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Sunday, October 30, 2022

10/30 Links: Will US-Russia policy give Iran the bomb and kill the Abraham Accords?; Caroline Glick: Jewish sovereignty is on the ballot; Academic anti-colonialism can distort Jewish history

From Ian:

Will US-Russia policy give Iran the bomb and kill the Abraham Accords?
The Biden administration has been pursuing a reckless policy toward Russia that has far-reaching implications that threaten American, European and Israeli security; emboldens Iran; and undermines opportunities for expanding the Abraham Accords. That is a foreign policy trifecta disaster.

Everyone understands President Joe Biden's reluctance to do anything that Russia might interpret as sufficiently threatening to escalate the conflict to war with the US He is calibrating the weapons supply by providing some weapons to defend itself and go on the offensive. He still stubbornly refuses to supply aircraft or long-range weapons that would allow Ukraine to hit targets in Russia. We have helped prevent Russia from overrunning the country but not enough to expel the invaders completely. The problem is that the fear of President Vladimir Putin using nuclear weapons is reinforcing their deterrent value to other nations, notably Iran.

Why would anyone expect Iran to give up its nuclear ambition now? Even before the war in Ukraine, Iran was encouraged by the success of North Korea in holding the West at bay and keenly aware of the fates of the nukeless Saddam Hussein and Moammar Gadhafi.

Even with a bomb, or several, Iran does not pose the same danger as Russia with its nearly 6,000 nuclear warheads and ICBMs that can reach the US Still, a regime that has expressed a willingness to use nuclear weapons, has missiles that can reach Israel and Europe, and wants to develop an ICBM is a menace. Iran need not use nukes in a first strike, the mere possession of them will deter any potential attacker. Iran can use nuclear blackmail against its neighbors and make it infinitely riskier for Israel to take on Hezbollah. Anyone who thinks the Iranian would play by the same MAD (mutual assured destruction) rules as the Russians doesn't know anything about the rulers and their theology.

The Iranians understand why the US would not attack Russia but based on the way we cut and run from Afghanistan, and failed to respond to their provocations, the mullahs see Biden as weak. Furthermore, with our attention focused on Russia-Ukraine and, secondarily, on China, they have little reason to fear any American use of force to prevent their intensifying march toward nuclearization. The administration would likely be even angrier at any Israeli strike that could lead to a conflagration in the Middle East and distract from the focus on the big two.

Still, how can Biden stand by and do nothing as the Iranians provide Russia with drones to attack Ukraine? Israel has responded to Iran setting up factories and deploying forces in Syria. Is there nothing the US can do to prevent Iran's weapons delivery to Russia? A bill introduced in Congress will do nothing but impose yet more useless sanctions.
Caroline Glick: Jewish sovereignty is on the ballot
Most of Israel’s commentators insist that Tuesday’s Knesset elections—the fifth in fewer than four years—are about the same thing the last four were about: Benjamin Netanyahu. If you vote for Netanyahu’s Likud Party, or for the other three parties in his right-religious bloc, then you are for Netanyahu. If you vote for caretaker Prime Minister Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid party, or for any of the members of his left-Arab bloc, then you are against Netanyahu. Nothing else is up for grabs.

The notion that politics in Israel can be boiled down to whether a person loves or hates Netanyahu was never true, at least for voters. Naftali Bennett, Ayelet Shaked, Gideon Sa’ar and their colleagues in the Yamina and New Hope parties who bolted the right and formed the current left-Arab government are rightly viewed as having betrayed their voters. Last May they put their hatred and envy of Netanyahu above their professed ideology and their voters to oust their camp from power and give Israel its first post-Zionist government.

Today, there is no “Never Bibi” right. Bennett isn’t running. Shaked is about to be wiped out at the polls. Sa’ar has joined Defense Minister Benny Gantz’s leftist National Unity Party.

Life in Israel has also moved on from where it stood in May 2021. Back then, it was still credible to call Netanyahu—whose corruption trial was in its opening stages—a crook. But in the intervening 18 months, the prosecution’s case against Netanyahu has completely disintegrated.

So too, the left-Arab bloc has shown it is incompetent to lead the country. Netanyahu gave his successors a country with a fast-growing economy, even as the global economy was sunk in deep recession following the Covid-19 lockdowns. Today, the economy is on a sharp downward trajectory. Inflation is galloping forward with no end in sight. And the middle class is straining to keep itself above water as prices outstrip wages.

Then there is Israel’s international and regional position. When Netanyahu was sent into the political wilderness a year and a half ago, Israel was at the pinnacle of its regional power and global stature.
Final polls before Nov. 1 elections show Netanyahu’s bloc just shy of parliamentary majority
Three separate final polls prior to Israel’s Nov. 1 elections showed opposition leader and Likud Party head Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing/religious bloc standing one seat shy of a parliamentary majority.

Polls by Channel 12, Channel 13 and the Kan public broadcaster all predicted the Netanyahu-led bloc securing 60 mandates, one short of a majority in the 120-member Knesset.

The surveys all found Prime Minister Yair Lapid’s current coalition partners together garnering 56 seats, with the Arab-majority Hadash-Ta’al faction forecast to receive four mandates.

Lapid is on record stating that he would not sit with Hadash-Ta’al in a future government.

Israel’s election laws ban the publication of polls in the immediate days before the vote.

More specifically, the surveys showed the Likud winning 30-31 seats, which would make it the largest party in the next Knesset. Lapid’s Yesh Atid looks set to garner 24-27 mandates, while Religious Zionism was predicted to be the third largest party with 14-15 seats.

