Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, October 04, 2019

10/04 Links Pt1: The EU Demonstrates a Distinct Political Bias Against Israel; Meet the Palestinian Villagers Living Out the American Dream; Arab citizens of Israel undergo quiet revolution

From Ian:

Seth Frantzman: Israel appears strong, but there are risks ahead

BUT ISRAEL has some issues on the horizon that, if they would come together at the wrong time, would be a perfect storm. Among these is the increasing hostility of Turkey. Ankara has become more nationalist and religious-nationalist, a toxic mix. It is flexing its muscles, taking over swaths of northern Syria and seeking to keep on track to totally remove the Americans from the region. That would be a setback for the US – and setbacks for the US also impact Israel. Turkey is buying the S-400, not in itself a problem for Israel. Ostensibly, both Ankara and Jerusalem have an interesting relationship with Moscow today, borne of Russia’s increased role in the region, particularly in Syria.

Russia’s role in Turkey is strategic and also related to energy and Syria. This can impact Israel in a complex way. Turkey’s current government is seeking to take up the mantle of being the main opposition to Israel in the region. It bashes Israel over Jerusalem, and its media run hyperbolic stories about Israeli abuses. Turkey is close to the Muslim Brotherhood today and wants to see Hamas have a more prominent role in Ramallah. Yet Israel can deal with Turkey’s anger. The question is whether it can deal with the emerging Turkey-Iran relationship.

Iran has been a challenge for Israel due to a variety of reasons, but lately it is capitalizing on the weakness of its adversaries. That means it is increasingly playing a role in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen. That means it is transferring precision missile technology to Hezbollah.

Iran’s IRGC says that it can destroy Israel. It launched an attack on Saudi Arabia on September 14 that has ramifications for Israel. That Riyadh did not respond shows that Israel’s supposed common interests with the Gulf are more problematic than in reality. Saudi Arabia won’t confront Iran. So who will confront Iran? The US? No. The US has signaled it will not. And the next US administration may be more pro-Iran than this one. That could give Tehran what it wants in Syria, which means a kind of “land bridge” that ends near the Golan and threatens Israel.

What Israel faces today is potentially two strong adversaries in Turkey and Iran, although they are quite different in how they confront Israel. Turkey uses soft power; Iran uses hard power. But Israel, appearing strong, now faces these challenges in some ways alone. It is not like the 1950s, when Israel was truly alone. Israel has made major inroads in India, China and elsewhere. But the immediate challenges are still there. It is dangerous to be too confident and arrogant today, and it is essential that Jerusalem seek to analyze and deal with these challenges in the long-term because short term planning won’t work. Iran thinks in the long term – and its role in the region is a long-term role.

Jpost Editorial: No Third Election

Against that backdrop, the 22nd Knesset was sworn in on Thursday in Jerusalem. Many are wondering if, like the 21st Knesset, it will also last for less than two months and perhaps become the shortest-lived legislature in Israel’s history.

As the Post’s Lahav Harkov pointed out on Wednesday, there are only eight new members of this Knesset, as well as another nine who are returning from past stints as legislators, which means that 103 members of the 22nd Knesset will be sworn in for the second time this year.

A proud institution, the Knesset is in danger of becoming a laughing stock. But it’s no joke. Israel needs a stable government and a stable Knesset. Every attempt must be made to prevent the newly sworn-in Knesset from becoming the shortest Knesset in Israeli history.

All parties should take the responsibility upon themselves as if they alone are charged with insuring that a third election is not called for. The country has survived some nine months of paralysis, but it’s only a matter of time before the string starts to unravel out of control and the situation begins to do irreparable damage to Israel and its population.

At Thursday’s ceremony, Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein led the MKs with “I pledge allegiance to the State of Israel and to faithfully fulfill my mission in the Knesset.” And the newly sworn-in lawmakers responded: “I pledge.”

Let’s hope they take that allegiance and mission seriously and prevent a third election.

Amb. Alan Baker: The EU Demonstrates a Distinct Political Bias Against Israel

European Union Special Representative for the Middle East Peace Process Susanna Terstal, writing in the Jerusalem Post on Sep. 21, evidently believes that incessant repetition of the phrase "two-state solution" adds some element of legitimacy and feasibility to the idea. But the two-state solution has never been agreed-upon between Israel and the Palestinians, and does not figure in any of the agreements between them. It is nothing more than an expression of wishful thinking within the UN and the EU.

To the contrary, the Oslo Accords, to which the EU itself is a signatory, clearly leaves the issue of the permanent status of the territories to be decided in negotiations. Thus, whether the outcome will be one, two or three states, or a federation or confederation, remains on the negotiating table. By incessantly plying a two-state solution, the EU is in fact prejudging an agreed negotiating issue.

