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Sunday, September 19, 2021

09/19 Links: David Collier: Pillars and Myths – destroying the false narrative of the 1948 Nakba; Iraq’s Nazi regime ‘had plans to intern Jews in 1941’; Durban IV: Time for Some Tough Diplomacy

From Ian:

David Collier: Pillars and Myths – destroying the false narrative of the 1948 Nakba
I witness pro-Israeli arguments online every day – and one of the things that always depresses me is when I see those defending Israel get stuck down pointless rabbit holes. Anti-Israel activists are only interested in the present ‘what’ – as in ‘the prisoner’, ‘the checkpoint’, ‘the wall’ – and they do this because this is where they are comfortable. These propagandists deliberately avoid the ‘why’ because the truth is quicksand for them. Such as why the ‘wall’ was built in the first place. And why on earth would anyone argue over a ‘settlement’ like Ariel – if the person you are arguing with thinks that Tel Aviv is an ‘illegal settlement’ too. This cannot be stressed often enough – it is simply foolish to fight on their turf.

Nowhere is this more visible that in discussion over what they call the ‘Nakba’ – the Arab defeat in a war that they wanted, started and lost. A war in which they sought to annihilate the Jews. Arguing from within their narrative is like bitterly arguing over the size of the thrones in the Narnian Capital ‘Cair Paravel’.

A recent comment piece in the Jewish Chronicle provides a perfect example. One of our naive and privileged youth wrote a piece bemoaning the fact that she wasn’t prepared by her Jewish school to fight for Israel on campus – because as she sees it – ‘we do not talk about the Palestinian narrative in a meaningful way’. Her answer includes introducing ‘Israel-critical’ groups like Yachad into schools and to teach our children about the ‘Nakba’. This is an absurd and submissive response to the problem. Her suggested solution would send an entire generation down the rabbit hole.

The Nakba narrative is a lie. Should the UK have taught children Soviet propaganda so that they would have been better prepared to defend the UK at uni too? Yes campus is hostile. Some places have adopted a far darker and more Islamist vision. I know it is deeply uncomfortable for young Zionists, but submission is not the way forward. If we Jews do not defend ourselves – then who will defend us? Adopting the lies of our enemies onto our own platforms will only lead to self destruction.

The Nakba – as it is described by our enemies – never happened. They have taken isolated incidents, such as the disputed events of Deir Yassin or what took place in Lod – and built an entire fairytale around them. The truth of 1948 – the foundation of everything that followed – is very simple and we should never lose sight of it – nor stop teaching it to our children. The truth can sometimes be really unpopular – but it does not stop being the truth.

What follows is a list of pillars and myths. The pillars are the foundations of the self inflicted distaster that was to befall the Arab population. The myths are the lies upon which the history is being rewritten.
Iraq’s Nazi regime ‘had plans to intern Jews in 1941’
In his passionate attempt to restore the plight of the Jews to one academic’s mangled history of the period, a scholar of Iraqi-Jewish origin has revealed that the 1941 pro-Nazi government in Iraq was planning to intern Jews in a ‘harsh ghetto’ from which ‘they would not come out.’

London-based Dr E. N., who has 600 academic publications to his name, says that a senior Arab Muslim officer tipped off a group of Jewish army officers that there were plans to intern Jews in ‘terrains of the military’, a place where Jews would supposedly go in and never come out.

Following a coup on 1st April 1941, a virulently anti-Jewish, pro-Nazi government led by prime minister Rashid Ali al-Ghailani ruled Iraq until 31 May 1941 when it was defeated and put to flight by the British army.

The terrified Jewish officers, who had been recalled into the Iraqi army during the two months that the pro-Axis government ruled Iraq, ‘felt powerless’ at news of the internment plans. They would meet at the home of Dr N.’s grandfather, a Jew who felt compelled to resign from his post as commander in charge of the Baghdad Royal Arsenal in 1939, and converse in German and Turkish so that they would not be understood.

According to Dr N., the internment plans remained in place well after the pro-Nazi government had been deposed – until the defeat of General Rommel in the autumn of 1942.

The pro-Nazi government had already established a Jewish ghetto in the city of Diwaniyya.

Dr N.’s revelations come in his review of a book by John Broich, Blood, Oil, and The Axis: The Allied resistance against a Fascist state in Iraq and the Levant, 1941 (Abrams Press, New York 2019) The review, entitled A moral dilemma, appears in a book edited by Dr N.titled For the centennial of Berthold Laufer’s classic Sino-Iranica (1919): Sino-Iranica’s Centennial. Between East and West, Exchanges of Material and Ideational Culture. Broich also contributed a cover story on the 1941 British conquest of Baghdad in the July 1919 issue of the BBC History magazine.
‘There Is a Jew Hiding Behind Me — Come and Kill Him’
When the former Trump administration announced that it was moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in December 2017, the reaction in the Muslim world and among Muslim communities in the West was predictably furious. In the Friday sermons that followed that announcement, several imams around the world denounced Israel in uncomplicated antisemitic terms, many of them quoting the same hadith — a saying attributed to the prophet Muhammed — that speaks of a mass slaughter of Jews by the Muslim faithful.

