Thursday, May 13, 2021

05/13 Links Pt2: President Rivlin: We must remember we are one country; Noah Rothman: Progressivism’s Moral Atrocity in the Middle East; With Israel under Attack, Watch for Progressive Anti-Semitism

From Ian:

President Rivlin: We must remember we are one country
My fellow citizens of Israel: I am very concerned about the difficult scenes we are witnessing on the streets. I call and plead with all leaders, citizens, parents - do everything in your power to stop the terrible thing that is happening. We are currently amidst the danger of rocket fire, yet are dealing with civil war for no reason. There are people need to let the police take care of things. Please stop this crazy madness.

I call on all the rioters – stop and do not make things worse, we are one society, one country. You can not say I am a citizen but against it, and you can not say I am any more of a citizen. It's time to calm the public. Religious leaders, local leaders, ministers, MKs – we all need to wake up to the same country, the same jobs. These things are getting worse and God forbid, we could lose what we have created – the State of Israel.

Ours is not a simple country, but we have educated ourselves, despite the differences of opinion, among all parts of the nation. All of these things need to remain at the level of debate, God forbid we become enemies. There is a war between civilians. The country belongs to us all.

How hard was it for us to overcome and establish such a wonderful country. Sometimes there are arguments but it is our job to let the army do its job, and let the police make sure there is quiet. You can argue, but to get to this point? To the sights we see? I shout to the whole of Israeli society, to the silent majority - let us shout a cry and say in our house, in our city, everyone in the synagogue or in the mosque: Stop it. We live here, this is our future. There is no other way.

I call and plead with all leaders, citizens, parents: do everything you can to stop this terrible thing that is happening.
Noah Rothman: Progressivism’s Moral Atrocity in the Middle East
It isn’t so much the Arab world but an undiscriminating popular-front mentality that seems to animate much of the activist class’s obsessions. “As someone who has been brutalized by police, I continue to stand in strong solidarity with Palestinians rising up against military, police, and state violence,” Rep. Cori Bush insisted. “Congress must stop funding human-rights abuses by the Israeli military.” In all fairness, when it comes to public security, there aren’t many core functions of a modern state Bush doesn’t want to defund. It’s nevertheless noteworthy that the congresswoman seems incapable of distinguishing between non-lethal crowd-control tactics and the riotous crowd operating from within religious sites those forces were seeking to calm.

The high priest of American socialism, Sen. Bernie Sanders, has also resorted to a noxious moral equivalence: “Once again, we are seeing how the irresponsible actions of government-allied right-wing extremists in Jerusalem can escalate quickly into devastating war,” he wrote. The notion that Israel’s government actually wants Israelis to die in a deadly rocket barrage is particularly craven. It’s an ugly presumption that colors coverage of the conflict in even mainstream media outlets.

Astonishingly, the New York Times reported, the bloodletting has “nevertheless bolstered” both Hamas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. After all, “the distraction of the war, and the divisions it creates between the disparate opposition parties currently negotiating a coalition to topple him from power, have given him half a chance of remaining in office, just days after it seemed like he might finally be on the way out.” The insinuation that, if he did not engineer the conflict, Netanyahu surely welcomes it, is a repulsive sop to the paper’s parochial progressive readership. But at least Sanders managed to make a note of the “Israeli children” languishing in bomb shelters. His leftwing compatriots couldn’t even muster that perfunctory nod in the general direction of decency.

The world has passed these progressives by. The Arab world is not erupting over the hostile actions engineered by Hamas and its Iranian backers, whom they regard as the real threat to their security. Nor do progressive arguments about oppression and the rule of law resonate—the rule of law was suspended mid-process as an intended consequence of the insurrection in Jerusalem. What progressives are arguing is pure will to power. And if it’s a contest of power they wanted, they’re sure getting it.
With Israel under Attack, Watch for Progressive Anti-Semitism
When George Washington wrote to the Hebrew Congregation of Newport, Rhode Island, in 1790, he declared that America should give "bigotry no sanction."

In 2021, that remains a tall order. Not only does history's oldest virus—anti-Semitism—today receive 24/7 assistance from social media, but it metastasizes as quickly as deadly new strains of COVID-19, spawning Jew-hatred and hate crimes here and abroad.

Ever since the infamous Charlottesville march, arson, desecration and deadly attacks on synagogues across the U.S. by white supremacists and neo-Nazis have increased. Lurid anti-Semitic and anti-Asian conspiracy theories about COVID-19 have spread online. It is appropriate that much of our attention has been focused on the extreme Right, here and abroad.

But we ignore, at our own risk, the high-profile anti-Semitism emanating from the self-anointed gatekeepers of the progressive Left, increasingly on display during these bloody days in the Holy Land.

With Hamas already hurling nearly 1000 rockets and missiles at Israeli civilian centers—200 of which landed inside Gaza, killing and maiming Hamas's own constituents—and Israel marshaling its military prowess to stop the onslaught, both sides struggle to promote their narratives across social media platforms and in the halls of power.

Left-leaning Americans have been happy to oblige. Here at home there is plenty of virtue signaling by Hollywood actors. Mark Ruffalo took time out from playing a make-believe hero fighting make-believe enemies to demand that the Jewish state face sanctions for defending its 9-plus million citizens from very real terrorists with very real weapons that cause very real people, including women and children, to bleed and die.


Brendan O'Neill: Why Won't Israelis Let Themselves Be Killed?
Two weeks ago, Turkish forces launched a military assault in Iraqi Kurdistan. Villagers were forced to flee in terror from raining bombs. But there were no noisy protests in London or New York. The Turks weren't talked about as crazed, bloodthirsty killers.

But when Israel engages in military action, that's a different story. Always. Every time. Protests were instant and inflammatory. Israeli flags were burned on the streets of London.

