Sunday, September 24, 2023

09/24 Links: Yom Kippur War to Abraham Accords: How Israel changed over 50 years; The Palestinian conflict with Israel is rooted in antisemitism

From Ian:

Fleur Hassan-Nahoum: Yom Kippur War to Abraham Accords: How Israel changed over 50 years
On Rosh Hashanah it is inscribed, and on Yom Kippur it is sealed: How many shall die and how many shall be born?

I was born on Rosh Hashanah, and as my mother was recovering from an emergency Cesarean section over Yom Kippur, an additional layer of shock overtook her as news of the war in Israel reached her. She was a staunch Zionist who had played an integral role in the aliyah of Moroccan Jews, facilitating passage to Israel through Gibraltar for sick immigrants.

That Yom Kippur, especially, Jerusalem – the city I would one day call home and be privileged to serve as a deputy mayor – was on her mind, and its name was on her lips in fervent prayer.

As I was taking my early breaths, the Jewish world was holding its collective breath, imagining the catastrophic scenario of Israel being decimated in a war that they did not see coming. The life of this national project, and the lives of every single Jew who called Israel home, were hanging in the balance.

Who shall live and who shall die? Who shall be at peace and who pursued?

On that day, Yom Kippur 50 years ago, the pleas of hazanim, mothers, and soldiers intermingled.

Fifty years ago, our Arab neighbors gathered against us, surrounding us in war with the aim of our complete annihilation. Almost 3,000 lives were sacrificed for that late victory, and thousands more were wounded. As I look back on those events in the history of our young state and great nation, I consider what has transpired in the 50 years since then in the life of Israel, my own life, and where I have been fortunate for those two to overlap.

Fifty years ago we had to guard our doorsteps for fear of our enemies’ encroachment.

Now, we are opening our doors to countries in the region that sought to eject us. I am planning my next trip to Dubai as a welcome guest.
Our Chosen Leaders
REVIEW: ‘Providence and Power: Ten Portraits of Jewish Statesmanship’ by Meir Y. Soloveichik

Statesmanship, the late philosopher Isaiah Berlin argued, is more of an art than a science. And as Rabbi Meir Soloveichik demonstrates in his brilliant book, Providence and Power: Ten Portraits of Jewish Statesmanship, some of its most able practitioners have been Jewish. Soloveichik seeks to explore a largely unexamined question: What is Jewish statecraft?

Studies of statesmanship aren’t exactly new. And many famous diplomats and strategists, from Henry Kissinger to Paul Wolfowitz, have happened to be Jewish. Biographies and character studies of these figures are not uncommon. But as Soloveichik notes, "Few, however, have turned their attention to the history of Jewish leaders in particular—that is, leaders specifically of the Jewish people," as opposed to "Jews who have risen to greatness in service to non-Jewish regimes or causes."

The absence of such studies, the rabbi suggests, might be owed to the statelessness that befell the Jewish people for thousands of years. How, it might be asked, could a stateless people practice statecraft? In fact, as Soloveichik ably demonstrates, this very condition made statesmanship more essential, and its feats more remarkable.

Appropriately enough, the character studies in Providence and Power span almost the entirety of Jewish history. Nor does Soloveichik limit himself geographically; figures from ancient Israel to Victorian England are represented. To the initiated, some, such as King David or Theodore Herzl, are unsurprising. But others, such as Shlomtsion, are less known.

David, who founded the Judaean dynasty and united the tribes of Israel, is perhaps an obvious, if deeply flawed, candidate for learning lessons about statecraft. Paradoxically, it’s his flaws that make him great.

"If we wish to learn about statesmanship from a Jewish perspective," Soloveichik writes, "we must turn first and foremost to his life and legend." David’s true greatness, he argues, came not in his victories but in his defeat. In David, Soloveichik finds a leader who exhibits both creativity and political inventiveness, but also a man who becomes all too aware of the costs of his own foibles.
The Palestinian conflict with Israel is rooted in antisemitism
Palestinians have spent their energy and resources on battling the Jewish state as opposed to finding a way to end the conflict. Many observers call into question whether the Palestinians even want their own state. Their leadership’s actions and policies are completely inconsistent with working towards an independent state. They seem to sabotage any process that gets them closer to their goal of a Palestinian State.

