Tuesday, March 22, 2022
David Collier: BBC, the revision of history and the invention of Ancient Palestine
Where the Jews get it wrongOnce Again, the United Nations is Set to Play Word Games to Deny Jews Their History
It must be said that the blame for this all-too-common falsification of history does not really lie with the Soviets in post-1948, nor with Arafat in 1964. These are errant messages that I see far too often on Zionist platforms. Believe me, that if western society viewed the historical rights of the Jewish people with the import that they deserve, the rantings of the Soviets and the PLO would never have seen the light of day.
Rather, Soviet anti-Zionist propagandists and people like Yasser Arafat saw anti-Jewish sentiment in the west and took a successful piggyback ride upon it. The weakness was in classic Christian antisemitism – ”supersessionism’ – or ‘replacement ideology’. The idea that the ‘new’ testament (the Christians) has replaced (superseded) the ‘old’ (the Jews). This is the true root of the whole notion of ‘Palestine’ in modern western thought.
It cannot be overstated how much of the modern ‘Palestinian’ is a colonial construct. Between 1917 and 1922, the borders of the Palestine mandate were drawn. The name itself was chosen because it was the ‘Holy Land’. Those borders were dictated by colonial powers. A Lebanese man today in Tyre, is Lebanese only because the British and French agreed Tyre would be outside the Palestine Mandate. A Gazan is Palestinian only because the British eventually decided that the southern Negev towns should be cut off from Egypt.
Modern Palestine was a colonial construct in its entirety – an area based around the historical land of the Jewish people, within which to recreate the Jewish homeland. Every identity attached to this land today *apart from* the Jewish identity is a heritage of British colonial rule.
The nonsensical myth of ancient Palestine
Which brings us to the name ‘Palestine’. We know that the Romans renamed Judea as Syria-Palestina circa 135AD. We also know that as the name ‘Palestine’ became ever more politicised in the 21st century, anti-Israel activists pored through every historical document possible to prove the name ‘Palestine’ had historical weight – that it was more than a short-lived example of Imperial arrogance and spite. So desperate have they been that the Wikipedia article on the subject tries to squeeze the ‘Philistines’ into the story. The Philistines (Paleshet) were biblical enemies of the Israelites – invaders from Crete, who were eventually lost to war and history, hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus.
If you are a pro-Palestinian today and you are somehow trying to squeeze Palestinian history into that of the Philistines, you probably believe that Narnia is a real place too. Which pretty much sums up the intellectual level of the average Wikipedia believer.
The United Nations (“UN”) has a long history of inventing or redefining terminology to single out, demonize, and delegitimize the Jewish state. Over the years, for example, the UN has invented a separate meaning of the term “refugee” when it comes to Palestinians and declared that “Zionism” actually meant “racism.” More recently, some UN officials have attempted to redefine the Jewish right to self-determination as “apartheid.”Watchdog Wants Biden To Disclose Origins of $1 Million Grant Program To Demonize Israel
In the coming days, the UN is set to continue the trend at the Human Rights Council (“UNHRC”) by declaring that Israel’s control of Judea and Samaria is not “military occupation,” but rather a legally meaningless descriptor of “colonial occupation.”
Such language denies Jews their history by labeling them as foreign invaders serving foreign powers, as opposed to being indigenous to the Land of Israel. It depicts Jews in Judea as no different from British colonial authorities in places like Nigeria or Singapore.
This new attempt can be found in a “zero draft” of an upcoming UN resolution (i.e., an early draft that is still in the negotiation and revision stage), which contains a paragraph that, as of the morning of March 21, reads:
“PP11. Considering that the right to self-determination of the Palestinian people is being violated further by Israel through the existence and ongoing expansion of settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, which have served to transform a military occupation into a colonial occupation,and reinforced through a system of oppression and domination;” (Italics added; strikethrough in original)
The draft is sponsored by Pakistan on behalf of the 56-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation (“OIC”).
It is worth pointing out that the strikethrough text (indicating the language will probably be removed in the final version sent to a vote) would have sought to bolster efforts to declare Israel an “apartheid” state.
Having apparently faced enough resistance to such absurd language, the sponsors instead seem to have fallen back on their go-to strategy of trying to disconnect Jews from the Jewish homeland.
The phrase “military occupation,” also referred to as “belligerent occupation,” refers to the situation regulated under international law, such as in Geneva Convention IV, when one state coercively occupies the territory of another state. While Israel believes that Judea and Samaria are disputed territories, as opposed to occupied territories, it voluntarily applies the humanitarian aspects of Geneva Convention IV pending a final peace deal.
A watchdog group is calling on the Biden administration to turn over all internal records related to a nearly $1 million grant that is being offered for nonprofit groups to investigate alleged human rights abuses in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza Strip.
The State Department has been asked to turn over all documents and internal communications related to the grant, which critics view as an effort to delegitimize Israel and empower groups that promote boycotts of the Jewish state and was first exposed by the Washington Free Beacon earlier this month. The grant from the State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor solicits 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" and drew outrage from top Republican foreign policy leaders, including Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Groups applying for the grant money are required to investigate alleged crimes inside Israel and the surrounding territories. They will "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 a notice from the State Department announcing the grant.
The State Department is being asked to disclose who approved the grant and the names of any groups applying for it, according to a Freedom of Information Act request issued by the America First Legal Foundation (AFLF), a watchdog group that investigates government malfeasance. The FOIA, a copy of which was obtained by the Free Beacon, directs the State Department to disclose who approved the grant and the names of any groups applying for it.
Cruz told the Free Beacon the grant is evidence that the Biden administration's State Department is staffed with appointees who hold animus toward Israel. The Biden administration's nominee to head the bureau offering the grant, Sarah Margon, for instance, has been stalled in the Senate for months due to her anti-Israel activism and statements. Other State Department hires have lobbied for the Palestinian government and have been tied to the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, which wages economic warfare on Israel.
Might Makes Wrong
This shift in the perception of Jews and the Jewish state is a reflection of a deeper malaise in the world. Ominous developments reflect a world returning to conflict. Leaders of the non-democratic nations during this period of upheaval revert to dangerous and destructive behavior. Why does Putin think it’s his mission to re-create the Russian Empire? Doesn’t he know what happened to the last one? Why does Iran believe that it has to destroy Israel to Make Persia Great Again?Jonathan Tobin: Nationalism goes back into fashion with certain exceptions
Bellicose attitudes have always precipitated crises. The idea that “might makes right” dates back to Aesop’s fables, recast by the 17th-century French writer La Fontaine. His fable of the wolf and the lamb depicts an innocent lamb drinking at the water’s edge when a famished wolf appears and claims all kinds of foul deeds committed by the lamb, “whereupon the wolf dragged him through the forest depths and ate him up without further ado.”
In a Russian version, the wolf goes farther, saying, “Your fault lies in the fact that I’m hungry,” making it clear that the powerful will use any excuse to justify their selfish actions but the truth is that they do it because they can.
