IfNotNow Proves Its Anti-Israel Bona Fides


Yoni MichanieWith permission from Yoni Michanie, a campus adviser and strategic planner for the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA). He is a former IDF sergeant, and a speaker, writer, and pro-Israel activist. He holds an MA in Diplomacy from IDC Herzliya. Follow Yoni on twitter: @jmich019

                                 
  IfNotNow Proves Its Anti-Israel Bona Fides

 by Jonathan Michanie

OPINION

Members of IfNotNow stage a protest outside Birthright Israel’s offices in New York City. Photo: IfNotNow/Twitter.
Amid the recent eviction of a Palestinian family from the neighborhood of Silwan, East Jerusalem, the radical left-wing organization IfNotNow pleaded with their community through Twitter to “…stand against the Judaization of East Jerusalem.” 
Ignoring the particular history and presence of the Jewish people in that region, IfNotNow subconsciously invoked a term used by some of the vilest antisemitic figures and texts in modern history. 
For example, one may easily find the following quotes while skimming through Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf:
The Judaization of our spiritual life and mammonization of our mating  impulse sooner or later befouls our entire new generation, for instead of vigorous children of natural feeling, only the miserable specimens of financial expedience come forth.A few pages later:How far in this the inner Judaization of our people has progressed can be seen from the low respect, not to disdain, which is awarded the craftsman’s work in itself.That’s right. The same organization that has invited a type of comparison between the Holocaust and the current crisis at the US-Mexico border, is using the rhetoric of Adolf Hitler.
One may also find such language in Henry Ford’s infamous antisemitic tract, The International Jew — The World’s Foremost Problem. But in the grand scheme of things, the term represents a larger aspect of the rejectionist policies of the Palestinian leadership. This policy has deprived the Palestinian people of establishing a sovereign state next to a neighboring Jewish state. 
Mahmoud Abbas, the autocratic leader of the Palestinian Authority and a prominent Holocaust denier, has based his policy of antisemitic indoctrination on phrases such as, “Israel is Judaizing the Temple Mount.” 
Other Palestinian senior officials have offered us gems like: “the occupation’s attempts to take control of it and carry out its Judaization plots in the holy city.” 
Why is this problematic?
Because despite whatever peace plan they are offered, the Palestinian leadership has repeatedly taken stands objecting to the presence of any Jews in a future sovereign Palestinian state. This is antisemitic, racist, and wrong. 
While Jewish settlement in the West Bank may be controversial, the two fundamental questions remain: Why is it controversial in the first place? And why does the international community continue to hold Israel to a double-standard? 
While 21 percent of Israel’s population is composed of Arab citizens, a 14 percent Jewish presence in the West Bank apparently constitutes a “Judaization” that must be resisted through violence and terror. 
A political solution to the Mideast conflict is impossible if the international community continues to endorse the Palestinian demand that a future sovereign Palestinian state be ethnically cleansed of Jews. That is not peace. That is appeasement of institutionalized antisemitism, terrorism, and religious intolerance. Has the Western world forgotten the implications of the term “appeasement”? 
More importantly, has the modern world forgotten about the consequences of religious intolerance against Jews in the Middle East?
Any peace between the parties must recall the historical injustices against the 850,000 Jewish refugees expelled from Arab countries after Israel’s founding. And all allusions to “Judaization” must be condemned. 
Words matter. Perpetuating terminology that creates a platform for antisemitism and anti-Jewish violence is wrong and unacceptable. And any truly pro-Israel or pro-Jewish organization would never use that term. 
Here is my message to the executives of IfNotNow: Either learn the beauty and tragedy of our people’s history, or steer clear of it. Do not use false pretenses in order to exploit your Judaism to gain political points. Your rhetoric is not just inconsistent, inaccurate, discriminatory, and offensive; it is also dangerous to whatever future Israelis and Palestinians may have.
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Naomi Litvin interview on Radio Biafra Middle East from Tel Aviv

Naomi Litvin on Radio Biafra from Tel Aviv, Israel
26November2018

I was interviewed in Tel Aviv by Iyke Obed Onuorah on Radio Biafra Middle East in the Tel Aviv, Israel studio of Radio Biafra which I am proud to share below.
We discuss Biafra, Children of Holocaust survivors, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, and David from Biafra.

Naomi Litvin


Iyke Obed Onuorah
Beneath A Stormy Cloud: Moving On Without Her
Buy the book

We Never Lost Hope: A Holocaust Memoir and Love Story
Buy the book

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We Never Lost Hope: A Holocaust Memoir and Love Story - the book trailer

We Never Lost Hope: A Holocaust Memoir and Love Story - the book trailer 




Naomi Litvin
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Interview with Al Jazeera about Biafra? No thank you.

