Sunday, June 25, 2023

06/25 Links: David Collier: Three Worlds by Avi Shlaim – a proper review; Iran terror cell in Cyprus that planned attacks against Jews; US: No scientific cooperation beyond Green Line

From Ian:

David Collier: Three Worlds by Avi Shlaim – a proper review
In chapter eight Avi Shlaim finally addresses his core allegations — the bombings in Baghdad and his ‘undeniable proof‘ that ‘Zionist agents were responsible for targeting the Jewish community, forcing them to flee Iraq and settle in Israel‘.

The first bombing of a Jewish target took place on 8 April 1950 (page 126). Shlaim claims that this created a flood and by the end of the month, 25,300 Iraqi Jews had registered to emigrate. We can assume that this incredible rate continued for a while because Shlaim then goes on to say that by the middle of the year (June/July) ‘the paced had slowed’.

In other words, even if the bombs caused the exodus (which they didn’t), then whoever planted that first bomb most certainly was responsible for the momentum behind the exodus. Shlaim clearly says (p141) that those responsible for the first bomb (because it was publicly admitted in 2013) were the Islamist Istiqlal Party which wanted to force Jews to leave Iraq. The group felt that bombing Jewish targets would overcome any Jewish ‘hesitancy’ vis-avis emigration. In his own words Shlaim ‘concludes’ that the April 1950 attack was not carried out by Zionists.

Avi Shlaim and his evidence
Shlaim then turns to his ‘evidence’. They are the words of an 88-year-old man (Yaacov Karkoukli) and lots of assumption and hearsay. No academic would regard oral history of this type as reliable. Karkoukli even changes his story while talking to Shlaim on the bombing of the synagogue – giving two separate versions.

Shlaim then says (page 142):
‘Karkoukli (his main witness) was inaccurate on the back story of the bribe and the bombing of the synagogue‘.

Shlaim is literally admitting that the man upon whom he has built the entire theory is an unreliable witness. You don’t get to hang on to the bits you like because you want them to be true. This is not how historians should work.

And much of this is not even new. Karkoukli gave an interview in Hebrew in 2020 in which he talks about the deadly bombing of the Synagogue – that was organised by the Iraqi police (timestamp 42:30).

This means that both the first bomb, and the deadly bomb attack on the synagogue, were carried out by forces hostile to the Jews in Iraq.

Shlaim’s only other piece of evidence is an undated and unsigned document that is apparently tied to the same Iraqi police division that tortured and forced confessions out of Jews whom they arrested and executed over the bombings. If so, then this was written by a police force with a vested interest in placing the blame for the Jewish exodus back onto their ‘Zionist enemy’.

Far from offering undeniable proof, Avi Shlaim is effectively taking his readers for a ride.


Don’t be taken in by Avi Shlaim’s view of Zionism
The Jews and Arabs were friends really. It was only Zionism, a Eurocentric import, that poisoned the relationship between them.

So says Avi Shlaim, Emeritus Professor of International Relations at Oxford, in his new book, recently reviewed in gushing terms in the Spectator. Of course, he should know, being the son of Iraqi Jewish parents who left for Israel in 1950. He’s also a well-known Corbyn supporter and one of the many hard-left academics who vociferously accused anti-Corbyn campaigners of weaponising antisemitism — the type of view that Sir Keir Starmer has spent the last few years trying to get rid of in the Labour Party.

Shlaim focuses on the well-worn accusation that a series of bombings in 1950 and 1951 in Baghdad (which caused one fatality overall) were in fact a plot orchestrated by Israel to make the Jews leave. It’s a ludicrous proposition that has never had any proof behind it. It has echoes of Ken Loach and Ken Livingstone’s pernicious proposition that the Zionists were in cahoots with the Nazis. It’s the kind of thing antisemites love to come up with: it’s the Jews who are really to blame for their own fate, rather than the centuries of Arab persecution.

The fact that for centuries they had status as second-class “dhimmi” who, if they looked at a Muslim the wrong way, could be murdered for it, had nothing to do with it. The 1941 Nazi-inspired Farhud antisemitic pogrom, when 180 Jews were murdered, was of no consequence. The arrests, confiscations and worse in the wake of 1948 had no impact. The Arabs loved the Jews and it was all the fault of Zionism.

