there was no scope for questions from the audience. As a result, any potential contradictions were not discussed, at least not in the plenary. The remembrance, though, was unanimous: 2,000 years of exile that ended with the extermination of six million Jews in the Holocaust. Many speakers also shared their alarm at the rise in anti-Semitic attacks worldwide and stressed the need for decisive action.

Differences arose, however, when it came to people’s vision for the future. Thus, Yaakov Hagoel, chairperson of the World Zionist Organisation, declared that, within ten years the majority of the world’s Jews should be living in Israel – begging the question whether this was what the Jewish diaspora also wanted. Of the world’s 15 million Jews, by far the greatest number living outside Israel are in the United States. Meanwhile, in Basel, Israel’s Minister for Diaspora Affairs, Nachman Shai, placed the focus on involvement and engagement. He outlined a plan for Israel to give Jews around the world the possibility of participating politically in Israel.

 

Rabbi Azman, Ukraine’s chief rabbi, spoke about

 the significance of the right of Jews to immigrate to Israel. swissinfo.ch

Rabbi Azman travelled to Basel by train, as there are currently no flights from Ukraine. “For Jews who have nothing, Israel means everything,” Ukraine’s chief rabbi told the audience. For those who are now fleeing, “aliyah” – the possibility for all Jews to immigrate to Israel – is significant. Azman illustrated this with his own experience. Over 30 years ago, he and his wife left the Soviet Union, which was then collapsing. While they waited for their connecting flight in Vienna, a well-wisher gave his heavily pregnant wife a pineapple, which she had been craving.

“Aliyah” is older than political Zionism, but it is crucial to it. Zionists are convinced that political and social emancipation without a Jewish state cannot guarantee security. As best-selling Israeli author Micah Goodman said at the start of his speech: “In the 19th century, optimistic Jewish thinkers believed that the ‘Jewish question’, anti-Semitism, and discrimination would disappear through emancipation”. At the time, with the influence of the ideals of Enlightenment, many people thought that persecution had been overcome. Herzl countered this promise of emancipation with the conviction that anti-Semitic hatred in Western Europe had merely been suppressed. “So if emancipation is not the solution – what is the solution? Zionism succeeds where emancipation is doomed to fail,” said Goodman, adding that this was at the heart of Herzl’s first work, The Jewish State.

But in the future, the author continued, Israel and the Jewish diaspora should lean further on Herzl’s second influential work, The Old New Land (Altneuland). This could contain the seeds for the next generation of Zionism – a Zionism that finds “Jewish solutions to universal problems”. As examples, Goodman cited global warming and political polarisation, the latter of which he sees as the “social counterpart to global warming”. This statement aroused frenetic applause.

 

A patriotic moment to wrap up the closing gala. 

swissinfo.ch

The elephant in the room

Altneuland, published in 1902, tells the story of an ideal Jewish society in Palestine founded on democracy, solidarity and equality – and for Arabs too. So did Goodman broach the issue of the Middle East conflict in code? The question remains open and constantly rears its head. For as long as the occupation continues, the Zionist idea can hardly become exemplary beyond the Jewish world. The Middle East conflict was thus both absent and present throughout much of the conference.

It was the elephant in the room, but not taboo, Yves Kugelmann, editor-in-chief of the Jewish weekly magazine tachles, said in an interview. Speaking to SWI swissinfo.ch, Israeli parliamentarians Moshe Tur-Paz of the liberal ruling party, and Shirly Pinto of the right-wing ruling party openly shared their views on the subject.

Tur-Paz lives in a West Bank settlement that predates the State of Israel but that the United Nations says violates international law.

 

Theodor Herzl, on the balcony of the Basel hotel where

 he stayed during the First Zionist Congress in 1897. 

Keystone

“I believe that all of Israel was promised to my ancestors,” he said. “However, I’m not blind.” He sees the Arab population living in the area – some with Israeli passports, some without – and counts some of them as his friends. “Like most people in Israel, I long for some kind of solution that lies somewhere between autonomy and a country of their own.”

