Double-dipping AP photographer?

Yesterday, AP published this photo:

A Palestinian man cooks chicken using a wood-fuelled stove due to a shortage in cooking gas, in an outdoor kitchen in Gaza City, Thursday, Nov. 20, 2008. He said he is cooking for poor families and hospital patients in Gaza. Israel's tightening Gaza blockade, a response to Palestinian militant rocket fire, has led to frequent blackouts throughout Gaza and resulted in shortages of food, supplies and even cash. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)

I had seen that same photo, along with many others, in the Islamic Jihad mouthpiece Palestine Today newspaper. Palestine Today did not attribute the photographers.

Does this mean that Adel Hana gets paid twice for the same photos? Does it mean that AP employs Islamic Jihad sympathizers? Does AP know that these photographs are being published in another newspaper without attribution?

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Do explosions look like this?

One can browse wire-service photos of explosions during the first week of Cast Lead, but none of them looks like this one from AP:
(click to enlarge)

Mere Rhetoric and Snapped Shot (and others) have been looking at it, wondering if it is Photoshopped.

I don't see too much motivation for a photographer (Adel Hana, whose pictures have been reproduced on this blog a few times, including for staging photos and for selling pictures to Islamic Jihad) to enhance an explosion, which is impressive enough already.

But the flying debris makes no sense to me.

It is too high, it is too large, and appears to be way too close to the camera. It also all seems to be on the same plane relative to the camera - not in the sphere that debris should be if it was equally blown in all directions.

Snapped Shot is trying to get hold of Hana to get a larger original.

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Four photographers, three wire services, one staged picture

A Palestinian man runs with an injured boy after an Israeli missile strike on a Hamas base after they gathered at the scene of an earlier airstrike in Nusseirat, central Gaza Strip, Friday May 25, 2007. An Israeli airstrike hit a Hamas training center south of Gaza City on Friday, destroying the compound and lightly injuring at least three, witnesses said. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)


A Palestinian evacuates a wounded boy after an Israeli air strike at Hamas Executive Force position in the central Gaza strip May 25, 2007. Israeli aircraft fired missiles into the central Gaza Strip on Friday, hitting a position used by the ruling Hamas Islamist movement, residents said. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa (GAZA)


A Palestinian man runs with an injured boy after an Israeli missile strike on a Hamas base after they gathered at the scene of an earlier airstrike on area in Nusseirat, central Gaza Strip, Friday , May 25, 2007. An Israeli airstrike hit a Hamas training center south of Gaza City on Friday, destroying the compound and lightly injuring at least three, witnesses said. (AP Photo/Majed Hamdan)

Nusseirat Refugee Camp, -: A Palestinian man carries a wounded boy as he flees following an Israeli air strike on Hamas's Executive Force building in Nusseirat refugee camp in the centre of the Gaza strip, 25 May 2007. Warplanes pounded the Gaza Strip for a ninth day today as Palestinians continued to fire rockets into Israel despite a call from Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas for a truce. AFP PHOTO/MAHMUD HAMS (Photo credit should read MAHMUD HAMS/AFP/Getty Images)

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Workshops, holy rockets and MSM

From AP:

Palestinian firefighters inspect the rubble of a metal workshop after it was hit by Israeli helicopters in Gaza city, early Tuesday, June 20, 2006. Israeli helicopters fired a missile into a metal workshop in downtown Gaza City, but no wounded were reported, Palestinian official said. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)

From Petra (Jordan):

Gaza, June 20 (Petra)--Israeli aircrafts fired missiles on a metal workshop in Al Daraj neighborhood in Gaza, a Palestinian source said.

The source said that the missiles fired by Apache Helicopters destroyed the workshop and caused damage to a number of buildings.
No injuries were reported during the operation.

From the Bahrain News Agency:

Gaza, June. 20, (BNA) Israeli fighter planes conducted today an attack on a metal workshop located at Al Deraj, in Gaza's centre causing injuries to people.
Palestinian sources stated that the Israeli planes targeted the workshop using one missile which caused its destruction and which caught fire due to the attack. Material damages were also caused to neighbouring buildings by shrapnel's.

Just an innocent metal workshop, where presumably Palestinian Arabs are making souvenirs for tourists, or perhaps spare parts for their cars, right? The AP photo caption is the same as the Arab report on the missile strike - no context, just a random act of Israeli violence against some poor Palestinian Arab's livelihood.

At the end of a different AP report, there is a hint as to what could possibly been built at this workshop, but it is only a hint:

In cross-border strife, Israeli aircraft fired missiles at a metal workshop in Gaza City early Tuesday. Residents said nobody was hurt. The military said the workshop was run by Hamas.

Palestinian militants have been pelting Israel with rockets fired from Gaza, and Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz, met with angry residents of a town near Gaza that has been a frequent target, and pledged military action to put an end to the barrages.

It is unclear whether AP means to have any repationship between the two paragraphs.

Xinhua, in China, gives a tiny bit more context:

The Palestinian shelling coincided with an Israeli air raid at a metal workshop in Gaza that Israel said it was used to produce crude rockets. No injuries reported in the after midnight shelling.

Earlier, al-Nasser Saladin Brigades of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), said it had launched a holy rocket that landed near the car of Israeli President Moshe Katsav.

The only other news source I saw that actually mention context is, interestingly, credited to AP as well - but I saw it mentioned in no other story:

Israeli aircraft fired missiles at a metal workshop in Gaza City early Tuesday, residents and the Israeli military said.

The military said the workshop was run by Hamas and used to make rockets and other weapons. Residents said no one was hurt.

Maybe the reason that the wire services are so reluctant to mention that these "workshops" are meant to create terror weapons is because they could no longer refer to rockets as being "home-made." (At the moment of this writing, there are over 1300 mentions in Google News of "homemade rockets," and exactly the two mentions above saying the possibility that rockets are made in "metal workshops.")

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Worth a thousand words

Courtesy of Israpundit, here is a picture that says it all.

But in case you don't get it, the caption adds volumes more about the sad reality that exists today, of the wishful thinking replacing any sort of rational thought, of a desire for "peace" that allows its supporters to completely overlook the blatantly obvious lies being spouted daily by the heir of Arafat's doubletalking legacy.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, sits under a picture of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, as he talks to the media during a news conference at his office in Gaza City, Monday April, 25, 2005. Abbas said Monday he expects the militant group Hamas to hand in its weapons after joining the Palestinian parliament this summer, but gave no indication he would forcefully disarm the militant group. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)

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02/04 Links: South African stupidity; Obama’s anti-Semitism/anti-Zionism reigned at the IRS from 2010- 2017; The Dems’ Farrakhan Problem

From Ian:

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JPost Editorial: South African stupidity

In February 2016, BDS South Africa praised a decision to cancel a water crisis conference that was scheduled to take place in Johannesburg.

BDS South Africa said at the time it was pleased “the rug has been pulled from the Israeli ambassador, who will not be able to exploit our very serious water crises for his own cheap publicity and whitewashing of his regime. Israel water technology is not unique or special; such technology is widely available through other more friendly countries.”

Two years later, South Africa is experiencing a major water crisis. Unless a last-minute solution is found, Cape Town will soon have the dubious honor of becoming one of the few – if not the first – developed cities in the world to run out of water.

On April 12, known as “Day Zero,” water reservoirs across the city are expected to hit 13.5% of capacity – at which point, according to Mayor Patricia de Lille, taps will be turned off and severe rationing will begin.

Once “Day Zero” hits, Cape Town’s 3.7 million residents will have to travel to one of 200 water collection points to collect their daily water rations: 25 liters per person.

If, two years ago, or even earlier, South Africa had put aside its self-defeating boycott of Israel, could it have avoided “Day Zero”? Perhaps. What is undeniable is that South Africa is in no position to refuse help from Israel, a world leader in desalination, water recycling, water preservation and irrigation.

Phyllis Chesler: Obama’s anti-Semitism/anti-Zionism reigned at the IRS from 2010- 2017.

The Z Street application was at first delayed, then frozen, because the IRS claimed as a defense, that Israel was viewed as a “terrorist entity,” and a country “with terrorism.”

Many of us suspected that Obama’s administration had politicized Homeland Security, the DOJ, the FBI, and the American relationship to the United Nations in ways that favored Islamism, Islamic terrorism, Palestine, Iran, and that demonized Zionism and Israel’s attempts at self-defense.

Z STREET”s successful lawsuit exposes how the Obama administration, through its power to grant or withhold tax-exempt status to groups, politicized and corrupted a policy of even-handedness, transparency, and accountability at the IRS.

Like the Western media, professoriate, international organizations, and very much like an Islamic world view, the American IRS viewed Israel, especially Israelis who lived “across the Green Line—the nonborder that delineates pre-1967 Israel from the territories it acquired in the Six Day War” as related to “terrorism” or as “terrorists.”