Those of us raised in the halcyon days after the war believed that the Enlightenment had finally borne its fruit and that reason would characterize people’s lives and govern the conduct of nations. It would be the end of tribalism and the dawn of a new era. And we had every reason to believe so, with the creation of the European Union and the end of the Cold War.
It was a Utopian dream. And a beautiful and cherished one. But we forgot that “utopia” is Greek for “good place” and “no place,” meaning “nowhere.”
The surest sign of the health of the world and the stability of nations is its treatment of Jews. Whenever challenging times come, societies show the depth of their moral strength or lack of it by their tolerance and compassion. Too often the world has failed the test and inevitably everyone suffers.
The reason the Jews are the focus of attention is succinctly summarized by the Globe and Mail columnist Robyn Urback: “Jewish identity is so imprecise, it can be portrayed in all sorts of different ways. Light-skinned Jews aren’t white to Nazis and white supremacists but are to most in modern society. To the Soviets, Jews were “rootless cosmopolitans” but in America during the Cold War they were suspected of being communists. Today, Urback points out, the Left “sees Jews as powerful capitalists who control financial networks … while antisemites on the Right see Jews as a poisoning influence on a white ethnosphere.” These contradictions “make anti-Semitism the ultimate adaptable prejudice, which has allowed it to thrive across continents for centuries.”
Yet I remain hopeful if not optimistic. We are not destined to repeat the same folly of the past. It is a Jewish belief that Moshiach, the Messiah, will come when the world is either insufferably bad or finally worthy. Let us work toward the latter and hold fast in the belief, as expressed by Martin Luther King Jr., that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
Many will forgive Zelenskyy and his comparisons of the Russian invasion to the Holocaust. Ukraine is in extremis, and to those suffering under the Russian assault, the obvious differences between the attempt to systematically exterminate the Jews and the plight they are experiencing are lost. That doesn't give Zelenskyy the right to make this comparison; however, in wartime, such hyperbole is to be expected if not applauded.5 reflections from Buenos Aires, three decades after the Israeli embassy bombing
But when Zelenskyy seemed to contrast what he asserted was past Ukrainian help for Jews with Israel's supposed "indifference" to Ukraine's current plight, he went too far. Ukraine has often voted against Israel in the United Nations. By saying, "Ukrainians made their choice. 80 years ago, they rescued Jews," while ignoring the fact that far more Ukrainians did just the opposite, he was falsifying history and blowing up his credibility. Indeed, his comments were no different from the much-condemned efforts of the Polish government to deny the fact that some Poles helped persecute the Jews both during and after the Nazi occupation.
None of that justifies Russian aggression. But neither his own Jewish background nor being Putin's victim gives Zelenskyy the right to lie about the past. Yet as the hero of the moment, he will likely get a pass for this, even though his comments will help encourage further unfair attacks on Israel, such as this one from anti-Trump Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.)
Still, those who are willing to excuse even these egregious statements because of the need to defend Ukraine against Putin should think about their refusal to extend the same support for the idea of nationalism when it comes to the Jews.
The Jewish right to sovereignty in their ancient homeland is rooted in history, faith and international law. But the fate of the Jews in Europe during the Holocaust as well as the long history of discrimination and anti-Semitic violence there and elsewhere, including the Middle East and North Africa, also justifies Zionism. Without a nation-state to shelter and defend them, Jews were perpetually at the mercy of other nations and peoples who used them as scapegoats. Those who depend solely on the guarantees and promises of other nations, as the Ukrainians had done prior to Putin's invasion, cannot be safe.
Jewish nationalism is no less justified than that embraced by other peoples. Anti-Zionism may be defended by leftists who ignore both history and widespread current prejudice to declare Jews oppressors and beneficiaries of "white privilege." But the notion that Jews – alone of all peoples – are to be denied the same rights that we applaud when it comes to a country like Ukraine is itself racist and anti-Semitic. Those who are ready to do anything to defend Ukrainian nationalism should treat the right of Jews to a Jewish state with the same respect.
In the center of this city, promptly at 2:50 p.m. local time on March 17, a siren called out. The sound of the bells also came from the Mater Admirabilies church, in front of the former location of the city’s Israeli embassy, on the corner of Arroyo and Suipacha streets.An appeal to the UN human rights commissioner - opinion
A minute of silence followed. Then 22 names were read out loud to the 2,000 or so people who gathered near a stage with a podium.
The moment marked the exact time that a car bomb exploded in front of the Israeli embassy here 30 years ago, killing 29 people (including seven who were never publicly identified), injuring hundreds and damaging several surrounding buildings. Two years later, over 80 people were killed in a similar bombing at the site of the AMIA Jewish center building.
The embassy attack rattled Argentine Jewry, and the aftermath of the AMIA bombing infuriated them — in the decades since, the perpetrators have never been fully brought to justice. Members of Argentina’s government have been accused of covering up evidence that would incriminate Iranian-backed Hezbollah criminals.
In a sign of how seriously the Israeli government still treats the embassy bombing, Israeli Justice Minister Gideon Sa’ar spoke at the commemorative rally on Thursday and used the platform to rail against Iran and the nuclear deal that the United States and other world powers are currently renegotiating.
“It was an attack against my country, and also against Argentina, the country where my father was born and grew up,” Sa’ar said of the bombing. “We have a moral obligation to go after those who committed this despicable crime. We demand that they be brought to trial for their crimes against humanity… Iran’s sole objective with the nuclear deal is to free itself from sanctions, obtain funds to strengthen terror and instability in the region and in the world. How much longer are we going to have to wait for justice to arrive?”
Despite the late summer sun and heat, the atmosphere at the rally was quiet and somber. Students from local Jewish schools came with their teachers, as a school activity, with Argentine and Israeli flags. Some people wore masks, others didn’t but looked to keep a social distance.
Several Argentine cabinet members attended as well: Justice Minister Martin Soria spoke to the crowd, and Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero, Interior Minister Wado de Pedro, Defense Minister Jorge Taiana and Buenos Aires Mayor Horacio Rodriguez Larreta stood onstage.
Madam High Commissioner, please note that anti-Israel and anti-Zionism endangers Jews around the world. Indeed, the recent election in Chile saw a deep polarization between two candidates: an extreme-right-wing son of a Nazi official in Hitler’s Germany, versus an extreme-left anti-Zionist, whose leading guest at his presidential inauguration was the antisemitic former leader of the British Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn.
The assassinated Argentine prosecutor – and personal friend - Alberto Nisman, in his work on the Buenos Aires AMIA Jewish Center bombing implicating Iran, revealed the presence of Hezbollah sleepers in nine Latin-American countries, including Chile.
At every meeting of the Human Rights Council, the infamous Item 7 – on “Palestine and other Arab Territories” – is de facto an exercise against Israel that holds repercussions. To be presented again next 24 March, Item 7 transplants the conflict to Arab communities worldwide, especially to Chile, which holds the largest Palestinian community outside the Middle East.