Writing about these sermons at the time, I highlighted three that were delivered at mosques in the United States in that same week, all of which spoke about Jews in genocidal terms. Two of the sermons — one at a mosque in Houston, Texas, the other in Raleigh, NC — cited a rather bloodcurdling hadith that reads as follows: “Judgement Day will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews. The Jews will hide behind the stones and the trees, and the stones and the trees will say, oh Muslim, oh servant of Allah, there is a Jew hiding behind me — come and kill him.”

That same hadith surfaced at a sermon given by the Imam of the Grand Mosque in the city of Toulouse in southwest France, Mohamed Tataiat, right after the embassy move. Resident in France since 1985 and occupying the post in Toulouse in 1987, Tataiat has been hailed by his supporters as a voice of moderation and enthusiastic backer of interfaith dialogue with Christians and Jews.

Last week, the criminal court in Toulouse concurred with that dubious assessment, acquitting Tataiat of the incitement charges that were filed against him by CRIF, the main Jewish organization in France, as well as the National Office for Vigilance Against Antisemitism (BNVCA) and the International League Against Racism and Antisemitism (LICRA). After a three-month trial, the court deemed that in quoting the hadith, it had not been Tataiat’s intention to “provoke hatred or discrimination.”

Since the authenticity of this hadith is not in question, one can understand why the act of simply quoting it might not be regarded as a criminal offense, even in countries, like France, with stringent hate-speech laws on the books. But as with any kind of hate speech, context is key.


Nitsana Darshan-Leitner: Durban IV: Time for Some Tough Diplomacy
Today, the Palestinian Authority, under the auspices of the ICC and various UN councils, has been vigorously working to fully exploit Durban IV for yet another savage attack. Israel’s tactics, however, have remained unchanged: plead with the countries participating in the conference to abstain from voting. Lashing back at our detractors isn’t even an option, lest we incur the wrath of the rest of the world.

The assumption that in any war against radical human rights organizations we will face another wave of anti-Israel hatred must be shattered.

In the face of relentless lies one must take decisive steps, and stop stuttering. We must prevent the entry of BDS activists into the country, just as France, the United States, Britain and Canada bar entry to their soil from those who threaten to prosecute them.

We must also exact a price from UN envoys who pen false reports on Israel Defense Forces operations.

Still, how we can complain about steps taken by other countries if Israeli authorities themselves become active partners in the boycott of Israel and turn their backs on the fight against antisemitism?

Israel’s attorney general is currently preventing Jewish business owners in Judea and Samaria from suing the UN Human Rights Council for its “blacklist,” even though it is discriminatory and racist.

The Jerusalem court has asked Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit to rule on the matter six times since August 2020, but he refuses for fear of upsetting the United Nations, claiming that his representatives are negotiating to soften the decisions.

So before we point the finger of blame at countries worldwide, it would be better for the country’s top officials to stop behaving like exiled Jews who do not believe in our right to the state.
No Western state bid for speech, leading role at Durban
No Western state has submitted candidacy for its leader to give a speech or lead a roundtable at Wednesday’s event marking the 20th anniversary of the World Conference against Racism in Durban, South Africa, which was marked with antisemitism and anti-Israel bias.

At the beginning of September, UN General Assembly President Volkan Bozkir asked each group of member states to put in a bid for a president or prime minister to address the opening ceremony of Durban IV, and to send a representative to lead a roundtable on the topic of people of African origin.

Andorran Deputy Permanent Representative at the UN Joan Josep Lopez informed Bozkir in a letter a week later, “We have not received yet any candidature at the level of Head of State or Head of Government and no expression of interest for the position of Chair of the two roundtables.”

The 28-state Western European and Others Group (WEOG) at the UN includes countries across Europe, as well as Turkey, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Israel. The US is an observer.

Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan said the lack of interest from anyone in the Western group “means Israel succeeded in labeling the event antisemitic and anti-Israel.”

Romania joined the list of countries boycotting Durban IV over its antisemitism, bringing the number to 20. The countries skipping the event, all of which are WEOG members, are: Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Slovakia, Slovenia, the UK and the US. Belgium downgraded its attendance from the ministerial level to the diplomatic level.
Jonathan S. Tobin: Why Was the Jewish Response to Durban a Failure?
Layered into this problem is a tendency among many Jewish groups and many Jews to view antisemitism only through the prism of their historical memories and contemporary partisan prisms. This leads groups like the Anti-Defamation League to see Jew-hatred as primarily a problem of the far-right, while either ignoring or minimizing the way antisemitism has always found a home on the left. The efforts of the Palestinians and their Third World and Islamic allies to use not merely the language of the left to delegitimize Israel’s existence but the structures of international organizations to pursue their goals is largely off the radar screens of Jewish defense groups. These groups have been too focused on looking for enemies among the extremists of the far-right while regarding anti-Israeli and anti-Zionist invective from the left as less threatening.

To point this out is not to deny that anti-Semitism also exists on the right, and that it can pose a genuine danger. But the almost exclusive focus on the right — motivated in part by the partisan priorities of some of those tasked with fighting antisemitism — led to a degree of complacency about the spirit of Durban, the antisemitism of the United Nations, and intersectionalism that caused it to metastasize in the last decade almost without the antisemitism monitors noticing.

It is also true that Israeli diplomacy has largely abandoned the field in international organizations both because its diplomats focus on other crucial matters and because the Jewish state has become inured to the influence of a United Nations that remains dead set against it.