According to Marcus, "Our own investigation disclosed that between 2009 and 2016, while Z STREET’s application was stalled, the IRS needed no special scrutiny to grant numerous applications for tax-exempt status that explicitly proclaimed donations would be spent in Gaza—a territory formally under the jurisdiction of Hamas, which the U.S. State Department designates as a terror organization."

According to Marcus, in a personal interview, the following is merely a sampling of not-for-profits, which she obtained via Guidestar; the IRS had okayed these “charities” during the period that Z STREET’s application remained pending.

The Dems’ Farrakhan Problem

If Republican lawmakers held strategy sessions with David Duke, the party would be held to account.

Hillary Clinton tried to make Louis Farrakhan an issue when she ran against Barack Obama in 2008. The Nation of Islam leader—infamous for calling Judaism a “gutter religion”—had praised the future president as “the hope of the entire world.” In a February debate, Mrs. Clinton demanded that Mr. Obama reject Mr. Farrakhan’s support, insisting: “There’s a difference between denouncing and rejecting.” Mr. Obama obliged and added: “There’s no formal offer of help from Minister Farrakhan that would involve me rejecting it.”

Three years earlier, Mr. Obama posed for a photo with Mr. Farrakhan at a Congressional Black Caucus gathering. The photographer, journalist Askia Muhammad, told the liberal site Talking Points Memo that a CBC staffer contacted him “sort of in a panic” about the photo. “I promised and made arrangements to give the picture to Leonard Farrakhan, ” Louis Farrakhan’s son-in-law and chief of staff. But he kept a copy, which he released last week.

Mrs. Clinton might have become president had the photo come out a decade earlier. It isn’t clear from the photo to what degree Mr. Obama was associated with Mr. Farrakhan. But the Congressional Black Caucus’s association is scandalous. Its members have met with Mr. Farrakhan on at least one other occasion.

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03/14 Links Pt2: The American Black-Jewish alliance---a fiction laid to rest; Culture Corbyn leads fosters the anti-Semitism he claims to condemn; Israel is 11th happiest nation in the world, for fifth year in a row

From Ian:

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The American Black-Jewish alliance---a fiction laid to rest

Today there remains a tiny minority in the American Jewish community who continue the charade of promoting the “historic coalition” between Jews and blacks. These Jewish advocates for blacks call themselves Jewish and are funded by Jews, but their organizations are rarely Jewish or support Jewish interests.

And, perhaps, the death knell of black-Jewish relations has been the result of too many Jewish families whose members have been victims of black violence, including murder. If you do not believe this, just ask.

In America, Jews successfully live side-by-side with so many minority communities, where they share the same values of hard work, family and education. But this was never the reality with blacks and Jews.

Regrettably, the half century of Jews promoting American blacks will prove to have been just one more failing, in the long line of failures among American Jewish leaders.

Yet it is also a measure of what eternal optimists Jews are, to have maintained this fiction of a Jewish-black coalition for over 50 years.

Seeking utopia in our times, Jews have embraced delusions such as communism and socialism. And we learned that the only way to justify the indefensible failures of these utopias was to constantly lie and scream down opponents.

In the same way, it has been only delusions that have held together the “historic coalition” among American Jews and blacks.

Culture Corbyn leads fosters the anti-Semitism he claims to condemn

Indeed, of the three ‘admins’ who run the group, one – the group’s founder – is a conspiracy theorist who shares material from Holocaust Denial websites; a second identified himself as a ‘9/11 Truther’ and posted a Holocaust Denial article that dismissed the “fictional account” of six million Jews dying in the Holocaust, claiming instead that “somewhere between 100-150 thousand people perished in Auschwitz mainly as a result of disease and starvation”; while a third admin posted an article in the group titled “Israel Control of USA Government” that quoted approvingly from Mein Kampf.

This doesn’t mean that most of the members of this group are anti-Semitic, any more than most people who sympathise with the Palestinians are anti-Semitic. But what it does confirm is the long-held suspicion that some anti-Semites use anti-Israel activism as a socially-acceptable outlet for their anti-Jewish prejudice; and that this includes some of this country’s leading anti-Israel activists.

It also supports the findings of Britain’s largest-ever survey of anti-Jewish and anti-Israel attitudes, published last year by CST and the Institute for Jewish Policy Research, which found that the more anti-Israel a person is, the more likely they are to also hold anti-Jewish attitudes.

And because the most active members of this Facebook group also tend to be the more anti-Semitic ones, their views set the tone for the group as a whole. Meanwhile, the other members of the group, including several Jewish anti-Zionists, rarely object to the anti-Semitism posted there. Instead, they just get on with using the group to organise their activities and encourage their comrades. This is how a political culture becomes anti-Semitic, even if most people in that world are not, themselves, anti-Semites.

Needless to say, many of the group’s members support Jeremy Corbyn and have joined the Labour Party since he became leader.

Corbyn has responded, as he always does, by saying he condemns anti-Semitism.

But until he understands that the political culture of which he is a leader fosters the very anti-Semitism he claims to condemn, this problem will only get worse.

Daily Freier: As a Lefty Jew, How Do I Feel About Farrakhan? Hey Look! A Squirrel! (satire)

As a Progressive Jew, Am I Okay with Farrakhan’s speeches where he says that Jews are “Satanic”? Can we change the subject? Because to be honest, I would rather talk about something that doesn’t challenge my worldview. How about right-wing antisemitism? Wouldn’t you rather talk about right-wing antisemitism? That’s much more interesting than Linda Sarsour and Tamika Mallory defending Farrakhan. Or Congressman Keith Ellison’s long relationship with him. Or President Obama’s meeting with him and having the photo suppressed for a dozen years.

What is that? you want to talk about the Left’s moral blindness to antisemitism in its midst and the Left’s failure to expel antisemites from their ranks? Because I really felt that Caddyshack 2 was a huge disappointment, didn’t you? Just really fell flat.

Wait, you still want to talk about how Linda Sarsour’s anti-Zionism meshes with her support of a man who called Judaism a “gutter religion”? Hey, did you see the season finale of The Bachelor? Wasn’t that a dramatic ending??? OMG!

OK, you still want to know why the Left gives itself a pass on Farrakhan, while it complains about people on the Right using the word “Globalist”? Because quite frankly I would rather get a tooth extracted than talk about this. Let’s talk about something else. How about the weather? Crazy, huh?

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08/29 Links Pt2: Where it all began: The gathering that sparked Zionism; It’s Open Season on Jews in New York City; Looking beyond the NGO halo effect

From Ian:

A Zionist success 125 years later

By far, the most important accomplishment of the Zionist movement was its success in making Israel the home to the largest amount of Jews (close to a majority of Jews live in Israel) and making it ー almost from scratch ー the place where the continuation of Jewish peoplehood is guaranteed. Thanks to this enterprise, the Jews returned to their historical homeland as a functioning people, their national language was revived and their historic sovereignty was applied.

The bridgehead established by a minority with a radical vision in the Land of Israel became the vibrant center of Jewish life. What began two generations ago as a third-world, poor, and weak country that had only 6% of the Jews, transformed thanks to the dedication and talent of later generations into a regional democratic power with a thriving economy and top-notch accomplishments.

More important than the successes of the past are ensuring gains down the road. It is almost inevitable that Israel will continue to be the focus of Jewish life at the expense of the second most important Jewish concentration ー North America. The widespread assimilation in younger generations, coupled with declining birth rates, compared with almost zero mixed-marriages in Israel and a very high birth rate ensures that Israel will be the epicenter of Jewish life.

The major challenges within Israeli society are much more dangerous than the threats posed by Iran and its proxies. Israel has a successful track record of weathering through tough times, just like after the Yom Kippur War and the Second Intifadah. What should worry us is the radicalization of some Haredi groups and the continued control over millions of Palestinians. Those two trends threaten the democratic and pluralistic nature of the Zionist enterprise that have made it so successful over the past 100 years. Without them, Israel will devolve into a backward, authoritarian state that could threaten the future of the Jewish people.

Where it all began: The gathering that sparked Zionism

President Herzog will not be the only dignitary to honor the ceremony with his presence. Also among the guests are former Swiss President, Guy Parmelin, and dignitaries from Israel and abroad, including Diaspora Affairs Minister Dr. Nachman Shai, Former IDF chief of staff and former Defense Minister Moshe (Bogie) Ya'alon, former Mossad Head Yossi Cohen, Chairman of the Jewish Agency Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Doron Almog, and publisher of the Israel Hayom, Dr. Miriam Adelson.

Among the hundreds of attendees at the concert hall in Basel there will also be 125 young Jewish entrepreneurs from all over the world and Jewish leaders from 38 countries. Organizers say that if they had space for 2,000 people, it would also be filled, because of the huge demand.