Suggestions by Israeli leaders to "apply sovereignty" led EU representatives to complain that unilateral modification of the Oslo Accords "undermines the entire agreement" and "dismantles Oslo." One wonders why the EU did not view the recent declarations by the Palestinian leadership canceling the territorial division between areas A, B and C in a similar light. Did this not undermine the accords?

The EU representative also expressed support for a "Palestinian state based on the 1967 lines." Yet the issue of borders is an agreed-upon permanent-status negotiating issue, and her presumption of a Palestinian state based on the 1967 lines clearly contradicts and prejudges both the Oslo Accords and UN Security Council Resolution 242 of 1967.

The EU cannot in good faith claim that it does not take sides in the conflict. The EU has not only taken sides, but clearly demonstrates a distinct political bias against Israel in virtually all its positions, policies, statements and dealings regarding the Israeli-Palestinian negotiation process.

Slavery by Palestinian Arabs continued into the 1950s

I just became aware of this 1998 paper by (the late) Susan Beckerleg of the Department of Public Health and Policy,London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She describes the origins of black Arabs in Palestine, and has the most comprehensive description of modern slavery by Palestinians, mostly Bedouin.

Excerpts:

Although Africans have been in Palestine for centuries, most people know little about this migration. For centuries, under the Ottoman Empire and before, slaves were brought from Africa. Some older people today remember stories told by their parents or grandparents of how they came to be in Palestine. Therefore it is possible to discover something of the later history of slavery. Several people mentioned that they had heard that there was a big slave market in Egypt and one 'white' Bedouin told me that his grandfather had been a slave trader who travelled regularly to Egypt. Most people with any idea of where their ancestors came from mention Sudan or Ethiopia. Sometimes they know the name of the town. ...

In Gaza I spoke to people of Bedouin origin who had been living in the Nagab [Negev] prior to 1948.

These people of Bedouin origin currently resident in Gaza and the Nagab recall being told by their elders how children were kidnapped or bought in slave markets and brought, sometimes carried in the camel saddle-bags, to live with important Bedouin families. This occurred in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. The children were often the only Africans living with the family. They looked after animals, grew wheat and barley and performed household tasks. People told me that the Bedouin did not use the girls as concubines, although in the West Bank they did 'marry' female slaves. Only big wealthy families owned and traded in slaves. Black people were scattered throughout Palestine living with white families who 'owned' them. However, some families needed slaves to help in self- defence when they were weak in number. It is possible that within the twentieth century adults were also brought from Africa and sold as slaves. One elderly man reported that in his youth he had come across African men who were strong, bore tribal scars on their faces and spoke little Arabic.

One 'white' Bedouin man told me that slaves used to be branded like animals, but that there were no papers concerning ownership or origins. In the family unit, there were sometimes also other slaves who were white, or low status dependants, such as hamran. But one man told me that a white slave would never have answered to a black slave.

In the Nagab the Bedouin had a three tier social and political system. Sheikhs were drawn from the Samran, the original Bedouin. Attached to them as clients were the Hamran, families who were originally felaheen, but required protection and/or land from Samran families. The Abed, the slaves, were on the bottom tier and did not have the same rights or status as free people.

Slaves did not count in blood feuds between families. Several people told me that if a black man killed a white man, the death of that black man would not count. Payment (sulha) could be made in money or by the giving of a slave of a certain height. If a black man kills a white, the family of the deceased may kill the 'owners' of the black man. Recently, in Rahat in the Nagab, a black boy eloped with a white girl. They were discovered and the girl killed by her family. However, the boy survived and subsequently married a black girl.

Under the old system slaves could not sit in the shig at the same level as their masters. In some places this is still observed, with the role of the black people being to serve tea and coffee to the white people.

Slavery appears to have been an active institution under Ottoman rule. The British Mandate of Palestine was established in 1917. Slaves were not given release papers and there appears that the British made little formal effort to end the system of slavery in Palestine. Rather, as economic and social conditions changed, the institution faded away in some areas, but still operated other areas until the 1950s.

In some areas slavery as a way of life appears to have continued into the 1950s. One black (sumr) man who came to Palestine as a migrant worker from Egypt and was caught up in the war of 1948 recalls life for black people attached to the Al Huzail. He had been working in the orchards near Rishon with black people of the Abu Barakat. When war broke out they fled back to their home area of the Al Huzail where Rahat has now been constructed. When the Egyptian man arrived there he found black people growing wheat for Al Huzail. They were given food and, if they requested it for a special purpose, money. Slaves and masters lived separately in black tents. There was no intermarriage and no concubinage. The Egyptian man slept in the Sheikh's shig and worked as a shepherd, but received no wages. The Sheikh arranged his marriage to a white girl from Gaza. However, after 1952 under the Israelis, when the census was taken, slavery as an institution faded away.

