Deborah Cassrels

Author of Gods and Demons. Freelance journalist Indonesia, Australia. The Australian, London Times, Guardian, Fin Review, SBS, Market Herald. Walkley finalist.

[Deborah Cassrels @cassrelsd]

@NachumZvi Mark Knopfler

[Hugh Riminton @hughriminton]

“The mother of all piss takes” - Phil Coorey takes aim in the travel rorts saga in the ⁦@FinancialReview⁩ https://t.co/lMDXkXTzSu

[Drew Pavlou 🇦🇺🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 @DrewPavlou]

Sydney based jihadist Assala Sayara declares that suicide bombings are a justified form of “resistance” against colonisation: “Every form of armed resistance has a right to exist.”

She has called Australia a colonial power so she’s implicitly calling for suicide bombings against us.

[Ncole ✡︎ @ncole_r]

I learned about this thanks to @imshin.

A new restaurant has just opened in Khan Yunis, Gaza.

Not only did they manage to build, stock, and open a new business during the so-called “genocide” and “starvation”.

But they also dared to name it “NOVA,” mocking the suffering and massacre of October 7 at the Nova music festival.

When the lies fall apart, so do the masks.

[cinesthetic. @TheCinesthetic]

Robert Redford photographed by Annie Leibovitz

[Deborah Cassrels @cassrelsd]

One family’s agonizing journey to get their hostage daughter, mother, wife freed from Gaza depicts the nuances of the polarizing war and torment suffered. My story for The Jewish Independent, Australia: #hostages#Gaza#Israel https://t.co/eyB9FGIqw4

[Henshi @HenshiG]

💙🇮🇱💙🇮🇱💙🇮🇱💙🇮🇱💙
Good News from Israel

Tel Aviv University is developing a nasal vaccine that could protect against Alzheimer’s and stroke.

The Technion Institute of Technology in Haifa has created a simple blood test capable of detecting various types of cancer.

The Ichlov Center in Tel Aviv has isolated a protein that could eliminate the need for colonoscopies by enabling detection of colon cancer through a straightforward blood test. Colon cancer claims around 500,000 lives each year.

While acne doesn’t cause life-threatening conditions, it can lead to anxiety and low self-esteem in teenagers. Curlight Laboratory has developed a treatment using high-intensity UV rays that kills acne-causing bacteria without side effects.

Given Imaging Laboratory has invented a tiny, swallowable camera that captures thousands of images of the digestive tract. These high-quality photos help detect polyps, cancers, and bleeding sources, all transmitted to a computer for analysis. The device is retrieved after the procedure.

Hebrew University in Jerusalem has developed an implantable neurostimulator, similar to a pacemaker, that helps Parkinson’s patients by blocking tremor-inducing nerve signals.

The Russel Berrie Nanotechnology Institute has created breath sensors capable of detecting 42 biological markers associated with lung cancer, enabling diagnosis without invasive biopsies.

Many cases of arterial disease can now be assessed without catheterization. The Endopat device, placed between the fingers, measures arterial health and predicts the risk of a heart attack over the next seven years.

Bar Ilan University is researching a new antiviral drug called Vecoy Trap, which tricks viruses into self-destructing. This promising approach could combat hepatitis, AIDS, Ebola, and other viral diseases.

Israeli scientists at Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem may have discovered the first cure for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s disease), initially found in an Orthodox rabbi. This breakthrough could pave the way for new treatments. Notably, Stephen Hawking, who suffered from ALS, used methods developed by Israeli scientists to communicate.

Those pesky Jews; always busy trying to find cures for terminal diseases.

Every single person paid to march with their hatred and genocidal chants should never be allowed to use any Israeli technology.

[Julie Szego @JulieSzego]

It is beyond belief that two days after the anti-Semitic violence in Melbourne, the public was yet again forced to make way for the anti-Israel protestors in the CBD yesterday. Trams diverted from Swanston Street, all the rest. Let's remember this protest movement started on October 8, emboldened by the massacre of Jews that had taken place the day before. Yes, I know, many of those marching are good people who just want an end to the deaths of innocents. (Even if their outrage about dying innocents is very selective: because, to be fair, the media doesn't give a shit about dead kids in Yemen or Sudan either.)
But the core of the anti-Israel movement is not pro peace, it's pro war. So I'm not altogether unhappy about the "death to the IDF" chant or the "glory to the martyrs" schtick because at least their supremacist agenda is there for all to see.
And look, if they want to continue wasting their Sundays on trying to destroy the Jewish state from this comfortable distance -- you know what, fine. Freedom of speech, the great marketplace of ideas and so on. I have no objection to them marching up and down and doing their death chanting in some park in Coburg or wherever.
But why are they owed the keys to the city? To the forecourt of the State Library? Who decided to greenlight their annexation of public space? That's not freedom of speech; it's the ritual assertion of power and the awarding of special privileges to one group at the expense of the whole, of weekend shoppers, of businesses and so on. Of Jews who would rather avoid the incantation that Palestine will be Arab "from the river to the sea."
Listen to the way the protest organisers speak; their sense of entitlement. For instance, ahead of the Never Again is Now protest against anti-Semitism on the steps of Parliament last May one of the protest leaders -- Hash Tayeh-- announced on social media: "The Zionists have decided to have a pro genocide rally at our usual ending point of Parliament steps.. We will be at Parliament, holding our ground”. Sorry, it's THEIR ground?? Who gave it to them?
The State Government has indicated, among other redundant and far-too-late measures, that it will require organisations to sign a "social cohesion pledge" before receiving taxpayer funding. Meaning it hasn't been fussed about such a thing until now. Meaning until now it has happily handed out taxpayer funds to Islamists and anti-Semites.
The weekly protests in Melbourne's CBD must end. All the thugs who descended on Miznon must be charged. We need to know when, if at all, we might see arrests for the Adass firembombing.
You know what I also think? It's time to dismantle the fortresses around synagogues and Jewish schools and Jewish communal buildings. Time to dissolve the Jewish community's security group. Time to hand back security funding to the government. But this will put the Jewish community at grave risk, you say. Wake up: it's at grave risk now and assuming too great a burden for its own safety. It is time that risk becomes 100 percent the authorities' problem. Which other minority must pray and learn within fortified compounds?
As things currently stand the Jewish community has little reason for confidence in the State Government or in Victoria Police. (I'm being generous in that phrasing). As for the ideologically-biased Home Affairs Ministers deciding to show his face 20 months later.. well, that's enough for today.

