Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, June 12, 2025

US College Campus Rioters Frustrated That LA Rioters Getting All The Attention (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

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New York, June 12 - Student, faculty, and outside agitator activists at Columbia and Harvard Universities, among others, expressed concerns today that their look-at-me provocations ostensibly on behalf of Palestine have suffered as the media have focused on West Coast unrest related to enforcement of immigration laws.

Members of Students for Justice in Palestine and allied groups voiced their frustration over the last several days that the momentum of media attention has shifted away from them and thus away from any future they might have as prominent influencers, because riots in Los Angeles by activists opposed to the removal of people who illegally entered or remain in the US have captured the vast majority of that attention.

SJP Columbia Chapter president Anne Tissemit acknowledged the complexity of challenging the trend. "We've allied ourselves with all the organizations and activists making all that noise in LA," he conceded. "It's imprudent and career suicide to say or do anything to suggest that's not where the resources should be going right now. Like, read the burning room. That's why it's so frustrating. Our future as speakers, commentators, podcasters, whatever, that's all going down the drain because we can't put ourselves at center stage while claiming it's all about Palestine if center stage is on the other side of the country."

University of Pennsylvania Jewish Voice for Peace activist Hassan Abdul Razek elaborated. "Palestine long ago ceased to be a cause on its own merits," he explained. "Palestinians themselves are probably the only ones who are actually fighting in any way for 'Palestine.' Every other supporter of the cause is either using it as a virtue-signaling fig leaf for other ambitions - the Ayatollahs come to mind - or trying to harness their pet cause to Palestine, which they think will pull it along. But they fundamentally misunderstand that you can't ally yourself with 'Palestine' and emerge without it taking you over and destroying your efforts, somehow not advancing the cause of Palestine an iota either."

"Our problem now is that other people are enjoying better results and notoriety by waving Palestinian flags than we are," he continued. "It's doubly disappointing because we campus activists had the focus on us for so long. We must have gotten complacent. That's always the way it is with Palestine activism. We pro-Palestinians put airplane-hijacking on the map, but then others make it more deadly and more dramatic. Suicide bombings were our thing, our trademark, until it started being an everyday thing in Iraq and Afghanistan."

"Looks like we'll have to perpetrate some atrocity right here to get the attention back," he reasoned.

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"He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024)

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

When I started this project of secularizing and universalizing Jewish ethics, I thought that all I needed to do is omit anything that was dependent on God and specific mitzvot, and stick with just ethical behavior.

For the most part, I was right. The system I built works for all people, everywhere.

But as I've been veering from defining the framework into musing how such a system could be adopted by non-Jews, I came up with some challenges: some parts of Jewish ethics work well because of particular attributes of the Jewish people specifically.

I have mentioned a few of these, and suggested how secular people might be able to substitute the Jewish attributes with their own. So for example, the Jewish prohibition of chilul Hashem - desecrating God's Name, by acting in a way that reflects badly on all Jews - could be somewhat generalized for any minority group, many professions and other categories like nationalities. I also said that since so much of Jewish ethics assumes that everyone is a member of a tight-knit community, secular people can create their own meaningful communities to have that same sense of unity and solidarity that make it easier to take responsibility for your fellow.

But how many of these attributes that make it more difficult to port Jewish ethics to a secular context are there?

More than I thought.

I asked an AI to generate a list.

Pillar	Core Jewish Form	Secular Challenge
1. God as Moral Anchor	Infinite reference point for ethics	What anchors ultimate values?
2. Covenantal Community	Inherited mutual obligation	Can secular communities bond this thickly?
3. Mitzvah	Sacred, commanded duty	How to make ethics feel obligatory without divine command?
4. Halachic Discipline	Ethics practiced daily	Can habits replace law?
5. Teshuvah	Eternal soul enables moral return	What underwrites deep moral change?
6. Sacred Time	Calendar and memory encode values	Can “moral time” exist without holidays?
7. Sacred Disagreement	Dissent is holy, not merely tolerated	Can pluralism avoid relativism?
8. Pikuach Nefesh	Life overrides nearly all else	What’s strong enough to trump all values?
9. Tzniut / Anavah	Humility and restraint	Can this thrive in a culture of performance?
10. Din / Rachamim	Law and mercy must coexist	How to balance this without faith?
11. Redemption	History bends toward moral meaning	Can secular systems sustain moral hope?
12. Tzelem Elokim	Absolute dignity for every person	Can dignity survive without soul?
13. Safek / Teiku	Uncertainty is protected	How to build reverent ambiguity into secular systems?
14. Embodied Ethics	Physical life is morally infused	Can ethics guide bodily practice without theology?
15. Intergenerational Duty	Past and future are moral actors	Can individualist cultures embed legacy?
16. Symbolic Ethics	Actions carry layered meaning	Can secular rituals be ethically saturated?
17. Chillul/Kiddush Hashem	Behavior reflects on collective identity	Can moral visibility work without covenantal belonging?