Pinto, meanwhile, stressed the need to “develop the Palestinian economy and improve the lives of Palestinians.” With regard to the Arab Israelis, the state should ensure “that they have everything that other people have,” she said.

Elections are coming up in Israel in two months’ time. Pinto and Tur-Paz are still members of the same government. Both emphasised the significance of the fact that, for the first time, an Arab-Islamic party is represented in their ruling coalition. Israel is a Jewish state, but this goes hand in hand with equal rights for all citizens.

Israeli parliamentarian Shirly Pinto. swissinfo.ch

When asked about their understanding of Zionism, the words “visionary” and “dreamer” came up again. In Tur-Paz’s view, “Zionism is the story of the people of Israel – the Israeli nation – dreaming about the land of Zion and now making the best of it after 2,000 years of exile. And now, ever since the creation of the state, this means that Jews from all over the world can look to Israel.”

According to Pinto, every contribution to coexistence in Israel is a contribution to Zionism. “Be it educational work or military service – everything is part of Herzl’s vision,” she said.

The speech by former Mossad director Yossi Cohen garnered the most enthusiastic response from the audience. The Israeli secret service is an integral part of Zionism as achieved in Israel, he asserted. He then explained how the Mossad had helped to prevent an Iranian nuclear bomb from being produced.


How Christian Europe created anti-Semitism in the Middle Ages
This content was published on Aug 23, 2022

 The Covid pandemic has once again shown that nearly all conspiracy theories blame the Jews for the evils of the world.

Reclaiming the term Zionism

The closing gala featured a light show, special-effects fog and pop music. At this point, the interpretation of Herzl’s work took on some perplexing features. For example, he was compared to the CEO of a start-up who used crowdfunding to help Israel succeed.

The Swiss speakers at the gala were Beat Jans, president of the Basel city government and Economics Minister Guy Parmelin. They both addressed the Middle East conflict. Parmelin sparked spontaneous applause when he spoke in favour of a two-state solution.

The Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, also talked about Herzl, the pioneer of Zionism, who turned “Jewish identity into an effective political doctrine”. One year earlier, he explained, a “leading social media platform” had discussed whether the word Zionism should be treated as an insult, as it was being misused as anti-Semitic code. At the gala evening in Basel, Herzog declared: “We must reclaim the term Zionism for ourselves” – that is, regain the sovereignty of interpretation and translate it positively.

The entire anniversary event was infused with a great commitment to understanding Zionism in an idealistic, even utopian light. But just how the ideal society of Herzl’s Altneuland can be transformed into realpolitik remains to be seen. Unlike Herzl the dreamer, today’s Zionists are not starting with a clean slate.

Edited by Balz Rigendinger; translated from German by Julia Bassam/gw

An anti-Jewish revolt in an enlightened country
This content was published on Aug 30, 2022

For centuries, Jewish life in what is now Switzerland was marked by discrimination.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for ANTI-ZIONISM 

The Führer’s forgotten poet

 

Anacker (centre) in SA uniform during a Nazi Party meeting; 

the photo is probably from 1939. 

Deutsches Literaturarchiv Marbach

History has not looked kindly on the legacy of Swiss poet Heinrich Anacker, whose books became best-sellers in Nazi Germany. A look at a controversial man of letters who the Nazi Party called “a singer of our times”.

This content was published on September 7, 2022 

Alexander Thoele

The life of Heinrich Anacker, Switzerland’s most-read poet of the 20th century, came to a tragic end on January 14, 1971, when he tripped on an icy road while out for a walk in Wasserburg on Lake Constance. He hit his head on the asphalt and suffered a stroke.

Upon his death, not a single obituary appeared in the newspapers. The world seemed almost relieved at his passing. His name sank into oblivion, as did his poems, many of which he wrote in honour of Adolf Hitler.