Naomi Litvin
Tel Aviv 2019
Interview with Al Jazeera English on my relationship as an Israeli citizen with Biafra? I said No. Did I consider a written interview? Yes, but then I took a look on the reporter's twitter timeline. She is not someone that I could count on to be neutral when it comes to any relationship between Israel and any topic. Dangerous times call for extreme vigilance. She tried to lure me ..."This would be a platform where you could talk to a huge audience." Many others, more skilled than I, have tried to talk to Al Jazeera's audience. For me, the risk of my loyalty to Israel and Biafra's IPOB (Indigenous People of Biafra) was not worth it.








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Who are the Biafra People? #30May #SitAtHome #BiafraHeroesDay


Who are the Biafra People? 
By Family Writers Press
Thanks to Emeka Gift
"And they want us to Forget? NO! As For me and My Household, we'll SIT AT HOME ON MAY 30TH. 49 years after the genocidal war against Biafrans, Nigeria still kill and marginalize Biafrans. They don't want to accept Biafrans as their fellow countrymen, yet they don't want them to have their own country. Biafrans are demanding for a referendum as to demand where they want to belong." Emeka Gift

Biafra sits at the trigger of the map of Africa. They comprises of Igbo, Ijaw, Ogoni, Urhobo, Efik etc These groups of people are related in language, culture and eats same delicacy. Biafrans are about 75 million people with lots of the population concentrating on the youths. Biafra people are religious people. About three types of religion is followed in Nigeria. And they are Christianity, Judaism and Traditional Religion. Biafrans are known for their ingenuity. But because of marginalization of Biafrans in Nigeria, through severe economic policies Biafrans have left Biafra in droves to live in Asia, Europe and America. More than 10million Biafrans are living outside Nigeria. Many are schooling abroad, while others are working. Biafrans live in countries like America, USA, Canada, Australia, Ukraine, Britain, Israel, Dubai, Sri Lanka, India, South Africa, Ghana, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Turkey, Spain, Italy and a host of other nations.
Biafrans have suffered genocide in 1966-70 during the Nigeria Biafra War. Biafra land was blockaded by Nigeria, with the aid of the British government. They discarded rules of engagement and bombed everything that moves. Here is one of the responses of people that showcased the ills done to the Biafran people.
WHY WE ARE SITTING AT HOME: EXCERPTS & QUOTES. “I want to see no Red Cross, no Caritas, no World Council of Churches, no Pope, no missionary,  no UN delegation. I want to prevent even one Ibo from having even one piece to eat before their capitulation. We shoot at everything that moves and when our troops march into the centre of Ibo territory, we shoot at everything, even things that do not move” (Benjamin Adekunle, Commander, 3rd Marine Commander Division, Nigerian Army to French Radio Reporter).
 “All is fair in war, and starvation is one of the weapons of war. I don’t see why we should feed our enemies fat in order for them to fight harder”, (Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Nigerian Minister of Finance, July 28, 1969) .
“Until now efforts to relieve the Biafran people have been thwarted by the desire of the central government to pursue total and unconditional victory and by the fear of the Ibo people that surrender means wholesale atrocities and genocide. But genocide is what is taking place right now and starvation is the grim reaper. This is not the time to stand on ceremony, or go through channels or to observe diplomatic niceties. The destruction of an entire people is immoral objective, even in the most moral of wars. It can never be condoned”, (Richard Nixon, during the presidential campaign, September 9, 1968).
“Federal troops killed, or stood while mobs killed, more than 5000 Ibos in Warri, Sapele, Agbor” (New York Times, 10th January, 1968).