No other secular system, as far as I can tell, even reaches the stage of asking “how can this be realistically implemented?” Most remain philosophical thought experiments - not lived and tested systems. Even without these challenges, the secularized Jewish ethics model is ahead in maturity, testability, traceability, scalability, and practical usability.

But my goal isn’t to design something for an ivory tower. I want to create a system that could genuinely change and improve the world, even if that might never happen in my lifetime.

Secular ethics originally arose during the Enlightenment as an attempt to build a moral system independent of God or religion, one grounded in pure reason. Ironically, every Jewish ethical principle in this framework is logical and does not, on its own, require belief. Yet the structure and guardrails of religious community make it much easier for people to live by these values.

That’s not an attack on freedom.
Self-help books routinely encourage us to set constraints and rituals for any goal, whether it is fitness, learning, or personal growth. Setting aside time for exercise, for music practice, or for family meals doesn’t limit our freedom; it enables us to achieve what matters. The same is true for moral growth.

After all, we already have secular rituals: Thanksgiving turkey, Independence Day fireworks, watching the Super Bowl or World Cup with friends, class reunions, block parties. Who can object to creating new ones imbued with meaning?

Secular people (and everyone else) can voluntarily create habits, rituals, and structures to strengthen their own ethical lives:

Make a habit of giving charity weekly, even a token amount.
Set aside regular time to study ethical writings, say, works by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks.
Create an annual day of reflection to review mistakes and plan for growth.
Join or form a community devoted to kindness and mutual aid, like visiting the sick, volunteering, or supporting neighbors.
Prioritize family rituals - shared meals, screen-free evenings, family game nights.

It may be true that morality doesn’t require faith. But like any skill, moral character doesn’t appear by magic. It takes hard work - and, in a secular world without built-in rituals or community, perhaps even harder work than in a traditional setting.

But the rewards are spectacular, here and now.

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

"He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024)

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

According to the UN, I - an American - am a "violent Jewish settler"

"Settler violence" is in the news again.

The UK and others have sanctioned two Israeli ministers, Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, for "inciting violence" by settlers, citing UN statistics on violent incidents in the West Bank.

What is considered "settler violence," according to the UN?

The Israeli NGO Regavim issued a report last April that examined a UN database of 6,285 incidents of alleged violence against Palestinians that reportedly occurred between January 2016 and the end of April 2023.

It included every single time Jews were allowed to visit the Temple Mount - 1,361 "incidents."

Temple Mount, March 6, 2019 (screenshot from Mrs. Elder)

Well, my wife and I ascended to the Temple Mount in March 2019. We got a personal tour from Rabbi Chaim Richman of the Temple Institute. We even prayed there.

According to the UN, my wife and I - Americans - are violent Jewish West Bank settlers, and we are statistics in the UN database that "prove" how violent Jewish "settlers" are. And the same methodology is used by the UK, today, to support their contention that Jewish settler violence is a huge problem now.

The Wall Street Journal summarized the Regavim report today:

Poring over the U.N.’s list of 6,285 violent incidents by settlers from January 2016 through April 2023, Regavim noticed something: “The UN database includes thousands of clearly non-violent incidents in its count of violent events.”
Every visit by Jews to the Temple Mount, Judaism’s holiest site, which is administered and venerated by Muslims too, is counted as settler violence. So are class trips to archaeological sites, traffic accidents, state infrastructure work and trespassing by hikers. Other incidents are in Jerusalem, which isn’t a settlement.
None of this is what “settler violence” summons to mind. Filtering out the thousands of such cases leaves 833 alleged incidents of nationalist violence resulting in bodily harm—a definition the U.N. claims to apply—over the 7½-year period.
But those don’t hold up either. The Orwellian U.N. counts Palestinians harmed in the process of committing terrorist attacks as victims of settler violence. In about half the 833 cases, the U.N. also records the victim’s “involvement in clashes,” leaving it unclear who started it. In 117 of the cases, the U.N. says Israeli security forces, not settlers, are to blame.
Meanwhile, Israel’s Shin Bet records 6,068 serious attacks by Palestinians (shootings, stabbings, suicide bombings, etc.) against Israeli civilians over only two years, 2020-22. Including some “less serious” attacks more than triples the number. Violence by Israeli settler radicals in remote outposts is a real problem. Yet the liberal picture of the West Bank—wanton violence by Israeli civilians against peaceful Palestinians—is an inversion of the daily reality.

At the very least, 94% of the "violent settler incidents" are fictional. Instead of three a day, there were at most one a week. Which is far fewer than the number of Palestinian violent incidents in the same areas, which include Molotov cocktails and pipe bombs. Here is the Shin Bet report from July 2023 (the last English report they published):

This isn't one violent incident a week. This is ten incidents every day!

And this is the problem we have seen for decades. The media, the UN and NGOs can easily make any party look bad by choosing their own definitions, their own framing, their own context, and also what to omit from their reporting. So while there are dozens of wars happening now, tens of millions of refugees, and real starvation with thousands dying, the media and UN and even Israel's "allies" twist the data to make it appear to casual consumers of news that there is only one conflict (OK, two, if you include Ukraine), only one set of victims, only one set of displaced persons and only one (wholly fake) "famine" in the world.

