Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, August 09, 2022

08/09 Links Pt2: A New Iron Curtain Descends on Russia’s Jews; Anti-Israel Exec Departs Ratings Giant Amid Scrutiny; Sieges in the Land of Israel are nothing new; what's changed is how they end

From Ian:

A New Iron Curtain Descends on Russia’s Jews

For two decades, the Russian president has cultivated an image of himself as the philosemite-in-chief. Say what you will about Vladimir Putin, he was supposedly the best Russian leader the Jews ever had. There was a reason for this: As long as you had the Jews in your corner, you couldn’t be a fascist. And being anti-fascist was central to the story that the Soviets, and now the Russians, tell about themselves. (Just ask anyone who’s spent Victory Day in Moscow.) It masked Russia’s own, darker, fascistic impulses—which we are now seeing play out in Ukraine.

But now the charade is up. Putin has revealed himself to be not so different from his predecessors, and the echo of Russian antisemitism is no longer an echo.

In May, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov insisted that Hitler had “Jewish blood.” In June, television anchor Vladimir Solovyev took to Russia’s Channel 1, which is really a Kremlin media organ, to warn of Russian-speaking “traitors” who “have some relation to the Jewish people.” “You sold out our people long ago, when you decided to serve those who are reviving Nazi ideas in Europe,” Solovyev said.

Just a few weeks later, the Jewish Agency was informed of its closure, and late last month, Russia’s leading Jewish intellectual dissidents—Yevgenia Albats, Dmitry Aleshkovsky, and Dmitry Bykov—were declared to be foreign agents.

All of this—the purge of the intellectuals, the state-sanctioned insinuations of Jewish treachery, and now the closing of the Jewish Agency—are in keeping with the old Soviet model. The only unanswered question is how much Russian Jews will suffer.

It is also a reminder, in case one was needed, of why the Jewish state exists in the first place.

It was easy, until not so long ago, to forget. It’s been decades since Jews had to be airlifted to safety en masse, to say nothing of death camps or pogroms or ghettos. It seemed that we were living in a more enlightened era—one in which one could always book a flight and wake up in Tel Aviv. An era in which Israel is a military and technological powerhouse.

It was also easy to forget that, at its core, Israel was and is not simply a Jewish home but a Jewish haven. That the privilege of Jews in safer, more democratic climes—Jews who claim, like Soviet-Jewish apologists once did, that Israel doesn’t have anything to do with their lives, that the Jewish state doesn’t represent their values—is a privilege Russian Jews would be lucky to enjoy.

I cannot believe we have to have this conversation about the Holocaust and antisemitism again.

Seriously, this conversation again. The Holocaust is not a political tool for you to score political points. Last October, I wrote a piece published in the Reno Gazette-Journal saying that mask and vaccine mandates were not like the Holocaust. In January, I again wrote about antisemitism in The Nevada Independent condemning the lack of support for the Jewish community after the Colleyville hostage crisis.

The Nevada Independent’s CEO, Jon Ralston, tweeted this week that the Nevada State Democratic Party hired Shaun Navarro as their new “coalitions coordinator.” Ralston pointed out that Navarro had previously used the term “Nazi” to attack Republicans and gubernatorial nominee Joe Lombardo. Back in March, Navarro accosted Lombardo and asked him where his “Nazi uniform” was while berating him with abusive language.

Prominent Nevada Democrats — U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, Gov. Steve Sisolak (Lombardo’s November opponent) and Assemblymember Steve Yeager — issued statements condemning Navarro’s verbal abuse of Lombardo.

Even further evidence of Navarro’s antisemitism problem is his comment on a post by Sisolak on Facebook, where the governor committed to standing against antisemitism. Navarro responded about genocide against Palestinians, making an implication that Jews are committing genocide instead of recognizing that you can advocate for the Palestinians without disparaging the Jewish community. Again, this is antisemitism as stated by the State Department, nearly all Holocaust education organizations, and Holocaust museums and memorials.

The use of Nazism to appropriate the Holocaust is dangerous and degrades the atrocities the Nazis committed. If you want to oppose Lombardo based on his politics, that’s fine. And honestly, I’m sure Lombardo is okay with your opposition.

Unfortunately, the state party has decided to ignore the Jewish community by allowing its staff to attack Jews for defending themselves from antisemitism. Navarro implied that Jews who condemn the language used by Congressmembers Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar are racist and misogynistic.

David Singer: Wennesland in La-La Land ignoring Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine

It seems inconceivable that [Tor] Wennesland was then unaware of this Saudi plan. Why didn’t he inform the Security Council of its existence and direct his Deputy Special Coordinator Lynn Hastings to do so one month later?

Wennesland simply continued to trot out the old shibboleths - part of the UN’s patter since 1994: - “It is crucial that all parties take immediate steps to lower tensions and reverse negative trends that undermine prospects for a peaceful two-State resolution of the conflict, with a contiguous, independent, viable and sovereign Palestinian State.” - “Settlements constitute a flagrant violation of United Nations resolutions and international law. They undermine the prospect of achieving a two-State solution by systematically eroding the possibility of establishing a contiguous, independent, viable and sovereign Palestinian State.”

Why not add:
“I bring to your attention a new two-state solution emanating from Saudi Arabia on 8 June that should be considered by the Security Council to replace the two-state solution unsuccessfully pursued by the Security Council for the last 29 years.” The Saudi plan would be finalised in direct negotiations between Israel and Jordan that would delineate the international border between The Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine and Israel and resolve Israel’s security concerns.

Suffering by both Jews and Arabs meticulously recorded at length by Wennesland in his monthly reports and escalating right now would end – as would the conflict and any further need for UNSCO.

Wennesland is in la-la land and needs to return to the real world.

From Funker530:

An automated machine gun position manned entirely by female members of the Israeli Defense Force conducts fires against a known PIJ outpost after a Merkava tank failed to make a direct hit.

