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Friday, March 11, 2022

03/11 Links Pt2: Washington's betrayal has only just begun; How the Biden Administration Is Funding the Effort To Delegitimize Israel; Matti Friedman: “Who By Fire: Leonard Cohen in the Sinai”

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: America and the truth of asymmetric warfare
In an interview about the war against Ukraine, the former Soviet dissident turned Israeli public figure, Natan Sharansky, made a key observation.

Commenting in Tablet that both Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin, were far from the strongest in the world, Sharansky shared something he had learned from his time in a Soviet prison.

The ringleader in the cell, he said, wasn’t the one who was physically strongest but the one ready to use his knife. “Everybody has a knife, but not everybody is prepared to use it,” he said. “Putin believes that he is willing to use his knife and the west isn’t—that the west can only talk even if it is physically stronger.”

Of course, most people assumed that Putin would never use his knife. They thought he would never invade Ukraine and embark on a horrific campaign against its civilian population. Yet that’s exactly what he has done.

In a similar vein, no one apparently believed that Putin would ever deploy nuclear weapons. Yet with the Russian dictator issuing not-so-veiled threats about nuclear war, Britain and America are refusing to yield to the pleas by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to fly bombing raids against the invading Russian forces for fear that Putin may do just that.

At a stroke, therefore, a key tenet of western defence policy has been destroyed. For decades, western leaders have told themselves that the principle of “mutually assured destruction” — under which any nuclear first strike would provoke a devastating nuclear counter-strike — is so obviously suicidal that no leader in his right mind would ever use nuclear weapons.

Yet what Putin is demonstrating is that this doctrine may not apply to him. The west’s nuclear knife is sheathed; but he is brandishing his own in a menacing manner and, as a result, has the upper hand.

Once again, the west has made the false assumption that every world leader is fundamentally a rational actor acting in his own self-interest. But some individuals are driven by fanatical devotion to a cause which means they make an entirely different set of calculations.

This is one reason why the Biden administration is making such a catastrophic mistake over Iran.


Caroline Glick: Washington's betrayal has only just begun
The Biden administration justifies its pro-Iranian and anti-Israel/Sunni Arab policy by claiming it is a means to disengage the US from the Middle East at a time that Washington is keen to concentrate its resources and attention on Asia and the rising threat of China. While on its face, this justification seems reasonable, it stands on a rotten foundation.

During his term in office, then-President Donald Trump sought to minimize US presence in the Middle East in order to focus US efforts and resources in Asia to contend with the rising threat from China. To achieve this goal, Trump empowered America's allies – Israel and the Sunni Arab states led by Saudi Arabia. He provided political, diplomatic, logistical, and when necessary, military support to ensure the success of their efforts to combat Iranian aggression against them.

Trump's concept, which was successfully diminishing both the level of violence in the region and the US's direct involvement in the Middle East, was that since America's allies share the US's interests in the Middle East, the more able they are to defend their own interests, the less the US will have to invest in protecting its interests in the region.

Trump created institutional frameworks for cooperation between US allies both by forging the Abraham Accords which effectively ended the Arab conflict with Israel, and by integrating Israel into the US Central Command and so fostering operational military cooperation between Israel and the US's Arab allies under the aegis of the US military.

Biden's policies are the polar opposite of Trump's policies both conceptually and substantively. Biden's policies represent a reinstatement and escalation of Barack Obama's policies for Iran and the wider Middle East. In contrast to Trump, Obama, Biden and their advisors believe that the US's Middle Eastern allies – Israel and the Sunni Arab Gulf states – maliciously worked for decades to entangle the United States in the wars of the Middle East. To disentangle America from the region and its pernicious "allies" the Obama-Biden doctrine posits the US must realign itself away from its allies and weaken them, and towards Iran, which it must empower.

This brings us to Israel, and what its government must do in the face of the administration's betrayal. Since supporting Iran and undermining Israel are the founding principles of Biden's Middle East policies, they are not subject to change. Israel cannot influence them. It doesn't matter how many times Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid gush about Israel's "true friends," Biden and Blinken. They have chosen a path that is impermeable to reason and argument.

Rather than expend efforts to woo an implacably hostile administration – through futile mediation of other people's wars and committing Israel to a policy of "no surprises" in its handling of Iran's Biden-supported-nuclear program, Israel's leaders must prepare for what awaits us.

We are about to be scapegoated.

In 2014-2015, in their efforts to sell their original cataclysmic nuclear deal with Iran, Obama and his advisors ran a campaign to demonize Israel and its supporters in Congress specifically and in US public life more generally. Now that Biden has agreed to an even more dangerous nuclear deal, Israel can expect for the demonization campaign that awaits it to dwarf its predecessor. In fact, as we see with the administration's efforts to scapegoat Israel directly, through its media partners and through the Ukrainian leadership, for not being sufficiently anti-Russian, the campaign has already begun.

