Monday, March 14, 2022

03/14 Links Pt2: Amnesty International admits – it wants the destruction of Israel; Netanyahu says it’s ‘absurd’ Iran nuclear talks ongoing after Erbil attack

From Ian:

David Collier: Amnesty International admits – it wants the destruction of Israel
Tokenising Jews, silencing their voice
We are left with O’Brien sitting in his ivory tower talking about Jews. He says he knows what Jews think. He disagrees with surveys that suggest he may be wrong. O’Brien clearly thinks he knows Jews better than they know themselves. British Jews know this antisemitic feature of the hard-left all too well. We dealt with it as it ran rampant through the Labour Party. People telling Jews that they knew better than the Jews, what being Jewish was about.

Since when was it in Amnesty’s remit to cast aside surveys of American Jews and suggest that Amnesty know better?

Like many, O’Brien does not understand ‘Jews’ at all. I am sure he has one or two Jewish friends. People, with one foot already outside of the community who have turned their ‘Jewishness’ into something abstract and meaningless. Just as the Corbynites hid behind fringe hate groups like Jewish Voice for Labour, Amnesty have found their ‘acceptable’ Jews now too.

But Jews won’t be told by naive fools such as O’Brien what they do or do not want. We will reject Amnesty’s blatant antisemitism. The Jewish people were stateless for long enough. We know all too well how high the price can be for political impotence. And as we look at Ukraine – it is worth reminding ourselves of the reality of the world that we live in. The world needs a Jewish state that is independent and capable of defending itself. We need Israel. This is not up for debate.

Seeking the destruction of Israel
So now we know for sure. Amnesty International is seeking the destruction of Israel. O’Brien has his vision. He calls it a ‘Jewish safe space’. He says Israel should not exist as ‘a Jewish state’. We recognise this terminology. It is the same language that BDS uses. With Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran all making genocidal threats, O’Brien is trying to convince Jews they live in ‘Switzerland’.

He has the same problem many on the left do. He sees Jews as white and privileged and he sees Palestinians as ‘brown’ and gives them no agency. Rather than viewing the Islamist need for imperial domination as the problem, he sees the tiny Jewish safe haven as being the cause of the conflict. There is no point looking for logic, truth or consistency in this. It is the same incoherent modern leftist swamp in which antisemitism thrives.

The bottom line is this. Amnesty seeks the destruction of Israel. They want a world without an independent state for the Jewish people. They have clearly placed this at the top of their ideological wish list. There is no argument anymore. Amnesty International are as antisemitic as they come.
JPost Editorial: Amnesty International's report on Israel is full of distortions and lies
In the US, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Maryland) called the report “a gross mischaracterization of Israel, its history and its values.” State Department spokesperson Ned Price warned against applying double standards to Israel.

Most Jewish organizations also rejected the report. But O’Brien, who is not Jewish, obviously trusts his gut instinct more. He also seems to be hoping that by “changing the conversation” and repeating the apartheid lie enough times, he can create new facts.

The event is the first in a series hosted by the WNDC that will explore “Palestine past, present and future.” Israel’s own ancient past, its successful present and its future as the Jewish state is of less importance to the group.

In a separate story published over the weekend, JTA revealed that the environmental Sierra Club NGO has canceled its scheduled trips to Israel in response to pressure from progressive and anti-Zionist groups after activists alleged the organization was “greenwashing the conflict” and “providing legitimacy to the Israeli state, which is engaged in apartheid against the Palestinian people,” according to an email seen by the news agency.

This is another example of what happens when the apartheid libel is deliberately spread.

Such efforts don’t only harm Israel’s image, they cause once respected organizations to lose their credibility and standing. Above all, they do absolutely nothing to promote peace or help the Palestinians.

By criminalizing Israel and ignoring Palestinian anti-normalization and terrorism, these organizations and the progressive activists are encouraging more rejectionism and more terror.

The Palestinian Authority will see no reason to make even basic moves to peace as long as it believes it can erase Israel with progressive, Western support. The lies themselves fuel further attacks, both on Israelis and on Jews and Jewish targets around the world. The apartheid libel is not only a lie, it is a dangerous one.


Netanyahu: New Nuclear Agreement Will Give the Ayatollahs a Nuclear Arsenal
Opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu launched a scathing attack on world powers who are continuing to negotiate a nuclear deal with Iran — even after the Islamic Republic fired missiles toward the US consulate in Iraqi Kurdistan.

In video messages posted to social media in both Hebrew and English on Sunday evening — addressed to Israeli and American citizens, respectively — the former prime minister said it was “absurd” for world powers to continue to negotiate in Vienna with Tehran.

“The desperate rush to sign this flawed nuclear agreement with Iran is not only absurd, it’s downright dangerous,” Netanyahu stated in his English video, posted with the caption: “Every American family should watch this video.”

“Yesterday, Iran fired missiles in the vicinity of the American consulate in Iraq, and the US continues to charge ahead, along with the other powers, to sign a nuclear agreement that will give the ayatollahs a nuclear arsenal,” Netanyahu charged.

“It would also relieve sanctions and give them hundreds of billions of dollars in order to continue the terror that they waged yesterday and wage every day throughout the Middle East and the world,” he said. “This agreement is even worse than its predecessor, because in three years’ time, under this agreement, Iran will be a threshold nuclear state. It will have enough enriched uranium to create dozens and dozens of nuclear bombs and it will have the ICBMs [intercontinental ballistic missiles] to deliver them to any place in the United States.”