So, fun fact. All of these automated machine gun positions are manned by female members of the Israeli Defense Force. The program is called Roa Yora, which when translated means "See, Shoot," but in a feminine connotation. It was started as a way to offer female members of the Israeli Defense Force a front-line combat unit job that would not force other elite combat units to lower their standards to allow women into combat roles.

This video was released by the Israeli Defense Force today, the shots you're seeing in the video were recorded after a Merkava tank failed to make a direct hit on the tower, causing the PIJ member to abandon his post. Unfortunately for the PIJ fighter, he fled the post directly into the line of sight of an IDF Roa Yora position and found out why the word shoot is included after the word see.

It is unclear if this happened during Breaking Dawn. If so, there are some terrorists who have not yet been counted.

(h/t Daniel)

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

08/09 Links Pt1: Int'l media has once again shown its true colors toward Israel; Identifying with the invisible residents of southern Israel; The PIJ-Israel Conflict Places Hamas in a Trap

From Ian:

Key military and political takeaways from ‘Operation Breaking Dawn’

Israel’s 66-hour campaign targeting the military leadership of Palestinian Islamic Jihad was a major success on multiple levels. The first was military: Israel succeeded in taking out the entire PIJ command structure, rapidly achieved its military objectives, striking over 170 strategic targets with limited collateral damage, and then quickly brokered a ceasefire.

The second and perhaps even more surprising success was that coverage of Israel’s preemptive strike in the international media was muted, as were the condemnations from around the world that are typically connected to any Israeli military action.

Unparalleled military dominance
For decades, Israel has enjoyed superior intelligence, firepower and air power compared to its enemies. However, Israel’s military edge over local terror factions has reached a new level, as demonstrated clearly both during the current round of hostilities and the previous one just over a year ago.

For better and for worse, Israel has become a surveillance superpower. Israel is watching and listening; even to apps and channels its enemies think are encrypted. Israeli security services can track and locate nearly any device at any time.

These game-changing surveillance capabilities plus advanced technology enable the Israel Defense Forces to generate new targets in real time using complex algorithms. During the 11-day “Operation Guardian of the Walls” in May 2021, Israel was able to automatically and continuously generate new targets in the middle of the fighting, in a manner beyond the scope and abilities of any human intelligence.

The second component of Israel’s military dominance is pinpoint accuracy. If a target is in the dining room of an apartment on the fourth floor of a 10-story building, Israel can put a missile through the window of the room.

Israel is thus able to identify, locate and strike targets while dramatically minimizing collateral damage and civilian casualties. This enables Israel to inflict mortal blows to terror infrastructure and only terror infrastructure. On multiple occasions during the three-day operation, for instance, Israel delayed a strike due to children identified playing in the area, waiting to fire until civilians were clear of the area.

Ruthie Blum: Identifying with the invisible residents of southern Israel

This struck me more with each phone call I received on Saturday evening from friends in Jerusalem and elsewhere inquiring whether I thought there would be additional Red Alerts later that night. Each expressed surprise when I responded that the rockets were still flying, every few minutes, without let-up, as they had been for the past 24 hours. The thing is that the bulk was felt in the south.

Contrary to what these friends had assumed, my knowledge about this untenable situation had nothing to do with my having to write about it. Nor was my cognizance the result of a permanent perch in front of the TV and Internet.

No, the reason for my keen awareness of what the residents of the south were having to endure was the Red Alert app that I had downloaded on my phone. I didn’t need to have it; I could hear the sirens in my own neighborhood, and lists of rocket-launches and their locations were visible on every television channel.

But it was a way to get a sense of how often the people who live close to Gaza were under immediate attack. The frequency of the app’s notifications was chilling. Indeed, the chime barely ceased, around the clock, for two-and-a-half days.

Every eerie “cling” sound represented innocent Israelis—from communities whose names are unfamiliar to most of their counterparts to the north—hurrying to hole up in safe rooms, bomb shelters or stairwells. It’s no wonder that many took their kids and fled, until the ceasefire, to homes farther away from the missile-equipped murderers next door.

The Israeli government, especially the current interim one, constantly calls for unity. What might help in this virtually impossible endeavor would be a heavy dose of empathy for those bearing the brunt of the enemy’s will—and repeated attempts—to annihilate the entire Jewish state.

When the next round of rocket barrages begins—and there will be a next round—I urge everyone, Israelis and sympathizers abroad, to arm him/herself with a Red Alert app. It’s an eye-opener, including for those of us who think that we can identify with the plight of our civilian brethren on the front lines.

Caroline Glick: The strategic blindness of Israel’s caretaker government

Israel’s operation demonstrated the depth of the strategic challenge Gaza poses. Islamic Jihad is a wholly owned subsidiary of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps, which founded it in 1988 and still arms and commands its operations today. Islamic Jihad used to be seen as a mere nuisance in the Gaza Strip. But this week it showed it has amassed an arsenal capable of presenting Israel with a massive security challenge. Even worse, it has just a fraction of the capabilities that Hamas enjoys.

Hamas is not a wholly owned subsidiary of Iran, but it is an Iranian client. Hamas receives funding and arms from Tehran. Its leaders are in direct, intimate contact with the Iranian regime, which they brag about. Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh was in Tehran last April to participate in Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi’s inauguration. Hamas’ tens of thousands of missiles cover nearly all of Israel. Its anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles pose a threat to Israeli ground and air operations in Gaza.

Iranian sponsorship isn’t the only thing Hamas and Islamic Jihad share. They are partners. According to media reports, there were Hamas officers in Islamic Jihad command centers all week long. Hamas approved every missile volley Islamic Jihad launched and provided it with logistical support. Given the intimacy of their cooperation, the fact that Hamas didn’t use its own missiles to attack Israel is a meaningless distinction. Indeed, it’s worse than that. Pretending that Hamas is not involved in an operation it actually enabled and participated in gives Hamas a free pass for waging war.

