Friday, May 14, 2021
Caroline Glick: Facing the real cause of the long Arab war
The time has come for Israel to stop giving a pass to Arab Jew hatred.Noah Rothman: An Exercise in Missing the Point
In his book From Ambivalence to Betrayal: The Left, the Jews, and Israel, the late historian Robert Wistrich documented how before, during and after the Nazi period scholars from the political left disregarded and denied the ideological power anti-Semitism held over the Germans and their collaborators. The cause of their blindness was Marxism.
Marxism has long been the theoretical prism through which the left sees the world. Marxism is hateful and contemptuous of Judaism because Judaism is fundamentally opposed to the obedient universality Communism demands. Karl Marx and his followers sought to eradicate Judaism through a world Communist revolution that Jews could only join if they first abandoned their national, cultural and religious identities.
One of the ways Marxism derides Judaism is by presenting it as an archaic dogma fundamentally irrelevant and counterproductive to the modern world. Since Marxists belittle Judaism, in the Nazi period they were incapable of recognizing that anti-Semitism was Nazism’s central organizing principle.
Leftist scholars of Nazism insisted that Nazis didn’t hated Jews because they were Jewish. They hated Jews because many Jews were Communists and Nazis were anti-Communist. By this reasoning, it was the Jews’ fault that the Nazis hated them and in due course, annihilated them. For scholars of the left, the Holocaust itself was a mere biproduct of Jewish membership in Communist parties.
Much of the same doctrinaire thinking has long informed – or misinformed – leftist understanding of the Arab war against the Jewish state. Immediately after the UN General Assembly adopted the partition plan to divide the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine into two separate states – one Arab and one Jewish on November 29, 1947—the Arab war against the Jewish state began. Until Israel declared independence six months later, the war was waged by local Arab militias. The local Arabs were joined by five invading armies the day Israel declared independence. The declared goal of all the Arabs was to eradicate the newborn State of Israel and throw the Jews into the sea to “finish Hitler’s work.” The rhetoric and actions of the Arabs left no room for doubt. Their aim was genocidal and it was driven by Jew hatred.
In 1949 – just four years after the gas chambers were shut down – the Soviets used the Marxist model to legitimize the Arab war against the Jews to a world still embarrassed by the Holocaust. That year, the KGB invented a new term, “anti-Zionism.” The Arabs weren’t anti-Semites. They only hated Jews who wanted to live as free Jews in their sovereign homeland. Notably, as the KGB laundered Jew hatred to suit post-war sensibilities, the Soviet regime was outlawing the practice of Judaism and purging Jews from public life in the Soviet Union.
Today, Israel enjoys a functional diplomatic relationship with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan, Morocco, and Oman. And those are only the openly declared normalization deals. Last year, Saudi Arabia terminated a 70-year ban on Israeli-bound flights. Egypt and Israel share the goal of limiting both Iranian and Turkish influence in their respective zones of control, and the two states’ mutual security-cooperation agreement has rarely been more relevant. Israel is a participant in regional economic expos hosted in states that were its erstwhile enemies. It serves as a mediating party to disputes between Muslim-majority countries at their behest. Jewish tourists are an increasingly frequent and, apparently, welcome sight throughout the region—an unthinkable condition only a few short years ago.Alan M. Dershowitz: How To Assure Repetition of Hamas Rocket Attacks
And while many of these states have condemned Israel’s actions—both its policing of domestic unrest and its retaliatory strikes against Hamas military targets buried within civilian infrastructure in Gaza—theirs has been a lethargic response. Not all that long ago, many of these Sunni states, in coordination with the Arab Bank, supported the provision of lavish monetary rewards to the families of Palestinian “martyrs” who killed or were killed by Israeli forces. The restoration of that awful status quo ante is all but unthinkable today. It certainly bears no resemblance to the passionless (and, more importantly, toothless) condemnations of Israeli behavior you’re hearing from Arab capitals today.
That is the genius of the Abraham Accords. By decoupling these Sunni Arab state’s relations with Israel from the state of its intractable conflict with the Palestinian territories, the accords paved the way for a more stable, predictable, and peaceful region. This conflict might have slowed progress toward full normalization of diplomatic and security relations between Israel and the Gulf states, but it has not reversed it. The violence we’re witnessing today doesn’t disprove the thesis that yielded those accords; the conflict and the lackluster regional response only reaffirm its logic.
An epochal concord is being tested, but it is emerging intact. That is a near-miraculous event that is difficult to overlook. It seems that only a foreign-policy professional could miss it.
There is one sure-fire way of guaranteeing that Hamas will continue to employ terrorism against Israel.... That sure-fire way is to reward the terrorists who employ this tactic and to punish their intended victims who try to fight back.
The real root cause of terrorism is that it is successful -- terrorists have consistently benefited from their terrorist acts. Terrorism will persist as long as... the international community rewards it, as it has been doing for the past [many] years.
Hamas has been greatly rewarded by the international community, by human rights groups, by the media, by many academics and by millions of decent people for its indecent double war crime tactic of firing rockets at Israeli civilians from behind Palestinian human shields. Israel has been significantly punished for trying to protect its citizens from these rockets.
So here... is the twelve-step program that Hamas and the international community should follow if it truly wants to see terrorism become the primary tactic used against democracies by those with perceived grievances.