The consequences of this failure are readily apparent in 2021. Other than a few groups that have taken up this task, the organized Jewish world has largely failed to recognize that allowing these slanders to become entrenched in international discourse can have a catastrophic impact on Jewish security. This is partly a matter of underestimating the influence of UN agencies. But intersectional ideology has taken hold of academia and, like most toxic ideas that begin on college campuses, migrated to the rest of society. The delegitimization of Jewish nationalism and Jewish nationalism alone has created a reality in which antisemitism has received a permission slip from intellectuals, activists, and opinion-influencers in the media in a way that would have been unthinkable two decades ago. And rather than crying “stop,” liberal groups like the ADL and the Jewish Council on Public Affairs are cheerleading for these dangerous notions.

It’s time the organized Jewish world started treating this problem and its connections to an increasingly popular variant of left-wing antisemitism in the United States seriously. The failure of major Jewish groups isn’t just a disgrace; it is creating a dangerous environment in which they have effectively cleared a path for those who hate Israel and the Jews.
Belgium’s Continued Support of the Antisemitic Durban Agenda
On September 10, the Belgium government announced it would send “non-political representation, possibly a diplomat,” to the UN’s event commemorating the 20th anniversary of the infamous World Conference on Racism (also known as “the Durban Conference”). “Durban IV” will occur on September 22 at the UN headquarters in New York.

In sharp contrast to Belgium, twenty democracies have announced plans not to attend Durban IV, protesting the antisemitism the process embodies. The original 2001 conference was characterized by virulent antisemitism, especially from participating NGOs.

Similarly, Belgium funds a number of NGOs with links to Palestinian terror groups, and which lead the political warfare and demonization targeting Israel (including BDS and “lawfare”) that was launched at Durban.

In addition, Brussels has been criticized for its apparent ambivalence in the face of antisemitism within its borders, involving politicians, senior government employees, government campaigns, and NGOs that promote antisemitism.

Belgian Funding for PFLP-Linked NGOs
In 2017-2021, Belgium granted at least €3 million in funding to projects involving Palestinian NGOs linked to the EU-designated terror group, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
- In December 2019, employees of Palestinian NGOs funded by Belgium were arrested and are currently standing trial for their involvement in the August 2019 bombing and murder of a 17-year old Israeli, Rena Shnerb.
- In February 2020, Belgium invited a senior member of the PFLP-linked Defense for Children International-Palestine (DCI-P) to brief the UN Security Council. Belgium rescinded the invitation following a public information campaign, in which NGO Monitor participated, that highlighted DCI-P’s link to terror.
- For more information, see NGO Monitor’s report on “Belgian Funding for PFLP-Linked NGOs.”


Ambassador Erdan slams Ocasio-Cortez for her bid to block arms sale to Israel
Israeli Ambassador to the US Gilad Erdan criticized Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for submitting an amendment to the annual US defense spending bill to block the sale of precision-guided munitions to Israel.

“I would expect a Congressperson to understand that Israel is defending its citizens against Hamas, a designated terrorist organization,” tweeted Erdan on Saturday night. “Your amendment further legitimizes their heinous attacks against innocent civilians, as well as antisemitic lies.”

Erdan added that the strategic alliance between Israel and the US is “critical to the security of our two countries. Israel is a world leader in the fight against terrorism, and our partnership has helped prevent terrorist attacks against American citizens many times in the past.”

The amendment submitted last week by Ocasio-Cortez, a Democratic representative from New York, would prevent the transfer of $735 million worth of joint direct attack munition (JDAM) tail kits to Israel. The kits turn unguided bombs into GPS guided missiles.

In a tweet, Ocasio-Cortez said her amendment was “over the bombing of Palestinian civilians, media centers,” apparently referring to the bombing, during an 11-day conflict in May, of a building in Gaza City that housed the offices of the Associated Press and Al-Jazeera.

Israel has said that the building was used by Hamas to try to disrupt the Iron Dome missile defense system during the conflict. The Israeli military gave occupants of the building an hour to evacuate before it carried out its airstrike. No one was injured, but the high-rise was flattened into a pile of rubble.
After 13-day manhunt, IDF nabs last 2 of 6 Palestinian terrorist fugitives
Israeli forces on Sunday caught the last two of six Palestinian terrorists who had tunneled out of a maximum-security jail nearly two weeks ago.

Iham Kamamji and Munadil Nafiyat, both members of the Islamic Jihad terrorist group, were apprehended in the West Bank city of Jenin following a 13-day manhunt.

According to the military, special forces comprising IDF, Shin Bet security service, and Israel Police troops, surrounded the two's hideout and a short while afterward they surrendered and were taken into custody.

The IDF said both fugitives were unarmed when they surrendered, nor did they attempt to resist arrest. Both were handed over to the Israel Security Agency for interrogation.

The operation was overseen by Brig. Gen. Yaniv Alaluf, commander of the IDF's Judea and Samaria Division, which is responsible for the West Bank, and by Col. Arik Moyal, the military said.

"The Police Counterterrorism Unit, Shin Bet, and the Haruv Reconnaissance Unit entered the city of Jenin, sealed off and surrounded the house, including gunfire around the building in which the fugitive terrorists were hiding. They came out unarmed and without resistance," the IDF said in a statement.