Anacker had certainly worked hard for his fame. He was known as the “Poet of the Movement”, “Lyricist of the Brown Front” or even “Poet of the Storm Troopers”. He was a productive writer. By the end of the Second World War, he had published 22 poetry volumes in Germany and sold 180,000 copies of them.

Several of his poems were used in military marches, such as From Finland to the Black Sea, which glorified Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany in 1941.

Anacker was born on January 29, 1901, in the village of Buchs in canton Aargau. His parents owned a printing business and a packaging factory. His father, Georg Anacker, was originally from the German town of Leipzig but took on Swiss citizenship in 1917, which he transferred to his son.

In 1921, one year before graduating from high school, Anacker published his first poem, Klinge, kleines Frühlingslied, through a small local publishing house. That year, he met the local baker’s daughter Emmy, who later became his wife.

 

Anacker and his wife in their newly-built house in Wannsee, near Berlin, 1937-1938. Arquivo pessoal de Charles Linsmayer

First contact with Nazis

In an interview with the Swiss literature critic and journalist Charles Linsmayer in 1984, Emmy said that she had fallen in love with a young poet who was passionate about nature and beautiful feelings and came from “a decent family”.

After he graduated from high school, Anacker enrolled at the University of Zurich to study literature and philosophy. But in 1923 he interrupted his studies to move to Vienna, where he continued his education and joined a conservative student fraternity. That’s when Anacker first came into contact with the Nazis.

Two years later, he returned to Zurich and reunited with his wife, but the National Socialists did not cease to fascinate him. He was so enthralled with them that in 1927 he travelled to Germany to attend the Nuremberg Rallies, the national event of the Nazi Party.

“When he heard Hitler speak for the first time, he was very impressed,” Emmy told Linsmayer. “He said to me: ‘This is the man who will save Germany’.” Emmy had studied drama and found a job in Döbeln in the German state of Saxony, where she relocated in 1928. Anacker then abandoned his studies and followed his wife to Germany.

Later that year, he joined the Nazi Party’s local group with the assigned membership number 105,290, and soon afterwards enlisted with the Storm Troopers. His poems were not yet tainted by National Socialism and were not unsuccessful.

In 1932, Anacker’s first volume of political poetry, The Drum, was published by the Storm Troopers’ own publishing house. In this collection, Anacker switched gears, writing about the changes the country was going through.

“The fascist revolution had found its way to Germany assisted by the rhythm of Anacker’s songs and lyrics, which were a skillfull mix of political indoctrination, aggression and praise for nature,” said Linsmayer. “They brainwashed the minds of the Germans.”

During his years in the German army, Anacker visited various parts of the front and recited poetry to the soldiers, such as here in Norway, 1942. 

Acervo privado de Charles Linsmayer

‘A singer of our times’

In Germany, Anacker rubbed shoulders with Nazi writers and intellectuals, among them high-ranking officials such as Julius Streicher, the regional leader of the Nazi Party and founder and publisher of the antisemitic newspaper Der Stürmer. He became reasonably well-known through these contacts, and when he met Hitler in a railway carriage in 1933, the Führer allegedly said to him: “Ah, you are Anacker.”

It did not take long for the Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, to arrange meetings with Anacker so they could discuss literature and ways his lyrics could be used in military marches.

During the Nuremberg Rallies in 1936, Anacker received the National Prize for Art and Science, handed to him by Hitler’s chief ideologue, Alfred Rosenberg. “For many years, Storm Trooper Anacker’s poetry has accompanied our movement,” the Nazi Party stated in awarding him the prize. “As a singer of our times, he lifted our spirits and wrote powerful but sad songs that described our yearnings.”

At the start of the Second World War, Anacker decided to give up his Swiss citizenship. “I was born German but lost my German nationality through my father’s naturalisation in Switzerland,” he wrote to the German authorities after the war. “This was against my will. I have always been German at heart.”