The final details of the burgeoning nuclear deal between Iran and world powers have yet to be revealed, and diplomats involved have said that some remaining elements are still being negotiated. It was not immediately clear which documents or intelligence Netanyahu was basing his claims on.




Seth Mandel: The Revolution Inside the ADL
Thus, it seems inevitable that the ADL’s commitment to this new progressive religion combined with its role as a leading censor of dissension is going to legitimize the targeting of Jews and Israel. And legitimization is precisely what Greenblatt offers them. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, last seen claiming at a rally that Israel keeps Palestinian children in cages in the West Bank, declared the Whoopi Goldberg matter closed because Greenblatt had spoken for all Jews.

“Whenever there’s a moment like this, or a learning moment like this, what’s super important is the relationship between that person and the community they’re making amends with,” she told TMZ. “So, the last I read, Jonathan Greenblatt, who is the head of the Anti-Defamation League, which is a champion in the fight against anti-Semitism across the country, he accepted her apology. And I think we really kind of take the Jewish community’s lead on this, and they seem to, you know, see that her apology was authentic and want to move on.”

Defending his decision to bring unrepentant Jew-hater Al Sharpton on his show to discuss anti-Semitism, NBC’s Joe Scarborough noted that Greenblatt joined Sharpton on the show and thus the ADL welcomed him: “Good enough for me.”

The American founding was a revolutionary political event because it was an attempt to create a modern republic around the ancient Greek and Roman idea of citizenship rather than tribe, family prestige, religious affiliation, and the like. The reason that America became a blessing for the Jews was that it erected barriers to the kind of racial and ethnic tribalism that always ends badly for us. Brick by brick, adherents of the new woke religion are dismantling those barriers, with the blessing and the active cooperation of the Anti-Defamation League.
French Politicians Call Time on Anti-Zionist Provocation
Palestine solidarity activists have found themselves a new hate figure in the person of Gérald Darmanin, the interior minister of France.

Darmanin announced last week the dissolution of two Palestinian solidarity organizations: the Comité Action Palestine (Palestine Action Committee) and the Collectif Palestine Vaincra (Palestine Will Overcome Collective), on the grounds that both groups promote hatred, violence and discrimination. His decision outraged the vocal pro-Palestinian lobby in France, which warned that those hardline anti-Zionist groups overlooked by the interior minister, such as BDS France, Samidoun and the Association France Palestine Solidarité, would be next in the firing line. At a demonstration in the city of Toulouse to protest the announcement, participants denounced Darmanin for his “authoritarian” stance.

From these activists’ point of view, it’s easy to understand why Darmanin has earned this reputation. Over the last year, as France recorded more than 550 antisemitic attacks and outrages, he has used newly passed legislation to go on the offensive against Islamist influence among France’s diverse Muslim communities. At the end of December, Darmanin announced the closure of the Bilal Mosque in Beauvais, a suburb of Paris, “[because of its] unacceptable incitement against Christians, homosexuals and Jews.” Twenty other mosques have been closed under the same legislation for similar reasons.

Then, last May, Darmanin ordered police in Paris to ban a Palestinian solidarity march as fighting raged between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. The demonstration was to have been staged in the Barbès district of northern Paris — the same district in which a pro-Palestinian demonstration during the 2014 war in Gaza degenerated into an antisemitic riot.

“Serious disturbances to public order were seen in 2014,” explained Darmanin when asked the reason for last May’s ban. He also urged police forces around France to remain “vigilant” in the face of pro-Palestinian demonstrations, in the process making crystal-clear his view that the organizations and individuals who mount these protests are willing to engage in hate speech and violence.
Instagram Bans Anti-Israel Group After It Posts Collage Featuring Terrorists
Within our Lifetime (WOL), a New York City-based anti-Israel group that supports the Palestinian right of return “from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea,” resistance to the “Zionist occupation by any means necessary” and “the abolition of Zionism,” said that it had been banned from Instagram last week, apparently after it posted a collage featuring prominent Palestinian terrorists.

The collage—posted March 8 and featuring terrorist women—was WOL’s idea of celebrating International Women’s Day. Among those depicted in the collage were Rasmea Odeh, who was convicted of two terrorist bombings in 1969, one of which killed two Israeli agriculture students in Jerusalem; and Leila Khaled, part of a Palestinian terror group that hijacked a TWA flight that same year. The ban came the next day.

“We applaud Instagram’s ban,” Liora Rez, executive director of StopAntisemitism.com, told JNS.

StopAntisemitism.com, a watchdog group that exposes groups and individuals inciting against Jews and the State of Israel, has since 2020 advocated for WOL’s ban from Instagram given the group’s ongoing support for terrorists. WOL has 57,000 followers on Instagram.

“We’re now requesting Facebook do the same,” said Rez.

Although Meta is the parent company of both Instagram and Facebook, Rez explained that Facebook and Instagram need to be approached separately as there’s a lack of comprehensive oversight. “Often, organizations like us have to get in the middle and say, ‘Hey, if you blocked ‘A,’ could you please block ‘B?’ ”

‘We fully monitor across all platforms’


Turkey Finds Israel Useful Again
Israel initially dragged its feet, skeptical of another apparent change of heart from Ankara. Erdogan’s enduring support of Hamas and his anti-Israeli public attacks seemed too ingrained to be brushed aside. Yaki Dayan, chief of staff to two Israeli foreign ministers, who had sat in on talks with Erdogan, said that “in all of these meetings I felt one thing clearly: the conspicuous lack of affection for Israel, and even hatred, did not come from his head but from his heart.” Another Israeli concern was the fear of endangering its relations with Greece and Cyprus, which have become central to its regional policy.