"The two terrorists surrendered and came out without opening fire. The arrest was conducted smoothly," said Lt. Col. Alon Hanoni, deputy commander of the IDF's Menashe Regional Command, which is responsible for the Jenin area.
Capture of Palestinian fugitives divides Arab Israelis
The arrests mark the end of an extensive search for the six inmates who fled Israel's Gilboa prison

The last two inmates of the six escapees from Israel's Gilboa prison were recaptured in the West Bank city of Jenin, the IDF announced on Sunday.

The two prisoners, Iham Kamamji and Munadil Nafiyat, were apprehended through the collaborative efforts of Israel's Shin Bet security services, counterterrorism police, and the IDF.




Gilboa prisoners are caught, but story isn't over - analysis
The inquiry into the Gilboa Prison break has to dig through all the dirt, not with a spoon but a D9, and bulldoze through all the other issues that have yet to see the light. It also needs to be as free as it can from political pressure because the security of the country is at stake.

Along with a commission investigating how the prisoners escaped, Israel’s Defense Ministry, IDF and Israel Police need to fix the holes in the West Bank fence. It cannot be that people, let alone high-security fugitives, are able to cross in and out of Israel through the numerous holes in the fence.

Nafayat and Kahamji crossed from Israel into the West Bank and could have very likely crossed back into Israel if they had wanted to. The issue of the holes in the fence is not a new phenomenon.

Thousands of Palestinians cross into Israel on a daily basis through the holes that are cut along various sections of the security barrier. It’s such a popular way for Palestinians to get into Israel that some even upload TikTok videos showing themselves making their way through the holes.

While many cross in order to work inside Israel, several Palestinians who have illegally crossed into Israel in the past have carried out deadly attacks.

This issue needs to be fixed. Unlike the warnings about the prison break, this cannot be ignored.
Palestinians admit capture of Gilboa prisoners shows Israeli intel prowess
PLO Executive Committee member Wasel Abu Yusef praised the escaped prisoners as “heroes” and called on Palestinians to continue launching campaigns in support of all the security prisoners.

In an interview with the PA’s Voice of Palestine radio station, he called on the International Criminal Court “to expedite its investigation into the crimes of the occupation against the prisoners.”

Another PLO official, Ahmed Majdalani, praised the six fugitives for bringing the issue of all prisoners to the attention of the international community.

The PA leadership was planning to raise the issue of the prisoners before the United Nations General Assembly during its upcoming meeting in New York, he said.

Qadoura Fares, head of the Ramallah-based Palestinian Prisoner Club, said the six prisoners who escaped from Gilboa Prison “restored the unity of the Palestinian street and proved the importance of unity.”

Hamas said the Palestinian “resistance” groups would continue to work toward securing the release of all the security prisoners.

The time has come to “cut off the Israeli arm that kidnapped” the two fugitives in Jenin, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said.

Senior Hamas official Ahmed Bahr condemned Israel for recapturing the escaped prisoners in Jenin.

The arrest of the two fugitives “does not mean the end of the story,” he said, adding that the escape had dealt a severe blow to Israel. Hamas would do its utmost to free all the security prisoners, he added.

The rearrest of the six fugitives “will not erase the impact of the defeat inflicted on the occupation,” PIJ said in a statement.

It reiterated its pledge to continue working for the release of all the prisoners and held Israel responsible for any harm to the lives of the inmates.

PIJ also called on the military wings of the Palestinian factions “to remain in a state of alert and high readiness to defend the prisoners.”
Palestinians again doctor images, showing last 2 fugitives grinning post-capture
Doctored images of the last two recaptured fugitives circulated on Palestinian social media on Sunday, showing the two men grinning after being captured by Israeli security forces nearly two weeks after their escape.

Iham Kamamji and Munadil Nafiyat, both members of the Islamic Jihad terror group, were apprehended in the West Bank city of Jenin, the Israel Defense Forces said early Sunday. Kamamji and Nafiyat were among six Palestinian security prisoners who escaped from Gilboa Prison in northern Israel earlier this month. The arrests of the two fugitives — a week after the four other escaped prisoners were recaptured in northern Israel — brings to a close a massive 13-day manhunt following one of the worst jailbreaks in Israel’s history.

After the Shin Bet released images of the two men following their capture on Sunday, the photos were doctored to show the nabbed fugitives smiling broadly — just as was done to images of the four men recaptured last weekend.

Among many Palestinians, the fugitives have been widely regarded as “heroes” who succeeded in freeing themselves from multiple life sentences. The jailbreak was followed by heightened tensions in the West Bank, a stabbing attack in Jerusalem, several attempted attacks, and sporadic rocket fire from the Gaza Strip at southern Israel.

Similar images circulated last weekend of the first four escapees to be recaptured by Israeli security forces: Zakaria Zubeidi, Yaqoub Qadiri, Mohammad al-Arida and Mahmoud al-Arida. The doctored photos disseminated of the fugitives after their capture turned their true-life grim and tired expressions into defiant grins to the cameras.
COVID nurse stoned while driving back from shift on Yom Kippur
A nurse in a COVID ward at Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem was attacked by stone-throwers on her way back from a shift on Yom Kippur, N12 reported.

The nurse, Shaked Alkobi from the Kfar Eldad settlement in southeast Gush Etzion, was on her way back from a shift in the COVID labor ward at Shaarei Zedek on Wednesday evening at 11 pm. At the entrance to the Har Homa neighborhood, her car was attacked by a number of kids aged 12-15. In the past, Haredi youth have thrown stones at vehicles that have driven on Shabbat or holidays, but Har Homa is not a Haredi neighborhood and the youth didn't look ultra-Orthodox.