Except it wasn’t. One hundred and twenty thousand Jews left Iraq for Israel between 1950 and 1952. As Shlaim points out, life in Israel for these refugees was deprived and difficult. Many who had arrived told their friends and relatives still in Baghdad that they should not come. Yet mostly they still did. Not because of an illusory non-existent plot by Israel but because their fellow citizens had just murdered 180 of their community, following on from a long history of persecution and second-class citizenship, and they realised, perhaps, that to be safe they needed to be somewhere else. Somewhere that would take them in, like the Jewish state. They did not need “Eurocentric Zionism” to make this clear.

Those who stayed had in store for them the hangings of nine Jews in Baghdad in 1969 and other atrocities in revenge for the defeat of the Arab armies 1967.
Mossad helped crack Iran terror cell in Cyprus that planned attacks against Jews
The Mossad helped Cyprus crack an Iranian terror cell, according to a statement by the Prime Minister’s Office on Sunday.

The spy agency said that it had assisted Cyprus with thwarting Iran’s plot in order to solve the puzzle of the underlying crimes and method of operation of the terror organization involved.

"Israel praises the thwarting of an Iranian terrorist attack on Cyprus's territory against Israeli targets," the Prime Minister's Office stated. "Israel acts in a variety of ways everywhere to defend Jews and Israelis, and will continue to act to cut off Iranian terror wherever it raises its head, including in Iran, the chief spreader of terror in the world."

Earlier Sunday, Phile News reported that Cyprus thwarted a planned Iranian terrorist attack on Jews on the island state. That initial report said that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps planned the attack, which was stopped in cooperation between Cyprus and Western partners, which named the US and Israel as among the likely partners.

Jerusalem and Nicosia have worked together to foil Iranian plots to attack Israelis in the past. In 2021, they arrested a Russian-Azerbaijani hitman hired by the IRGC to kill Israeli businessmen in Cyprus. Billionaire Teddy Sagi, among others, were evacuated to Israel at the time.

Channel 12 added that the terror cell targeted a Jewish real estate businessman, a Chabad site, and hotels that Israelis tend to visit.

Seven members of the cell were arrested, with one having escaped.


Israel Advocacy Movement: Debating an anti-Zionist

White House: No scientific cooperation beyond Green Line
The Biden administration issued guidance to cut scientific and technological cooperation with areas beyond the 1949 armistice line, referring to territory recovered by Israel in the 1967 war, Kan News reported on Sunday.

The stance signals U.S. disapproval of Israel’s intention to build thousands of homes in Judea and Samaria and marks a return to Obama-era policy.

A U.S. State Department spokesperson told Kan, “This guidance is simply reflective of the longstanding U.S. position that the ultimate disposition of the geographic areas is a final-status matter and that we are working towards a negotiated two-state solution.”

The decision reversed an initiative by the Trump administration to eliminate a U.S. policy prejudiced against Israeli control of Judea and Samaria.

In October 2020, the Trump administration signed bilateral agreements to further enhance the cooperation with Israel in the areas of science, industrial research and agriculture by removing “geographic restrictions” from previous accords.

Until then, joint U.S.-Israel development projects, including the Binational Industrial Research and Development Foundation (BIRD), the Binational Science Foundation (BSF) and the Binational Agricultural Research and Development Foundation (BARD), couldn’t be conducted in areas that “came under the administration of the government of the State of Israel after June 5, 1967, and may not relate to subjects pertinent to such areas.”

In eliminating the geographic restrictions, then-U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman said, “We are righting an old wrong. And strengthening yet again the unbreakable bond between our two countries.

“We are depoliticizing a process that should never have been political in the first place,” Friedman said at the time.
US increases funding for UNRWA
The U.S. State Department has allocated more than $220 million for UNRWA this year despite its schools’ curriculum that glorifies violence and terrorism and an agreement that conditions funding on the prevention of teaching hate and antisemitism.

A $16 million funding increase the State Department announced last week raises U.S. contributions to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East this year to $223 million, cementing Washington’s position as UNRWA’s largest donor.

UNRWA teachers and schools regularly call for the murder of Jews and create institutional teaching materials that glorify terrorism, encourage martyrdom, demonize Israelis and incite antisemitism, a recent report found.

“UNRWA not only teaches the hate-filled Palestinian curriculum but produces in its own extremist teaching materials,” said Marcus Sheff, CEO of IMPACT-se (the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education), which co-authored the report with UN Watch.

