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Sunday, February 19, 2023

02/19 Links: David Collier: Just where on earth was ‘Palestine’?; The United Nations' antisemitism problem; LA Antisemitic Shooter Previously Cut Loose by Soros DA

From Ian:

David Collier: Just where on earth was ‘Palestine’?
“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” (source unknown, but often attributed to Mark Twain).

The ‘success’ of ‘Palestine’-related myths provides excellent examples of how we are surrounded by Orwellian inversions of truth. From the Guardian and the BBC to the Washington Post and NYT, the mainstream media are all likely to promote some elements of the fictional tale of the history of ‘Palestine’. Given how often we see these errors, I am actually left wondering whether today’s journalists actually have access to the archives of the very newspapers that they work for. Truths that cannot be spoken

There are truths that today cannot be digested in the mainstream. Those that promote them are swiftly labelled ‘extremists’. Push these notions persistently and you will find yourself ‘cancelled’ -‘ no-platformed’ – and silenced, as a ‘racist’, or purveyor of hate.

Three examples:
Most ‘indigenous’ Palestinians are from families who migrated into the area in the last 170 years.
‘Palestine’ has no form, was alien to Muslims, and was kept alive only as a romantic thought in Christian ideology.
The notion of the Palestinian ‘refugee’ in 2023 is just an absurdity.

It doesn’t matter how these statements may disturb your inner peace – they are either true, or they are not. The modern Palestinian cause is a toxic cocktail that was originally made up from an exercise in denialism, an attempt to deprive Jews of the right to self-determination, western thirst for oil, Christian supersessionism, antisemitism, rising Arab nationalism, Islamist ideology, and political horseplay between the world’s superpowers. If you mix these all together and let the cocktail fester for 100 years, then today’s pro-Palestinian movement, which toxifies everything it touches, becomes the inevitable result.

We are witnessing a concentrated rewrite of history.
Why that Ohio town is named 'East Palestine'
Since there already was a town named “Palestine” in the western part of the state—likewise founded by religious Christians who wanted to infuse their town with “holy memories”—government officials, in assigning the new post office, added the prefix “East.”

That early account of East Palestine’s founding was published in 1905, when it was common for a married woman’s name to be hidden behind that of her husband. But a historical marker in front of the log house where the Chamberlins once lived tells us that the name of the doctor’s wife was Rebecca—an appropriately biblical name for a woman who took her Bible seriously.

Not surprisingly, numerous churches quickly sprung up in East Palestine and its environs. Lutheran and Reformed congregations established the Salem Church, choosing a name derived from “Jerusalem.” Evangelical Lutherans founded the St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, while Methodists originally held their services in a local school—the separation between church and state was still rather fuzzy in those days—before eventually erecting their Methodist Episcopal Church. East Palestine also had a United Presbyterian Church and, later, another house of worship with a biblically-inspired name, the Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church.

When America’s religious Christian settlers thought of the Holy Land, they thought of the Hebrew bible and the area’s 3,000 years of Jewish inhabitation, not the Koran or the more recently-arrived Arab residents of the area. They thought of the many Jews who appear in the accounts of the birth of Christianity (including its founder), texts that do not mention any Palestinian Arabs since there were none..

Certainly Americans were aware that there were Arabs living in Palestine by the 19th century. Mark Twain, for example, had mentioned them in his account of his visit to the Holy Land, The Innocents Abroad (1869). So had Herman Melville in his famous Clarel: A Poem and the Pilgrimage in the Holy Land (1876).

But it was common knowledge that the Arab population of Palestine was relatively small and unsettled, and that the Arab residents of 19th-century Palestine regarded themselves as part of southern Syria, not as a separate nationality. H. Allen Tupper, Jr. wrote in the New York Times in 1896, after having “ridden on horseback more than four hundred miles through Palestine and Syria,” that virtually the only local people he encountered were “merchantmen with their long camel trains” and “wild Bedouin tribes” that “reside in one locality not more than two months.”

Today’s residents pronounce East Palestine “Palesteen,” but the original settlers undoubtedly pronounced it the more common way. Because it was the Holy Land, with its deep Jewish roots, that burned bright in the hearts and prayers of the founders of the many biblically-named towns across America. And it is for the same reason that Bible-believing Christians today—probably including more than a few residents of East Palestine, Ohio—constitute one of the major sources of pro-Israel sentiment in the United States.