This is exacerbated by the fact that it singles out the Jewish state, while Item 8 deals with the rest of the world. The situation is worsened even more by the open-ended “Commission of Inquiry” (COI) into the “Grave Human Rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem and in Israel,” that will present its reports in June and in September 2022.
Madam High Commissioner, several of your statements could be construed by hatemongers for their antisemitic attacks: Likening your political exile in Europe to the situation of Palestinians unable to return to Israel; or affirming that Israeli strikes on Gaza may be war crimes.
We will be seeking cases of Palestinian terror among those reported by the COI.
Sadly, not enough is done regarding human rights abuses and war crimes by Russia in Ukraine, Iran’s murder of demonstrators, journalists or homosexuals, the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, the ongoing genocide in Syria and the plight of the Uighurs in China.
Only Israel – and by association, the Jews – are treated as the Devil incarnate.
Delighted to be here in Dubai, with my dear friend VP of Paraguay @HVelazquezPy. We hope to take the Abraham Accords to the next level and explore together how the countries of the world can reap the fruits of peace between Israel and the Arab world. pic.twitter.com/b2l5COg8oc
— Ambassador Danny Danon | ??? ???? (@dannydanon) March 21, 2022
Bennett, MBZ, Sisi’s Sharm summit sends a message to Washington on Iran - analysis
The historic photo from the unprecedented trilateral summit in Sharm e-Sheikh between three countries with concerns about Iran – even if Egypt is less vocal on that front – sends a message that even if Israel is strategically restraining its reaction, it stands with the UAE in its disappointment and anger at American weakness toward Iran.Khaled Abu Toameh: America's New Terrorist Allies: 'The Mother of all Disasters'
The statements to the press from the offices of Bennett, MBZ and Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi were typical. The Egyptian and Emirati press releases had some variation of discussing trade and energy, and all three mentioned “regional and international issues and developments.”
That last sentence can be read as a hint at Iran, but Iran definitely is not the only topic they discussed.
Energy was a major topic in the trilateral meeting, and the leaders brainstormed how to use their respective advantages to cooperate, especially in light of the shake-ups in the energy market due to sanctions on Russia.
The potential for cooperation in the economic and energy realms is great between the three countries, as has been seen in only the year and a half of official UAE-Israel relations and recent years between Israel and Egypt in the area of natural gas.
Plus, direct flights between Tel Aviv and Sharm e-Sheikh are expected to begin next month, which Egypt hopes will be a boost to the Sinai resort town’s economy.
Another thing that is notable from the statements is what is not there: the Palestinians. After nearly every meeting between a senior Israeli official and counterparts in the region, the Arab side pays some kind of lip service to needing to reach a solution with the Palestinians. This time, there was nothing.
That sends a message as well. Even though Israel’s relations with both Egypt and the UAE came with promises vis-à-vis the Palestinians, that is not what the ties are about. They are flourishing due to the shared interests – security, economic and more – of all three countries.
The Gulf states, in particular Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, are already under attack by the Iranian-backed Houthi militia in Yemen. The Biden administration removed the Houthis from the list of foreign terrorist organizations and has since refused to reclassify it as a terrorist organization, despite the missile and drone attacks on Washington's Arab allies and friends as recently as this week.Houthi Islamic Scholar Slams Turkish President Erdogan for Meeting Israeli Counterpart Hertzog
"It is true that the United States wants to withdraw from the region, but Washington will then have given China, Russia and Iran unprecedented strength.... By removing the Revolutionary Guards from the list of terrorist organizations, Washington will grant Iran the freedom to move and act in the region in the context of a Russian-Chinese-Iranian alliance." — Tarik Al-Hamid, Saudi journalist, former editor-in-chief of the pan-Arab Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper, March 20, 2022.
Al-Hamid reminded the Biden administration that Saudi Arabia "is the exact opposite of Iran, as it does not want control, but rather the stability and independence of countries." — Tarik Al-Hamid, Asharq Al-Awsat, March 20, 2022.
"Lifting the sanctions while Hezbollah revels in Lebanon and Syria, and Iranian militias wreak havoc in Iraq amid Iran's continued support for the Houthis in Yemen, is nothing but a crime against our region." — Tarik Al-Hamid, Asharq Al-Awsat, March 20, 2022.
"The problem with this American change is that it came while Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are leading internal and regional efforts to bring stability and moderation." — Saudi political analyst Abdullah bin Bejad Al-Otaibi, Asharq Al-Awsat, March 20, 2022.
"There is an American and Western policy that cannot be condoned, which is the insistence on making Saudi Arabia and the UAE militarily exposed to the attacks of the Iranian Houthi militia in Yemen, ballistic missiles and drones, and imposing illogical requirements on the export of arms to confront these serious threats." — Abdullah bin Bejad Al-Otaibi, Asharq Al-Awsat, March 20, 2022.
"The hasty withdrawal from Afghanistan, which enabled the Taliban to seize control of the country, removing the Houthi militia from the terrorism list, seeking to remove the Iranian Revolutionary Guard from the list of terrorism, silence about Iranian bombing of Iraqi Kurdistan - these are very dangerous policies for the world and the Arab countries that support stability and peace." — Abdullah bin Bejad Al-Otaibi, Asharq Al-Awsat, March 20, 2022.
The IRGC and the mullahs are "the head of regional and international terrorism, from Al-Qaeda to ISIS, and from the Lebanese Hezbollah to the Shiite terror militias all over the world." — Abdullah bin Bejad Al-Otaibi, Asharq Al-Awsat, March 20, 2022.
In a Friday, March 11, 2022 sermon in Sana'a, Yemen that aired on Al-Eman TV (Houthis – Yemen), Houthi Islamic scholar Ibrahim Al-Ubeidi criticized Turkey for recently hosting Israeli President Isaac Herzog. He mocked Turkey and the Ottoman Empire, and he described atrocities carried out by the Ottomans against the Yemeni people, including raping Yemeni women and using elaborate forms of torture against Yemenis. He also said that the Turks in Yemen had consumed alcohol and practiced homosexuality, against Islamic law. Al-Ubeidi claimed that Turkey today wants to revive its destructive influence on Yemen by means of its ideologies and its TV dramas.
In addition, he claimed that Turkey invited President Herzog because it saw how the U.S. "stuck its head in the sand" regarding the Ukraine-Russia war and because it believed that Israel could "replace" America and influence the Russians. Al-Ubeidi said that the Yemeni people will not accept Turkey's gestures towards Israel and will continue to chant "Death to America" and "Curses upon the Jews," until the Jews willingly pay the jizya poll tax to the Muslims and are humiliated.
Is destroying the shacks at Maoz Esther a strategic necessity?
This week in the early morning over four hundred police officers took part in a pre-dawn raid. Young families were dragged from their beds and brutally thrown out of their homes.Arab man receives shortened sentence for attacking Ultra-Orthodox Jews
Surely, such a large determined force launching a massive attack at that hour must mean there was a clear and present danger, some major security operation against the enemy - they were terrorists, no doubt, planning to harm the Jewish State.