Why do anti-Israel campaigners treat Israel so differently to every other nation on Earth? Why is it child-killing bloodlust when Israel takes military action but not when Turkey does? Why is it only "wrong" when Britain or America drop bombs in the Middle East, but "Nazism" when Israel fires missiles into Gaza?

Israel is now the only country on Earth that is expected to allow itself to be attacked. To sit back and do nothing as its citizens are pelted with rocks or rockets.

To rage solely against Israel, to curse its people and burn its flag because it has sent missiles to destroy Hamas' firing positions in Gaza, is essentially to say: "Why won't Israelis let themselves be killed?"

Imagine if the Isle of Wight was home to a movement whose founding constitution expressed loathing for all ethnic Britons and which regularly fired hundreds of missiles into Sussex, Kent, Hampshire. Wouldn't the British military respond? Of course it would.

Western activists who find the very existence of Israel abhorrent cannot understand why Israel doesn't hate itself as much as they hate it, and therefore will not allow itself to be punished by its righteous enemies. How dare you live?
Palestinians in Gaza require protection – from Hamas - opinion
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres once proposed establishing an armed military presence in Gaza to protect Palestinians from Israel. While the Palestinians do require protection, the secretary-general erred, as it was and still is not from Israel that Palestinians in Gaza need protection, but rather from Hamas. Looking below the thin veneer of the latter’s cleverly orchestrated anti-Israel campaigns, it becomes abundantly clear that their end game lies less with improving the welfare of its Palestinian population, and more with eliminating Israel and its Jews from the Middle East map at any cost.

To minimize their being in the spotlight of blame, Hamas continuously reinforces the impressions of Israel as humanity’s evil empire. This is accomplished with hate-based street theater and contrived news stories readily adaptable for an accommodating social media, television and left-leaning hard press.

Along the way, Palestinian lives appear to be the currency that catches the attention of an ever-present sympathetic press, which waits like a circling vulture, for “if it bleeds, it leads” with Israel at fault. All of which is calculated to offend Western sensibilities, as well as to intentionally chip away at Israel’s endurance, ultimately to fulfill Hamas’s promise of acquiring its land and wealth through violence and sacrifice.

Part of the Palestinian victim mentality lies within their children’s educational system. Funds managed by the United Nation’s Relief and Works Agency for Palestine-Refugees (UNRWA) have come under scrutiny by the European Union and others, alleging that the textbooks supplied demonize Israel and Jews, and imply that Palestinian statehood may be achievable through violent confrontation.

This is disturbing as UNRWA exerts influence on an estimated 300-plus schools within Palestinian-controlled territories, including an estimated student population of more than 200,000 within Gaza and the disputed West Bank. It remains unclear as to how many young, impressionable children are yielding themselves to martyrdom simply by being repetitively taught, year after year, grade after grade, lessons that blame their woes entirely on Israel and Jews.


MEMRI: IRGC Aerospace Force And Missile Unit Commander Hajizadeh: 'All The Missile Might You See In Gaza... Was Created With Iran's Support… And This Effort Has Continued Around The Clock For Years'
In the past few years, Iranian regime officials have been boasting that Iran built up the military capabilities of Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) that enable them to target Israel's strategic depth. Iranian officials and commanders of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) praised the military aid extended by Iran to the Palestinians resistance organizations in the past and present – especially the transfer of tens of thousands of Fajr-5 missiles – which has enabled them to build up the advanced and independent ballistic missile capabilities that they employed against Israel in the previous rounds of fighting and are employing now as well.

The following are some of their statements:
IRGC Aerospace Force And Missile Unit Commander Hajizadeh: " Today [The Palestinians] Are Equipped With Precision Missiles"

Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the IRGC Aerospace Force and Missile Unit, said on January 2, 2021, the first anniversary of the killing of IRGC Qods Force commander Qassem Soleimani: "According to the [Iranian Supreme] Leader's order, Iran supports everyone on the front line against the Zionist regime. Gaza and Lebanon are on this battle front, and all the missile might you see in Gaza and Lebanon was created with Iran's support.

"We have taught our allies and comrades on the resistance front how to make fishhooks instead of [giving them] fish or fishing [for them], and now they have the capability and technology [to do this themselves]. In Palestine, they are now using missiles instead of stones, and this caused fear among all the Zionist regime officials, because today the might of the resistance axis is no longer what it was 10 years ago.

"The Zionist regime stands at a crossroad of fire, from Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, and other Islamic states. If in the past the strength of our friends was limited to stones and rockets, today they are equipped with precision missiles and many of them have these technologies.

"When the Leader said, 'If Israel makes a mistake, we will turn Tel Aviv and Haifa to dust,' it was a universal order, and we had to create this might, and this effort has continued around the clock for years."[1]
MEMRI: Saleh Al-Arouri, Deputy Chairman Of Hamas's Political Bureau: We Can Continue Fighting For Many Months; We Have Only Been Getting Rid Of Our Surplus Rockets So We Can Replace Them With Modern, More Powerful Missiles
Saleh Al-Arouri, Deputy Chairman of Hamas's Political Bureau said that Jewish immigration to Palestine was based on myths, like the myth that Jerusalem belongs to the Jews or that Palestine is the Jewish Promised Land. He said Jews invented these myths "out of thin air." He made his remarks in an interview aired on Al-Aqsa TV (Hamas-Gaza) on May 12, 2021. Al-Arouri explained that this is the reason why Jerusalem is the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, saying that the Jews are just passing through the land, like other nations have before them, like the Crusaders. He said that the Israelites had just passed through the area, staying for 50-70 years, like tribes of nomads.