The United Nations' antisemitism problem
Moratinos pointed to a number of initiatives undertaken by the UN, including the 2019 report and 2022 Action Plan to Combat Antisemitism prepared by Dr. Ahmed Shaheed, the former Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion, and ongoing educational work on the topic by UNESCO.

But, Moratinos mainly referenced UN events surrounding International Holocaust Remembrance Day, and a 2022 UN General Assembly resolution sponsored and shepherded by Israeli Ambassador Gilad Erdan to combat Holocaust denial and distortion. Erdan’s office said that resolutions voted on by UN member States instructed the UN to establish the Holocaust Outreach Department and hold specific ceremonies.

“These are not UN organizational actions,” the statement said.

The Israeli mission and Jewish groups have also expressed dismay and anger that Moratinos and other UN officials failed to call out antisemitic comments made by members of the UN Human Rights Council’s Commission of Inquiry on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and by the UN special rapporteur for the Palestinians. A pair of those comments used the term “Jewish lobby” to assert disproportionate Jewish influence, including Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese’s 2014 remark that the Jewish lobby had “subjugated the United States.”

Moratinos issued a tweet following one of the comments broadly calling out antisemitism without making reference to any UN official or the root of his tweet. The “subjugation” comment went without any response, as Moratinos said that the special rapporteur acts independently of the UN and “is free to say whatever.”

That doesn’t cut it for the likes of B’nai Brith CEO Dan Mariaschin, who has met with Moratinos a number of times, and says he believes Moratinos takes the issue seriously.

“They need to address this inside the UN, under the UN's roof itself. That means that the secretary-general also has to have his back,” Mariaschin said. “If it's not coming from the top, then why would country A, country B, country C- or any other UN agency for that matter- feel that they need at the very least to be careful in what they say?

Moratinos said that he expects to hash out a UN action and response plan to antisemitism at a June meeting with Jewish leaders, and noted that the UN could and will do more to root out Jew hatred within its ranks.

“But what is clear, with fact, with action, is that the UN is not antisemitic,” Moratinos said.

As Moratinos and the UN develop a response plan to antisemitism, that disconnect between what Moratinos believes and what Israel and Jewish groups see is plain as day and may very well be too much to overcome.


Israel Advocacy Movement: Al-Jazeera lied about al-Aqsa
We break down an al-Jazeera video that pushes to exclude Jews from the Temple Mount. We expose their lies and provide incredible examples of Jewish and Muslim co-existence at al-Aqsa.


LA Antisemitic Shooter Previously Cut Loose by Soros DA
There’s been a pattern to some of the recent notorious shooting incidents and this one is no different.

Over the course of a few days, the Los Angeles Jewish community was on the alert after a gunman had targeted and shot two different Jewish men leaving synagogue prayers.

The gunman apparently turned out to be a Vietnamese dental student who hated Jews. Whatever anyone was expecting, white supremacists or Islamic terrorists, the usual suspects, this wasn’t it, but antisemitism has a way of bringing exciting new folks to the table.

And he’d been cut loose by George Gascon: the Soros pro-crime DA.

Records show that Tran appeared to have been previously arrested in July on felony charges in Long Beach; he asked Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon’s office what happened to the case. Gascon’s office replied to him on Twitter by saying: “Suspect was charged with felony possession of a firearm on school grounds in July 2022. At the time of that filing he had no previous criminal record & LADA was not made aware of any allegations of threats against the Jewish community.”

Apparently, this was too subtle for Gascon.

“Someone is going to kill you, Jew. Someone is going to kill you, Jew. Someone is going to kill you, Jew. Someone is going to kill you, Jew.”

But whether or not Gascon’s office was aware that Tran had a history of making death threats, the lack of basic enforcement is at the heart of the issue. Lefties clamor that we need more gun laws, yet they routinely fail to enforce the ones we already have. Having a stolen gun on campus should have been a red flag. It means the gun was bought illegally and that the man carrying it intended to commit a crime with it. Wouldn’t have taken much to follow up with students and find out Tran’s history of threats.


US lawmakers call on Biden to veto PA-backed ‘anti-Israel’ resolution at UNSC
Lawmakers have called on the Biden administration to veto a prospective Palestinian Authority-backed resolution at the United Nations Security Council to condemn Israeli housing plans in Judea and Samaria.