Step 9: Accuse the democracy of war crimes and bring cases against its leaders and soldiers in courts sympathetic to Hamas around the world. Bringing the lawsuits will create a presumption of guilt, even if the charges are dismissed months or years later.
Step 10: Schedule various United Nations "debates" at which tyrannical dictatorships from around the world line up... to condemn Israel for crimes routinely committed by these dictatorships but not by Israel.
Step 11: Trot out the usual stable of reliable anti-Israel academics to flood newspapers and television shows with some of the worst drivel about international law, human rights and the laws of war -- drivel that would earn students failing grades in any objective law school course on these subjects.
Now here are six steps for those democracies that would actually like to put an end to terrorist attacks against its civilians.
Step 4: Never allow human rights, international organizations or war crime tribunals to be hijacked by the supporters or terrorism and the enemies of democracy to punish only those who seek to protect their civilians against terrorism.
Not only must terrorism never be rewarded, the cause of those who employ it must be made... worse off as a result of the terrorism than it would have been without it.
No wonder Hamas, and other terrorist groups, regard their war crimes tactic as a win-win for terrorism and a lose-lose for democracy.
David Collier: Lies, incitement and irresponsibility – the western betrayal of Israel
What was the aim of these people – and there were many – if not to whip up their followers into a frenzy – into mobs that see Israel as brutally attacking innocent Muslim worshippers at Islamic holy sites? Clowns performing before the crowds – wanting to be loved – and selling out the truth and the Jews for a little bit of adoration.Melanie Phillips: Might Biden be turning America into Israel’s foe?
I have lost count of the number of times I have spoken to someone in private who ‘gets it,’ only to see them bow before the public pressure and make outrageous statements online.
Because much of this is a numbers game. There are only 15 million Jews in the world and they are outnumbered by both Muslims and Christians 100s to 1. Footballers, celebrities, mostly Muslims, are using their platforms to call for ‘free Palestine’ – at a time when Israeli civilians are under rocket attack.
Hamas does get the message. So does Islamic Jihad. They fire rockets at Israeli civilians and they can witness the world’s social media coming out in support of them. There is no clouding this issue. We are witnessing a straight fight between Hamas and Israel – and Hamas are the ones with the public support. They even have online armies sending their thanks to everyone who comes out in support. One large happy family of terrorists, terrorist appeasers and Jew-haters.
It is foolish to think the international support does not register in Gaza. What would happen if Hamas exploded in violence and the world demanded accountability from them? Would they reign in the violence if the lens was on them? We cannot answer the question because it never happens. As if reading from a script, Hamas and the international reaction always follow the same pattern – in which Israel gets the blame. Much of it is driven by a combination of the Ummah and western cowardice.
And Jews around the world see it. We are escorted by police at demonstrations to save us from violence. Our children are given additional security at schools. We face untold vile abuse online – little of which appears to contravene the standards of the social media platforms.
What message are Jews to take from all this – if not that our time in the diaspora is done?
Everyone deserves better than this. Even the Palestinians. All this just perpetuates and deepens the conflict. Politicians and the media have completely lost their moral compass. What we are witnessing is a shameful and total betrayal of the truth, of Israel, and of the Jews.
US President Joe Biden has dispatched the American official Hady Amr to the Middle East to “de-escalate the fighting” between Israel and Hamas.‘Jerusalem is not safe’ as conflict flares up in the Middle East
In the past, Amr, now the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for “Israel-Palestine,” said he was “inspired by the Palestinian intifada” and accused Israel of ethnic cleansing and apartheid.
In 2002, after Israel killed a senior Hamas commander, Amr wrote that the Arabs “will never, never forget what the Israeli people, the Israeli military and Israeli democracy have done to Palestinian children. And there will be thousands who will seek to avenge these brutal murders of innocents”.
Does this sound like someone who can broker peace between Palestinians firing thousands of rockets to murder Israelis and the targets of that onslaught?
But the Biden administration is a hall of many mirrors. On Wednesday, Biden called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to affirm his “unwavering support” for Israel’s security, and Israel’s “legitimate right to defend itself and its people while protecting civilians”.
In addition, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said there was “a very clear, absolute distinction between the terrorist organisation Hamas that is indiscriminately raining down rockets targeting civilians, and Israel’s response defending itself targeting the terrorists”.
There is, however, every reason to be wary of such hand-on-heart professions of support from this administration. For its specialty is what’s been called the “values-feint”— making high-minded statements to disguise its morally bankrupt actions.
Bennett backs down from anti-Netanyahu gov't as Jewish-Arab riots grow
Yamina leader Naftali Bennett surrendered to pressure from the Right to not form a government with Ra'am (United Arab List) head Mansour Abbas on Thursday, telling Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid the idea was off the table.If you are a Jewish American or a regular Democrat, and voted Biden, read this
Lapid, who has a mandate to form a government until June 2, called a 9 p.m. press conference to respond.
Bennett cited the recent spate of violence between Arabs and Jews in mixed cities.
"I am removing the change government from the agenda," Bennett said. "A change government, with the makeup planned cannot deal with the problems in mixed cities. These are things that cannot be done when relying on Mansour Abbas."
Bennett said he was working on forming what he called a wide unity government with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, New Hope leader Gideon Sa'ar, Blue and White chairman Benny Gantz and Lapid. He said he opposed going to a fifth election in two and a half years.