Israelis will head to the ballot box on Tuesday for the country’s fifth national vote in less than four years.


UN: This is likely deadliest year for West Bank Palestinians since 2005
Israel's Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan accused Mansour of painting a "false picture of reality." Israel is not a "colonial power" given that it is located on its ancient ancestral territory, Erdan explained.

He noted that in 1947, the UN accepted a partition plan for the region that established both an Arab and a Jewish state, with the Jews accepting the plan and the Arabs rejecting it.

Palestinian terror existed from before the creation of the state of Israel, Erdan said, adding that this terror has grown exponentially. It didn't grow on its own it's the result of decades of hate and inclement fostered by the Palestinian Authority, Erdan said.

The PA might play the victim at the UN but on the street it praises terrorists, and it pays out monthly stipends to those jailed for such acts of terror, Erdain said, adding it also rejected each peace plan that has been put forward.

The US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield called on both Israelis and Palestinians to take steps to halt the spiraling violence.

"We call on Israeli and Palestinian authorities to do everything in their power to prevent such violence. This means security forces on both sides must refrain from taking uncoordinated actions that degrade the cooperation that had endured difficult times.

"Just as we have called on the Palestinian Authority to do more to prevent attacks, we also call on Israel to apply equal resources and equal vigor to prevent and investigate all violent attacks against Palestinians.

"All perpetrators must be held accountable for their outrageous attacks. The world must see that arrests, convictions, and punishments are carried out without bias," Thomas-Greenfield said.
US Ambassador to UN: Don't rubber stamp anti-Israel resolutions
The United Nations should stop rubber-stamping anti-Israel resolutions and work instead to advance peace between Israelis and Palestinians, the United States Ambassador to the UN in New York Linda Thomas-Greenfield said.

She spoke in advance of the UN General Assembly’s anticipated annual passage of a slate of what has been some 20 resolutions targeting Israel, in many cases for its treatment of the Palestinians.

Israel is the only country against whom the UNGA annually issues so many texts. Many of them are voted twice, once at a committee level in draft form and a second time at the UNGA’s plenum.

“As we head into the height of the committee season, we are once again facing a disproportionate number of resolutions with an unfair focus on Israel,” Thomas-Greenfield told the UN Security Council on Friday during its monthly meeting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“These one-sided resolutions and activities are a distraction and do nothing to improve the situation on the ground.”

“These outdated texts do not reflect the changing realities on the ground with new possibilities for cooperation ushered in through the Abraham Accords and other normalization agreements,” Thomas-Greenfield said.
Israel must get rid of its nuclear weapons, UNGA majority decides
Israel must dispose of all its nuclear weapons and place its nuclear sites under the International Atomic Energy Agency’s purview, the United Nations General Assembly’s First Committee stated in an initial 152-5 vote.

The five nations that opposed Friday’s resolution on the “risk of nuclear proliferation in the Middle East” were: Canada, Israel, Micronesia, Palau and the United States. Another 24 countries abstained, including European Union members.

The annual resolution submitted by Egypt to the UNGA in New York was sponsored by the Palestinian Authority and 19 counties including Bahrain, Jordan, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates.

Targeting Israel but not Iran
The resolution largely targets Israel, which is believed to be one of only nine nations to possess nuclear weapons. Israel has never admitted to having such weapons.

The resolution notes that Israel is the only country in the Middle East and one of the few among the UN’s 193 member states, which has not signed the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons Treaty (NPT).
Iran, which is a signatory to the treaty, is believed to be on the path to developing nuclear weapons. Despite this, the resolution did not mention Iran.

The resolution reaffirmed “the importance of Israel’s accession to the NPT and placement of all its nuclear facilities under comprehensive international atomic Energy Nancy safeguards, in realizing the goal of universal adherence to the Treaty in the Middle East.”
Natan Sharansky ’embarrassed’ by lack of Israeli support for Ukraine
Natan Sharansky, former cabinet minister and the chairman of the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center board, said he was “embarrassed” after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky chastised the Israeli government for its policies on Ukraine.

During a meeting last week, Zelensky told Sharansky, who was a former political prisoner of the Soviet Union, that with the exception of Hungary, Israel was the only country “in the free world” that has not supplied Ukraine with weapons in its war with Russia, Ynet reported.

The Ukrainian president said that there are only a few countries capable of providing Ukraine with the air defense systems it needs to defend itself from aerial attack, and that it is “only natural that Israel is one of them.”

After their one-on-one meeting in Kyiv, which lasted 20 minutes and was followed by a longer one with the entire board — and was interrupted by a blackout — Sharansky admitted, “I was embarrassed to be the first Israeli public figure to meet with him. Since the outbreak of the war, many world leaders have come to Kyiv to meet with Zelensky in order to strengthen him.”

“No one has come from Israel, not even a Knesset delegation. It’s really a disgrace. In every meeting there is massive disappointment with Israel,” Sharansky said.

Though it has sent multiple shipments of humanitarian aid to Ukraine, Israel has repeatedly rebuffed Kyiv’s requests for defensive weapons, specifically missile defense systems that could be used to fend off Russian bombardments, despite expressing sympathy for the country’s plight.
Ukrainian ambassador: US is the only country Israel listens to
Ukraine is pushing the US to pressure Israel into providing weapons to the country, with Ukrainian Ambassador to Israel Yevgen Korniychuck stating on Sunday that "the Americans are the only country that Israel is listening to," according to The Hill.

