April 2019 ~ Elder Of Ziyon

Tuesday, April 30, 2019

04/30 Links Pt2: Ending the Myth of the Poor Terrorist; From Zion to San Remo and Beyond; What Does it Mean to be Pro-Israel in 2019?

From Ian:

However, the latest research raises some new questions about the comprehensiveness of Bueno de Mesquita’s model. In 2015, a new Palestinian terrorist campaign erupted. The attacks were substantially different than previous waves of Palestinian violence as the assailants typically worked alone instead of within a greater terrorist group. Because of this individualistic terrorist threat, the campaign is often referred to as the “Lone Wolf” intifada. The violence subsided in 2017, and an ongoing study by Berrebi and Weissbrod is working to analyze the characteristics of the individuals involved. So far, the study has found that while there are many high school dropouts in this new kind of self-selected terrorism, there are also many who are highly educated and from affluent backgrounds. Overall, both the number of highly educated professionals and university graduates among the terrorists, and the number coming from wealthier backgrounds, are well above average. What the research suggests is that although terrorist organizations may eliminate the lowest quality terrorist candidates, as claimed by Bueno de Mesquita and others, separate factors beyond the screening process must play a part in forming the connection between higher education, wealth, and terrorism.

What is clear by now is that nearly all current research shows that terrorists tend to be wealthier and more educated but we still need to test new theories to find out why. If Bueno de Mesquita’s screening model isn’t the entire story, one alternative theory could be that the educational content could itself be radicalizing, thus the more schooling someone receives in a given society the more likely it becomes that they could engage in terrorist acts. Another possible theory is that terrorism is a modern, deadlier form of political protests and revolts that have, throughout history, often been started by the intellectual communities. A third alternative may be that individuals from lower socio-economic backgrounds do not have the luxury of participating in revolt as they must worry about feeding their families and the struggles of everyday life.

There are many more unexplored theories that may help to further explain the roots of terrorism, yet one thing is certain: The conventional view is far too simple. Politicians like Jeremy Corbyn need to stop treating terrorist threat as though it is a unidimensional problem which is solvable by raising individual wealth and education. Corbyn’s paeans to the noble suffering of hopeless Hamas terrorists rests on a myth. The massacre against Christians in Sri Lanka was not committed by desperate volunteers drawn from the wretched of the earth. The terrorists who carried out that mass murder were well-educated members of their society’s upper middle class, a background that is not exceptional in the broader context of terrorism and, if anything, suggests that the perpetrators were representative of a common socio-economic class of terrorist.

As terrorism evolves further, we must treat this issue as one impacted not just by poverty, education or terrorist organizations, but other factors as well. This step will allow for greater research in order to fully understand the mechanisms of terrorism and begin to find real solutions that reach beyond political expediency.

From Zion to San Remo and Beyond

Almost a century ago, the international San Remo Conference was held in Italy in April 1920. During this conference, the international community, led by the victorious allies of World War I, recognized the Jewish people’s national and historical rights in its ancestral homeland Israel. The importance of this largely forgotten conference cannot be overstated. Israel’s enemies frequently distort history by falsely presenting Israel as a “foreign imperialist implant” and a “compensation for the Holocaust.” In reality, the recognition of the Jewish people’s historical and national rights in Israel was part of a wider anti-imperialist new world order led by US President Woodrow Wilson after World War I.

This new world order recognized the national and political rights of nations worldwide. The same Arab world, which has frequently been depicted as a “victim of imperialism”, ironically gained far more from the San Remo Conference than the Jewish people did. The same international community that recognized the Jewish people’s rights to its tiny historical homeland recognized Arab political independence over much of the Middle East, including Syria and Iraq. At the time, international and Arab leaders saw no conflict between the reestablishment of a tiny Jewish state in the land of Israel and the establishment of neighboring vast Arab states. Emir Faisal, the head of the Arab kingdom Hejaz, welcomed the Jewish people’s return to its ancestral homeland Israel:

“We Arabs, especially the educated among us, look with deepest sympathy on the Zionist movement…. We will wish the Jews a hearty welcome home…. We are working together for a reformed and revised Near East, and our two movements complement one another. The movement is national and not imperialistic. There is room in Syria for us both. Indeed, I think that neither can be a success without the other.”

Merely a century ago, the international community understood a fundamental truth that has largely been lost today: “Palestine” is the Roman imposed term for the Jewish people’s historical homeland Judea. At the time, there were no calls for establishing a “Palestinian” Arab state because neither Arabs nor anyone else was aware of such a “nation”. Local Arabs identified either as Syrians or as part of the wider Arab world.

Document showing America’s official recognition of Israel in May 1948 up for sale

The original exhibition copy of the United States’ recognition of Israel in 1948, signed by U.S. President Harry S. Truman, is up for sale for the first time.

The document, valued at $300,000, is the only known signed copy of the final recognition of the Jewish state to exist.
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The Raab Collection, the nation’s leading dealer in important historical documents, announced on Tuesday that it has acquired the historical artifact ahead of Israel’s Independence Day in May.

Previously, the document was exhibited by the American and Israeli governments.

It reads: “This government has been informed that a Jewish state has been proclaimed in Palestine, and recognition has been requested the provisional government thereof. The United States recognizes the provision government as the de facto authority of the new State of Israel.”

“This document speaks to the power of the Jewish hope of a homeland and its realization after World War II,” said Raab Collection president Nathan Raab. “It was signed by Truman for the New York World’s Fair and since then has been used by both the American and Israeli governments as the symbol of the great recognition of Israel by the United States.”

What Does it Mean to be Pro-Israel in 2019?

Interview with Kasim Hafeez part 3: A discussion of the Arab world and Israel

Here is part 3 of my interview with extremist-turned-Zionist Kasim Hafeez in Tel Aviv last month. In this part we discuss the Arab world's attitudes towards Israel and the Palestinians.

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

"Travels in the Great Desert of Sahara, in the Years of 1845 and 1846" by James Richardson, includes an anecdote that explains a lot of the hate from the Arab world towards Israel today.

My turjeman is surprised we Christians receive the books of the Jews as sacred and inspired, and so are many other people. They are quite astonished when I tell them that Christians esteem the Scriptures of the Jews equally divine with their own. They have a confused notion that the whole of the Jewish Scriptures consist of the five books of Moses, which they call the Torat, and the Psalms of David. Some of them say Abraham was not a Jew. I explain to them, that the Christians give a different interpretation to the Jewish Scriptures from the Jews themselves, and believe “the Son of Mary” to be the Messiah of the Jews and all the world. They hardly believe me; and say, “The Jews are corrupt and their books corrupt.” When I told them one day before the Rais that we had had Jews in India, they flatly replied it was a lie, for said they, “It is impossible for such a miserable being as a Jew to be a soldier.”