Palestinian terrorism is at one of its highest peaks. In 2023 there is an average of more than three attempted terror attacks a day. The Palestinian glorification of terrorists, its adulation of violent resistance, and its dreaded pay-to-slay program all point to a people and culture more interested in defeating Israel through violence, than establishing its own state and ending the conflict with Israel through a peace deal. It is obvious to most Israelis, and especially Israeli leadership, that the Palestinians are more interested in ending Israel than creating their own peaceful state.

Mahmoud Abbas’s antisemitism isn’t new and contrary to Palestinian apologists’ claims it is representative of the Palestinian people’s attitudes.

Although, a few days after Abbas’s statements came to light (but a month after they were broadcast to Palestinians) a select few Palestinian academics signed an open letter condemning his “morally and politically reprehensible comments,” most of those who affixed their signatures live in the United States and Europe and don’t represent the Palestinian people.

Nevertheless, besides only issuing the letter when Abbas’s comments were translated into English and spread around the world, as opposed to when Abbas made the very public comments on Palestinian TV, the letter additionally included slanderous characterizations of Israeli treatment of Palestinians. It was also signed by some of the world’s most notorious antisemites; people like Ubal Aboudi, a PFLP member, Refaat Alareer who has said, “Most Jews are evil,” and Huwaida Arraf, who equates Israel with Nazi Germany.

Palestinians had an opportunity to condemn Abbas’s antisemitism without slandering Israel – and without cynically having the world’s worst antisemites masquerade as condemning antisemitism while practicing it themselves – and they missed it. Instead, they displayed their true hateful colors. Just as no one should have been surprised by Abbas’s antisemitism, no one should be surprised by the latent antisemitism displayed by the Palestinians in response to their president’s hateful speech.

Many characterize the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a territorial dispute, but that’s far from an accurate description. The conflict is based on centuries-old hate and traditional antisemitism. It begins with a rejection of Judaism, continues with a rejection of Jewish peoplehood and their rights to their land, and exists today in violent rejection of the Jewish State.

It is naïve to think the solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will come with the creation of another Palestinian State or the splitting of Jerusalem. The conflict between Israelis and Palestinians will only be solved once age-old hate is put to rest – and the prospects of that happening soon aren’t good.


Netanyahu: US trip brought ‘many achievements’ for the State of Israel
Netanyahu was set to touch down in Tel Aviv on Sunday afternoon, just after Israel’s airspace officially closes for the Yom Kippur holiday, but before the holiday starts at sundown.

“I think this visit brought many achievements, and with your help, and thanks to you, we were able to do lots of good things for the State of Israel,” the premier told fellow members of the Israeli delegation shortly before takeoff, noting he had met with some 20 leaders from five different continents during the visit.

“I also want to thank many of you for the congratulations [that I received] on the U.N. speech, which, to my joy, was not only broadcast live on U.S. television networks but also live in Saudi Arabia. This is, of course, a blessing for next year; next year will be a good year for us,” he added.

The premier began the visit, his first to the United States since being voted back into office in November, with a visit to California on Sept. 18, where he met with X (formerly Twitter) owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk at the electric vehicle company’s plant in Fremont.

On Tuesday morning, Netanyahu and his entourage landed in New York to participate in the annual gathering of world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly.

Netanyahu met with U.S. President Joe Biden in New York on Wednesday, marking the first face-to-face meeting between the two leaders since Netanyahu was re-elected nine months ago. Their closed-door meeting focused on the Iranian threat, Saudi-Israeli normalization, the Palestinian issue and Israel’s judicial reform push.

On the sidelines of the U.N. assembly, Netanyahu also held meetings with the leaders of Germany, Turkey, South Korea, Ukraine, Paraguay, Congo, Malawi, South Sudan and the Pacific nations of Palau, Nauru, Marshall Islands, Fiji and Papua New Guinea, as well as with U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres.

During meetings with Netanyahu, leaders of Congo and Paraguay announced their intentions to open, or reopen, embassies in Jerusalem.

Capping off his week-long visit, Netanyahu addressed the UNGA on Friday. His speech largely focused on ongoing efforts to forge a normalization agreement between the Jewish state and Saudi Arabia.

A looming peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia will have far-reaching implications, including encouraging other Arab nations to normalize relations with Israel, Netanyahu predicted.