The report also notes that there was an influx of African Muslims to Jerusalem under the British Mandate, and they now consider themselves "Palestinians:"

Most contemporary members of the African community came to Jerusalem as pilgrims and workers under the British Mandate of Palestine (1917-1948). They came mostly from Senegal, Chad, Nigeria and Sudan. They regard themselves as Palestinian and played an active role in the Intifada. Some of the Africans arrived as part of the Egyptian led 'Salvation Army' which aimed to liberate the Palestinian areas held by Jews in 1948. After the defeat of that army and its retreat to Egypt many Africans returned to their original countries, while others preferred to stay in Palestine.

I found a little corroboration that Bedouin in the Negev had slaves as late as the 1925 from this JTA article:

(h/t Robert Affinity)

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On Thursday, Vatican representatives for eastern churches Leonardo Sandri and Francesco Patton visited the Temple Mount/Al Aqsa compound.

Cardinal Sandri gave a speech reiterating the Vatican positions on Jerusalem, including this quote from Pope Francis from last March:

We believe it is important to preserve the Holy City of Jerusalem as a common heritage of humanity and above all for the faithful of the three monotheistic religions, as a meeting place and symbol of peaceful coexistence, in which mutual respect is cultivated and dialogue.
To this end, the specific multi-religious character, the spiritual dimension and the peculiar cultural identity of Jerusalem must be preserved and promoted.
We hope, therefore, that in the Holy City the full freedom of access be granted to the faithful of the three monotheistic religions and the right of each to exercise their own worship, so that in Jerusalem is raised, by their faithful, prayer to God, Creator of all, for a future of peace and fraternity on earth.

In response, Sheikh Mohammad Azzam Al-Khatib Al-Tamimi, director general of the Waqf and the Al-Aqsa mosque, responded with an anti-Israel statement that also denied any Jewish connection to Jerusalem at all:

I thank the Franciscan delegation of Jerusalem, the Vatican delegation, for this visit and for your solidarity with the authority of the Waqf in Jerusalem, which is experiencing a difficult time due to the continuing Israeli violation against the Al-Aqsa mosque.
Today's meeting has a historical significance and we can say that it follows the previous visits of the Supreme Pontiff Francis, to our properties (Waqf) and to our Al-Aqsa mosque, and it is a clear and solemn message based on Christian-Muslim coexistence and your continued support for preserving the historical status quo in Islamic and Christian shrines according to the agreements established before the occupation of Jerusalem in 1967.
The model of peaceful, Islamic and Christian coexistence in Jerusalem has lasted for 1400 years, but unfortunately we cannot forget, but condemn the wars and attacks against houses of worship, against the faithful and the innocent inhabitants of the Holy City and consider these acts an anomaly in the history of Jerusalem.

The "three monotheistic religions" of the Vatican message has been reduced by one by the Muslim representative. He is saying that the Jews have been attacking the holy sites of Jerusalem - and have no right to be there.

He then makes it worse:

We take the occasion of this meeting to emphasize our adherence to the principles of the Omar pact, which established the form of the Christian-Muslim relationship on the basis that the Al-Aqsa mosque is exclusively a place of prayer for Muslims, just like the Church of the Holy Sepulcher is of the Christians.

This pact, which is known in Arabic as the al-ʿUhda al-ʿUmariyya, has been questioned as to its authenticity, and many versions exist. The seemingly most authoritative version, recorded by al-Tabari, includes:

This is the assurance of safety [aman] which the servant of God Umar, the Commander of the Faithful, has given to the people of Jerusalem. He has given them an assurance of safety for themselves, for their property, their churches, their crosses, the sick and healthy of the city and for all the rituals which belong to their religion. Their churches will not be inhabited by Muslims and will not be destroyed. Neither they, nor the land on which they stand, nor their cross, nor their property will be damaged. They will not be forcibly converted. No Jew will live with them in Jerusalem.*

When al-Tamimi refers to Umar's promise to Christians he is further erasing Jewish history.

The Vatican officials are of course too polite to object to explicit antisemitism by the Waqf representative in a ceremony meant to celebrate commonality between the two religions. Throwing Jews under the bus is a small price to pay.

Oh, and Arab news sites are reporting Tamimi's words as if the Vatican agrees.

-----------------------------------
*Was the antisemitic section really part of Umar's Assurance? Tamimi seems to be saying it is. US-based Islamicity argues it could not have been, but then destroys Tamimi's insistence of Muslim exclusivity on the Temple Mount!

While there is a clause in the treaty regarding the banning of Jews from Jerusalem, its authenticity is debated. One of Umar’s guides in Jerusalem was a Jew named Kaab al-Ahbar. Umar further allowed Jews to worship on the Temple Mount and the Wailing Wall, while the Byzantines banned them from such activities. Thus, the authenticity of the clause regarding Jews is in question.

Other sources say that Umar never visited Jerusalem at all, but witnesses saw that Jews were allowed on the Temple Mount and even helped build the Dome of the Rock and the Al Aqsa Mosque.

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You learn such interesting things from Hamas:

The Zionist movement in its project to establish a state for Jews in #Palestine, brought diverse groups of world Jews who were different in race, language , color and culture and resided them in it.