But for the Lapid-Gantz caretaker government, none of this mattered. The government and its attendant media insisted Hamas and Islamic Jihad are totally separate from one another, and even rivals. The government’s narrative claimed Hamas was acting like a responsible adult.

Between Friday and Saturday, the IDF’s job quickly moved from attacking Islamic Jihad to ending the operation as quickly as possible to avoid Palestinian Arab civilian casualties that would “compel” Hamas to start shooting its own missiles at Israel. In other words, the government put the onus on itself. Hamas would come in if Israel made a mistake. Hamas is responsible. It cares about its people. And it will only join the fray if Israel forces its hand.

This false narrative is doubly destructive given Hamas’ actual nature. Hamas isn’t a responsible governing authority. It’s a terrorist organization ideologically committed to annihilating Israel and the entire Jewish people. By treating Hamas as the responsible adult in the room, the government gave legitimacy to an actor that is morally, militarily, ideologically and politically illegitimate.

This is not to say that Israel should have opened a major campaign against Hamas. A caretaker government lacks the political legitimacy to initiate a large-scale conflict. But the government’s kowtowing to Hamas, like its anxious acceptance of Islamic Jihad’s ceasefire terms, was unnecessary and destructive.

This morning:

A wanted member of a terror cell who reportedly managed to evade previous attempts to capture him was one of three people killed during a fierce gun battle with Israeli troops in Nablus on Tuesday morning. A further 40 people were reported injured.

According to the Israel Defense Forces, soldiers surrounded the home of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades commander Ibrahim Nablusi, leading to an exchange of gunfire.

Nablusi was part of a squad that had committed several shooting attacks against soldiers and civilians in the West Bank earlier this year, according to the Shin Bet. The IDF said that included a shooting attack at the Joseph’s Tomb complex in the outskirts of Nablus.

Fatah and the Palestinian Authority are not even pretending not to support this terrorist and his comrades. He was a member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the Fatah terror group that was supposedly dismantled by the peaceful Mahmoud Abbas in 2007.

Fatah issued a statement calling the dead terrorists "heroes whose names will be written in history in the record of the immortal exploits of our people."

Palestinian prime minister Mahmoud Shtayyeh called them "martyrs" and tied them to every other Palestinian claim: "What our people are subjected to in terms of organized terrorism in Gaza, Nablus, Jenin, Hebron, and the occupied city of Jerusalem; Which is witnessing an ethnic cleansing process, an attempt to Judaize, and the desecration of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Ibrahimi Mosque, in addition to the displacement operations, and the seizure of lands in the Jordan Valley..."

Mahmoud Abbas' spokesperson said that "the occupation is approaching a comprehensive confrontation with our entire Palestinian people, through its comprehensive aggression that began in the city of Jerusalem, and then spread to Jenin, Gaza, and today in Nablus. "

Also, one of the dead terrorists was 16-year old Hussein Taha. Recruiting children to terror groups is another human rights crime that the human rights NGOs seems to skate right over.

There was a massive funeral with tens of thousands of people as government offices closed down.

This is as explicit support for terror as one can imagine. And if the PA was doing its job, Israel wouldn't have to go into Nablus to arrest terrorists at all.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

AP finds evidence of lots of people killed by Islamic Jihad rockets - and Palestinians trying to hide them

AP actually did some reporting and researched the Gazans killed by rocket fire. Based on that and other information, I have updated by database of people killed in Gaza and how.

Close to one-third of the Palestinians who died in the latest outbreak of violence between Israel and Gaza militants may have been killed by errant rockets fired by the Palestinian side, according to an Israeli military assessment that appears consistent with independent reporting by The Associated Press.

No one in Gaza with direct knowledge of the explosions in question was willing to speak about them publicly. But live TV footage showed militant rockets falling short in densely packed residential neighborhoods. And AP visits to the sites of two explosions that killed a total of 12 people lent support to suspicions they were caused by rockets that went off course.

Islamic Jihad said 12 of its fighters were killed, a smaller armed group said it lost a fighter, and Hamas said two Hamas-affiliated policemen who did not take part in the fighting were killed. Israel said it killed at least 20 militants and seven civilians.

On Saturday night, seven Palestinians were killed in a blast in the crowded Jebaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza. The Israeli military said it carried out no operations in the area at the time. It released video footage purportedly showing a barrage of militant rockets, with one falling short.
Islamic Jihad had announced a rocket attack on the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon, just north of Jebaliya, at around the same time as the explosion.
Video footage of the aftermath circulated online, showing what appeared to be a rocket casing sticking out of the ground on a narrow, busy street. When the AP visited the site on Monday, the casing was gone and the hole had been filled in with dirt. Palestinians are usually keen to display evidence of Israeli airstrikes to international media.
Al-Mezan attributed the blast to a “projectile,” and the PCHR said it was still investigating.
On Sunday night, an explosion killed five Palestinians ages 4 to 17 at a cemetery in Jebaliya, also around the same time Islamic Jihad announced a barrage of rockets. The Israeli military said it was investigating.
Visiting both sites in Jebaliya, the AP saw none of the telltale signs of an Israeli strike — the wide craters left by F-16s or the narrow holes caused by drone strikes.
In a third suspicious explosion, one of the Hamas-affiliated policemen, who was off-duty, was killed Sunday along with three of his young children in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza. Hamas, a far more powerful militant group that has fought four wars with Israel, stayed out of the latest fighting, and Israel appears to have been careful not to target it.

I haven't yet identified the "smaller armed group" terrorist AP references. (UPDATE: Adin Haykin mentions that Hassan Mansour was also claimed by the DFLP as well as Islamic Jihad.)