A draft resolution obtained by the Associated Press demands an immediate halt to all Israeli building activities across the Green Line, and could be put to a vote as early as Monday.

In response, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) and Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) sent a letter to President Joe Biden calling on him to wield Washington’s veto to strike down the “biased, anti-Israel” initiative.

“As the U.N. Security Council once again moves to consider another one-sided, biased, anti-Israel resolution, it is imperative that the United States maintain its position that only direct negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians can yield progress. For this reason, we urge your administration to use the voice and vote of the United States to oppose and veto any anti-Israel action, including resolutions, at the U.N. Security Council,” said the letter.

The Biden Administration must use the voice and vote of the United States to oppose and veto any anti-Israel action—including resolutions—at the UN Security Council.


US Ambassador Boasts of Ordering Netanyahu Around ‘As I Tell my Kids’
Speaking on CNN’s podcast The Axe Files with David Axelrod on Thursday, US Ambassador to Israel Thomas R. Nides literally referred to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his minister as children, telling the former Obama advisor: “We’re telling the prime minister – as I tell my kids – ‘pump the brakes, slow down, try to build a consensus, bring the parties together.’”

The ambassador’s remarks were the most patronizing and humiliating to date from the Biden administration, constituting an outright interference in Israel’s internal affairs, and the US unabashed siding with opposition parties against Justice Minister Yariv Levin’s judicial reform.

Nides repeated his lie that the US was not going to “dictate” specific parts of the proposed reform, such as how Supreme Court judges should be appointed – while attacking the legislative effort to set those appointments according to the expressed will of Israeli voters.

Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli (Likud) on Sunday morning told Nides via Reshet Bet Radio: “You should pump your own breaks, and mind your own business.” He said the last part in English, so the ambassador would understand.

Netanyahu, for his part, said at Sunday morning’s cabinet meeting, “I reassure our friends, we will remain a vibrant democracy.”

The Axelrod podcast previewed the interview with this totally unbiassed paragraph: “Following a year of relative calm, Nides now finds himself weathering a tumultuous few months under a new Israeli government—the most right-wing in the country’s history. He joined David to talk about the US’s “unbreakable bond” with Israel, the state of Israeli democracy, the chain of violence between Israelis and Palestinians, and the prospects for a two-state solution.”

Here’s an idea:


'We are part of the West, while Serbia is a proxy of Putin'
On February 18, Kosovo marked 15 years since it declared independence from Serbia. But the celebrations have been marred by growing tensions between the two, with Belgrade still seeing its neighbor as part of its sovereign territory. Serbia has also been a traditional ally of Russia, and wants to join the EU but has insisted on rejecting Kosovo's statehood bid. Kosovo's foreign minister, Donika Gërvalla-Schwarz's family fled Kosovo during the 1980s because of Serbian oppression. Her father was killed by the then-Yugoslav regime's agents in Germany and now she says that the current regime in Belgrade does Russia's bidding and is moving toward a military conflagration with the Kosovars.

Q: Kosovo and Israel established diplomatic relations 2 years ago. Are you content with the development of these relations?
"We are more than content. Israel and Kosova [the local term for Kosovo] are really deepening our cooperation and friendship. We are in many aspects quite similar countries. Within two years, we have had a lot of excellent exchanges, ranging from official visits to private businesses. We are surely on the right path."

Q: The annual report of the Abraham Accord, which was the framework of the establishment of relations, states that economic ties and investments between both countries remain limited. Is it so and what is the reason?
"The initial phase fell into the period of the pandemic, but our economic exchange will develop increasingly dynamic. There is more to come, not only for investment in Kosova but also for exports from Kosova to other markets.

"Kosova has had a remarkable increase in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) that proves the excellent business opportunities in Kosova. Kosova has literally jumped up 22 ranks in Transparency International's index. Businesses find a reliable environment in Kosova, and Israeli businesses can profit from that."