The Saudis and the Emirates clearly already recognize the sucker's game that Biden and his team are playing. On Wednesday the Wall Street Journal reported that Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia and Crown Prince Muhammed bin Zayed of the UAE both refused to accept phone calls from Biden this week. Israel's leaders should follow them in accepting reality and acting accordingly before the situation deteriorates still further.
Demonstration in front of the U.S embassy, against the dangerous nuclear agreement with Iran

How the Biden Administration Is Funding the Effort To Delegitimize Israel
The Biden administration is offering nearly $1 million for groups to investigate alleged human rights abuses in Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip, an effort that will delegitimize Israel, according to sources who spoke to the Washington Free Beacon.

The State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL) is soliciting nonprofit groups to apply for grant money up to $987,654 to "strengthen accountability and human rights in Israel and the West Bank and Gaza," according to a grant notice first posted online in mid-February.

Groups applying for the grant money will investigate alleged crimes inside Israel and these territories and "collect, archive, and maintain human rights documentation to support justice and accountability and civil society-led advocacy efforts, which may include documentation of legal or security sector violations and housing, land, and property rights," according to the State Department.

Israel's defenders on Capitol Hill expressed outrage over the program and said the Biden administration is helping fund international efforts to delegitimize Israel and boost the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement. The grant is also fueling concerns about the Biden administration's relationship with Israel and its hiring of officials who have been critical of the Jewish state.

"This is disgraceful," Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) told the Free Beacon. "The Biden administration wants to use American taxpayer money to subsidize the international NGO campaign to demonize and isolate Israel, which then serves as a basis for anti-Semitic efforts to boycott and wage economic warfare against Israeli Jews. Congress did not appropriate funds for this purpose and has repeatedly condemned such campaigns."

The State Department, Cruz said, "should immediately cancel this program and investigate how it was approved."


Mark Regev: Germany has a historical responsibility for Israel's security
David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, was the architect of the modern Israel-Germany relationship. Ben-Gurion navigated a delicate and incremental process toward normalization amid heated opposition. His partner in this effort was Konrad Adenauer, the Christian Democratic founding father of what was then called “the new Germany.”

Ben-Gurion’s approach wasn’t driven by any special love for Germany, but by realpolitik. The embattled and impoverished newborn Jewish state was in desperate need of allies and of economic assistance.

For his part, Adenauer understood the weight of his country’s Holocaust guilt, appreciating that to be fully accepted into the Western community of nations, his Federal Republic needed to publicly atone for German crimes against the Jews.

The 1952 Israel-German reparations agreement was the beginning. Yet notwithstanding the provision of critically needed funds, the deal still generated a fiery and emotional debate in Israel. Menachem Begin, whose political career had been on a downturn, led the protests, one outside the Knesset famously turning violent. Begin accused Ben-Gurion that “because of a few million defiled dollars… [you] throw away the little bit of dignity that we have earned... you endanger our honor and independence.”

It was not just Herut on the Right that opposed German-Israel rapprochement; the parties of the Left were similarly averse. Ben-Gurion also had to deal with significant opposition inside his own Mapai Party.

In 1957 another political crisis erupted when ministers discovered that Ben-Gurion had secretly sent the IDF chief of staff to Germany to promote bilateral defense cooperation. Two years later, leftist coalition partners bolted the government over the expanding defense ties with Germany, forcing new elections. Yet despite the intense opposition, Ben-Gurion doggedly persisted in moving forward, conferring with Adenauer in New York in 1960, the first meeting between an Israeli prime minister and a German chancellor.

In 1965, Jerusalem and Bonn finally established full diplomatic relations, although the impassioned debate around them continued. When president Zalman Shazar received the credentials of Germany’s first ambassador, the protest outside the official residence became inflamed, demonstrators opposed to normalization attacking the ambassador’s car.

Over the decades since, political controversy around Israeli-German ties has all but disappeared, but the unique character of the relationship – and the ingrained sensitivity – has remained.
Remembering the Anschluss - March 12, 1938
There was also growing support for Nazism in Austria since the Nazi rise to power in Germany in 1933, and after being flooded with Nazi propaganda. Another reason was the prevalence of anti-Semitism in Austria. Many Austrians saw the Anschluss as an opportunity to be rid of Austria’s Jews. Many Austrians were involved in war crimes of the Third Reich. The SS, concentration camp personnel and heads of concentration camps were disproportionately highly represented by Austrians who made up eight percent of the Third Reich.

The phrase “Juden Raus” ‘Jews Out’ became popular as a call to throw the Jews out of Austria, the same nation where in 1867 the Jews were granted equal rights and were protected by the Emperor Franz Josef.

There was an eruption of anti-Semitism.

Jews were given brushes, even tooth brushes to clean the streets while onlookers cheered with joy. Just days later, Austrian Nazis forced Jews to scrub political signs from the previous government off the sidewalks. The picketing of Jewish shops by Nazi thugs and ordinary citizens discouraging patronage began. Jewish children were forced to write the word Jude on their parent’s shops. Jews were being beaten on the streets.