Al-Arouri went on to say that the Zionist entity was humiliated by the warnings of the 'Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam Brigades, which caused them to withdraw from the Al-Aqsa Mosque. He said that the infrastructure of the resistance in Gaza was designed to deal with "these challenges," and that therefore, the enemy cannot do the resistance any "real harm." Al-Arouri stated that Hamas senior commanders "have been martyred," adding: "That's normal." He added that anyone who spends 20 or 30 years in the organization wants to become a martyr.

Al-Arouri also stated that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and commander of 'Izz Al-Din Al-Qasam Brigades Mohammad Deif have stated that Hamas is prepared to fight a war that will last many months. He elaborated that Hamas has only been clearing out its surplus of old rockets and that it still has many new and accurate ones. Al-Arouri said that he hopes the image of victory will be created by Hamas's people in every part of the land, in Jerusalem, the West Bank, and within the 1948 borders.

Jewish Immigration To Palestine "Was Based On A Myth... Invented Out Of Thin Air" That "Jerusalem Had Been Their Capital And That They Had A Temple There

Saleh Al-Arouri: "The Jews' immigration to Palestine from all corners of the world, in order to establish their state, was based on the myth that Jerusalem had been their capital and that they had a temple there, that Jerusalem belongs to them, and that it is their Promised Land.

"These are the myths that they have invented out of thin air. Therefore, Jerusalem is the heart of the conflict.


Iranian TV Host Asks About “Zionist Tycoon” Bill Gates Foundation’s Vaccine Trials: Are We Lab Rats?



PA TV admits Israel warned civilians in Gaza to leave buildings before bombings

“The blood spilled for [your] sake is insignificant” – PA TV host promotes violent riots



Cruz, Gallagher to introduce bill blocking de-recognition of Israeli authority over Golan
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) are set to introduce legislation on Thursday that seeks to block any attempt to withdraw U.S. recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, Jewish Insider has learned.

Israel has claimed control over the 400 square-mile territory, which lies next to the Syrian border, since the end of the 1967 Six Day War. Syria also claims the territory as its own. For decades, both Republican and Democratic administrations had declined to recognize Israeli authority over the Golan Heights, a policy former President Donald Trump reversed in a March 2019 tweet.

The Cruz-Gallagher bill would bar any attempt by the State Department to “prepare, propose, draft, review or promulgate” any sort of policy move that would affect U.S. recognition.

The Biden administration has not expressed an intent to take any action on the matter.

“As a practical matter, the control of the Golan in that situation I think remains of real importance to Israel’s security,” Secretary of State Tony Blinken said in February. “Legal questions are something else and over time if the situation were to change in Syria, that’s something we’d look at, but we are nowhere near that.”

While Trump’s decision was praised by GOP lawmakers at the time, the legislation is unlikely to garner Democratic support. In 2019, Cruz and Gallagher attempted to pass a bill codifying U.S. recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. Neither bill passed out of committee, nor gained any Democratic supporters. Cruz’s bill picked up 24 GOP co-sponsors and Gallagher’s picked up 58.


Lebanese Academic Accused of Paris Synagogue Bombing Fights Possible Extradition from Canada
Supporters of a Lebanese-Canadian academic who is the only known suspect in a 1980 Paris bombing urged Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Wednesday not to allow him to be extradited a second time, as France’s top court weighs in on the case.

Hassan Diab, 67, was extradited to France in 2014, but then released in 2018 after French magistrates ruled evidence against him was “not convincing enough” to hold him.

He spent a total of nine years either in jail or under strict bail conditions in the two countries, awaiting trial. Diab has always denied involvement in the bombing.

France’s Court of Cassation has announced it would give its ruling next week on the case’s dismissal, which a Paris appeals court overturned in January, ordering him to stand trial.

Diab’s Canadian lawyer Don Bayne called the French proceedings a “Kafkaesque” and “unjust prosecution of an innocent man,” recalling that Trudeau himself has said Diab should never have been extradited to France in the first place.

“We call on the Canadian government to honour the prime minister’s words, that whatever the French decide next Wednesday he assure Dr. Diab and all Canadians that Canada will not be party to any further injustice, any further wrongful extraditions of Dr. Diab,” he told a news conference.

His comments were echoed by Amnesty International and a coalition of Canadian civil liberties organizations, whose head Tim McSorley called on Ottawa to “state in the strongest possible terms to its French counterparts that the pursuit of Hassan Diab must end.”

“We’re also calling on Prime Minister Trudeau to commit to no future extradition of Hassan Diab to France,” he said.

A former professor of sociology at the University of Ottawa, Diab was accused of planting explosives inside the saddle bag of a motorbike parked outside a packed synagogue close to the Champs-Elysees, where hundreds of people had gathered for Sabbath prayers.

The 1980 bombing on the narrow Copernic Street was the first fatal attack against the French Jewish community since the Nazi occupation in World War II. It left four dead and 46 injured.
Senate Republicans: U.S. Business Dealings With Iran Are ‘Doomed to Fail’
As the Biden administration prepares to lift sanctions on Iran, Senate Republicans are warning U.S. business leaders that any ventures with the Islamic Republic are "doomed to fail."

In a letter Wednesday, more than a dozen Republican lawmakers, including Sens. Tom Cotton (Ark.), Ted Cruz (Texas), and Marco Rubio (Fla.), told members of leading business advocacy groups that staunch GOP opposition to sanctions relief would imperil potential business dealings with the regime.

"If U.S. sanctions on Iran were temporarily lifted and these firms decided to reenter the Iran market, not only would they be engaging with a corrupt and capricious regime, they would be investing in ventures doomed to fail," the lawmakers wrote to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Financial Services Forum, and Business Roundtable. The Republicans said any Biden administration agreement with Iran "will not survive" if the GOP regains the White House in 2024 and warned future Republican majorities in Congress would "severely" restrict sanctions relief.