Q: Kosova was the first European country to open an embassy in Jerusalem. When will Kosova nominate an ambassador?
"That is a question that we will most probably handle in the first half of this year. The final decision does not depend that much on our bilateral relationship, but rather on an ongoing long overdue restructuring of our diplomatic service to make it significantly more effective." Q: Serbia was also supposed to move its embassy to Jerusalem, as part of the agreement reached in Washington. Was Kosova pressured by the EU not to open its embassy in Jerusalem?
"Of course, Serbia promised to move its embassy. But people here were not surprised that Vučić once again broke a promise. When I took office in March 2021, the embassy in Jerusalem was one of the first tasks to deal with. I told everyone that the move of the embassy to Jerusalem was a done deal, based on the signature and the promise of the preceding government."


Ben-Gvir to run anti-incitement task force to counter Palestinian violence
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Sunday that he has appointed Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir to lead a task force to fight Palestinian incitement.

Joining Ben-Gvir at the task force will be investigators, police officers and prosecutors.

It will work in full coordination with the Ministry of Justice and officials from the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet), the IDF and the National Cyber Directorate.

Ben-Gvir has laid stress on efforts to counter incitement. In early January, shortly after taking office, he ordered police to take down PLO flags flown in public spaces.

“We will fight terrorism and the encouragement of terrorism with all our might,” he said.

The minister has also cracked down on the preferential treatment of Palestinian terrorists in Israeli jails, ordering the closing of prison bakeries and limiting their shower time.
The Palestinian singer from Gaza Muhammad Assaf (who lives in the Emirates) who was previously denied entry to Israel due to his incitement to terrorism (songs encouraging terrorist attacks, bragging about killing Israelis) is now visiting Israel (which he calls Palestine) Where is the right-wing government? Why do terrorists enter here?


JCPA: The Phenomenon of Palestinian Teen Terrorists
However, the actual reasons for the recent renewal of this phenomenon stem from the following:
1. Wild incitement by the Palestinian Authority and the terrorist organizations against Israel and Jews on social networks, especially on Tik Tok and Instagram.

In the security establishment, inciting videos on social networks are called “terrorist porn” – shocking images of Palestinian deaths in Jenin and Nablus, Israeli bombings in Gaza, Israeli citizens praying on the Temple Mount, and videos of Palestinian terrorists presented as heroes.

2. Incitement in the education system and home education. About 200 schools operate in eastern Jerusalem. Most of them follow the PA’s curriculum that emphasizes the Palestinian narrative of the Nakba, ignores the existence of the State of Israel and the Oslo Accords, and emphasizes the importance of al-Quds (Jerusalem) and the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the struggle against Israel.

Palestinian parents contribute to the incitement and instill in their children a shocking hatred of Israel and Jews. They do not guard their children against incitement. On the contrary, they encourage the culture of death in their children, celebrate the death of every child and teenager killed during an attack, and declare him a “martyr.”

The Israeli concern now is the expansion of the phenomenon toward the month of Ramadan (March 22–April 20, 2023), when Palestinian youth may unleash attacks full of hatred and commit to taking revenge on the Israelis for the deaths of Palestinian terrorists at the hands of the security forces. They claim they are acting in the name of Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa, and most want to become local heroes and bring honor to their families.

The religious leaders in eastern Jerusalem support this phenomenon, and the public leaders there and PA officials refrain from removing children from the circle of terror. For them, all means are acceptable to fight against Israel: the children are brainwashed with a broad and warped social consensus and religious legitimacy. They cross the barrier of fear with false promises that they will reach heaven.
Shuafat residents call to protest Israel with strike, civil disobedience
Palestinian political factions and activists have called for a general strike and “civil disobedience” on Sunday to protest strict Israeli security measures against the residents of the Shuafat refugee camp and the nearby town of Anata.

The measures, denounced by the Palestinians as “collective punishment,” were imposed in October 2022, when Udai Tamimi, a resident of Anata, shot and killed female soldier Noa Lazar at a checkpoint at the entrance to the refugee camp which, together with parts of Anata, is located within the boundaries of the Jerusalem Municipality.

Like most of the residents of the two communities, Tamimi, 22, held an Israeli-issued ID card in his capacity as a permanent resident of Jerusalem. He was later shot dead after he opened fire at security guards at the entrance to Ma’aleh Adumim.

Last week, Border Police officer Asil Sawaed was killed in another attack at the entrance to the refugee camp. Police said a 13-year-old boy from the camp pulled out a knife and assaulted Border Police officers who were conducting a security check on a bus. A security guard opened fire at the assailant, accidentally hitting Sawaed.