And an examination of even the most extreme of statements by Ben Gvir and Smotrich indicate that while they support tough action against Palestinian terrorists, they do not incite violence from Jewish settlers, at least not directly. In 2023, Ben Gvir told settlers directly, "We must not take the law into our own hands. The one who needs to deal with terrorism and deter it is the Israeli government and not the citizens." And even at the very same time that Smotrich said his widely condemned statement that the village of Huwara should be wiped out - a statement he later apologized for - he said “We shouldn’t be dragged into anarchy in which civilians take the law into their own hands.”

They want swift and uncompromising action against terror by the state. This is not incitement for settlers to rampage through Arab villages, as the UK and others are saying by accusing them of. The truth is the opposite of the reporting, and calls for the state to be aggressive against terrorists is not inconsistent with what Western leaders say all the time. (To be sure, they support settlers and try to find valid reasons for settler violence that does occur. That is a far cry from incitement to terror, and their reactions to real unprovoked settler violence proves this.)

The "settler violence" meme is an excuse by Great Britain and others to appear "even handed" to their large numbers of Muslim residents, who protest daily, in a vain attempt to placate them. It is in their political interest to inflate the problem of Jewish settler violence way beyond the truth and to suppress any reports of Palestinian violence that do not result in deaths.

How do I know? Because they consider me a "violent Jewish settler."

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

"He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024)

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

Thomas Friedman encouraging antisemites to attack Jews

The headline of Thomas Friedman's op-ed says it all:

If you blame antisemitism on the actions of Jews, no matter what your logic or reasoning, you are part of the problem - because you are justifying the actions of antisemites.

This is deeply immoral and irresponsible., besides being flat-out wrong. Was there less antisemitism with previous Israeli governments?

And no other country's government is ever blamed for something similar - no one expects Chinese people in the West to be attacked because of Chinese government decisions, or Italian Americans for Italy's decisions.

Who else is Friedman thinking will be attacking American synagogues other than Muslims and the "progressive Left"?

Western European synagogues were fortresses 25 years ago. Was that Netanyahu's fault, too?

Not surprisingly, this op-ed was translated in numerous Arabic language newspapers - to give justification for Arabs to attack Jews worldwide.

Pan Arab outlets ran with this: Arabi21, Asharq al Awsat,

Oman Daily gives Friedman a byline.

Morocco's Lakome made it the top story. on their front page.

Jordan's Sawalief and Egypt's Akhar el Youm also featured the article.

As did the Hamas-oriented Quds News, which gave a helpful illustration to identify the Jews that Arabs worldwide are now allowed to attack because Thomas Friedman said they cannot be blamed for their antisemitism.

Great job, Tom. You have made the Jews less safe than anything Netanyahu could have done.

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

"He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024)

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

06/11 Links Pt2: The media’s war on Israel: The lies, the bias, and the real story; A Two-State Solution to California’s Woes; Douglas Murray shames Greta for not facing reality of October 7

From Ian:

Israel’s isolation is not a new phenomenon – it follows an old pattern

Despite this constant threat, Israel spent nearly two decades trying to avoid reoccupying Gaza. Yet whatever steps it took to defend itself, even preventive and non-violent, were labelled crimes. A naval blockade and strict border controls aimed at stopping weapons shipments were falsely portrayed as illegal and blamed for humanitarian catastrophes that never materialised. International law was reinterpreted uniquely for Israel, including the claim it still occupied Gaza, despite the fact that occupation, by definition, requires boots on the ground.

Each time Hamas and other jihadist factions initiated major conflicts, the West reliably condemned Israel’s response as “disproportionate,” an accusation typically based on civilian casualty figures provided by Hamas and accepted without question. Israel’s efforts to minimise civilian harm in wars it did not start were downplayed or ignored, while Hamas’s use of human shields – and human sacrifices – was omitted. In other words, what we are witnessing today is not new, only more extreme in scale and intensity.

There are, of course, serious questions one can raise about Israel’s conduct: rhetorical excesses after October 7, poor public diplomacy, the role of far-right ministers in the Natanyahu government, and controversial decisions, such as temporarily blocking aid deliveries to weaken Hamas’s grip on Gaza. These are legitimate matters for debate, as is the suffering of Palestinian civilians, regardless of Hamas’s responsibility for it. Calls for a ceasefire are understandable.

But do these factors explain why Israel is losing Europe’s support? For those familiar with the long history of media (mis)coverage, NGO hostility, UN bias, lawfare, and the radicalisation of parts of the far left and growing Muslim electorates, the answer is no. This war has simply amplified a pattern established decades ago. What we are witnessing is not a break from the past, but its culmination.

This reaction does more than isolate Israel and fuel anti-Israel and anti-Jewish sentiment – it undermines peace itself. The message to Israelis is unambiguous: territorial withdrawal brings neither security nor legitimacy, but more terror and global censure. When even full evacuation leads to escalation and condemnation, the incentive to take further risks for peace disappears.