“The U.S. seems to be bucking a global trend in increasing its funding to UNRWA while the organization does nothing to stop the hate teaching,” Sheff added.

The Trump administration stopped all US funding to UNRWA, a move the Biden administration reversed.

Over the last two and half years, the U.S. has contributed nearly $1 billion to UNRWA.

A senior State Department official told a congressional of the House Foreign Affairs Committee last week that the department was aware of the continuing reports of incitement to violence at UNRWA schools.
Police detain 3 UN employees for smuggling liquid cocaine into Israel from Jordan
Israel Police detained three United Nations employees on Sunday on suspicion of trying to smuggle liquid cocaine into Israel from Jordan, disguised as a component of perfume-making kits.

Customs officers who inspected luggage belonging to the detainees, who work in Syria near the border with Israel, were suspicious about the kits, which the travelers described as used for making perfumes.

The kits, which contained multiple bottles with liquids, prompted a police sniffing dog to react in a way that substantiated the suspicions, according to a joint statement from police and the Tax Authority.

An analysis conducted by the customs officer and police led the law enforcement professionals to identify the liquid in at least one of the bottles as liquid cocaine. The Israel Police Northern District took over the investigation of the suspects, who are in custody, police said in a statement.

The United Nations employs thousands of peace-keeping troops and other personnel around Israel. Jerusalem has often exchanged barbs with UN officials over impartiality or accused them of collaborating with Israel’s enemies, while the UN has at times accused Israel of detaining its employees without reason or denying them entry.

However, other cases have involved allegedly criminal or inappropriate behavior by UN employees stationed in the Jewish state.


Kyiv accuses Israel of pro-Moscow stance
The Ukrainian embassy in Tel Aviv on Sunday accused Israel of taking a “pro-Russia” position.

The government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “has opted for a path of close cooperation with the Russian Federation,” the embassy said in a long statement posted to its official Twitter account in both Hebrew and English.

It cited a “fruitless” visit to Ukraine in February by Israel’s Foreign Minister Eli Cohen and an interview that Netanyahu conducted on June 22. The embassy also noted what it called a “near absence” of humanitarian aid to Ukraine.

Jerusalem’s “neutral” stance is tantamount to supporting Moscow, the embassy said.

“Regrettably, the Israeli government pays little attention to the opinions of its own people and disregards the pleas of the global Jewish diaspora, who unequivocally support Ukraine in its struggle against Russian state terrorism. We urge the Israeli government to change its position and to support Ukraine with defensive means, to support freedom and democratic world order. We expect Israel to be on the right side of history!” it wrote.
Seth Frantzman: Russia said to step up Syria airstrikes, disputes crisis at home
Russia was accused of carrying out attacks in northern Syria on Sunday, even as it faced a crisis at home in the wake of the Wagner uprising, according to reports on social media and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) and pro-Iranian website Al-Mayadeen.

Russia carried out airstrikes in Idlib in northern Syria, SOHR claimed, adding that upto 40 people were killed and or wounded.

“The death toll from the Russian airstrikes today on the area rose to 11; nine [killed] on the outskirts of the city of Jisr al-Shughour (6 civilians and 3 military), and 2 on the outskirts of Idlib, a soldier from the ‘Turkistani Islamic Party’ and a civilian,” the SOHR report said. “About 30 others were injured in Jisr al-Shughour, some of them in critical condition, which suggests that the number of dead and martyrs may rise.” The report claimed this was the first “massacre” by Russian airstrikes this year.

The strike came as Russia was suffering internal chaos, that occured over the weekend, in which mercenary units left the frontline to march on Moscow. Those units, linked to Wagner, have now stood down and it appears that they will return to the front and some of their leaders will be exiled in Belarus.

Russia appeared weak amidst the internal chaos
Russia appeared weak as it faced internal chaos. This could be a reason for these new rounds of airstrikes.

Russia has backed the Syrian regime since the beginning of the Syrian civil war and in 2015 Russia intervened in Syria with its air force and special forces.

Russia has air force units at Khmeimim air base in Latakia and also a naval facility at Tartus. Thus, Russia has numerous warplanes near Idlib.


Rabbi who lost wife, daughters in shooting attack says settler violence ‘desecrates God’s name’
Rabbi Leo Dee, whose wife and two daughters were recently killed in a terror shooting, condemns acts of settler violence in apparent retaliation for an attack last week in which four Israelis were shot dead by Palestinian terrorists.