The war did not blight Anacker’s passion for poetry. From 1938 to 1945, he published a spate of poetry volumes, such as Ein Volk - ein Reich - ein Führer (One People, One Realm, One Leader, 1938), Wir wachsen in das Reich hinein (We Grow into the Realm, 1938) and Marsch durch den Osten (March Through the East, 1943). All of these works were printed by the Nazi Party's central publishing house whose biggest success was the publication of Hitler’s Mein Kampf.

 

Anacker, in German military attire, pictured in occupied Norway in September 1944. Arquivo pessoal de Charles Linsmayer

A poet in uniform

In 1941, Anacker was conscripted into the Wehrmacht, Nazi Germany’s unified forces. But despite the lack of soldiers due to difficulties on the various fronts, the armed forces allowed Anacker to continue his paid duty as the party’s poet. In his corporal uniform, he recited his poetry before the troops, visiting them in France, Russia and occupied Norway in 1944. He then wrote about these experiences. When it became clear that the war would soon be lost, Anacker was transferred to a military hospital, where he looked after the wounded.

On April 23, 1945, the American army arrested Anacker in Bavaria and imprisoned him there until the end of that year. When he was released, he could not return to his house in Berlin as it was occupied by the Russians. He moved in with relatives in Salach, a village in southern Germany.

Denazification did not affect Anacker. In 1948 the district court in the German town of Göppingen sentenced him to six months in prison for his role as a collaborator. However, one year later, the higher regional court of the state of Baden-Württemberg cut his sentence and classified him as a passive follower or, to use the German term, a Mitläufer.

During the hearings, Anacker testified that he had had no clue about the horrors committed by the Nazis.

In 1955, Heinrich and Emmy Anacker moved to Wasserburg on the shores of Lake Constance where they had a view of Switzerland. Since he had given up Swiss citizenship, Anacker no longer had any connections with his old homeland, and not even with the Nazi movement in Switzerland.

Persona non grata

This disconnection was not voluntary. Official documents show that Anacker applied for several entry visas, stating that he had to visit his sick parents or parents-in-law or to deal with inheritance matters. Most of his applications were rejected.

In 1951, Anacker printed a few copies of his final book, Goldener Herbst (Golden Autumn). He did not publish it to make money as he had become financially independent thanks to an inheritance from his parents. He could even afford a secretary, who typed and archived his work. He continued to write until his death. Thousands of poems were carefully kept in wooden boxes that are now stored in the German Literature Archive in Marbach, following a long legal battle with a right-wing extremist association. Most of his works were never read or published.

Translated from German by Billi Bierling/gw

Pensions vote: ‘the reform comes at the expense of women’
 

Vania Alleva, president of the Unia trade union.

 Anthony Anex

Vania Alleva, the boss of Switzerland’s largest trade union, says wage discrimination should be eliminated before women are made to work longer. She wants voters to say ‘no’ to a reform of the old-age pension system on September 25.

This content was published on September 8, 2022 - 

Katy Romy

After two previous reform efforts failed at the ballot box in 2004 and 2017, the Swiss are set to vote again on a proposal to revamp the pension system to ensure its financial viability.

Women’s retirement age to be voted on again
Jul 29, 2022 Raising the retirement age for women remains a stumbling block.

The central plank of the reform is an increase in the retirement age for women from 64 to 65, putting them on an equal footing with men. Government, parliament, and parties from the right and centre all say this is a necessary measure. But the change provoked an outcry from the left and trade unions, who collected 150,000 signatures to force a referendum.

For Vania Alleva, the president of Switzerland’s largest trade union Unia, the reform is unacceptable.

SWI swissinfo.ch: Two attempts to reform the pension system have already failed. Can Switzerland afford to say ‘no’ again?

Vania Alleva: The pension system has no structural problems. It is solid, it has no liquidity issues. The latest results show this: last year, it made a profit of CHF2.6 billion ($2.64 billion). There is no need for this reform, which is at the expense of women.

SWI: But without reform the system will be in deficit from 2029 onwards, according to projections by the Federal Social Insurance Office. How would we continue to finance pensions?