I have long assumed that the hate that Arabs and Muslims have for Israel comes from the honor/shame dynamic - weak Jews defeating Arabs who consider themselves experts in war was a huge psychological blow, far worse than the physical defeat. This is why only the 1948 war, among all the many wars that Muslims and Arabs have lost to the West and others, is called a "nakba," a catastrophe.

Here is the first time I have seen this thinking written specifically. To the Arabs of north Africa, the idea of a Jew being a soldier altogether was not believable. Jews were "miserable beings" and "corrupt" and therefore cannot possibly learn to fight, as honorable Arabs do.

When these "miserable beings" showed that not only can they fight, but they can defeat the combined armies of the Arab world outnumbering the Jews, the psychic damage to the Arab world cannot be overstated.

The only thing that can cure this is a combination of Israeli military strength continuing to dominate the region, and time for the Arabs to get used to the fact that Jews are not what they have been taught for many centuries. Arabs measure time in centuries, not months, so it takes a few generations for changes to occur.

They are occurring, though.

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

04/30 Links Pt1: Rabbi Goldstein: A Terrorist Tried to Kill Me Because I Am a Jew. I Will Never Back Down; Caricaturing Jews, Hating Jews, Killing Jews

From Ian:

Rabbi Goldstein: A Terrorist Tried to Kill Me Because I Am a Jew. I Will Never Back Down.

I do not know why God spared my life in my Poway synagogue. All I can do is make this borrowed time matter.

From here on in I am going to be more brazen. I am going to be even more proud about walking down the street wearing my tzitzit and kippah, acknowledging God’s presence. And I’m going to use my voice until I am hoarse to urge my fellow Jews to do Jewish. To light candles before Shabbat. To put up mezuzas on their doorposts. To do acts of kindness. And to show up in synagogue — especially this coming Shabbat.

I am a proud emissary of Chabad-Lubavitch, a movement of Hasidic Judaism. Our leader, the great Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, famously taught that a little light expels a lot of darkness. That is why Chabad rabbis travel all over the world to set up Jewish communities: I have colleagues in Kathmandu, in Ghana, as well as in Paris and Sydney. We believe that helping any human being tap into their divine spark is a step toward fixing this broken world and bringing closer the redemption of humanity. It is why 33 years ago my wife and I came to this corner of California to build a house of light.

Because we are obviously Jewish, identifiable by our black hats and beards, it has also meant that some of us have been targets before. Eleven years ago, my colleagues Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg, who ran the Chabad of Mumbai, India, were murdered with four of their guests. They were targeted by the terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba because they were Jewish. And over the years people I know have been harassed and assaulted by thugs in the neighborhood where I grew up, Crown Heights, Brooklyn, in incidents that typically go unreported by the press.

In his vile manifesto, the terrorist who shot up my synagogue called my people, the Jewish people, a “squalid and parasitic race.” No. We are a people divinely commanded to bring God’s light into the world.

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So it is with this country. America is unique in world history. Never before was a country founded on the ideals that all people are created in God’s image and that all people deserve freedom and liberty. We fought a war to make that promise real.

And I believe we can make it real again. That is what I pledge to do with my borrowed time.

John Podhoretz: Caricaturing Jews, Hating Jews, Killing Jews

Last Thursday, the international edition of the New York Times published a cartoon depicting Benjamin Netanyahu, in the form of a dachshund wearing a Star-of-David necklace, leading a blind and be-yarmulked Donald Trump. Two days later, a white supremacist—who shares the cartoonist’s belief that the U.S. president is a “Jew-lover” subject to “Zionist” control—entered a Chabad house in Poway, California and opened fire, killing one and wounding three others. John Podhoretz comments:

It likely did not occur to the editor [who approved the cartoon for publication] that he was acting as the unwitting reincarnation of Julius Streicher. It is, rather, likely that this editor has not had a conversation in years with anyone who did not think Benjamin Netanyahu was a monster and therefore fair game. The idea that exactly such imagery was part and parcel of the conscious effort to gas and to incinerate the Jewish people was unknown to him. Indeed, the very idea that the Jewish people are only a few generations removed from near-destruction and that a certain degree of sensitivity is required in depicting them may not ever have occurred to him. Indeed, perhaps something close to the opposite is at work in his understanding of the world.

We know about the selective expectations involved in the unique criticism of Israel for behaving in ways that dozens of other countries behave when it comes to contested territories. The constantly harping critics of the world’s only Jewish state say disingenuously that they are doing it for Israel’s own good or to hold Israel to the standards of its own prophets when they tend to hold no other state in the world to any standards. We are told we are not to consider this anti-Semitic because criticizing a country isn’t the same as criticizing a people. Well, . . . while it is true that criticizing a country can be different from criticizing a people, it is also true that it can be, and often is, exactly the same.

Yisroel Goldstein, the rabbi of Chabad of Poway, emerged from surgery, [having been shot in the hand], and issued a statement—a beautiful, defiant, eloquent, and life-affirming declaration at the end of Passover—that while, as we say in the Haggadah, “in every generation they rise up to destroy us,” we will not be destroyed.

A Hatred Of Israel Is The One Thing All Anti-Semites Have In Common

The only anti-Semitism still widely used in public discourse is the kind masquerading as “anti-Zionism.” That is why there was warranted outrage when The New York Times’s international edition publishes a Der Sturmer-style cartoon and when members of Congress protect a woman who has persistently smeared Americans Jews as money-grubbing interlopers and when progressive activists march behind those who embrace the most noxious anti-Semitic notions imaginable.

Now, a Jew-baiting cartoon or an ugly tweet isn’t going to shoot you. But anti-Israel rhetoric doesn’t just hurt feelings, it leads to policy that puts people in danger. It is why, whatever the intentions were behind the Iran deal, many Jews were rightly disturbed when the antagonist Obama administration made a sweetheart agreement and sent pallets of cash to a Holocaust-denying terror state that openly threatens to throw six million Jews into an “inferno.” It’s a bit on-the-nose.

Since Israel is increasingly detested by the American left—often for the very same reasons the United States is detested—progressives have also been increasingly comfortable attacking Jews or defending those who do. And no, these people aren’t merely being “critical of Israel.” The New York Times cartoon depicting Trump as a blind man being led by the Star of David-bedecked Benjamin Netanyahu was a pictorial interpretation of a paranoid grievance that many anti-Israel progressives and paleocons have been peddling for years: that Jews control the U.S. government.

Claiming that Americans are dying to protect Jewish interests isn’t only a lie, it’s a fresh iteration of an old slur. Whereas once there were “bankers” and “money lenders,” today there are “Zionists.” I see this smear every day, and not merely from randos on Twitter.