“It (mass starvation) is a legitimate aspect of war (Anthony Enahoro, Nigerian Commissioner for Information at a press conference in New York, July 1968).
“Starvation is a weapon of war, and we have every intention of using it against the rebels” (Mr Alison Ayida, Head of Nigerian delegation, Niamey Peace talks, July 1968).
 “The Igbos must be considerably reduced in number”, Lagos Policeman quoted in New York Review 21 December, 1967).
“One word now describes the policy of the Nigerian military government towards secessionist Biafra: genocide. It is ugly and extreme but it is the only word which fits Nigeria’s decision to stop international Red Cross and other relief agencies from flying food to Biafra (Washington Post editorial, July 2, 1969).
“In some areas in the East, Igbos were killed by local people with at least the acquiescence of the Federal forces, 1000 Igbo civilians perished in Benin in this way” (Max Edward Reporter, reporter on the ground - New York Review, 21 December 1967).
 “After federal forces take over Benin, troops killed about 500 Igbo civilians after a house to house search with the aid of willing locals” (Washington Morning Post, 27 September, 1967).
“The greatest single massacre occurred in the Igbo town of Asaba where 700 Igbo male were lined up and shot as terrified women/children were forced to watch” (London Observer, 21 January,1968).
“Federal troops killed or stood by while mobs killed more than 5000 Ibos in Warri, Sapele, Agbor (New York Times, 10th January, 1968).
“There has been genocide on the occasion of the 1966 massacres, the region between the towns of Benin and Asaba where only widows and orphans remain, federal troops having, for unknown reasons, massacred all the men” (Paris Le Monde, 5th April, 1968).
“In Calabar, federal forces shot at least 1000 and perhaps 2000 Igbos, most of them civilians” (New York Times, 18th January,1968).
“Bestialities and indignities of all kinds were visited on the Biafrans in 1966. In Ikeja Barracks (Western Nigeria) Biafrans were forcibly fed on a mixture of human urine and faeces. In Northern Nigeria numerous housewives and nursing mothers were violated before their husbands and children. Young girls were abducted from their homes, walking places and schools and forced into intercourse with sick, demented and leprous men” (Mr Eric Spiff, German War Correspondent, eyewitness, 1967).
“650 refugee camps, contained about 700,000 haggard bundles of human flotsam waiting hopelessly for a meal, outside the camps, was the reminder of an estimated four and half to five million displaced Kwashiokor scourge, a million and half children, suffer(ed) from it during January; that put the forecast death toll at another 300,000 children. More than the pogroms of 1966, more than the war casualties, than the terror bombings, it was the experience of watching helplessly their children waste away and die that gave birth to, a deep and unrelenting loathing. It is a feeling that will one day reap bitter harvest unless” (Frederick Forsyth, British Writer at Umuahia, January 21st 1969).
“The Nazis had resurrected just here as Nigerian forces” (Washington Post, editorial, July 2, 1969). “The loss of life from starvation continues at more than 10,000 persons per day over 1,000,000 lives in recent months. Without emergency measures now, the number will climb to 25,000 per day, within a month and 2,000,000 deaths by the end of the year. The new year will only bring greater disaster to people caught in the passion of fratricidal war, we can’t allow this to continue or those responsible to go free” (Senator Kennedy appeals to Americans, Sunday November 17, 1968).
“Myself and the same UNICEF representatives went on to convey something of what lay behind this intransigence: Among the large majority hailing from that tribe who are the most vocal in inciting the complete extermination of the Igbos. I often heard remarks that all Nigeria’s ills will be cured once the Igbos have been exterminated from the human map.” (Dr Conor Cruise O’Bien, 21 December, 1967, New York Review).