We, the grass roots, extremist right-wing, Trump-loving Jews, would like to extend our warmest gratitude in electing one Joe Biden. Especially at this time.Ruthie Blum: Is Israel on the verge of a Hamas-abetted civil war? - opinion
You were so right all along, our "Nazi" (in your words) President Trump (not your President, of course) kept much too much peace in the world. You were so right to seek Twitter peace above all other kinds; peace in Israel is for the birds.
Today, after 1800 rocket bombardments over the tiny Jewish State, we are comforted by the thought that you no longer feel distraught by Trump's daily tweets and unsavory TV appearances.
Likewise, we are comforted in knowing that your brand of Tikkun Olam works so well for you, Israel be dammed.
Our racist, homophobic, and misogynist Russian Spy President (your words again) did irreparable harm. You called it from the start. Let’s reminisce, shall we?
We recall your heeded warnings about an outright bloody war with the Muslim world when President Trump reaffirmed Jerusalem as the Capital of Israel and moved his embassy there. How right you were...or were you?
Which brings us to Operation Guardian of the Walls, Israel’s current campaign against Hamas in Gaza. One of Smotrich’s arguments against joining forces with Ra’am in any constellation was that the Islamist party would never approve IDF actions in Gaza.Phyllis Chesler: A Fifth Column?
The so-called “change camp,” made up of a motley array of parties whose only shared policy is ousting Netanyahu, didn’t have a problem turning to Ra’am and/or the Joint List for backing. Lo and behold, however, just as Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid was supposedly “on the verge” last week of forming the next government, ahead of his June 2 deadline, all hell broke loose, courtesy of Fatah and Hamas.
Suddenly, Ra’am suspended all negotiations until further notice. Clearly, Abbas wanted to wait to see how Israel would handle the Arab violence at home and Hamas’s rocket-blitz from Gaza.
He might also be anticipating further escalation on May 15, designated by arch-terrorist Yasser Arafat in 1998 as Nakba Day, for Palestinians and those who identify with them to officially mourn the creation and existence of the State of Israel.
This is speculation, of course, as his silence up until Thursday morning has been as deafening as the sound of missiles landing or being intercepted by the Iron Dome defense system. Indeed, the so-called Israeli “kingmaker” hasn’t uttered a syllable about “shared life in the Holy Land” or condemned Hamas since the start of the deadly hostilities.
Instead, he told Army Radio in an interview that he’s “not giving up on future cooperation,” and that “these incidents” illustrate the “need for true partnership” – not exactly a clear denunciation of the riots and rockets.
He and the rest of the Arabs in the Knesset would do well not only to serve their public, but to emulate those of its members – like the numerous health professionals battling COVID for the past 14 months – who seek to heal Israeli society rather than destroy it.
Left wing American Jews demand that Israel welcome back five generations of Arab Palestinians, most of whose ancestors chose to leave, and who were denied citizenship in any one of the 22 Arab Muslim countries. Today in the New York Times, Peter Beinart suggests that accepting all such refugees into Jewish Israel will constitute a necessary moral redemption for Israeli Jews. In the same issue of the Times, Nicholas Kristof demands that the United States stop funding Israel’s “bombings of Palestinians.”Jewish, Arab violence in mixed cities is more frightening than rockets
Elder of Zion has just confirmed that the majority of children in Gaza who have recently been killed were killed by Hamas rockets gone awry. I have not yet seen the mass media carry this story. Nevertheless, Kristof is not calling for an end to American and European funding of terrorist Palestinian leaders.
On the other hand, Center for Security Policy’s David Wurmser suggests that Israel finally liberate Jerusalem, including the Temple Mount in some significant way from treacherous and traitorous Arab hands; that Israel finally override the loss of nerve that afflicted Moshe Dayan, Golda Meir, and even Ariel Sharon in the matter of both Jerusalem, the Temple Mount, and Gaza.
Some of my liberal Jewish friends are quick to point out that Jews are now also attacking Arabs in the Holy Land. It does no good to point out that this is mainly in response to being attacked and that Jewish religious leaders have condemned such vigilante injustice. To the best of my knowledge, Muslim religious leaders have not issued any similar condemnations.
Beyond continuing to “manage” the “matzav” (the situation in which southern Israel is continually being bombed, “intifadas” break out from time to time, kidnapping occurs, etc.), which road should Israel take?
Fifth columns are, by definition, those people who destroy you from within your own midst.
Which is the fifth column that must be neutralized? Jews who want to merge their destinies ever more fatefully with the Muslim Arabs who’ve been carefully taught to hate and kill Jews? Or those who wish to separate from Muslim Arabs even more forcefully and clearly?
A perceived affront or infringement to the site by Israel brings tension that, if not abated, breeds violence. The bloody “Al-Aqsa Intifada” of 2000 to 2005 got its name for a reason. For Palestinians a struggle around the holy compound is much more than a question of hurt religious feelings or national pride. It is a part of their identity, an abuse of which incites a visceral reaction.How did we get here? - opinion
The breakdown of coexistence in Israel’s mixed cities, however, pushes similar buttons in the Jewish psyche. When Jewish Israelis hear about Jews locking themselves up in their homes, helpless; about gangs of rioters walking the streets, seeking Jews; about synagogues vandalized and set on fire – layers of centuries-long trauma are exposed.