"At 11 p.m. I finished my shift at the hospital and on the way home [my car] was smashed by stones," Alkobi said in an interview to N12.

"I initially wanted to speak to these kids, I began to slow down but I saw that they were continuing to throw stones like crazy. I was terrified and escaped the scene," she added.

"I was hysterical and didn't know what to do," she added. "My crazy frustration Grew because I could not understand - why are they doing such a thing? I am a first-responder for United Hatzalah and I have a Shaare Zedek sticker on the side of my car.

"Even if I were not a medical worker - this is a vicious and shameful act," Alkobi continued. "The kids threw large stones on me and I do not want to imagine what would have happened if one of them had hit me in the head."

"I am a mother to three kids, and their car seats were covered in glass," she said.
HonestReporting: CNN Host Fareed Zakaria Suggests Israeli "Assault" on Hamas is to Blame for Lack of Peace
CNN host Fareed Zakaria Suggests Israeli "Assault" on Hamas is to Blame for Lack of Peace

Is Israel's response to Hamas attacks the reason that there's no peace? That's the position CNN host Fareed Zakaria seems to be taking.

A briefing compiled and sent out in Zakaria's name asks whether "the Abraham Accords succeeded, or have they failed miserably?" Four Arab nations have normalized relations with the Jewish state as part of the Trump administration-brokered accords.

Yet the briefing suggests that "Israel’s assault on Hamas positions in Gaza" is the reason why the conflict with the Palestinians remains unresolved.

As HonestReporting has repeatedly made clear, Hamas laid the groundwork for May's conflict by inciting violence in Jerusalem and atop the Temple Mount.

Zakaria has a history of misrepresenting reality in the Middle East, earlier falsely accusing Israel of "killing the two state solution."


2 Umm al-Fahm men indicted for alleged attack on ambulance during May’s unrest
Two men have been charged for an attack in which they allegedly hurled stones and fired fireworks at police officers, as well as blocking an ambulance in the northern town Umm al-Fahm during ethnic unrest that rocked the country in May, the police announced Sunday.

The suspects, aged 18 and 20, both residents of the Arab city, participated in a violent demonstration near the entrance of the city on May 11, Israel Police said in a statement. During the protest, the men also allegedly help set fire to a electric pole that supported a security camera.

The next night, an ambulance carrying a wounded police officer who was shot during violent clashes near the city’s entrance was attacked by a number of rioters including the two suspects, police said.

Police said the rioters blocked the ambulance, threw stones at it, broke its windows and tried to force open the door.

“This was in order to prevent the treatment of the wounded police officer and worsen his condition due to an ideological nationalist motive,” police charged.

The ambulance then turned back to the local Magen David Adom emergency services station, where the wounded officer was transferred to a police car that took him to another ambulance that was waiting outside of the city.
PMW: Murder of Israeli athletes in Munich is a “heroic operation” according to Abbas’ Fatah
On September 5, 1972 at the Munich Olympics, Palestinian terrorists from the Fatah’s Black September terror organization took Israeli athletes hostage and murdered 11 of them.

This terror attack - “the heroic operation” in Palestinian terminology – is marked and celebrated every year in the PA as documented by Palestinian Media Watch. So too this year. Openly attributing the massacre to “the Fatah Movement’s foreign special operations branch,” Fatah called it “a heroic history written in blood by the Fatah self-sacrificing fighters”:
Posted text: “This day in 1972
#Munich_operation

A heroic operation that was carried out by the Fatah Movement’s foreign special operations branch (i.e., the Black September terror organization), whose goal was the release of 236 Palestinian and Arab prisoners in the occupation’s prisons and in the German prisons and directing the world’s attention to the Palestinian cause. This was together with a natural response to the occupation’s assassination operations and bombings of the Palestinian refugee camps at the time.”

Text on image: “Anniversary of the Munich operation
Sept. 5, 1972

A heroic history written in blood by the Fatah self-sacrificing fighters”
[Facebook page of the Fatah Commission of Information and Culture, Sept. 5, 2021]

The image shows pictures of German police disguised as athletes trying to free the Israeli hostages during the Munich Olympics attack. In the upper left corner is the Fatah logo.

During the year, Fatah and the PA also honor and glorify the individual “heroes” who perpetrated the massacre. Fatah posted this video praising Abu Daoud – one of the masterminds and planners of the Munich attack – as “one of the symbols of the Palestinian revolution”:


PMW: We “honor everyone” who fought Israel, “the enemy,” with “armed struggle,” says Fatah official
We “honor everyone” who fought Israel, “the enemy,” with “armed struggle,” says Fatah official [Official PA TV News, Sept. 7, 2021]

Fatah Central Committee member Abbas Zaki: “Our custom in the Palestinian arena is to honor everyone who waved this flag of struggle and fought against this enemy – whether with a pen, politics, armed struggle, or diplomatic activity.”

Abbas Zaki also serves as Fatah Commissioner for Arab and China Relations.

Ahmed Jibril - senior PLO leader and head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command (PFLP - GC).




Lebanese PM says oil shipments from Iran were ‘not approved’ by his government
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati, who took office less than 10 days ago, said shipments of Iranian oil into his country violate Lebanon’s sovereignty and were not approved by his government.