But in November 2020, intelligence officials from Turkey and Israel held a series of meetings to discuss the possibility of reconciliation. In June 2021, Turkey used the change of government in Israel to facilitate normalization with some confidence-building measures. Not only did Erdogan stop his public attacks against the Jewish state, but he started to describe Israel as a vital partner. There were also reports that Turkey was working to deport Hamas officials from Ankara.

By early 2022, the cold war between Ankara and Jerusalem gave way to more cordial, though still hesitant actions. There was initially a polite exchange of messages between Erdogan, new Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, and the new Israeli President Isaac Herzog. On March 9, Herzog visited Turkey and was received warmly by Erdogan. (In order not to endanger Israeli relations with Greece and Cyprus, Herzog paid a visit to them before flying to Ankara.)

Notably, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has put Turkey and Israel in difficult positions for many of the same reasons. For both countries, Russia has become a kind of frenemy. For Israel in particular, Russia is boss in Syria, and Jerusalem cannot afford to antagonize it as it seeks to preserve its freedom of maneuver against Iran. Another Israeli concern is the safety of Jewish communities in both Russia and Ukraine.

Turkey’s dilemmas are even more acute. It has weighed the option of blocking the entrance of additional Russian warships into the Black Sea, but it is also in need of Russian gas, and its dire economic situation does not permit it to take a bold stand against Moscow. Turkish troops are also operating in Syria, and there is a need to prevent them from becoming targets for the Russian military.

Israel and Turkey have thus adopted similar policies with regard to the Russian war in Ukraine. They have both attempted mediation efforts, so far with no success. Both are trying to walk a fine line between their moral and political obligations toward the West and a certain kind of neutrality toward Russia. At this stage, it is impossible to know whether cooperation over the Ukraine crisis might help Israel and Turkey cooperate more in other areas. It is possible, though, that an unexpected commonality of interests and challenges in Europe may drive both further in the direction of reconciliation in the Middle East.
American Jewish organisation sets up Abu Dhabi office in first for Arab world
An organisation which aims to promote greater understanding of the Jewish faith has opened an office in Abu Dhabi, its first in the Arab region.

The Sidney Lerner Centre for Arab-Jewish Understanding, in Abu Dhabi Global Market, will work to strengthen ties between Israel and Arab nations and build relations between Muslim and Jewish people.

The American Jewish Committee’s 13th global office opens after “decades of quiet engagement” between the group and Arab leaders across the region.

It is testament to the growth of UAE-Israeli ties since the signing of the landmark Abraham Accords in 2020, which normalised relations between the nations.

We want to support both the Abraham Accords themselves and the spirit of seeking to expand that circle of peace David Harris, chief executive of the American Jewish Committee

“I guess this is our bar mitzvah post. Traditionally Jewish boys have a ceremony at the age of 13. It’s meant to symbolise the transition from childhood to manhood.”

AJC was founded in 1906 with a dual mission – which continues today – to protect Jews wherever they are in danger, and extend and defend democratic values and respect for human dignity.

The global advocacy organisation’s Abu Dhabi branch has three overarching aims, Mr Harris said.

“We want to support both the Abraham Accords themselves and the spirit of seeking to expand that circle of peace. And the UAE is a very good place to explore opportunities, to not just deepen but widen them,” he said.
Israel, UAE sign first academic cooperation agreement
In another step toward strengthening ties between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, the first agreement of its kind for academic cooperation was signed on Thursday between the Younes and Suraya Nazarian Library of the University of Haifa and the National Library and Archives (NLA) of the United Arab Emirates.

The collaboration will focus on the exchange of researchers and experts, archival research, the exchange of collections, providing access to the resources of the libraries for researchers from both institutions and holding joint events and conferences.

"We hope that the agreement will also lead to additional events such as joint exhibitions, conferences and cultural events around common areas of interest - and there are many of these," said Dr. Moran Zaga, head of the Middle East Department at the Research Authority, University of Haifa.

The agreement was signed by the university's president Prof. Ron Rubin and NLA director Abdullah Majed El Ali, university library director Ms. Naomi Gardinger and Prof. Dafna Raban, the library's academic director.

Many materials that were blocked to the Israeli research community will now be accessible, and vice versa.
Baking matzah in the Gulf
The Association of Gulf Jewish Communities (AGJC) announced Sunday that it will bring matzah-making to several Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries ahead of Passover, which begins on Friday, April 15.

Additionally, the AGJC, the umbrella organization for the Jewish communities of the GCC, has arranged for the shipment of 775 pounds of matzah to be distributed throughout GCC member-states, representing a nearly 20% increase as compared to Passover last year.

The GCC is a regional, intergovernmental and economic union that consists of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Of its members, Bahrain and the UAE—together with Sudan and Morocco—are part of the historic Abraham Accords, which have seen Jewish life in the Gulf thrive.

“As Jewish life in the Gulf continues its historic rise, there is a greater need for matzah than in years past,” said AGJC’s Rabbi Dr. Elie Abadie. “Our objective in creating the AGJC was to share resources among the communities in the region. By bringing in matzah and localized baking in some countries, more Jews will be able to have the convenience of celebrating Passover here this year.”