The World Jewish Congress appealed to League of Nations members to come to the aid of Austrian Jewry, “exposed completely to Nazi barbarism.” …The message continued, ”The voices of Austrian Jewry’s brethren ask whether the civilized world will fulfill its duties.” This plea, as others for humanitarian aid during this dark era, was ignored.

By March 18, offices of Jewish community and Zionist organizations were closed down. Leaders were imprisoned, some were tortured. Jews were being fired from positions and jobs.

Jewish welfare offices were besieged by the desperate and destitute created by the crisis. Emergency aid was provided by the Joint Distribution Committee. The funds were administered via the Israelitische Kultugemeinde Wien,(Vienna Israelite Community), the only Jewish organization allowed to function at the time. Soup kitchens were set up.

As in Nazi Germany, the persecution of Jews was systematic. Successive measures were imposed against Austrian Jewry.
MEMRI: Saudi Dailies Publish Full Transcript Of Saudi Crown Prince Bin Salman's Interview With 'The Atlantic': Wahhabi Islam Is Not Synonymous With Saudi Arabia; Social And Cultural Reforms Serve Our Interest; We Oppose A Weak Nuclear Deal With Iran; Israel Is Not An Enemy
On March 3, 2022, the U.S. monthly The Atlantic published a lengthy article by Graeme Wood on Saudi Arabia, which included excerpts from two interviews he had held with Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman. A full transcript of the interviews published in Saudi papers reveals that The Atlantic had reported only a small part of the statements made by Bin Salman in the interviews, making no mention at all of his comments on several topics. Among these topics were the place of Wahhabi Islam in Saudi Arabia; the kingdom's position on Iran and the nuclear agreement with it, and Saudi Arabia's relations with Israel.

Addressing his promotion of a more lenient and open form of Islam in the kingdom, Bin Salman stressed that he was not promoting a new kind of "moderate" Islam, but rather restoring the pure and original form of Islam, as it was practiced in the time of the Prophet. In early Islamic society, he said, Muslims, Jews, and Christians lived in harmony side by side, for the Prophet and the first caliphs taught respect for all faiths and all cultures. Extremism, he clarified, is not endemic to Islam, but was created by people who "hijacked" and distorted the faith in order to further their own ends. Chief among these elements is the Muslim Brotherhood, which is also spawned the leaders of Al-Qaeda and ISIS, he stated.

As for Wahhabism, the conservative brand of Islam with which Saudi Arabia is identified, the prince said that its founder, Muhammad Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab, was neither a prophet nor an angel, but merely a scholar like many others. His writings have been used by many extremists for their own agendas, but had he been alive today he would have surely been among the first to oppose and fight the extremists, said Bin Salman. Adding that "Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab is not Saudi Arabia," he said that the kingdom includes Sunnis of various schools, and well as Shi'ites, and today none of them are allowed to monopolize Islam in the country.

Referring to Saudi Arabia's relations with other countries in the region, he said of Iran that since it is Saudi Arabia's neighbor, the two countries must find a way to coexist, and have been holding talks in order to reach understandings. At the same time, he stressed that he opposed nuclear weapons anywhere in the world, including in Iran, and that Saudi Arabia was against "a weak nuclear deal" with Iran. As for Saudi-Qatari relations, he clarified that the crisis between the countries had been "a fight between brothers" and that they had now put the past behind them and were going to be "best, best friends."

Addressing the issue of Israel, he said that Saudi Arabia does not consider it an enemy but a potential ally, "with many interests that we can pursue together." He added, however, that some issues must be resolved first, hinting at the Palestinian conflict.
Ruthie Blum: Erdogan’s interests and Israel’s morality paradigm
THE DISCUSSION of morality was also absent ahead of, during and in the wake of the Herzog-Erdogan summit. Israeli correspondents on the scene, as well as their in-studio counterparts at home, have been too busy hailing the happening almost breathlessly, expressing shock and awe at the greeting that President Isaac Herzog and his wife, Michal, received upon their arrival at the Presidential Complex in Ankara – replete with Israeli flags and a military band playing the national anthem, “Hatikvah.”

Due to Erdogan’s record as a radical Islamist, anti-Semite, Muslim Brotherhood ally and patron of Hamas – which has a command center in Istanbul that plots, recruits Palestinian for and executes terrorist attacks on Israelis – these journalists have included the caveat in their commentary that Israel must tread carefully and not simply grab Erdogan’s olive branch unconditionally. Even they realize that his hand is outstretched for a reason: To reap financial and other sorely coveted benefits.

In other words, one thing on which Herzog and all observers of this sudden turn of events agree is that Erdogan is acting on behalf of his interests. The only question being asked, by both optimists and skeptics, is what Israeli interests will be served by following his lead.

Not a peep about the moral stand that Israel should be adopting towards this evil autocrat who, since becoming president in 2014 after an 11-year stint as prime minister, has imprisoned tens of thousands of citizens for the crime of insulting him.