In a Facebook post, Dee expresses his condolences to the bereaved families. He also praises a civilian who shot one of the attackers and the IDF for tracking down and killing the other.

“Now that the majority of the world’s Jewish population is living in our ancestral homeland and the state is 75 years old, 3 generations, we are here FOREVER,” writes Dee, a resident of the Efrat settlement. “And our purpose? To be a light unto the Nations.”

“Jewish violence against innocent Arabs is a Chilul Hashem which only creates darkness in the world,” he adds, using a Hebrew term that means a “desecration of God’s name.”

“Killing terrorists is humane and a Kiddush Hashem, a sanctification of God’s name. Terrorising innocent Arabs is a crime against humanity, a Chilul Hashem and cannot be atoned for in a lifetime.”
Israel's security chiefs say settler violence is terror as US demands action
Settler violence runs counter to every Jewish value and is an act of national terrorism, the heads of the IDF, Shin Bet and Police said in a sternly worded statement on Saturday as US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan called his Israeli counterpart Tzachi Hanegbi to demand accountability.

“These attacks are against every moral and Jewish value and are also nationalist terrorism in every sense, and we are obliged to fight them,” said IDF Chief of Staff Herzl Halevi, Shin Bet Chief Ronen Bar and Police Chief Kobi Shabtai.

They spoke out after a series of settler attacks against Palestinian villages in the West Bank sparked by a terror attack in which a Palestinian gunman killed four Israelis at a gas station outside of the Eli settlement in the Binyamin region of the West Bank.

On Saturday, settlers torched homes and cars in the Palestinian village Umm Safa near Ramallah. The IDF said one Israeli suspect had been arrested and that its forces used anti-riot measures to break up violent clashes between the settlers and the Palestinians. One IDF soldier was hit by a stone and lightly injured.

Among the most serious attacks, this week was against the village of Turmas Aya, in which settlers fired guns on the streets and torched homes and vehicles. A Palestinian man was killed attempting to help wounded Palestinians.


Netanyahu calls Ben-Gvir’s Evyatar statement ‘unacceptable’
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reprimanded National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir on Sunday for encouraging Jews to come and settle the unauthorized outpost of Evyatar in Samaria.

Hundreds of Israeli Jews flocked to the outpost immediately following the deadly terrorist attack near Eli on June 20. During a visit to the site on Friday, Ben-Gvir said, “Run to the hills, settle there, we love you.”

The outpost had his “full and complete backing,” he said, “but I want much more from the settlement here. There should be a full settlement here—not only here, but in all the hills around us.”

In his address to the weekly Cabinet meeting on Sunday, Netanyahu said, “Calls to grab land illegally and actions of grabbing land illegally are unacceptable to me.”

Such statements and actions, he said, “undermine law and order in Judea and Samaria and must stop immediately. Not only will we not back such actions, our government will take strong action against them.”

Far from strengthening the settlement enterprise, such calls and actions actually harm it, he continued.

“I say this as someone who doubled settlement in Judea and Samaria despite great and unprecedented international pressure to carry out withdrawals that I have not carried out and will not carry out,” he said.

The appropriate response to terrorism is “to fight terrorists,” and “at the same time to deepen our roots in our country,” he added.
As settler violence continues, Nides says US ‘won’t stand by’ and let it happen
US Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides said Thursday that the Biden administration would “not stand by and watch settler violence occur,” following a string of rampages by Israelis targeting Palestinians in the West Bank.

It was the second day in a row that a US official condemned settler violence, though Nides — who is known to speak matter-of-factly — appeared to go further than State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel did on Tuesday.

But Nides’s remarks at a Tel Aviv gathering of young Israelis and Palestinians organized by the Geneva Initiative were given as reports came out of additional settler riots unfolding in the West Bank Palestinian towns of Urif and Jaloud.

Since a Palestinian terror shooting outside the Eli settlement left four Israelis dead on Tuesday, settlers have been rioting in Palestinian villages across the West Bank, setting fire to homes, cars, and terrorizing residents in rampages that have led to a Palestinian death.

“We will not stand by and watch settler violence occur. No one should have to worry about a rogue army,” the ambassador said. “We’re pushing the Israelis to take whatever action they need to take to stop those people.”