Some progressives, in fact, argue that the concept of “Zionism” is itself a form of white supremacy. Liberal editors of major publications now contend that the democratically elected prime minister of this Jewish state is one of “global anti-semitism’s greatest allies.” Writers for major magazines breezily blame Jews who support Israel for their own massacres. Among them are a small number of progressives, who defraud the public by falsely using their abandoned Jewish heritage to promote their leftist ideology.

Mahmoud Abbas has property in Jordan, including a huge villa. (He's also a citizen.)

Al Resalah reports that Mahmoud Abbas is bracing for the "Deal of the Century" and how to combat it. It says that he is preparing for the collapse of the Palestinian Authority.

It also says that Abbas is planning to spend more time outside Ramallah and at his huge house near Amman so he can coordinate better with Jordan's King Abdullah.

Abbas has a huge house in Jordan? Yes, he does. He has as many as four properties in Jordan, including a home he paid more than 2 million Jordanian dinars, about $3 million dollars, in 2011. The home is in the Abdoun district of Amman.

The PA president, and his sons, hold Jordanian passports and citizenship allowing them to purchase real estate in Jordan without any red tape that foreigners usually have to go through. as far as I know, he is still a Jordanian citizen.

Abbas held meetings with John Kerry in his Jordanian villa during the Obama administration.

His Jordanian national number (as of 2011) is 93-3000-254.

Mahmoud Abbas likes to style himself as the President of the State of Palestine. How many world leaders are citizens of other countries?

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

Abdul Hamid al-Hakim, the director of the Middle East Center for Strategic Studies in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, has put out a series of tweets that are - for the Arab world - startlingly philo-semitic.

A video about two Jewish brothers from Iraq who were major songwriters there prompted him to say:

Iraqi-Israeli pop star Dudu Tassa, whose grandfather & great-uncle were the George & Ira Gershwin of Baghdad, has won fans across the Arab world. This clip from @JIMENA_Voice highlight's Dudu's dream: to perform in the land of his ancestors. https://t.co/WY9RsacOPO @robsatloff
— Joseph Braude (@josephbraude) April 24, 2019

The Jews are an integral part of our societies where they have risen at all levels, and the history of the Jews confirms that they are the leaders of civilization in any communities they live in.

I am certain that the dream of our friend Dudu Tassa will be realized, but we will welcome him in Riyadh as they welcome us in Jerusalem.

He visited Israel last year and tweeted this for Yom Haatzmaut:

I congratulate the Israeli society on their Independence Day and address the Arab societies on this occasion. The State of Israel is a historic right for Jews which is confirmed by heavenly books and the history of the region. In 70 years, Israel became a state of the first world and you did not escape your denial of their right to weakness and sectarian wars.

It gets better:

If we want to achieve peace and create a new Middle East that fulfills the aspirations of the peoples of the region, we must address our societies courageously to recognize the historical right of Jews to their state of Israel.
Jerusalem was not the capital of any nation in history except for the Jews. Jerusalem is the door to peace for the region.

Hamid al-Hakim also supports the Trump peace plan and says that Arab societies are getting nothing by supporting Hamas and the PLO.

Needless to say, there are plenty of Arabs who are not fans of al-Hakim's philosemitism. But the fact that there is even a debate in Saudi Arabia about Israel, and about Jewish rights to Israel and Jerusalem, is something astonishing.

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

From Students Supporting Israel, Columbia:

A few weeks ago, SSI Columbia reached out to SJP (Students for Justice in Palestine) and JVP (Jewish Voice for Peace) with great hope and expectations of finally doing something productive about the long-debated issue of holding civil and constructive discussion on campus regarding the Israeli- Palestinian conflict. We asked nothing more than a phlegmatic setting to discuss different views and narratives, hopefully, provided by newly elected CCSC. Today, in a public statement, SJP has not only rejected our open offer but also virulently used made up claims and half-truths to justify their insistence on marginalizing and boycotting pro-Israel voices on this campus.

SSI’s invitation to host a joint event came as a result of SJP claiming that they want to promote dialogue on this issue on campus.

SSI took up SJP on their claim of wanting dialogue - and they called their bluff beautifully.

SJP not only rejected the call for dialogue - they admitted that they would never have spoken to SSI anyway:

Normally, an invitation such as this would be rejected due to SJP’s anti-normalization policy, which means that we don’t participate in collaborative events with Zionist groups on the grounds that such events do more to obscure, rather than expose, the fundamental power imbalance at the heart of the settler-colonial situation in Palestine.

But then they said that SSI was "racist" with examples that are not at all racist by any definition. For example, "Most recently, SSI hosted a 'social activism' workshop with a representative of Act.Il, an Israeli propaganda app closely linked to the Israeli Ministry of Strategic Affairs and other clandestine intelligence organizations." All of their examples are equally bizarre.

SJP doesn't stop there. They not only say that SSI is "racist," but "We believe organizations like SSI, given their racist rhetoric and their recorded history of harassment, must be effectively deplatformed."

They don't stop there. They say that every pro-Israel organization must be boycotted: "We call on our peers and allied organizations to boycott all pro-Israel advocacy groups and clubs..."

SJP's own words show how intolerant they are towards anyone who disagrees with them. SSI is obviously the only party here that is acting like adults.

As usual with anti-Israel and antisemitic organizations, they don't want to talk or debate - because they know that they will lose on facts. Instead, they do everything they can to silence any pro-Israel voices.

Logic would dictate that the organization that wants to disenfranchise their opponents is the one that should be disenfranchised.

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

04/29 Links Pt2: Bret Stephens: A Despicable Cartoon in The Times; Israeli UN envoy urges NY Times to punish those behind anti-Semitic cartoon; Rashida Tlaib’s brother praises terrorists

From Ian:

Bret Stephens: A Despicable Cartoon in The Times

The paper of record needs to reflect deeply on how it came to publish anti-Semitic propaganda.

On Thursday the opinion pages of the New York Times international edition provided a textbook illustration of anti-Semitism. Except that the Times wasn't explaining anti-Semitism.

It was purveying it in the form of a cartoon in which a guide dog with the face of Benjamin Netanyahu leads a blind, fat Donald Trump wearing dark glasses and a black yarmulke. The dog-man wears a collar from which hangs a Star of David.

Here was an image that, in another age, might have been published in the pages of Der Sturmer. The Jew in the form of a dog. The small but wily Jew leading the dumb and trusting American. The hated Trump being Judaized with a skullcap. What was this cartoon doing in the Times?

For some Times readers - or former readers - the Times has a longstanding Jewish problem, dating back to World War II, when it mostly buried news about the Holocaust, and continuing into the present day in the form of intensely adversarial coverage of Israel. On the editorial pages, its overall approach toward the Jewish state tends to range from tut-tutting disappointment to thunderous condemnation.