They are strangers to the land, it does not know them and they don’t know it. but in the hope of making homogeneity between all of these groups, it created a story that did not succeed. Is there a future for this project?

For over seventy years, haters of Israel have predicted its demise.

And they'll keep confidently doing it. Because the reality that Israel is a vibrant, dynamic, Jewish state is too shameful for them to consider.

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10/03 Links Pt2: BDS is face of old antisemitism: What will we do to stop it?; Neo-Nazi protestors in Germany call for Palestinian help against Israel; Eleanor Roosevelt: Palestine, Israel and Human Rights

From Ian:

If Jews Don’t Speak Up for Themselves, No One Will Speak Up for Them

In his sermon for Rosh Hashanah, Ammiel Hirsch, the rabbi of a prominent Reform synagogue in Manhattan, urged his congregants not to lose sight of “the central Jewish principle [that] all Jews are responsible one for the other.” It is impossible, he argued, to “live a full Jewish life” without feeling that “the pain of a Belgian Jew is our pain; the fear of an Israeli child terrorized by rockets is our fear; the insecurity of Orthodox Jews attacked repeatedly on the streets of Brooklyn is our insecurity.” Yet, in the face of the anti-Semitic threats that come from so many different directions—which Hirsch went on to analyze—Jews must not lose their sense of pride, or begin to see Judaism as a burden rather than a privilege.

Progress on Antisemitism and BDS at the UN and Women’s March

In the war against BDS, the most recent development in academia was the Department of Education censure of Duke University and the University of North Carolina for the misuse of Federal Title VI funds, prompted by complaints over a BDS related event in the spring. Title VI of the Higher Education Act is intended to support foreign language instruction and US national security needs, but has become a slush fund for tendentious Middle East Studies education and programming aimed at college students and K-12.

The Education Department’s letter to the Duke-UNC Center for Middle East Studies complained that fewer than 1,000 students were taking Middle East language courses, while almost 7,000 were enrolled in Middle East Studies courses with “little or no relevance to Title VI.” The complaint also criticized the lack of focus on religious minorities in the Middle East and the near exclusive emphasis on Islam, particularly for K-12 teachers.

The schools were instructed to respond with a compliance plan. In the interim, however, predictable complaints were voiced by academics regarding the alleged “chilling effect on academic freedom” and by BDS advocates, who characterized the move as “anti-Palestinian.”

The investigation comes after a recent study demonstrated that Arab and Muslim countries had donated billions of dollars to American colleges and universities in the past decade, with over $1.5 billion from Qatar alone. The impact of these donations is difficult to measure, but the deference and obsequiousness shown by universities and academics to donors generally is well known.

Underscoring the impact of BDS and biased pedagogy on campus, another report also indicated that Israel-related antisemitism on campuses increased dramatically between 2017 and 2018. Strong increases were seen in accusations of “genocide” against Israel, along with justifications for terrorism. Most important were dramatic increases in faculty-led BDS activities including sponsored events and individual boycotts of Israel and supporters.

Finally, it was announced that the National Students for Justice in Palestine conference would be taking place at the University of Minnesota at the beginning of November. The announcement also touted the election of Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI). The conference is designed to train BDS activists, many of them already on record espousing violence, as well as expand “intersectional” alliances of those “who struggle against state violence, settler-colonialism, and imperialism — from Palestine to Turtle Island, from the Philippines to Mexico and beyond.”

Adam Milstein: BDS is face of old antisemitism: What will we do to stop it?

The majority of recent reports on the connection of the BDS movement to both terrorism and antisemitism make many different recommendations on how to stop the growing antisemitism of our era. One recommendation of particular note is that countries should accept the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, uphold its principles and outlaw the BDS movement.

The IHRA’s working definition is a concise description of a complex hatred that takes many forms. It reads: “Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”

The people who lead the BDS movement bring many different kinds of antisemitic hatred into our public conversation, and the IHRA definition helps identify the sort of bigotry they spread. It defines antisemitism as accusing Jews or Israel of inventing or exaggerating the Holocaust; accusing Jews of dual loyalty; using blood libel to criticize Israel; comparing Israel to the Nazis; and holding the Jewish state to a double standard – or, in one of its purest forms of hate, denying the Jewish people the right to self-determination.
Now that many in the world are finally acknowledging just how evil BDS is, our Jewish community and fellow Americans must follow suit. Governments and NGOs must adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism. Our local, state and federal governments must pass laws and resolutions that condemn and delegitimize the vile hatred of BDS. Politicians and bureaucrats should stop funding educational programs that include BDS bigotry. Financial platforms should not be allowed to provide services to BDS organizations that publish antisemitic content or have links to terrorism. And we shall all demand that social media platforms remove antisemitic BDS content.

After a decade of excuses and inaction about BDS, it seems that some people are finally waking up to the danger this movement poses – not only to the Jewish people, but also to the basic values of the liberal societies in which we live.