Nides, who was accused of drawing an equivalency between Israelis killed in a Palestinian terror shooting on Tuesday and Palestinians killed during an IDF raid of Jenin on Monday, was careful to condemn the former attack in its own right.
Palestinian man with loaded ammunition magazines arrested in Tel Aviv
A 22-year-old illegal resident with three loaded ammunition magazines and marijuana on his person was arrested on Rothschild Boulevard in Tel Aviv on Saturday evening, Israel Police confirmed on Sunday.

The man, a resident of the town of Beit Omar in the West Bank, was taken in for further questioning.


Seth Frantzman: Iran claims Caspian Sea destroyer outfitted with cruise missiles, new guns
Iran’s Damavand destroyer, located on the land-locked Caspian Sea, has been outfitted with new missiles and a gun, Iranian media reported on Sunday.

Iran’s main warship on the Caspian Sea was ordered back in 2006 and completed in 2013. Iran can use this sea to expand its strategies in Central Asia and protect shipments of weapon systems, such as drones, to Russia.

Iran reportedly ships drones and items for a drone factory via the Caspian Sea, according to a June 9 report at CNN.

The Damavand is part of the Moudge-class of ships for Iran’s navy and is one of several of these ships to supposedly be built.

The Damavand was repaired after an accident
However, the Damavand had an accident in 2018 when it struck a breakwater in Bander e-Anzali. It was sent for repairs and by August 2019 Iran claimed it was ready to be operational again.

However, it was not clear if it was ready for service until 2020.

According to reports in Iran, the ship has anti-ship cruise missiles and a 76mm gun and their installation has been completed.


UCU Scotland President nonsensically claims Union is committed to fighting antisemitism seconds before rejecting the International Definition of Antisemitism and defending David Miller
In an absurd speech, the President of the University and College Union (UCU) Scotland nonsensically claimed that the Union is committed to fighting antisemitism just seconds before rejecting the International Definition of Antisemitism and defending the disgraced academic David Miller.

Mr Miller was fired by the University of Bristol over comments he had made about Jewish students, a month after Campaign Against Antisemitism commenced a lawsuit on behalf of current students against the institution and amidst a Jewish communal outcry.

He is a conspiracy theorist with a history of controversy relating to Jewish students. In one outburst, he asserted that “Zionism is racism”, declared his objective “to end Zionism as a functioning ideology of the world” and accused the Bristol University Jewish Society of being part of a worldwide Zionist conspiracy, adding that it is “fundamental to Zionism to encourage Islamophobia and anti-Arab racism”. At the same online event, Mr Miller also observed that the Jewish Society and the Union of Jewish Students are Zionist, thereby implying that Jewish students (and the wider Jewish community) inherently “encourage Islamophobia and anti-Arab racism”.

He also portrayed the Definition as an attack on free speech and accused the Israeli Government of engaging in an “all-out attack” on the global Left as part of an “attempt by the Israelis to impose their will all over the world”. In comments reminiscent of the darkest years of the United Nations, Mr Miller insisted that “Zionism is racism” and asked how “we defeat the ideology of Zionism in practice”, “how is Zionism ended” and about the way “to end Zionism as a functioning ideology of the world”.

In a video posted by the ‘Harry’s Place’ Twitter account, Jeanette Findlay, the Union’s President, said that the Union is “committed to anti-racism in all its forms” including antisemitism, before stating that “it is for that reason that we have rejected the IHRA Definition.”

Ms Findlay went on to erroneously claim that the Definition had been “widely discredited” and that its primary use was to defend Israel from criticism.


AP and The Guardian Misrepresent Casualties in Latest West Bank Violence
In summing up this past week’s West Bank violence, both the Associated Press and The Guardian are just two of the media outlets that compared the casualty figures for both Israelis and Palestinians, effectively creating a moral equivalence between the two.

This equivalence is flawed, however, as it does not take into account the fact that all Israelis killed over the past week were civilians while over 70% of the Palestinians killed were members of internationally recognized terror groups and/or engaged in violence against Israeli civilians and security forces at the time of their deaths.

The Israeli Casualties
This past week, the four Israeli casualties, ranging in age between 17 and 64, were killed during a Palestinian terror attack at a restaurant and gas station outside the Jewish community of Eli in the northern West Bank.