Report: ISIS cell in Lebanon planned to kill European leader
An Islamic State cell in northern Lebanon had plans to assassinate French President Emmanuel Macron in a suicide terrorist attack during Macron's visit to Lebanon in September 2020, the Lebanese news outlet Al-Akhbar, identified with Hezbollah, reported Monday.

The report claimed that ISIS cells had also planned to kill several high-ranking officials in Lebanon, including former Prime Minister Saad Hariri and former Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil.

The Al-Akhbar report was based in part on information obtained from documents from an investigation into a criminal case in the village of Kaftun, north of Beirut. That criminal case led to the disbandment of one of the largest ISIS cells in Lebanon, seven members of whom were sentenced to death. The seven operatives were part of a group of 18 members, who were in turn part of a larger organization of 40 individuals, most of whom met while in prison in Lebanon.

The investigation into the criminal case, in which cell members shot and killed police officers, revealed that some of the suspects were commanders of cells that had sworn allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi, who was recently killed by American forces in Syria in February.

Later, the investigation identified a larger group that included Lebanese, Syrian, and Palestinian operatives. The group itself was part of a larger framework whose members were under the command of the head of ISIS in Idlib, Syria.

The report claimed that the Lebanese judicial system had ignored the information that surfaced in the investigation, namely that the cell had been issued instructions to carry out a suicide bombing that would kill Macron. According to the report, a search of one of the cell leader's computer indicated that he had received a message from his Syria-based handler, and orders that the attack be carried out in a Christian neighborhood of Beirut.
Iran Has Enough Enriched Uranium for Four Nuclear Weapons within Four Months of Breakout
This report summarizes and assesses information in the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) quarterly safeguards report for March 3, 2022, Verification and monitoring in the Islamic Republic of Iran in light of United Nations Security Council resolution 2231 (2015), including Iran’s compliance with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

The IAEA’s latest report details Iran’s rapidly advancing nuclear activities and inspectors’ diminished ability to detect Iranian diversion of assets to undeclared facilities.

Highlights and Breakout Estimate
- Due to the growth of Iran’s 20 and 60 percent enriched uranium stocks, breakout timelines have become dangerously short, far shorter than just a few months ago. Iran now has enough 20 and 60 percent enriched uranium (in the form of uranium hexafluoride (UF6)) to use as feed for production of enough weapon-grade uranium (WGU) (taken as 25 kilograms (kg) per weapon) for two nuclear weapons, producing the first quantity of WGU in as little as two to three weeks after breakout commences, including a set up period, and producing the second quantity by the end of that month.

- In total, Iran has enough 60, 20, and 4.5 percent enriched uranium to make sufficient WGU for four nuclear weapons. The third quantity could be produced soon after the start of the second month after breakout commences, and the fourth in somewhat less than four months. The third and fourth quantities would depend on stocks of uranium enriched between 2 and 4.5 percent and would be produced significantly more slowly than the first two quantities of WGU.

- In essence, Iran is effectively breaking out slowly by producing 60 percent enriched uranium and continuing to accumulate it. As of February 19, Iran had a stock of 33.2 kg of near 60 percent enriched uranium (in uranium mass or U mass), or 49.1 kg (in hexafluoride mass). If Iran accumulated about 40 kg of 60 percent enriched uranium (U mass), it would have enough to be able to further enrich it and quickly produce 25 kg of WGU (U mass) in just a few advanced centrifuge cascades. Download PDF
IRGC fired missiles at Iraq in response to Israeli drone strike - report
Iran has confirmed it fired 12 missiles from its territory that fell near the newly-constructed US consulate in Erbil in northwestern Iraq on Saturday night.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) claimed responsibility for the attack on Sunday morning, and said it was a response to the “recent crimes of the fake Zionist regime.”

“Following the recent crimes of the fake Zionist regime and the previous announcement that the crimes and evils of this infamous regime will not go unanswered; the ‘Strategic Center of Conspiracy and Evil of the Zionists’ was targeted last night by powerful and point-to-point missiles of the IRGC,” said its statement.

Iran threatened retaliation in recent days for the deaths of two Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) officers in an alleged Israeli airstrike in Syria last week.

Iran-backed militias reportedly targeted the Al-Tanf base in October, where US forces are housed, in retaliation for alleged Israeli airstrikes which targeted Iranian-backed forces in Syria last year.
Biden's New Iran Deal Legally Requires Congressional Review
Back in 2015, Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) debated the merits of the JCPOA, otherwise known as the "Iran nuclear deal," with his fellow Democrats. He ultimately concluded that the deal posed a threat to American interests and opposed it.

That was then. Today, it is not only likely that Senator Schumer will do a 180-degree reversal, but he might even shut down debate on the Biden administration's impending new Iran deal—and in doing so, violate the law. If Democratic Party leaders refuse to submit for congressional review the new Iran deal expected to be announced imminently, they will be violating ​​the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015 (INARA) and thereby overriding the will of the American people.

INARA was passed to prevent the very situation that we find ourselves in now: a president attempting to ram through an agreement with the Islamic Republic of Iran without a review of the agreement's terms by the American people's duly elected representatives in Congress. INARA requires that the executive branch provide Congress with the text of any putative agreement with Iran and conditions America's entrance into the deal on congressional support. INARA recognizes the foreign policy significance of any nuclear accord struck with the mullahs, and it empowers Congress to check the president's unilateral power to enter into such an agreement. What's more, it does so in unmistakably plain language.