Not a whisper about Israel’s moral obligation”to shun Turkey as long as it’s ruled by Erdogan, who foments riots on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, champions rocket barrages from Gaza on Israeli cities, accuses Israeli of Nazi-like war crimes and a mere four months ago arrested and jailed an innocent Israeli couple vacationing in Istanbul on bogus espionage charges.

When he finally intervened to have the middle-aged husband and wife released, after groveling appeals by Bennett, Herzog and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, Israeli officialdom thanked him profusely, rather than warn him to watch his step.

Erdogan probably wasn’t surprised. He is versed in capitalizing on crises of his own creation. It’s how he managed to exact an apology from Israel, and bundles of cash, after the deadly 2010 Mavi Marmara affair that he himself instigated.
Erdogan is a Turkish wolf in sheep's clothing - opinion
The Turkish purpose is not at all innocuous. It is, rather, to weaken Israel’s hold in the holy city, and to bolster Erdogan’s claim to leadership of the Muslim world on a path to a global Islamic sultanate.

According to Jerusalem and Turkey experts, like David Koren and Eytan Hay Cohen Yanarocak of Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, and Seth J. Frantzman of The Jerusalem Post, there has been significant erosion in the status of veteran mukhtars (Arab neighborhood leaders) and secular Palestinian leaders in eastern Jerusalem. Into the vacuum have stepped elements identified with Hamas, the northern faction of the Islamic Movement in Israel, the Muslim Brotherhood in its wider context and especially Turkey.

While it is important not to exaggerate the Turkish threat, Erdogan’s interference in Jerusalem clearly needs to be checked. His incendiary activities in Israel’s capital touch the deepest chords of Israeli sovereignty in the eastern part of the city. At a minimum, the flow of Turkish money into Jerusalem must be blocked.

Israel knows why Erdogan is all of a sudden seeking photo-ops with the Israeli president (and, one assumes, with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, sometime soon, too). It is because Turkey is in the dumps internationally, with the Biden administration and global business leaders shunning Turkey. The Turkish economy is in big trouble. Herzog specifically, and Israel more broadly, is Erdogan’s teudat hechsher, his koshering certificate, his badge of renewed respectability.

Israel should give this hechsher to Erdogan only if the Turkish dictator broadly cleans up his act.

I hope that the Prime Minister’s Office, National Security Council, Foreign Ministry and other Israeli security agencies overseeing the new attempt to patch things up with Turkey – are paying attention to all this with sufficient alacrity.

Erdogan not only needs to be handled cautiously and, yes, respectfully. He also needs to be cut down to size.
Israeli official: Turkey agrees to return ancient Hebrew inscription to Jerusalem
Turkey has agreed to return to Israel an ancient inscription from Jerusalem, currently housed in the Istanbul Archaeology Museum, an Israeli official told Zman Yisrael, The Times of Israel’s Hebrew sister site. It is considered one of the most important ancient Hebrew inscriptions in existence.

The gesture comes amid warming ties between Israel and Turkey and was discussed during the landmark visit of President Isaac Herzog to Ankara earlier this week, said a senior official in the Israeli entourage.

Israel has long sought the return of the so-called Siloam Inscription, a 2,700-year-old ancient Hebrew text that provides concrete historical support for the biblical account of the construction of a tunnel which brought water from the Pool of Siloam to the City of David, below the southern edge of the Temple Mount, during the reign of King Hezekiah.

The official said Israel has offered to send Turkey a valuable historical and religiously significant item currently housed in an Israeli museum, most likely an ancient candelabra from the days of Ottoman rule.

There was no immediate confirmation from Turkey.

The archeological gesture of goodwill was not raised during talks between Herzog and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, but was ironed out by senior officials on both sides.
Israel, Egypt finalize deal for direct flights to Sharm el-Sheikh
Israel and Egypt are close to authorizing direct flights between Ben Gurion Airport and Sharm el-Sheikh following marathon talks between senior defense officials from both countries over the last two days.

Cairo has shown great interest in bringing Israeli tourists to the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh. While a solution to national security challenges has proven difficult to find, progress has been made on the issue in recent years.

Among those in attendance at the Tel Aviv talks were Senior Egyptian intelligence officials and business people along with the Director-General of the Prime Minister's Office Yair Pines and Israeli defense officials and businesspeople.

The talks were aimed at promoting bilateral economic ties at the request of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Egyptian President Abdel-Fatah el-Sissi.

In contrast to the cold peace that has characterized Egypt-Israel ties, Egyptian officials have in recent months made clear their interest in bolstering bilateral economic ties. The head of the Egyptian delegation to Israel said that in this context, his country was interested in both exporting products to Israel as well as importing goods from Israel in a variety of industries.

Cairo and Jerusalem agreed to upgrade the Nitzana Border Crossing to enable the increased transfer of goods, including white cement, ammonia, and Egyptian agricultural products, from Egypt.