 



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Israel's Story


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Stop Monetizing the Holocaust

Scan of original postcard from Paris 1946 from Litvin Archives
I blasted someone on twitter today for retweeting a colorized photo of a Nazi Death Camp victim. I said, Stop Monetizing the Holocaust. And he quickly deleted the comment on the retweeted tweet that is below and made a new one with better wording.  
You may say that since I have a book on the Holocaust, I am guilty of monetizing the Holocaust. I don't think so. There is a difference between writing a Holocaust memoir and creating an entire industry that earns millions of dollars on the macabre and morbid Holocaust tourism and promotion by museums etc.
I know you will say, We can't let people forget!  But all I hear is my mother's voice saying over and over, "The world will never let us forget." She knew that even while she was still a prisoner at Auschwitz in Poland and then a slave laborer at the Krupps Factory in Germany which was a part of the Nazi industrialism that made huge fortunes off of slaves.
It was her prediction that the world would sensationalize the agonies for entertainment. And she kept talking about it for the rest of her long life. She made it to 87 years. She is gone now but her voice is still in my head telling the world to lay off.


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Delhi, a city full of ruins, but more importantly a foodie heaven by Shishir Thadani

If you have lived in Delhi or have read the Lonely Planet Guide - you probably know that Delhi is a city full of ruins.
My view of ruins is that they may be great for kids to play Hide n Seek in - but they shouldn't be advertised as tourist attractions. Investigate them for their historical relevance by all means but I'd question your artistic sensibility if you saw them as a great civilizational legacy.
The context for this comment?
Image may contain: plant, flower, outdoor and nature
Defence Colony in New Delhi
I just flew back on an Air India flight to SFO. Over 16 hrs on a plane - so I saw three movies - including a pretty engrossing Korean detective film - and a Hindi film about a 102 year old man and his relationship with his 70 something son. Not as gripping as the Korean film - but I'd give it points for being thoughtful and original.
However, what was really annoying were these ads selling Delhi as a tourist destination. I could have just puked (OK - I exaggerate!)
But apart from all those (ugly) ruins, does Delhi have anything to sell? Of course - but first, throw away that silly Lonely Planet thing that too many Western tourists swear by.
For a start, if you have a taste for rich, flavorful and savory dishes, or sumptuous desserts, it can simply be foodie heaven. Not just for local standards like Chhole Bhature, Zeera Aaloo, Rajma (or Kadhi) Chawal - or the many variety of Kababs, Mutton curries, or Chicken dishes - but also for a delectable sampling of cuisines from all across India and its neighborhood.
For instance, few know that Delhi has an outstanding Bihari restaurant. A little research and you'll discover that you can also get very good Bengali fare, or Manipuri, or Marathi, or Marwari. If you are a little more adventurous, you might also discover Naga cuisine. There are also place to try dishes from Assam or Odisha. Feel like a Neer Dosa (Mangalorean) or a Ragi Dosa (from Uttara Kannada) apart from the ubiquitous Udupi-style ones - you got it. Whether it is delicious Malabar, or uniquely tongue-burning Chettinadu or Andhra fare, - it is all there. And almost every Chaat shop has Dhokla (or even Khandvi) these days.
Venture out a little further - and there are some fine places for Tibetan or Bhutanese food. And there is no dearth of good Thai restaurants. Even Burmese. And several pan-Asian eateries will serve an excellent Khao Shwey, or Malaysian Laksa.
Furthermore, Delhi's restaurant interiors have gone up several notches. Whether you are at a popular university area cafe or at a more upscale Indian gourmet restaurant - there is plenty of ethnic chic to go around. Even seating at any of Delhi's Cafe Coffee Day outlets is likely to be more comfortable than at Starbucks.
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Defence Colony, in New Delhi
So if you are in Delhi - indulge your stomach - chill at a charming little cafe, browse around at trendy and luxurious boutiques, and in March - work off those extra calories at one of Delhi's many parks. On a clear and breezy spring day, you will see exuberant bursts of color in beautifully landscaped roundabouts and neighborhood gardens throughout South and Central Delhi.
Do it right and you'll go away never wanting to see another decrepit ruin in your life!!!
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Opinion: We are missing an opportunity to ameliorate a burning issue. Let's have a sit-down with #IlanOmar

Naomi Litvin
We are missing an opportunity to ameliorate the burning issue of U.S. Representative Ilan Omar's anti-semitic behavior. The outcry on social and mainstream media are doing nothing to help and fueling the firestorm. I agree that Omar should not be on the Foreign Relations Committee. There needs to be a new committee, one for Race and Religious Prejudice. We can put her on it. Let's have a sit-down with Ilan Omar, close the door and actually have civil discourse. Is that possible? It is time to bring the Peace Process to America. These highly emotional diversions against Israel, coupled with Omar's purported association with radical Muslim groups do nothing to help. The current firestorm of violence and hatred aimed at Jews worldwide, yellow journalism, and BDS continue to fuel the fire. The rhetoric of two new House of Representative members, who are the first Muslim members elected to Congress, bring an even more divided America. Let us work on our relationships within the United States of America for a while, and let Israel continue to handle its own business.
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As the world turns: Nigeria postpones presidential election hours before election, following Nnamdi Kanu's Biafra Election Boycott cancellation



Yesterday the Leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Mr. Nnamdi Kanu canceled the Biafra boycott of Nigeria's presidential election. As if yesterday's news wasn't mind-blowing enough, now Nigeria has jumped on the bandwagon and delayed their presidential election. The Indigenous People of Biafra #IPOB can only think one thing: this cancelation coming on the heels of Biafra's eleventh hour cancelation of the Biafra Election Boycott was cause and effect of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu's announcement that his demands were made in exchange for canceling the boycott. We have not seen what those demands contained, as there has not been time for disclosure.

Mr Kanu was scheduled on February 14 to show a video presentation on the look alike imposters that have been posing as Muhammadu Buhari. The unusual delay in the presentation was blamed on technical difficulties. Later that evening after the Leader concluded his compelling argument, which included evidence that as many as four people may be being used as body doubles for Buhari; his announcement to cancel IPOB Election Boycott came shortly before midnight.

The next morning I, along with the whole world, woke up to the shocking and incredible announcement that Nigeria had agreed to sign a document promising to uphold Nnamdi Kanu's demands. Now, with the high drama and delay in Nigeria's election, what happens next is anyone's guess. Stay tuned for developments...
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