In order to sneak America into a disastrous deal, the Biden administration is reinterpreting INARA in a way opposite from its clear intentions. Jaline Porter, a spokeswoman at the State Department, has indicated President Biden might not submit the new deal's text to Congress for review. The administration will argue that President Biden is merely reinstating President Obama's old deal, and that the deal has therefore already been approved by Congress.

But this argument is dead wrong. Beyond the fact that Iran's nuclear uranium holdings have materially changed since 2015, suggesting the deal's terms ought to be reconsidered, it appears Biden's deal will in fact wholly include novel provisions, such as sanctions relief for terrorists. The Biden administration must not skirt the law.
All Republican senators except Rand Paul express opposition to looming Iran deal
All Republican senators but one — Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) — joined a statement to President Joe Biden on Monday expressing opposition to a renewed nuclear agreement with Iran, which has yet to be finalized, and vowing to oppose any attempts to withdraw terrorism sanctions.

“By every indication, the Biden Administration appears to have given away the store,” the statement reads. “The administration appears to have agreed to lift sanctions that were not even placed on Iran for its nuclear activities in the first place, but instead because of its ongoing support for terrorism and its gross abuses of human rights.”

The senators added that they plan to force Senate votes on any attempts to withdraw terrorism-related sanctions on Iran — and will seek to reimpose them.

The senators also accused the administration of failing to “adequately consult” with Congress about the deal and said the administration has “thus far refused to commit” to congressional review of the deal, either as a treaty or under the terms of the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act.

The signatories claimed that the nuclear restrictions in the new agreement will also be less stringent than in the original 2015 deal and will make it more difficult for the U.S. to reach a “longer and stronger” follow-on deal, which administration officials, including Secretary of State Tony Blinken, have said is their goal.


Peter Beinart’s Fleeting Concern for Consistency Results in Historical and Legal Revisionism
Writing for The Guardian on March 10, Peter Beinart makes an amateurish and fundamentally flawed attempt to rely on international law to make a comparison between “Putin’s aggression” and U.S. recognition of Israel’s “annexation” of the Golan Heights.

The gist of Beinart’s argument is that the U.S. recognition contributed to the “erosion of the norm against international aggression,” and thus it is somehow hypocritical for the U.S. to criticize Russia for invading Ukraine.

In making this argument, Beinart exposes complete disdain for and ignorance of not only history, but of the very legal concepts he seeks to rely on. He also displays his own inconsistent concern for respect of international law.

The Facts of Israel’s Control over the Golan Heights
Israel’s control over the Golan Heights was a result of acts of aggression, but not Israel’s.

Arab aggression against Israel had been a feature of life in the region since even before Israel declared independence. Syria was one of the invading armies in 1948. It launched infiltration attacks on Israel through the end of the decade and into the 1950s. During the 1960s, Syria provided substantial operational assistance and support for Palestinian Arab attacks, while frequently shelling Israeli workers and towns from the Golan Heights.

Israel then captured the Golan Heights during the Six-Day War in 1967, which had been prompted by not only incessant attacks by state-sponsored armed bands (an act of aggression itself), but also by Egypt’s blockading of the Straits of Tiran (an act of war), the removal of UN peacekeeping forces from the Sinai, and the subsequent build-up of Arab forces surrounding Israel’s border – all amidst increasingly bellicose and genocidal statements by Arab officials.

Worth noting in light of Beinart’s attempted comparison, those Arab armies had been provided with billions of dollars in military aid from the Soviet Union, the predecessor to the Russian Federation which is currently invading Ukraine. Thousands of tanks and artillery pieces, hundreds of jets, and 1,400 military advisers had been shipped to these Arab countries by the Soviets prior to the Six-Day War. Indeed, Soviet intelligence likely played a significant role in causing the war when it fed Egypt false intelligence (a similar playbook Russia is employing today in relation to Ukraine) about Israeli troop movements just a few days before Nasser decided to remove UN peacekeepers.
Yisrael Medad: My Exchange with NYRB's Editor Following a Beinart Piece
After I read something Peter Beinart published at the New York Review of Books back at the end of January, I initiated corrspondence with the NYRB by first submitting a short letter-to-the-editor:
Subject: Letter for Publication

Peter Beinart asserts that "Those Palestinians who can [vote in Israeli national elections] —the 'Arab Israelis' who hold Israeli citizenship—mostly vote for Arab parties that are, by custom, barred from Israel’s coalition governments" (What the Lincoln Project Gets WrongAbout Israel-Palestine, NYRB, Jan. 27). That assertion needs to be corrected.

Arabs have been enfranchised to cast their ballots in Israel's elections since 1949. In fact, the parties that traditionally received the most votes usually were Communist. That Israel, even until today, tolerates Communist parties supported mainly by the Arab minority, as well as pan-Arab nationalist factions, is a testament to its vibrant democracy. Moreover, these parties are not so much "barred" as not invited to join due to their principled ideological position which is anti-Zionist. It is not a racist policy as Arabs, as well as Druze, have served in government as ministers and deputy-ministers when members of other parties. Members of these anti-Zionist parties have been member of the Knesset Presidium.
Squad Congressman Bowman Facing Primary Challenge from Kosovo-Born, Pro Israel Vedat Gashi
Westchester County lawmaker Vedat Gashi will be facing incumbent Congressman Jamaal Bowman in NY State’s 16th Congressional District in the democratic June 23 primary. The 16th district which was formerly represented by Jewish congressman Eliot Engel includes the northern Bronx and the southern half of Westchester County, including the suburban cities of Mount Vernon, Yonkers, New Rochelle, and Rye, as well as the New York City neighborhood of Co-op City.