The Palestinian Casualties
This past week, 16 Palestinians were killed by Israelis during seven separate incidents. Of these 16, 12 were members of terrorist organizations and/or engaged in anti-Israel violence:
June 19: Seven Palestinians were killed during an extended gunfight in Jenin between Israeli security personnel and members of Palestinian terror groups following an Israeli counter-terrorism arrest operation. Of the seven Palestinians killed, three were members of Islamic Jihad, one was a member of Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades and three were civilians.
June 19: A Palestinian man was shot and killed by the IDF after throwing a Molotov cocktail at Israeli troops during clashes in Husan, near Bethlehem.
June 20: The two Palestinian terrorists from the Eli attack were killed. Both members of Hamas, one was killed at the scene by an armed civilian while the other was killed by Israeli forces hours after fleeing the scene.
June 21: One Palestinian civilian was killed during a rampage by Israeli settlers in the town of Turmus Ayaa.
June 21: Three Palestinians were killed by a drone strike after fleeing the scene of an attack on an IDF post. Two were members of the Jenin Battalion while the third was a member of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades.
June 23: A member of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades was shot during clashes with Israeli security forces in Nablus. He died the next day.
June 24: One Palestinian was killed after opening fire on Israeli forces at the Qalandiya checkpoint, north of Jerusalem.
VOA Corrects Grossly Inflated Figure For 1948 Refugees Living in West Bank
CAMERA’s Israel office last week prompted correction of a significant error in a text accompanying a Voice of America video which grossly overstated the number of Palestinians living in the West Bank who had been displaced from their homes in 1948 (“Frustration Growing Among Young Palestinians in Refugee Camp“). The text erred:
Almost 900,000 Palestinians living in the West Bank are classified as refugees, meaning they were displaced from their homes in what became the State of Israel in 1948.

There are maybe 10,000 Palestinians living in the West Bank who were displaced from their homes in 1948, not 900,000. The figure that VOA cited is simply impossible.

While UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, serves 901,000 registered Palestinian refugees in the West Bank — only a tiny majority of them, well under 5 percent — were displaced from their homes in 1948.

Any Palestinian displaced from their home in 1948 must be at least 75 years old, and there aren’t 900,000 Palestinians in the West Bank of that age. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, there were just 196,251 Palestinians of the age 60 or older living in the West Bank. Naturally, as the age increases, the population number declines, and therefore there are well under 196,251 Palestinians aged 75 and up living in the West Bank, and not all of them were displaced from their homes in 1948. (The West Bank’s population is extremely young, with 36 percent under the age of 16.)
BBC Arabic makes four corrections to coverage of PIJ leader’s death
More than a month after its May 6th submission, the BBC finally resolved a CAMERA Arabic complaint regarding BBC Arabic coverage of the death of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) leader Khader Adnan, including acknowledgment that it should not have been described as an “ascension”.

Adnan’s death in hospital on May 2nd following a hunger strike while in Israeli custody was the topic of four BBC Arabic reports on that day and a fifth item related to the rocket attacks launched by Gaza Strip-based PIJ terrorists following his death.

One of those items was a filmed report by BBC Arabic’s Ramallah correspondent Eman Eriqat. Entitled “Khader Adnan: the Palestinian prisoner’s family accuses Israel of ‘deliberate killing’”, that report included several falsehoods and omissions.

In addition to inaccurately claiming that Adnan had died “inside the Israeli Ramla prison” (he was actually pronounced dead while in the “Assaf HaRofeh” hospital), Eriqat’s video also misled viewers on two additional points:
The topic of Adnan’s PIJ membership was portrayed in terms of “Israel accuses”. Adnan was indeed a PIJ member, firstly according to the PIJ itself (which also refers to him repeatedly as a “leadership figure [Arabic: قيادي]”), and secondly according to biographical details published elsewhere. The 2020 “Encyclopedia of Palestinian Elite” traced his PIJ membership back more than two decades.
The PIJ was presented as a “movement, which is included in its [Israel’s] list of banned groups.” However, the PIJ is also proscribed by the United Kingdom (since 2001) as well as the United States, members of the European Union, Japan, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Notably, this is not the first time that BBC Arabic has concealed the fact that the PIJ has long been proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the UK and many other democracies. For example, its 2019 PIJ backgrounder only mentions Israel and the US in that context.
Popular far-right personality implicates Rothschilds in Titan
Zachary Vorhies, a software engineer and Google whistleblower, went on the Stew Peters Show last week where he and host Peters promoted the conspiracy theory that the sinking of the Titanic was deliberately orchestrated.