He called the Abraham Accords “a pivot of history,” and said the whole world is reaping their benefits. “All these are tremendous blessings,” said the premier.
KJP: Israel-Saudi deal to take on ‘fundamental issue b/w Israeli, Palestinian’
In his remarks at the United Nations General Assembly, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu predicted normalization between the Jewish State and Saudi Arabia and said that although such a peace would benefit the Palestinians too, the latter should not have a veto.

Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, was asked about those remarks during a press briefing on Friday. She appeared to disagree with Netanyahu.

“Look, a normalization agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia will include a serious component dealing with the fundamental issue between Israeli and Palestinian. This is to your question,” she said.

“But I certainly don’t want to get ahead of a process,” she added. “There’s a lot of legwork to be done. And don’t have a formal framework. And so, we’re going to work through it.”
In UN speech, Saudi FM urges Palestinian state, doesn’t mention normalization, Israel
The Saudi foreign minister addressed the UN General Assembly on Saturday in a speech that warned that regional security in the Middle East hinged on a “just, comprehensive solution to the Palestinian issue” and appeared to criticize Israel for “unilateral measures that are a flagrant violation of international law” while making no mention of the country.

“Security in the Middle East region requires the acceleration of…a just, comprehensive solution to the Palestinian issue; the solution must be based on resolutions in the international arena and must bring about a peace that allows [the] Palestinian people to have an independent state based on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital,” said Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan.

He added that Saudi Arabia also “rejects and condemns all the unilateral steps that constitute a flagrant violation of international law and which contribute to the collapse of regional and international peace efforts and are hindering the path of diplomatic solutions,” an apparent reference to Israeli approval of West Bank settlement construction and the legalization of some outposts in recent months.

The kingdom, he said, “strives to support all efforts to bolster security and stability and to focus on inclusive development to create a favorable space for dialogue, to reduce tension, and to encourage the region’s states to avoid any escalation, and to exchange benefits and interests to meet the aspirations of the region’s people.”

Israel reportedly sent a diplomatic representative to the General Assembly hall for the address, even though the speech was during Shabbat.

Bin Farhan’s 16-minute address, in which he didn’t mention Israel directly nor did he bring up the efforts toward a possible normalization deal, comes amid increased talk of a potential historic peace deal between Saudi Arabia and Israel, with Riyadh said to demand Israeli concessions to Palestinians that nevertheless fall short of giving them an independent state. Riyadh is also demanding US concessions such as a new defense pact, significant arms deals, and cooperation on setting up a civilian nuclear program on Saudi soil.

The Saudi minister’s remarks Saturday also come amid a series of seemingly positive developments in recent days, with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman telling Fox News on Wednesday that “every day we get closer” to his country normalizing ties with Israel, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu devoting much of his UN address to touting the possible deal with Riyadh and its effects on the region.
Russia: US hypocritical on Ukraine war, double standard for Israel
The United States was hypocritical in its recognition of the Golan Heights as part of sovereign Israel, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov charged at a press conference held on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly on Saturday.

Lavrov, who compared the Golan Heights to Ukraine's war-torn Donbas, hinted that the US does not take its own vow to "respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all UN member states" seriously.

In his press conference, Lavrov was asked to respond to comments made by the US envoy to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield's vow to protect territorial integrity in the context of the Ukraine-Russia war.

Thomas-Greenfield made a vow to "work to uphold the principles enshrined in the UN Charter, including respect for the sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity of all member states" in a UNGA press briefing last week.

She was asked about the status of the Golan Heights following her vow, to which she replied that the US has not changed its recognition of Israel's sovereignty in the region. Lavrov copies Blinken's statement on Golan Heights

Lavrov first read out a foreign ministry statement on Donbas in English, in which it is stated that "the Donbas is very important to Russia's security. As long as Zelensky is in power, as long as NATO is present in Ukraine...that situation remains of real importance to Russia's security."

"Legal questions are something else. And over time, if the situation were to change in Ukraine, that's something we would look at. But we are nowhere near that," Lavrov added.
Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine is antisemitic
Kyiv has denounced Russian President Vladimir Putin’s diatribe that the West installed Volodymyr Zelensky, an “ethnic Jew, with Jewish roots, with Jewish origins” as Ukraine’s president to “cover up the glorification of Nazism” as antisemitic. The fact that ethnically, Russian, Ethiopian and Yemenite Jews are diverse, yet share the same heritage, is ignored by Putin’s grotesque classical antisemitic characterization of Jews that is evocative of Der Stürmer.