“Frankly, I am sad, because this [violates] the sovereignty of Lebanon,” Mikati told CNN about the oil shipments organized by Hezbollah — the first of which arrived on Thursday — in an interview that aired on the network on Friday.

Mikati said that he preferred “not to make any other comment” about the oil shipments “because we are trying to solve this in a very calm way.”

But asked by CNN anchor Becky Anderson about the potential of US sanctions against Lebanon for importing oil from Iran, Mikati said that “since the Lebanese government didn’t approve this… I don’t believe the Lebanese government would be subject to any sanctions.”

Dozens of trucks carrying Iranian diesel fuel arrived in Lebanon on Thursday, the first in a series of deliveries organized by the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group. The overland delivery through neighboring Syria violates US sanctions imposed on Tehran after former president Donald Trump pulled America out of a nuclear deal between Iran and world powers in 2018.
TankerTrackers Says Third Tanker Carrying Fuel to Lebanon Underway
A third tanker has sailed from Iran carrying Iranian fuel for distribution in Lebanon, TankerTrackers.com reported on Twitter on Sunday.

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said on Friday that the Iranian fuel shipments, imported by the Hezbollah terrorist organization, constitute a breach of Lebanon’s sovereignty.

The Iran-aligned group says the shipments should ease a crippling energy crisis in Lebanon.

The first tanker ship carried the fuel to Syria and from there it was taken into Lebanon on tanker trucks on Thursday.

Both Syria and Iran are under US sanctions.
Iran denies NYT Mossad assassination report
Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Saeed Khatibzadeh denied the New York Times (NYT) report describing the November assassination of Iran's leading nuclear scientist in his weekly presser on Sunday, according to Iran International.

The nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was assassinated in Tehran on November 26, and the NYT report claimed that it had been carried out by the Mossad. According to the report, the gun was a modified Belgian-made FN MAG machine gun attached to a robot and powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI).

The NYT claimed that their information came from interviews with American, Israeli and Iranian officials "including two intelligence officials familiar with the details of the planning and execution of the operation."

Khatibzadeh denied the report's claims, however, saying that Iranian intelligence has all the details of the incident including all the people involved.
HonestReporting: New York Times: Slain Iranian Nuclear Program Mastermind Loved Poetry, Seashore
The New York Times on Saturday described the assassinated mastermind of Iran's illicit nuclear weapons program as having "wanted to live a normal life," someone who enjoyed poetry and spending time with family. Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was killed last November in an operation attributed to Israel's Mossad spy agency.

Then-Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu had previously shared intelligence about Fakhrizadeh's leading role in Tehran's development of an atomic weapon. A former brigadier general in the US-designated IRGC terror organization, he had been personally sanctioned by both the United States and United Nations.

Nevertheless, the "newspaper of record" highlighted Fakhrizadeh's love of driving through the countryside, prompting ridicule from many. Many pointed out that Iran has repeatedly threatened to fully annihilate Israel, and that Fakhrizadeh headed the initiative that could give the mullahs the means to actualize their genocidal ambitions.




Corbyn to appear with actor who tweeted about Jewish toddlers having their ‘cute little horns filed off’
Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is due to appear in conversation with an actor who joked about Jewish toddlers having their “cute little horns filed off”.

The event is set to be held next month to protest against this year’s Conservative party conference.

Catastrophe actor Rob Delaney, 44, wrote in 2009, “When I think of adorable Jewish baby boys getting circumcised AND having their cute little horns filed off, I get so sad!”

The tweet from 12 years ago resurfaced on social media ahead of the October 4 event organised by the People’s Assembly.

Online users were quick to highlight other potentially inflammatory tweets by Mr Delaney, including one from 2011 that read: “Somebody probably has the phone number 1-800-JEW-FART.”

In another tweet from 2012, he also quipped about wishing to atone on Yom Kippur “for the weeks I’ve wasted on chubby naked Jewish girls on bikes dot com” and in 2012 described a single by rock band Van Halen as being “worse than 3 Holocausts.”

The tweets sparked an outpouring of criticism, with the Jewish Labour Movement’s national secretary, Adam Langleben, describing the posts as containing “crap and crude jokes about Jews”.
New York protestors wield Palestinian flags, endorse 'global intifada'
A group of protestors from a coalition of left-wing organizations marched to the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in midtown Manhattan on Friday, wielding Palestinian flags and a banner reading "globalize the intifada."

Friday's march was part of the so-called Strike MoMA campaign, which began as a series of 10 weekly protests which ran between April 9 and June 11, against MoMA's alleged complicity in war profiteering, environmental harm, dispossession of communities worldwide and association with morally corrupt billionaires.

The 10-week initiative was founded by the Strike MoMA Working Group, part of a collective that called itself the International Imagination of Anti-National Anti-Imperialist Feelings (IIAAF).

Friday's march was part of Strike MoMA's so-called "second phase."

The second phase's title is "Convening for a Just Transition to a Post-MoMA Future," and its goal is to "determine the next steps for disassembling the museum in light of its harmful history," according to the movement's manifesto.


Both woke Leftists and the Taliban destroy books
Kenneth Baker has published a book on the "bibliocaust", the burning of books from Caliph Omar to Hitler, passing through the fatwa against Salman Rushdie.