The real story is a bit different. The international edition has a much smaller staff, and far less oversight than the regular edition. Incredibly, the cartoon was selected and seen by just one midlevel editor right before the paper went to press.

The cartoon's publication wasn't a willful act of anti-Semitism but was an astonishing act of ignorance of anti-Semitism at a publication that is otherwise hyper-alert to nearly every conceivable expression of prejudice. Imagine if the dog on a leash had been a prominent woman such as Nancy Pelosi, a person of color such as John Lewis, or a Muslim such as Ilhan Omar?

David Collier: Dominique (Dom), British terrorists and the Mike’s Place bombing

The 29th April is always a sombre day for me. Sixteen years ago today (29th April 2003), I was talking to a friend of mine ‘Dom’, about a new business adventure she was starting. I was eating a cake, a sample that she had brought me to taste. Dom came to pay for a flight I had sorted out for her. She had been to France to see her family and when she wanted to return from Paris, she’d call, I’d book the flight, and we’d settle once she had arrived. We chatted, I told her the cake was delicious and then we said our goodbyes. It must have been about 11am. ‘See you later’ I think I said to her. I wouldn’t though, in fact I never saw her alive again.

I had known Dominique (Dom) for about six years. Like many from Western Europe trying to find their way in Tel Aviv, Dom was part of the tourist crowd. A few hostels and pubs littered the Ben Yehuda, Allenby area and were full of working travellers. Thousands of young Europeans gravitated towards Tel Aviv’s Mediterranean shore. The hostels supplied the work, the pubs the recreation. Dom had been part of the scenery for a long time. I had first met her in the late 1990’s and if I remember rightly, at the time she worked in a launderette that doubled as a billiard/pool hall. We had been in touch ever since. Dominique was extremely popular and since I had my own tourism related business, Dominque was always sending me new customers.

Dom, the Buzz Stop and Mike’s Place
Dom worked for a while at a beachfront pub called the ‘Buzz Stop’. Originally sited near the ‘dolphinarium’ on the Southern beaches of Tel Aviv, the owner Eli, eventually moved it to the centre of town, near what was then the American Embassy. In 2001 another pub opened next door -a live blues music bar called Mike’s Place. Dominique switched from working at the Buzz Stop to Mike’s Place. She worked at Mike’s Place from the day that it opened. I frequented both. They were my local hang-outs and I knew most of the regulars.

The 29th April 2003 arrived and the second Intifada was still going strong. In January there had been a massacre in Tel Aviv’s Central Bus Station – a double suicide bombing. March saw a suicide bomb massacre in Haifa and another bombing in Netanya. In April Kfar Saba was the target of a suicide bombing. There were going to be four additional suicide bombings in May.

But Mike’s place was a pub on a beach front and full of tourists. It was a world away from the conflict. The evening of the 29th had been busy. It was Tuesday night- ‘Jam night’ for the Blues bar and everyone inside was having fun. Yet just a few hundred yards away in Hayarkon Street, two men were busy getting ready to kill.

Dzanc Drops Novel Criticized for Islamophobic Themes

After a week of controversy over Siege of Tel Aviv by Israeli-American author Hesh Kestin, which was released on April 16, publisher Dzanc Books has reverted the rights to Kestin and will not be printing any more copies of the novel. There are currently 2,000 copies of Siege of Tel Aviv in print.

The release, which was marketed by Dzanc as a “bizarrely funny” satire about Iran leading five Arab armies into Israel, destroying it, and restricting Jews to Tel Aviv with the plan of killing them all, was condemned on social media for what critics called its Islamophobic themes and content. Dzanc is accepting returns of the book, and intends to donate any profits to a Muslim relief organization.

"The author is welcome to publish the novel elsewhere," Dzanc publisher/editor-in-chief Michelle Dotter told PW in a telephone interview on Tuesday afternoon. Dotter disclosed that the decision had been made a few hours earlier after the publisher and author failed to reach a consensus on how to respond to the criticism being leveled at Siege of Tel Aviv.

While the book was endorsed by Stephen King, who called it “scarier than anything Stephen King ever wrote,” other readers have not been so benevolent. Siege of Tel Aviv has been condemned by many on social media—including Dzanc authors—as Islamophobic propaganda. One forthcoming Dzanc author, John Englehardt, tweeted that he was “very disappointed by the publication of Siege of Tel Aviv. I spent some time reading the novel online and believe calling it 'absurdism with satire with social commentary’ is beyond generous.” An Amazon reviewer complained that the novel “is a thinly veiled piece of IDF propaganda, to make Israel's horrifying apartheid practices toward Palestine seem justified. Disappointing that Dzanc Books would publish this bile.”

While explaining the rationale behind the decision to revert the rights, Dotter said that “the important thing about any book that we publish is, does it present a vision and give ideas to the world? Does it do more harm than good?” She added: “When we acquired this book [before the 2016 election] we were reading it from a different point-of-view. We intended to present it as satire. As publisher and editor-in-chief"—a position Dotter has held since August 2017—"my responsibility was to read it with a critical eye. I failed to do that.”

I don't know how much traction this can get, but it is a very interesting initiative in Australia.

From The Spectator Australia:

The designation of the Palestinian Authority (PA) as a terrorist organisation would have major implications for Australia’s foreign policy and foreign aid applicable to the Middle East. It would throw into disarray a recently adopted Labor policy to unilaterally recognise a ‘State of Palestine’ as that policy legitimises an entity which meets the criteria under Australian law as a terrorist organisation.

This subject in appropriate context involves two related considerations:

Firstly, an opinion obtained by the Australian Jewish Association (AJA) from one of Australia’s most experienced senior criminal barristers that the PA is a ‘terrorist organisation’ as defined in Division 102 of the Commonwealth Criminal Code Act 1995 (Code). The legal assessment has been undertaken by Jeremy Rapke QC, former Director of Public Prosecutions for Victoria. In that role he has had substantial direct experience in prosecuting terrorism cases.

Secondly, the Australian Labor Party at its National Conference held in Decem-ber 2018, passed a resolution which inter alia ‘Calls on the next Labor government to recognise Palestine as a state…’ and identifies this as an important priority. While such a resolution is technically not binding on a future Labor government, it is significant that it was moved not by some obscure union hack but by Senator Penny Wong, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs, who would likely have the responsible portfolio in a Shorten Labor government.