The Egyptian and Israeli representatives further decided to establish a joint economic committee to be tasked with cutting red tape.


Israel’s ‘Citizenship Law’ Passes in Final Knesset Vote
Israel’s parliament held its final session before breaking for recess on Thursday, passing the controversial Citizenship Law, effectively banning Palestinians married to Israeli citizens from gaining citizenship or residency inside the country.

After a nine-month battle, the bill passed with 45 votes in favor and 15 against. Both the United Arab List (Ra’am) and Meretz parties opposed the law. However, the right-wing parties making up the opposition voted in favor of the bill, allowing it to pass.

The Citizenship Law was passed in 2003, during the Second Intifada, and was renewed annually until last July, when the coalition failed to gather the votes to pass it.

The bill’s sponsors explain it is necessary for security, believing that Palestinian militants may use marriage as a pretext to enter Israel.

Opponents of the bill decry it as racist, a Meretz Knesset member saying to Ynet: “We will continue to fight this law, for the value of equality in Israel, and stand by the families affected by it in the Knesset and government.”

Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked, who spearheaded the bill’s passing, took a different tone, stating, “This is a Zionist law for our national security that should not have been abandoned for narrow politics,” according to The Jerusalem Post.
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of the IAEA’s New Iran Agreement
Grossi stated on Saturday that he is dropping the IAEA’s inquiry into Lavisan-Shian. The agency learned from the nuclear archive that Iran allegedly carried out work there on a uranium metal disc, which is used in developing a trigger for atomic weapons. In Grossi’s latest report on Iran’s compliance with the NPT, he acknowledged that Iran’s “activities and the nuclear material used” at the location “were not declared by Iran to the Agency as required under the Safeguards Agreement.” Yet the agency no longer considers the issue outstanding “at this stage.”

Washington has previously rejected any effort to absolve Tehran of its NPT obligations. In April 2021, the State Department rightly noted that “any intentional failure by Iran to declare nuclear material would constitute a clear violation of Iran’s NPT-mandated [Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement], and would constitute a violation of Article III of the NPT itself.”

Yet at his Saturday press conference, Grossi dismissed prospects that the IAEA could learn what happened at Lavisan-Shian, saying, “there is no possibility also for Iran to disprove that it is or is not there.” Yet Iran could still answer what it did with the material and explain its activities. By closing the IAEA’s probe into Lavisan-Shian, Grossi is settling for not uncovering the truth about Iran’s activities at the site. In so doing, he is suggesting that the agency will not fully probe the regime’s past and possibly ongoing nuclear weapons program. This bodes poorly for the IAEA’s ability to reach a determination that Iran’s nuclear program is fully peaceful.

Such a determination would require the IAEA, among other steps, to visit all sites described in the nuclear archive; to access nuclear weapons-related equipment as seen in archive photographs and relocated elsewhere; to interview former or current nuclear weapons program personnel; and to access all relevant documentation. Iran would also need to account for any weaponization work to date and allow the IAEA to verify a new safeguards declaration about its past production of nuclear material.

In the coming months, if a revived nuclear deal is concluded, the parties to the JCPOA will begin lifting sanctions on Tehran, and the clerical regime will have no reason to cooperate with the IAEA or fully account for its nuclear weapons work at the three remaining sites. Iran would also lack any incentive to be transparent about its atomic past. Moreover, even if Grossi reports to the board that Iran has not cooperated with the safeguards probe, the parties to the JCPOA are unlikely to censure Tehran in order to ensure the nuclear deal’s continued implementation.

The United States, the E3, and Grossi may get a return to a nuclear deal with Iran, but they will have sacrificed the IAEA’s ability to fulfill its core mission: investigating and preventing nuclear weapons development. Tehran will have set a dangerous precedent that America’s adversaries and allies alike could use to conduct nuclear activities outside of the NPT safeguards regime.

Biden appears ready to follow Barack Obama’s lead and conclude a weak nuclear accord—and one whose provisions are already expiring—that stops the IAEA from investigating Iran, despite its obvious nonproliferation breaches. In the process, both presidents will have prevented the world from knowing how far Tehran’s nuclear weapons program proceeded and if it continues today.
External Factors Force Pause in Iran Nuclear Talks, EU Says
Iran’s foreign ministry said a pause in talks may create momentum for resolving any outstanding issues, but it insisted that external factors would not affect the will to move ahead with a collective agreement.

“Pause in #ViennaTalks could be a momentum for resolving any remaining issue and a final return. Successful conclusion of talks will be the main focus of all,” Foreign ministry spokesperson Saeed Khatibzadeh said on Twitter.

Russia’s demand initially angered Tehran and appeared to help it and Washington move towards agreement on the few remaining thorny issues, diplomats said.

But a sudden volley of public comments by Iranian officials including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Thursday suggested the wind had turned.