Among the elements constituting the Jewish identity is, tragically, a sense of vulnerability and the acute fear of violence from one’s neighbors. The reasons for this are clear, and the historical response to it was, among other things, Zionism. This week, Israelis found themselves reliving (vicariously, for most) the same reality that they hoped they would “Never Again” encounter. Once more, we have an intrusion into the deepest sediments of identity, an abuse of which, of course, incites a visceral reaction.
The results are disastrous: a collapse of the social fabric and indeed of law and order. Lynch mobs from both peoples are pursuing victims in the streets, and families who were only a week ago living peacefully side by side are terrified of each other.
Since neither population is going anywhere, Israelis will learn to live together. Life has its ways, and neighbors find theirs to coexist. The collision of identity and historical hurt, however, unavoidably engenders an intense trauma. Right now Israel’s Jewish and Arab citizens are pressing each other’s deepest points of suffering, deepening the anguish.
The long process of healing requires an honest attempt at a more equitable relationship between the state and its Arab citizens. But each side must learn to recognize and be much more attentive to the others’ identity and sensitivities.
This cynical attempt to blame Israel for canceling an election they never wanted was completely transparent even to the Palestinian voters and even more so to Hamas.Co-existence 2.0, what was will no longer be
Cue in Hamas: Hamas and its perpetual backer Iran have been looking for an excuse for a confrontation for a while now. They have watched helplessly as the Abraham Accords flourished and have seen how the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been downgraded to the bottom of everyone's priority list. They are concerned that, for the first time in history, Israeli Arabs would serve in an Israeli government – never mind that the party currently holding the balance of power in Israel is a light incarnation of their movement, the Muslim Brotherhood. And if that wasn’t enough, Iran is still reeling from an electrical "work accident" in their Natanz nuclear plant that showcased their vulnerability.
So, what is the best way to drive a wedge between Jews and Muslims, between Israel and the Arab world? Start a war, do it on Ramadan when religious fervor is high, and start in Al Quds (Jerusalem), where everyone will support you, and your political organization will be seen as the true defenders of the faith. Throw in an ill-planned police barricade situation in Damascus Gate on Ramadan for crowd-control purposes on the heels of the Meron tragedy a week before, and you have the perfect storm.
First fire a rocket in Jerusalem, and you create the linkage from the get-go, never mind that Jerusalem has a large Muslim population.
Once you connect this to Al Aqsa you have a justification – it’s actually kind of a brilliant strategy. The intifada of 2001 was also called the Al Aqsa intifada – by linking the two, you get popular support and, at the same time, the whole Muslim world is on your side. The images of Israel's heavy air power of course help tell the narrative of the victimhood that everyone has bought lock, stock and barrel since 1967. Here we go again. Needless deaths for a Hamas political campaign against Fatah and Iran's proxy war with the West.
I have spent a week explaining to the world what is really happening, who is really behind these escalations that are taking innocent lives on both sides every day. I pray for peace but most of all for better leaders for the Palestinian people that may someday present the truth to them; that Israel is not going anywhere, and the only way forward is peace.
Despite the full integration of Israel’s Arab citizens into Israeli society enjoying the full benefits of a free and democratic society, working in every sphere, and despite the great economic prosperity that Israel has given to all of her citizens including Israeli Arabs; the Israeli Arabs cannot free themselves of the self-imposed belief that they are being deprived of the accepted norms of equality from Israel’s Jewish majority, coupled with the hostility and suspicion of their Palestinian Arab neighbors for being so well integrated into Israeli society. For many of the younger generation among Israeli Arabs, Islamization was the way out from this suffocating dilemma. This became the vehicle from which the younger generation could escape their historical failures to retrieve what they see as holy Muslim land.How Israel can reclaim the agenda and defeat Hamas
Radicalization became the only true option that allowed this young Muslim generation to express their preferred Palestinian identity and see themselves as the vanguard of Palestinian rights in the future. Many of Israel’s Muslim religious leaders received their training and indoctrination abroad among Islamic fundamentalists at Islamic institutions of higher learning, and have for years been delivering radical sermons in mosques, schools and social gatherings. The resulting radicalization and violent rioting we have witnessed over the past week is the end result of this process among young Israeli Arabs.
The current atmosphere of insurrection coupled with nightly street violence should raise a red flag concerning the pervasive misconception that Israeli Arabs are loyal to Israel, because clearly they are not.
They can no longer have it both ways. Every year, while Israel celebrates Independence Day, the Israeli Arabs commemorate the Nakbah (the Arab term for catastrophe), that’s their way of rejecting the State of Israel. The time has come to not ignore this refusal to recognize the establishment of the State of Israel.
Israeli Arabs, we must realize, will always automatically side with their Palestinian neighbors in any confrontation with Israel even when the Palestinian side declares war on Israel and sends thousands of rockets and missiles into Israel causing widespread damage and disruption of life, not to mention those killed and wounded. Israeli Arabs see themselves as Palestinian Arabs and not as Israelis despite full democratic rights that they willingly accept and enjoy. The potential manifestation of the rejection of being Israeli creates the potential for rebellion, insubordination, and outright violence, rage and hostility. The end result is anti-Israeli rhetoric and what we have seen in recent days.