The dark ironies abound. Despite being accused of being a neo-Nazi plant, Zelensky has stated that his grandfather’s brothers were killed in the Holocaust. Just as Hitler dehumanized Jews before murdering them in his “Final Solution,” Putin uses the same tactics towards Ukraine resulting in him referring to the “anti-human essence that is the foundation of the modern Ukrainian state.”

Putin manipulates the memory of the Holocaust to justify committing ethnic cleansing and genocide to advance his imperialistic ambitions in Ukraine. As part of this strategy, Putin has repeatedly declared that Ukraine is not a real state and should be part of his Russian empire.

The Kremlin has resorted to distorting history and belittling the uniqueness of the Holocaust. In January, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov justified Russia’s war on Ukraine by accusing the US of marshaling European countries to solve “the Russian question” in the same way that Adolf Hitler had sought a final solution to eradicate Europe’s Jews.

In his 2013 book, Anti-Judaism: The Western Tradition, David Nirenberg identified that antisemitism operates as a set of conspiracy theories that are based upon negative stereotypes of Jews that can be applied to any social or historical context. Whether it be the far right across Europe who fear the replacement of white Christians or the alt right in America that fear the influx of Middle Eastern, Central and South Americans, it is the Jews who are vilified for plotting immigration and demographic changes to target white Christians. Facts are deemed incidental to the conspiratorial worldview where antisemitism festers.

On February 27, 2022, three days into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, hundreds of the world’s leading historians and scholars of Nazism and the Holocaust signed a statement: “We strongly reject the Russian government’s... equation of the Ukrainian state with the Nazi regime to justify its unprovoked aggression. This rhetoric is factually wrong, morally repugnant and deeply offensive to the memory of millions of victims of Nazism and those who courageously fought against it.”

None of the new set of Russia’s elites who guaranteed their wealth by maintaining political ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin or the old set of Russian oligarchs that acquired wealth in the aftermath of the Cold War but who have since divested any interest in Russia have strongly repudiated Putin’s antisemitic rhetoric and minimization of the Holocaust.
Ukraine's Zelenskyy, Canada's Trudeau Applauded Second World War Veteran Who Fought With Nazi Germany Military Unit
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, visiting Canada for the first time since the commencement of the Russia-Ukraine war in February last year, addressed the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on 22 September.

Curiously, Zelenskyy and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau were among those in the Parliament who were seen offering a standing ovation and plenty of applause to one Yaroslav Hunka, aged 98.

Hunka had fought with the First Ukrainian Division in the Second World War before later immigrating to Canada, as per The Associated Press.

According to Ivan Katchanovski, a political scientist at the University of Ottawa, Hunka was from the notorious Waffen-SS Galicia Division, for which he had volunteered to join in 1943 in the Ternopil region in Western Ukraine, citing Hunka's own writing.

The SS Galicia Division comprised Ukrainians from the Galicia region and was formed in 1943 under German command.

Despite acting under German command, the Ukrainian nationalists have always pitched the SS Galicia Division as having fought for the independence of Ukraine, according to Katchanovski, writing in his paper 'The Politics of World War II in Contemporary Ukraine', published in the Journal of Slavic Military Studies.

In an X post, he writes that the SS Galicia division members were involved in the "mass murder of Poles, Jews and Ukrainians in Ukraine and Poland, including mass executions of about 100 Jews, Poles & Ukrainians in my high school in Pidhaitsi near Lutsk."


House Foreign Affairs Committee to hear about efficacy of Taylor Force Act
The U.S. House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia will consider testimony on stopping Palestinian efforts to murder Jews.

A hearing set for Sept. 27 titled “No Incentives for Terrorism: U.S. Implementation of the Taylor Force Act [TFA] and Efforts to Stop ‘Pay to Slay’” will take place at 10 a.m. in Room 210 of the House Visitor’s Center, available on a live webcast.

Speakers will include Elliott Abrams, who previously served as deputy assistant to the president and deputy national security advisor; Jonathan Schanzer, senior vice president for research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies; and Michael Koplow, chief policy officer at Israel Policy Forum.

The pay-for-slay policy associated with the Palestinian Authority, led by its leader Mahmoud Abbas, incentivizes terrorism by financially rewarding those who attack Jews, and if killed in the process, fiscally rewarding their families.