After all, increasingly, Arabs who are massively and openly supported by the Palestinian Authority and the European Union, have been illegally settling and building on Israeli government land. Thousands of homes, roads, schools etc. have been sprouting up on government land in contradiction to law and agreement with the PA and in defiance of the Oslo Accords.
Thousands of additional illegal Arab constructions are sprouting in the Negev, the Galilee and around Jerusalem, choking Jewish growth and security.
Every day, countless rocks are hurled at Israeli vehicles by Arabs, there have been terrorist stabbings in Jerusalem and just today, 4 fatal stabbings in Beer Sheva.
Those 400 policemen could have been put to better use..
Because the massive pre-dawn raids were not intended to arrest terrorists or demolish any of those Arab illegal homes.
Because they are not the enemy in the eyes of the Israeli decision-makers today.
Instead, young idealistic Jewish families trying to settle in the biblical heartland of Israel are seen as enemies, had their homes destroyed and are now homeless, their belongings scattered and even one of the famiies' pet dogs killed.
A 20-year-old Arab man was sentenced to 30 months in prison for an attack on a group of haredi (Ultra-Orthodox) Jews – even though the prosecution was seeking an 11-14 years sentence for his crimes.Is Israel helping Fatah in the Palestinian municipal elections?
Saleh Bakirat, from Jerusalem, was convicted of racist threats and aggravated terrorist acts of sabotage on Monday and sentenced to a maximum of 30 months in prison.
According to the indictment, Bakirat was driving with two other assailants in Jerusalem on April 31, 2021, when he noticed a group of Ultra-Orthodox Jews on the other side of the sidewalk street. Bakirat then veered the car directly at them before stopping the car just before he struck the pedestrians.
Unsatisfied with his initial assault, Bakirat and his posse then grabbed large stones, turned around and started throwing them at the Ultra-Orthodox passersby. A stone struck one of the Jews and led to him breaking his arm. Bakirat’s group of attackers filmed the entire incident on their cell phones.
Unshaken by the potential ramifications of his actions, Bakirat was driving with friends just a few days later before again attacking Orthodox Jews from their car – as he and his friends threw stones at the Jewish pedestrians. None of the victims were injured in this assault.
The attacks took place just weeks before Israel and Hamas’s latest series of conflicts in May 2021.
Israel is working to help candidates and lists affiliated with the ruling Fatah faction win municipal elections this coming Saturday, Palestinian political activists said Tuesday.PMW: Palestinians prefer to work in Israel rather than PA due to higher salaries, better conditions, and benefits
On Monday, the Palestinian Central Elections Commission (CEC) condemned the Israeli authorities for “arresting and detaining” a number of candidates who are running in the local elections.
The CEC said it “considers this to be an explicit interference in the electoral process and a violation of freedoms and democratic practices.”
The CEC called for the immediate release of the arrested and detained candidates and said it views the practices of the Israeli authorities as “dangerous.”
A senior Israeli security source denied the allegations and said all those who were taken into custody are suspected of involvement in various terrorist activities.
The first phase of the municipal elections, which were held last December, included more than 380 localities in the West Bank. The second phase of the elections, scheduled to take place on Saturday, will include 66 localities, 55 of which are in Area A and Area B of the West Bank.
Hamas and other Palestinian groups decided to boycott the municipal elections and prevent them from taking place in the Gaza Strip. The local elections should be held together with the vote for the Palestinian parliament and presidency, they said.
Many Palestinian workers prefer to work in Israel rather than in the PA. Hoping to improve their income and living standards, Palestinians leave their local job market and come to Israel, mostly to work in the construction sector.Daughter of terrorist proud her father stabbed a prison guard
They make this decision due to the higher salaries in Israel, the more orderly conditions, and the benefits. Moreover, receiving salaries in the PA after the job has been done also proves difficult at times, as one Palestinian construction worker explained:
“Musa Suleiman, 49, from the town of Dir Balut west of Salfit has worked in the construction sector in the Palestinian [job] market. Three years ago, he decided to leave to work in the Israeli market.
Suleiman said: ‘I learned the trade from my father who was a builder, and slowly I mastered construction and became skilled… But the low salary here among us and the high [salary] in Israel caused me to leave to work there, with the hope that I will be able to improve my income… The salary here is low, and collecting it is liable to last months or years after the work has been completed, following foot-dragging and splitting into payments… Many workers work in the market of the occupation state (Israel) [parentheses in source]. Also the work hours are limited, the rights are clear, and there are payments to which we are eligible.’”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, March 16, 2022]
Acting Director of the General Administration to Regulate Work Outside (of the PA areas) in the PA Ministry of Labor Abd Al-Karim Merdawi stressed the different rights workers enjoy in Israel as additional reasons for Palestinian workers to change job location:
“The central factor that is making the Israeli job market attractive for Palestinian workers is the high salary in the Israeli market, which causes workers here among us to stream to work in the Israeli market…
The social insurance, rights, and savings deposits that a ‘regularized’ Palestinian worker, in other words one who has an [Israeli work] license, receives also constitute an attractive factor.”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, March 16, 2022]
Daughter of terrorist proud her father stabbed a prison guard: “I’m proud of you. When I saw the video of the stabbing I was happy”
Official PA TV program I Call You, visit to the house of Hamas terrorist prisoner Yusuf Mabhouh who fired rockets at Israel, and who stabbed an Israeli prison guard a week prior to the broadcast
Abu Yusuf Mabhouh, father of terrorist Yusuf Mabhouh: “The act Yusuf [Mabhouh] carried out (i.e., stabbing an Israeli prison guard) was an act that was expected from Yusuf. Allah be praised, this is a heroic act that we are proud of as a family. We’re proud of it as a clan. I’m proud of it as his father. All of Palestine is proud of it, Allah be praised” …
Rania, daughter of terrorist Yusuf Mabhouh: “I’m proud of you. When I saw the video of the stabbing I was happy, and everyone spoke about you on Facebook regarding the video of the stabbing. We love you a lot, take care of yourself.”
[Official PA TV, I Call You, Feb. 23, 2022]
Yusuf Mabhouh – Hamas terrorist who fired rockets at Israel and placed explosives during the Gaza wars in 2008 and 2012 – Israel’s Operation Cast Lead and Operation Pillar of Defense. Mabhouh was arrested in February 2019 after illegally entering Israel from the Gaza Strip and was sentenced in 2020 to 15 years in prison. Mabhouh stabbed an Israeli prison guard in Nafha Prison on Dec. 20, 2021.
Senior PA official Jibril Rajoub opened a marathon in Bethlehem this weekend by calling Israel Nazis & for the expulsion of ???? before an @EUCouncil rep. To the Palestinian supporters in the @UN, this is their true face: they have no interest in being partners for peace. pic.twitter.com/3mFwn1pMW8
— Ambassador Gilad Erdan ???? ???? (@giladerdan1) March 22, 2022
Iran Deal Includes ‘Quid Pro Quo’ To Enrich Russia, House Republican Says
The Biden administration's new nuclear deal with Iran includes a "quid pro quo" with Russia that will enable it to make billions of dollars performing otherwise sanctioned work on Tehran's nuclear sites, according to Rep. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.), a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.Iran Forms Special Security Unit to Protect Nuclear Scientists, Facilities
Issa and other Republican foreign policy voices are galvanizing in opposition to the soon-to-be-announced deal following a classified briefing for HFAC members held late last week. Lawmakers who attended the closed-door session were provided with a readout on the current state of negotiations by U.S. special envoy for Iran Robert Malley and Brett McGurk, White House coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa.
