[Salon] Jewish Voices for Peace protest Jeffrey Yass over Kohelet Forum — WHYY

[Todd Pierce <todd.e.pierce@icloud.com>]

Title: Jewish Voices for Peace protest Jeffrey Yass over Kohelet Forum — WHYY

While U.S. "Traditional Conservatives may protest too much, me thinks,” the U.S. New Right is composed of "Traditional Conservatives,” and "National Conservatives,” as identified by their representatives in the primary campaigns of  Trump, DeSantis, and Ramaswamy; the fallaciously named “Restrainers.” The question of who is backing them, and the Republican Party, is one that is to be avoided on this list it seems, as it might reveal what they really stand for! And how they not only fit into Israeli genocide currently underway, but of how in the U.S.; they’re its main inciters!

And how the “tie that binds” all these fanatical right-wingers, can be seen in that they’re all conjoined by Kohelet Forum and Tikvah Fund, and funding in large part by Jeffrey Yass. Making it totally fallacious to deny any connection between “Traditional Conservatives,” represented by the three candidates identified by, and as, Traditional Conservatives (the s0-called “Restrainers :-), the aforesaid Trump, DeSantis, and Ramaswamy, and National Conservatism of Yoram Hazony; they’re all under the “same command,” to speak. And all with “itchy trigger fingers” for China and Iran, as well as Russia (see Heritage Project 2025). All well and good, as little mention of it was necessary prior to October 7, but now that genocide has been unleashed against Palestinians, led by the most fanatical right-wing extremists in Israel, and the U.S., for the moment, the genocide by Israel is prioritized and its "all hands on deck” for that. The aforesaid politicians, and the "political theorists” who create and sustain their “Conservative” ideology. 

As articulated in the last couple years by Hazony, Bacevich’s and Claes Ryn’s book on “Conservatism,” and not least, a reissue of Willmoore Kendall’s “The Conservative Affirmation in America,” with new foreword by NatCon Daniel McCarthy, celebrating and promoting Kendall’s "political theory” of anti-Enlightenment thought (as against “Rights!”) as he does the same elsewhere with Hazony. Putting them all in the same ideological camp as Counter-Enlightenment proponents. To include the current Post-Liberals like Adrian Vermeule and Patrick Deneen, as NatCons, with Hazony, Peter Thiel, et al., and the previous generations of Enlightenment opponents, such as Leo Strauss, Mussolini, Franco, Kendall, and Joseph Goebbels, to name a few.   

This if from 2021, before Kohelet, Tikvah, Israeli and American fascists launched their Judical Coup in Israel, following the model of the same in the US, also led by the Federalist Society. While I don’t hesitate to criticize various aspects of the “Left,” even beyond their current extreme militarism, the idea that what we need to correct our societal ills is “Third-Way Fascism,” dba “Conservatism,” is sheer insanity. 

But more on Yass, the “Fascist Godfather” (in my opinion), and Kohelet and Tikvah, will be forthcoming, given their inordinate influence in US politics now. Of the Republicans as a whole, and of “Right Democrats,” dba “Moderates.  

https://whyy.org/articles/jewish-activists-protest-bala-cynwyd-billionaires-support-of-right-wing-israeli-think-tank/

Jewish activists protest Bala Cynwyd billionaire’s support of right-wing Israeli think tank

Jewish activists picketed a company owned by two Montgomery County financiers over their support for right-wing Israeli groups.

By
• Ryan Briggs
May 21, 2021

Protesters unfurl a banner outside Susquehanna Investment Group in Bala Cynwyd while others stage a sit-in inside the building. The group asked to speak with Susquehanna’s wealthy founders about their support of the displacement of Palestinians by Israel. (Emma Lee/WHYY)

After 11 days of violence in Gaza and hours into a fragile cease-fire, local activists picketed a company owned by two Montgomery County financiers over their support for right-wing groups that promote efforts to build illegal Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.

A dozen members of the local chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace, a progressive group that advocates for an end to Israeli occupation, flyered employees’ cars and staged a sit-in at the lobby of Susquehanna International Group.

The finance firm was co-founded by billionaire Jeffery Yass and Arthur Dantchik, who together have funneled money to a conservative group that promotes religious Zionism and Jewish settlements in the West Bank, according to investigative reports from the liberal Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

Rabbi Alissa Wise, Arielle Klagsbrun, and Rachel Kipnes, (from left) are among a dozen protesters who staged a sit-in at Susquehanna Investment Group in Bala Cynwyd. The group charges Susquehanna’s wealthy founders with supporting the displacement of Palestinians by Israel. (Emma Lee/WHYY)

Rabbi Alissa Wise, one activist at the sit-in, said that recent violence triggered the protest action, but that they also intended to draw both SIG employees and the public’s attention to the duo’s broader support for policies they say helped spark the conflict.

“Here in Philadelphia, it’s like, ‘Oh, our neighbors are funding Palestinian dispossession and Israeli apartheid,’” Wise said. “It felt very important, after the cease-fire, that we not take pressure off.”

Yass is among the wealthiest individuals in Pennsylvania and, along with Dantchik, has long promoted right-wing politics domestically through a network of think tanks. But both have also been linked by Haaretz to the Kohelet Policy Forum, an influential conservative think tank in Israel that supports nationalistic politics, including the settlement of the West Bank.

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The recent violence broke out after the displacement of Palestinian residents in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, which is claimed by Israeli settlers. While Israeli courts have ruled in favor of those who say the land historically belonged to Jews, the larger resettlement efforts of occupied territory are regarded by many in the international community, and groups like Amnesty International, as illegal.

Groups such as Kohelet Policy Forum instead maintain the initial conflicts were over a “property dispute” involving Palestinian “squatters.”

“The Israeli government has not decided to evict anyone in the current disputes. It is private parties, rather than the government of Israel, that have brought their claims to court,” the group wrote in a statement. “Contrary to the claims of the critics, there is nothing in the Geneva Conventions or any other part of the laws of belligerent occupation that forbids Israel to carry out court orders enforcing private property rights of landlords to evict their overstaying tenants.”

But Wise argued that the SIG partners’ support for the group and its policies had, in turn, contributed to the incitement of unrest and violence triggered by displacement.

“Kohelet Policy Forum is behind some of the most dreadful and regressive policies of the state of Israel,” she said. “While there is a cautious cease-fire right now over the violence that’s happened over the past few weeks in Gaza, the settlement enterprise … continues. And they’re the key funders in the United States.”

Activists demanded that Yass and Dantchik cease their financial support for the group, and asked SIG staff for an audience with the men.

Police gather as protesters stage a sit-in at Susquehanna Investment Group in Bala Cynwyd. The group asked to speak with Susquehanna’s wealthy founders about their support of the displacement of Palestinians by Israel. (Emma Lee/WHYY)

After several hours, police officers, protesters and a company representative brokered an arrangement that allowed the activists to leave a voicemail for Yass in exchange for exiting the building.

A spokesperson for SIG declined to comment.

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