“As coordinator, I will, with my team, continue to be in touch with all JCPOA participants and the US to overcome the current situation and to close the agreement,” Borrell said, referring to the full name of the accord, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

European negotiators from France, Britain and Germany had already left a week ago as they believed they had gone as far as they could and it was now up to the United States and Iran to agree on the outstanding issues.

The negotiations in Vienna have limped on with just a fraction of the number of daily meetings that were taking place in previous weeks. Four Western diplomats had said the talks were all but finalized until Russia made its demands.
Giving nukes to Iran will be the greatest error of the 21st century - opinion
The Jewish state was established only three years after the crematoria ceased operating. While much of the world expressed horror and disbelief about man’s inhumanity to others, the scars of the Jewish people, whether physical or psychologically has inured us against the idea that violent antisemitic rhetoric is just talk.

Israel’s very existence is built around the slogan of “Never Again!”

This is not just a rallying call for self-preservation, but also a demand that genocidal antisemitism be taken very seriously.

The Jewish state expects the international community to ensure two things.

Firstly, that its leaders make it clear that antisemitism and genocidal language will not be tolerated in any shape or form, and take active steps to stop it.

Secondly, a regime that aims to destroy another people should not be given the means to do so.

For Israel and the Jewish people, these two issues are irrevocably intertwined. For others, they are two largely unconnected issues.

Nuclear weapons in the hands of those who have shown no qualms about mass bloodshed and claim that one of the central goals of their existence is the violent destruction of a neighboring state is a recipe for disaster.

It is the greatest challenge that the international community faces.

Let there be no doubts about that.
Joel Pollak: How Biden Has Forced Israel to Attack Iran
They failed in Ukraine because they failed in Afghanistan, and because Biden made clear in advance that he would not use force if Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded.

Trump might not have used force in Ukraine, either, but he would have kept Putin guessing — especially after what happened to Soleimani. Unpredictability, combined with a demonstrated will to use force in other settings, were strategic assets that kept the U.S. and its allies safe. Biden has no ability to deter anyone.

The lesson that Israel and other vulnerable non-NATO members, like Taiwan, are taking from Ukraine is that if you are attacked, or just threatened, by a hostile power, the rest of the world is not going to do anything to help you.

Theoretically, the U.S. would help defend Israel from Iran, but the Obama administration deliberately undermined Israel’s self-defense against Iran by leaking potential Israeli attack plans to the media. Israel could trust Trump’s commitment; not so, Biden’s.

So there is no alternative. Either Israel has to allow Iran to become a nuclear power, and live in fear of the day it becomes the next Ukraine; or it has to take out the regime first, risking retaliatory strikes by Iranian-backed Hezbollah and Palestinian terror groups.

The only consolation is that thanks to Obama and Biden’s bumbling, the Sunni Arab states, who also view Iran as a threat, are fully aligned with Israel. But war is coming.

Indeed, war is the only thing the new Iran deal will guarantee.


Biggest Group of Christian Broadcasters Adopts IHRA Definition of Antisemitism
The world’s largest association of Christian communicators announced at its annual convention that it has adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism.

“Fighting antisemitism is a key issue for believers, and it’s very important that our understanding of the issue reflects cultural realities,” said Troy A. Miller, CEO of the National Religious Broadcasters. “An accurate and contemporary definition of antisemitism helps us to recognize and combat this form of hatred wherever it emerges.”

NRB is a nonpartisan, international association of Christian communicators that has more than 1,100 member organizations, according to its website.

Its annual conference is currently taking place in Nashville, Tenn. The keynote speaker is Rev. Johnnie Moore, president of the Congress of Christian Leaders.
Saudi diplomat highlights issues with BBC Arabic and other Arabic language Western outlets
Ambassador Dr. Saud Kateb, a renowned Saudi diplomat, served as his country’s Deputy Minister for Public Diplomacy between 2018 and 2020. In a January 24th 2022 interview broadcast by the Rotana Khalijia channel, he addressed an incident in which a BBC Arabic contributor – Mehdi Eliefifi – revealed on air that the BBC had not paid him for his appearances in over two years. Kateb then went on to point out several structural problems at BBC Arabic and other Arabic language subsidiaries of Western media outlets.

Although a senior civil servant and consequently a representative of the Saudi establishment, Ambassador Kateb is also an expert in public diplomacy. His observations about Arabic language Western outlets in general support a series of findings that CAMERA Arabic has been collecting for several years about the very same outlets, including the Saudi-affiliated Independent Arabia. Employees of those outlets often do not share the same values as the Western public which pays their salaries. In the rarer case of private media outlets, editorial boards often fail to hold employees to the same standards of journalism practiced in English.

Although the BBC has repeatedly asserted that “BBC Arabic shares exactly the same principles of accuracy and impartiality as BBC News in English and we strongly reject the suggestion that its impartiality is compromised”, that claim is clearly not supported by Ambassador Kateb’s observations.
Yet Another Unpublished Letter-to-the-Editor
Sent on March 3:

In Isabel Kershner's despatch regarding Israel's High Court decision on property ownership in a Jerusalem neighborhood, she wrote "Israel captured the eastern part of the city, including Sheikh Jarrah, from Jordan in the 1967 war, then annexed it" ("Palestinians Threatened With Eviction Can Stay in Their Homes — for Now", March 1).