Australia officially refers to ‘Palestinian territories’ to describe Gaza and much of Judea and Samaria, also known as the West Bank, and under this heading the 2019 budget allocates foreign aid of $43 million. Gaza is controlled by Hamas which is already listed as a proscribed terrorist organisation under the Code. The PA, controlled by President Mahmoud Abbas, administers much of Judea and Samaria and enjoys the world’s highest per capita international foreign aid. Abbas was elected as president of the PA on 9 January 2005 and has this year commenced his 15th year of his four-year term, not having faced any subsequent election. By any measure, the PA is a corrupt dictatorship with a shocking human rights record. While this has not seemingly deterred those in Labor who support the Palestinian cause, if the PA is also a terrorist organisation under Australian law, this would mean any form of recognition, financial support or association with the PA would be a breach of the Criminal Code.

The AJA has believed for a long time that the PA, by establishing its Palestinian Authority Martyrs Fund and by advocating and encouraging terrorism, should be declared a terrorist organisation. We therefore sought legal advice at the highest level which has vindicated this view.

The objectionable activities of the PA include:

- Paying a monthly cash stipend to the families of terrorists killed, injured or imprisoned for attacking, assisting in attacking, or planning to attack Israeli civilians.

- Paying cash stipends rewarding participation in other types of politically inspired violence, including riots and throwing rocks at Israelis.

- Honouring terrorists killed or con-victed by naming schools, streets, plazas and public events after them. Often after terror events the PA immediately publicises the perpetrators as heroes on posters and billboards.

Taken together, these measures constitute what is widely known as the PA ‘Pay for Slay’ programme, an obscene system of paying murderers or their families for killing or attacking Jews in Israel. The pay scales have been published in PA budget papers. According to Palestinian Media Watch, convicted terror-ists in prison can receive notional salaries of 12,000 shekels per month plus bonus-es of 300 shekels per wife, 50 shekels per child and extra for being resident in Israel and Jerusalem. This can amount to the equivalent of about US$3,500 per month. By contrast, a teacher employed by the PA receives roughly $615 per month. From 2017 to 2018 the total PA budget-ed expenditure of its ‘Pay for Slay’ programmes was increased from US$350 million to US$403 million. Mahmoud Abbas in a speech shown repeatedly on official PA TV late in 2018, affirmed that paying martyrs and their families is the PA’s preeminent financial priority. ‘The Martyrs… are sacred, (so are) the wound-ed and the prisoners. We must pay all of them’ he said leaving no room for doubt, ‘If one penny remains in our hands it is for them and not for the living.’

Importantly, under Australian law s102.1(1) of the Code defines a terrorist organisation as meaning ‘an organisation that is directly or indirectly engaged in preparing, planning, assisting in or fostering the doing of a terrorist act’ and allows regulations to be made specifying an organisation is a ‘terrorist organisation’ if the Minister, under s.102.1(2), is satisfied that the organisation ‘advocates’ the doing of a terrorist act’.

After a detailed analysis of the meaning of these provisions, in very clear and direct language Rapke QC concludes:

‘It is strongly arguable that such payments incentivise, reward and glorify terrorism; when coupled with the public praising of, and recognition given to, terrorists (from a purely evidentiary perspective such conduct strengthens the conclusion that the PA intends to encourage terrorism) the conclusion that the PA is a ‘terrorist organisation’ by reason of its fostering of the doing of terrorist acts seems almost inevitable (my italics).

Whichever party forms Australia’s next government, it should declare the PA a terrorist organisation under Australian law as a matter of priority and immediately cease all funding, as it is illegal to provide funds, support or be associated with a terrorist organisation under Australian law. It would be a matter of enormous concern not only to the Australian Jewish community but to all citizens of goodwill were Australia to promote the creation of a rogue state led by a terrorist organisation and to assist it financially or diplomatically.

How our government approaches this issue also has important international significance as other civilised democracies who share our values may well take their lead from us. Labor must reverse the policy announced in December 2018 that if it wins office it will unilaterally recog-nise a ‘State of Palestine’. Failure to do so would effectively embrace a terrorist organisation.

Dr David Adler is the President of the Australian Jewish Association.

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The Jews at American University of Beirut 1925-1948

Middle Eastern Studies recently published an interesting paper called "The star of David in a cedar tree: Jewish students and Zionism at the American University of Beirut (1908–1948)" by Caroline Kahlenberg.

Through it we learn that the first regular female graduate from AUB was Sara Levy, from Palestine:

She was at AUB at the same time as two other Jewish women, Fortune Azriel from Haifa and Aida Goldenberg from Kiev and a former student at the American School for Girls in Cairo.

Goldenberg ended up dropping out, and Azriel graduated from dental school in 1926. She married a professor at AUB, Samuel Appelrot, and they lived in Beirut for a while at least. (I see a Samuel Appelrot had lived in Haifa in 1965 so chances are they moved back to her hometown when life for Jews became precarious in Lebanon.)

AUB tried to attract Jews, including from Palestine, advertising that they were exempt from attending classes on Saturday, availability of kosher food and a synagogue. There was a Jewish student group, the Kadima Society, where the Jews could hang out.

Here was one incident from 1938 that showed that the university's support of Jewish students only went so far:

On 2 November 1938, AUB students observed Balfour Day – a ‘day of mourning’ – by wearing black ribbons. In response, a number of Jewish students wore Zionist colors – blue and white. According to the Palestine Post report, ‘threats of violence were used on the Jews to force them to remove their ribbons’, and one student at the International College, Dani, was ‘attacked and fired at, but not hurt’. As a result, Dani left the college. The Palestine Post printed a verbatim letter following the incident from the principal of the International College, Archie S. Crawford to Dani’s uncle, Nessim Angel, who was himself an AUB alumnus. In the letter, Crawford wrote that Dani’s actions of wearing Zionist colored ribbons on Balfour Day was unprecedented among AUB students. Crawford acknowledged students’ right to express themselves but ultimately criticized this form of Zionist expression:

[Dani] has every right to wear this color or any other ribbon, but it was a tactless thing to do so on this particular day which was being observed as a day of warning by the greater proportion of our student body.

Crawford admitted that students who did not take off the Zionist ribbon upon the request of other students had the ribbon removed by ‘quite unjustified use of force’ by Arab students...

In 1948, Arab students continued attacking and threatening the Jewish students.

Lebanese General Security had decided to ask the Jewish students in Lebanon who were not nationals of Arab states to leave the country, and that the General Security had been in contact AUB administrators regarding the university’s Jewish students. The AUB committee members agreed with the General Security’s decision. The members further decided, in view of ‘the increased tension in the political situation and the consequent dangers to the safety of those Jewish students’, to advise Jewish students to abstain from classes until further instruction. The administration planned to write to these students’ parents to inform them of the situation and advise them to withdraw their children from AUB.

When this decision was brought before the University Senate later that week (in which a few Jewish faculty were present), it apparently received much discussion and perhaps pushback, as many members expressed their views on AUB’s relations with the Lebanese government and ‘the principle of academic freedom and the aims and purposes of the University’.