Korniychuck did welcome Israeli aid "on some technical issues related to defense," pointing to promises by Israeli officials to provide an advanced warning system to help alert civilians of incoming attacks, but pushed that "we are expecting more from Israel of course."

The Ukrainian ambassador told The Hill that he meets with US Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides weekly, calling him his "secret weapon" in getting Israel to provide defense support to Ukraine.

"I’m joking, but I’m calling him [Nides] our secret weapon. This is why we discuss the different measures of support, and again, we need to change this major trend that makes Israel’s position different from the rest of the democratic world, and have more military technical cooperation," said Korniychuck.

Korniychuck also stressed that he was pushing the US to get Israel to more strictly enforce sanctions against Russia.

The Ukrainian ambassador pointed out that Iran, an enemy of Israel, was providing Russia with drones and training to use them in its ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

"Especially now, when Russia started to collaborate with Iran, that triggers, of course, much greater tensions among the Israeli politicians and military experts, and the [people in the] street to help Ukraine, just because, eventually, Iran becomes part of the coalition against Ukraine.”
Step-by-Step: How Lebanon Out-Negotiated Israel, Amos Hochstein and Yair Lapid
It was obvious to everyone in Israel that Israeli PM Yair Lapid wanted to close the deal before the upcoming elections, and the US needed to close the deal before former PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s possibly returned to office, who would scuttle the fire sale.

Saab adds that not only did he never once used the word “negotiations” but told Hochstein Lebanon’s president wouldn’t end his term before he signs an order unilaterally declaring Line 29 as Lebanese territory, if it comes to that. Kais points out that this unilateral declaration would legitimize any acts of Hezbollah aggression up to Line 29 in the eyes of the Lebanese.

Saab describes this as his last bullet in the chamber that he would use only at the end, and that Line 29 amd that proverbial bullet remained an option on the table until the last moment.

The results we all know.

Lebanon obtained everything they demanded up to Line 23, which was their starting negotiating position. The exact shoreline border point is still unresolved and up for future negotiations, if ever that happens. Lebanon still claims ownership of the train tunnels which they didn’t have access to in the first place. Israel lost access to all the offshore resources in the EEZ region it was previously claiming. Lebanon can send boats into Israeli territory near the Kana gas field, including to physically drill and extract Kana gas from within Israel’s EEZ, and Hezbollah’s terror chieftain Hassan Nasrallah now claims there is an additional 2.5 square miles of marine territory that has not yet been liberated by Lebanon, leaving the conflict still open, as Hezbollah did with UN Blue Line and Sheba Farms, which ultimately resulted in the Second Lebanon War.

And that my friends, is a masterclass on how one should never negotiate in the Middle East, or anywhere else for that matter.


Lebanese president: Hezbollah attack on Israel’s Karish gas field was ‘useful’
Outgoing Lebanese President Michel Aoun told Reuters on Saturday that Hezbollah’s drone attack against Israel’s Karish natural gas field in July was “useful,” as it served as a “deterrent” that tilted negotiations over the maritime border deal in Lebanon’s favor.

Aoun’s term ended on Sunday.

Jerusalem and Beirut on Thursday signed the U.S.-mediated agreement, which draws a border between the two nations’ exclusive economic zones (EEZs) based on a boundary known as Line 23. It awarded a disputed area of around 840 square kilometers (324 square miles) to Lebanon, while recognizing Israel’s claim to the Karish gas field and to royalties from the section of the Qana field that extends into the Jewish state’s EEZ.

Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid hailed the accord, contending it “strengthens Israel’s security and our freedom of action against Hezbollah and the threats to our north.”

On July 2, Hezbollah launched three unmanned aerial vehicles toward Karish, all of which were intercepted by the Israel Defense Forces. Later that month, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah threatened war if Israel began pumping gas from Karish in the absence of an agreement with Beirut. Subscribe to The JNS Daily Syndicate by email and never miss our top stories

“If the extraction of oil and gas from Karish begins in September before Lebanon obtains its right, we would be heading to a ‘problem,’ and we’ll do anything to achieve our objective,” he told the Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Mayadeen TV channel, according to Lebanese news site Naharnet.

“No one wishes for war, and the decision is in Israel’s hands, not in our hands,” he said, according to the report.
IDF: 5 soldiers hurt in ramming attack near Jericho; Palestinian assailant shot
A Palestinian driver plowed his vehicle into Israeli soldiers at two locations south of the West Bank city of Jericho on Sunday afternoon, injuring five of them before being shot, officials said.

Police and the Israel Defense Forces said the Palestinian attacker first rammed into soldiers near Nabi Musa, then continued driving and slammed his car into a bus stop at the Almog Junction.

The Magen David Adom ambulance service said its medics were taking five victims, all in their 20s, to hospitals in Jerusalem.

Two were listed in moderate condition and the rest were lightly hurt, MDA added.

The IDF said troops fired at the attacker following the initial ramming near Nabi Musa, but he fled and plowed into a bus stop at Almog Junction, where he was shot by a police officer and another armed civilian.

A military spokesperson told The Times of Israel that the assailant had died of his wounds. But the Hadassah Mount Scopus Medical Center said the attacker had been brought to the hospital in serious condition.

The attack came hours after a Palestinian man carried out a deadly shooting attack near the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba on Saturday night.


Israeli killed, 4 hurt in West Bank terror shooting; medic shot while trying to help
A Palestinian terrorist opened fire near the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba on Saturday night, killing an Israeli man and wounding four other people, one of them seriously, the military and medics said. The gunman was later rammed by a security official and shot dead by an off-duty soldier.