It is the responsibility of our leaders to build on the recent momentum to inform the public about the BDS movement’s antisemitic agenda, its shadowy funding sources, its true aim of denying Jewish self-determination, its lopsided and underhanded tactics, and its connection to terrorism.

BDS is the new face of the old antisemitism, and when it comes to fighting antisemitism, the old adage “better late than never” is particularly apt for our moment. It’s time for us all to get to work.

Chief Rabbi of UK Speaks of BDS and the Rise of Antisemitism

Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis of the United Kingdom spoke with Jordana Miller on the rise of antisemitism and the effects of the BDS movement in the UK.

Neo-Nazi protestors in Germany call for Palestinian help against Israel

Dozens of neo-Nazis marched through the German city of Dortmund on Monday, calling for Palestinian support to eradicate Israel.

The demonstration, which came on the heels of an anti-fascist protest in the western German city, involved approximately seventy neo-Nazi activists marching through the streets, holding flags of the Third Reich flag and chanting, "Palestine help us, Israel still exists" and "Israel no more."

Israel's Ambassador to Germany Jeremy Issacharoff posted condemned the neo-Nazi rally, writing on Twitter: "Disgraceful to see neo-Nazis openly on the streets of Dortmund just as we celebrate the Jewish New Year, my wife’s great grand parents were from Dortmund and were murdered by the Nazis, where there is no remorse there can be no forgiveness."

Dortmund is considered to have the biggest neo-Nazi presence of any city in western Germany, with the majority of them living in the Dorstfeld quarter.

Dorstfeld is littered with graffiti of Third Reich's flag, symbols and writings.In September, anti-fascist activists arrived with police backup in Dorstfeld, where they covered the hateful graffiti with colors and messages calling for unity and tolerance.

When the neo-Nazis pledged retaliation for the clean-up, the anti-fascist activists vowed to march against them every Monday for the next 13 weeks.

The abstract for the social sciences paper on intersectionality I never wrote

Last year I came up with the Intersectionality Victimhood Calculator, where one can reliably calculate who is more victimized in the Leftist universe and therefore who deserves the most sympathy, regardless of their actual words or actions.

An academic friend of mine suggested that I actually turn the calculator into a hoax paper to be submitted to various journals under a pseudonym. I briefly considered it but it would have been a very large project that I didn't have time for.

However, I did whip up this fake "abstract" for the paper that came out remarkably good:

Orthodox intersectional theory describes the overlapping effect of multiple oppressions, but there has been curiously little effort to quantify the actual amount of oppression experienced by different orthographies. We posit that these intersectional groups and individuals can be analyzed in a reproducible, quantitative and scientific manner, using a model that not only allows an impartial comparison of these overlapping modalities, but also suggests a paradigm whereby the differential of the modality score of the oppressed and the oppressor can be used to determine the level of oppression (LoE) in any arbitrary conflict. These tools can be used to create a valuization of the comparative oppression scores with a confidence level of >=93.6%.

I was particularly proud of coining the word "valuization," since finding an existing word would have been too hard.

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NGO Very Good At Pointing Out What Others Must Atone For Before Yom Kippur (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column (delayed) from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Check out their Facebook page.

New York, October 3 - Seasonal custom calls for Jews to conduct a reckoning of their behavior, and one organization that assumes the mantle of progressive Jewish values has demonstrated it excels in the important but overlooked arena of publicizing all the faults it sees in the Jews and Jewish institutions that do not share its anti-Israeli politics.

The NGO, which specializes in calling attention to the perceived moral failings of Israel, pro-Israel organizations, and Zionist Jews, and which presumes to tell American Jews how they must feel and act about Israel's policies, has seized the Jewish penitential season with relish, identifying exactly where and with what level of intention other Jews have strayed from its enlightened, forward-looking attitude that can be the only correct set of positions on serious questions of moral judgment, such as whether Jews should ever be anything other than passive victims. Its messages in advance of the Day of Atonement this coming Wednesday contained no fewer than ten specific sins it demanded that other Jews redress, among them support for Israel's occupation of Palestine, condoning Israel's occupation of Palestine, refusing to acknowledge the evil that is Israel's occupation of Palestine, and profiting from Israel's occupation of Palestine. The epithet "Apartheid" also featured prominently in several such messages.

In a series of tweets, the organization called on Jews to introduce the subject of the Occupation at festive family meals related to the High Holidays, with some indication that the deeply Jewish authors of the messages remain ignorant that Yom Kippur does not feature any such meals, given its status as a Biblically-mandated day of fasting. The same lack of knowledge, observers note, appears to account for the organization's assumption that anyone is unaware of Israel's control over territories captured from Jordan in 1967 and the Jewish state's measures to protect its citizens from attacks by Arabs residing in said territories.