Issa, who spoke to the Washington Free Beacon following the classified brief, would not discuss its contents but said it is clear the Biden administration will waive sanctions that have stopped Russia from building out portions of Iran's contested nuclear infrastructure, describing this carveout as a "quid pro quo" with Moscow.
"Biden is managing to pull off an incredible feat: Help Iran go nuclear and help Russia get rich helping them do it," Issa told the Free Beacon. "No question about it. This is a quid pro quo the administration has negotiated with the Iranians and Russians that Biden intends to deliver by executive fiat."
The Free Beacon first reported last week that Iran has a $10 billion contract with Russia's state-controlled energy firm, Rosatom, that will see Moscow construct new portions of Iran's Bushehr nuclear plant. Trump administration sanctions stopped this work, but as part of the new nuclear agreement, these sanctions will be lifted so the work can go ahead. Already, the Biden administration has waived certain sanctions that blocked Russia, China, and others from engaging in nuclear work with Iran.
The concessions to Russia and Iran have sparked widespread outrage from Republican lawmakers, who accuse the Biden administration of gifting Russia with sanctions relief even as it wages an unprovoked war in Ukraine. While the Biden administration has avoided briefing lawmakers during the course of its yearlong diplomacy with Iran, details are emerging that indicate the agreement will be weaker than the original 2015 accord.
Iran is growing increasingly concerned about the potential threats to its nuclear program and related personnel, and plans to set up a special security force to protect them, Iranian media reported this week.
The new unit will be under the control of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ intelligence unit and will be called the “Nuclear Facilities Defense Command,” according to the report.
The command will be part of Iran’s intelligence apparatus, and will be tasked with protecting sensitive facilities from sabotage and high-profile individuals linked with the nuclear program from assassination “by Israel and other hostile elements.” Multiple Iranian nuclear facilities have been attacked and several Iranian nuclear scientists have been assassinated since 2010, including Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, believed to be the head of Iran’s nuclear weapons program.
Iranian Satellite Expert Hossein Dalirian: Our Satellites Can Obtain Sensitive Information about Our Enemies Like the Locations, Movement of Israeli Forces #Iran #JCPOA pic.twitter.com/P0Xikhaci2
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) March 22, 2022
In first, undercover cameraman documents life in Tehran for Israeli television
An Iranian dissident has filmed a series of reports from Tehran for Israeli television, depicting the country’s cratering economy, frustrated residents, drug abuse and prostitution.Houthis Renew Attacks Against Saudi Arabia
Channel 12 said the first report in the series, broadcast on Sunday, marked the first time cameras working for Israeli television had operated in Iran since the ayatollahs took power in 1979.
The dissident said he took the risk of walking around the capital Tehran with the camera, usually hidden, to document daily life, out of a feeling of “revenge” against the regime.
His identity was kept secret for his safety, and the people he interviewed had their faces blurred and voices disguised to prevent identification.
“To our sorrow, we don’t have independence here, there’s no freedom, no democracy and no normal life. There is dictatorship, theft and crime. I know what I’m doing, and it’s definitely very dangerous,” the cameraman said.
“I know the consequences of my actions. You have to stand and fight, and not give up. I hope that soon Iran will be freed from the dictators,” he said.
The average Iranian’s main daily concern is cost of living, the report said. International sanctions over Iran’s nuclear program and government policies have caused soaring inflation.
The cameraman visited one of Tehran’s main shopping areas to gauge public sentiment in the crowded alleys packed with shoppers and storefronts.
On Sunday, Houthi spokesperson, Yahya Sare’e, announced the Iran-backed militant organization launched the second and third phase of operations by targeting numerous Saudi oil facilities and other energy infrastructure.Former CAIR Official Cheers for America's Enemies
“The armed forces carried out the second phase of breaking the siege by bombing a number of vital and important targets in the areas of Abha, Khamis Mushait, Jizan, Samtah and Dhahran al-Janoub with a groups of ballistic and winged missiles and drones,” Sare’e said in a tweet.
Hours later, Sare’e announced a second and third attack involving drones and Quds-2 ballistic missiles.
Saudi Arabia’s official press agency published a statement Sunday confirming the assaults and condemned the Houthi’s acts of terrorism on civilians.
“[On] Saturday March 19, 2022, at around 11:30 PM a drone assault was made on the petroleum products distribution terminal in Jizan in the southeast of the Kingdom. Two additional drone attacks were made today, Sunday March 20, 2022, at around 5:30 AM, on Yanbu’s natural gas plant, and shortly after, on the facilities of Yanbu Aramco Sinopec Refining Company,” the statement said.
The Joint Forces Command of the Saudi-led coalition noted that it successfully intercepted both a ballistic missile and drones during the Houthi offensive.
“The Royal Saudi Air Defense Force and Royal Saudi Air Force have intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile launched towards Jazan City, in addition to 9 bomb-laden drones launched towards Jazan, Khamis Mushait, Taif, Yanbu and Dhahran al-Janub,” the coalition said.
This weekend’s attacks occurred a little over one week after the Houthi’s announced the “First Siege Breaking Operation.”
Hassan Shibly, the former head of Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), has cheered on terrorist organizations responsible for the deaths of U.S. soldiers.The Hate That CAIR Loves to Defend
In a Facebook post authored on March 16, 2022, Shibly wrote that he has "tremendous respect for every Ukrainian that picks up an AK-47 or a Molotov Cocktail and risks their life fighting invading Russian forces. But I am principled, I also respect the Palestinians, Iraqis, and Afghans who did the same."
With this post, Shibly appears to cheer on terror organizations that have killed thousands of family members of his neighbors in the U.S. in battle over the past two decades.
He also seems to legitimize undeniably bad actors, such as the Taliban, Al Qaeda in Iraq, and Hamas by comparing them to the efforts of the Ukrainian government and its president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, to defend its citizens from an invading army that attacked without provocation.
It's not a good look for an activist who is intent on shaping the opinion of his fellow Americans, but then again, Shibly has posted similar statements in the past.
For example, October 21, 2021, he called on American Muslims to work for the release of Aafia Siddiqui who in 2010, was convicted for the attempted murder and assault of U.S. troops in Afghanistan. He has also said hateful things about homosexuals.