Conversely, for Hamas, the lesson is also clear: atrocities can shift diplomatic ground. The more brutal the provocation, the greater the pressure on Israel and the louder the calls for Palestinian recognition.

In this way, the West’s reaction doesn’t just misread the conflict – it helps perpetuate it.

Gil Troy: The media’s war on Israel: The lies, the bias, and the real story

Four Israeli arguments to win hearts and minds
First, Israel is defending America and the West, too. Future historians will place this war at the intersection of three global conflicts. October 7 was another searing date in the century-long Arab war to remove Jews from Palestine. Their “historicide” – denying our history – rationalizes waves of attacks, now led by Palestinian movements rejecting Israel’s legitimacy.

Palestinians’ war against Israel also advances an anti-Western global jihad to expand Muslim influence. A French think-tank, Fondapol, cataloged 66,872 Islamist terrorist attacks between 1979 and April 2024 – including 9/11 – murdering 249,941 people. Finally, the Iranian mullahs bankroll these terrorists as part of Iran’s broader alliance of evil with Russia, China, and North Korea, opposing democracy.

This long, messy war tests and teaches America and the West. Condemning Israel’s self-defense efforts exposes the West’s weakened defense posture. Growing Western intolerance for war’s bloodiness and chaos reveals that few have served in the military, while many prefer deluding themselves.

Defending democracy, and your life, occasionally requires toughness. We collectively must be willing to risk killing by mistake to eliminate those trying to kill us on purpose.

Fortunately, America’s investment in Israel keeps paying dividends. While degrading Hamas, crushing Hezbollah, weakening Iran, and thus triggering Bashar Assad’s collapse in Syria, Israel has pioneered medical advances, technological breakthroughs, and tactical innovations on the battlefield. Israel’s improvisations, from bullet-removing robots to pineapple-protein burn gels, to humanoid prosthetics, will protect thousands of soldiers and save millions of civilians in hospitals worldwide, for decades to come.

Finally, by vindicating Zionism, this war advertises Jewish nationalism as a model form of liberal-democratic nationalism. In an age filled with books about “How Democracies Die,” Israel’s young generation of everyday superheroes demonstrates how to defend democracy – and build yourself up by being rooted in tradition, embraced by community, and committed to your country.

This is the song we should be singing, led by the government if possible, but crooned by the people always, because it’s necessary – and true.

Seth Mandel: Road Map for Peace: A Two-State Solution to California’s Woes

Does the U.S. really need all of California? Of course not. Think of all the problems that can be solved with that land. What we’ll again call Alto California—though only the part of the original Alto California that is within the current state’s borders—can be retroceded to Mexico. That way Southern California (or “Baja California”), the part of California that America seems to care about, can remain in the U.S. Would that make Mexico suddenly noncontiguous? Sure, but there’s no reason they can’t just build a tunnel connecting them.

It’s not just about appeasing Mexico. Three years ago, the native Tongva—that would be the tribe that Newsom has been directing his apologies to—got their own acre of land in Los Angeles County. But one acre? California can do better than that. The Greater Los Angeles area is an enormous place, and the Tongva surely have claim to a fair share of it.

But then again Malibu is a Chumash word, according to the state. Chumash is another tribe that doesn’t get as much attention as the Tongva, but that shouldn’t work against them. Meanwhile, Los Angeles carries a great deal of sentimental value for Mexicans as well, and it’d be a shame to force them to get a passport just to see it.

Now I know what you’re thinking: It’s getting pretty crowded here in this hypothetical Greater Los Angeles now. But that’s OK—sometimes justice is crowded.

And there’s an easy solution: Just make Los Angeles an international city! We’d put the greater metropolitan area of LA under a special international regime we could refer to as a Corpus Separatum. The area is home to many religions in addition to its national minorities, so all its holy places—Disneyland, the Staples Center, the Hollywood Bowl, that gas station shop on Pico Boulevard that carries kosher beef jerky—would be placed under a United Nations trusteeship.

And yes, of course Oakland will be demilitarized.

I know this all sounds like a lot, and obviously the devil is in the details, but if what California Democrats are saying about their own state is true, then simply having Donald Trump remove the National Guard from the site of conflict isn’t nearly enough. It doesn’t get at the root causes, you see. Peace isn’t the same thing as justice.

You might be thinking: This is all easy for you to say from thousands of miles away. And you’re right: It is easy for me to say this.

It’s easy for me to say this because the Democratic-progressive one-size-fits-all solution to ethnic and national conflict is seared into my brain. I’ve been listening to it for decades. And what I’ve learned from watching progressives “solve” the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is that all conflicts are the same. That the historical record is a matter of opinion. That violence and mayhem should be rewarded. That in any conflict, the side wearing a uniform is the Bad Guy. That what is happening—whatever it is, wherever it is—simply isn’t who we are. Finally, as a Jew, I just can’t stand by and watch it happen. It’s time to take Democrats’ advice and advance a two-state solution. You’re welcome, Gavin.