Guests participated yesterday in the first part of the event, which included discussions on topics such as "The Herzl Conference on Leadership," which focused on modern Zionism following in the footsteps of Herzl's vision, and a conference on socio-economic entrepreneurship.

Basel was decorated in honor of the event, which is a milestone in itself for the city's history. The Stadtcasino Basel hall is a central site that was founded in 1876 and serves, among others, as the home of the local symphony orchestra and for four years, since 2016, has been closed for a thorough renovation, "to bring it back to its days of glory."

On Monday, the main event of the conference in the renovated hall in Basel will host many Jewish men and women, who are a source of pride for the State of Israel, which in the summer of 1897 had just been put on the drawing board and was a distant dream. "When the war broke out in Ukraine, the World Zionist Organization, the Jewish Agency and the State of Israel joined a rescue mission, which brought 18,000 Jews to Israel," Hagoel says. "I have never seen a country take action like this to save its people. This is the difference between today and 125 years ago, a time when Israel did not exist."

125 years on, this is my Zionism - opinion

This week marks the 125th anniversary of the First Zionist Congress held in Basel, Switzerland. In celebration of this milestone, a conference and gala are being held in the very same city and casino where the first Zionist Congress was held. While Theodore Herzl himself is not in attendance, the current chairman of the World Zionist Organization is, along with many other WZO department heads, President Isaac Herzog, Swiss officials, Israeli officials and hundreds of representatives of Israel and Diaspora Jewry are all there to discuss Zionism, Israel and celebrate this very special occasion. It seems only fitting that in honor of the 125th anniversary of the rebirth of Zionism and, of course, in recognition of the upcoming 75th Israel Independence Day that we as a nation should take the opportunity to reflect on what today’s Zionism and the state of Israel means to us.

What Zionism and Israel mean to us
When the first Zionist Congress took place, Zionism was not exactly a trendy idea. It took time, effort and years of work for the idea of Zionism to permeate the culture of the time. Interestingly, we find ourselves in a similar situation today. While there was a period in time where Zionism became a popular idea that ultimately led to the ushering in of the new State of Israel, recent years have again presented a downturn in the acceptance and popularity of the Zionist ideal. Theories as to why this is may vary but I think that the core issue remains the same. There is a lack of consistency and understanding of what Zionism means today.

We Jews are no longer the same wandering, constantly persecuted and beaten people we once were. Of course, we have our challenges – antisemitism is on the rise, Iran is creeping ever closer to obtaining nuclear weapons, etc. But all in all we are a flourishing, successful and strong nation with a mighty country to call our own. And yet, we still continue to find ourselves faced constantly with the question of the relevance of Zionism and the need for the Jews to have their own state.

Imagine if all of us took the time to think about the answers. It is at times easy to take Israel for granted – especially for those of us who were born well after the early days and wars of the state. If the Zionist mission is to continue, we must each recommit ourselves to its values. Really think about the question: What does Zionism actually mean to me and why is it still important?

Most of us know what the core mission of Zionism is: The right of the Jewish people to our own state in our ancient homeland, Israel. But this mission should also account for the global realities of our time.

Basel 125 years later: Our biggest challenge is anti-Zionism -opinion

AS JEWISH leaders return to Basel, antisemitism continues to be a grave issue with worrying manifestations that would have been familiar to people living in 1897. We also have seen new forms – like online hate and harassment, or the blaming and scapegoating of Jewish individuals and organizations for the actions of the Jewish state.

Last year, the Anti-Defamation League recorded the highest number of antisemitic incidents in the US since the 1970s. One major spike came during the conflict between Israel and the terror group Hamas in May 2021, when we tracked a 150% increase in incidents, including 15 assaults and grotesque displays of anti-Israel hate.

Jews were brazenly attacked in public places in major cities such as New York and Los Angeles simply for the crime of their faith and identity.

Likewise, in the US and around the world we have seen political leaders and candidates on the far-right parrot antisemitic talking points, and those on the far-left using anti-Zionist rhetoric that is antisemitism at its core.

In Boston, an antisemitic group created a “Mapping Project,” claiming to expose a sinister Jewish conspiracy with interconnected nodes of “Zionism, Policing and Empire.” They invoked classic antisemitic tropes and endangered the entire Jewish community, accusing houses of worship and service-oriented nonprofits of the libel of dual-loyalty.

At ADL, we are doing our best to combat antisemitism from all sides and fighting those who would seek to undermine Israel’s legitimacy. But the fact that such virulent antisemitism is aimed at “Zionists” – i.e., Jews – writ large is perhaps one of the biggest challenges of our time.

As I have said before, anti-Zionism is antisemitism. At this moment, there is a need for the entire Jewish world to stand together against this new and dangerous form of antisemitism.

We cannot guarantee a secure Jewish future without strong efforts to push back against the extreme anti-Zionism rampant in many countries and seeping into international forums and places like legislatures and college campuses.

Despite these obstacles, the Basel anniversary is a moment to celebrate. The Jewish people are much stronger now than we were in 1897. In the same ways that the First Zionist Congress offered strength to Jews around the world and redefined our narrative, we must endeavor to draw strength from that moment and let it nourish us to meet the challenges ahead.

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09/06 Links Pt2: Trump to US Jews: I won’t give Palestinians aid until they make deal with Israel; Corbyn loathes Israel, and Labour’s new anti-Semitism rules won’t change that

From Ian:

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Trump to US Jews: I won’t give Palestinians aid until they make deal with Israel

US President Donald Trump told Jewish leaders Thursday that the US would not give aid to the Palestinians until they reach an agreement with Israel.

In a conference call with several dozen American Jewish leaders ahead of Rosh Hashanah, Trump noted that he had recently slashed immense amounts of US aid to the Palestinians — a reference to the administration’s recent cuts in overall aid to the Palestinian Authority and its complete defunding of the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA. The US would resume funding, he said, but only if the Palestinians reached a deal with Israel.

“What I will tell you is I stopped massive amounts of money that we were paying to the Palestinians and the Palestinian leaders,” Trump said to the Jewish leaders in a recording of the conversation aired by Israel’s Channel 10 news. “The United States was paying them tremendous amounts of money. And I say, ‘You’ll get money, but we’re not paying until you make a deal. If you don’t make a deal, we’re not paying.'”

“I don’t think it’s disrespectful at all” for US aid to be utilized as a bargaining chip, the president added, according to a transcript of the call published by the Jewish Insider website. Rather, “I think it’s disrespectful when people don’t come to the table.”

The president said that the Palestinians couldn’t have it both ways, according to a participant on the call who spoke to The Times of Israel. They couldn’t criticize him and rebuff negotiations on the one hand, while seeking financial aid from the US on the other.

Telegraph : 'Jews are only safe because of Israel'

For perhaps the first time in a mainstream British newspaper, the narrative of the Jewish refugees from Arab countries, who found refuge from persecution and death in the Jewish state, is used as a moral argument against the anti-Zionism of the hard left. Column by Allister Heath in the Telegraph:

I’m a Zionist, dear reader, and I cannot understand how any mainstream politician in Britain today could not be. I find the fact that so many on the extreme Left and at the top of the Labour Party now routinely describe themselves as anti-Zionists to be not just baffling but absolutely horrifying. The implications of their ideology fill me with dread, and the fact that the Labour Party has now adopted, with a key caveat, the international definition of anti-Semitism resolves very little.

Zionism involves accepting a simple proposition: the Jewish people should have their own country in the historic Land of Israel, from where they were expelled all those years ago. Zionism is not a programme for government; it is neither “Left-wing” or “Right-wing”. Apart from agreeing that there should be Jewish national self-determination in a viable, secure homeland in Israel, Zionists disagree on everything else, including on where borders should be drawn. Plenty believe that Palestinians have been very badly treated.

It was one thing to be an anti-Zionist in 1896, when Theodore Herzl published Der Judenstaat, launching the modern Zionist movement; or in 1898, when Emile Zola wrote J’accuse in defence of a Jewish officer set up by the French establishment; or even in 1917, when Lord Balfour issued his declaration officially supporting “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people”.

Israel didn’t exist then, even though tens of thousands of Jewish refugees had already fled to Palestine. Some were even tempted by alternative locations, including Uganda, or by the view that America was the real promised land, despite the fact that Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism and the Western Wall are to be found in Jerusalem.

Indigenous Rights and Israel: A Historical Perspective

Are Jews indigenous to Israel, and why does it matter today? Take this journey through history to find out.

Corbyn loathes Israel, and Labour’s new anti-Semitism rules won’t change that

This was the week in which many Labour MPs expected, hoped and predicted that the party would draw a line under a disastrous summer of stories about anti-Semitism and begin the process of closing the huge, widening gulf which has opened between Labour and Britain’s Jewish community.