In April 2021, National Public Radio reported on numerous accusations of sexual harassment that preceded his resignation as executive director of CAIR's Florida chapter.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is again making it clear that its understanding of antisemitism stops at the moment that Israel — the birthplace of Judaism, whose existence is supported by more than 90 percent of the world’s Jews — is mentioned favorably.Lyn Julius: Amnesty’s Blinkered Anti-Zionism Is a Recipe for Disaster
Last week, CAIR’s Philadelphia chapter filed an EEOC complaint, alleging employment discrimination by a posh Pennsylvania private school. Natalie Abulhawa was fired from her job as an athletic trainer at the Agnes Irwin School in Bryn Mawr, due to a review of her social media posts, which cursed “Zionists” with a crude and sexist term; another said that “Israel doesn’t have a right to exist.”
School officials saw the posts in Abulhawa’s profile page on the website of Canary Mission, which is devoted to “Exposing hatred and anti-Semitism on college campuses and beyond.”
In a 2014 post, Abulhawa compared the Holocaust to the Palestinian plight: “One day our children will be learning about the Palestinian holocaust, just like we learned about the Jewish holocaust.”
She repeatedly cursed Zionists during a 2016 trip to the Middle East, including one post in which she wrote, “F*** each and every single Zionist on this planet. I hope they rot in f***ing hell. F***ing c**ts.” But CAIR’s national office defended Abulhawa last Thursday, casting these comments as “criticizing the Israeli government’s apartheid and occupation of #Palestine.”
Abulhawa only recently started work at the Agnes Irwin School, a private, all-girls preparatory school with about 600 students and annual tuition ranging from $22,000 for kindergarten to $43,000 for high school juniors and seniors. Having a faculty member rage against all “each and every” person who supports the existence of a Jewish state probably isn’t the image officials wanted.
Ironically, the million Jews who fled the MENA region they had inhabited since 1,000 years before the rise of Islam were victims of “apartheid” by Amnesty International’s own definition: “deprivation, segregation, fragmentation and dispossession.” Amnesty’s silence on this massive injustice is deafening. And, needless to say, the 650,000 Jews who sought a haven in Israel from Arab and Muslim countries and now form a majority of Israeli Jews did not escape in order to find themselves once more under Arab-Muslim domination.
Until the colonial era granted them greater security, Jews occupied a space in the Muslim polity—“the Jewish quarter in an Arab town.” They lived as inferior “dhimmis” at the mercy of the ruler of the day and paid him the jizya tax, i.e. protection money. Under a benevolent ruler, the Jews could thrive.
At other times, they could not escape violence and oppression. They might have exercised influence as courtiers or advisers, but they never exercised power. To them, the “core Jewish values” evoked by O’Brien meant powerlessness—knowing your place, keeping your head down and accepting “dhimmitude,” which was, again, apartheid according to Amnesty itself. For all intents and purposes, O’Brien is advocating that Jews revert to their former status as a vulnerable minority.
It is likely that the Jews Paul O’Brien meets are the type who belong to Jewish Voice for Peace, delusional liberals who are willing to trade in Jewish sovereignty for his “core Jewish values.” These individuals aim “to promote Jewish powerlessness once again, in an effort to restore the apparent moral purity of a Jewish powerless existence,” as the Israeli academic and former politician Einat Wilf puts it.
Holocaust survivors, Ethiopian Jews, Soviet Jews, Middle Eastern and North African Jews and now Ukrainian Jews have found an unconditional haven in a sovereign Jewish state that is committed to defending them. They all know that Jewish powerlessness is a luxury that liberal American Jews may aspire to, but most Israeli Jews can ill afford.
How sick, how demented and infested with unhinged Jew hatred must you be, that as Russia is literally carpet bombing Ukraine into oblivion, you choose to focus your energy on attacking Israel and conveying such bigotry and antisemitism! @amnesty @amnestyusa https://t.co/6WG77MW5Vq
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) March 21, 2022
Hey @amnesty, Google how many Jews live in Areas A and B and in Gaza. Let me know what you galaxy-brain individuals come up with
— Erielle Davidson (@politicalelle) March 22, 2022
Aww how sad pic.twitter.com/CC0PiowGK9
— South African Friends of Israel (@MZANSIISRAEL) March 20, 2022
Debunking Anti-Zionist Misinformation Campaigns at US Colleges
Finally, one of the most common lies spread by anti-Zionist campaigns is that Zionism is a settler-colonial genocidal ideology, and that Israel is an “apartheid state” This lie has been debunked repeatedly (see here and here). There is no such thing as Israeli “apartheid” — Arab Israelis serve in the ruling government coalition, in the Knesset, the Supreme Court, and in every facet of public and private life.National Union of Students Invites Rapper Who Sings About ‘Zionist Lobby’ to Perform, Tells Complaining Jewish Students to Segregate Themselves
Zionism and Palestinian autonomy can coexist side by side. You can be supportive of Palestinian rights without being anti-Zionist — yet most anti-Zionists never even acknowledge Palestinian terror, violence, and rejection of opportunities for a Palestinian state.
There are many ways to fight for Palestinian rights, including supporting initiatives and organizations that foster economic and social development for Palestinians, or calling out the injustices committed by the Palestinian Authority and Hamas. Is the delegitimization of the national movement of the Jewish people the path to Palestinian independence?
Anti-Zionism is not only antisemitic — as it denies a basic right exclusively to Jews — but it is also detrimental to Palestinians and their efforts at self-determination; it diverts attention from their cause and instead focuses on the demonization of the Jewish people, our history, and our legitimate rights.
Zionist students need to stand for the truth; we cannot allow Zionism to be redefined in such a libelous manner.
Every coin is a bullet if you’re Marks and Spencer. And when you’re sipping Coca-Cola, that’s another pistol in the holster of the soles soldier. You say you know about the Zionist lobby, but you put money in their pocket when you’re buying their coffee […] How many more resolutions have to be violated? How many more children have to be annihilated? Israel is a terror state, they’re terrorists that terrorize. I testify, my television televised them telling lies. This is not a war, it is systematic genocide.”National Union of Students condemn 'harassment' of anti-Zionist rapper Lowkey
These are just a few of the lyrics of British rapper Lowkey’s 2011 single ‘Long Live Palestine.’ In another song, titled ‘Terrorist?,’ Lowkey — whose real name is Kareem Dennis — downplays the threat of suicide bombers, as well as terrorism against Israeli citizens.
In 2011, when ‘Terrorist?‘ was released, at least 20 people died in Israel as a result of terror attacks.
Given the anti-Jewish bigotry espoused in his lyrics, which clearly fall foul of the IHRA’s working definition of antisemitism, one must wonder why the National Union of Students (NUS), which represents more than seven million students in the United Kingdom, thought it was appropriate to invite him to perform at a conference marking its centenary.
In addition to lyrics that peddle antisemitic tropes, Lowkey has previously defended former UK member of parliament Chris Williamson, who claimed the Labour Party had been “too apologetic” over allegations of antisemitism within its ranks.
Lowkey has also found the time to lend support to sacked Bristol University professor David Miller, who accused Israel of being a “violent, racist, foreign regime engaged in ethnic cleansing” and suggested students who took issue with his views were “political pawns” of the Jewish state.