Since taking office, President Joe Biden has reversed course on the Trump administration's "maximum pressure" campaign against Iran as his administration pushes for a renewed nuclear deal with the regime. The White House is considering a wide array of concessions to entice Iran to comply with the 2015 nuclear deal struck by former president Barack Obama, the Washington Free Beacon reported last week.

Although the Biden administration is preparing to grant economic relief to Tehran, the Republicans said U.S. businesses that enter the Iranian market "would also risk exposure to individuals and companies that are intertwined with the malign activities of the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism."
Iran's Proxy War Against Israel
Last year, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei admitted for the first time that his country was supplying the Palestinian terrorist groups with weapons...."Iran realized Palestinian fighters' only problem was lack of access to weapons" — Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Reuters, May 22, 2020.

The [earlier] denial exposes the extent of Iran's scheme to deceive the international community not only regarding its supply of weapons to the Palestinian terrorist groups, but also concerning its plan to acquire a nuclear bomb and bolster its production of nuclear material.

Iran... repeatedly violated the terms of the [2015 JCPOA] nuclear deal, according to the UN's nuclear monitoring Atomic Energy Agency.

Were it not for Iran's financial and military aid, the Palestinian terrorist groups would not have been able to attack Israel with thousands of rockets and missiles.

In the past, Iran used its proxy in Lebanon, Hezbollah, to attack Israel. Iran is now using its Palestinian proxies to achieve its goal of eliminating Israel and killing Jews. This is a war not only between Israel and the Palestinian terrorist groups. Rather, it is a war waged by Iran against Israel.

The Western powers that are currently negotiating with Iran about the revival of the 2015 nuclear deal are emboldening the mullahs and allowing them to continue their war of "kill[ing] all the Jews."
Col Richard Kemp: involve Gulf neighbours in new Iran nuclear deal
The UAE, Saudi Arabia and Israel should be consulted over any revived version of the 2015 nuclear deal as they are in the crosshairs of Iranian military ambitions, a former commander of British forces in Afghanistan said.

Col Richard Kemp told a webinar that the fears and concerns of Iran’s Gulf neighbours were not taken on board before the first agreement was signed during the US presidency of Barack Obama.

Attempts to limit Iran’s nuclear ambitions have been hit by former president Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the multinational deal in 2018 and Iran's repeated breaches of its terms. Tensions between the two countries increased after Mr Trump re-imposed sanctions during a policy of maximum pressure.

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell arrives for the EU foreign ministers meeting at the European Council building in Brussels, Belgium. ReutersEU officials: Iran nuclear deal talks in Vienna running out of time

European officials said on Monday that “tough but constructive” negotiations in Vienna to revive the troubled agreement were entering their most pivotal stage after weeks of haggling and brinkmanship.

“Whatever deal is agreed, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Israel should be part of that deal,” said Mr Kemp, a former senior adviser to the UK government on international terrorism.

“Even if they are not on paper part of the deal, they certainly should be consulted, and their concerns should be met as they were not in 2015.

“We shouldn’t forget that … the key targets for their [Iranian] aggression and their nuclear weapons are likely to be Israel first and then other states in that region.


Kamala Harris’ niece wants people to fight for Palestine to protect the LGBT community: Here is how they are treated in Gaza
Kamala Harris’ niece Meena Harris has once again found herself in a controversial position. The 36-year old took to Instagram, urging people who care about LGBT rights to defend Palestine, despite the fact that gay people can face up to 10 years in prison in Gaza.

On Wednesday night, Meena shared her stance on the recent Israeli-Palestinian conflict, re-posting a widely-shared image discussing the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine.

“One cannot advocate for racial equality, LGBT & women’s rights, condemn corrupt and abusive regimes and other injustices yet choose to ignore the Palestinian oppression,” she wrote, seemingly failing to condemn the oppression of LGBT people in Hamas-ruled Gaza.

Meena Harris’ online activism seems to have missed the mark rather spectacularly. It is pertinent to note here that while Harris thinks fighting against Israel is essentially fighting for the LGBT community in Palestine, the Islamist rulers of Gaza, enforce a law, specifically Section 152(2) of the penal code, that criminalizes homosexuality and makes it punishable to up to 10 years in prison. On the other hand, in the Fatah-ruled West Bank, homosexuality is decriminalized but huge social pressures exist against it.

According to an Amnesty International report from May last year, “Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people continued to face discrimination and lacked protection.”

Interestingly, expecting criticism and severe backlash, Meena Harris turned off the comments on her Instagram post.


Success for CAA as General Pharmaceutical Council accepts that Al Quds Day leader Nazim Ali’s comments were antisemitic and confirms it will not contest appeal
In a success for Campaign Against Antisemitism, the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) has accepted that comments made by Nazim Ali, a pharmacist and leader of the annual Al Quds Day rally, were antisemitic.

The GPhC has also confirmed that it will not contest an appeal brought at Campaign Against Antisemitism’s behest by the Professional Standards Authority (PSA) over a previous decision to let Mr Ali off with a formal warning over his comments at the rally in 2017.

Last year, the GPhC’s Fitness to Practise Committee, found that Mr Ali brought the pharmaceutical profession into disrepute, following a two-week hearing that culminated on 5th November arising from a complaint by Campaign Against Antisemitism. However, the GPhC panel did not find that he had been antisemitic and let him off with just a formal warning.

Following the GPhC’s ruling, Campaign Against Antisemitism made representations to the PSA, which oversees disciplinary decisions made by the GPhC. We asked the PSA to use its statutory power to appeal the GPhC’s decision to the High Court under the National Health Service Reform and Healthcare Professionals Act 2002, on the grounds that the decision made by the GPhC panel was insufficient to protect the public because it was “irrational and perverse”.