It hadn't occurred to me that the Hamas policeman who was killed with his children was killed by rocket fire. This means that, based on my research, 14 children were killed - and 11 of them by rocket fire! (Two were human shields, one was killed near a wedding that is still unclear.)

It is clear from this article that not only does the Hamas-based health ministry lie about people killed by terror rockets - so do the "human rights" NGOs. If they don't claim someone was killed by Israel, then certainly that person was killed by a rocket, but they won't report it.

The human rights of those Gazans don't matter.

Here is my updated list of people killed in Gaza and whether they were killed by Israel or Islamic Jihad rockets:

1- Imad Abd al-Rahim Shallah, 50 Gaza.	With PIJ
2- Youssef Salman Qaddoum 24 Gaza.	PIJ
3- Tayseer Mahmoud Al-Jabari, 50 Gaza City.	PIJ
4- Salama Muharib Abed 41 Gaza.	PIJ
5- Alaa Abdullah Qaddoum, 5 Gaza City.	With PIJ
6- Donyana Adnan Attia Al-Amour 22 Gaza.	Likely rocket ("artillery shell")
7- Mohamed Ahmed Abdel-Fattah Al-Madhoun, 26 Al-Nada Towers.	PIJ
8- Fadl Mustafa Zorob 30 Khan Younis.	PIJ
9- Muhammad Hassan Al-Bayouk, 35, Khan Younis.	PIJ
10- Ahmed Mazen Azzam, 25 Gaza Strip.	PIJ
11- Tamim Ghassan Abdullah Hijazi, 23 Al-Zana.	PIJ
12- Osama Abdul Rahman Al-Suri, 27, Bani Suhaila.	PIJ
13- Hassan Mohamed Mansour, 26, Jabalia.	PIJ/DFLP
14- Naama Muhammad Abu Qaida 62 Jabalia.	Apparent rocket(wedding)
15- Nour El-Din Ali Al-Zubaidi 19 Jabalia	Apparent rocket (wedding)
16- Hazem Muhammad Salem 12 Jabalia.	Jabalia rocket
17- Ahmad Muhammad Al-Nayrab 13 Jabalia.	Jabalia rocket
18- Moamen Muhammad Al-Nairab 4 Jabalia.	Jabalia rocket
19 - Khalil Iyad Abu Hamadeh, 19, Jabalia.	Jabalia rocket
20- Ahmed Walid Al-Fram, 18 Jabalia.	Jabalia rocket
21- Misbah al-Khatib 50 Jabalia agreed.	Jabalia rocket
22- Muhammad Muhammad Ibrahim Zaqout 19 Jabalia.	Jabalia rocket
23- Ziad Ahmed Al Mudallal, 36 Rafah.	PIJ
24- Muhammad Iyad Hassouna, 14 Rafah.	With PIJ in Rafah
25- Ismail Abdel Hamid Mohamed Salameh, 30 Rafah.	With PIJ in Rafah
26- Hana Ismail Ali Salameh, 51, Rafah.	With PIJ in Rafah
27- Rafat Saleh Ibrahim Al-Zamili, 45, Rafah.	PIJ
28- Khaled Saeed Mansour 47 Rafah.	With PIJ in Rafah
29- Alaa Saleh Al-Tahrawi, 30, Rafah.	With PIJ in Rafah
30- Ahmad Muhammad Afana, 31, Jabalia.	Hamas (but not target)
31- Dia Zuhair Al-Borai, 30 Jabalia.	Rocket (House in Jabalia)
32- Jamil Ehab Najm 15 Jabalia.	Rocket (Fallujah cemetery)
33- Jamil Najm Najm 6 Jabalia.	Rocket (Fallujah cemetery)
34- Nazmi Fayez Abu Karsh 16 Jabalia.	Rocket (Fallujah cemetery)
35- Hamed Haider Najm 17 Jabalia.	Rocket (Fallujah cemetery)
36-Mohamed Salah Najm 17 Jabalia.	Rocket (Fallujah cemetery)
37- Muhammad Yasser Nimr Al-Nabahin 13	Rocket (Al Bureij)
38- Ahmed Yasser Nimr Al Nabahin 9 Al-Bureij.	Rocket (Al Bureij)
39- Dalia Yasser Nimr Al Nabaheen 13 Al Bureij.	Rocket (Al Bureij)
40 - Yasser Nimr Mahmoud Al Nabahin 45 Al-Bureij.	Rocket (Al Bureij), Hamas police
41 - Khaled Ayman Yassin, 27 Zaytoun	Apparent IDF attack
42- Shady Emad Nimr Kahil, 27 Zaytoun	Apparent IDF attack on municipal worker
43- Abd al-Rahman Jum’ah al-Silk 19 al-Shuja’iyya.	Apparent IDF attack
44- Mahmoud Daoud in Gaza	Apparent IDF attack, Hamas policeman
45- Haneen Walid Abu Qaida, 10	Apparent rocket (wedding)
46- Fatima Obaid, 15	Rocket (Beit Hanoun)

I made a mock-up of the New York Times lampooning their front page last year where they published photos of dozens of children supposedly killed in Gaza, blaming Israel. They had never done anything like that before and they are never going to do that for these children killed by Islamic Jihad. (I've updated the data since I made this poster.)

(h/t Abu Ali Express)

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

Algerian newspaper fantasizes about five scenarios on how Israel can get destroyed

Algerian, Syrian and Iraqi newspapers have remained as resolutely antisemitic and anti-Israel over the years even as some other Arab countries have somewhat moderated their views.

This article in Algeria's Echorouk Online is a fever dream on how Israel can get destroyed, which is sort of an obsession in Algeria (Morocco's normalization treaty with Israel is driving them insane.)

The basis for the article is that Jews have sinned for thousands of years, and they are violating Allah's will now, so Allah will fulfill his promise and punish them and destroy Israel.