Also last week, a 14-year-old boy from the camp was arrested after stabbing and wounding an Israeli man in the Old City of Jerusalem.

Since the first attack police have imposed strict security measures at the checkpoint, conducted large-scale raids on the camp and in Anata and arrested scores of residents suspected of involvement in terrorism.
PMW: PA Holocaust distortion: The Zionists “exaggerated” the number of Holocaust victims PA: The Zionists “exaggerated” the number of Holocaust victims
Holocaust distortion is Holocaust denial’s ugly cousin that has been willingly adopted by the PA. Instead of denying the Holocaust outright, the PA now “only” distorts the horrific scale of the attempted genocide against the Jews, denying documented historical truth.

A regular columnist for the official PA daily exemplified this in a recent column that protested the inclusion of Holocaust studies in Arab curricula.

Even while acknowledging the Holocaust as a real event in history and mentioning Anne Frank as “one of hundreds of stories of the Holocaust, which tell the suffering of the Jews in the period of Nazi rule,” columnist Ramzi Oudeh minimized the number of Jewish victims, accusing the “Zionists” of inflating numbers to create support for the establishment of the State of Israel:
“Without commenting on the Zionist exaggeration of the [number of] victims of the Holocaust in order to obtain the world’s sympathy and support for the Zionist state, we do not deny that the Holocaust is a fact.”

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Feb. 5, 2023]

The writer repeated the baseless claim that Jews have overstated the number of victims later in the article, claiming that there is no Holocaust denial in the Arab region but only opposition to “the exaggeration in the number of its victims”:
“The main excuse for this haste (i.e., of Arab states including Holocaust studies in their curricula) to satisfy the Zionists was a struggle against denial of the Holocaust among members of the Arab region. This is a baseless excuse, as no one – including the Arabs – denies the Holocaust, even if some of them oppose the exaggeration in the number of its victims or its circumstances.”

The allegation that the Jews inflated the number of Holocaust victims is not a new PA invention. Already in 1984, now PA Chairman Abbas wrote in his thesis "The Other Side: The Secret Relations between Nazism and the Leadership of the Zionist Movement" that the number of murdered Jews was “a few hundred thousand”:
The Nazis trained Jews “to carry out despicable acts of murder here without feeling anything”
Researcher and author Aziz Al-Asa: “Many of the Jewish fighters during the Nakba (i.e., establishment of Israel, 1948) came from Germany… They were trained to carry out despicable acts of murder here without feeling anything, without using their humanity… Imagine that the Jewish soldiers used to kill and weep loudly… The Zionist movement reached an agreement with the German government that it would take the young people from the [concentration] camps, the young Jews, train them, and prepare them.”

[Official PA TV, Debunking the Zionist Narrative, Feb. 4, 2023]


“Jerusalem is one and united like Palestine… indivisible” - Palestinian Writers’ General Union
Official PA TV program Palestine This Morning, interview with Palestinian Writers’ General Union Secretary-General Murad Al-Sudani on a conference of Arab writer organizations held in Cairo, Egypt

Palestinian Writers’ General Union Secretary-General Murad Al-Sudani: “His Honor [PA] President [Mahmoud Abbas] said clearly that we have an absolute right to the Al-Buraq Wall (i.e., the Western Wall of the Temple Mount), and also to Jerusalem. And we as intellectuals say ‘Jerusalem’ and not ‘East [Jerusalem]’ or ‘West [Jerusalem],’ but rather it is one and united like Palestine, it is indivisible.”
[Official PA TV, Palestine This Morning, Feb. 13, 2023]

The Al-Buraq Wall – Islam's Prophet Muhammad is said to have ridden during his Night Journey from Mecca to "al aqsa mosque", i.e., "the farthest mosque" (Quran, Sura 17), and there tied his miraculous flying steed named Al-Buraq to a "stone" or a "rock." (Jami` at-Tirmidhi, Book 47, Hadith 3424). In the 1920's, Arab Mufti Haj Amin Al-Husseini decided to identify the Western Wall of the Temple in Jerusalem as that "rock" or "stone," and since then Muslims refer to the Western Wall as the "Al-Buraq Wall."