In particular, we asked the PSA to review the GPhC’s ruling that Mr Ali’s statements were not antisemitic, including by attempting to distinguish between “antisemitism” and “antisemitic”. We have asked the PSA to consider the International Definition of Antisemitism, which has been adopted by the British Government, and the Guidance to all Judiciary in England and Wales produced by the Judicial College that makes clear that the word “Zionist” or “Zio” as a term of abuse has no place in a civilised society.

Furthermore, we argued that the ruling misapplied the law when asking whether a “reasonable person” would have considered the comments made by Mr Ali as being antisemitic. The GPhC’s Fitness to Practise Committee ruled that Jewish bystanders who saw the demonstration or watched the recording of it posted online could not be considered to be “reasonable persons” in the legal sense because of their “selective view of events”.


TikTok videos spread lies about Israel - here’s what you can do about it
There are a worrying number of videos about the Israel-Palestinian conflict that have been published on TikTok in recent days, often garnering hundreds of thousands if not millions of views, over 100,000 likes and more than 10,000 shares.

According to University of Haifa Prof. Gabriel Weimann, there is an alarming amount of fake news, and anti-Israel and anti-Jewish messaging being shared in these short films.

“Since no one controls, regulates or checks these videos, you can post whatever you want,” he told The Jerusalem Post. “There are a lot of lies.”

One video, for example, shows the tree that burned on top of the Temple Mount earlier this week. But in the film, the TikToker accuses Israel of trying to burn down al-Aqsa Mosque.

The videos can be broken down into three categories: news, propaganda and political declarations.

Some of the clips simply show the situation in Gaza from the Palestinian point of view, such as buildings collapsing or the population panicking as Israel carries out airstrikes.

“We don’t really see a lot of this on Israeli TV and Western channels,” Weimann said. “They get it out using TikTok and social media.”
Unreported: IDF Values Life as Hamas Aims to Maximize Casualties
After hundreds of rockets from the Gaza Strip targeted central Israel on Tuesday night, killing three more Israeli civilians, IDF airstrikes overnight destroyed military positions belonging to the Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist groups. According to the IDF, several senior terror operatives were killed in the retaliatory attacks. In some cases, the Israeli Air Force must contend with Hamas’ well-known strategy of militarizing residential areas by striking, for example, a house that was allegedly used as a weapons depot.

The world’s leading news organizations have repeatedly and uncritically cited the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry when it accuses Israel of “targeted attacks against civilians.” Experts, however, have cast doubt on these claims. Hamas has issued guidelines calling on Palestinians to always describe casualties as “innocent civilians,” even when they are terrorists. Moreover, roughly a third of the projectiles fired from Gaza landed inside the densely populated enclave, feeding suspicions that at least some of the civilian casualties were actually victims of Hamas rockets.

Several journalists were eager to blame Israel for the deaths of civilians. In some cases, they resorted to blatant lies to prove their point. For example, Bel Trew – Middle East correspondent for The Independent – on Tuesday said that in Gaza, “families don’t have warnings” against incoming airstrikes. That same day, her lie was refuted on Al Jazeera. In a news segment, a reporter for the Qatar-based news agency acknowledged that Israel gave advance warning before hitting a target:

With the media incessantly pushing a false moral equivalence between Palestinian terror groups and the Israeli civilians they are attacking, it is time to unpack the IDF’s Code of Ethics, and the measures it takes to save lives on both sides. A glimpse into the values that guide this army will dispel any notion that the Israel Defense Forces are as culpable for the loss of innocent human life as Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Endless Rockets Fired From Gaza, But The Daily Show’s Trevor Noah Only Questions Israel’s Response
Comparing Dead Terrorists to Dead Civilians

“I don’t think that any TV show in ten minutes is going to come close to solving Israel-Palestine,” Noah admits, saying he’s deliberately staying away from good and bad, and who started. Instead, he continues, people should “ask a different question.”

To the neutral viewer, Noah comes across as level-headed and impartial. But as he continues, his ignorance of Hamas’ cynical manipulation of both international law and media exposure leads him to a disastrous conclusion: “Instead,” he opines, “let’s look at who’s dead, and who’s alive.”

Invoking the perverse morality of body counts, Noah tells the camera that significantly more Palestinians have been killed and wounded, and that he “cannot watch that footage, and hear those numbers, and see a fair fight.” Sadly, he fails to take several crucial factors into account:
1. Each and every single rocket fired by Hamas is a war crime on two different counts: First, because terrorists in Gaza are aiming rockets at innocent Israeli civilians. Second, by storing weaponry and locating personnel in residential buildings, schools and other densely-populated non-military areas, Hamas deliberately and cynically uses civilians as human shields.
2. Every sovereign state has a right to defend itself. Even if Israel is capable of defending itself from 90% of attacks, that doesn’t mean that Hamas and Islamic Jihad should be allowed to continue lashing out. Israel has a responsibility to protect its citizens.
3. While Noah mentions the number of people killed in Gaza, he fails to mention that many of those dead are terrorists – some of them were actually neutralized while launching attacks against Israel.
4. Noah includes the number of children killed, but does not include the fact that at least six of those children were killed as the result of a rocket fired from Gaza that fell short. According to IDF estimates, roughly a third of the projectiles fired from Gaza landed inside the densely populated enclave.
5. The numbers game is misleading in another way: The fact that there is an imbalance between the number of Israeli civilians killed and Palestinian terrorists killed is not a negative thing. If 50 terrorists in Gaza were killed, and 50 civilians in Israel were killed, would that be “fair”? Obviously not.

Toward the end, Noah says, “I know people are going to hate me for this, but I just want to ask an honest question here: If you are in a fight where the other person cannot beat you, how hard should you retaliate when they try to hurt you?” He then proceeds to compare himself as a child dealing with an annoying younger sibling, and being told by his mother that he had to restrain himself.