The initial shots were directed at a Jewish father and son who had been shopping at a convenience store owned by a Palestinian, between Kiryat Arba and Hebron.

The father, in his 50s, was critically injured and was later pronounced dead at Jerusalem’s Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital. He was later named as Ronen Hanania.

The seriously injured man was a medic — Ofer Ohana — who was apparently shot by the attacker as he arrived on the scene to assist the other victims, which included two Israelis — aged 19 and 49 — and a Palestinian bystander, all of whom suffered mild injuries.

The shooting occurred near the entrance to a Jewish settlement neighborhood in Hebron, known as Giv’at HaAvot. The neighborhood is located just west of the larger settlement of Kiryat Arba.

Prime Minister Yair Lapid and Defense Minister Benny Gantz vowed to take strong action against any others found to be involved in the terror attack.

Ohana, a Magen David Adom medic who reached the scene with another first responder to treat the wounded, was shot by the gunman and seriously hurt, the ambulance service said.

“While I was running to get medical equipment, I heard the medic I was with shout: ‘I’m injured, they shot at me,'” said MDA medic Yisrael Lior. “We took cover, and while I was providing life-saving treatment to the medic I was with, we called in additional forces.”

A local security officer then reached the scene and rammed the gunman with his car, before an off-duty soldier shot him dead, CCTV footage of the incident showed.
Terror attack outside Hebron leaves 1 Israeli dead

Victim in Kiryat Arba shooting named as Ronen Hanania; wounded son recounts horror
The man who was shot dead in a terror attack Saturday night near Kiryat Arba was identified on Sunday morning as Ronen Hanania, a resident of the West Bank settlement.

Hanania’s son, who was wounded in the attack, said that he and his father had parked their car and entered a convenience store located between Kiryat Arba and the adjacent city of Hebron. When they returned to their car to leave, the attacker “opened fire on us from the left,” he recalled Sunday morning.

After hearing his father scream, the son turned to see him with a severe wound to his head. “The bullet entered from above and his head opened up. I saw him die.”

The deceased’s son, who has not been named, told Channel 12 he waited 15 minutes for emergency services to arrive at the scene, before deciding to seek refuge back inside the grocery store.

Inside the store, he said that “Arabs treated my hand, one of them took a sweater and made me a tourniquet. Afterward, they told us that everything was okay and that there was a paramedic for us outside.” But as they exited the store, the gunman opened fire on them for a second time, sending them scrambling back into the store.

“The terrorist shot at the windows, and as you see in the footage, they [security forces] killed him by ramming him and then shooting him.”

Returning to his wounded father, the son said, “He was breathing, he had a pulse, but his brain had been damaged… he had no chance of living. I saw my father, I was lucky to witness his final moments.”

The attacker was identified as Muhammed Kamel al-Jabari, an apparent member of the Hamas terror group. After shooting Hanania and his son, Jabari opened fire on medics and settlement security guards who arrived at the scene to help the pair.


A Hebron Hatchet Job: Three Ways The Media Misreported Israel’s Latest Terror Atrocity
1. Confusing Cause & Effect
In a shocking instance of baseless victim blaming, the Associated Press reported that “[IDF] raids have ratcheted up tensions in the [West Bank] area and have been met by a series of Palestinian shooting attacks that killed 19 people in Israel in the spring.” [Emphasis added] In reality, Jerusalem only launched Operation Break the Wave in the West Bank on March 31 in response to a series of terror attacks that had, at that point, taken the lives of 11 Israelis. HonestReporting has reached out to the AP directly to request a correction.

2. Erasing Pay-For-Slay
The family of Muhammad al-Jabari, who had reportedly received a terminal cancer diagnosis, will be richly rewarded under the Palestinian Authority’s “Pay-for-Slay” program. According to Palestinian Media Watch, Ramallah spends 33.34 times more per capita paying terror stipends than it spends on health services. However, an analysis by HonestReporting shows that in the dozens of media reports about the attack, there was not a single mention of the PA’s practice of offering financial rewards for murdering Israeli civilians, depriving news consumers of vital context.

3. Turning a Blind Eye to Incitement
As noted by some analysts, attacks like the murder of Ronen Hanania do not occur in a vacuum. Rather, they are the result of systematic and pervasive incitement that starts in the Palestinian Authority education system. It is, therefore, imperative to note that al-Jabari worked as a teacher at the PA-run Jawad Al-Hashlamoun boys school in Hebron, indoctrinating future generations with hate. Furthermore, readers should be made aware that the Palestinian Education Ministry mourned al-Jabari as “the martyr, the hero.”

Barely 24 hours after the attack near Hebron, the Jewish state was shocked by yet another terrorist attack as a Palestinian driver rammed his vehicle into Israeli civilians and soldiers at two locations in the Judean Desert, injuring five. With fears of a third intifada looming, journalists have a responsibility to tell the whole, unvarnished truth.


PMW: Was yesterday’s murder ideological terror, good financial planning or both?
On Saturday night, Oct. 30, 2022, Palestinian terrorist Muhammad Kamel Al-Ja’abari murdered 50-year-old Israeli Ronen Hananya and injured 5 others. Now the question is whether this was an ideologically motivated attack or just sound financial planning? Was the attack the result of intensive incitement and calls for terror or was it a product of the Palestinian Authority’s “Pay-for-Slay” policy? Or rather both!

On the one hand, Al-Ja’abari comes from a family of Hamas terrorists. His brother Wael, a member of Hamas, was convicted for murdering 2 Israelis. He was released from prison in October 2011 as part of the deal to secure the release of Israeli solider Gilad Shalit, who had been kidnapped and was held captive by Hamas.