The gusto with which the organization has embarked on this seasonal project has drawn notice from prominent figures and groups in the Jewish community. "Given the non-Jewish funding sources that underwrite their activities, and the centrality of certain Christians in the organization's activities, we should not be surprised their message is... unorthodox," remarked Nodrek Sherlock of the New York Board of Rabbis. "Unorthodox? In fact I'd hesitate to associate even militant Reconstructionist with that level of proudly not-Jewish sensibilities. I will grant, however, that bickering and fault-finding among organizations remains a venerable tradition in the Jewish community."

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10/03 Links Pt1: Rina Shnerb's alleged murderer linked to European-funded BDS affiliates; The Arab World Can’t Blame All of Its Problems on the West; IDF indicts 5 Palestinians in murder of soldier Dvir Sorek

From Ian:

Rina Shnerb's alleged murderer linked to European-funded BDS affiliates

Samer Arbid, the alleged leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist cell responsible for murdering 17-year-old Rina Shnerb near Dolev in August, worked for a European-funded NGO linked to BDS, NGO Monitor reported on Wednesday.

Arbid, 44, considered one of the PFLP’s top officials in Ramallah, was previously arrested for preparing PFLP explosive devices during the Second Intifada.

IDF and Border Police forces arrested him on Sunday for allegedly preparing and detonating the improvised explosive device that killed Shnerb and wounded her father Eitan and brother Dvir.

On Monday, Haaretz reported that the Justice Ministry opened an investigation into “potential wrongdoing” by officers of the Shin Bet (Israeli Security Agency) after Arbid was in critical condition in at Hadassah-University Medical Center on Mount Scopus following his interrogation, which involved torture. It was subsequently reported that the agents were authorized to conduct a “violent interrogation” but went “too far.”

Media sources reported on Tuesday that the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) and several Joint List MKs sent a letter to Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit demanding a criminal investigation be opened regarding Arbid’s interrogation.

According to the NGO Monitor, Arbid was listed as an accountant for Addameer (Arabic for conscience) Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, a Palestinian NGO that provides legal representation to Palestinians detained in Israel. The Ramallah-based organization’s mandate includes “ending torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment inflicted upon Palestinian prisoners” and “guaranteeing fair, impartial and public trials.” The organization was listed as a PFLP-affiliated institution on Fatah’s website in September 2015.

NGO Monitor: Samer Arbid’s Alleged Terror Activities, Arrests, and NGO Affiliations

According to Israeli security officials, on August 23, 2019, Samer Arbid commanded a Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terror cell that carried out a bombing against Israeli civilians, murdering 17-year old Rina Shnerb, and injuring her father and brother. According to the Israel Security Agency (Shabak), Arbid prepared and detonated the explosive device.

Ties to PFLP-linked NGOs
Arbid worked for Addameer – a Palestinian NGO closely linked to the PFLP, 1 which listed him as the organization’s accountant for several years.

In addition to his work for Addameer, Arbid appears to have worked for another NGO with ties to the PFLP, the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC). According to Samidoun, yet another PFLP-linked NGO, Arbid was the “financial director of the Union of Agricultural Work Committees in the West Bank” in 2016.
Prior Arrests
- In an Addameer-produced video from April 2013, Arbid describes his numerous arrests. He states that he was arrested at the beginning of 2003 and sentenced to two and a half years in prison, and served an additional year in administrative detention.
- According to Samidoun, Arbid was placed in administrative detention from March 2007 to August 2008.
- Similarly, Samidoun reported that Arbid was arrested on September 23, 2013 and placed in administrative detention.
- According to Samidoun, Arbid “was ordered to an additional three months’ administrative detention” on March 12, 2016.

Israel reportedly arrests another Palestinian behind the deadly Dolev Spring attack

A senior member of the terror cell suspected of being responsible for the West Bank bombing that killed teenager Rina Shnerb in August was arrested by Israeli security forces early on Thursday, Palestinian media reported.

According to the reports, security forces arrested Walid Muhammed Hanatsheh at his home in the village of al-Tireh outside of Ramallah during overnight arrest raids across the West Bank, which saw 13 Palestinians arrested by IDF troops and Border Police officers.

Wafa News reported that the raids took place in several villages in the Ramallah area including Kobar, Deir Abu Mashaal, Jifna and al-Tireh. During Hanatsheh’s arrest, a Palestinian TV cameraman was injured after troops fired a rubber bullet toward rioters.

Hanatsheh, who acts as finance and administration manager for the health work committees (HWC), has been a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine since the Second Intifada, and has been arrested by Israel several times for his membership in the terrorist group.

BBC-promoted NGO’s terror links surface again

The terror cell leader, Samer Arbid, was employed (despite his past history of involvement in terror activity) as an accountant by the Palestinian NGO ‘Addameer’ which is known for its links to the PFLP – a designated terror organisation in the US, the EU, Canada and Israel.