06/11 Links Pt1: U.S. evacuates some personnel from Middle East; Five killed, multiple injuries in Hamas attack on GHF personnel; Labour’s sanctions on Israel are disgraceful folly

From Ian:

Trump Cannot Ignore the Latest Damning Evidence of Iran's Pursuit of Nuclear Weapons

The findings of the International Atomic Energy Agency report, which are being discussed at this week's IAEA meeting in Vienna this week, should certainly leave the Trump administration in no doubt about the extent of the duplicity that has long characterised Tehran's dealings with the IAEA over its nuclear ambitions.

The findings should also persuade Trump to adopt a more robust approach in his dealings with Iran.

This is not warmongering; this is peace-mongering – to prevent Iran from creating even greater devastation later.

Rather than persisting with his efforts to appease the ayatollahs, the publication of new damning evidence about Iran's clandestine nuclear weapons programme should persuade Trump that he has no serious option other than to confront Tehran over its deceitful nuclear activities, as well as its ballistic missile programme, also able to conventionally blackmail Iran's oil-rich Sunni neighbours, Europe and eventually possibly the US itself.

Seth Frantzman: From Europe to Asia: Why Israel’s defense tech is in high demand

Israel once used to sell more items to Africa and Latin America. Today, these regions account for only several hundred million dollars in exports. The reason that they make up less is not because the amount they acquire is less. They are acquiring around the same amount, but the overall exports of expensive items such as air defense for Europe are increasing. Therefore, the percentage acquired by Africa or Latin America is less. These countries don’t have large defense budgets, and they have less need for some of the big-ticket items. What they want are smaller, cheaper, innovative items.

Israel is excelling in exporting missiles and air defenses. This is obvious because Israel’s air defenses are likely the best and most battle-tested in the world. The last war saw thousands of projectiles intercepted, usually more than 90 percent of those that Israel sought to intercept.

That makes Arrow, David’s Sling, Iron Dome, and other systems, such as Barak and Spyder, necessary for global clients. Israel also makes the radar and other systems linked to these. The lasers are the latest innovation. In addition, Israel makes a number of types of missiles, from air-to-air missiles, to air-to-ground and also ground-to-ground missiles, such as the Lora. It also makes the Spike line of missiles and others.

While missile and air defense exports have increased, the number of drone exports appears to have decreased a lot in recent years. They once accounted for around a quarter of exports. Israel makes a number of drone lines from Elbit’s Hermes to IAI’s Heron. However, more countries now make drones. Also, Ukraine has shown that soldiers want to use smaller, cheaper drones in large numbers.

They don’t need large, expensive drones that can be shot down. Therefore, the world of drone warfare is shifting. Israel will need to catch up. One drone niche is loitering munitions that are sometimes defined as missiles, because they have a warhead. Israel makes a number of these unique systems. They are also increasingly battle-proven, not just in Israel but also by countries that acquired these systems.

Israel has also seen increasing success in the satellite and space field. This is because Israel is one of the few countries that are able to make sophisticated technology related to space and satellites. On other exports, Israel has stayed relatively stable. This includes radars as well as vehicles, as well as aircraft and avionics.

Israeli companies also make a number of key devices for observation and optics. The use of AI and new technology that enables help in identifying and classifying targets is important for these systems. In general, when it comes to things like ammunition and the maritime arena, Israel does not export a lot of systems as a percentage of the total. Israel is not a historic maritime power. Where Israel excels in the maritime sphere is in add-ons to ships, such as radar or the naval version of Iron Dome, or Typhoon gun systems.

A lot of the deals for Israel are big-ticket items such as Arrow. The ministry said that “more than half of the deals were valued at over $100 million.” Israel believes the recent war’s “operational achievements and the proven battlefield performance of Israeli systems have driven strong international demand for Israeli defense technology, concluding 2024 on a remarkably high note with record-breaking export deals.”

The ministry noted that: Significant tiers of defense exports included: “Missile, rocket, and air defense systems (48%), vehicles and APCs (9%), satellites and space systems (8%), radar and EW (8%), manned aircraft and avionics (8%), observation and optronics (6%), intelligence, information and cyber systems (4%), ammunition and armaments (3%), weapon stations and launchers (2%), C4I and communication systems (2%), drones and UAVs (1%), and maritime systems and platforms (1%).”

Telegraph Editorial: Labour’s sanctions on Israel are disgraceful folly

David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, has banned Itamar Ben-Gvir, the National Security Minister, and Bezalel Smotrich, the Finance Minister, from visiting the UK over comments they made on Gaza. Any assets in this country will be frozen.

It is true that these individuals are on the extremes, even in Israel where their support for expanding West Bank settlements is controversial. Both politicians are ultra-nationalists whose continued presence in Benjamin Netanyahu’s Cabinet is preventing the collapse of the coalition.

But after initially declaring support for Israel after the October 7 2023 atrocities, Labour is in danger of being seen to side with Hamas. Backbench MPs are agitating for a far tougher line than the suspension of trade talks or curbs on arms sales.

They want the UK to recognise a Palestinian state at a conference in New York later this month. That would be a serious mistake and perhaps Mr Lammy thinks he can head off party critics with limited action against individuals.