“This hearing is important because the administration has been continuously deviating from the spirit of the TFA, ultimately forcing aid to the P.A. as a condition of a Saudi peace deal,” Sander Gerber, a fellow and board member of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, told JNS. “It’s a total end run around that act: The U.S. can’t give money to the P.A., so force the Saudis.”

Gerberg pointed out that implementation of the Taylor Force Act requires annual reports to Congress regarding where “pay for slay” stands, but the U.S. State Department “submits it with a classified annex to prevent distribution.”

Lastly, he noted, the legislation urges the State Department to make known in international forums that the P.A. is rewarding and incentivizing terror; and still, he said, U.S. President Joe Biden and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken “still meet with Abbas and make no public statements of condemnation.”
International media accused of snubbing Israel-Palestine conflict as fighting intensifies
Israeli News Anchor Lital Shemesh says international media is doing a “really bad job” in reporting the Palestine-Israel conflict as fighting continues to intensify.

Ms Shemesh said people are “not well informed on what is going on” and blame media headlines for not getting the "true picture" of what is happening.

“We’re dealing with a very hard year; in Israel, over 35 Israelis were murdered by Palestinian terrorists; it was actually the most lethal year since the second intifada,” Ms Shemesh told Sky News host Rowan Dean.

“The media is doing a really bad job in covering what is really happening in Israel; in the good case it will cover the story; in the worst case, it will completely change the narrative.

“It’s just a shame, just a shame.”


Friends, family mark Ari Fuld’s fifth Yahrzeit in Kfar Etzion
Some 200 family members, friends and Israel Defense Forces soldiers gathered on Thursday night in Kfar Etzion, west of Efrat in Gush Etzion, to celebrate the life of renowned Israel advocate Ari Fuld on his fifth Yahrzeit.

Fuld was murdered by an Arab terrorist in 2018, just several days before Yom Kippur, outside a mall at the Gush Etzion Junction. Before succumbing to his wounds, Fuld managed to chase down the terrorist, shoot and neutralize him, thus saving other lives.

The event was sponsored by the “Ari Fuld Project,” an organization formed in Fuld’s memory, whose mission is to advance projects Fuld was working on at the time of his murder, especially those that lend support to IDF soldiers.

JNS contributor and podcaster Yishai Fleisher, who also serves as the international spokesperson for the Jewish community of Hebron, received the second annual “Lion of Zion” Prize for his work in fulfilling Fuld’s legacy.

Reflecting on five years since his passing, Fuld’s widow, Miriam, told JNS that “the truth that Ari tried to spread back then is still the truth of today: The Nation of Israel is a strong nation, this is where we as Jews belong, we have no other place to go, we are proud, and we stand up for what we believe in. That’s what Ari believed to his core.”
8 Students Arrested as Israeli Security Forces Bust Hamas Terror Cell at West Bank University
Israeli security forces busted a terrorist cell at the Birzeit University in the West Bank, arresting eight suspects who planned to carry out a terrorist attack in the immediate time frame, according to an official statement on Sunday.

Over the last few months, Israel Defense Forces and the Shin Bet agency conducted intelligence and investigative efforts in order to thwart the activities of terrorist cells that consist of university students who operate in the Hamas terrorist organization cells, known as “the Kutla Islamia.”

During the operation, a number of terrorist cells operating in the Birzeit university near Ramallah have been apprehended for investigation. It emerged during interrogation that those operatives have been recruited by the Hamas terror group, and received guns and ammunition intended for carrying out terrorist attacks against Israeli targets.

Early on Sunday, the forces apprehended eight wanted suspects who were hiding in the Birzeit university campus. According to the information known to the security forces, the wanted suspects were set to carry out terrorist attacks in the immediate time frame. An additional wanted suspect was apprehended in the area of the town.

The suspects were in possession of Hamas flags and other inciting materials.


Israeli forces destroy war room, explosives in West Bank refugee camp
Under fire by terrorists and countering improvised explosive devices (IEDs), Israeli security destroyed a terrorist command center and explosives arsenal in Nur Shams, the IDF Spokespersons Unit said on Sunday morning.

IDF troops returned fire against terrorist operatives during the raid, with several hits reported. An IDF soldier was moderately injured by shrapnel. Explosive devices were hurled at the soldiers during the fight.