But such optimism was a total misreading of the character of the United Kingdom’s main opposition party and the man who now dominates it.

On Tuesday, Labour’s governing body, the National Executive Committee, revisited its July decision not to adopt in full the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism.

After several hours of rancorous debate, it was announced that the NEC had given way and accepted the four IHRA examples — all of which define the point at which legitimate criticism of Israel can dip into anti-Semitism — which it had struck from Labour’s new code of conduct at its previous meeting.

There was, though, a sting in the tail. Alongside the IHRA definition, the NEC adopted a statement saying that its decision would not “in any way undermine freedom of expression on Israel or the rights of the Palestinians.”

As the Jewish Leadership Council declared, this so-called “free speech” caveat “drives a coach and horses through the IHRA definition.”

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12/19 Links Pt2: Phillips: The diplomatic crisis between Israel and Ireland; Antisemitism is a public health crisis; Jesus Wasn’t Palestinian

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: The diplomatic crisis between Israel and Ireland

Why are the Irish so bigoted against Israel and the Jewish people?

Ireland has a deplorable history. As Sa’ar said, it was at best neutral during World War II. In 1945, the Irish leader Éamon de Valera sent his condolences to the German people over Hitler’s death.

One reason often given is the country’s Catholicism with its ancient history of theological antisemitism. But this can’t be the whole reason since other Catholic countries aren’t suffused with this degree of venom towards Israel and the Jews.

An important further reason is that the Irish identify with the Palestinian Arabs as perceived victims of Israeli “colonial” oppression just as they identify the Irish as victims of British “colonial” oppression.

Some point to the critical influence in Ireland of Sinn Féin, the party that served as the political fig leaf for the Irish Republican Army. The IRA waged a terrorist war against Britain and the Protestants of U.K.-run Northern Ireland on and off from early in the last century and was responsible for a campaign of bomb attacks in disturbances known as the “Troubles” from the late 1960s to 1998.

The IRA received massive arms shipments from Libya in the 1980s, and was funded and trained by the Palestine Liberation Organization. After the IRA disarmed in the wake of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, the Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams met Hamas leaders in 2006 and 2009.

According to Irish journalist and anti-extremism researcher, Dr. Eoin Lenihan, the links in the Irish mind between Israeli and British “colonialists” and between the Palestinian and Irish “resistance” resulted from Adams yoking together Arab and Irish nationalism under the banner of revolutionary socialism.

This permeated more widely, he says, because, unlike other countries, Ireland doesn’t have a tradition of centrist politics. Its two big parties, Fiánna Fail and Fine Gael, have no core values; so they veer towards wherever the wind is blowing—in this case, Sinn Féin’s revolutionary leftism and the Israel-bashing NGOs such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty.

Through Sinn Fein’s influence, Ireland has become enmeshed with the international radical left and its promotion of intersectionality and victim culture. Under this dogma, the Jews can never be victims because they are seen as all-powerful, controlling the Western world in their own interests to the disadvantage of everyone else.

Victim culture is therefore itself innately anti-Jew. So there’s a double source of Jew-hatred in Ireland—both from its Catholic heritage and from the secular religion of universalism and victim culture.

Ireland is simply a danger to Israel and the Jewish people. It should be treated as a pariah until and unless it decides to support civilization rather than its nemesis.

Biden admin, universities failed to crack down on antisemitism in ‘disturbing pattern’ after Oct. 7, scathing House GOP report finds

The Biden administration, top universities and medical institutions utterly failed to crack down on antisemitism that exploded in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack, according to a scathing House Republican report released Thursday, which laid bare “systemic” and “astounding” shortcomings.

Six GOP-led House committees declared in a joint report that “antisemitism has been allowed to fester unchecked” due to “a disturbing pattern of defensiveness and denial,” according to a copy exclusively obtained by The Post.

“Across the nation, Jewish Americans have been harassed, assaulted, intimidated, and subjected to hostile environments — violations that stand in stark contrast to America’s fundamental values, including a foundational commitment to religious freedom for all,” the 42-page report says.

“The failure of our federal government departments and agencies is astounding.”

The outpouring of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish remarks and actions tested America’s free speech precepts and the fact that hate speech is generally lawful in the United States, unless it amounts to harassment or is an aggravating factor in a criminal act such as assault.

The Republican-led report points out, however, that federal law generally prevents recipients of taxpayer funds from tolerating discrimination — allowing a foothold to leverage recipients to stiffen policies on campuses and at medical settings should federal officials so choose.

In almost every case, institutions allegedly took almost no disciplinary action against alleged antisemites and made no changes to codes of conduct, and faced no loss of grants to stop the rapidly spreading Jew hatred.

The report focuses heavily on Columbia University and its recommendations urge federal agencies to use money to incentivize more stringent anti-discrimination policies — and also proposes potential legislation to that effect.

“The executive branch should aggressively enforce Title VI [anti-discrimination rules] and hold schools accountable for their failures to protect students. Universities that fail to fulfill the obligations upon which their federal funding is predicated or whose actions make clear they are unfit stewards of taxpayer dollars should be treated accordingly,” the Republican panels said.

Commuting federal death sentences would include Tree of Life shooter, McConnell says

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) urged U.S. President Joe Biden not to heed the call in a letter from 21 retired, liberal judges to commute the sentences of all of those on federal death row.

“President Biden’s decision earlier this month to pardon his son may well have set a unique and unfortunate precedent. But abuse of the presidential pardon doesn’t stop there,” the Kentucky senator said on the Senate floor on Dec. 18. “Last week, the president went on to commute 1,500 sentences, and the way liberal activists see it, he should have done even more.”

“More than 20 liberal retired judges—including the Boston radical, who recommended the disgraced pro-crime U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins—have now urged the president to turn his eye to federal death sentences,” McConnell said.

“If the president heeded these former judges’ call, it would mean commuting the death sentences of the perpetrator of the massacre at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh,” the senator added.

Robert Bowers was convicted of murdering 11 people at the Tree of Life*Or Simcha Synagogue in Pittsburgh on the morning of Oct. 27, 2018.

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02/13 Links Pt2: Melanie Phillips: A malign inversionNazis, Islamic Antisemitism and the Middle East; Footage of Sinwar in Gaza tunnel

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: A malign inversion

It is a strategy of war, used by Islamists in the psychological warfare they deploy against their victims. And now it is being used by the Biden administration and the British government against Israel.

This week, the British government imposed financial and travel restrictions against four Israeli residents of the disputed territories of Judea and Samaria. The Foreign Secretary, Lord Cameron, claimed that they were “extremist settlers” who were involved in “some of the most egregious abuses of human rights,” having carried out violent attacks on Palestinians in the “West Bank” by threatening them “often at gunpoint” and “forcing them off land that is rightfully theirs”.

The Foreign Office said that Israel’s “failure to act” had led to “an environment of near total impunity for settler extremists”, with violence in the West Bank reaching record levels in 2023.

The British are marching in lockstep with the Biden administration, which earlier this month also sanctioned four Israeli residents of these territories — one of whom is on the UK’s list — claiming that “extremist settler violence” had reached “intolerable levels”.

This is all an extraordinary and malign distortion and loss of proportion. As I wrote here, there is indeed a problem with violent Israeli “hilltop youth,” mainly aged between 14 and 19, but who are estimated to number only a few hundred among more than half a million Israeli residents of Judea and Samaria.

All such attacks are wrong and the Israelis should deal with these “hilltop youth” firmly — which they do, when they are indeed guilty of aggressive acts. But what Cameron and the Biden administration conspicuously fail to acknowledge is that in many of these violent encounters, the Israelis are responding to violence against them by the Palestinian Arabs.

Indeed, it is utterly astonishing that Cameron and the Americans defame the Israeli residents of the territories — the vast majority of whom live entirely peaceful and law-abiding lives — while making no mention whatsoever of the multiple attacks perpetrated by the Palestinian Arabs against these Israelis every day, vastly out-numbering attacks by the Israelis.

Cameron and the Americans say “settler” attacks last year reached record numbers. But there have been around 300 terrorist attacks against Israelis since October 7 alone.

Cameron and the Americans make no mention of the Arab attacks on Israeli “settlers,” involving shootings, rock-throwing and car ramming, which go on every day. They make no mention of the “settlers” Lucy Dee and her two daughters, Maia, 20, and Rina, 15, who were murdered last April by Palestinian terrorists who shot them in their car at point-blank range. They make no mention of the “settlers” Hallel Yaniv, 21, and his brother Yagel, 19, who were murdered by Palestinian terrorists a year ago when they were stuck in a traffic jam. They make no mention of the “settlers” Asher Menachem Paley, 8, and Yaakov Israel Paley, 6, who were standing at a bus stop with their father when a Palestinian terrorist rammed his car into them, killing them along with 20-year-old rabbinical student Alter Shlomo Lederman who had been married for two months.