Gashi is currently serving his second, two-year term on the Westchester Board of Legislators.

In May 2021, Bowman supported a bill that would have imposed limitations on US military aid to Israel. He explained that the bill calls for “more transparency in terms of how the aid is being used, particularly with regard to the detaining of Palestinian children.” The bill was supported by J Street and IfNotNow, and, indeed, Bowman noted that “My decision to sign on to this bill was not in a vacuum. It was made in consultation with many within the Jewish community within the district who also supported the bill.”

Last February, Bowman dropped his support for a bill he had originally co-sponsored, the bipartisan Israel Relations Normalization Act. He sent a letter to his constituents, saying he had reconsidered his decision in light of his trip to Israel in November that was sponsored by the left-wing group J Street, where he “met with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.”

In both instances, Bowman remained loyal to the squad’s anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian ideology.

Gashi, a “Biden Democrat,” said he would stress Bowman’s votes that were out of step with the beliefs of the district’s constituents, including his decision to withdraw his support for the Abraham Accords, and said, “I think the views he has taken … it’s a problem. And it’s a problem for American national security.”

He was also offended by Bowman’s ties with the Democratic Socialists of America, which has endorsed the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanction campaign against Israel. “My family fled Kosovo, which was a socialist country, so we are not very fond of it,” he said.


PreOccupiedTerritory: Murder Victim Relieved: Killer Just Anti-Zionist, Not Antisemitic (satire)
A woman killed in a massacre at a synagogue issued a metaphorical exhalation today upon learning that the man who took her life in a shooting attack, a radicalized anti-Israel activist, targeted her house of worship not because he bore specific animus to Jews as Jews, necessarily, but because he associated the venue with support for Israel, and that somehow makes her death better.

Sharon Friedman, 50, succumbed to gunshot wounds yesterday that she suffered when Muhammad Shati, 30, entered Congregation Ohel Abraham Saturday morning in this Detroit suburb and opened fire. He killed four people and injured sixteen before taking his own life. Police discovered recent social media posts by Shati trafficking in anti-Zionist content and accusations, calling for violence against Zionist institutions and demanding changes in American foreign policy toward the Jewish State. Those discoveries led Friedman, whose soul departed her body Tuesday afternoon, to express relief that at least her killer didn’t target her for her Judaism.

“I have to say I’m a little less anxious now,” acknowledged the dead Friedman, who leaves behind a husband and four children. “It would have been much more problematic to find out he was just an antisemite. We’ve suffered so much at the hands of antisemites, and that’s such a dangerous ideology. At least it was merely an anti-Zionist attack. I was so worried there for a while.”
Another Sheikh Jarrah story ignored by the BBC
Last month we noted that BBC Jerusalem bureau correspondent Tom Bateman had told readers of one of his reports of “a fresh flare-up in tensions in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah” without bothering to clarify that it began when the home of a Jewish family in that Jerusalem neighbourhood was firebombed.

In fact, BBC audiences have not seen any mention whatsoever of that firebombing or the subsequent related arrests in the four weeks that have passed since it took place.

The four people arrested in connection with that incident have now been indicted.
“Prosecutors on Monday indicted four Palestinians from East Jerusalem, including a minor, for the alleged firebombing of a Jewish home in Sheikh Jarrah last month.

The Jerusalem District Prosecutor’s Office requested that the group be kept in custody until the end of the legal proceedings against them. […]

According to the indictment, Mu’taz Haj Mahmoud, Balal Jabari, Jamal Husseini and an unnamed minor prepared Molotov cocktails and threw them at Yushuvayev’s residence. […]

The indictment further alleges that the four were involved in additional arson attempts in the months preceding the incident.”

Given that the BBC – and not least its Jerusalem bureau staff – has spent ten months telling audiences about “tensions” in what it has described as “a politically contentious district in Jerusalem linked to the outbreak of the May war”, one would expect the firebombing of the home of a Jewish family in that neighbourhood to be considered newsworthy. However, as has been the case with additional news relating to Sheikh Jarrah (see ‘related articles’ below), once again we see that stories which do not fit the corporation’s chosen narrative do not receive coverage.
Deutsche Welle Arabic Removes Error-Laden Jerusalem Backgrounder
CAMERA Arabic’s protracted efforts have prompted Deutsche Welle to remove an Arabic-language backgrounder about Jerusalem which contained multiple factual errors concerning the holy city and the conflict surrounding it. Originally published in May 2021, the problematic item periodically reappeared alongside newer Deutsche Welle Arabic items despite CAMERA’s repeated requests for correction, the first of which was submitted to Germany’s public broadcaster last November. Most recently, the backgrounder was embedded in a DW Arabic webpage on Feb. 9, 2022.

The errors were as follows (all translations, emphases and in-bracket remarks are by CAMERA Arabic):
Slide No. 1 collectively identified Jews involved in the May 10, 2021 clashes in Jerusalem as “settlers,” referring to “clashes between Palestinians on the one hand and the police and settlers on the other.”

However, the Jews’ places of residence were not known — and thus their status as “settlers” was undetermined — and not relevant to the story. Media outlets which previously corrected identical or similar Arabic errors in 2021 include CNN and BBC.