In the past years coexistence has been a hot commodity and highly popular among liberal and progressive NGO’s and donors and has enabled Israeli Arabs to enjoy the benefits of lavishly funded coexistence programs. It seems that these programs have only contributed to the radicalization of Israel’s Arab population rather than balance civic responsibility with ethnic affiliation. Coexistence cannot be a one-way street that empowers Israeli Arabs to reject their Israeli identity and identify with the enemies of Israel even as Hamas, the Palestinian Arab terror organization, is firing thousands of missiles into southern and central Israel.
Those that refuse true coexistence, should simply be shown the door, what was will not be.
To do so, Israel must establish some sort of presence on the Temple Mount. It need not be dramatic or brutal, but symbolically powerful: a permanent police outpost or an offer to the Christians to join a Jewish—Muslim council that will now sit above the Muslim Waqf to oversee and limit its activities on the Mount. Or it can create a small Christian and Jewish prayer area in a discreet corner of the Mount.The myth of disproportionate Israeli response
Perhaps it might involve rearranging the character of the current Wakf (the Muslim religious trust that administers the Mount) and turning over its authority to a committee that is managed by another Arab country at peace with Israel like the UAE or Bahrain.
Sadly, Jordan had traditionally played a helpful role in this, dominating the Waqf with key allied families, but it has in recent years become so weak and floundering in its outlook that it has undermined its own traditional position as such a leader. Indeed, this reliance on Jordan as the stabilizer of the Palestinians was yet another conceptual foundation of an Israeli strategy that now has collapsed. It could still participate, but Muslim leadership on this issue must pass to a more energetic and coherent national representation.
There is no shortage of ideas, but whatever action is taken must be a modest but highly symbolic act that establishes with great clarity that Hamas has lost control, that the Jews and Christians have rights and will now have a permanent presence on the Temple Mount, that Israeli sovereignty is reasserted with control and some sort of police presence, and that moderate Arab states at peace with Israel now will dominate the managing of Muslim assets in the holy places, not the Palestinian Authority or Hamas.
Israel has the power to win. It is technologically superior, and vastly better trained and armed than its enemies. So, it need not fear the shrill voices coming from Tehran or Ankara. They are not in the same league as Israel if it comes to an intervention by them. Their intervention and failure would only increase the size of an Israeli victory.
But again, war is not about power primarily, but about the struggle of perceptions and a battle over one’s soul. Israel is at a crossroads, and the choices it has all involve a price—and it is a dear price, in some form or another. But it can emerge from this crisis with a victory as great as that of 1967 if it abandons the mentality of management and instead operates under a vision and grasps a deep understanding about the struggle over the soul defining this war, and that its victory can only emerge from the heights of Jerusalem, not Hades’s tunnels in Gaza.
If Israel was to bomb a whole neighborhood block in order to eliminate a Hamas target, the case could be made for calling it a disproportionate response. But to the contrary, Israel’s responses are pinpoint, surgical, and minimalist – the opposite of disproportionate.PMW: PMW Exclusive: PA TV admits Israel warned civilians to leave building before attack “How much, how much time do you need?… At least two or three hours? No one should come in? In other words, [I should] go to the tower, go to the tower and not let anyone come in?”
All the videos of Israeli strikes in Gaza (videos put out by both the Israeli military and by Gazan residents) show Israel targeting specific buildings or even specific floors of a building. Gazan civilians don’t flee; they stand nearby and watch. Nearby schools, mosques, hospitals, and residential buildings are generally left intact.
The bottom line is that Hamas deliberately places its military equipment and personnel in schools, hospitals, residences, etc. It strategically and cynically uses its own people as cannon fodder, either to rely on the Jewish conscience against hurting civilians, or to foment hatred against Israel and to bring international pressure on Israel to stop defending itself. Blame for civilian casualties in Gaza falls squarely on Hamas, not on Israel.
Israel ’s task, like any country’s, is to defend its people, and Israel does so through surgical strikes, not disproportionate response. Large numbers of civilian casualties in Gaza are the direct result of decisions and actions by Gazan leadership, and are likely to continue unless Gazan leadership stops using its people as human shields.
It is high time to stop conflating “disproportionate response” with a high number of civilian casualties. They are not synonymous.
In this exclusive PMW video, an official Palestinian Authority source confirms the Israeli policy of warning Palestinian civilians to evacuate buildings that house terrorists and terror infrastructures in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, before they are destroyed. This has been a long held Israeli practice, even if it enables the terrorists to escape. Now an official Palestinian Authority source also confirms this.
A PA TV reporter recounts what he witnessed in Gaza:
Official PA TV reporter: “When they were informed that this tower will be attacked… the site was completely evacuated. The block, the street, the civilian buildings, and the residential buildings in the area - completely - including children and women, and we saw it…
The guard who works in this tower was warned through a phone call from the Israeli Security Agency. They told him word by word: ‘Evacuate the tower and tell them that this tower will be attacked. It will be attacked any moment.’ After this conversation this tower was attacked about two hours later.”
[Official PA TV, May 11, 2021]
In addition, Israel TV Kan11 got hold of a video of the guard during his actual conversation with the Israeli Security Services. In the conversation, he is heard repeating the instructions he received from Israel:
“How much, how much time do you need?… At least two or three hours? No one should come in? In other words, [I should] go to the tower, go to the tower and not let anyone come in?”