Israelis are being regularly attacked and murdered by terrorists from a Palestinian population in the “West Bank” of whom more than 80 per cent support the Hamas atrocities. Yet Cameron and his chums in the US State Department have ignored all that. Instead, they have presented the Israelis as committing “egregious human rights abuses” against the Palestinians — thus deploying the Palestinian tactic of inverting victims and aggressors.

This is not surprising given the information upon which the Americans and British have been drawing — the twisted claims made by the UN, “human rights” NGOs and the entire “humanitarian” hate industry, which is deployed to destroy Israel’s reputation through distortion and defamation but which the US and UK foreign policy establishments invest with the sanctity of disinterested conscience. As a result, Cameron and his chums have been played for suckers.

In an important piece in Tablet, Liel Leibowitz writes about Lieutenant General Michael R. Fenzel, a three-star general who currently serves as the US security coordinator to Israel and the Palestinian Authority (USSC). The USSC, says Liebowitz, is well-known for its regular, sometimes daily briefings and reports about “extremist settlers,” which it provides to members of Congress, policy hands and Israel-related advocacy groups, as well as to foreign countries’ forces in Israel.

Nazis, Islamic Antisemitism and the Middle East

To most Westerners, there are two default explanations for the Israeli-Arab conflict: either it is a response to Israeli oppression of the Palestinians, or it is the product of ancient hatreds that stretch back to a time before memory. Neither explanation gets close to the truth, which Matthias Küntzel’s recent book Nazis, Islamic Anti-Semitism, and the Middle East seeks to expose by examining how so many Arabs came to hate Jews. Daniel Ben-Ami writes in his review:
It was the Nazis, Küntzel argues, who played the key role in bringing genocidal anti-Semitism to the region. Küntzel identifies several channels through which the Nazis exerted their influence. From 1937 onwards they gave financial backing and other forms of support to Amin al-Husseini, the mufti of Jerusalem. . . . The Nazis distributed large numbers of Husseini’s pamphlet, Judaism and Islam, first published in Cairo in 1937. For Küntzel, it was a seminal document, the first to link the Jew hatred of classical Islamic texts with the conspiratorial anti-Semitism that emerged in Europe in the late 19th century.

Finally, even when it was clear that the Nazis were losing the Second World War they still provided support for a forthcoming Arab war against Israel. This included an attempt to provide a large store of light arms for Muslims to use to fight the nascent Jewish state.

Yet, Ben-Ami observes, some of the seeds were sown even before Husseini and Hitler came on the scene:
Earlier developments had already prepared the ground for the Nazis’ ideological intervention in the region. Christian missionaries had already begun to export traditional European conceptions of Jews into the region in the 19th century. For example, the idea of the blood libel—that Jews drank the blood of non-Jewish children—was an import from Europe.

Who Should Run Gaza After the War?

It’s been clear since October 7 that no sustainable peace between Israelis and Palestinians is possible as long as Hamas has power in Gaza. And so, the question is: Who should lead in Gaza once Hamas is destroyed?

Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has backed the idea of giving control to the Palestinian Authority that runs the West Bank. The PA, notoriously corrupt, has been run since 2005 by Mahmoud Abbas, who is now 88.

Is there a way to encourage newer and better Palestinian leadership? Douglas J. Feith, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute who served as Under Secretary of Defense for Policy in the George W. Bush administration, thinks so. Here’s his proposal:

The Gaza war is a chance for Palestinians, with outside help, to make a quantum-leap improvement in their politics and society. And that starts with leadership.

Western countries and perhaps Arab states will inevitably send large sums of reconstruction aid to Gaza after the conflict.

They should use that money to empower a new elite in the territory.

The United States can help arrange to channel the aid through some kind of body whose governors would include Palestinians committed to conditions set by the donors. The main conditions should be radical but hard to argue against:
(1) don’t steal the funds,
(2) fund only civilian projects, and
(3) don’t promote hatred of Israel or the donor countries.

There could also be more specific guidance; for example, construct permanent housing rather than rebuild “refugee camps,” and require schools to promote nonviolent resolution of disputes rather than extremism. This would be the opposite of the approach taken for 75 years by the UN agency for Palestinian relief (UNRWA), which has dedicated itself to perpetuating the war against Israel.

Palestinians agreeing to administer the reconstruction would need security for themselves and their families, who might have to be removed to safe places abroad, as the current Palestinian leaders would see them as enemies.

The Gaza war is a major historical event, and donors can set goals accordingly. They need not be content to aim for minor reforms of current institutions. What is needed is serious improvement in the political culture. There is no harm in trying to move substantially beyond the status quo.

It would be wasteful (at best) to put reconstruction aid into the hands of the PA or UNRWA, let alone Hamas. The existing political institutions are the problem, not the solution. A random set of Palestinian businesspeople would do a better job than the leaders now in power.

Seth Mandel: What Price Is Too High?

The conundrum Israel faced and faces—that its enemies may need to be confronted in a way that the society simply cannot stomach, given the dangers posed to the young men and women who serve as its chief line of protection—was something Ahmed Jibril exploited brilliantly. In May 1985, he got Israel to agree to an unprecedented trade: Jibril would return the three IDF soldiers held by his group, and in return Israel would free 1,150 prisoners from its jails, some of whom would be chosen by Jibril himself. Yitzhak Rabin, then the defense minister, explained the deal before the Knesset: “I see this as a supreme moral responsibility which a government, a defense minister, the state of Israel, owes each of them. This is our humane, moral obligation to the fate of an Israeli, and certainly to the fate of an IDF soldier sent into battle at our command.”

But the cost was steep. Among those released were Kozo Okamoto, the Japanese Red Army terrorist who had led a massacre of 26 people at Ben-Gurion airport (known as Lod at the time) in 1972. More consequential was Ahmed Yassin, who would found and lead Hamas at the outset of the first intifada two years later. Also freed was Ziad Nakhaleh, the current leader of Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the group’s military-wing commander during the first intifada. Jibril himself was credited with one of the attacks that triggered that intifada, in which—in another historical echo—fighters under his command killed several Israeli soldiers after crossing from Lebanon on hang gliders. (Hamas used the vehicle’s more technologically advanced progeny, the motorized paraglider, during its October 7 attacks.)

A 2004 swap saw Israel bring home one live captive, the businessman Elhanan Tannenbaum, who had been taken by Hezbollah in 2001, in return for 435 prisoners. Former Mossad chief Meir Dagan said that one of those released in that deal, Luay Saadi, went on to set up a terror cell that killed 30 Israelis.

In general, Dagan said, recidivism by freed terrorists was high—probably 45 percent. According to an organization that advocates for victims of terror, 80 percent of terrorists released since the Jibril deal went back to their old ways. (Not all, it has to be said, gained their liberty in hostage swaps.)

Dagan left office in January 2011. That October, Israel would complete its deal for Gilad Shalit. In June 2006, Shalit’s tank crew was ambushed by Hamas terrorists on the Israeli side of the border with Gaza. Shalit was taken back to the Strip. Two subsequent Israeli rescue operations in Gaza failed. In 2011, Netanyahu agreed to release 1,027 prisoners in Israeli jails for Shalit. Four years later, the Times of Israel reported that between April 2014 and July 2015, six Israelis had been murdered by prisoners released in the Shalit deal. And then came October 7, 2023.

On January 30, 2024, Netanyahu spoke at a pre-military academy and said, “We will not remove the IDF from the Gaza Strip and we will not release thousands of terrorists. None of this will happen. What will happen? Absolute victory!” Meanwhile, press reports indicated that Israel and Hamas were creeping closer to a hostage deal—and if there is one, there will surely be Palestinian terrorists freed because of it.

In a 1986 essay written just at the beginning of his meteoric political rise, Netanyahu—who had made his name in part as the head of an organization called the Jonathan Institute, dedicated to the study of international terrorism—asserted that terrorist hostage-taking can be stopped with a policy of “refusal to yield and a readiness to apply force.” To the terrorist, this proposes “a simple exchange: your life for the lives of the hostages.” He acknowledged that a rescue operation isn’t always possible. Nevertheless, “governments must persist in refusing to capitulate. This is both a moral obligation to other potential hostages and, in the long view, the only pragmatic posture.”

What Netanyahu said may have been true then, and it may be true now—but it turns out that a democratic society that cherishes its children is unable to make its calculations on safety and risk with pragmatism as its guide. It’s easier to write such an essay when you’re not in power.

The ultimate dilemma for Israel is this: It is religiously and morally obliged to do everything it can to rescue Jews held hostage. At the same time, it is religiously and morally and politically obliged to defend the Jewish state as a whole. This is an irreconcilable dilemma, because its enemies are there to take advantage of the contradiction every time.