Two days later, on 14 January 1948, there was a student demonstration in morning chapel services. As Crawford reported to the Executive Committee, a group of Arab students came to AUB’s Vice President ‘demanding the expulsion of Jewish students, who are nationals of nonArab States’. The Vice President apparently had to take ‘measures… to protect the lives of Jewish students and ensure their safety’. In response, Crawford planned to meet with the group of Arab students and ‘impress upon them the principles involved in their behavior and in their relation to the University’. Two weeks later, the Executive Committee voted to authorize Crawford to gather the fathers of those students and discuss with them the ‘threatening attitude and misbehavior of their sons’.

The Jewish population at AUB plummeted after this.

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04/29 Links Pt1: The Palestinians' Own Goals; Israel defends right to West Bank settlements at UNSC; Poway Chabad rabbi had asked border patrol agent to pray armed – just in case

From Ian:

Khaled Abu Toameh: The Palestinians' Own Goals

"We reject normalization and adopt the approach of resistance until the liberation of the entire Palestinian territory." — Statement rejecting job offers, issued by Progressive Democratic Student Pole, affiliated with the radical PLO group Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

"Resistance" is a term used by Palestinians to describe the "armed struggle" against Israel, which includes carrying out various forms of armed attacks against Israelis. When the students talk about the "liberation of the entire Palestinian territory," they are actually saying that they want to destroy Israel because they do not believe in its right to exist.

A video of the protest at Bir Zeit University posted on social media shows dozens of angry students surrounding the companies' representatives, and chanting: "Normalization [with Israel] is Treason."

This is just another example of how the movement for boycotting Israel is causing damage to Palestinians. Perhaps the real motive of the people promoting these boycotts of Israel is not to help the Palestinians at all, but, like terrorist groups, such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad, to destroy Israel.

PMW: The PA is begging Europe for money – but it doesn’t need a penny more in aid

Will Abbas lie to the EU as he lied to the Arab League blaming Israel for the self-imposed financial crisis?

The annual meeting in Europe of the “International donor group for Palestine” comes tomorrow as the Palestinian Authority is experiencing a major financial crisis. The PA has announced that it will be turning to the international community and asking for significant funding.

However, before assisting the PA, the international community must recognize that the entire financial crisis is self-inflicted by the PA, in two different ways.

1. The PA returned 630 million shekels ($186 million) that Israel transferred to its account

Under Israeli law, Israel must deduct the amount that the PA pays to terrorist prisoners and their families every month from the tax money that it collects and transfers to the PA. Based on what the PA expended last year rewarding terrorists, as exposed by Palestinian Media Watch in January this year, Israel is now deducting $11.6 million (42 million shekels) per month from $186 million (670 million shekels) tax money that it collects and transfers to the PA. Losing this $11.6 million would not have caused a financial crisis. However, the PA made a decision that if Israel withheld the $11.6 million the PA spends rewarding terrorists - it would refuse to accept the entire $175 million transfer from Israel.

Meeting with both French and other EU representatives, PLO Executive Committee Secretary and Chief Negotiator Saeb Erekat reiterated “the Palestinian leadership’s decision not to receive the [$175 million] tax money if the [$11.6 million] deduction is carried out.” [Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Feb. 22, 2019]

Hamas’s Leaders May Genuinely Want a Cease-Fire with Israel

Despite numerous efforts, backed by Egypt and other regional powers, the Palestinian Authority (PA), which governs parts of the West Bank, and Hamas, which governs Gaza, have been unable to come to any sort of mutual understanding. Meanwhile, writes Ehud Yaari, Jerusalem seems close to arriving at a long-term cease-fire with Hamas, even as the PA president Mahmoud Abbas is making ever-more-persistent threats to end relations with Israel. Yaari explains Hamas’s motivations:

Since becoming the top Hamas leader in Gaza two years ago, Yahya al-Sinwar has concluded that the group cannot afford an all-out military escalation with Israel, let alone achieve its demands for a free sea- and air-port in the Strip by that route. He spent 22 years in Israeli jails, speaks fluent Hebrew, and follows the Israeli media religiously, so he understands that Netanyahu’s response to another major confrontation would be far more devastating than Operation Protective Edge in 2014. Meanwhile, Hamas has lost most of its cross-border attack tunnels into Israel and is struggling to maintain its rocket arsenal after Egypt cut its smuggling routes through the Sinai Peninsula.

Given these military disadvantages and the PA’s refusal to shoulder responsibility for Gaza’s economic crisis, Sinwar has decided to build his strategy upon the Israeli leadership’s clear preference for containment over war. Backed by the Israel Defense Forces general staff, Netanyahu has repeatedly signaled his readiness to help ease Gaza’s humanitarian crisis once calm is restored. . . .

Today, both sides want a ceasefire. Netanyahu has received growing domestic criticism for his restraint, while Sinwar was excoriated for sending teenagers and unarmed demonstrators to be killed or injured. Both would like to silence their detractors by ending the [fighting].

Al Resalah has an article about how Israel "exploits Jewish holidays to attack the Palestinians."

Many Jews on vacation during Passover like to visit Biblical sites. These visits are described in the article as a fulfillment of Netanyahu's promise to annex the territories, even though this happens every year.

Ghassan Daghlas, the man that the Palestinian Authority literally pays to make up lies about Jews in the territories, does his job for this article:

"The occupation has worked to close the streets and the Ibrahimi Mosque for three days to protect the entry of more than 40 thousand settlers," he said, adding that about 2,000 people stormed the city of Jerusalem last Thursday."

"We are dealing with generations of settlers who say this is my birthplace and my birthplace is here," he said. "The problem with the new generations is exacerbated by the Israelis teaching their children."

The Cave of the Patriarchs is open for exclusive Jewish use ten days of the year. It is open for exclusive Muslim use ten days of the year as well. Those days are published in existing agreements, and the schedule for 2019 can be seen here. Nothing to do with Bibi or the elections.

And this happens every time the site is closed to Muslims as per the agreement - Arab media complains about how Israel is taking over the site.

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Jordanian newspaper Al Ghad has an explicitly antisemitic article by Jihad al Mansi that compares Palestinians to Jesus for being victims of Jewish aggression.

There in Jerusalem, yes, in Palestinian Jerusalem, almost two thousand years ago, extremist Jews tortured Jesus Christ, indulged in his torture, and rejected the message of peace he had given, called for, and sought to spread among the people.

Yes, nearly two thousand years ago, those murderers tortured Christ and his disciples, and sought to kill peace and love. They refused to coexist, made hatred to kill love, and robbed people of their joy, security, and tranquility.

In Palestinian Jerusalem two thousand years ago, Jewish militants exposed their true face to the people, showing their hatred for life, their rejection of love, tranquility and joy. They decided to hijack peace and kill it, poisoning the earth with hatred and rejection of the other.