Hamas confirmed the death of one of its al-Qassam Brigade members, Asaad Jab'awi, in battle. The terrorist organization claimed that a second Palestinian casualty, Abdurrahman Suleiman Abu Daghash, had also died fighting Israeli forces.

The Yahalom special forces demolitions unit and combat engineering units exploded several IEDs in the road in the town near Tulkarem. At least one high-explosive anti-armor device was placed in the area along with other concealed charges by terrorists ahead of the IDF raid. Images published by the military show the use of D9 bulldozers in the area.

The Egoz commando unit, the Golani reconnaissance battalion, Israel Border Police, and Shin Bet operated in tandem to locate and destroyed the control center and explosives arsenal.

The terrorist control room was filled with observation equipment and computers. Photographs by the IDF show that terrorists had set up cameras and Realtime feeds that provided surveillance of the area and streets from multiple angles. The armory consisted of dozens of pipe bombs and several large gas tanks.


Gaza riots are part of Hamas’s cynical extortion racket
Despite claims that the recent attacks and disturbances along the Gaza-Israel border, orchestrated by Hamas, are motivated by supposed Israeli conspiracies against the Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, they are in fact merely a violent negotiation tactic designed to secure more income for Gaza’s Islamist rulers.

Over the past two weeks, hundreds of Palestinians have taken part in a series of violent riots adjacent to the Gaza security fence, setting off a number of explosive devices along the barrier.

On Sept. 13, six Gazans were killed by a bomb hurled by one of the rioters.

On Friday, the situation escalated, with Gazans renewing the launch of incendiary balloons across the border, causing fires in southern Israel.

The IDF responded on Friday and Saturday with airstrikes targeting Hamas terrorist outposts in the Strip.

Taken together, the incidents are reminiscent of the 2018-2019 Gaza border disturbances, though smaller in scope so far.

The Israeli Defense Ministry’s coordinator for government activities in the territories, Maj. Gen. Ghassan Alian, announced last week that the Erez Border Crossing, through which some 20,000 Gazan Palestinians enter Israel for work every day, would remain closed, after being shut for Rosh Hashanah.

The decision to shut the crossing is more significant than it might seem, because it signals to Hamas that violence on the border will achieve the opposite of what it is trying to obtain—increased income.
IDF strikes Hamas post after another day of riots on border
The Israel Defense Forces attacked a Hamas military post in the eastern Gaza Strip on Saturday evening.

An unmanned aerial vehicle carried out the strike on the terrorist group’s position, which was located next to where riots took place at the border fence earlier in the day, including shots fired at IDF soldiers.

Palestinian media reported that “Israeli warplanes” struck a target east of Gaza City, causing “significant damage” with no casualties reported.

During the rioting, “three Palestinian civilians sustained gunshot wounds, while dozens more suffocated from tear-gas inhalation,” the Palestinian Authority’s Wafa news agency claimed.

According to Israeli reports, dozens of rioters set tires on fire and detonated an explosive device at the site of the old Karni crossing cargo terminal that was demolished in 2011, located near Kibbutz Nahal Oz. The rioters also launched incendiary balloons toward Israeli border communities; no fires were observed in the area as a result.

The arson balloons sparked fires near the border fence on Friday for the first time in two years, occurring at the same time that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was delivering a speech at the United Nations General Assembly in New York. In response, the IDF attacked empty Hamas positions.


Gilad Erdan: Israel Ambassador: Why I protested Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi
Iran’s relentless pursuit of nuclear capabilities is so alarming that the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said this past week that if Iran acquires nuclear capabilities, his nation will be forced to do the same.

The international community needs to wake up and act quickly before it is too late.

If Iran becomes a nuclear threshold state, its malignant activities across the world will undoubtedly skyrocket.

We must not let this terrible prospect come to fruition.

I was not trying to be a hero and I certainly was not trying to be detained this past week at the UN.

I was only trying to draw attention to Iran’s numerous human rights violations and the international danger posed by the ayatollahs.

The thousands of supportive messages that I have received from people all over the world, including Iranians, have meant the world to me.

My message to them is simple: The few minutes that I was detained at the UN were a small price to pay on behalf of the innocent Iranians who are imprisoned and murdered each day by the regime.

My faith is unwavering.

Nothing will prevent me from standing with the Iranian people on the correct side of history now or at any point in the future. Nothing will prevent me from doing what is right.