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06/24 Links Pt1: Exposed: UN Teachers Call to Murder Jews; Senate Shoots Down Biden’s Anti-Semitic Ambassador Pick; Inaugural Emirates Airline Flight to Tel Aviv Takes Off From Dubai

From Ian:

UN Watch: Exposed: UN Teachers Call to Murder Jews

As the U.S. and other Western states gather today at the United Nations in the presence of Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to pledge funding for the UN agency that runs schools and social services for Palestinians, a watchdog group urged democracies to stop funding hundreds of UNRWA teachers and other employees who call to murder Jews.

UN Watch today exposed antisemitism and incitement to terrorism propagated recently by 10 UNRWA teachers and other employees. This is in addition to more than 100 UNRWA educators and staff previously exposed published by the non-governmental organization UN Watch, an independent human rights monitoring group based in Geneva.

The latest 10 UNRWA teachers and other staffers to be exposed are:
1. Nihaya Awad, Computer Teacher at UNRWA West Bank, Praises Hamas
2. Abu Muhammad Fathi Bahar, UNRWA Lebanon Employee, Promotes Violence
3. Elham Mansour (Teacher, UNRWA Lebanon), Incites Killing Israelis and Jews
4. Hana’a Daoud (Teacher, UNRWA Jordan), Advocates Killing Jews
5. Sameer Abo Ayyash (Social Worker, UNRWA Jordan), Admires Taliban
6. Majed Zaben (Teacher, UNRWA Jordan), Incites Against Israel
7. Adel Torbani (Math Teacher, UNRWA Jordan), Rejects Israel’s Right to Exist and Posts Antisemitism
8. Qusai Mansi (Employee, UNRWA Jordan), Equates Zionists with Nazis
9. Rula Om Mo’awia (Teacher, UNRWA Jordan), Incites Against Israel
10. Muneera Abu Hadeel (Midwife, UNRWA West Bank), Portrays Israel as Thieving Dog

As documented above, UN Watch has uncovered 20 new cases of virulent incitement committed by 10 UNRWA teachers and other staff, in violation of the agency’s own rules and stated values of zero tolerance for racism, discrimination or antisemitism.

UN Watch submitted the findings today to EU foreign affairs commissioner Joseph Borell, and U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, whose governments are among the top funders of UNRWA, and to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini.

UN Watch is calling on the agency’s major funders—including the U.S., Germany, the UK and the European Union—to ensure that none of their combined $1.2 billion of donations to UNRWA will fund teachers of hate, and to hold the agency accountable to its own standards and commitments.

As revealed by UN Watch today, UNRWA staff stationed in the West Bank, Lebanon and Jordan are publicly inciting antisemitism and terrorism.

Report: UNRWA educators promote antisemitism online

Israel’s UN Envoy Demands Accountability After Report Exposes New Cases of Antisemitism at Palestinian Refugee Agency

Israel’s envoy to the United Nations launched a fresh attack on Thursday upon UNRWA, the refugee agency solely dedicated to the Palestinians that was charged in a recent independent report with inciting antisemitism.

“Not only does UNRWA not help resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it causes enormous damage, incites hatred and terrorism and perpetuates the conflict, all under the auspices of the UN, which buries its head in the sand and refuses to see reality,” Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, said in a statement on Thursday.

Erdan cited a report published by the UN Watch NGO, that documented over 120 UNRWA educators and staff promoting violence and antisemitism on social media. Titled “UNRWA’s Teachers of Hate,” the report also discovered 20 new cases of “virulent UNRWA staff incitement which violate the agency’s rules and stated values of zero tolerance for racism, discrimination or antisemitism.”

One May 2022 Facebook post by an UNRWA teacher in Lebanon, Elham Mansour, declared: “By Allah, anyone who can kill and slaughter any Zionist and Israeli criminal, and doesn’t do so, doesn’t deserve to live. Kill them and pursue them everywhere, they are the greatest enemy….All Israel deserves is death.” Another post by Mansour, addressed to “filthy Zionists,” urged Palestinians to “slaughter each and every one of you and toss you into the garbage heaps, because you are filthy, you contaminate any land you are in.”

According to UN Watch, UNRWA’s budget last year included $338 million from the United States, $177 million from Germany, $118 million from the European Commission.

#UN: Disgraced Human Rights Council in Geneva. Hillel Neuer, Executive Director of UN Watch, Malcolm Hoenlein @Conf_of_pres @mhoenlein1 https://t.co/hCwhgnmQXY via @Audioboom #UN

— John Batchelor (@batchelorshow) June 24, 2022

Underfunding UNRWA will lead to its collapse, agency head warns

It's not enough to renew the mandate, Lazzarini said, UN nations must also provide the funds to execute it. Eventually, he said, failure to do so would "push the Agency towards financial collapse."

"For years, we managed the chronic underfunding through internal measures such as cost control, austerity and zero-growth budgets," Lazzarini said.

"Today, we have depleted our financial reserves and reached the limits of cost control and austerity measures," he explained, adding that, "austerity now affects the quality of the services."

"We are not in a position anymore to adopt austerity and cost control measures of the size of the funding gap," he said.

A funding failure now would put at risk the education of half-a-million girls and boys as well as the primary health care for close to 2 million people, Lazzarini explained.

"To illustrate austerity, think of 50 children in one classroom, double shifts within schools, or a medical visit where a doctor spends less than 3 minutes with a patient," Lazzarini said.

The pace of donations, he said, cannot keep up with the needs of a growing population.

This is not a new problem
UNRWA has long been in financial distress, but the situation has become more acute in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian-Ukrainian war.

"The situation in Ukraine has exacerbated the noticeable increase in food and commodity prices, seriously affecting the household economy of Palestine refugees," Lazzarini said.

Poverty rates have reached 80% in Lebanon, Syria and Gaza with "too many Palestine refugees report living with one meal a day," Lazzarini said.

"I have appealed to all donors to ensure that Palestine refugees are not a collateral of the events in Ukraine," he said.

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12/21 Links Pt2: The 10 most insane UN anti-Israel actions of 2017; Is The Liberal Media Giving Linda Sarsour A Pass On A Sexual Assault Cover-Up?

From Ian:

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UN defies Trump, rejects US recognition of Jerusalem as Israeli capital by 128-9

Non-binding General Assembly motion brands US president's decision on holy city 'null and void'; US envoy Haley notes '65 countries refused to condemn the United States'
The United Nations General Assembly on Thursday defied warnings from the United States and overwhelmingly passed a resolution condemning the Trump administration’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and calling on countries not to move their diplomatic missions to the city.

A total of 128 countries voted in favor of the text, defying the threats — that were forcefully reiterated in an address before the vote by US envoy Nikki Haley — to cut aid to countries that opposed the motion.

Nine countries — the US, Israel, Togo, Micronesia, Guatemala, Nauru, Palau, Marshall Islands and Honduras — voted against the resolution.

There were 35 abstentions, including a number of countries that had been widely expected to support the move, such as Colombia, Mexico, Malawi and Rwanda. A further 21 countries did not vote at all.

By abstaining, Hungary, Croatia, Latvia, Romania and the Czech Republic broke European Union consensus on the vote. The EU had previously vehemently rejected any attempt to change Jerusalem’s status in the absence of a final peace deal between Israelis and Palestinians.

Haley tweeted after the vote that “65 countries refused to condemn the United States” — totaling the no votes, the abstentions and the no-shows.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, in a video, that “Israel completely rejects this preposterous resolution. Jerusalem is our capital — always was, always will be.” However, he added, “I do appreciate the fact that a growing number of countries refuse to participate in this theater of the absurd.” He thanked US President Donald Trump and Haley for their “stalwart defense” of Israel and the truth.

Full text of Nikki Haley’s speech to UN General Assembly on Jerusalem

.@dannydanon: “I am holding before you a coin. It says ‘Freedom of Zion’. If you check the envelopes on your desk, you will see I left one for each of you... These are the facts no one wants to hear.” pic.twitter.com/FjcxMF4QZo

— UN Watch (@UNWatch) December 21, 2017

Hillel Neuer: The 10 most insane UN anti-Israel actions of 2017

5. Dubravka Simonovic, the U.N. expert on violence against women, visited Israel and the territories and concluded: When Palestinian men beat their wives, it’s Israel’s fault.

UN Watch’s executive director took the floor to challenge the U.N. investigator’s report: “Why did you fail to mention that official Palestinian TV regularly broadcasts Islamic preachers who tell the people how to beat their wives?”

In reaction, the Egyptian chair of the meeting broke with parliamentary protocol: “I would like to say thank you, but I can’t,” said Ambassador Amr Ramadan. “Because I think that you need to respect this council more.”