Slide No. 6 misrepresented Jerusalem’s holy sites, their history and location, stating: “The Jews believe that the al-Aqsa Mosque was built instead of a Jewish shrine (the Temple) which the Romans destroyed in 70 AD, with no remnant left but the Western Wall, [also] known as the Wailing Wall or al-Buraq.”

However, Jews don’t just “believe” that the Temple once stood where Jerusalem’s Noble Sanctuary/Temple Mount is found today; its presence up until its 70 AD destruction is a well documented fact of ancient history and archaeology.

In addition, the al-Aqsa Mosque is adjacent to the southern wall of the compound, whilst the Temple was located at its very center where the Dome of the Rock is found today. Therefore, the Mosque was not “built instead” of the Temple, as the backgrounder indicated.
BBC’s Bateman squeezes Palestinian messaging into Ukraine reports
The lead item in the March 10th edition of BBC Radio 4’s ‘From Our Own Correspondent’ is described as following in its synopsis:
“As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine enters a third week, hopes are wearing thin of a ceasefire after several rounds of unsuccessful talks. But a potential mediator tried to enter the fray this week: Israel, as Tom Bateman reports from Jerusalem.”

That audio report is very similar – and in parts identical – to a written item by Tom Bateman which appeared in the ‘features’ section of the BBC News website’s ‘Middle East’ page on the same day under the headline “Israel’s Bennett plays peacemaker in Ukraine-Russia war”.

Both those reports raise a topic that until that point had been avoided by the BBC in its Ukraine reporting: the attempts by Palestinians and their supporters to promote the notion of equivalence between Palestinians and Ukrainians.

Audio:
“Palestinians point to Western backing for Ukrainian resistance and hagiography of its leaders and ask what about us? Israeli critics of this argument have been very vocal too, saying there’s no equivalence between the two conflicts.”

Written:
“Palestinians point to Western backing for Ukrainian resistance and celebration of its leaders and ask: What about us? Israeli critics of this argument have been very vocal too, saying there is no equivalence between the two conflicts.”

Those familiar with Bateman’s reporting would probably not have been remotely surprised by his forcing of the unrelated topic of Palestinians into reports about the Israeli prime minister’s contribution to efforts to bring the conflict in Ukraine to an end.
HRC Prompts Toronto Star Corrective: Israeli Law Doesn’t Prevent Arab Citizens From Purchasing Homes
As we told senior Toronto Star editors, while Mr. Katz is entitled to his own opinions, he’s not entitled to his own facts. There is no such Israeli law that denies Arab citizens the ability to purchase homes in any areas of Israel.

We asked the Star to substantiate this claim and to point to the alleged law to confirm the veracity of this matter. Failing which, we said that it’s incumbent upon the Star to issue a correction as even letters to the editor must be factually accurate.

In response to our complaint, Mr. Katz was asked to provide sources to substantiate his statement, and he referred to the “Admissions Committees Law, which he said allows small communities to reject potential residents based on ‘incompatibility with the social-cultural fabric of the town.’”

He claimed that human rights groups raised concerns that the law, which, for the record, has a non-discrimination clause in it, is being used to deny residency to those not deemed acceptable to the local admissions committee, including Arabs.

However, as we told the Toronto Star, this doesn’t even remotely substantiate that there is an Israeli law on the books that excludes Arab citizens from home purchases in certain areas.

Could discrimination occur, well, that’s always a possibility, whether here in Canada or in Israel, but we are talking about the law. There is no such law in Israel.


Connecticut Woman Arrested for Setting Synagogue, Church on Fire
A woman, Kimorah Parker, is in custody on arson charges after New Britain Police said she intentionally set fires to a synagogue and a church in the city.

Flowers now sit outside Congregation Tephereth Israel in New Britain after police said Parker set it on Friday — before hitting two other churches less than a mile away.

The StopAntisemitism watchdog group tweeted the event was “Horrifying”.

Michelle Joyce, longtime member of Congregation Tephereth Israel, had been going to the synagogue since she was little, as her grandfather was a founding member. She remembered all the people who used to go there and where they sat, noting that it was always packed with a big crowd.

Now, the place where she celebrated the Jewish holidays is boarded up. “Looking at the damage is just hard,” Joyce said.

Police said that a woman set the synagogue and St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church on Friday and then broke into St. Joseph Church. This all happened within the span of one hour. No one was injured during the fires and break-in.

Investigators charged Parker with arson and burglary in connection to the two incidents.
Pennsylvania found to be worst state for white supremacist propaganda
The State of Pennsylvania was found to have more white supremacist propaganda than any other state, with antisemitic incidents in general being recorded at 150% higher than it was in 2015.

A report showed that in 2021, 473 instances of white supremacist propaganda were distributed, almost doubling the previous year’s findings for the State. 24 of these incidents occurred in Pittsburgh, the largest city in the State.

Many of these incidents were reported to have come from Patriot Front, a national white supremacist group, who are said to be responsible for 82% of the propaganda incidents in the whole of the United States. Reportedly, members of the group must meet a distribution quota to remain within the group.

The second-highest level of white supremacist propaganda was found in the State of Virginia with a recorded 375 examples.

The findings were published in ADL’s annual assessment.
Israeli museum opens Holocaust exhibit for Jehovah’s Witnesses
A new exhibit called “Wedontdothat” remembering the thousands of Jehovah’s Witnesses who were persecuted by the Nazis opened last week at Israel’s Center for Humanistic Education of the Ghetto Fighters.