Five days after Rina Shnerb was murdered the BBC News website published a video report which included an interview with the director of ‘Addameer’, Sahar Francis.

Partisan report on detained Palestinian ‘children’ from BBC’s Gender and Identity correspondent

That heavily promoted report was made available on the BBC News website for fourteen consecutive days.

In other words the producers of that report, along with additional BBC journalists, apparently saw nothing at all problematic in the amplification of the unchallenged narrative of a political NGO that is linked to a terrorist organisation that the BBC knows has murdered Israeli civilians in the past and which, we now learn, employed the leader of the PFLP terror cell apparently responsible for the brutal murder of a seventeen-year-old out hiking with her family.

The Quds News Network warns its Facebook readers (and this is on Twitter as well.)

ATTENTION! If you want to keep your #Facebook account/page safe and secure, don't publish posts with Palestine-related words, such as "martyr, Hamas, Jihad..." Your account may be blocked according to FB's new anti-Palestine algorithms.
#FBblocksPalestine

It is nice for them to admit that "Palestine-related words" include calls for violence against Jews and cheering for those who succeed.

Al-Araby has its own list of "Palestinian resistance" words that they claim Facebook is censoring with its new algorithm: "Hamas", "Islamic Jihad", "Al-Qassam Brigades", "Al-Quds Brigades", "Popular Front", "Palestinian resistance" and "Shahid."

(h/t Petra)

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The International Committee of the Red Cross issued a statement today:

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) laments the misplaced public pressure directed towards its offices and staff over the past days which has led to the cancellation of a number of activities including family visits to the larger detainee population.

"In recent days, we have seen sit-ins spiral out of control outside some of our offices in the occupied Palestinian territory. Staff were insulted and accused of not doing enough to follow up on their commitment towards Palestinian detainees in Israeli detention," said David Quesne, the head of the ICRC’s mission in Jerusalem.

Quesne is understating what happened. The ICRC offices in Ramallah were shut down completely by protesters. When Quesne says "staff were insulted" he means they were threatened.

Who is the person they are showing in their placards?

Samer Arbid of the PFLP, who was arrested for leading a cell that murdered Rina Shnerb, 17, with an explosive device. The Shin Bet considers him a "ticking time bomb" and has employed measures, approved by Israel's Supreme Court in such cases, including forcing prisoners into uncomfortable positions, depriving them of sleep, shackling them and subjecting them to extreme temperatures. Arbid suffered a heart-related problem during interrogation and was sent to Hadassah Hospital.

The Palestinians are defending this monster.

The ICRC stated that they did visit Arbid in the hospital but cannot give out details of what they saw due to confidentiality laws.

The organization stressed that because of these protests, it cannot perform its job to help Palestinian prisoners and facilitate visits from family members.

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Iraqi news site An Nabaa really tried to hide its Jew-hatred:

Control of the media has been the cornerstone of the Zionist strategy since the Zionist movement was founded by the Jewish journalist Theodor Herzl, who was able to hold the first Zionist Congress in 1897 in the city of Basel, Switzerland...The first World Zionist Congress, held in Basel, states in one of its resolutions the importance of controlling the media. From that date until today, the Zionist movement has always tried to control the world's major media outlets..

The author seems to be confusing the Basel Program with the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, because the First Zionist Congress resolutions did not mention the media.

But after only a couple of paragraphs about how the Zionists are taking over the Arab media as well, the author forgets the cardinal rule of avoiding accusations of antisemitism - always use the word "Zionists" and never say "Jews:"

We must acknowledge that the current Zionist political media strategy is an inseparable part of the ancient and modern Jewish Zionist history, and is also one of the foundations of the construction of the global Zionist national project based on the construction and establishment of Greater Israel, which is directed and managed by the United States of America. Specifically by the Zionist lobby, which was able to control many of the sensitive centers in that empire, but to establish the main center of the Zionist political media strategy in the world, through that huge number of newspapers and periodicals and satellite channels, research centers, advertising and many other modern media.

In fact, the Zionist political media strategy, with its deception, lies and distortion of the meaning and content of the truth of the media, is not the product of the current Israeli Zionist presence in the Arab world, or the product of the Arab-Israeli conflict in particular, but rather a product and historical extension of an instinctive human ideology. The hatred, lying and deception of others since eternity has been mentioned in many heavenly Jewish historical books such as Isaiah and Amos and Jeremiah and other books and chapters of the Jewish evidence of this fact. Jeremiah speaks of God's wrath and rejection of an entire generation of Jews because the truth has been destroyed and torn because of them.

Incidentally, this is a merger of traditional Muslim and modern antisemitism. Muslim antisemitism says that Jews are liars and breakers of agreements; modern conspiracy theory antisemitism says Jews control the banks and media.

The author is Mustafa Qutbi who writes widely for many Arab media outlets and has even won awards.