The term "annexation", as defined in international law, means "the forcible acquisition of territory by one State at the expense of another State". In 1967, the eastern districts of Jerusalem had been illegally occupied by Jordan, which had invaded the city in 1948. Israel but reunited the city, in a defensive war against Jordanian aggression, which, except for those 19 years of Jordanian occupation, had been but one city, not two, for some 3000 years.

Published?

Naw.


House Passes Resolution Denouncing Texas Synagogue Attack, Antisemitism
The US House of Representatives passed a resolution condemning the January terrorist attack at a synagogue in Colleyville, Texas.

It also expresses support for the Jewish community affected by the attack; commends the actions of law enforcement and emergency responders; and reaffirms a commitment to combat hate, bigotry, antisemitism and violence against Jewish Americans.

The legislation was first introduced in the House on Jan. 20, five days after an armed assailant entered Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville on Shabbat, and held the synagogue’s leader and several congregants hostage for nearly 11 hours.

“I was proud to bring a bipartisan resolution to the floor today to show our country and the world that the House stands united in its condemnation of antisemitism, and the dangerous increase of violence against Jewish people and Jewish communities here and abroad,” said House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) in a statement released on Tuesday after the resolution was passed.

He noted that the Jan. 15 hostage situation in Colleyville “was just the latest example of that rise in antisemitism” and referenced other incidents of violence targeting Jews, such as the Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha Synagogue mass shooting in Pittsburgh in 2018; the deadly shooting at Chabad of Poway in 2019; and other instances of violent acts against members of the Jewish community.
Swedish Jewish man denied entry to bus due to Jewish symbol on clothing
A man wearing a Jewish symbol on his clothes couldn't board a bus in Malmö, Sweden, Expressen reported on Friday, citing a Discrimination Ombudsman (DO) announcement.

The man was going to take a bus in the city - but was asked to get off the bus by the driver because of the Jewish symbol on his clothes.

In the report to the DO, the man wrote that he wanted to take bus line number three in Malmö - the ring line that runs around the city.

But he barely had time to get on board before the driver, according to the report, spoke in a negative matter about the clothes he was wearing.

"I was discriminated against," the Jewish man wrote in the report. "The driver saw a Jewish symbol on my clothes and demanded that I get off."

The incident reportedly took place in February.

The man insisted on staying on the bus nonetheless, "but then the driver shouted at me that I had to get off because other passengers did not like that I was Jewish." The driver demanded he exits the bus anyway.
‘Free Palestine’: Jewish Man Assaulted in Berlin by Syrian Refugee
German police have released a 24-year-old man arrested on Thursday morning after he carried out a brutal antisemitic assault in Berlin.

The man, a refugee from Syria, encountered his victim in the corridor of a hostel in Prenzlauer Berg, a popular neighborhood in the heart of the German capital. The victim, a 32-year-old Jewish man from the UK, wore a kippah, sparking his assailant’s ire. He tore the kippah of the Jewish man’s head and began stamping on it. The assailant then demanded that his Jewish victim say the words “Free Palestine” before punching him repeatedly in the face.

On arresting the assailant, police established that he had been drinking heavily. Once in custody, his identity was established from the expired resident permit he was carrying. Police later released the accused man and ordered him to report to immigration officers.

Amid an overall rise in antisemitic incidents across Germany, Berlin has stood out for the frequency of attacks on Jews there. In the first half of 2021, a total of 522 antisemitic outrages were registered in the city, an increase of about 17 percent year-on-year, according a report by RIAS, a Berlin-based monitoring institute.

On average, there were almost three antisemitic incidents a day during the period, with almost half of the incidents — 211 — recorded during the month of May, as hostilities between Israel and the Hamas terror group in Gaza erupted.
Bailiffs appointed to obtain £10,000 from antisemitic aristocrat Piers Portman after Courts Service says he failed to pay compensation
Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service has informed Campaign Against Antisemitism that it has appointed bailiffs to obtain £10,000 from the disgraced antisemitic aristocrat Pier Portman.

The Hon. Piers Portman, the youngest living son of the 9th Viscount Portman and heir to 110 acres of West End real estate, was sentenced in October 2021 to four months in prison and ordered to pay over £20,000 after being found guilty of calling Gideon Falter, Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Chief Executive, “Jewish scum” in a confrontation at a courthouse in 2018. Mr Portman was denied leave to appeal in December.

When Mr Portman was originally sentenced at Southwark Crown Court, His Honour Judge Gregory Perrins said that Mr Portman has “strongly-held antisemitic beliefs”, and that he had “deliberately targeted Mr Falter because of his role in prosecuting Alison Chabloz.” Ms Chabloz is an antisemite who has been repeatedly imprisoned following work by Campaign Against Antisemitism.