When they burned the books in Berlin, the Nazis said that from the ashes of those novels would "rise the phoenix of a new spirit". The same hatred inflames Islamists and politically correct idiots. And we don't even have the faintest idea of ??how much of our Western culture has succumbed to Islam.

Somali-born dissident and essayist Ayaan Hirsi Ali in a video has just explained what Islamic fanatics and progressives have in common: ideological purity, hatred of pluralism, iconoclasm and censorship. There is the hell of the Taliban, who erase the irreplaceable colored murals to replace them with Islamic ones, and there is the hell of the "wokes", who erase the murals with Rudyard Kipling's poems.

Peggy Sastre on Le Point wrote that it is hard, indeed very hard, to condemn the Taliban for the burqa when one is “woke” and defends it here. Now we can say the same for the book burnings in Kabul and Kandahar.

Suzy Kies, president of the Indigenous Peoples Commission of the Liberal Party of Canada (the formation of which can be traced to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau), thus justified the burning of books this way:

“We are not trying to erase history, we are trying to correct it”.

Quranic students could not have said it better.


Indy now admits the 'dual loyalty' charge is antisemitic
Though the piece focused on Jared Kushner, to provide historical context, Fisk complained that the principle US Mid-East peacemakers under Bill Clinton “were all Jewish Americans”* and then derided “the myth that American peacemaking [could be] even-handed, neutral, [or] uninfluenced by the religion” of top officials.

He then quoted what he framed as wisdom by Israeli commentator Meron Benvenisti, who, on the pages of Haaretz in 1993, wrote that “it is hard to ignore the fact that manipulation of the peace process was entrusted by the US in the first place to American Jews…”, warning of “the tremendous influence of the Jewish establishment on the Clinton administration”.

In our complaint to the Indy managing editor at the time, we noted that the “dual loyalty” charge is codified as antisemitic by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s Working Definition of Antisemitism, and cited CST, which wrote, “the ‘dual loyalty’ charge is one of the oldest antisemitic canards”. However, our complaint was rejected, as the editor disagreed that Fisk had engaged in antisemitism. (The outlet also rejected a complaint by Campaign Against Antisemitism)

However, yesterday, the Indy published the following:


The fact that the Indy is willing to clearly call out the dual loyalty charge as an expression racism after having defended it when employed by Fisk,is an example of how media outlets often circle the wagon to protect their ‘star’ journalists, defending the indefensible rather than calling out their factual errors or bigotry.

Moreover, it’s to the great shame of Indy editors that, during his three decades at the paper, they consistently tolerated Fisk’s anti-Jewish animus, including his use of a particular toxic calumny that – their journalists now concede – helped unleash the most lethal hatred history has ever known.
California Gunman Pleads Guilty to Hate Crimes in Synagogue Murder, Mosque Arson
A man accused of killing one worshiper and wounding three others in a shooting spree inside a California synagogue about a month after setting fire to a nearby mosque pleaded guilty on Friday to federal hate crimes contained in a 113-count indictment.

Under the terms of his plea agreement with federal prosecutors, attorneys for John T. Earnest and the government will jointly recommend that he receive a life term in prison when he is sentenced on Dec. 28, the US Department of Justice said in a statement.

Earnest, now 22, was arrested shortly after he opened fire at the Chabad of Poway synagogue north of San Diego on April 27, 2019 during Sabbath prayers on the last day of the weeklong Jewish Passover holiday. He was 19 at the time.

A 60-year-old member of the congregation, Lori Gilbert-Kaye, was killed and three others were wounded in the attack, including the rabbi, who was shot in the hand and lost an index finger.

The gunman, whose assault-style rifle apparently jammed, was chased out of the temple by a former Army sergeant in the congregation and sped away in a car, escaping an off-duty US Border Patrol agent who shot at the getaway vehicle but missed the suspect. Earnest pulled over and surrendered to police soon afterward.

Authorities later identified Earnest as the author of a rambling, violently antisemitic, anti-Muslim “manifesto” found posted on the Internet under his name.
Covid-19 Protests Fuel Spread of Holocaust Trivialization in Western Europe, North America
The growing normalization of Holocaust trivialization — largely in Western Europe and North America — is an alarming phenomenon that the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) Information Hub detected earlier this summer and has been closely monitoring since.

This trend is mainly, but not exclusively, linked to rhetoric employed by critics of health measures implemented by governments to fight the ongoing global Covid-19 pandemic.

The most commonly-seen manifestation is the appropriation of the Holocaust-era “Judenstern” (“yellow Star of David”) as a protest symbol.

Demonstrators in cities such as London, Paris, Amsterdam, Montreal, and New York have donned the badges — which Jews were forced to wear in German-controlled areas of Europe during World War II — in an outrageous attempt to compare current health restrictions to the Nazi persecution of the Jews.

Such displays have also been witnessed at city council and school board meetings, particularly in the U.S.
The Netherlands Unveils Its First National Holocaust Monument
A monument listing 102,163 Dutch victims of the Holocaust was unveiled by King Willem-Alexander in Amsterdam on Sunday, the first national memorial to be built in the Netherlands.

The monument, designed by Daniel Libeskind, 75, who lost relatives in the Holocaust, lies in the center of the Dutch capital and is a labyrinth of brick walls that, when seen from above, form Hebrew letters reading “in remembrance.”