Paradoxically, the descendants of these same people, 2,000 years later, are still practicing their own ancestors' passion to kill peace and love in people. They are still trying to prevent the holy flame from continuing in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

Two thousand years ago, they rejected what Jesus had said of brotherhood, peace and love, and their descendants continue to reject them to this day. They practice a deep hatred against all those who believe and seek peace, denying the resurrection of Christ.

They desecrated the religious places, stole the land, and sought to create false truths that had no basis or history, and to steal cities that were not theirs, and temples that were not for them. They are connected to them, looking for an impact they will not find, and a Temple that has no basis in Jerusalem or in all of Palestine.

O ye murderers, you who reject the peace, the murderers of the prophets, get out of our homes, out of our old streets, and melt your hatreds, and go out. Get out of our sanctuary, and our house, and our camp and our land. Get out of our land, and go out, take your hatred and go.

O ye who have practiced in the killing, ye rogue thieves have come out of the cradle of our Christ, Christ is ours... We tell the world that you have to distinguish between the murderer and the dead, between the victim and the executioner, between the thief and the owner. You have to know that Jerusalem since the days before Christ has been Canaanite Palestinian, it was and will remain so, and that the holy sites are Islamic or Islamic under Hashemite guardianship. For those sitting in the White House let the land of Palestine know that Jerusalem is Palestinian, Canaanite Arab, and that the deal of your century or any imaginary understandings will not pass.

There seems to be a fair amount of psychological projection here for someone who claims to value love and be against hate.

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Gaza leaders hold large meeting against "Deal of the Century" - without an audience

On Friday, the leaders of various Gaza terrorist organizations met to discuss how to counter the expected "Deal of the Century."

The head of Hamas' "political bureau" Ismail Haniyeh said he is ready to meet with PA president Mahmoud Abbas any time to fix the decade-long rift between the two groups in order to put up a united front against the plan.

Islamic Jihad official Navez Azzam said that the "deal of the century" threatens the entire Arab region and not only the Palestinian cause, because the Arab countries that normalize relations with Israel fracture the Arab world. He said, "Israel is well aware that it will remain in constant danger as long as the Palestinian issue is alive." Which is, effectively, an argument against ever having peace with Israel under any circumstances.

The PFLP said, "The deal of the century is not new. It is the completion of the Balfour Declaration." it and the DFLP stressed how important it is for Hamas and Fatah to get their acts together and stop infighting.

The meeting took place in a ballroom of the Gaza Commodore Hotel, which cannot be cheap to rent. But there are no photos of any audience member.

If it was a working meeting, it would have been around a conference table. This was set up as a set of speeches.

There were a couple of dozen of people making speeches - to no one but each other.

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Interview with Kasim Hafeez, part 2

Here is part 2 of my video interview of Kasim Hafeez, Islamic extremist turned Christian Zionist, in Tel Aviv last month.

We discuss Islam in more detail, contrast it with Judaism, and talk about possible ways it could be reformed...in theory.

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04/28 Links: By its own standards, the NYTs deserves blame for the Poway synagogue shooting; Anti-Trump antisemitism: The link between Pittsburgh and Poway

From Ian:

By its own standards, the New York Times deserves blame for the Poway synagogue shooting

Does anyone else remember when a New York Times editorial blamed Sarah Palin for the shooting of Gabby Giffords because of a bulls-eye on a map?

The New York Times published a hideous, obviously anti-Semitic cartoon the day before a gunman entered a Chabad synagogue in suburban San Diego, killing one person and injuring 3.

Rabbi Yonah Fradkin, executive director of Chabad of San Diego County, says in a statement that Lori Kaye, 60, of Poway was killed. He says those injured in the shooting Saturday were Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein, Noya Dahan, 8, Almog Peretz, 34.

By the standards that a 2017 New York Times editorial published after Bernie Sanders supporter James Hodgkinson attempted a mass assassination of members of the GOP House caucus, the Times bears some responsibility.

In 2011, Jared Lee Loughner opened fire in a supermarket parking lot, grievously wounding Representative Gabby Giffords and killing six people, including a 9-year-old girl. At the time, we and others were sharply critical of the heated political rhetoric on the right. Before the shooting, Sarah Palin’s political action committee circulated a map that showed the targeted electoral districts of Ms. Giffords and 19 other Democrats under stylized cross hairs.

Keep in mind that an unsigned editorial means that it is the product of editorial board itself, not just one op-ed writer, and is this the Times’ official position

Strategic Affairs minister: Times cartoon inspired synagogue shooter

In a Facebook post about Saturday’s synagogue shooting near San Diego, Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan claimed that the shooter had been influenced by a blatantly anti-Semitic cartoon that appeared in the New York Times earlier this weekend.

Erdan wrote that anti-Semitism in political cartoons extended beyond the pages of newspapers and turned into the “blood of Jews” being spilled in synagogues or other places “identified as Jewish.”

“That is always the true motive for terrorism and murder against our people – not ‘the territories’ or ‘concessions,’ – hatred of Jews,” Erdan wrote.

“The loathsome terrorist who carried out the murderous act in the California synagogue and killed the late Lori Gilbert Kaye was inspired to kill by the same anti-Semitic motives in the cartoon published in the New York Times – [accusations] that the Jews run the world, that the prime minister of Israel runs the world. The Israeli prime minister is portrayed as a guide dog leading a blind man. How much hatred and incitement that illustration contains,” he wrote.

“So people are saying that the newspaper supposedly apologized and that the cartoon’s publication was an ‘error in judgment.’ … You wouldn’t accept such a limp-wristed condemnation of racism and incitement if it were directed at any other minority,” Erdan continued.

Imam Tawhidi: Enough is enough, the war on Jews has to stop

Once again, the world witnesses another attack on Jewish people, this time by a white supremacist. It was only six months ago when we mourned the Pittsburgh Synagogue shooting, the deadliest attack on the Jewish community in the United States, which resulted in the killing of eleven people and injuring seven others.

Today however, the question isn't "why did it happen?", but perhaps: How we got here in the first place?

It was the last day of Passover. Members of the California Jewish community had gathered at Congregation Chabad in Poway, north of San Diego, when John Earnest, 19, opened fire at the congregants, claiming the life of an innocent 60-year-old woman. Three others were wounded, one of them a 57-year-old Rabbi.

While genuine condolences poured in to condemn the antisemitic attack, another group decided it was a good time to reveal their hypocrisy.

Let's start with the NYT, a left-leaning newspaper that's slowly becoming known for its antisemitism. Only three days ago, the NYT internationally printed an antisemitic cartoon of President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu.