Comment
Share

[Melissa Chen @MsMelChen]

Now that we’re out, I can speak freely about some of the things I’ve learned having accidentally found myself in a war zone, hunkering down with Israelis and other tourists in Tel Aviv shelters:

- I appear to have underestimated the power of trauma bonding

- Israelis’ insistence of living as normal of a life as possible under the most abnormal conditions is truly something to be in awe of

- there’s this thing you can do where you enter a liminal space of half-sleep so you straddle the awake world and the sleep world so you never miss a siren

- your high cortisol + adrenaline levels become a new baseline and your awareness of it fades away

- every barrage is a game of Russian roulette. Knowing your life is at the mercy of both technology and fate permanently changes the chemistry of your brain cells

- there is something truly clarifying about being in a shelter while hypersonic missiles dance overhead. You look at the person you’re in the shelter with - is this the one I want to share the terror of imminent extinction with? Have I lived well? Did I treat my family and friends right? Have I forgiven?

- while I was afraid on several occasions, I still consider it the privilege of a lifetime to witness history in the making

- the frisson of real danger cannot be replicated in our safe, prosperous societies back home. It is invigorating and forces one to jettison all utopian and luxury beliefs

- it’s inspiring to see young people exhibit qualities that in the West hasn’t been seen since WWII - resilience, duty and sacrifice

- the delta between what was going on in the kinetic war and the information war was observable; too many lies were spread in the fog of war which were far too easily believed (some big account confidently asserted that 1/3 of Tel Aviv was destroyed, which I could see with my own eyes was clearly not the case)

- there is a lot more diversity of opinion inside Israel than is apparent from the outside

- the shared, bedrock consensus that has been hammered into the consciousness of Jews because of their deep history and sense of self is a great strength the West sorely needs to emulate

[Hamas Atrocities @HamasAtrocities]

A phenomenal Bill Maher educating Chappell Roan (and gen z in general) about the Middle East

[S Sebag Montefiore @simonmontefiore]

The distortion, mockery, commandeering and exploitation of Jewish history against Jewish people now is a classic trope of anti-Jewish racism and this image of Anne Frank, a young Dutch girl who was murdered by the Nazis for being being, draped in a keffiyeh in Norway, is repellent

[Miranda Devine @mirandadevine]

This is the enduring memory of his presidency: his retreating back shuffling silently off stage

[MichaelRapaport @MichaelRapaport]

Like any strong apartheid state
Israel has all & every street sign in
3 Languages.

Except the last one of the pics, but that translates internationally

[Charles Gasparino @CGasparino]

Great point here but I keep getting back to those people around @JoeBiden who have been hiding what should have been a disclosable fact to the American public. CEOs who are incapacitated must disclose their condition because the CEO is material to the company's operations. How about presidents particularly when it's not a theoretical possibility that the prez is ill? To me IF there is a coverup of Biden's failing mental health this is a bigger scandal than any of the garbage they are throwing at @realDonaldTrump. The American people need to know NOW who they are voting for to occupy the Oval Office: @JoeBiden or @KamalaHarris. Anything less should be a crime if it isnt one already

[Miranda Devine @mirandadevine]

How come Carl didn’t report this before the debate?

[Dylan Byers @DylanByers]

👀 The New Yorker’s David Remnick joins the call for Biden to step aside…..

The Reckoning of Joe Biden | The New Yorker https://t.co/FAz8kyaKBd

[Deborah Cassrels @cassrelsd]

@wmfurney @JewishQuarterly @Pamela_Robson @antisemitism Thank you!

[Deborah Cassrels @cassrelsd]

The Left’s disturbing denial and justification for the Israel massacre and rampant anti-Semitism. My take on Blindness, October 7 and the Left

[Deborah Cassrels @cassrelsd]

@mariorustan @JewishQuarterly @Pamela_Robson @antisemitism Thanks so much, very kind.

[Martha Halford PR @MarthaHalfordPR]

#antisemitism