Five killed in alleged Israeli strike against Iranian assets in Damascus
At least five people were killed and more than a dozen injured in an alleged Israeli airstrike on a target in Damascus, Syria, overnight Saturday, according to Reuters.

The strike targeted a building in the city’s Kafr Sousa neighborhood, and damaged several structures near a heavily guarded security complex linked to Iran, according to the report.

The Israel Defense Forces did not comment on the report, in accordance with Jerusalem’s long standing policy regarding specific foreign operations.

Last month, seven people were killed near the Syria-Iraq border when a truck convoy was hit by unidentified aircraft, according to Saudi media. That strike occurred near the city of Al-Bukamal, according to Al Arabiya.

The Saudi outlet quoted Syrian Observatory for Human Rights chief Rami Abdel Rahman as stating that the trucks were transporting Iranian weapons.
Russia condemns Israeli strike on Syria as ‘flagrant violation’ of international law (not satire)
Russia on Sunday condemned an airstrike blamed on Israel that killed five people and injured 15 in Syria’s capital Damascus the previous night.

Moscow, a key backer of the Syrian regime in the over decade-long civil war, called the Saturday night attack on the Kafar Sousah neighborhood in Damascus a “flagrant violation” of international law.

Israel’s need to coordinate with Russia — which largely controls Syrian airspace — to carry out strikes has been cited as a chief reason for Jerusalem’s reluctance to supply Kyiv with weaponry amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Israel has found itself at odds with Russia as it increasingly supported Ukraine while seeking to maintain freedom of movement in Syria’s skies.

“We strongly urge the Israeli side to stop armed provocations against the Syrian Arab Republic and refrain from steps that are fraught with dangerous consequences for the entire region,” Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said, according to Reuters.

There was no comment from the Israel Defense Forces, in line with its policy of not generally commenting on air raids in Syria. Israeli officials have previously said the IDF does not target civilians and seeks to avoid damage to residential areas as much as possible.
Netanyahu: Israel actively thwarting ‘relentless’ Iranian attack plots
Israel is ceaselessly confronting Iran’s nefarious activities, as the Islamic Republic’s attempts to attack the Jewish state are unending, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday.

Speaking at the weekly Cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said, “On the Iranian front, our efforts are unceasing for the simple reason that Iran’s acts of aggression are unceasing. Last week, Iran again attacked an oil tanker in the Persian Gulf and struck at the international freedom of navigation. Yesterday, Iran attacked an American base in Syria. Iran continues to send deadly weapons that attack masses of innocent civilians far from its borders.”

BBC Persian reported on Friday that an Israeli-linked oil tanker was targeted in the Persian Gulf by Iranian forces. The attack, which according to the report took place on February 10, targeted the Liberia-flagged Campo Square, whose owner is Zodiac Maritime, a shipping company led by Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer.

Also on Friday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told the annual Munich Security Conference that Tehran was currently engaged in negotiations to sell dozens of countries advanced weapons ahead of the upcoming expiration of a U.N. arms embargo on the Islamic Republic.

“Iran is no longer a ‘local supplier’ serving proxies in the Middle East. It is a ‘multinational corporation,’ a global exporter of advanced weapons,” said Gallant. “From Belarus in Eastern Europe to Venezuela in South America—we have seen Iran delivering UAVs with a range of up to 1,000 kilometers. In fact, Iran is currently holding discussions to sell advanced weapons … to no less than 50 different countries.”
JINSA praises US bill to train Israeli pilots on aircraft needed to confront Iran
The Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA) has commended Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) for introducing legislation to have Israel Air Force pilots begin training on KC-46A refueling tankers ahead of their expected delivery to Israel in 2025.

“America needs to provide our Israeli allies with the military capabilities they need to protect themselves from an increasingly dangerous Iran. Training these pilots now will send a message to Tehran and will ensure that Israel is able to use these planes the day they receive them,” said Cotton in a statement announcing the bill on Thursday.

The early training will expedite Israel’s fielding of the aircraft and guarantee a small U.S. KC-46A presence in the Jewish state until the IDF reaches full combat capability with them.

The KC-46 Pegasus is a military aerial refueling and strategic military transport aircraft developed by Boeing from its 767 jet airliner.

The Washington-based JINSA first advocated in 2018 providing Israel KC-46A tankers in order to enhance its ability to destroy Iran’s nuclear program should it become necessary.