Each stone carries the name of a Jew, Roma or Sinti who was deported from the Netherlands and who died in Nazi concentration camps during World War II. It is the first memorial to commemorate all the victims from across the Netherlands in one place.

“It gives the feeling that they really existed,” said Hetty de Roode, a Jew whose parents, brother and sister all died in the camps. De Roode, who attended the unveiling, survived by hiding with a family in the north of the Netherlands.

Most of the Jewish population of the Netherlands was deported during the German occupation.
HBO Max, Arte pick up Israeli police corruption drama 'Manayek'
HBO Max in Latin America and Arte in France and Germany have picked up Israeli police corruption drama Manayek ("Maniac").

The critically acclaimed show is currently filming its second season.

Used in Hebrew slang as a derogatory term for a policeman, Manayek stars Shalom Assayag, Amos Tamam, and Maya Dagan. It tells the story of veteran Police Internal Affairs investigator Izzy Bachar (Assayag), who is on the brink of retirement when he finds himself investigating his best friend (Tamam) – a high-ranking police officer accused of operating a vast criminal network within the force.

Created and written by Roy Iddan and directed by Alon Zingman, Manayek is one of Kan's highest-rated dramas alongside Tehran. It was a favorite of the Israeli Academy for Film and Television in 2020, winning the awards for Best Drama Series, Best Director in a Drama Series, Best Screenplay for a Drama Series, Leading Actor in a Drama Series, and Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series.

"It's a great honor to finally bring Manayek to viewers in Europe and in Latin America," Yoav Gross, CEO of the eponymous production company behind the show, said. "For us so far, it's been an amazing journey with this remarkable series and we are blessed with the huge success it already received in Israel.

"We are sure that the international audience will find in the series all the elements that made it so successful," he said.
Secret Operation Ensures Few Remaining Jews in Syria, Iraq Can Celebrate Sukkot
Dozens of sets of the Four Species – etrog, palm, myrtle, and willow – traditionally used for prayers during the festival of Sukkot have recently been transferred to the few Jews still living in Arab countries like Syria and Iraq.

The Yad L'Achim organization took care to organize the shipments, which were transferred in a secret operation.

Amir, the Yad L'Achim official responsible for overseeing the organization's operations, explained this week that the Four Species sets were in transit to "various countries."

According to the outreach group, sets have also been supplied to Jewish women who married Arab Israeli men in Israel, and their children.

In recent years, Yad L'Achim has been working to bring Jews living in Arab countries and Arabic-speaking Jews elsewhere in the world closer together. Arabic-speaking Jews in Palestinian refugee camps, whose mothers are Jewish, have also reportedly reached out to the group and asked for help strengthening their Jewish identities.

Yad L'Achim offers them information about Judaism and support in the form of Torah lessons by telephone and shipments of items for Jewish holidays.
Israel commemorates 48th anniversary of Yom Kippur War
A special ceremony was held Sunday to commemorate the 48th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War. Officials and bereaved families gathered at Jerusalem's Mount Herzl to remember the victims of one of the nation's deadliest wars.

"Something within us changed 48 years ago," Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said in his address. "The Yom Kippur War proved how dangerous complacency and arrogance can be. It taught us a lesson in humility, but also the importance of being prepared and organized.

"The heavy toll of the war was unbearable … But what many perceived as a failure, I see as a victory, for the difficult challenge of losing one's lofty status, but gaining victory nevertheless, both on the Syrian and Egyptian fronts, is remarkable."

Bennett also referred to the capture of the last two of the six Palestinian fugitives that occurred earlier in the day. "The escape itself reflected a serious intelligence, operational and systematic problem," he said, but praised how the forces mobilized and came together quickly to apprehend the escapees.

President Isaac Herzog also gave an address at the ceremony.

"The Yom Kippur war was a national event that taught us about inflexibility and arrogance. We must do our utmost so that a surprise like that does not happen again – we must always be prepared for war as well as never miss an opportunity for peace.

"Besides being vigilant, politically and security-wise, we must also learn the lessons on an internal level, within Israel, of unity and national resilience. We must stand up to polarization and rifts in Israeli society. To unite, come together, make connections and prevents division – that is the best and only way to deal with internal and external threats."
FIDF raises over $500k for lone soldiers in private event
The Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (FIDF) raised over $500 thousand at a private event on Monday evening in Lawrence, New York.

The fundraising event, a barbecue dinner, was organized by the FIDF Long Island Chapter and hosted by Ruthy and Ari Jungreis. The funds will be allocated towards the building of new housing for lone soldiers, IDF soldiers whose families reside abroad.

Notable participants in the event included FIDF CEO Steven Weil, FIDF National Director Major General (res.) Nadav Padan, and IDF Naval Attaché Cpt. Guy Barak. Four IDF lone soldiers also attended the event.

Over 1,000 lone soldiers from the US are currently serving in the IDF, out of which some 200 hail from New York and some 50 are from Long Island alone.

In a similar event on September 4, the FIDF raised over two million dollars at an event celebrating members of the Netzah Yehuda Battalion, a unit of ultra-Orthodox soldiers who forego their legal exemption from service.

FIDF was established in 1981 by a group of Holocaust survivors as a 501(C) (3) not-for-profit organization with the mission of offering educational, cultural, recreational, and social programs and facilities that provide hope, purpose, and life-changing support for the soldiers who protect Israel and Jews worldwide.

Today, FIDF has 24 chapters throughout the United States.







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