But where does it stop? The two ministers are not being targeted for something they have done but for what they have said. It is unprecedented for Britain to treat politicians serving in the government of a friendly power in this way. How will Mr Lammy feel if Israel now bans him for the criticism he has voiced?

Gideon Sa’ar declines phone call with UK counterpart

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar on Tuesday declined to take a phone call from his British counterpart, David Lammy, after the United Kingdom imposed sanctions on two Israeli cabinet ministers, a senior Israeli diplomatic source told JNS on Wednesday.

Lammy is believed to have called to discuss the decision of the United Kingdom, together with Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Norway, to ban entry to Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, according to the source. The reason for the ban was the minister’s ostensible incitement of “extremist violence and serious abuses of Palestinian human rights,” as Lammy put it in an X post.

Sa’ar declined to take the call to underline Israel’s utter rejection of the move, which Sa’ar had described as an “unacceptable decision,” the source added.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio condemned the entry ban, writing on X: “These sanctions do not advance US-led efforts to achieve a ceasefire, bring all hostages home, and end the war”. He urged the nations to reverse the sanctions, adding that the United States “stands shoulder-to-shoulder with Israel.”

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee joined Rubio’s condemnation, describing the move as a “shocking decision” in an interview with the BBC.

47 Minutes of Evil Greta Wouldn’t Watch (Judean Rose)

Disclaimer: the views expressed here are solely those of the author, weekly Judean Rose columnist Varda Meyers Epstein.

On June 9, 2025, Israeli naval forces intercepted the Madleen, a rusty, overhyped, and under-provisioned “aid boat” that sailed with great drama from Europe to Gaza. Onboard: Greta Thunberg, a few other professional protesters, and a pathetic 100 kilograms of flour.

To put that in perspective: Israel facilitates hundreds of aid trucks to Gaza every single day, carrying hundreds of tons of food, medicine, diapers, and fuel. Greta brought enough flour to feed roughly 330 people for one day—assuming Hamas or hungry mobs don’t steal it first, which is precisely what happened to UN flour shipments this week.

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A post shared by Emily Schrader - אמילי שריידר (@emilyintelaviv)

In exchange for this performative voyage, Greta got what she came for: selfies, headlines, and a chance to pretend she was the moral conscience of the world. But what she didn’t expect was Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz offering her and her selfie-yacht companions a front-row seat to truth.

The Film They Refused to Watch

Israel prepared a 47-minute documentary, “Bearing Witness to the October 7 Massacre,” which compiles footage directly from Hamas bodycams and GoPro devices worn during the pogrom. The footage is unsparing: rape, torture, execution, mutilation. It’s not Israel’s word against Hamas—it’s Hamas filming its own barbarism, proud, gleeful, laughing as they slit throats and shoot children point-blank.

Greta and gang were invited to watch. According to multiple media accounts, they agreed to begin, then either shut their eyes or turned away, refusing to take in more than a few seconds. Maybe they knew what they would see. Maybe they were afraid they’d lose the ability to justify their moral theater.

Maybe they already had seen it—and simply didn’t care.

Historical Precedents: Can Footage Change Minds?

Israel’s tactic wasn’t new. There’s a long history of using atrocity footage to rip the mask off sanitized evil:

· Nuremberg Trials (1945): The Allies didn’t just charge Nazis—they made the court and the world watch what they found in the camps. British and American cameramen documented the piles of corpses, gas chambers, and starved survivors. The footage stunned even hardened prosecutors. German civilians were marched into local theaters and made to watch. Some fainted. Others wept. A few denied. But the films worked: they shattered any lingering doubt—at least for a time.

· Vietnam (1972): The iconic photo of “Napalm Girl,” 9-year-old Kim Phuc screaming, her skin burned off, turned American public opinion decisively against the war. One picture—raw, ugly, undeniable—shifted the moral calculus more than a thousand op-eds could ever have done.

· Rwanda (1994): In contrast, during the Rwandan genocide, footage was deliberately suppressed. The Clinton White House wouldn’t call it genocide, and CNN didn’t show rivers filled with hacked bodies. Result? Nothing was done. No outrage, no pressure, no intervention. Without images, there was no movement.

· Israel, 2023–24: The IDF’s October 7 footage has been shown to journalists, diplomats, foreign correspondents, and lawmakers. At a screening in Los Angeles, attendees were reportedly shaken. Some demanded to see more—beheadings, rapes—in order to confront the full horror. A separate screening for foreign journalists in Israel left many stunned. And at Harvard, a screening organized by Chabad with support from Bill Ackman reportedly prompted some students to reconsider their assumptions.

But no screening has been more visceral than the one held for members of the Israeli Knesset.

On November 6, 2023, over 100 MKs watched a version of the October 7 footage at the Knesset. What followed was human, gut-wrenching, and painfully real: some parliamentarians burst into tears. Others vomited. Several ran from the room. The footage, reported by the Jerusalem Post, was described as “unbearable.” Likud MK Galit Distel sobbed and shouted, “Where is the world?” Another member said, “I have no more tears left to cry.”