V.A.: The authorities’ forecasts are too pessimistic. Every ten years, the government makes a mistake in its predictions, leaving it out by several billion francs. The system will certainly have to shoulder the retirement of the baby boomer generation. However, we can find other ways to solve this transitional problem, if we have to. It is a question of political will.

SWI: What solutions do the left and the unions propose to deal with this problem?

V.A.: First of all, existing wage discrimination must be eliminated. Beyond that, there are various ways of strengthening the first pillar [the state pension scheme], because in any case we need to increase pensions, which are currently too low. We have proposed a very concrete solution to achieve this: the Swiss National Bank initiative, a proposal to use the central bank’s billions of profits to boost the pension system.


Is it necessary to raise the retirement age for women, or are there other ways to secure pensions?
On September 25, Swiss citizens will decide whether to raise the retirement age for women from 64 to 65.

SWI: Most OECD countries have already increased the retirement age and eliminated the gender gap. Can Switzerland afford not to follow the international trend?

V.A.: We have to take into account the reality of the Swiss labour market, which is not rosy for older workers. People between the ages of 55 and 64 have the highest unemployment rates. And a report published at the end of 2021 by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs showed that the number of 55 to 64-year-olds forced to leave the labour market altogether – due to disability, illness or lack of opportunity – increased between 2010 and 2020.

The situation is even more difficult in female-dominated professions like care work. A survey carried out by Unia before the pandemic showed that almost half of care workers think they will not be able to work until they reach retirement age. This shows that we can’t afford to increase the age even further. It would mean more unemployment.

SWI: The women most affected by this reform (born between 1961 and 1969) will benefit from compensation measures, in particular the possibility to retire as young as 62 with a smaller reduction in their pension. Are these measures not enough?

V.A.: This reform means losing a year’s pension, which will cost women CHF26,000, even though their pensions are already a third lower than men’s. The compensation measures are completely inadequate. We should also be aware that this dismantling of the pension system is just the first step towards raising the retirement age to 67 for everyone.

SWI: Pension inequality is mainly due to the second pillar (occupational pensions), not so much the first pillar (state-backed old-age pensions). Isn’t the left fighting the wrong battle?

V.A.: Not at all! It’s essential not to weaken the first pillar, which is the fairest and most balanced of the [three-pillar] system. It should rather be strengthened, because one in three women has no second pillar coverage and has to get by on the first. Of course, we also have to find solutions to slow down the decline in second-pillar payouts. Representatives of employees, employers and the government actually reached a compromise to reform the occupational pension scheme, but it was thrown out in parliament. That’s our next battle.



Switzerland mulls raising the retirement age for women
Mar 19, 2021 Like in many industrialised countries, Switzerland is trying to align the age of retirement between men and women.

SWI: A differentiated retirement age is the remnant of a patriarchal system, with the argument of the government in the last century being that women had a “physiological disadvantage” compared to men. Why should we preserve this old-fashioned model?

V.A.: What’s old-fashioned and unconstitutional is the fact that women continue to suffer big wage discriminations. They earn on average 19% less than men. Equal pay is enshrined in law, in the constitution, but we continue to avoid the problem. If these inequalities were ended, the money this reform wants to gain at the expense of women would flow naturally into the coffers of the pension system. It would be more profitable.

SWI: Still, many women support the reform. Isn’t it misleading for the left and the unions to use this as an argument for equality?

V.A.: Maybe the right-wing women who launched the campaign for reform have high salaries and no financial worries. Lawyers or university professors will be able to take a pension cut of CHF26,000. But women with low incomes and limited means will feel the full impact. Pensions for couples will also suffer.

SWI: Backers of the reform believe that allowing women to retire earlier is not a way to eliminate wage discrimination. Wouldn't it be better to increase their income and improve childcare, for example?

V.A.: We have been fighting discrimination and inequality for decades and will continue to do so. We did not have the support of women reform activists when it came to revising the Gender Equality Act or fighting for pay rises in professions where women are predominantly employed. These professions continue to be poorly paid, even though the pandemic has highlighted how important they are. All this has implications for old-age pensions. One in nine women has to claim supplementary benefits to get by in retirement. This problem must be solved first, rather than asking them to work longer to earn less.