The cartoon presents Trump as a blind Jew that is being guided by Netanyahu, an Israeli dog. The NYT then retracted the cartoon, and issued a non-apology. It's one thing to criticize Netanyahu and Israeli policy, and it's another thing to dehumanize an individual simply because he is Jewish.

Giant media corporations have the audacity to publish such content because they know that there is an audience willing to support their antisemitism, and in many cases, these audiences include somewhat influential figures like members of the KKK. Leader of the Nation of Islam, Louis Farrakhan for example, is a self-confessed antisemite. In one of his sermons, he states: "I'm not an anti-Semite. I’m anti-Termite."

PMW: PLO: Mass murder of Christians by Muslims in Sri Lanka is same as Jewish presence on Temple Mount

The PLO sees Jews visiting the Temple Mount - Judaism’s holiest site - as similar to Muslims massacring Christians in churches in Sri Lanka during Easter.

The Palestinian National Council - the PLO’s legislative body - has compared “the deviant ideology” behind the mass murder of hundreds of Christians by Muslims in suicide bombings in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday to “the ideology that causes settlers to break into the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.”

In a strategy to try to keep Jews away from the Temple Mount, the Palestinian Authority and its leaders have declared the entire Temple Mount a part of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and exclusively an Islamic site. To support this claim they vilify any presence of Jews on the mount as a “desecration," “defilement," "break-in," or “invasion” of the mosque.

This PA ideology has led to the odious comparison. The Palestinian National Council announced that the murder of more than 250 people in churches and hotels in Sri Lanka is similar to Jews visiting the Temple Mount.

The PNC described the attacks in Sri Lanka as “immoral and contrary to religious and human values,” and similar to the ideology that makes Jewish “settlers” “break in” to the Al-Aqsa Mosque:
“[The PNC] added that the deviant ideology that caused these people to commit their despicable crime against the churches in Sri Lanka is the same ideology that causes settlers to break into the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, do as they please with it, attack the Muslim worshippers, and prevent them from worshipping freely during the Hebrew Passover holiday (refers to West Bank and Gaza Strip crossings being closed during the holiday due to security concerns -Ed.).”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, April 22, 2019]

Why was Bibi a Dachshund in the cartoon? Because it is German!

The antisemitic New York Times cartoon positioned Netanyahu as a dachshund, which is not the normal dog one would associate with being a seeing eye dog.

But that breed has often been used in political cartoons to refer to Germany.

In World War I, the dachshund was often used as a stand-in for Germany:

This political cartoon in Punch used the specific idea of a Dachshund as a seeing eye dog to lampoon Turkey's joining the war on the German side:

In World War II, the dachshund was used to symbolize Nazi Germany (including by Dr. Seuss:)

The artist of the offensive cartoon, Antonio Antunes Moreira. had previously compared Israel to Nazi Germany in this incredibly antisemitic cartoon from the 1980s:

The dachshund was not a coincidence. Moreira wanted to again compare Israel to Nazi Germany.

(h/t Irene)

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The New York Times' antisemitic cartoon, its non-apology and the silence of the "anti-Zionist not antisemitic" crowd

The International Edition of the New York Times published this editorial cartoon on Thursday:

Bibi Netanyahu, with a large Star of David around his neck, is a seeing eye dog leading a blind Donald Trump.

This image trades in the classic antisemitic tropes of the Jew as a dog, of Jews secretly controlling the US, as this Serbian antisemitic poster from the 1940s shows a Jew acting as a puppet master over both Churchill and Stalin.

Or this Arab cartoon during the 2008 presidential campaign.

If the cartoon was only that, the New York Times could excuse it as just a giant dog whistle that was meant only to criticize Israel and Trump, that was published by an "error in judgment." Which is exactly what it did:

But how can anyone explain the yarmulke on Trump's head?

No matter how much one wants to stretch one's imagination, it is impossible to look at this cartoon and not see the blatantly antisemitic message. Not a "trope," not a "dog-whistle" to antisemites - a cartoon that would have fit perfectly, unaltered, in Der Sturmer. Trump isn't merely a puppet - he is a Jew himself, making him even more odious.

Saying that this is Nazi-level antisemitism is not hyperbole. The neo-Nazi Daily Stormer said that "the image of the blind man Trump being led by the Jewish dog Netanyahu is such a powerfully accurate portrayal of their relationship."

The editorial pages of any major newspaper has multiple editors that stories and cartoons have to pass by. Seth Frantzman of the Jerusalem Post says that there are four such checkpoints in his newspaper. I know from speaking to people who have worked at the NYT that the gauntlet that pro-Israel op-ed writers have to go through to get published is crazy, much more than anti-Israel op-ed writers have to go through.

Lahav Harkov, of the Jerusalem Post, reports "Source tells me NY Times office in NY was genuinely surprised and disturbed by the cartoon. Someone in the International NY Times office in France should answer for this." I believe this; the US edition of the NYT is and has been rabidly anti-Israel and anti-Zionist for a century but it doesn't often cross the line this egregiously. And, as Mark Horowitz notes, the international edition of the NYT has a much more anti-Israel vibe than even the US edition in an front page example earlier this month:

International edition feels more anti-Israel, maybe because audience for it is. Israel features heavily, and only International puts Op Eds on front page. Never in US. So you get front pages that look like this: pic.twitter.com/RYtbWh3sFE
— Mark Horowitz (@MarkHorowitz) April 27, 2019

The conclusion? European antisemitism has been so mainstreamed, under the umbrella of "anti-Zionism," that the average NYT International Edition editor in Paris sees nothing at all wrong with a cartoon that treats Jews exactly the way Nazi propaganda did.

The New York Times' reaction is nearly as bad as the cartoon itself. It never said it apologizes, it doesn't say "sorry," it merely makes it sound like an honest mistake. There is no soul-searching, no promises to overhaul the editorial cartoon approval process, no investigative articles in its own newspaper as of yet about how it could have made such a "mistake." It minimizes the offensiveness of the cartoon by merely saying it engages in antisemitic "tropes," when in fact is is pure Jew-hatred.

Their mishandling of this explicit Jew-hatred in its pages means we can expect more such "oversights."

It is also notable that the usual anti-Zionist crowd was almost gleeful to be able to condemn the shooting at the Chabad synagogue near San Diego yesterday, in order to prove how much they are against anti-semitism and implying that the shooting proves that the only antisemitism is from white nationalists, not from their liberal friends. Not one of them - Jewish Voice for Peace, IfNotNow, J-Street - that condemned the shootings said a negative word about the New York Times.

Which proves once again that they aren't against antisemitism at all unless it conforms with their fiction that the only Jew-hatred is from the Right. That is not exactly a brave position to take.

This is a pivotal moment, and the reactions so far to this cartoon indicate that the US is well on its way to become as blind to certain types of antisemitism as Europe has been for years.

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