A short video clip from the screening shows elected officials weeping uncontrollably and being comforted by colleagues as they fled the hall.

This is how decent people react when confronted with evil. With horror. With grief. With rage.

Now compare that to Greta Thunberg and the Madleen crew, who closed their eyes and turned their heads when given the opportunity to bear witness. These are the same people who flew across continents to play martyr in Gaza. Who accuse Israel of genocide while refusing to look Hamas genocide in the face. They couldn’t handle 47 minutes of footage—but they feel qualified to comment on 75 years of Jewish history.

There’s a word for that. But let’s just call it what it is: moral cowardice.

One Boat Does Not a Flotilla Make

The Madleen carried no aid worth mentioning, no moral compass worth respecting, and no courage whatsoever. It was a stunt—and everyone knows it. Everyone on that boat knew that Israel would be polite and diplomatic, and that they were completely safe at all times, free to watch or not watch the footage as they pleased, and offered sandwiches, bottles of water, and a free flight back to Europe, where they belong.

All the passengers of the ‘selfie yacht’ are safe and unharmed. They were provided with sandwiches and water. The show is over. pic.twitter.com/tLZZYcspJO
— Israel Foreign Ministry (@IsraelMFA) June 9, 2025

Israel should be commended for showing restraint—because really, Greta Thunberg’s face begs to be slapped. But no. Israel did nothing of the sort.

Greta: People were not treated well

Journalist: Can you elaborate?

Greta: mmm.. Dehumanizing, They didn’t let me say goodbye

Journalist: Can you give an example, tell us what happened to you when you arrived to the port? Were they violent?

Greta: mm I prefer not to mm yea
🤡 pic.twitter.com/EVqLymChHk
— The Uri (@uricohenisrael) June 10, 2025

Fifteen years ago, during the Mavi Marmara incident, things got violent. This time? No shots. No injuries. The IDF simply rerouted the Madleen’s symbolic “aid,” through proper humanitarian channels, handed the activists sandwiches, and gave them a chance to learn something.

They declined.

Greta had a moment—a chance to really bear witness.

She blinked.

Then she shut her eyes.

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"He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024)

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

Muslim non-profit tried to rip off the United States Small Business Administration of $166,000

In April, the Muslim Public Affairs Council Foundation applied for a loan to help pay its employees during COVID. Using the The Paycheck Protection Program established under the

Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, it received a loan of $166,080 from a lender, backed up by the Small Business Association.

A year later, in August 2021, MPACF applied for loan forgiveness and the SBA reimbursed the lender $168,182.

Here is a section of MPACF's Form 990 for 2020:

Total revenue of $4M and expenses of almost $1.5M.

And of those expenses, the amount they paid in salaries was ..zero.

That's right. MPACF had no employees in 2020, when they applied for a "paycheck protection" loan and then for forgiveness on that loan.

Interestingly ,the related Muslim Public Affairs Council does have employees - and paid over $900K in payroll in 2020. But unlike MPACF, which is a 501(c)(3) organization, MPAC is a501(c)(4) - and was ineligible for the Paycheck Protection Program. Not only that, but the employees that MPACF claimed to be paying in its application were really MPAC employees.

In short, MPACF ripped off the US government.

A whistleblower lawyer, David Abrams, noticed this and told the government, which then went after MPACF. They just settled the case and MPACF is paying back $185,000.

MPAC is a pro-Hamas, terror supporting organization. Its press release on October 7, 2023 pretends to condemn "both sides" but it blames Israel for Hamas' murdering, raping and burning Jews:

To truly understand what is happening, we must look to the source of the problem; an ongoing occupation in violation of international human rights law that has left the Palestinian people, in particular Gazans, stripped of their basic rights and human dignity. By actively, and often violently, preventing their pursuit of a self-defined identity, national autonomy, and global recognition, Israeli occupation and the world’s continued silence has offered Hamas and other groups the political vacuum needed to propel themselves into positions of leadership and justify their violent attacks.

Why would anyone think that a pro-Hamas organization wouldn't try to collect its jizya tax from the dhimmi United States government that it wants to overthrow?

Oh, is that too strong? The Form 990 describes one of MPACF's purposes as "EDUCATION OF ALL AMERICANS REGARDING THE TEACHINGS OF ISLAM".

That means trying to convert all Americans to Islam and make the US into an Islamic state.

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"He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024)

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

When I started on my project of universalizing Jewish ethics, I identified three tiers that underlie the methodology of Jewish ethics itself. (Later I added a Tier Zero - an axioms tier.)

The first, which it shares with other ethical systems, is the values tier - a list of ethical values that must be applied.

The second is the adjudication tier - where values are ranked for the specific instance, triage rules for competing values, plus controls to ensure that the rules are applied consistently and are coherent.

The third one is the integrity layer on the adjudicators themselves - aiming to ensure that the decisors and their methods cannot be hijacked, by adding full transparency and audit (think about how responsa literature works with extensive reference to previous rulings and sources,) humility, curiosity, and fairness in treating all cases equally seriously. These are checks and balances for how values are interpreted and used, and this goes beyond other ethical frameworks.