SWI: The left and the unions also oppose the second part of the reform, an increase in value-added tax from 7.7% to 8.1%. But the measure would bring in around CHF1.4 billion per year to strengthen the pension system. Can we really do without this windfall?

V.A.: People already face rising prices, and a steep increase in health insurance premiums is expected in September. Against this backdrop, a VAT hike would be too heavy a burden on households. We are expected to pay more while our pensions are cut. It’s not acceptable.

Below: an opposing viewpoint from Brenda Duruz McEvoy, pensions expert at the employers’ association in canton Vaud.

Pensions vote: a yes would ‘help to eliminate inequalities’
Sep 8, 2022 The revamp of the pension system would boost the financial situation of retired women, says Brenda Duruz McEvoy.

Translated from French by Catherine Hickley/dos

Switzerland tops UN Human Development Index for first time
 

Girl jumping by the river Rhine, Basel © Keystone / Georgios Kefalas

Switzerland topped the UN country ranking of human development with incomes and life expectancy rising in 2021.

This content was published on September 8, 2022 

Virginie Mangin

Switzerland has ranked first in the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Human Development Index in 2021, mainly due to a rise in life expectancy and a rebound of its income per capita, following the end of all Covid-19 restrictions in the country.

This is a first for Switzerland, which ranked third in 2020.

Life expectancy reached 84 years in 2021, up from 83.1 years in 2020. The country’s income per capita hit $93,457 (CHF91,246) in 2021, a sharp rise from 2020, when it was $86,850. This follows global trends, with the pandemic knocking more than a year and a half off global life expectancy and plunging the global economy into recession.

“In 2021, Switzerland has a nice rebound in the life expectancy indicator. This was not the case for all countries, some of which saw their life expectancy continue to fall in 2021,” said Yanchun Zhang, chief statistician for the UNDP, in an interview with SWI swissinfo.ch.

The Human Development Index (HDI), published annually by the UNDP, measures a nation’s health, education, and standard of living. The index overall has fallen for the last two years – the first time since the index was launched 32 years ago – due to the pandemic, stalling global economic growth and the effects of climate change.

“This drop is almost universal but also deepening. If you track the historical HDI, every year some countries see a decline but no more than 10%, so less than 20 countries, but this year decline is a global shock. More than 40% of these countries have two consecutive years of decline, ” the report published on Thursday said.

Data from 191 countries show 90% failed to achieve a better, healthier, more secure life for their population over the past two years, setting the index back five years.

“Human development has fallen back to its 2016 levels, reversing much of the progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals. Without a sharp change of course, we may be heading towards even more deprivations and injustice,” the report warned.

South America, Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia have been hit particularly hard by the pandemic, with countries such as the Philippines still imposing partial lockdowns on much of the country. These regions have also suffered record drought and floods in 2021, the hottest year on record. Pakistan is currently struggling with heavy monsoon rains that have inundated swathes of the country. Floods have so far affected some 33 million people and caused at least 1,343 deaths over the past weeks.

“The world is scrambling to respond to back-to-back crises. We have seen with the cost of living and energy crises that, while it is tempting to focus on quick fixes like subsidising fossil fuels, immediate relief tactics are delaying the long-term systemic changes we must make,” said Achim Steiner, UNDP Administrator.
Swiss exception

Switzerland was part of a cluster of countries that includes Norway and Iceland, which rebounded in 2021.

Nonetheless, a breakdown of Switzerland’s scores on the index points to certain disparities in the country, notably in gender development.

“Concerning the gender development index, which tracks human development of women compared to men, Switzerland has room to improve. Switzerland is in Group 2, the second-best performance group, which means female human development needs to catch up with male development to achieve gender parity,” said Zhang from the UNDP.

Between 1990 and 2021, Switzerland's HDI value rose by 13%.