Following a series of JINSA briefings for State Department and other U.S. government officials, Washington approved in 2020 the sale and transfer of these aircraft to Israel.
London-based Iranian dissident broadcaster to leave UK following terror threat
A London-based Iranian dissident television channel has been forced to flee Britain after the Metropolitan police said they had “serious concerns” for the safety of its employees.

Iran International will now relocate to Washington DC but are “undeterred” and “refuse to be silenced,” the channel’s general manager, Mahmood Enayat, said.

“I cannot believe it has come to this. A foreign state has caused such a significant threat to the British public on British soil that we have to move,” Mr Enayat added.

“Let’s be clear, this is not just a threat to our TV station, but [to] the British public at large. This is an assault on the values of sovereignty and free speech that the UK has always held dear.

“Day and night our journalists strive to deliver the 85 million people of Iran and its diaspora the independent, uncensored news they deserve.”

The Metropolitan police’s head of counter terrorism policing, Matt Jukes, said 15 plots to kidnap or kill UK-based individuals seen as enemies of the Iranian regime had been foiled since the start of 2022.


Jonathan Tobin: More to rising antisemitism than Joe Rogan’s rants
Yet for all that, we know that Jewish legacy organizations have, like so many other elements in our society, become so thoroughly politicized that they are more interested in partisan attacks on opponents than condemning Jew-hatred across the board. And their efforts at education against hate, particularly with respect to the Holocaust, focus on anodyne messages about kindness and all bigotry, rather than seek to anathematize contemporary antisemitism in all of its primary manifestations on the right, the left, and among African-American and Muslim communities.

This also contributes to the confusion that some Jews have about what constitutes antisemitism.

For example, both Jews and non-Jews overwhelmingly believe that saying “Israel has no right to exist is antisemitic.” Yet while that statement is backed by 87% of Jews and 90% of non-Jews, less than 40% of both groups are willing to label the BDS movement as antisemitic, as opposed to just having some antisemitic supporters.

That’s partly a product of the ignorance the poll demonstrates about the way anti-Zionism is merely a thinly disguised version of antisemitism. But it’s also a function of a political atmosphere in which the intersectional left, which has embraced the BDS movement, gets a pass because they are politically aligned with Democrats or spout opinions that have become commonplace in leading media outlets like The New York Times.

So long as that is true—and so long as those who purport to speak for the Jews, either in the Jewish world or in politics—aren’t willing to draw a line in the sand and declare that people like Omar and other BDS supporters are beyond the pale in the same way that West is now treated, don’t expect the situation to improve.

Blame Joe Rogan all you like, but the real problem about contemporary antisemitism isn’t what’s heard on a podcast. It’s the ability of some Jew-haters and the popular ideologies they promote to be treated as acceptable discourse. That’s the real reason for troubling poll results that don’t tell us any more than what we already know about 2023 America.
HonestReporting: The Jews and Money Trope: A History Lesson for Joe Rogan
Last week, Joe Rogan went on his podcast, which has an average audience of 11 million listeners per episode, to condone Ilhan Omar's previous antisemitic comments and to push the idea that "Jews are obsessed with money."

HonestReporting breaks down why these statements are so wrong.




BBC News corrects terrorist release report following complaint
On February 17th we received the following communication from the BBC News website:
“Thank you for getting in touch about our article Israel releases longest-serving Palestinian prisoner and please accept our apologies for the long delay in our response.

You raise a fair point and we amended the article’s second paragraph to make clear that Avi Bromberg was kidnapped and murdered “in Northern Israel three years earlier”.

We have also added a correction note advising readers of the change.

Separately, we note your view that the article should have explained that in 2017 Younis was appointed to Fatah’s central committee by Mahmoud Abbas.

While we don’t think this was an essential inclusion on this occasion, your concerns have been discussed with the team.”

The footnote added to the report reads as follows:


Notably, the BBC did not provide any explanation as to why such a simple factual correction took nearly six weeks.


Jewish Insider: Natan Levy
On this week's episode, Rich and Jarrod are joined by Israeli UFC fighter Natan Levy, for a conversation on his journey into mixed martial arts, what it’s like being a professional fighter and his thoughts on Joe Rogan’s recent comments about Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN).






Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism  today at Amazon!

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