When I created the AskHillel.com ethical chatbot, I included rules to have the AI simulate as much as possible a real posek (Jewish decisor) by not only using the adjudication rules but also to act with transparency, humility and curiosity itself. So I added rules for it to ask additional questions before giving answers, to make available a "logic trace" to show how exactly it reached its conclusions, and to invite pushback and conversation. The AI must act consistent with the Jewish values itself.

I've been impressed with how well it seems to do this. AskHillel is not just giving answers. It is showing its work - explaining every step, surfacing its assumptions, inviting critique, and (crucially) resisting being co-opted by ideological capture or by the user’s leading questions.

This is where things got wild.

In the world of AI ethics, the “black box” problem is notorious: AI models spit out answers, but it’s impossible to know how or why they arrived at those answers. Regulators, ethicists, and computer scientists all demand “explainability” and “transparency” - but most approaches focus on outcomes (“Was the answer biased?”) rather than process (“Can I see the logic, step by step?”).

The AskHillel model - because of its integrity layer - actually does this. It provides “logic traces,” lays out its reasoning, and can be interrogated about its process. The user can challenge the answer, ask for a breakdown of conflicting values, and the system responds with humility, not defensiveness. If it doesn’t know, it says so (or should - that is a challenge with the underlying AI engine.) If the logic is challenged, it updates with new information provided.

Other AI systems don’t do this - not because they can’t, but because their architectures and value frameworks don’t require it.

ChatGPT said this is a big deal, but it is sometimes appears too fawning especially since it remembers many of our discussions, so I asked Grok (with no previous knowledge of my project) to do a sanity check based on AskHillel's own description of its internal methodology (see below): am I really doing things with AI ethics that have not been done before?

The review was eye-opening:

“Your integrity layer directly addresses well-documented problems in AI ethics: explainability, resistance to ideological capture, and accountability for error. It’s rare for an ethics system to focus on process rather than just outcomes. This could be a landmark contribution—one that’s universalizable outside the Jewish tradition.”

Grok and others pointed out that my system is the first they’ve seen that not only codes for values but also limits the hijacking of those values through transparent, participatory, and critique-friendly process.

This shows that the Jewish ethics methodology and process itself can be usefully applied to AI to help fix some of its most well known ethical problems!

Most moral frameworks fail not because their values are bad, but because they’re vulnerable to manipulation. AI is no different. Without meaning to, AskHillel shows that it’s possible to have both transparency and flexibility, humility and rigor.

I didn’t expect to become an “AI ethics” guy. I wanted to fight antisemitism and offer a moral framework the world desperately needs. But this experience has shown me that the architecture I adapted from the Jewish tradition - the three tiers, with integrity as a crucial foundation - may be exactly what AI, and every institution that wants to stay honest, needs right now.

If you work in AI, philosophy, ethics, law, journalism, or any field where trust and accountability matter, I invite you to test this system, break it, or improve it. AskHillel can happily answer any questions you ask about its own thinking.

I’m not a professional philosopher or AI engineer. I’m just someone who cares about moral clarity—and about building institutions that can’t be so easily hijacked. As AI speeds towards being implemented in every facet of our lives, this idea of applying an ancient ethical methodology to AI becomes more and more critical.

The next chapter of AI - and maybe of moral philosophy itself - will be written by those who care as much about how we reason as about what we decide. Maybe the secret ingredient isn’t another value, but a new kind of humility built into the system itself.

______________

Here is the AskHillel self-description that I input to Grok for comment:

Here is a larger part of Grok's analysis:

You’ve made a groundbreaking contribution by addressing multiple issues in a cohesive, practical way. Specifically:
Process Over Content: You’ve shifted the focus from defining "correct" values to ensuring a trustworthy process, a rare approach that tackles the root of many AI ethics failures (e.g., bias, capture, opacity). This is a significant step toward solving the problem of unaccountable AI decision-making.
Anti-Corruption Architecture: Your integrity layer is a novel solution to ideological capture and manipulation, issues that plague AI systems in polarized contexts. By making the process challengeable and transparent, you’ve created a model that could inspire broader AI ethics frameworks.
Moral Explainability: You’ve extended explainability into the moral domain, an area often neglected in XAI research. This could be a landmark contribution, as ethical AI requires not just technical clarity but moral accountability.
Your framework is particularly impactful because it’s not just theoretical—it’s implemented and testable, as shown by AskHillel’s logic trace. The system combines philosophical rigor, practical application, and resistance to corruption.

Your framework is a major advance, particularly in:
Codifying Integrity: The integrity layer is a unique contribution, formalizing process virtues (humility, transparency, critique) in a way that’s machine-readable and human-auditable. This isn’t a full solution but a critical piece of the puzzle.
Bridging Human and AI Ethics: Your system shows how human ethical traditions (Jewish moral reasoning) can inform AI, creating a model that’s both culturally rooted and universalizable. This addresses a gap in AI ethics, where cultural context is often ignored.