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10/02 Links Pt2: David Collier: Palestinian solidarity – the obsessive stepping stone to antisemitism; Take Bernie Sanders off the Democrat presidential contenders list; The Case for Building a Synagogue on the Temple Mount

From Ian:

David Collier: Palestinian solidarity – the obsessive stepping stone to antisemitism

Look at this tweet. It is the strongest defence Jewish people can expect from the left these days. Yes – antisemitism exists – but it is wrong to blame Jews for what Israel is doing. In other words Israel is guilty, but that Jew is innocent. But then what if that Jew supports Israel?

This adherence to a toxic cause entirely removes all responsibility from the Palestinians. They do not have to do anything to detoxify the narrative before being rewarded by MPs and American politicians wrapping themselves in the Palestinian flag. It is why sickening policies like ‘pay for slay‘ can exist. The Palestinians have no agency – they can do no wrong. These Solidarity movements have embedded themselves in the west as a ‘humanitarian’ force and are spreading a toxic hate of Jews everywhere they are permitted to set up a stall.

Until this is addressed, nothing will change. This marriage has unleashed raw antisemitism. Images like this are posted without the person in the image understanding what is wrong with what he is doing. Palestinian solidarity legitimises such hatred:

Then we see images such as this from the Labour Party conference.

None of this has anything to do with Palestinians who live in Ramallah or Gaza and want to live their lives in peace. Palestinian solidarity has created a travesty. Not only does picking up a Palestinian flag require you to support a fictitious narrative. It means you adopt toxic beliefs and it holds everyone hostage – even the Palestinians.

A question for politicians such as Afzal Khan, Marsha de Cordova, Clive Lewis, Lloyd Russell-Moyle, Ian Lavery, Diane Abbott, Jeremy Corbyn, Lisa Nandy, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib. When you hold the flag aloft of your local Palestinian solidarity group – what are you standing in solidarity with?

Are you suggesting that the Arab irregular armies were not invading in January 1948? Do you believe that the Jewish immigrants of 1890 deserved to be attacked? Are you indicating your support for the story that Jews were responsible for the massacres against them in the 1920s and 1930s? Do you oppose immigration and think refugees buying houses is a provocation that requires a violent response? Do you believe that the Zionists of 1900 could foresee the Holocaust?

Why exactly are you standing in solidarity with these lies and why are you waving the flag of such a toxic, rancid, antisemitic movement?

Jeremy Corbyn celebrates Rosh Hashanah with pro-Hamas Jewish activist

UK Labour Secretary Jeremy Corbyn marked Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, by meeting with a group of Jewish activists who included an activist who last year led a public mourning prayer for Hamas members, the London-based Jewish Chronicle reported on Sunday.

In a video posted by Corbyn on Twitter ahead of Rosh Hashanah, the controversial leader goes to buy apple and honey with some Jewish Labor Party members, including Rob Abrams.

Last year, Abrams led a Kaddish in the central Parliament Square in London after 62 Palestinian were killed in clashes at the Gaza border, according to the Jewish Chronicle. At least 50 of them were affiliated to the terror organization that controls the Strip.

"The apple is the fruit of the Earth.. and it brings us back to one of the most important elements of Judaism, the guardianship of the Earth," he explained to Corbyn in the video.

The video also featured Labour councilor Sue Lukes who in the past shared an article entitled "Jewish 'War against Corbyn' risks bringing real antisemitism to Britain" and expressed appreciation for Malia Bouattia, a former president of the National Union of Students, who called the University of Birmingham a "Zionist outpost."

This episode does not mark the first time that Corbyn highly publicized his meetings with fringe Jewish organizations.

Take Bernie Sanders off the Democrat presidential contenders list

Just to emphasize my point of view, I'll begin by stating my staunch disapproval of Bernie Sanders even being considered as the Democrat nominee for president. He would be a disaster for the the citizens of this country, for Israel and for the prosperity of the world community.

Sanders is a staunch Marxist Socialist bordering on Communist, aligns himself with the enemies of Israel and would remove the physical power and economic influence of the United States that at present keeps the world relatively safe from turmoil and conflict. He's bad news ....for all.

First off, his declarations for free schooling for everyone, including illegal immigrants, his free medical programs for all, including illegal immigrants and his "citizenship for all" attitude would not only bankrupt this nation, it would destroy the basic institutions such as finance, production and health care and would make the 1929 Depression look like an enviable alternative.

Second, his overt dislike for our military, the institution that has kept us free from all of our enemies since the onset of our nation, nearly 250 years ago would induce the likes of China, Russia and the leaders of the Islamic terrorists' mouths to water.

Bernie also stands firmly aligned with the likes of Congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, both of whom have accused Jews of dual loyalty, corrupting politics with money and hypnotizing their neighbors. His support for them was remarkable. In January of this year, he stated, "We will stand by our Muslim brothers and sisters. It's not antisemitic to criticize Israel for electing a right-winger like Netanyahu." He was not only dishonest, he was stirring Jew hating among Jew haters.