[Twitter account of Israeli TV Kan11’s reporter Nurit Yohanan, May 11, 2021]
Rockets launched from Syria amid Palestinian solidarity riots on borders
Three rockets were launched from Syria towards Israel on Friday evening amid a number of solidarity riots with the Palestinians amid ongoing escalations between Israel and Hamas, as well as the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.Gaza’s Rockets: A Replenished Arsenal That Vexes Israel
One of the rockets failed to launch, falling on the Syrian side of the border. The other two rockets fell in an open space, leading to only open air sirens to be sounded. No injuries were recorded.
The Palestinian Tahir Brigade stationed in Syria claimed responsibility for the rockets shortly after firing them.
The incident took place as violence continued to escalate during solidarity riots held on Israel's border with Lebanon, Jordan, in Arab Israeli towns and in the West Bank.
Multiple protestors approached the Lebanese border near the Israeli town of Metulla twice on Friday, once in the early afternoon, and again in the evening.
In the beginning, three suspects cut an entry point in the border fence and crossed into Israel. They were then joined by an additional four suspects, and started a fire in Israeli territory. A fire also broke out on Lebanese territory.
Who has helped Hamas and its allies achieve this capability?Why Are They Fighting in the Middle East? Because Hamas Is Dedicated to Killing Jews
The Gaza militants have openly attributed their success to help supplied by Iran, which Israel regards as its most potent foreign adversary. Iranian officials, too, are not shy about their relationship with Hamas.
Speaking to a large gathering in May 2019, the leader of Hamas in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, could not have been more explicit in acknowledging Iran’s critical role in assisting Hamas.
“If it wasn’t for Iran’s support,” he said, “we would not have had these capabilities.”
Along with providing smuggled weapons and equipment, Iran has been focused on training to help Hamas upgrade local production, extend the range of rockets and improve their accuracy, according to both Palestinian and Israeli officials and experts.
“It is a huge improvement going from firing one or two rockets at a time to launching 130 rockets in five minutes,” said Rami Abu Zubaydah, a Gaza-based military expert, referring to the frequency of fire seen in the past few days.
“Most weapons are now manufactured in Gaza, using technical expertise from Iran,” he said.
How else have Gaza’s rocket makers skirted the blockade?
While still having to rely on smuggling parts and raw materials, Hamas leaders say the group has engineered creative workarounds to overcome tighter border controls and surveillance.
A 50-minute documentary broadcast by the Qatari-owned television channel Al Jazeera in September showed rare scenes of Hamas militants recovering dozens of Israeli missiles that had not detonated in previous strikes on Gaza.
They brought the remnants into what looked like a hidden manufacturing facility, carefully extracted the explosives packed inside and recycled some of the parts. The same documentary also showed militants digging up old water pipes from where Israeli settlements used to sit and repurposing the empty cylinders in the production of new rockets.
Referring to the repurposed plumbing pipes, while speaking in another gathering in 2019, Mr. Sinwar said, “There is enough there to manufacture rockets for the coming 10 years.”
Israel and Hamas are not equal. One is a liberal democracy that, however imperfect, is governed by the rule of law and conducts itself according to exacting ethical standards. The other is a terrorist organization that has murdered and maimed thousands in accordance with a charter that openly calls for genocide. One goes to unprecedented lengths not only to defend its own civilians but to protect those on the other side, as well, sacrificing military objectives to minimize casualties. The other will stop at nothing to kill as many civilians as possible, often sacrificing its own civilians in the process. One views any civilian casualties as a terrible operational failure. The other views civilian deaths—on either side—as a great operational success. One is fundamentally moral; the other utterly amoral.Gnasher Jew is back on Twitter - and even Trump couldn't manage that
So, no, Congresswoman. You seem to be confused. The terrorists are the ones intentionally firing rockets at civilians, not those targeting them to prevent further attacks.
And no, Trevor. You can't "set aside motives and intentions." Motives and intentions matter, particularly when one side is motivated by hatred and intends to commit murder.
And no, Western pontificators. The fireman and the arsonist are not equally to blame for the fire. If there were no rocket attacks, there would be no military response.
As I write this in the wee hours of the night at home in Jerusalem, my phone is buzzing constantly with alerts about air raid sirens at different locations across Israel. I have to remind myself that each time another notification appears on my screen, parents are scrambling from their beds and rushing to grab bleary-eyed children so they can make it to their bomb shelters in time. Elderly men and women are hobbling down stairs as fast as their legs will carry them. Nurses are wheeling bedridden patients to safety.
Now is the time for moral clarity. There is right and there is wrong. There is good and there is bad. It is not simplistic to say so; indeed, it is necessary.
Twitter account GnasherJew, responsible for unveiling scores of antisemites, has achieved something even Donald Trump failed to do overturning a ban to be on the social media site.Holocaust-Denier Among Founders of ‘Principled’ Never Trump Group
The account, run by a group of four anonymous racism-hunters, was suspended at the end of March thanks to “malicious reporting” by some of its targets. But it was reinstated as suddenly and without warning as it had been closed down, late on Monday night, after a community-wide campaign and involving lawyers in the dispute.