Most recently, Lowkey was interviewed by Williamson alongside Miller and claimed European antisemites are aligned with the “Zionist movement.”
It should be noted the interview, which was posted on Twitter, was part of a series called “Palestine Declassified” — aired by Iran’s state-controlled Press TV, which had its press license revoked by the UK’s regulatory body Ofcom in 2012 for breaching the Communications Act.
National Union of Students (NUS) officials have condemned “harassment and misinformation” directed at rapper Lowkey after Jewish leaders expressed their dismay that he was booked to play the organisation’s conference.NUS Run Scared from Education Committee Amid Lowkey Scandal
Writing to students today, the body said they invited the anti-Israel musician to appear because: “we feel his contribution would have been invaluable to students’ discussions on decolonising education, class injustice, and divesting from companies that harm people and planet globally [sic].”
Lowkey has previously promoted 9/11 conspiracy theories in a poem and promoted Chris Williamson and controversial former academic David Miller.
The NUS was accused of “segregating” Jews after it reportedly said that Jewish students uncomfortable with the rapper headlining the union’s meeting could always go to another room during his performance.
In today’s statement, the union hit back, saying Lowkey - whose real name is Kareem Dennis - had chosen to pull out of performing at the NUS Liberation Conference to be held this month.
The letter says: “Whilst we welcome genuine political debate, we’ve been sad to see the use of harassment and misinformation against Lowkey.
“We condemn these tactics used against anybody, but particularly towards activists and people of colour.
“No one should be subject to hate, or abuse, or feeling fearful in our spaces, or in any space at all.”
Anyone expecting the NUS to give pause for thought after the Lowkey annual conference debacle probably doesn’t know the NUS. Following the Lowkey scandal, the NUS have demonstrated their inability to manage a crisis, this time by refusing to appear in front of the Education Select Committee this morning to discuss – surprise, surprise – antisemitism on campuses. Apparently their one and only representative was just too ill to appear…
Speaking this morning, Committee chair Robert Halfon tore into the group for no-showing:
“I have to say, the NUS has shown great reluctance to appear before us today. We first contacted them over 3 weeks ago inviting them to appear, and got no response. It took 6 emails and 7 phone calls before the NUS finally agreed to send a representative. And then we were told yesterday at 4:30 that the NUS could no longer attend because the representative was unwell. We asked for a replacement, and that was refused. I do think it disappointing that NUS responded in this way… and are not willing to appear before our committee. We will call them in for a separate session, they should be accountable to Parliament… there are some recent controversies involving antisemitism that involve the [NUS] and it would have been good to question them on this. I genuinely find it incomprehensible that [the NUS] was, in essence, unwilling to come and talk…”
Falling ill just hours before their scheduled appearance. The NUS must be so disappointed. Guido wishes their representative a speedy recovery.
Is Antifa bad for Israel?
Antifa, short for anti-facist, is an ideological movement with many strains of thought. In 2020, the movement caught public attention for the involvement of some local cells in violent riots in the United States.PreOccupiedTerritory: I Cite Heinous Strawmen To Discredit Zionism But Real Communism Has Never Been Tried by Nigel Chadwick, Momentum activist (satire)
Andy Ngo, a journalist who documents far left violence and radicalism, told the Magazine that Antifa is no friend of Israel.
“Most Jewish people would be sympathetic to any cause that claims to be antifascist, given history” said Ngo. “[Antifa] call themselves antifascists, but who they describe as fascist is anyone who dares to oppose them. It’s a strategy popularized by communists a century ago. And many Antifa adherents view the state of Israel as a fascist state, adopting the language of the far-left and calling them colonizing genocidaires. Antifa have also been involved in targeting people who have dared to show up to show support for Israel at demonstrations in the US.”
“Antifa ideology isn’t in itself antisemitic, but they claim to be fighting antisemitism while often trafficking in antisemitic tropes. For example, calling Israelis Nazis, fascists and white supremacists,” Ngo continued.
Ngo warns that Antifa’s goal is to abolish states.
This would include the State of Israel.
He also noted that the violence that they use to achieve this objective is familiar to Israelis. “Israelis will understand much better than anybody what Hamas and other violent extremists in the Palestinian territories do,” Ngo explained. “They intentionally embed themselves around innocent people who get killed or injured in the course of warfare and then use those casualties as propaganda against Israel. Advocacy groups and journalists often do not independently verify or contextualize those claims before repeating it to a global audience.”
Progressive movements such as ours face a challenge in drawing important distinctions between the causes we support and those that earn our opposition. That challenge, and the importance of the distinctions, increases when, to the unenlightened or obtuse observer, we appear to apply double standards. For that reason, I make sure to demonize the movement for secure Jewish sovereignty in the ancestral Jewish homeland by pointing to atrocities – real, exaggerated, or imagined – perpetrated by those who pursue that cause, because those depravities taint the entire movement, regardless of the peaceful intellectual basis for the pursuit; I also dismiss the hundred million victims of those who follow Marx, Lenin, Mao, Stalin, et al. by insisting that not once has anyone made a genuine or successful attempt to implement those ideologies, and we therefore cannot judge the movement by the failed attempts, but must look only at the purity of the theory and the bliss it would usher in if properly implemented.From Berkeley to LA Times Suhauna Hussain’s Journey In Unethical Journalism
Allow me to illustrate with a concrete example, with the order inverted. Proper Communists attribute the body count associated with so-called Communist regimes not to the ideology, or even to the good-hearted leaders of those regimes, but to the corrupt influence and machinations of the bourgeois capitalists both within and outside the country, whose fear of true equality and utopia derives from the power and wealth they stand to lose once our Workers’ Paradise gets into gear; getting rid of those bourgeois capitalists required bloodshed, and will probably require more if we are to continue our pursuit of that utopia. But no such considerations come into play vis-à-vis Zionism! Never may a right-thinking person entertain the notion that opposition to Zionism, and not Zionism itself, caused the bloodshed – despite the appealing veracity of that approach and its eerie reflection of documented history, we must resist the temptation to get snared by its false portrayal.
From student editor responsible for the publication of a notorious cartoon oozing antisemitic motifs to Los Angeles Times tech writer practicing unethical journalism in service of the anti-Israel BDS (boycott, divest, sanctions) movement, it was a short road for Suhauna Hussain.
In 2017, as an Opinion Editor of University of California, Berkeley’s Daily Cal, Hussain approved the publication of a virulently antisemitic cartoon depicting a spider-shaped Alan Dershowitz hiding behind a mask of liberalism while his foot crushed a Palestinian man and his blood-drenched hand cupped an Israeli soldier shooting a young Palestinian civilian. At the time, UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ slammed the image as “offensive, appalling and deeply disappointing” and charged that “its anti-Semitic imagery connects directly to the centuries-old ‘blood libel’ that falsely accused Jews of engaging in ritual murder.”
The subsequent apologetic editor’s note citing the “need for a more critical editing eye, and a stronger understanding of the violent history and contemporary manifestations of anti-Semitism,” apparently had little lasting impact on Hussain’s journalistic compass for fair and professional reporting about Israel and Jews.