Furthermore, Vorhies implied that the implosion of the OceanGate Titan submersible, a disaster that killed five people, was also by design.

According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), Peters is a white nationalist and serial conspiracy theorist. Left-leaning media watchdog Media Matters America reported that Peters even claimed Black people are genetically predisposed to commit crime and Jews control the media and have a religion that is a “death cult built on the blood of murdered babies.”

Peters introduced the segment by saying, “If the entire media is in alignment on something then, there’s probably something hidden. What if all of this is actually a ploy to keep people from visiting the Titanic wreckage? But if that’s the goal, why? Maybe because if people explore the Titanic too much, they would discover that it wasn’t an iceberg that sank the Titanic.

"There’s a lot of alternative theories about how that sinking occurred. That it was intentionally sunk as part of an elaborate insurance scheme, and even that it was sunk by a newly created federal reserve.”

Vorhies went on to explain his theory that the Rothschilds and other bankers in the early part of the 20th century were trying to create the US Federal Reserve Bank but were met with opposition - notably, from John Jacob Astor IV, Benjamin Guggenhei, Isidor Straus, and George Dunton Widene. He then pointed out that all four of those individuals perished on the Titanic.

“It’s the belief of a lot of people that pieced this together,” Vorhies claimed, “that those were the actual targets because shortly after the Titanic sank, the Federal Reserve was instituted.”

“We all know that jet fuel can’t melt steel beams, but what we should also adopt is that an iceberg can’t cut through hardened steel,” Vorhies told Peters.
Inside GoyimTV, an underbelly of antisemitic neo-Nazi hate
If anyone may think that neo-Nazism doesn’t exist in America, just a few minutes of watching GoyimTV, a purely antisemitic video platform, will blow their mind.

In the past week, I’ve watched many hours of this low-level and racist content that unfortunately has many viewers in the US and around the world. Goyim is plural for non-Jews in Hebrew. On a daily show called Handsome Truth, the host, Jon Minadeo II, always begins with a Nazi salute, and, seconds later, an intro video displays evil leaders such as Adolf Hitler and others, as well as antisemitic symbols.

Minadeo, an antisemitic conspiracy theorist, neo-Nazi, white supremacist and former rapper, is one of the founders of a group called the Goyim Defense League. How do the Goyim Defense League spread antisemitic conspiracy theories?

GDL is a group known for spreading antisemitic ideologies and promoting conspiracy theories. Operating primarily on social media platforms, it has also established an online video platform called GoyimTV. The GDL engages in various activities aimed at harassing Jews, including distributing flyers, conducting banner drops and engaging in other provocative actions. The GDL has been recognized as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors such organizations.

On his show, Minadeo actively promotes the distribution of “drop,” as he calls it, of antisemitic flyers across the US. He sells designed flyers online in bulk packages of hundreds or thousands, as a way to support his controversial work. Though this toxic activity is considered by GDL as freedom of speech, its activities are seen by many minorities, mainly Jews, as a threat to their security.

During this past week, he was encouraging his followers to “drop” what he called the “defiant flyers.” These flyers promote watching an online conspiracy video.

Though some of the activists of this movement claim that they are only active online, reality proves otherwise: FOX LA reported this week that authorities are investigating, after an antisemitic flyer in Redondo Beach California was discovered. “A picture of the flyer shared with FOX 11 shows a white paper reading ‘Watch Defiant by Devon Stack,’ along with a link to an antisemitic website, sealed in a Ziploc bag containing white rocks,” the report said.

“According to authorities, the Redondo Beach Police Department has responded to similar incidents in the past few months, but it’s still under investigation if they are connected,” it was stated.

On a show that Minadeo hosted this week from Florida, he said that he is “super excited” about the fact that “one of the buddies is giving us a boat,” and that they will be doing “Jew-naming on the water. I’m excited to get on a boat and name Jews.” The GDL has created an entire terminology that they use, many times in order to hide their real intentions or to not make these words searchable online. The word “Israel” is written in many different ways on GoyimTV. “JIZraHell” is the way it was spelled in a video titled “JIZraHell drone TERROR attack kills 3 in OCCUPIED West Bank car attack.”