The people of Israel stand in solidarity with the people of Iran.
Iran’s Raisi Says Israeli ‘Normalization’ Deals Will Fail
Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi said in a U.S. television interview on Sunday that U.S.-sponsored efforts to normalize Israeli relations with Gulf Arab states, including Saudi Arabia, “will see no success.”

In an interview with CNN, Raisi also said Iran had not said it does not want nuclear inspectors from the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog in the country.

Raisi has said Iran has no issue with the U.N. nuclear watchdog’s inspection of its nuclear sites, days after Tehran barred multiple inspectors assigned to the country.

Israel has moved closer to the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco following a U.S.-driven diplomatic initiative in 2020 which pushed for normalization of relations.

Establishing ties with Saudi Arabia – home to some of Islam’s holiest sites – would be the grand prize for Israel and change the geopolitics of the Middle East.

Commenting on Iran’s nuclear program, Raisi said:

“We have announced time and time again that the use of nuclear weapons, the use of weapons of mass destruction in general, do not have a place. Why? Because we don’t believe in it, nor do we have a need for it.”

“The Islamic Republic of Iran hasn’t said we do not wish any inspectors to be here.”


The UK's Fight Against Anti-Zionism is Working
Labour is now unrecognizable from the party it was under Corbyn. Large numbers of antisemites and their apologists have been expelled from membership, and many other Corbyn supporters have quit the party and been replaced by new members. The Corbynites are now a marginal force inside the party, which opinion polls suggest will form the next government. Labour's traditionally balanced, two-state position towards Israel and the Palestinians and opposition to BDS has been restored.

The self-confidence generated in the Jewish community and wider pro-Israel camp by winning this existential battle has inspired the confidence to push for other policy victories and push the PSC and its allies back to the margins.

A traditionally ambiguous government stance towards designating terrorist groups as such has been challenged, with the political wings of Hamas and Hezbollah now proscribed, and an ongoing battle to get the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) banned as well.

Now, a government-sponsored bill is progressing through Parliament to ban local councils and other public bodies from supporting boycotts or divestment, protecting one of the areas of civil society that the PSC had been keen to target.

Between 2015 and 2019, the UK showed how deep into mainstream politics extreme, antisemitic, anti-Zionism can seep. This looked like the culmination of decades of patient work by anti-Israel activists across civil society, in unions, the Labour Party, and other left parties, on campus, in some churches, in the arts and cultural sector, and in local government.

Now, the UK has shown that this tide can be reversed by grassroots political mobilization by the Jewish community and its allies, both within the center-left and across the wider political spectrum.

The battle continues, but the bleak picture of the Corbyn years is gone.
Israel is not an apartheid state, former South African defense minister says
Israel cannot be compared to an apartheid state, former anti-apartheid activist and South African politician Mosiuoa Lekota said in a complete rejection of the accusation in an interview with the South African Friends of Israel podcast earlier in September.

Lekota, who served time in prison alongside Nelson Mandela and later became South Africa's defense minister, provided arguments against such comparisons.

"I was in Israel, my brother," Lekota began, recounting his visit. "In Israel, you won't find the same divisions between Jews and non-Jews that we used to witness during apartheid. There are no segregated buses for different ethnic groups, like Jews and Arabs.

"In Israel, everyone boards the same bus, travels wherever they need to, and disembarks as they wish. There is no apartheid in Israel, not even within their schools."

Lekota was interviewed by South Africa Friends of Israel spokesperson, Bafana Modise.

Who is Mosiuoa Lekota?

Lekota, a 75-year-old anti-apartheid activist with a storied history, initially aligned with the African National Congress (ANC) and endured imprisonment alongside Nelson Mandela in 1985. In 2008, he parted ways with the ANC to establish the Congress of the People (Cope), a splinter party, and has served as its president since December 16, 2008.
Why is UPenn hosting a festival of antisemites?
Questions have furthermore been raised about the funders for the conference. For instance, one of the sponsors is Islamic Relief USA, which operates under Islamic Relief Worldwide, an organization that the State Department has formally condemned for its “well-documented record of antisemitic attitudes and remarks made by the senior leadership.” This has included praise for Hamas, a U.S. designated terrorist organization. The organization has also been suspected of funding Hamas terrorist activities.

Unsurprisingly, the festival has received backlash from the Jewish community, UPenn students, and alumni. Notably, Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) penned a letter urging his alma mater to disinvite the antisemites.