Jehovah’s Witnesses are Christians who were murdered during the Holocaust because they refused to cooperate with the Nazis and renounce their faith despite extreme pressure. They were known then as Bibelforscher (German for Bible students). They were rounded up and taken to camps as early as 1933.

“The regime considered breaking the Witnesses’ religious convictions a greater victory than killing them or placing them in camps,” the local Jehovah’s Witnesses spokesperson Trey Upshur explained in a release. “Thus, the Nazis tried to tempt the Witnesses with the opportunity to avoid execution and be released from the camp if they signed an Erklärung pledging to renounce their faith, report other Witnesses to the police, fully submit to the Nazi government and defend the ‘Fatherland’ with weapons in hand.”

The exhibit’s name, “Wedontdothat” is named for a young Witness, Joachim Alfermann, who resisted Nazi pressure and was imprisoned. Despite immense pressure that ranged from beatings and detention in a concentration camp, the story goes, Alfermann insisted, “We don’t do that” and stood up for his faith.


Tunisian: when the Jews were ‘ethnically cleansed,’ the lights went out
Jews had lived at home in Arabia, Iran, Egypt, the Middle East, Yemen, Libya and North Africa for millennia.

These lands that had become Muslim were marked with the footprints of the Jews.

We cannot say that they have chosen exile, because people never leave their ancestral lands en masse – repositories of memory and history, and to which they have given their all. They were pushed into leaving, against their will.

The exodus of 900,000 Jews is truly a matter of ‘ethnic cleansing’: to purify Muslim lands of their presence.

How can we understand that a community rooted in most Muslim countries before Islam, finds itself driven out overnight, after decolonization and the Six-Day War, driven out like a leper, after having lived for 1,400 years more or less in harmony with Muslims, for whom they have served as an economic, cultural and intellectual catalyst?

It’s as if Palestine acted as a spur to unleashing repressed hatred towards the Jews, subjecting them to what Muhammad and his horde of assassins did to them in Yathrib, a Jewish land that had become the second stronghold of Islam.

The Jews left because they were given no choice but to wish to live in their own place, despite the discrimination they faced.
Anne Beaumanoir, French resistance member who aided Jews, dies at 98
Anne Beaumanoir, a French resistance member who guided Jews to safety in her Nazi-occupied homeland during World War II, then became an anti-colonial activist jailed in France for backing Algerian independence, and later earned distinction as a neurophysiologist specializing in epilepsy, died March 4 in Quimper, a city in her native Brittany. She was 98.

Her former medical colleagues confirmed the death to French media outlets but did not provide a cause.

As a 19-year-old medical student, first in the city of Rennes and later in Paris, Dr. Beaumanoir secretly joined the youth movement of the French Communist Party (PCF) after the German invasion of France. Her parents, who had aided the passage of foreign fighters through France during the 1936-39 Spanish civil war, supported her resistance activities.

In early 1944, Dr. Beaumanoir helped save two French teenagers of Polish origin whose father, Ruben Lisoprawski, ran a bakery in Paris. Like most of his family, he had been taken to the Auschwitz concentration camp in German-occupied Poland and never seen again. But his children Daniel Lisoprawski, 14, and Simone, 16, survived in part because Dr. Beaumanoir learned that the Gestapo was planning a raid on a Paris apartment where the teens were being hidden by a Frenchwoman.

Dr. Beaumanoir went to the apartment to warn them and take the teens to a resistance safe house. That house was also soon raided by German soldiers, but a resistance leader managed to flee with the children over the rooftops of Paris to another safe place.

Eventually, Dr. Beaumanoir spirited them to her parents’ restaurant and home in Dinan, Brittany, where they remained hidden, moving among friendly locations during German house-to-house searches, until the end of the war in 1945. Afterward, the Beaumanoir family brought them up as if their own children.
Holocaust survivor Leon Schwarzbaum, key witness in trials of Nazis, dies at 101
German Holocaust survivor Leon Schwarzbaum, a key witness in recent trials of alleged Nazi war criminals, died at the age of 101, the International Auschwitz Committee (IAC) told AFP on Monday.

Schwarzbaum died on Sunday night, according to Christoph Heubner, executive vice president of the IAC.

“His death represents a great loss to the collective memory. We will all miss his anger and humanity,” Heubner said.

Schwarzbaum testified in 2016, against former Auschwitz camp guard Reinhold Hanning, who was sentenced to five years in prison, but died a few months after the verdict before he could go to jail.

In late 2021, Schwarzbaum also appeared as a witness in the trial of Josef Schuetz, a 101-year-old former guard at the Sachsenhausen camp.

He had been due to participate in a further hearing of that trial this week, Thomas Walther, a lawyer specializing in Nazi war crimes, told AFP.

In a written statement due to be read by Walther, Schwarzbaum had planned to ask the accused to “tell us the historical truth.”

“Speak here in this place about what you experienced — as I have done for my part,” he wrote.
Gadi Taub: "Israel Can Stop Iran's Nuclear Program" in depth with Benjamin Netanyahu
We took a step back from current events to get Netanyahu's historical perspective on Zionism - historical opportunities, taken or lost; leadership and its most essential role; Theodore Herzl's vision, and the all but lost memory of Aaron Aaronsohn's role in paving the way to statehood. And finally: Israeli US relations and the looming Iran deal.






Read all about it here!



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This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For over 19 years and 40,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.

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