The article thinks of five scenarios of how this can happen:

1. Terror groups get the technology to create better missiles and ballistic missiles, which will be shot to the heart of Israeli cities and cause the frightened Jews to run away.

2. Terror groups acquire nuclear or biological weapons, which they can purchase from countries with more advanced programs. Hate for Israel is so extreme that the terror groups will happily scorch the land even if it becomes uninhabitable.

3. Arab countries combine into a democratic superpower which will them acquire nuclear weapons of their own. They can then force Israel to do whatever they want, including dismantling itself.

4. Less ambitious but Arab countries agree with each other to create a bloc that can act with magnified force.

5. Arabs will demographically take over Western countries in four or five generations, as the Westerners will prefer gay marriage and no children. They can then create international law and enforce it however they wish.

The article doesn't pretend that the purpose of destroying Israel is to create a Palestinian state - Palestinians are barely mentioned. Genocide of the Jews in the Middle East is its own reward; turning Israel into a vast nuclear wasteland that Palestinians cannot use is well worth it.

There is no other nation besides Israel that anyone writes such articles about. While there are plenty of articles that are similarly depraved, the scenarios listed where nuking Israel is considered a reasonable solution to the Jewish problem proves one thing:

Antisemitism is a mental illness.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

08/08 Links Pt2: With Israel under attack, Biden must fight UN anti-Semitism; The European ties with terror-linked Palestinian NGOs; Iranian rocket scientists, Houthi members killed in Yemen blasts

From Ian:

David May and Richard Goldberg: With Israel under attack, Biden must fight UN anti-Semitism

Pillay’s defense of anti-Semitism is nothing new. In 2008, as the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights, Pillay lashed out at “certain lobby groups focused on single issues,” a coded reference to Jewish organizations, which were trying to block a follow-on to the wildly anti-Semitic (and ironically named) 2001 World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa. The event led to calls to make Israel a pariah, prompted a walkout by the United States and “disintegrated into an anti-American, anti-Israeli circus,” according to Holocaust survivor Rep. Tom Lantos, who was in attendance.

Pillay’s defense of her fellow commissioners’ remarks hasn’t prevented withering condemnation from the United States. Ambassadors and envoys criticized the “antisemitic, anti-Israel comments” and expressed indignation that a UN official questioned Israel’s legitimacy as a UN member. Other countries and organizations chimed in, too.

These condemnations are appropriate and welcome. But without decisive action, when the Human Rights Council convenes in September, the “Jewish lobby” commission will take Israel-bashing to a new level.

Kothari also made clear the commission is working to label Israel an apartheid state — widely expected based on its mandate to probe “systematic discrimination and repression based on national, ethnic, racial or religious identity.”

The apartheid accusation against Israel, besides being absurd, manifests an anti-Semitic goal of denying Jews the right to self-determination by claiming that Israel’s existence is a racist endeavor. In fact, that’s a textbook example of anti-Semitism put forward by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, an intergovernmental group of dozens of countries committed to fighting the scourge of Jew-hatred.

In June, during the Human Rights Council’s 50th session, 21 countries joined the United States in condemning the commission’s bias against Israel. But America and its allies did not press for terminating the commission’s mandate. As events of the last days make clear, their warning shot went unheeded.

When the council reconvenes in September, the commission may try to expand its probe into Israel’s latest counterterrorism operations. Nations that stand opposed to anti-Semitism should instead join the Biden team in voting to dissolve it. This should be a high diplomatic priority for both the National Security Council and State Department — deploying National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Secretary of State Antony Blinken as needed to lock down the votes.

It’s also major test for the Biden administration’s belief that it could reform the Human Rights Council by rejoining it. If America proves unable to terminate the “Jewish lobby” commission’s mandate, both the administration and Congress must re-evaluate the utility of US participation in a Jew-hating circus.

The European ties with terror-linked Palestinian NGOs - opinion

SO, HOW can Europe – especially the Netherlands – pretend that there’s no reason to discontinue its support for the designated NGOs?

The first clue is the sheer scope of European funding for these NGOs. In the last decade, Europe has allocated more than €200 million for the PFLP-linked NGO network. Financial support is merely one component in a much more intricate and intimate relationship that European countries maintain with these NGOs. Although European funders justify funding policies on the basis of supporting human rights, civil justice, and peace, the reality is that political goals stand at the center.

Indeed, as opposed to maintaining a disinterested relationship, these NGOs play the role of intermediaries and subcontractors, providing important services to the funders. For instance, Europe’s NGO partners are crucial sources of information and influence, particularly regarding foreign policy issues. Selected organizations can serve as influencers in public policy discourse and generate political pressure on Israel – most particularly when it comes to the future of the West Bank, Gaza and more.

Europe’s willingness to overlook, and refusal to act on, Israel’s terror-designation of six Palestinian NGOs reflects this long history and the lack of independent oversight involving millions of euros. These so-called “civil society movements” serve as a means for European officials to perpetuate one-sided policies and attempt to gain more influence regarding Israeli-Palestinian issues.

At the same time, European governments have a responsibility to examine the actual results of their continued funding for terror-linked NGOs. In the face of clear evidence of the PFLP links, the illusions of “promoting democratic values” and creating “a free and strong civil society” among Palestinians is no longer sustainable.

Liz Truss: As PM, I would consider moving embassy to Jerusalem

UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss would consider moving her country’s embassy to Jerusalem if she becomes prime minister following next month’s Conservative Party leadership election, she wrote in a letter to Conservative Friends of Israel on Friday.

“I understand the importance and sensitivity of the location of the British Embassy in Israel,” Truss wrote. “I’ve had many conversations with my good friend Prime Minister Yair Lapid on this topic. Acknowledging that, I will review a move to ensure we are operating on the strongest footing within Israel.”

