by: Ken Jacobson October 28, 2020 Note: This blog originally appeared in The Times of Israel on Oct. 28, 2020. Twenty-five years have passed since the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, the winner of the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize for his attempts to achieve a lasting peace with the Palestinian Authority. Inevitably, a sad milestone like this causes us to look back at that day, to assess its significance from the perspective of a quarter of a century later, and to…

October 27, 2020 Two years ago, white supremacist Robert Bowers killed 11 people at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh after posting antisemitic, anti-immigrant rants on Gab. Today, supported by a founder who encourages hate speech, the social media site appears to be gaining traction among right-wing extremists, including white supremacists: Sixty percent of the 47 right-wing extremist groups currently on Gab were created this year. Gab is rife with white supremacist groups. …

During election season, a lot of information gets circulated about what’s happening and what your options are. It can be hard to figure out what’s true, what isn’t, and what you can do. We’re here to help. This post is for you whether you’re eligible to vote or not – civic engagement is for everyone, because government affects us all. This is in Question & Answer form, so you can go straight to the issues that are most relevant to you. Who is eligible to…

October 16, 2020 THE WEEK’S BIG 3 After years of urging from ADL and other civil rights organizations, Facebook will ban posts that deny the Holocaust. A video has gone viral on social media of a man shouting at a Hasidic Jewish man for not wearing a mask on an empty New York City street. YouTube on Thursday became the latest social media giant to take steps to stop QAnon, the sprawling right-wing conspiracy theory community whose online fantasies about a cabal of satanic pedophiles…

October 15, 2020 Nearly half of American adults experience online harassment and nearly one third experience severe harassment, but society still struggles with understanding the deep impact of online hate. Too often, we see “online hate” contrasted with “real world violence.” Trust us: to victims and targets of swatting, doxing, cyberstalking, and cyberharassment, the abuse they experience online is very real.  We know that digital abuse pushes targets offline…

October 11, 2020 THE WEEK’S BIG 3 Jewish members of Congress are facing antisemitic attacks on Twitter in the lead-up to the November election, according to a new report from ADL. Facebook said it is escalating the campaign against QAnon, pledging to remove any Facebook pages, groups and Instagram accounts aligned with the conspiracy group. The FBI says it thwarted what it described as a plot to violently overthrow the government and kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Read on…

October 08, 2020 Update: October 13, 2020: Militia members charged with plotting to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer also discussed kidnapping Virginia’s governor during a June meeting in Ohio, according to an FBI agent's testimony.  “They discussed possible targets, taking a sitting governor, specifically issues with the governor of Michigan and Virginia based on the lockdown orders,” the agent told a Michigan courtroom.   On October…

October 07, 2020 “Like it or not it’s about to become a ‘significant time in American history’: Patriots vs. traitors…Start preparing now: food, ammo, fuel…ballots and/or bullets. God knows my heart, and my aim is true.” Such a message would not be a surprising discovery on extremist platforms like Telegram or Gab, but we are increasingly seeing this violent and apocalyptic rhetoric on Facebook “Patriot” pages, populated largely by…

October 06, 2020 Leila Khaled, longtime active leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and who has engaged in PFLP terrorist operations, keynoted an October 3, 2020 public webinar during which she expressed explicit support for violence and deep animus toward Zionists. The webinar was convened by the far-left “anti-imperialist” group International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS).  In her session, Khaled claimed that Jews,…

October 02, 2020 Leila Khaled is a longtime active leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and is well-known for her role in the hijacking of two civilian airliners, TWA Flight 840 in 1969 (bound for Tel Aviv from Rome) and El Al flight 219 in 1970 (traveling from Amsterdam to New York City). In 1997, PFLP was designated as a terrorist organization by the United States Department of State, which cites the group as having carried out “large-scale…

October 01, 2020 A small but vocal segment of anti-Israel activists have engaged in inflammatory rhetoric in response to the recent normalization deals between Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, which were inked in a ceremony on the White House lawn September 15. Since the Israel-United Arab Emirates deal was announced August 13, critique from some has veered into conspiracy theories (that at times have incorporated antisemitic tropes) and language justifying violence and demonizing…

September 26, 2020 THE WEEK’S BIG 3 The nation continues to mourn the loss of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the first Jewish woman to serve on the Supreme Court and a pioneering advocate for women’s rights. The late Justice will be the first woman to lie in state at the U.S. Capitol on Friday. A grand jury in Jefferson County, Ky., has indicted a former Louisville police detective on three charges of wanton endangerment in the March shooting that resulted in the death of 26-year…