Likening the situation to someone bringing a knife to a gunfight, Noah pointedly finishes by rhetorically demanding Israel consider its use of power, “All I’m asking is: when you have this much power, what is your responsibility?”

On the face of it, the point is reasonable. But both are poorly thought-out metaphors. While Gaza is indeed significantly weaker than Israel, the terror groups there are funded and equipped with weapons by Iran. And as opposed to these parallels, Israeli civilians are actually being grievously wounded and killed by these rockets. This week alone, two Israeli children have been killed by rockets.
Peter Beinart in NYT: Root Cause of Gaza Conflict is Israel’s Creation
On May 12, The New York Times published a guest essay by Peter Beinart, Palestinian Refugees Deserve to Return Home. Jews Should Understand, in which he states that the “expulsions” of Palestinians is the root cause of the escalating conflict between Gaza-based terrorists and Israel.

According to Beinart, the Jewish state should “repent” for the “crime” of its creation, by allowing Palestinian refugees to “return.” Only by honestly “facing the Nakba of 1948” can Israel “embolden” Palestinians to reconcile with its existence, he asserts.

What this self-proclaimed ‘liberal Zionist‘ does not note is that Nakba Day is an annual event during which many participants blatantly incite violence against Jews living in Israel and elsewhere. Beinart is also seemingly unaware of what the Palestinian ‘Right of Return’ would entail for Jewish self-determination.

The writer claims that “allowing Palestinian refugees to return — requires imagining a different kind of country, where Palestinians are considered equal citizens, not a demographic threat.“

Two points are worth noting. First, Arabs living in Israel are already equal citizens. Making up approximately 20 percent of the Jewish state’s population, this group has the right to move freely, obtain an education, vote, receive health care, work in the most prominent positions. Their civil rights are guaranteed under Israel’s Declaration of Independence.

Second, regarding Palestinian “refugees,” Beinart claims that they should be allowed to move to Israel since they would not comprise a threat. This, however, comes from the same writer who promotes the creation of a bi-national state in what is presently Israel — a scheme that would effectively erase the country’s Jewish character.


THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS OMITS MORE THAN IT REPORTS
A piece in the New York Daily News on May 11 has regurgitated some of the most common misconceptions about the current Israel-Gaza conflict under the headline, “VIDEO: Largest residential building in Gaza collapses after Israeli airstrike.”

The author, David Matthews, is a digital staff writer for the paper, not a middle east correspondent, and his article seems to be primarily based on a report from Al Jazeera. It’s unsurprising, therefore, that there are a number of crucial omissions as well as mischaracterizations, making for an extremely misleading report.

Matthews writes, “According to Arabic news network [sic], at least 28 Palestinians, including 10 children, have been killed in the airstrikes and at least two Israelis in Tel Aviv were killed in the retaliatory rocket firings.” Of course, it is Israel’s airstrikes, not Hamas’s rockets, that are “retaliatory.” While Matthews refers to the destruction of a 13-story Gaza building, the building was hit on Tuesday evening. Hamas rocket attacks on Jerusalem and Ashkelon began first – with attacks on Jerusalem late on Monday, and on Ashkelon in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

And, even the anti-Israel NGO Defense for Children International – Palestine, which has ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, has said that at least two of the Gaza children were killed by misfired Hamas rockets, and not, as Matthews erroneously claims, by Israeli airstrikes. The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs reports that of 1,000 rockets Hamas fired at Israeli communities, 200 of them fell short and exploded inside Gaza neighborhoods.
CALLING FOR END TO ISRAEL, CNN REPORTER CLAIMS JERUSALEM ‘NEVER BEEN MORE DIVIDED’
CNN’s Ben Wedeman today claims that Jerusalem has has never been more divided, while at the same time advocating for an end to Israel and its replacement with a so-called “one-state solution,” which is understood by both Palestinians and Israelis to represent an end to the world’s only Jewish-majority state, and with it the political freedoms and security that it represents for Jews.

Jewish residents forced out of the Jordanian-ruled Old City in 1948.

The piece in question is labeled by CNN as an “analysis,” but is in actuality a thinly veiled opinion piece, in which the opinions expressed by Wedeman, CNN’s factually-challenged and biased international correspondent in Beirut, are based on absurd claims, perverse conclusions, and an utter disregard for the struggles of Israeli Jews.

Perhaps the most absurd of the piece’s assertions is Wedeman’s claim, which appears in both the body of the piece and in its headline, that Jerusalem is more divided than it has ever been: “Israel captured East Jerusalem, which includes the Old City, in June 1967″ and unified it with the city’s Western half under Israeli sovereignty,” writes Wedeman. “Almost ​54 years later the city it claims to have reunited has never been more divided.”

Barbed wire fills a street that between 1948 and 1967 separated the Jordanian-controlled section of Jerusalem from the rest of the city.

Never? Although the divisions today between Jerusalem’s Jews and Arabs are real, with extremists among both populations clashing in the streets in recent weeks, the very fact that Jews and Arabs in the city can intermingle on both sides of the former dividing line — usually peacefully, despite more dispiriting news recently — underscores how bizarre Wedeman’s claim is.

After the Kingdom of Jordan illegally seized eastern Jerusalem in 1948, and until the city’s reunification in 1967, Jews and Arabs didn’t mix in the eastern sector of the city. That’s because Jews were forced out from that side of the city. The Old City’s Jewish Quarter was emptied. Synagogues were razed to the ground or desecrated. Jewish gravestones were used as pavers. Jews couldn’t pray at the Western Wall. Fences and barbed wire cut through the heart of the city, with each side imperviously sealed off from the other.