Truss also supported Israel, separately, at the launch of Operation Breaking Dawn on Friday, with the Foreign Office tweeting that she said: "The UK stands by Israel and its right to defend itself. We condemn terrorist groups firing at civilians and violence which has resulted in casualties on both sides. We call for a swift end to the violence."

In the letter to Conservative Friends of Israel, Truss wrote that she “remain[s] committed to standing up to Iranian hostility and their pursuit of nuclear weapons,”

What about Iran?
“I have been clear that progress on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action is not moving fast enough and I assure you that if the JCPOA collapses, all options are on the table,” Truss stated.

Israel opposes a return to the JCPOA, seeking more robust and longer-lasting limitations on Iran’s nuclear program.

In contrast to Truss, Rishi Sunak, the other Conservative candidate who was chancellor of the exchequer until recently, wrote in his letter to the pro-Israel group that he would seek “a new, strengthened nuclear deal that extends the sunset clauses, lengthens the breakout period and curtails Iran’s ballistic missile program. The credible threat of snapback sanctions, which has so far been missing from the negotiations, is the only way we can force Iran to seriously engage with these proposals.

UN Special Rapporteur justifies Palestinian "resistance" which can only mean terror

The UN Special Rapporteur on the "occupied Palestinian territory," Francesca Albanese, tried to say she was against rocket attacks on civilians - but essentially caved when challenged.

She tweeted, "Indiscriminate rocket fire from Gaza is no acceptable response to Israel’s unlawful bombings, because it harms civilians and it is therefore unlawful too. This should not obscure Israel's responsibility for maintaining its violent 55yo occupation and 15yo blockade of Gaza."

Immediately, terror supporters challenged her. Instead of defending her anti-terror half of the statement, she responded with empathy.

Like here:

And here:

Killing civilians is not a fundamental right under any interpretation of international law. Her cowering to those who defend it reflects a complete lack of moral fiber - which we would expect from the UN.

But she went further, calling into question the idea of a Jewish state altogether:

So even within the "1967 borders," the UN Special Rapporteur questions Israel's right to exist altogether.

Albanese then went on to write a new tweet to clarify her position on terrorism:

Palestinians' right to resist is inherent to their right to exist as a people. An unlawful act of resistance does not make the resistance unlawful. An unlawful act of an unlawful occupation makes the occupation more unlawful (and the list on the desk of the ICC Prosecutor longer)

Albanese is trying to toe the line of saying that she supports "resistance" but not terror attacks.

But what does that mean, practically?

No one is stopping Palestinians from having peaceful protests, or from choosing to boycott Israeli products, or from calling strikes. No one questions those rights.

But when Palestinians use the word "resistance," it means only one thing: terrorism. It means attacking Jews. It means stabbings and car rammings and suicide bombings and firebombs, throwing boulders on cars speeding along a highway and bombing buses and cafes. Hamas' translation is the "Islamic Resistance Movement." The Arabic Wikipedia article on "Palestinian resistance" lists the most gruesome terror attacks as examples (even though it pays lip service to "civil and popular resistance," it brings practically no examples.)

So when a UN Special Rapporteur says she supports "resistance," it can only be interpreted one way by those who use the term the most.

Either she is ignorant as to how the term is interpreted (even though her responders made that clear,) or she on some level agrees with is while knowing that she cannot publicly support terrorism. Either way, it shows the immorality, not the morality, of the UN.

UPDATE: See also this.

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I received a fundraising letter from UNRWA USA, written by its "Director of Philanthropy," Hani Almadhoun.

It included this section:

For my family, word got out that a 26-year-old relative lost his life. In a rush to report the news, they shared an image of his younger brother, and confusion followed. Later it was confirmed that our cousin was indeed the victim of the unprovoked attacks.

His 26-year old relative was Mohamed Ahmed Abdel-Fattah Al-Madhoun - a terrorist for Islamic Jihad, of the North Gaza Brigade, pictured above.

Yes, UNRWA-USA is using the death of a terrorist as a means to raise money for UNRWA. And its director is part of a family that supports Islamic Jihad.

But why would anyone expect that UNRWA-USA's fundraising arm is not linked to terrorism? Or that they wouldn't defend an Islamic Jihad terrorist as an innocent civilian victim of Israeli aggression?

UNRWA-USA raises some $4 million annually. Is anyone checking where that money goes?

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

08/08 Links Pt1: Israel pre-empts further Iran proxy attack; Islamic Jihad rockets killed more civilians in Gaza than IDF airstrikes; Will Amnesty condemn Islamic Jihad’s tactics as it did Ukraine?

From Ian:

Israel Surprised the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza

Fearing an imminent terrorist attack in early August, Israel declared four days of restrictions and a shutdown of the Israeli communities along the Gaza border. On August 5, 2022, Israel seized the initiative and struck a preemptive blow against the Palestinian Islamic Jihad centers and leaders in Gaza.

The Breaking Dawn operation aimed to thwart imminent Islamic Jihad terror attacks on Israeli targets using antitank missiles and sniper fire in response to the arrest of senior Islamic Jihad official Bassam al-Saadi in Jenin in the West Bank.

In recent days Islamic Jihad had sought to change the rules of the game and create a new linkage equation between the IDF's arrest of its operatives in the West Bank and continued quiet along the Gaza border.

The Islamic Jihad leadership sought to create a standoff whereby any harm to its operatives in the West Bank, their arrest, or the endangerment of the lives of security prisoners on hunger strike in Israeli prisons, would spark an escalation at the Gaza border.

The Israeli political echelon decided to launch the operation once it was clear that the efforts by Egypt and Hamas to restrain Islamic Jihad had failed. The terror group was at an advanced stage of preparations for attacks along the border.