The murder in Hebron last night came at a time of a continuing terror wave, a chain of lethal Palestinian terror attacks that have claimed the lives of 27 Israelis and others since the start of the 2022, alone. It comes at a time when Fatah, the party of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, is openly calling on its social media pages for “an escalation against the … settler herds”:
Posted text and text on image: “Fatah’s Ramallah branch declares a general strike and mourning over the Martyrs’ souls, and calls for an escalation against the occupation army and the settler herds at all the points of friction.”
[Facebook page of the Fatah Commission of Information and Culture, Oct. 25, 2022]

Following Al-Ja’abari’s lethal attack, Fatah’s Hebron branch celebrated the land “that has been perfumed by the blood of thousands of Martyrs” and called for a general strike “in honor of all the Martyrs, wounded, and prisoners, and [in honor] of our heroic Martyr Muhammad Kamel Al-Ja’abari”:
Posted text: “In the name of All Merciful Allah
A statement by the Fatah Movement – Central Hebron [branch]
Almighty Allah said: ‘And never think of those who have been killed in the cause of Allah as dead. Rather, they are alive with their Lord, receiving provision’ [Quran 3:169, Sahih International translation].
To the masses of our people in Hebron – you who are standing firm, who are carrying out Ribat (i.e., religious conflict over land claimed to be Islamic) on the most pure and sublime land on earth, the land that has been perfumed by the blood of thousands of Martyrs [who died] for the sake of its purification and liberation from the occupation’s defilement - and liberation is coming, Almighty Allah willing.
O our mighty people: Our struggle continues, and the procession of Martyrs stands at the front of the national arena to defend our land, our honor, and our holy sites, in response to the brutal and systematic attack that the occupation government is leading against our people in all the homeland’s districts.
Therefore, we in the Fatah Central Hebron [branch] announce – in honor of the one who carried out the operation (i.e., terror attack) in the thieving settlement of Kiryat Arba in Hebron, heroic Martyr Muhammad Kamel Al-Ja’abari (i.e., terrorist, murdered 1) – we announce as follows:
The general strike is on Sunday, Oct. 30, 2022, and it will include all aspects of life.
Therefore, we demand that you carry out the strike in honor of all the Martyrs, wounded, and prisoners, and [in honor] of our heroic Martyr Muhammad Kamel Al-Ja’abari who inflicted pain on the occupation and killed and wounded those (sic., Al-Ja’abari murdered 1) in its ranks.
Glory and eternity to our pure Martyrs and freedom to our heroic prisoners.
Fatah – Hebron district”
[Facebook page of the Fatah Movement – Central Hebron Branch, Oct. 30, 2022]
Fatah’s philosophy is to educate members to become terrorists like murderer of 3 in Tel Aviv
Fatah Revolutionary Council member Muhammad Al-Lahham: “This is the Fatah Movement whose president, His Honor [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas, speaks about policy, and this is the same Fatah that is sacrificing Martyrs, fighting in the streets, and resisting the occupation. There are two options – the political option and the option of the ground, of the struggle, of self-sacrifice and sacrifice. This is the philosophy of Fatah with all its elements, and Fatah’s members are not waiting for any political decision of any leader in order to carry out a patriotic action. Their Fatah education and conscience is what motivates them. Did Ra’ad Hazem (i.e., murdered 3) – a member of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, a Fatah member… wait for a decision by someone? No, only the Palestinian national Fatah education that Fatah educated him on is what motivated him to carry out this operation (i.e., terror attack). There are hundreds and thousands of other Martyrs, fighters, and self-sacrificing fighters. In the occupation’s prisons there are Karim Younes (i.e., murdered 1) and Marwan Barghouti (i.e., planned murder of 5) - [Fatah] Central Committee members, and Fatah commanders. Ahmad Sa’adat (i.e., former head of PFLP terror organization), our great sheikh, [Fuad] Al-Shubaki (i.e., PA official and weapons smuggler), and all the glorious and great names that Fatah has.
[Official PA TV, Topic of the Day, Oct. 12, 2022]




Lyn Julius: Academic anti-colonialism can distort Jewish history
Missing from the context of this discussion is any in-depth examination of how Jews were treated before the colonial era, when Muslim sharia law was in place under Ottoman rule: The Jews were dhimmis, institutionally inferior to Muslims, with few legal rights.

Schreier acknowledges that Jews were not immune from humiliations, additional taxes and sumptuary laws during this period. If they enjoyed important posts, it was not as decision-makers. They could only execute orders. Jews could be assassinated by rivals and targeted by waves of mob violence.

However, Schrier claims, “a literal interpretation of dhimmi status should not stand in for social history,” which “suggests that Jews were relatively secure and an integral component of late Ottoman and early colonial Algerian society.” He points to the powerful Jewish mercantile elite, which traded in cereal, crops, wool and livestock—though he does not say that several of these successful merchants enjoyed the protection of foreign nationality. He also produces examples of semi-nomadic Jews “who were armed and dressed like Arabs,” particularly in southern Algeria.

Other scholars, often born in Arab countries, have argued that colonial emancipation was a liberation from dhimmi status. As far as most Jews were concerned, colonialism has much to recommend it. It gave Jews greater security, equality and legal rights for the first time in centuries. It introduced basic standards of health care and hygiene and put a stop to corporal punishment in schools. It gave Jews a Western education that permitted them to thrive in the modern world.