THE LATEST: AP’S SKEWED COVERAGE OF HAMAS’ WAR ON ISRAEL
“The Latest” is an Associated Press feature which provides the day’s collection of brief updates about a large, developing event. Today’s “The Latest: Israeli Aircraft Strike Another Building in Gaza” is a collection of all that is wrong with the news agency’s coverage of Hamas attacks on Israel, and Israel’s retaliatory airstrikes. The following analysis is styled after “The Latest” format, with short entries about the AP’s tilted coverage. (The city cited at the beginning of each brief indicates where the item was written.)

MODIIN — The roundup begins with five paragraphs on the Israeli airstrike overnight on a nine-story building in Gaza City. While it notes that the building “houses residential apartments, medical production companies and a dental clinic,” it omits the fact that the army identified it as the location of a Hamas control center, which is the reason why Israel hit that particular building.

As AP Jerusalem bureau chief reported about the same strike in a separate article today (“Israel, Hamas escalate heavy fighting with no end in sight“): “Israel said the building housed Hamas intelligence offices and the group’s command responsible for planning attacks on Israeli targets in the occupied West Bank.”

CAMERA urges AP to add that key information into the “Latest” item as well.

MODIIN — AP’s “The Latest” includes an extremely misleading account of the chronology of violence Monday. It reports:
The fighting broke out on Monday after Israeli police used stun grenades, tear gas and rubber bullets against protesters at the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem. On Tuesday, Israel unleashed new airstrikes on Gaza while militants barraged Israel with hundreds of rockets. The exchange killed a number of militants and civilians in Gaza and at least three people in Israel.
CBC’s Freelance Reporter Claims Gaza is an “Open-Air Prison”
Yesterday, in an interview on the CBC program Front Burner about recent fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas terrorists, freelance reporter Irris Makler claimed that the Gaza Strip is an “open-air prison.”

Makler said the following:
The big concern is that like in 2014, this doesn’t end. The big concern is the nature of the Gaza Strip: It’s small, it’s crowded, it’s full of very poor people who can’t leave because there’s an embargo. So what that basically means is that it’s an open-air prison and they’re being pounded from the sky. So if you’re living in an open-air prison and the kind of bombs are falling, the amazing firepower the Israeli army has and Israel says it is trying to avoid civilian deaths, but I’d say and we’ve seen this from 2014 that it’s almost unavoidable.”

For a CBC journalist who’s tasked to be politically neutral and objective to claim that Gaza is an “open-air prison,” saw this reporter disguise her opinion as news. We’d expect to hear a statement like that from an anti-Israel protagonist, not a journalist who works as a freelancer for the CBC, our public broadcaster.

In truth, Israel and Egypt jointly carry out a blockade of Gaza to prevent Hamas and other Palestinian terror groups from carrying out attacks and to acquire dangerous weaponry, like the long-range rockets (2,000 which have been fired as of this writing) at Israel. Israel has an obligation to protect its citizenry and its efforts are in accordance with international law.
CBC Host Carol Off Implicitly Justifies Palestinian Rock Throwing as Legitimate Resistance
HonestReporting Canada was concerned with a May 12 broadcast on CBC As It Happens, where Anchor Carol Off interviewed Daniel Rahamim, a resident of Nahal Oz which is situated near the Israeli border with Gaza, to talk about recent hostilities. Listen to the full interview below.

While it’s certainly a positive to hear the CBC interviewing an Israeli to get his perspective of what it’s like to live under rocket fire, the interview contained several errors and omissions that should be set straight.

CBC journalist Chris Howden introduced the interview by saying:
The UN is warning that Israelis and Palestinians are heading toward full scale war. Israeli airstrikes on Gaza have continued leveling two apartment towers. According to health officials, 56 Palestinians have now been killed, including 14 children. The barrage of rocket fire from Gaza has killed 6 Israelis.”

Later on in the interview, anchor Carol Off said that Israel knocked down entire apartment complexes. What CBC failed to disclose to CBC listeners is that Israel says these building are Hamas terror infrastructure and were used for terror purposes. As well, Israel warned Palestinians to vacate the area prior to carrying out air strikes. Israel dropped leaflets, sent text messages, made phone calls and used the “roof knocking” warning shots. This essential context wasn’t mention by CBC and it’s of course worth stating that Hamas embeds itself in civilian areas, a bona fide war crime, putting innocents at risk.


France's dark role in rounding up Jews: Unseen pictures show men boarding a train in Paris watched by SS 'Final Solution' chief after thousands were lured to 'routine registrations' then arrested by French officials
Never-before-seen photos have emerged shining a light on France's role in rounding up Jews to send to Nazi death camps during World War II.

Pictures set to go on display in Paris this week show some of the thousands of men who were tricked into turning up for a routine registration in the capital in May 1941 before they were arrested by French officials and eventually sent to Auschwitz.

Images of the infamous 'green ticket round-up' show couples hugging each other goodbye outside one of the registration halls, unaware they would never see each other again.

One black and white photo shows SS officer Theodor Dannecker, who was in charge of implementing the 'Final Solution' in France, alongside French police commissioner Francois Bard in a hall, as they schemed to deport the Jews.

In another image, Dannecker is seen watching on as Jews boarded a train destined for a French camp south of Paris where they were to remain until their eventual transferal to Auschwitz.

The 'green ticket round-up' was first carried out in Paris on May 14 and 15, 1941, with more than 6,000 foreign-born Jews summoned to town halls across the city for what was billed as a routine registration.
SS captain Theodor Dannecker (left), who was an associate of Adolf Eichmann, orchestrated the Final Solution in a number of European countries during the Holocaust. Dannecker became leader of Jewish Affairs in Paris where he oversaw the roundups of Jews by French police. He is pictured watching on as Jews board transport at Austerlitz station, destined for a concentration camp
Court hears student ran neo-Nazi website that called for the “eradication of Jewish people” after he is charged with encouraging terrorism and stirring up racial hatred
Andrew Dymock, a politics graduate from Aberystwyth University, has been accused of creating and running the website of the neo-Nazi System Resistance Network (SRN) group.