Interestingly, GoyimTV use extreme-left and pro-Palestinian terms as well as ideology, when speaking of Israel and Zionism, even though it is an extreme-right movement. It also uses extreme-right and neo-Nazi terminology. Swastikas are used frequently, and Hitler is the most popular opinion leader of this group.
Neo-Nazi seen waving swastika flags outside multiple Georgia synagogues
A group of Neo-Nazi’s brandished swastika flags and other antisemitic propaganda outside multiple Georgia synagogues over the weekend.

Several members of the hate group Goyim Defense League were pictured outside Chabad Lubavitch of Cobb County in the Atlanta suburb of Marietta Saturday.

The disturbing protest was led by the group’s leader Jon Minadeo II — a day after he was charged with disorderly conduct and public disturbance in front of Temple Beth Israel in Macon, WMAZ-TV reported.

“This was the most frightening thing I’ve ever seen in my entire life,” Chabad of Cobb member Stewart Levy told WSB-TV.

“I am shocked, absolutely shocked to see this here. When I see the amount of ignorance out there and some of the truths that they are promoting, it is just frightening the level of inaccurate knowledge that there is.”

Minadeo was arrested the day earlier in Macon after he continued shouting obscenities through a bullhorn even though authorities has asked him to stop, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

He was released from the Bibb County jail Saturday and apparently headed straight to Cobb, the newspaper said.


Australian politicians bought Nazi artifacts in auction
An Australian auction house, Danielle Elizabeth Auctions, that sold an extensive collection of Nazi paraphernalia earlier this month online defended the sale this week by stating “many politicians” were among the buyers.

The items sold included a striped cap from a concentration camp, a winter coat with a yellow star, photo albums of dead soldiers and prisoners of war, personal photo albums of SS officers, and signed photos of Adolf Hitler, Heinrich Himmler, and Erwin Rommel.

Other artifacts sold included Nazi uniforms, helmets, and daggers, a Nazi vase, anti-Semitic propaganda posters, and Hitler posters.

The auction house, which is based in Southport, Queensland, promoted the sale using the slogan, “Huge Militaria Sale. Get it Before History is Banned & Erased.”

The slogan references a recently introduced bill that would see the Australian federal government ban public display of Nazi symbols across Australia.

Jewish groups such as the Australia Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) and Anti-Defamation Commission were supportive of the bill and were outraged by Danielle Elizabeth Auctions’ decision to move forward with the auction.

Auction house defends sale
Dustin Sweeney, the managing director of Danielle Elizabeth Auctions, dismissed the criticism and defended the auction, claiming that it was not illegal and that Australian politicians had purchased items in the sale.

“I can honestly say I’ve never even met a neo-Nazi. The people buying our historical artifacts are collectors, politicians, lawyers, emergency doctors and history professors,” he told Guardian Australia. “It’s legal, it isn’t illegal, we aren’t selling drugs to kids.”

Sweeney refused to provide further details about the identity of the politicians, stating that auction house did not reveal personal information about their clients.
Giant mural at Ben-Gurion Airport tells the story of the Jewish people
A huge mural, 50 meters long and five meters high and titled “Am Yisrael Chai,” celebrating 4,000 years of Jewish history, was unveiled at Ben-Gurion Airport on Tuesday.

The mural tells the story of the Jewish people, starting with the creation of Adam to the formation of the nation of Israel, its exile, the rise of Zionism and the establishment of the modern state.

It continues through the story of the State of Israel in its 75 years of existence, its development, wars, innovations, landscapes, leaders, scientists and thinkers.

The painting was done in a graphic art style inspired by South American and Mexican art. International Mexican artist Julio Carrasco Bretón created the mural.

The mural is an initiative of the Israel-Latin America Network (ILAN), which aims to strengthen relations between Latin America and Israel, particularly in the area of innovation. The project began about a year ago with the blessing of Israeli President Isaac Herzog on the occasion of the state’s 75th birthday.

On hand at the unveiling were Bretón, Transportation Minister Miri Regev, World Zionist Organization Chairman Yaakov Hagoel, President and founder of ILAN Isaac Asa and a delegation of about 50 ILAN representatives, including heads of Jewish communities from Central and South America, members of Congress and other dignitaries.

“We were privileged, together with the members of the ILAN organization and the leaders of the ILAN communities in Latin America, to complete the most comprehensive and detailed artistic mural painting project in the history of the Jewish people and in the entire world,” Asa said.




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