GnasherJew, which has 16,000 followers on Twitter, was never given the full details of why it was suspended, which meant it was never able to fully dispute the claims. But over the last month thousands of social media accounts used the hashtag #ReinstateGnasherJew to draw attention to the suspension while a letter was signed by 540 people including MPs, Lords, rabbis and celebrities.
“When we were first banned, we were given no reason and had no communication from Twitter as to why,” say the people behind the GnasherJew account. ‘”We were thinking about giving up and walking away but then we saw that #ReinstateGnasherJew was trending on Twitter and we thought, ‘Well, if those guys can achieve this, we have to keep fighting.’’
Among the founding members of a "principled" group of "prominent Republicans" working to counter conspiracy theories is a prominent Holocaust-denier.Media Coverage From an Alternate Universe Where Anti-Semitic Hate Crimes Matter
Pete McCloskey, a former congressman who referenced the "so-called Holocaust" in a keynote address that praised a top Holocaust-denial group, joined "A Call for American Renewal" as a founding signatory. According to former congressman Denver Riggleman, the group aims to "counter disinformation and conspiracy theories" and "step up in this fight for truth and integrity."
McCloskey served as a Republican representative for California from 1967 to 1983 but changed his affiliation to the Democratic Party in 2007. After leaving Congress, he gave the keynote address at the Institute for Historical Review's 2000 conference. An infamous Holocaust-denial group with ties to neo-Nazi organizations, IHR has described the Holocaust as "some scattered killings" of Jews. According to the group, there is "not evidence" to support "the systematic extermination of six to eight million Jews in concentration camps."
McCloskey's address to IHR members noted his "respect" for "the thesis of this organization." The former congressman also referenced the "so-called Holocaust," adding, "I don't know whether you are right or wrong about the Holocaust."
Earlier this week, as violent clashes erupted in Israel and the Palestinian territories, a Jewish man was the victim of a vicious attack in New York City. As one astute observer remarked: "Will this get the attention that attacks on any other minority group get?"How did BBC News report rocket attacks on Jerusalem
It would not, even though anti-Semitic attacks have been on the rise in recent years. Professional journalists were too busy obsessing over Rep. Liz Cheney (R., Wyo.), whose public criticism of Donald Trump was of historic significance, at least insofar as it allowed them to use the former president's name in frontpage headlines again.
But perhaps we can imagine an alternate universe where anti-Semitic hate crimes matter as much as other hate crimes, or at least are covered in a similar fashion. Maybe the Washington Free Beacon‘s senior writer Adam Kredo would be invited on CNN to discuss the rise in anti-Semitic violence and speak his personal truth about the dangers of "reporting while Jewish."
Other guests might include purveyors of critical theories regarding "gentile fragility" and the intrinsic nature of anti-Semitic beliefs.
Perhaps journalists and other Democrats would don traditional Jewish attire—the equivalent of kente cloth, for example—in a hamfisted attempt to express solidarity with a targeted minority.
Democrats might find it annoying that people they'd never heard of—Holocaust denier Pete McCloskey, for example—were suddenly being held up as the "face of the Democratic Party."
Previously we addressed a BBC News website report titled “Jerusalem violence: More clashes ahead of nationalist march” which appeared on the morning of May 10th.The Times contradicts itself on IDF attack against Hamas
As the day went on that article was updated numerous times to reflect events and roughly half an hour after the Hamas rocket attacks on Jerusalem and surrounding areas, its headline was changed to “Jerusalem violence: Rockets fired from Gaza after major clashes”.
The latest version of that article (the one which will remain online as “permanent public record”) is titled “Jerusalem violence: Deadly air strikes hit Gaza after rocket attacks” and it includes several points worthy of note. [emphasis in bold added]
The sole reference to what happened in Jerusalem as a result of those rocket attacks is as follows:
“In Jerusalem, the rocket fire caused Israel’s parliament to be evacuated as sirens sounded.”
In fact only the Knesset plenum was evacuated and those present took shelter in designated areas in the building. BBC audiences learn nothing of damage to houses in Mevasseret Zion and Beit Nekofa and no mention is made of a concurrent PIJ attack using an anti-tank missile on a car near the border with the Gaza Strip in which a civilian was injured.
An article published today (“Inside Gaza: ‘Israelis bombed a block 500 metres away but still my building shook’”, May 13) is a first person account by Nizar Sadawi, a freelance journalist, fixer and propagandist based in Gaza.
It included the following sentence, concerning a recent IDF attack on a building in Gaza used by Hamas.
Then there was the Hanadi Tower, the tallest building in Gaza, with 13 storeys, which was hit yesterday. Israel claims militants were living there, but even if so they obviously do not care about the other residents.
However, according to multiple news reports, the residents were given warnings an hour before the attack, telling them to leave:
According to Channel 12 and an UNRWA official, prior to the strike people in the building received several warnings, including phone calls and messages, telling them to leave and a preliminary “roof-knocking” strike — using a small missile to strike the roof with minimal damage in order to cause all inside to leave before a major strike.
As #IsraelUnderFire from mass bombardment from Gaza, @KenRoth sharing BFF Beinart’s piece happily calling for #Israel’s destruction. Both vile genocidal Antisemites. https://t.co/mbKUZ7wH1W
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) May 14, 2021
Determined to Preempt ‘Antisemitic Hatred’ on Streets of Paris, French Interior Minister Bans Pro-Palestinian March and Rally
A pro-Palestinian march and rally scheduled to take place in Paris on Saturday has been banned by police, following a request from France’s Interior Minister to prevent the protest from going ahead on public security grounds.