Last year, she was one of at least 10 Los Angeles Times journalists who repudiated the fundamental values of ethical journalism when she endorsed the open letter signed by hundreds of journalists calling for advocacy reporting featuring a fixed mold starring Israeli oppressors imposing “military occupation and apartheid” and hapless Palestinian victims (“From journalists, to journalists: Why reporting on Palestine has to change”).
Guardian promotes antisemitic 'deadly exchange' campaign
So, the entire article is based on a few sentences in an early draft of a memo in which two ADL executives asked questions about their law enforcement training programmes, but ultimately came to the conclusion that those concerns were unfounded.
Later in the Guardian article, we’re told the following:
Activists have protested against the ADL’s Israel trips through a campaign called Deadly Exchange. In 2020, a coalition of activist groups – including the Movement for Black Lives, Jewish Voice for Peace, and the Arab Resource and Organizing Center – also launched a “Drop the ADL” campaign, citing its ties to law enforcement.
First, it seems likely that these radical activist groups compromised by antisemitism are the so-called “civil rights” groups critical of ADL the Guardian mentioned earlier in the piece. Further, it’s telling that the co-authors uncritically cited and linked to the “Drop the ADL” campaign – whose website is full of lies about the respected Jewish organisation, such as this:
[ADL] has a history and ongoing pattern of attacking social justice movements led by communities of color, queer people, immigrants, Muslims, Arabs, and other marginalized groups, while aligning itself with police, right-wing leaders, and perpetrators of state violence
On another page of the StoptheADL website, they defend Louis Farrakhan-supporting anti-Semites such as former Women’s March leader Tamika Mallory, characterise ADL as racist for supporting Israel’s right to exist, legitimise the odious lie that Israel is engaging in “genocide”, describe Israeli security personnel as “Israeli racial supremacist forces” and justify Palestinian terrorist groups as “popular resistance movements”.
In short, the Guardian article promotes the extremism of organisations like JVP which, under the guise of ‘anti-racist intersectionality’, consistently stoke antisemitism by smearing as racist mainstream Jewish organisations. The “leaked memos” amount to a nothing-burger of a story. The main take-away of the article is how the Guardian has again found a way to normalise antisemitism under the guise of ‘mere’ anti-Zionism.
Wow! Jews account for barely 1% of the population in #Canada, yet 62% of all religiously motivated hate crimes in 2020! #antisemitism https://t.co/hsEXRYU4Or
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) March 21, 2022
INSANITY - Frank Abrokwa was previously charged with attacking a woman with feces and spitting at a Jewish man has just been arrested for the 3rd time in just one month!@NYCMayor @NYGov @GovKathyHochul - this is outrageous! https://t.co/8pqjjdnrFr pic.twitter.com/0B46x0AJ9K
— StopAntisemitism.org (@StopAntisemites) March 22, 2022
?? Houston - residents of Heights East in the 1400 block of Arlington Street are reporting of large antisemitic flier drops in the neighborhood.
— StopAntisemitism.org (@StopAntisemites) March 21, 2022
The same group were responsible for a similar stunt back in February and were found to have ties to the white supremacist group NSM. pic.twitter.com/GYUH42cypv
A huge leap: Israeli researchers build country’s first quantum computer
An Israeli team of researchers has built the country’s first quantum computer, a major feat that has been years in the making, according to Prof. Roee Ozeri of the Weizmann Institute of Science, an expert in quantum computing research in the Department of Physics of Complex Systems.Danish MP receives prestigious award for supporting Israel
Ozeri told The Times of Israel in a phone interview Tuesday that he and a team of PhD students at his university lab have been working on the different elements of the computer for several years and have spent the past two to three years assembling the device.
“There was a lot of time invested in the know-how and in putting together the building blocks for the quantum computer,” he said. The project was led by Dr. Tom Manovitz, a quantum computing researcher, and research student Yotam Shapira, and was published Tuesday in PRX Quantum, a peer-reviewed journal published by the American Physical Society (APS).
The device is one of about 30 quantum computers in the world in different stages and one of fewer than 10 that use ion traps, an advanced technology that confines ions (molecules with a net electrical charge) in a small space using magnetic or/and electric fields. Trapped ions can form the basis of quantum bits, or qubits, the basic unit of quantum information.
Whereas classical computers carry out logical operations based on one of two positions — 1 or 0, on or off, up or down — quantum computers can keep qubits in “superposition,” a principle of quantum mechanics where they are both simultaneously. In this state, quantum computers “can crunch through a vast number of potential outcomes simultaneously,” according to an MIT Technology Review explanation.
There is also the concept of entanglement, where pairs of qubits exist in a single quantum state. “Quantum computers harness entangled qubits in a kind of quantum daisy chain to work their magic. The machines’ ability to speed up calculations using specially designed quantum algorithms is why there’s so much buzz about their potential,” according to the magazine.
The Jerusalem Prize, given annually to a leading public figure who supports Israel, was awarded to Danish MP Lars Aslan Rasmussen on Saturday.
Aslan Rasmussen is a member of the ruling Social Democrats Party and Denmark’s representative in European Parliament human-rights committees.
The award was given to him at an event in Copenhagen by Gusti Joshua Braverman, head of the WZO’s Department for Organization and Liaison with Israelis in the Diaspora. It was attended by Israeli Ambassador to Denmark David Akov, Zionist Federation of Denmark chairman Max Meyer, the chairman of the Jewish community of Denmark, some of the country’s Jewish politicians and heads of Jewish organizations.
“I have always believed that Jews, like all other peoples, have a right to their state,” Aslan Rasmussen told The Jerusalem Post. “When you are Kurdish yourself, you especially understand the desire not to always be in the minority and be oppressed.”
Aslan Rasmussen is considered to be one of the rising stars in Danish politics. He is the son of an immigrant who grew up in one of Copenhagen’s immigrant neighborhoods. His mother grew up in Denmark; his father, a Kurd of Turkish descent, came to the country as a migrant worker.
Although he grew up in immigrant neighborhoods, many of whose residents are from the Middle East and have a hostile opinion of Israel, Aslan Rasmussen is one of the country’s most prominent members of Parliament who support Israel.
His grandfather on his mother’s side was an underground partisan against the Nazis in World War II and saved many Jews during the Holocaust. From an early age, Aslan Rasmussen was educated to support Israel and the Jewish state.
For the first time ever, Israel’s national anthem “Hatikvah” was played in #Cairo stadium as Israeli gymnast Artem Dolgopyat won the gold medal ?? ???? ????
— Emily Schrader - ????? ?????? (@emilykschrader) March 22, 2022
Mabrouk and mazel tov Artem! ???? pic.twitter.com/hpDr2zyMN4
Here is a copy of the original deed of the synagogue in #Bahrain from 1931. Today, it is the only functioning synagogue in the GCC pic.twitter.com/xQTSBniixR
— Association of Gulf Jewish Communities (AGJC) (@gulfjewish) March 3, 2022
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