To downplay dhimmi status is to ignore the substantial corpus of testimony from European travelers describing the exactions and abuses suffered by Jews in the pre-colonial era. Schreier dismisses these reports as “exaggerated.” He holds that they should be treated with skepticism because they were written to serve a colonial agenda that promoted emancipation and assimilation to French values. Schreier’s suspicions extend to scholars like the late respected Algerian-born French professor Richard Ayoun, whose work Schreier calls “an example of scholarship echoing the colonial model of emancipation from an Oriental state of abasement.”

In fact, it was primarily to equip the Jewish communities of Muslim countries with the wherewithal to fight for their rights as emancipated citizens that a group of French Jews set up the Alliance Israelite Universelle in 1860. This institution was not just a Jewish version of the French “civilizing mission.” It was a response to the very real abasement observed and chronicled in the pre-colonial era, ranging from blood libels and forced conversions to beatings and synagogue burnings. The book Exile in the Maghreb by David Littman and Paul Fenton provides ample evidence of this—not just from European, but also Jewish and Muslim sources.

Yet the Alliance’s efforts to combat Muslim anti-Semitism barely rate a mention in Arabs of the Jewish Faith, ostensibly because the first Alliance school in Algeria was only set up in the early 20th century.

All too often, modern scholars’ anti-colonialism blinds them to or causes them to minimize Arab and Muslim anti-Semitism. “Social history” should not be an excuse for wishful thinking.
Surfside, Samaria Regional Council sign sister-city agreement despite BDS opposition
Surfside Mayor Shlomo Danziger pushed back at the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement, signing a sister-city agreement with the Samaria Regional Council.

“The people of Surfside support Israel,” said Danziger as he visited the council’s office in the West Bank’s Barkan Industrial Park on Thursday to sign the document.

The politician, who wore a black skullcap just above his small ponytail, is the city’s first Orthodox mayor. He was elected in March, eight months after a 12-story condominium collapsed in the Florida beachfront town, killing 98 people.

Danziger recalled the gratitude he and the residents of Surfside felt toward Israel, which sent an IDF search and rescue team to help sift through the rubble for survivors.

“As soon as we saw the green uniforms walking through the town... there was a sigh of relief. There was a lot of hope that went through our town,” Danziger said. “When they left… everyone in town came down to walk them down the street.”

In the aftermath of that tragedy, he and members of the town searched for a way to express their gratitude and decided to take a step to support the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, he said.

These are the people, he said, “who are fighting on the frontlines to make sure that Israel is safe.”


Amazon Bans Book by Prominent Koranic Scholar Ibn Warraq
In the wake of the Salman Rushdie attack, during a time when the people of Iran are full revolt against Islamic theocracy, and while the world watches passively as Afghanistan sinks back into primitive theocratic rule, Amazon has chosen to remove one of the most important books of Koranic exegesis explaining the viewpoints of the Rushdie attacker, the Mullahs of Iran, and the Taliban of Afghanistan: “The Islam in Islamic Terrorism: The Importance of Beliefs, Ideas, and Ideology” by the renowned Koranic scholar, Ibn Warraq.

Ibn Warraq has been hailed as a scholar of great integrity, courage and intelligence by our century’s towering figure in Near Eastern Studies, the late Bernard Lewis of Princeton University. Ayaan Hirsi Ali credits him with inspiring her work, and Douglas Murray calls Warraq “one of the great heroes of our time.”

“Perhaps, like most tech companies, Amazon hires young and inexperienced people to run their operation,” said New English Review Press publisher Rebecca Bynum. “Unfortunately, I believe they have come out of the university system without the ability to reason properly. For just as Biblical exegesis cannot be accused of promoting hatred of Christians, neither can honest criticism of the Islamic holy texts be a cause of hatred. No text, religious or otherwise, should ever be above criticism. Indeed, I was under the impression that idea had been settled after the Inquisition, but apparently not.”
Exposed: Palestinian Journalists Who Signed ‘Anti-Zionist’ Open Letter Likened Jews to ‘Dirt and Rats,’ Tweeted Pro-Nazi Comments
A further examination of the letter signed by more than 300 Palestinian and Arab reporters in support of several journalists who posted pro-Hitler messages on their social media accounts has — perhaps unsurprisingly — revealed that a number of the signatories share their antisemitic beliefs.

The missive, which was published on the website of left-wing outlet Mondoweiss on October 23, blasted HonestReporting’s so-called “oppressive scrutiny” in response to an exposé of Palestinian journalist Shatha Hammad who had posted a number of violent and antisemitic remarks on her Facebook profile.

Our investigation prompted the Thomson Reuters Foundation and the Kurt Schork Memorial Fund to strip Hammad of a prestigious journalism award and an associated cash prize, as well as the opportunity to have her work showcased by the charitable arm of the global wire service.

In addition, the letter accused HonestReporting of carrying out “targeted civil assassinations” in our work that led to the dismissals of journalists Fady Hanona, Soliman Hijjy and Hosam Salem from the New York Times over their support of Nazism and Palestinian terrorism. A Who’s Who of Antisemites

Among the individuals who signed the letter slamming “Zionist incitement” is Khuloud Lafi, a freelance Palestinian photographer, who compared the Israeli Defense Forces to Nazis on her Twitter account.

Also guilty of casual Holocaust inversion was Firas Taneineh, an employee of Palestinian wire service Maan News, who in response to a tweet about the death of a young Palestinian, rhetorically replied: “Do you still ask why Hitler killed the Jews?”
NPR and CSM Heroize Palestinian Terrorist Lion’s Den Group
NPR heroized the terrorists and whitewashed their deadly mission and deeds, portraying them as “TikTok-savvy Palestinian fighters” who were “testing Israeli forces in the West Bank.”