Iran orchestrated everything that happened inside and along the Gaza borders. Ziad al-Nakhalah, the Islamic Jihad leader, visited Tehran’s leaders and ran the campaign in coordination with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

Israel succeeded in surprising Islamic Jihad using remarkable intelligence and technological capabilities. Israel thwarted the attacks that Islamic Jihad was planning and killed the group's entire military leadership in Gaza. Rehabilitating the IDF's deterrence against Islamic Jihad is very important.

Melanie Phillips: Israel pre-empts further Iran proxy attack

Even in the most precisely targeted airstrikes against military targets, there will inevitably be some civilian casualties. The death or injury of any child in these circumstances is a tragedy, whoever is responsible. But what the western media wilfully misses time and again in its reporting of Israel’s military campaigns are two crucial points.

First, that Israel’s defence forces go to lengths unmatched by any other military force — including the British and American — to avoid civilian casualties.

Second, while Israel targets terrorists and their infrastructure with rare precision and only ever as a defensive measure, the PIJ, Hamas and other Palestinian terror groups in Gaza deliberately target Israeli civilians. That is a war crime — as is also their strategy of siting their missiles and other terror infrastructure within civilian areas, thus using Gaza’s civilians, including their children, as hostages and human shields.

Israel’s enemies also point to the relative absence of Israeli casualties, as if this proves a “disproportionate response”. Not only does this grossly misunderstand proportionality in warfare (the response to aggression needs to be in proportion to the threat, not to the number of casualties sustained). There’s also this. When missiles rain down on southern Israel, the population takes cover in air-raid shelters. In Gaza, the Palestinians don’t build air-raid shelters to protect their people against war. Instead, they build terrorist tunnels from which to launch yet more murderous attacks on Israeli civilians.

This distinction is, of course, lost on the United Nations whose perverted and obsessive animus against Israel cannot be exaggerated. Thus the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Tor Wennesland said he was:
deeply concerned by the ongoing escalation between Palestinian militants and Israel, including the targeted killing today of a Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader inside Gaza…I am deeply saddened by reports that a five-year-old child has been killed in these strikes. There can be no justification for any attacks against civilians.

But he doesn’t seem to have been “deeply saddened” by the hundreds of missile strikes against Israeli civilians; nor by the murder of Israelis in March and April.

And let’s not overlook Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur to the “Palestinian territories,” who tweeted:

I condemn Israel's airstrikes in Gaza to allegedly 'deter' Islamic Jihad's possible retaliation for its leader's arrest.

As Int'l Law only permits the use of force in self-defense, Operation Breaking Dawn is a flagrant act of aggression.

Illegal. Immoral. Irresponsible.
— Francesca Albanese, UN SRoPt (@FranceskAlbs) August 6, 2022
A short time ago, Israel reportedly accepted an Egypt-brokered cease-fire. PIJ rejected it and unleashed another barrage of rockets, one of which fell in an open area next to the Ashkelon marina.

Let’s hope for a speedy end to this latest outbreak of hostilities. But to the malice of the western media or the UN against Israel, there is, alas, no cease-fire in prospect.

Jonathan Tobin: Gaza fighting changes nothing about Israel’s image struggle

If you check the Twitter pages of Israel bashers in politics, the media or the chattering classes, you’ll find the same tired arguments treating the Palestinians as the victims of Israeli aggression, as if 30 years of Israeli peace efforts and Palestinian rejectionism and terrorism had never happened. Not one anti-Zionist course being taught on an American college campus will be altered. Nor will the advocacy of groups like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Students for Justice in Palestine, Jewish Voices for Peace or IfNotNow, all of which falsely claim that Israel is an “apartheid state,” be changed as a result of the actions of Islamic Jihad and their Iranian sponsors.

Arguments about the anti-Semitic BDS movement, efforts to restrict U.S. military aid to Israel, or the unreasonable and criminal behavior of Hamas, PIJ or their “moderate” Fatah rivals running the West Bank who reward terrorists and their families with pensions aren’t affected by the facts about the conflict.

If you accept the false Palestinian narrative about Israel being born in sin as an expression of Western imperialism and colonialism, as those who buy into intersectionality and critical race theory do, then it doesn’t matter what the Israelis or their terrorist opponents actually do.

That’s important not just because it speaks volumes about those who regularly libel Israel from the editorial pages of major newspapers or from platforms on liberal cable news networks. It’s also something that both those who speak for Israel—and those groups and individuals who support it—must draw the correct conclusions from.

Talking about the need to ensure Israeli security or the tremendous care that the IDF takes to avoid civilian casualties, which is almost certainly unmatched by any army in the world, seem like important debating points in the discussion about the conflict. The same is true when you remind people about the withdrawal from Gaza in 2005. But none of that matters to those who think ill of the Jewish state.

There isn’t even much evidence that it does much to rally Jewish opinion behind Israel, which is heavily influenced by biased media outlets and ignorance about the facts of the conflict. If you accept, as so many Jews have, that it’s somehow unfair that Palestinians don’t have an Iron Dome, or that the perceived imbalance of power means that the terrorists and those they exploit are the underdogs, then history or the true reason for the stalemate is forgotten.

All of this means that while defenders of Israel should always debunk the lies of their opponents, they must also understand that their purpose should be to remind people that Israel has a right to exist and that the goal of its enemies is to deny that right. Once you establish that basic truth, you’re making clear that those who question the right of the Jews to one state aren’t merely wrong but practicing discrimination. Which is to say that they are anti-Semites.

So, rather than being bogged down in security arguments or bragging about the sacrifices Israel has made for peace, which only convince its critics that it is a thief returning stolen property rather than a country whose cause is just, friends of the Jewish state must speak primarily of Jewish rights and about how anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism. Everything else is generally a waste of time and effort.

Gaza casualties, by the numbers: Islamic Jihad killed more Gaza civilians than Israel did (update)

The Hamas health ministry issued their list of 43 people killed over the weekend. Here is my preliminary analysis.

