BRIEFS STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: ‘JEWISH IDEAS POISON PEOPLE,’ A U.S. State Department employee named Fritz Berggren has been moonlighting as a blogger devoted to attacking Jews and promoting white Christian nationalism. “Jesus Christ came to save the whole world from the Jews—the founders of the original Anti-Christ religion, they who are the seed of the Serpent, that brood of vipers,” Berggren wrote in an Oct. 4, 2020, post on his website titled “Jews are Not God’s Chosen People. Judeo-Christian is Anti-Christ.” Later in the post he writes, “Jewish ideas poison people.” Berggren has been sharing his extremist and anti-Semitic views under his real name for years while working as a midlevel civil servant. Politico first reported the connection last month after being tipped off by current and former State Department officials. Berggren espouses the idea, common among the far-right, that white people are at risk of being eliminated through demographic change and organized persecution. He commonly rails against Black Lives Matter and other social movements identified with the left. On Friday, Feb. 26, he published a new post titled, “Welcome, Politico readers!” He concluded the post with a PS: “If you have not already surmised, my ideas are my own and not a reflection of any employer, company, agency, country, etc.” Politico reported that Berggren works for a State Department unit that handles special immigrant visas for Afghans. He has been identified as a Foreign Service worker since as early as 2009. According to biographical information shared by Berggren online, he has a doctorate from the University of Miami. His name is indeed listed on the university’s website, indicating he completed a doctoral dissertation in 2001 about Gerardo Machado, an early 20th-century Cuban dictator. (JTA) SUSPECTED OIL SPILL MAY BE WORST IN ISRAEL’S HISTORY Israel closed its Mediterranean beaches to deal with what its officials say may be the worst oil spill in the country’s history. The Israel Nature and Parks Authority
called the suspected spill one of the “greatest ecological disasters to afflict Israel since the founding of the state.” It said that 170 out of 190 kilometers of coastline, or 105 out of 118 miles, have been affected by the spill. The consequences will be felt for years, its statement said. Thousands of volunteers are cleaning tar off the beaches and animals, including birds and turtles, which have been found covered with tar. The Israeli army said it would also send soldiers to help with the cleanup. It’s not clear what ship is responsible for the spill, which is believed to have occurred around Feb. 11, some 20 miles from shore. “We are making every effort to find those responsible for the disaster,” Gila Gamliel, Israel’s environment minister, said on Twitter. (JTA)
AMAZON ALTERS APP LOGO THAT DREW COMPARISONS TO HITLER’S MUSTACHE Amazon has drawn some Fuehrer fury— over a logo featuring a cardboard box and a piece of tape. The ecommerce giant released a new logo for its smartphone app on Monday, March 1 after some users compared the former logo to Hitler’s mustache. The former logo featured a piece of tape with ragged edges above the company’s trademark curved arrow to mimic a taped-up cardboard box. But users said the juxtaposition brought images of Hitler to mind, with the tape as his mustache and the arrow as his mouth. The new logo ditches the ragged tape edges. An Amazon spokesperson only commented to outlets on the new design. “Amazon is always exploring new ways to delight our customers,” the spokesperson said. “We designed the new icon to spark anticipation, excitement, and joy when customers start their shopping journey on their phone, just as they do when they see our boxes on their door step.” (JTA) UAE’S FIRST AMBASSADOR TO ISRAEL TAKES HIS POST Tweeting in English, Arabic, and Hebrew, the United Arab Emirates’ first ambassador
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to Israel celebrated his first day on the job. Mohamed Al Khaja posted photos with captions in the three languages on his social media feeds on Monday, March 1. “I look forward to representing my beloved country and working to strengthen cooperation and relations between our two countries,” Al Khaja said in a typical entry, which was accompanied by a photo of him presenting his credentials to Reuven Rivlin, the Israeli president. He also posted photos of meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and with senior Israeli foreign affairs officials. Al Khaja is the first ambassador from the four Sunni Arab countries that reached normalization agreements last year with Israel brokered by former President Donald Trump. Another of the countries is Bahrain, which in the late 2000s was the first Arab country to name a Jewish ambassador, Houda Nonoo, to Washington. Nonoo congratulated Al Khaja on Twitter. (JTA)
ORTHODOX AMAZON SELLERS SAY THEY’RE SQUEEZED BY NEW REQUIREMENT A change in requirements for participating in a select Amazon delivery program is posing potentially insurmountable challenges for Orthodox sellers. As of Feb. 1, Amazon businesses that deliver from non-Amazon warehouses through Amazon Prime, a subscription service that includes free two-day delivery, must agree to fulfill orders six days a week. The sellers may choose Saturday or Sunday delivery to fulfill their six-day-aweek commitment, but shipping carriers like FedEx and UPS offer limited or no pickup on Sundays. Observant Jews do not do business on the Jewish sabbath, from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. Orthodox sellers make up a disproportionate share of third-party sellers, according to a 2019 Buzzfeed report that explored the connections between Amazon’s marketplace and Orthodox communities. The Free Beacon, a politically conservative website, reported that the new policy is driving out businesses run by observant Jews, citing group chats it had reviewed.
Amazon told the Free Beacon that Prime sellers had more than five months’ advance notice of the policy to come up with accommodations and that it had dedicated staff to assist the businesses. The Free Beacon said it had heard from Orthodox businesses that Amazon was unresponsive. StandWithUs, a pro-Israel non-profit, has proposed to Amazon that it allow sellers to turn off their Amazon Prime badge during Shabbat, meaning that shoppers would not be promised quick shipping during that time. (JTA)
REPS. GRACE MENG AND TED LIEU JOIN ANTI-SEMITISM TASK FORCE LEADERSHIP, REPLACING TWO JEWISH MEMBERS Two Taiwanese-American members of Congress have joined the leadership of its anti-Semitism task force. Reps. Grace Meng of New York and Ted Lieu of California, both Democrats, were listed among eight-co-chairs of the Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Antisemitism in a release Monday, March 1, the first for the new Congress. The task force has over 100 members from the U.S. House of Representatives. The newcomers replace two Jewish members, also Democrats, in leadership positions: Nita Lowey of New York, who retired, and Eliot Engel of New York, who lost in a primary election last year. That leaves just one Jewish co-chair, Ted Deutch, a Florida Democrat. Meng and Lieu represent districts with substantial Jewish populations. Meng’s covers part of the New York City borough of Queens and Lieu’s covers much of west Los Angeles County. Each succeeded a Democratic Jewish lawmaker: Lieu followed Henry Waxman, who retired in 2014, and Meng replaced Gary Ackerman, who retired in 2012. Lieu was born in Taiwan, while Meng’s parents emigrated from there. Both are known for their closeness to the pro-Israel community. The release said the task force, established in 2015, would encourage the government to “play a role in protecting [the Jewish] community and addressing the rise in ant-Semitic incidents domestically and globally.” (JTA)