Never mind 21-year-old Staff Sgt. Ido Baruch who lost his life protecting participants in holiday festivities – an annual Sukkot march — when Lion’s Den terrorists targeted him in a drive-by shooting. Never mind the children riding a schoolbus targeted by the Lion’s Den group on Oct. 2 who would have been tragic casualties had the terrorists succeeded in their mission, or the children forced to duck behind parked cars as Lion’s Den terrorists aimed their gunfire at Israeli vehicles near the settlement of Elon Moreh. Never mind the Israeli taxicab driver who was injured when Lion’s Den terrorists fired at his car. And pay no heed to the men, women and children threatened by the group’s terrorist attacks that were thwarted by Israeli security forces.

None of this is of interest to the NPR reporter who conceals details of the Lion’s Den attacks, their ties to well-known terrorist groups, and their targeting of civilians. Correspondent Daniel Estrin instead seek a narrative that blames Israel and heroizes the Palestinian terrorists. He thus reverses the roles, decrying an Israeli counter-terrorism operation as “brazen” and “bloody” while heroizing the terrorists who seek to slaughter Israeli Jews as “a new renegade group of young armed men, many in their teens and early 20s” who are part of “a new generation of Palestinians who feel they have little to lose.”

Estrin ignores the group’s own filmed attacks and claims of responsibility, suggesting that its deadly shooting of an Israeli soldier is just a claim by the Israeli army even though the Lion’s Den group itself took credit for the fatal attack. He similarly depicts the Israeli operation’s elimination of the group’s explosive lab during the raid as a claim/excuse by the IDF, who he states “claimed to have blown up what it said was a bomb lab.” Likewise, he conceals the fact that those Palestinians killed in the counter-terrorism raid were armed terrorists who were shot in gun battles with Israeli soldiers.

The correspondent essentially justifies the terrorist group’s deadly mission, saying “their aim is to confront Israeli soldiers when they operate in Palestinian areas – and to present an alternative to the behavior of the official Palestinian security forces, which do not clash with Israeli troops conducting arrest raids.”


What antisemitic books are available at the Frankfurt Book Fair?
What antisemitic books were found at the fair?
Publisher Dar Ghar Hira on the Syrian Collective Stand had several infamous antisemitic books by Abdul Majeed Hamo, in particular:

The Canaanites and the Distorted Torah
“The Canaanite impact on the Jewish religion, as the Jews took from them 'El'., the Divine Assembly, the worship of Baal and even the language they called '‘the lip of Canaan'. We were Canaan, but they [the Jews] stole everything from our civilization, falsified and deformed it, calling it their own.”

Is Judaism a Heavenly Religion?
“People have been occupied with this religion [Judaism] since ancient times and considered it heavenly as the religion of Moses, 'Musa' Peace be upon Him. But there were two scripts, the Mosaic and the Jewish. The current book of the Torah is a pagan text that calls for the worship of ‘many gods’: El, Baal, Astarte, Anah, Aden, Tambul, Jehovah...”

Babylon and the distortion of the Torah
"The Jews distorted the teachings of God to satisfy their sins."

Among the other books and authors published by Syrian Dar Ghar Hira, worthy of note are:

The Day of Wrath by Safar bin Abdul-Rahman al-Hawali
This is a treatise on the Second Intifada, arguing that "the Biblical prophecies used by Christian fundamentalists to support the state of Israel actually predict its destruction."

The Message in Sabbatai Zevi and Abdullah ibn Saba, by Ahmed Mahmoud Al-Shorbaji
"This book unveils the Jewish conspiracies against the Muslim world."

Egyptian publishers displayed a handful of antisemitic books
The Antichrist by Ahmed Khaled Mustafa
“A fictional novel... that combines fantasy and reality... With the advent of Islamic civilization, the novel explains how Islam fought witchcraft and sorcery and the Jews... The emergence of conspiracy and the Crusades... and the role of the Jews in controlling peoples and governments since time immemorial and its relationship with magic and demons and trying to control the world using this malicious science. The great role the Jews played in the formation of the new secular Europe in the last ten centuries... technological inventions, the emergence of radio waves... the harnessing and use of media for the emergence of the Antichrist... radio stations broadcasting messages - 'the time has come!' - and so on encrypted... These radio stations were at the mercy of the Jews.”

Egyptian publisher Aseer Al-Kotob also has a fresh edition of Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf.

The German-based Ketabak Bookstore stand had a collection of publishers from different Arab countries, among which Bibliomania Publishings (based in Cairo, Egypt), that lists Jewish Capitalist Families and their Role in World Politics (Rothschild - Rockefeller), by Mohamed Ashour, Rania Mustafa Al-Ashry and Medhat Mohamed Abdel-Harith

The book claims Jewish influence in banking, media, pornography, etc... In its online presentation (in Arabic) it states:
"The Jews were and still are the owners of evil, ruin and destruction in this world. To them is attributed all evil on this earth; They are the killers of the prophets, and they are the enemies of civilization. They are the ones who killed and displaced thousands of innocents, and they are the ones who traded in the health of millions, had Thousands of honors, violated the sanctities of millions, plundered and stole the resources of peoples, and falsified history. They manipulated the minds of billions of people and did all of this only for their interest and material gains that they made."
Shachar Sagiv becomes first Israeli athlete to compete in Saudi Arabia
Triathlete Shachar Sagiv has become the first Israeli athlete to compete in Saudi Arabia, the Israeli Olympic Committee said Sunday, in the latest sign of growing informal ties between the former enemies.