Gérald Darmanin, the French Interior Minister, issued the request on Thursday afternoon. “In Paris, I asked the Prefect of Police to ban Saturday’s demonstrations in connection with recent tensions in the Middle East. Serious disturbances to public order were noted in 2014. Instructions were given to the Prefects to be particularly vigilant and firm,” he tweeted.
Police in the French capital confirmed that they would comply with Darmanin’s request later on Thursday evening.
In July 2014, at the height of Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza, mass anti-Israel protests in Paris descended into antisemitic violence that lasted for two days. As The Algemeiner reported at the time, synagogues and Jewish-owned stores were targeted by Muslim youths wielding bars and clubs as they chanted, “Death to Israel.”
Darmanin’s move to ban the march came two days after CRIF, the representative body of the French Jewish community, urged the government to ensure that it would “not turn into a surge of hatred and anti-Jewish violence, as was the case in 2014.”
CST Important Security Notice pic.twitter.com/ywcN1d6jEc
— CST (@CST_UK) May 14, 2021
Police arrest man after van covered in antisemitic, neo-Nazi slogans drives through Florida
A man has been arrested after a van covered in antisemitic, pro-Nazi slogans was seen driving through Boca Raton and Miami earlier this week.
Rabbi Efrem Goldberg, rabbi at Boca Raton Synagogue, tweeted footage of the van driving past a pro-Israel rally. Several antisemitic slogans were scrawled across the van.
“Hitler was right” can be seen in large, capital letters written across the windows, directly above a door which bore the words “Holocaust never happened.” Written above that is ”We hate kikes”, along with a swastika.
“Rabbi’s rape” was also written on the driver’s door in large blue letters. Other slogans on the van included “Vax the Jews” and “White goy summer.”
In his tweet, Rabbi Goldberg wrote: “We rally for peace and this van filled with hate, call for genocide and threats kept circling. Thank you to our local law enforcement for keeping us safe. Hard to believe in the heart of Boca Raton if didn’t see it myself.”
#covid1948 is trending on Twitter comparing the rebirth of the Jewish nation to a global pandemic that killed MILLIONS.
— StopAntisemitism.org (@StopAntisemites) May 13, 2021
Time will tell how much violence this nazi like propaganda will perpetuate against the Jewish people around the world. pic.twitter.com/qLnfBqvwlp
This was sprayed on the doors of the Adat Yeshua Synagogue in Norwich UK last night. A reminder to you; whatever you think of the actions of the Israeli Government, British Jews are not responsible #Antisemitism pic.twitter.com/B15e5lG5EG
— (((GnasherJew®?????))) (@GnasherJew) May 14, 2021
Moody’s, Team8 invest $25 million in joint cyber-risk venture
Moody’s Corp., the ratings agency, and Team8, an Israeli cybersecurity think tank and investor, announced Wednesday the completion of a $25 million investment in VisibleRisk, a joint venture set up by the two companies in 2019 to evaluate enterprise cyber-risk.Ukraine Unveils Folding ‘Pop-Up Book’ Synagogue at Site of Babi Yar Massacre
VisibleRisk also announced the launch of a Cyber Rating product, building on the collaboration between Moody’s and Team8, to develop a global standard for assessing corporate cyber-risk.
Moody’s and Team8 joined forces in 2019 to set up the venture to help create what they hope will become a global standard for evaluating how vulnerable companies are to cyberattacks.
“Moody’s investment in VisibleRisk aligns with our global integrated risk assessment strategy and focus on cyber security as an important element of understanding and managing enterprise risk,” said David Platt, chief strategy officer at Moody’s. The investment will “deepen” Moody’s relationship with VisibleRisk as it launches its innovative Cyber Rating product “to help customers better understand and confidently manage their cyber risks.”
VisibleRisk’s Cyber Ratings are based on cyber-risk quantification, which allows companies to benchmark their cyber-risks against those of their peers, and to better understand and manage the impact of cyber-threats to their businesses. Combining economic, cybersecurity, and industry data, the Cyber Rating incorporates a holistic, validated set of internal and external parameters that can affect a firm’s security position, and quantifies the risks in economic terms, the companies said in a statement.
Ukraine unveiled on Friday a synagogue built of wood and designed to unfold like a pop-up book at a site commemorating the victims of one of the single biggest massacres of Jews during the Nazi Holocaust.
The colorful new synagogue is part of a memorial project for the victims of the Babi Yar massacre that marked the start of the Holocaust in occupied Soviet Ukraine, in which a pre-war Jewish population of about 1.5 million was virtually wiped out.
Nazi German forces shot dead an estimated 34,000 Jewish men, women and children on Sept. 29-30, 1941, in a large ravine called Babi Yar on the edge of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv. The ravine is also known as Babi Yar.
The opening of the synagogue coincided with Ukraine marking on Friday its first Day of Remembrance for Ukrainians who saved Jews during World War Two.
“Their feat is an example of humanity and self-sacrifice,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Twitter.
The structure of the Swiss-designed synagogue can be collapsed using a hand winch. In its expanded form, it has a retractable roof, balcony and benches, and its walls are decorated with prayers and blessings.