Bolded names are children.

1- Imad Abd al-Rahim Shallah, 50 Gaza.	With PIJ
2- Youssef Salman Qaddoum 24 Gaza.	PIJ
3- Tayseer Mahmoud Al-Jabari, 50 Gaza City.	PIJ
4- Salama Muharib Abed 41 Gaza.	PIJ
5- Alaa Abdullah Qaddoum, 5 Gaza City.	With PIJ
6- Donyana Adnan Attia Al-Amour 22 Gaza.	Likely PIJ rocket
7- Mohamed Ahmed Abdel-Fattah Al-Madhoun, 26 Al-Nada Towers.	PIJ
8- Fadl Mustafa Zorob 30 Khan Younis.	PIJ
9- Muhammad Hassan Al-Bayouk, 35, Khan Younis.	PIJ
10- Ahmed Mazen Azzam, 25 Gaza Strip.	PIJ
11- Tamim Ghassan Abdullah Hijazi, 23 Al-Zana.	PIJ
12- Osama Abdul Rahman Al-Suri, 27, Bani Suhaila.	PIJ
13- Hassan Mohamed Mansour, 26, Jabalia.	PIJ
14- Naama Muhammad Abu Qaida 62 Jabalia.	Likely PIJ rocket
15- Nour El-Din Ali Al-Zubaidi 19 Jabalia	Likely PIJ rocket
16- Hazem Muhammad Salem 12 Jabalia.	Jabalia rocket
17- Ahmad Muhammad Al-Nayrab 13 Jabalia.	Jabalia rocket
18- Moamen Muhammad Al-Nairab 4 Jabalia.	Jabalia rocket
19 - Khalil Iyad Abu Hamadeh, 19, Jabalia.	Jabalia rocket
20- Ahmed Walid Al-Fram, 18 Jabalia.	Jabalia rocket
21- Misbah al-Khatib 50 Jabalia agreed.	Jabalia rocket
22- Muhammad Muhammad Ibrahim Zaqout 19 Jabalia.	Jabalia rocket
23- Ziad Ahmed Al Mudallal, 36 Rafah.	PIJ
24- Muhammad Iyad Hassouna, 14 Rafah.	With PIJ in Rafah
25- Ismail Abdel Hamid Mohamed Salameh, 30 Rafah.	With PIJ in Rafah
26- Hana Ismail Ali Salameh, 51, Rafah.	With PIJ in Rafah
27- Rafat Saleh Ibrahim Al-Zamili, 45, Rafah.	PIJ
28- Khaled Saeed Mansour 47 Rafah.	With PIJ in Rafah
29- Alaa Saleh Al-Tahrawi, 30, Rafah.	With PIJ in Rafah
30- Ahmad Muhammad Afana, 31, Jabalia.	Hamas (but not target)
31- Dia Zuhair Al-Borai, 30 Jabalia.	Likely PIJ rocket
32- Jamil Ehab Najm 15 Jabalia.	Likely PIJ rocket
33- Jamil Najm Najm 6 Jabalia.	Likely PIJ rocket
34- Nazmi Fayez Abu Karsh 16 Jabalia.	Likely PIJ rocket
35- Hamed Haider Najm 17 Jabalia.	Likely PIJ rocket
36-Mohamed Salah Negm 17 Jabalia.	Likely PIJ rocket
37- Muhammad Yasser Nimr Al-Nabahin 13 Al-Bureij.	With Hamas (son)
38- Ahmed Yasser Nimr Al Nabahin 9 Al-Bureij.	With Hamas (son)
39- Dalia Yasser Nimr Al Nabaheen 13 Al Bureij.	With Hamas (son)
40 - Yasser Nimr Mahmoud Al Nabahin 45 Al-Bureij.	Hamas
41 - Khaled Ayman Yassin, 27 Zaytoun	Unknown
42- Shady Emad Nimr Kahil, 27 Zaytoun	Unknown
43- Abd al-Rahman Jum’ah al-Silk 19 al-Shuja’iyya.	Unknown

We know seven people were killed by an errant Islamic Jihad rocket in Jabalia. There was another set of deaths, five children, in the Fallujah cemetery in Jabalia that look to be from an errant rocket as well based on photos of the damage. I am counting several other likely errant rockets based on the descriptions of their deaths in PCHR as being from "shrapnel" or, in some cases, in an "open field" where it would make no sense for the IDF to attack.

One Hamas member, Yasser Nabahin, seems to have been targeted by the IDF, and he was near his three sons who were also killed. I don't know if this was an accident or if he was actively fighting with Islamic Jihad. Hamas' obituary does not say he died while fighting, but if he went rogue, they wouldn't say that.

Another Hamas member, Ahmad Afana, was apparently killed when a wall collapsed on him as he was trying to extricate people from a building, so he wasn't killed by Israel.

This would mean that the IDF killed 13 terrorists. There were 10 civilians killed as human shields or collateral damage. Islamic Jihad killed (or likely killed) 16 civilians with rocket fire that fell short. Three I do not yet know, and one was an accidental death.

The Jerusalem Post quotes the IDF with somewhat different statistics, but a similar number of people killed by PIJ rockets:

The Palestinians, however, reported a total of 35 deaths out of which 26 were innocent bystanders. Of the 26, 11 were killed in Israeli airstrikes, and 15 were killed by Islamic Jihad rockets that failed to clear Gaza.

I don't know why they say 35 total when the Gaza authorities said 43. (Some reports say 44.)

Either way, Islamic Jihad killed far more civilians than Israel did.

UPDATE: Here is a photo of the room where Donyana al-Amour (#6) was killed. The spray patterns on the walls (small shrapnel holes) indicate it was a PIJ rocket. (h/t Abu Ali Express)