Sagiv competed in Neom on the same day that an Israeli tennis player faced off against a Saudi opponent in Bahrain, as the two countries without any diplomatic ties appear comfortable meeting on the field.

Olympic committee head Yael Arad called Sagiv’s presence at the Saudi NEOM leg of the Super League Triathlon on Saturday “a very significant breakthrough.”

“In the past year we’ve seen many Arab states come to terms with the fact that hosting an international tournament means hosting Israelis,” she said in a statement. “This is a growing trend and the true force in normalization between nations, and especially people.”

A Saudi official did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Sagiv, 28, was eliminated from the race after falling in a bike ride, failing to meet his goal of improving his rank, his coach Lior Cohen wrote on Facebook. “Shachar came to make professional history and not only diplomatic history,” Cohen added.
Israeli gov’t, leaders ready for confab for Holocaust restitution
Representatives from across the spectrum of Israeli governmental and social organizations met with President Isaac Herzog on Sunday ahead of this week’s International Terezin Declaration Conference in Prague.

The main event of conference will take place on Thursday, November 3, at which time the Israeli and other Jewish contingents will try to impress on representatives of 47 countries expected to attend that time is running out for achieving some modicum of justice for Holocaust survivors.

The contingents included representatives of Israel’s Foreign Ministry, Social Equality Ministry, the World Jewish Restitution Organization (WRJO), the World Jewish Congress, Holocaust remembrance organizations and institutions, Holocaust survivors and other activists in the realms of Holocaust remembrance and combating antisemitism.

Also present were European Union Ambassador to Israel Dimiter Tzantechev Czech Ambassador Martin Stropnicky.

Former MK and former ambassador Colette Avital, who is secretary-general of the WJRO, will be the keynote speaker on behalf of the organization. She is herself a child Holocaust survivor whose family, like tens of thousands of others, were deprived of their home and income, first through looting by the Nazis, and later through confiscation by communist regimes.

Holocaust restitution struggle
It was not until after the fall of communism that the WJRO in 1993 became an officially registered nonprofit organization in Israel. This followed an agreement signed in 1992 by the late Edgar Bronfman, who was president of the WJC, and Avraham Shochat, who was finance minister of Israel, Avital told Herzog.

Since then, she said, the WJRO has led countless efforts to get the countries of Eastern Europe to accept responsibility for restitution for looted and confiscated Jewish private and community property, and has received the support of the international community and international organizations. But negotiations are still being conducted, and restitution has been slow, she said. “Some countries do not want to accept responsibility.”
We Survived the Holocaust: The Bluma and Felix Goldberg Story, Book Review
We Survived the Holocaust: The Bluma and Felix Goldberg Story is graphic memoir. Graphic here means cartoonish pictures. Bluma and Felix Goldberg's story is a true story. Things are obviously simplified, since it's short and written for children.

Times have certainly changed. Not long ago the Book Club I'm a member of chose Holocaust Literature as the genre for a meeting. Most members are of my generation, who grew up in the post World War Two 1950s. Besides The Diary of Anna Frank, there wasn't any Holocaust book for even an older child to read. Now libraries and book stores have shelves full of Holocaust Literature of all sorts for all ages, though it's hard to find books suitable for children.

We Survived the Holocaust is illustrated in black and white which suits to subject matter and is a reminder that the Holocaust was a dark and dangerous time. Here are a series of pages to give you an idea.

The general message is survival and heroism. Bluma and Felix Goldberg's story is totally amazing, and it's true, which makes it even better. It's almost incomprehensible to imagine ordinary people taking such risks and surviving such dangers. But we all know that somehow some people did survive and establish families and businesses after the war, after the Nazis had been defeated.

We Survived the Holocaust is an excellent tool for teaching children about Nazis and the Holocaust. As wonderful as the Goldbergs' story is, we mustn't forget that the majority of European Jewry was murdered during the Holocaust, whether gassed, gunned down or as the result of malnutrition/starvation or illness. The dead can't speak.


Anne Frank's friend Hannah Pick-Goslar dies at 93
Hannah Pick-Goslar, one of Jewish diarist of the Holocaust Anne Frank's best friends, has died at age 93, the foundation that runs the Anne Frank House museum said.

The Anne Frank Foundation paid tribute to Pick-Goslar, who is mentioned in Anne's world-famous diary about her life in hiding from the Netherlands' Nazi occupiers, for helping to keep Anne's memory alive with stories about their youth.

"Hannah Pick-Goslar meant a lot to the Anne Frank House, and we could always call on her," the foundation said in a statement. It did not give details or the cause of her death.

Pick-Goslar grew up with Anne in Amsterdam after both their families moved there from Germany as Hitler's Nazi party rose to power. The friends were separated as Anne's family went into hiding in 1942 but met again briefly in February 1945, at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany, shortly before Anne died there of typhus.

Before World War II, their families lived next door to one another in Amsterdam, and Anne and Hannah went to school together. Pick-Goslar recalled attending her friend's 13th birthday party and seeing a red-and-white checkered diary that Anne's parents gave their daughter as a gift. Anne went on to fill it with her thoughts and frustrations while hiding from the Nazis in a secret annex in Amsterdam. It was published after the war by Anne's father, Otto, the only family member to survive the atrocities.

Pick-Goslar recounted their friendship in a book by Alison Leslie Gold called "Memories of Anne Frank; Reflections of a Childhood Friend." The book was turned into a film, released last year, titled "My Best Friend Anne Frank."




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