4. In its ritual annual scapegoating of the Jewish state, the UN General Assembly adopted 20 one-sided resolutions against Israel—and only 6 resolutions on the rest of the world combined. Tomorrow, at an emergency meeting called by the Arab and Islamic states to condemn the United States over its recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, a 21st resolution will be adopted criticizing the Jewish state.

3. UNESCO negated its mandate to protect world heritage by adopting a resolution recognizing Hebron—second holiest city in Judaism because of the Tomb of the Patriarchs—as a Palestinian world heritage site.

UN Watch revealed that UNESCO had rejected its own experts’ advice, who opposed the Palestinian nomination on account of failing to properly recognize Hebron’s Jewish and Christian heritage.

2. UNRWA launched a global campaign showing the picture of an 11-year-old girl, “Aya from Gaza,” in a bombed-out building—portraying Israel as a cruel oppressor of Palestinian children—but UN Watch exposed it as a fraud: the photo was actually from Syria. The story went viral online. UNRWA suffered massive embarrassment, and was forced to remove the photo worldwide.

1. The office of U.N. human rights commissioner Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein spent the past year preparing to inflame the anti-Israel boycott campaign by drawing up a blacklist of companies that do business in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem and other Jewish communities over the 1949 armistice line. The report is due to be submitted this month, and presented before the council in March. UN Watch will take the lead in countering the blacklist, what Nikki Haley this week called the “ugly creation” of the UNHRC.

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07/10 Links Pt2: The Normalization of Terrorism and Jew-Hate; The Vindication of a Jewish Professor; What would a two-state solution solve?

From Ian:

The Normalization of Terrorism and Jew-Hate

It apparently never occurred to either the heads of the UN or the EU to consider that if you are a terrorist organization that commits war crimes, you do not get to choose how a war that you started is waged against you.

If you do not want a "bloodbath," do not take hostages, hide them among civilians, try to prevent a rescue, then if they are rescued, profess shock at the fallout that you yourself have teed up.

BBC news asked with a straight face if, to spare the lives of the Gazan "civilians" who were keeping the hostages locked up in their homes, Israel had given prior warning before launching its rescue operation. The Israeli spokesman, also keeping a straight face, politely answered that a warning might have endangered the hostages and made the rescue more difficult.

The irony of all this seems completely lost on the political and media elites, who kept insisting that the Israeli rescue operation was somehow immoral. By condemning Israel's rescue operation, they suggest that massacring and kidnapping 240 people is moral, and an act that should not require a military response.

The new purported Hamas agreement to a ceasefire apparently comes with "a major hurdle: The Iran-backed terror group is now demanding 'written guarantees' that mediators will continue to negotiate a permanent truce, once the first phase of the plan goes into effect, the Hamas rep said."

Essentially, this demand means that Hamas and its handlers, Iran and Qatar, would like to start wars and then have someone else stop them when they do not like how they are going.

In contravention of the Geneva conventions, Hamas has refused to allow the Red Cross to check on the welfare of the hostages. One can imagine why.

To this day, there seems little-to-no interest in the fate or condition of the hostages still in Gaza. Instead, there is denial that the October 7 atrocities even took place, compared to an almost obsessive regard for the safety of, and humanitarian aid for Gazans. When the UN is unable to deliver the aid, Israel, not the UN, is blamed.

The Hamas murders, rapes, burning alive of babies and abductions – all the reasons why Israel was forced to go to war with Hamas to begin with -- have retreated into the background.

What seems to matter instead to those who set the political and media agendas is to use the Hamas war once again to demonize the Jews as the world's most inhuman people for wanting to live peacefully on their historical land without daily massacres from Iran and its proxies -- Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah and the Houthis -- which apparently plan to encircle them in a "Ring of Fire" -- "six fronts of aggression against Israel" -- as part of Iran's attempt at hegemony in the Middle East.

Western elites seem happy to assist them in that fight.

Seth Mandel: The Vindication of a Jewish Professor

Hamas’s brutal attacks on October 7 were the spark that lit up college campuses, but the powder keg already in place can best be understood from a lawsuit filed nearly two years earlier. That suit has now been resolved, and it provides an important lens through which to see the long-brewing anti-Semitism crisis in American higher education.

The story ended on Tuesday with the vindication of a Jewish professor who lost her job due to anti-Jewish bias. But it began back in 2005.

As was noted by the American Center for Law and Justice, which represented Melissa Landa in her battle against discrimination, Landa became a graduate assistant at the University of Maryland in ’05 and was hired two years later for a full-time teaching position in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction. After an award-and-accolade-filled eight years there, she formed a group to speak out against anti-Semitism at her alma mater, Oberlin College. Then she took an affiliate professorship at the University of Haifa in defiance of the growing BDS movement on campus.

Her employers at the University of Maryland made their discomfort with her pro-Jewish affiliations clear, and started freezing Landa out of the department. When she objected, she was let go. Landa filed a religious-discrimination complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which investigated and determined that Landa had provided enough evidence to sue.

Maryland declined to settle, and ACLJ filed suit on behalf of Landa in 2022. Maryland’s attempts to have the case dismissed failed, and the school has now agreed to pay Landa damages and attorney fees.

Stories like this matter for the obvious reasons—religious discrimination is vile and illegal. But they also help clarify the chicken-or-egg coverage of campus anti-Semitism, which treats it as a phenomenon that began with the current conflict and therefore may simply end when the conflict ends.

Stories like Landa’s also put the focus where it should be: on the schools and their administrators, and the atmosphere on university campuses dating back decades.

On Monday, Gallup released its latest polling on higher education and public opinion. The results aren’t surprising: “Americans are now nearly equally divided among those who have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence (36%), some confidence (32%), or little or no confidence (32%) in higher education. When Gallup first measured confidence in higher education in 2015, 57% had a great deal or quite a lot of confidence and 10% had little or none.”

A Walk With the Ghosts of Jerusalem's Old City

But even as the Old City stands empty, new tourist destinations have appeared in the south of Israel, where all there is to see is raw sadness and horror. People—so far mostly in small groups—are making a modern pilgrimage to kibbutzim near Gaza, and to Re'im, the Tribe of Nova festival site. They come as an act of remembrance of the people who were murdered, tortured, raped or taken to Gaza on Oct. 7—or, in a more cynical assessment, to gawk at the evidence of evil.

Shachar Gal of Hands on Israel will take you to see the aftermath of the horror, but he's not in any way eager to go. Visiting these sites makes it Oct. 7 all over again, he said.

"I wouldn't have come, because of the trauma," Gal said on the road south from Tel Aviv. "This was a minute ago."

Still, he is a knowledgeable and faithful guide, showing a small group the "sites," which included the Kissufim military base that was overrun by murderers and the overlook of an Israeli Navy base. There was also a stop in the town of Sderot, where an Israeli tank eventually blew up a police station that had been occupied by terrorists.

At the Nova site, Israeli soldiers in their late teens and early twenties climbed down from buses to walk among the memorials to individuals–many their age– killed or captured, grim looks on their faces, guns slung over their shoulders.

Most surprising to me, there was a regular tourist bus, too. Sweaty, middle-aged American men and women walked behind a guide who was explaining the inexplicable. She painted a picture so terrible that it sounded like she must have witnessed the brutality for herself.

Listening just a few seconds more, I realized that she had. She had lived through it all. She had survived and now dealt with her trauma by sharing her experience with others.

My hope is that these new sites won't permanently take the place of Jerusalem's Old City, and that tourists will pulse through its stone heart again soon.

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11/12 Links Pt1: Israeli special forces officer killed, another injured in Gaza raid; At Least 10 Israelis Wounded in Massive Gaza Rocket Barrage; Netanyahu says Israel ‘shielding’ Europe from terrorism

From Ian:

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Israeli special forces officer killed, another injured in Gaza raid

An Israeli special forces officer was killed and another was moderately wounded during a night-time operation in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, the army said. The incident sparked intense clashes between the Israeli military and the Hamas terror group.

At least seven Palestinian terrorists were killed in the firefight and airstrikes that followed the Israeli raid, including a senior Hamas commander, according to Palestinian officials. Six of the Palestinian fatalities were said by Hamas to be its members. The seventh was a member of the Nasser Salahdin Brigades, the armed wing of the Popular Resistance Committees, Hamas said in a statement.

Israeli officials later indicated that the incident was an operation that went awry but not an assassination attempt.

The military censor barred news of the IDF officer’s death and the second officer’s injuries from being published for several hours until their families could be notified. The names of the soldiers were not immediately released.

The fighting set off a massive round of Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, and by morning 17 rockets or mortar shells were fired at southern Israel. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced late Sunday he would cut short an official state visit to Paris and return to Israel immediately.

Israeli Fire Kills Seven During Undercover Raid in Gaza, IDF Officer Killed

Israeli forces killed seven Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Sunday in air strikes and an undercover raid that Hamas said targeted one of its commanders and the Israeli military said left one of its officers dead.