In scathing sentencing remarks, HHJ Perrins told Mr Portman: “You said you’re an honourable British gentleman. You’re anything but.”

HHJ Perrins then imprisoned him for four months, with the possibility of release on licence after two months, and ordered him to pay a £10,000 fine, make an additional £10,000 compensatory payment to the victim, Mr Falter, and pay court costs.

Mr Falter intends to donate the entire £10,000 to Campaign Against Antisemitism when the bailiffs obtain it from Mr Portman.

Mr Portman, 50, was prosecuted after approaching Mr Falter, Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Chief Executive, at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on 14th June 2018 following the sentencing of Alison Chabloz, a notorious Holocaust denier and antisemite. Campaign Against Antisemitism had brought a private prosecution against Ms Chabloz which the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) took over, and which ultimately led to a conviction and landmark legal precedent. Mr Falter had testified against Ms Chabloz, who has since been repeatedly sent to prison over her antisemitic statements, including denying the Holocaust and claiming that Holocaust survivors had invented their suffering for financial gain.
Dubai contest brings together entrepreneurs from Israel, Morocco, Jordan
Five entrepreneurs from Morocco, Jordan, and Israel will take the stage to compete for the opportunity to make their contribution to humanity at the Aviram Awards –Tech for Humanity in Dubai.

Set for March 23rd, the competition is aimed at identifying initiatives and technologies that have the power to solve some of humanity's greatest challenges, including those pertaining to society and the environment. It will be the first of its kind in the Middle East.

The winner of the competition will receive $500,000 in prize money and expert mentoring. Among those set to judge entries to the competition: Ziv Amiram, the founder of the Aviram Family Foundation and autonomous driving technology company Mobileye, Forbes Chief Content Officer and Editor Randall Lane, and Carla El Malouli, the head of business marketing for Twitter Middle East and North Africa.
Ayyy! The Fonz arrives in Israel, playing role of Jewish dad in HOT comedy ‘Chanshi’
The Fonz was the personification of cool as played in the American sitcom “Happy Days” by veteran actor Henry Winkler, who couldn’t be more of a gentle, encouraging mensch some 48 years later.

Winkler, 76, the son of German Jewish immigrants, was in Israel for his very first time this week to film “Chanshi,” a comedy series for the Israeli network HOT starring Brooklyn-born Aleeza Chanowitz, and directed by Mickey Triest and Aaron Geva, all Sam Spiegel Film and Television School graduates.

The veteran actor spoke Wednesday evening to a packed auditorium of students at the Jerusalem film school.

“Chanshi,” said Winkler. “Did I have to learn that ‘ch.'”

In fact, he kept on saying “Chanshi,” during his presentation, earning laughs each and every time.

Then again, changing his voice or learning an accent is exactly what Winkler has been doing for the last 50 years.

In fact, the greaser accent that epitomized the Fonz was something Winkler added at the very last minute during his “Happy Days” audition, he said.

“Changing my voice as the Fonz unleashed me,” said Winkler.
Ben Franklin’s World (podcast): Episode 317: Jews in Early America
The first Jewish colonists in North America arrived in 1654. From that moment, Jews worked to build and contribute to early American society and the birth of the United States.

Gemma Birnbaum and Melanie Meyers, the Executive Director and Director of Collections and Engagement at the American Jewish Historical Society, join us to explore the history and experiences of Jews in early America and their contributions to the American Revolution and the founding of the United States.

This episode is supported by an American Rescue Plan grant to the Omohundro Institute from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Holocaust Survivors Team Up With Songwriters to Turn Their Stories Into Music in PBS Special
PBS will premiere next month a one-hour special about four Holocaust survivors who collaborated with songwriters to turn their personal stories of survival during World War II into original songs.

“We Remember: Songs of Survivors” airs on April 26, two days before Yom HaShoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day. The documentary highlights four singer-songwriters in New York’s Hudson Valley who are asked to create pieces of music about the experiences of four local Holocaust survivors.

The special showcases the relationships that develop between the participants, the months-long writing process, and a live concert where the survivors and songwriters are gathered with friends, family and the community.

“Many documentaries exist about the Holocaust. However, few have taken such a unique approach to telling these horrific stories. We wanted to shed light on the devastating experiences of Holocaust survivors while celebrating the possibilities of healing through the power of music,” said Tim Miller, co-producer of the PBS special. “Little did we know this film, with its powerful message, would change the lives of both the survivors and songwriters.”

Interviews with the survivors also give a personal look into their experiences during the war, while the songwriters create video diaries to document their own journey of telling a Holocaust survivor’s story through music.

“At a time when the world is faced with the horrors of war and hatred, we wanted to tell this hopeful story of perseverance and love,” said Ilene Cutler, co-producer of the one-hour special.
Tom Gross: Explaining the Holocaust to children (for children aged 10-14)







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