During the trial at the Old Bailey, the court heard that Mr Dymock wrote and shared several antisemitic and hate-motivated articles through the website. He is being prosecuted for fifteen offences which include encouraging terrorism through the use of propaganda.

One article was allegedly titled “Join your local Nazis”, while another, “The Truth about the Holocaust”, said that “the only guilt felt by the Germanic race in regard to the Holocaust should be that we did not finish the job.”

It reportedly went on to say that Jews were a “cancer on this earth…that must be eradicated in its entirety”. Numerous antisemitic stereotypes and tropes were also said to have been included, such as conspiracy theories about Jewish control of the banks and the Government.

Another article reportedly written by Mr Dymock read that white people needed to “wake up and bring slaughter to Europa, cleansing it of the unclean filth that pollutes her lands”.

Prosecutor Jocelyn Ledward told jurors that “the article is clear in its encouragement of the eradication of Jewish people.” She added: “Such encouragement constitutes encouragement to commit acts of terrorism.”

Mr Dymock is accused of harbouring “books, flags, clothes and badges” in both his bedroom at home and at university. It was understood that Mr Dymock promoted the SRN on a right-wing website, claiming that SRN was “focused on building a group of loyal men, true to the cause of National Socialism and establishing the Fascist state through revolution.


‘Hatred of Jews is Rising on German Streets’: Muslim Protestors Burn Israeli Flags and Chant Antisemitic Slogans at Ongoing Demonstrations
Antisemitic outrages and angry demonstrations vilifying Israel were reported in several German cities on Thursday, at the tail-end of a week that has already seen more than 20 people arrested for throwing stones and burning Israeli flags outside synagogues in the cities of Bonn and Munster.

In the northern port city of Bremen, more than 1,500 predominantly Muslim protestors gathered outside its medieval cathedral on Thursday afternoon. The crowd chanted slogans opposing Israel’s military operations in Gaza along with the Islamist cry “Allahu Akhbar” — “God is great.”

Police in Bremen expressed surprise and alarm at the number of protestors, having been told by the organizers of the rally that only 300 people would attend, in accordance with COVID-19 restrictions on public assembly.

Elsewhere in Germany on Thursday, the windows of a synagogue in Mannheim were smashed by stone-throwers. Israeli flags on public display in solidarity with the Jewish state were also targeted; in Solingen, an Israeli flag outside the town hall was set alight, while in Berlin, an Israeli flag flying outside the offices of the ruling CDU political party was ripped down.

Thursday’s events followed a terrifying display on Wednesday night in Gelsenkirchen, in western Germany, in which dozens of demonstrators waving Palestinian and Turkish flags launched into a loud, rhythmic chant of “Scheiß Jude! Scheiß Jude! Scheiß Jude!” (“Shitty Jew”) as they rallied outside a synagogue.


Germany vows ‘no tolerance’ after Israel-flag burning outside synagogues
Germany on Thursday vowed “unwavering” protection of its synagogues after scattered demonstrations over the escalating military conflict between Israel and Gaza-based terror groups saw protesters shout anti-Israeli slogans and burn Israeli flags.

“There must be no tolerance for attacks against synagogues in our country,” German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told the Funke media group, pledging “unwavering security” for Jewish temples in Germany.

Protesters burned Israeli flags outside synagogues in Muenster and Bonn in western Germany earlier this week, with 16 people arrested.

On Wednesday evening, around 180 people shouted anti-Israeli slogans at a march in Gelsenkirchen also in the west.

Police said they prevented the protesters from marching on the city’s synagogue.


Unpacked: The Group of Housewives That Defeated the Nazis | Faces of the Holocaust
200 non-Jewish women led a protest to save their Jewish husbands after they were arrested and imprisoned by the Nazis. The only open protest against the Holocaust in German history, it quickly grew to over 1,000 women. While most intermarried couples divorced, Elsa Holzer along with other women refused to stand down in the face of insurmountable odds against the SS, to save their husbands and children from death.


Muslim Historians Confirm Jewish Ties to Jerusalem
The book Islam, Jews and the Temple Mount is bound to cause an uproar in the Muslim world. It presents a comprehensive list of early Islamic sources that recognize the historical Jewish claim to Jerusalem, contrary to modern Muslim religious scholars who – in the context of the Arab-Israeli conflict – deny any Jewish ties to the Temple Mount and promote the argument that no Jewish Temple ever stood there.

Fifty-four years after the unification of Jerusalem and the establishment of Israeli control over the Old City, Professor Yitzhak Reiter and co-writer Dvir Dimant hold a mirror up to this prevailing Muslim narrative.

According to the book, Islamic leaders deny canonical Muslim historical works that date back to the 7th century CE, a few decades after the death of the Prophet Muhammad, and state that the very reason Islam came to regard the Foundation Stone situated in the center of the Dome of the Rock as holy is because of the knowledge that the Jewish Temple stood there. Professor Yitzhak Reiter

It's all in there. Muslim sources time and again describe history the same way Jewish sources do: the building of the First Temple on the Foundation Stone by King Solomon; its destruction by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar; the Babylonian exile; Persian emperor Cyrus the Great's permission for the Jews to return to Jerusalem and build the Second Temple; and its destruction by Roman emperor Titus.

Moreover, not only do Islam's most respected historians confirm the Jewish historical timeline, but they also emphasize that the reason Jerusalem and the Temple Mount came to be considered holy in Islam is that the sites were also regarded as sacred in Judaism. This stemmed from their view of Islam as a continuation of Judaism, as well as patriarch Abraham and other figures in Scripture.









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