The Israeli incursion and air attacks drew rocket fire from the Hamas-controlled enclave, with sirens sounding in Israeli communities along the border. The military said its defenses intercepted two of the launches. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage on the Israeli side of the frontier.

The violence prompted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to cut short a visit to Paris, where he had been gathering with world leaders for a World War One commemoration.

Hamas said the incident began when assailants in a passing car opened fire on a group of its armed men, killing one of its commanders. Hamas gunmen gave chase as the car sped back towards the border with Israel, Hamas said in a statement.

During the pursuit, Israeli aircraft fired more than 40 missiles in the area, according to witnesses.

Medics and Hamas officials said at least seven people were killed, four of them militants, including Hamas commander Nour Baraka. It was unclear if the other fatalities included gunmen.

"Seven Palestinians" were killed in #Gaza last night, but who were these people? #Hamas knows, and you should know too: These were certainly not civilian casualties. pic.twitter.com/kQ6LMPu8D7

— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) November 12, 2018

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08/29 Links Pt1: The United Nations is ‘terrified’ of Trump; Dozens of Palestinian diplomats celebrated October 7; Torres accuses U.S. airlines of ‘effectively boycotting’ Israel

From Ian:

Strangling Iran: What holds true in the West Bank, holds in Gaza

The IDF’s actions on Wednesday in Jenin, Tulkarm, Tubas, and the Far’a refugee camp in the Jordan Valley indicate that it has learned that lesson. The failed suicide bombing attack last week in Tel Aviv was the catalyst for implementing this lesson.

A terrorist believed to be from Nablus, identified as Jafar Muna, carried an 8 kg. bomb outside of a crowded synagogue when the device exploded – apparently a “work accident” – killing him and injuring a passerby. The country heaved a sigh of relief at its good fortune for this miracle, at having averted a mass-casualty incident.

But it was a wake-up call. That an explosive device of this magnitude was smuggled into Israel showed that the country needed to take the growing terrorist infrastructure developing in Judea and Samaria quite seriously. It also needs to take threats from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which took responsibility for the bomber, seriously as well.

Iran, which successfully identifies areas of weak governance around Israel to set up proxies to lash out at the Jewish state, has been making serious inroads into the West Bank for the last decade, smuggling weapons to a myriad of different terrorist groups there through Lebanon and Jordan.

Last August, after a 42-year-old mother of three, Batsheva Nigri, was murdered near Hebron in a shooting attack on her car, both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant pointed fingers at Iran.

“We are in the middle of a terrorist onslaught that is encouraged, guided, and funded by Iran and its proxies,” Netanyahu said. Gallant added that the wave of terror at the time, two months before October 7, was “guided by Iran, which is looking for any way to harm Israeli citizens.”

Both Palestinian terrorists and Iranian officials have also acknowledged Iran’s involvement. Since October 7, Iran has stepped up these efforts, hoping to ignite another front against Israel.

In July of 2023, senior Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzouk was quoted in the Iranian press saying Iran is actually fighting alongside “the resistance in Palestine” through its generous support. An editorial published by the Iranian Tasnim News Agency that same month said Iran’s successful arming of the West Bank would sink the “leaking ship of Israel.”

Automatic weapons and crude pipe bombs have been replaced in the hands of terrorists by powerful improvised explosive devices (IEDs) used against troops conducting counter-terror actions in the West Bank. These IEDs, including the one that Muna wanted to explode in Tel Aviv, reveal a terrorist infrastructure developing – including IED manufacturing labs – directly under Israel’s nose that Iran could use as yet another pressure point against the country.

This is something that Israel cannot allow, and last week’s attempted suicide bombing set alarm bells ringing regarding how far Iran’s program had advanced and convincing policymakers of the need now to quash it.

The IDF’s action on Wednesday was reportedly the most significant military maneuver in the West Bank since Operation Defensive Shield which began in March of 2002, following the Netanya Park Hotel Passover Eve massacre where a suicide bombing attack killed 30 people at a Passover seder.

Up until then, the IDF – under the Oslo Agreements – stayed out of the large Palestinian cities, thereby enabling a terrorist infrastructure to thrive, one that included labs for manufacturing bombs for suicide attacks.

The Park Hotel bombing was the trigger for bringing the IDF back into the Palestinian cities. It took several years of intense military action throughout Judea and Samaria, but these actions did lead to an end to the Second Intifada and significantly degrade terrorist capabilities, leading to a precipitous drop in the number of Israelis killed in terrorist attacks: from 457 fatalities in 2002 to 9 in 2019.

Just as some of the lessons learned from Gaza on October 7 can be applied to the West Bank, the reverse is also true: lessons learned over the years fighting terror in Judea and Samaria can be applied in Gaza. For instance, the operation currently underway in northern Samaria is an indication of what the future holds in Gaza.

The 42-day Operation Defensive Shield that began in March of 2002 was a turning point, and Israel did degrade terrorist capabilities. But this was not a one-off deal, with Israel just leaving the territory after the operation.

Rather, it takes continuous work to ensure that the terrorist infrastructure does not reappear, what security officials continuously refer to as “mowing the lawn.” What this predicts is that when the intense fighting stops in Gaza, the continuous war against terrorists – preventing the resurrection of a terrorist infrastructure there – will continue for years, if not decades.

Just look at Judea and Samaria. Twenty-two years after the IDF launched Operation Defensive Shield, it is still “mowing the lawn” there and trying to prevent the re-emergence of a vast terrorist infrastructure. It is endless labor, with no clear finish line. What holds true in Judea and Samaria will certainly be the case in Gaza as well.

Revealed: Dozens of Palestinian diplomats celebrated October 7

Scores of Palestinian diplomats at the United Nations, across Europe and around the world celebrated the attack on Israel on October 7, compared Israel to the Nazis or made other disturbing statements, the JC can reveal.

The findings raise serious questions about the legitimacy of Palestinian Authority (PA) officials on the world stage. The PA is increasingly expected to participate in governing Gaza after the war and help build a two-state solution.

A dossier of evidence compiled by investigators from the GnasherJew group uncovered troubling details from the social media activity of ambassadors, other officials and even embassy accounts.

The analysis of hundreds of posts from more than 30 profiles found senior diplomats smearing Israeli troops as Nazis, supporting the actions of Hamas and advocating the erasure of Israel.

The most disturbing statements began on October 7 itself. Hassan Albalawi, the deputy head of the Palestine mission to the EU, reacted by celebrating Hamas as “heroic”, while Adel Atieh, the Palestinian ambassador to the EU, described the terrorists as “the people of the mighty”. Meanwhile, Khuloussi Bsaiso, a Palestinian diplomat at the UN, shared a map of the Middle East without Israel. “Palestine as it should be,” he commented.

When questioned by the JC, Bsaiso claimed that his social media posts were not shared in a professional capacity, adding: “For your information we the Palestinians are Jews, Christians and Muslims.”

In Britain, meanwhile, Rana Abuayyash, consul at the Palestinian mission to London, shared a post on November 3 showing the Israeli flag morphing into Hitler and reposted a TikTok video of Netanyahu underneath the Nazi dictator. There are dozens of similar examples.

As the war in Gaza continues to rage, many of those named in the dossier are regarded as moral authorities in their host countries, invited to discuss the conflict on television and posting to thousands of followers on social media.

Sullivan: Israel-Hamas truce talks down to ‘nitty-gritty’

U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said on Thursday that Gaza ceasefire-and-hostages-for-terrorist-prisoner talks were making progress.

“The negotiators are bearing down on the details, meaning that we have advanced the discussions to a point where it’s in the nitty-gritty, and that is a positive sign of progress,” Sullivan told reporters in Beijing, where he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

On the Gaza issue, officials from the United States, Egypt, Qatar and Israel met in Doha on Wednesday to follow up on talks that took place in Cairo over the weekend and extended to Monday.

Jerusalem’s delegation—composed of officials from the Israel Defense Forces, the Mossad and the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet)—had returned on Tuesday from the round of negotiations in Cairo.

The high-level Cairo talks ended on Sunday without a deal, but discussions continued on Monday with lower-level officials to attempt to bridge the remaining gaps.

“In Doha, the delegation is expected to meet with representatives of Egypt, Qatar and the United States who are continuing the negotiations and work with Israel and Hamas,” according to Israel’s Channel 12.

U.S. Special Coordinator for the Middle East Brett McGurk held talks on Tuesday in Doha with senior Qatari leaders ahead of Wednesday’s negotiations, the Associated Press reported, citing a U.S. official.

While American officials have expressed optimism about closing a deal, Hamas has publicly rejected the terms on the table and is accusing the United States of supporting Israeli demands. Egyptian officials have also expressed skepticism.

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