In response, UPenn President Elizabeth Magill released a statement condemning antisemitism while simultaneously acknowledging that several of the festival speakers “have a documented and troubling history of engaging in antisemitism.” Even further, Magill privately emailed a trustee that some of the speakers are “misaligned with the festival’s stated purpose.” Yet, despite these known concerns, the private university has done nothing to have the antisemitic speakers disinvited from campus.

An event truly designed to celebrate the cultural impact of Palestinian writers and artists would be valuable, just as it is important for a university to be a vehicle for the free exchange of even controversial ideas. But there is a distinction between that and a festival intended to spew antisemitism and hatred under the false guise of a cultural exchange.

To allow antisemitism to fester thus on a campus is to create a space not conducive for learning, particularly for Jewish students. Education requires students to feel the discomfort of being challenged intellectually, but students should not be paying thousands of dollars a semester to have their protected identity persecuted.

Moreover, beyond a moral obligation, universities also have a legal responsibility to protect Jewish students under a still-standing executive order by President Trump that expanded Title VI to include the most egregious forms of anti-Israel-based antisemitism.

Regardless of the law, though, it should trouble taxpayers to know that UPenn is allowing this antisemitic hate-fest to go on while simultaneously receiving nearly $800 million a year in public funds. Private institutions that engage in programming so antithetical to American values should rightly live in fear of losing public funds.

The truth is, this conference is not just incompatible with U.S. principles but also UPenn’s own nondiscrimination policy. Like many American universities today, UPenn pride itself on its diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives its strict stance against intolerance. Perhaps it should start living up to these ideals instead of treating its Jewish students as second-class citizens, less worthy than others of protection.
Why Did Taxpayers Fund Antisemitic Hatefest at Penn?
Despite a sea of protests, the “Palestine Writes” festival at the University of Pennsylvania, which features a parade of convicted Palestinian terrorists, terrorism apologists and antisemites such as Roger Waters, whose concerts feature inflatable pigs marked with a Star of David and Waters dressed as a Nazi, will proceed as planned.

That has been widely covered. What has received little attention, however, is that the anti-Jewish hatefest is funded in part by Pennsylvania taxpayers through a grant issued by the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. In other words, Pennsylvania taxpayers are helping fund this river of hate.

After public opposition rose about the event, the Council claimed its support was merely for an “anthology” of Palestinian writers. Now, backed by Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, the Council has demanded that its insignia be removed from the festival’s website and promotional materials.

Removing a state logo, however, is hardly enough while the money remains in the pockets of the celebrators of Jew hatred and government defrauders. Where is the demand that the taxpayer funds be returned and an investigation launched into how a Pennsylvania agency was deceived?
UPenn Bans Roger Waters from Antisemitic Event


Roger Waters, 80, bass player and co-founded the rock band Pink Floyd, who has been ejected from the band in 1985 and continued since then to spew his revolting, antisemitic, and anti-Zionist views, this weekend added to the long list of places and institutions that don’t want his presence the Ivy League University of Pennsylvania. Waters found out about the ban in his car, on the way from NYC, and was forced to turn around and participate in the UPenn event over Zoom.

UPenn is hosting a “Palestine Writes Literature Festival” this weekend, which, according to the organizers, “brings Palestinian cultural workers from all parts of Historic Palestine and our exiled Diaspora together with peers from other marginalized groups in the United States.”

The festival’s website is gorged with lies about the rich history of “Palestine,” with only one truth: the name was given to the defeated State of Judea by the Roman emperor Hadrian after the Bar Kochba rebellion of 132-136 CE. The Arab hordes that invaded Eretz Israel in the 7th Century, taking advantage of the political vacuum that was created by the retreating Byzantine Empire, did not refer to themselves as “Palestinians,” not then, and not in the centuries that followed. They only started using the name in the 20th Century, in reaction to the Zionist endeavor.

But who needs facts when you’ve got Roger Waters?

And anti-Zionist Jewish Penn students.

According to Friday’s The Daily Pennsylvanian, “At least two groups of Jewish Penn community members sent letters to administrators condemning their response to the controversy surrounding the Palestine Writes Literature Festival.”

The anti-Zionist letter, drafted by Ph.D. student Hilah Kohen, called on Penn President Liz Magill, Provost John Jackson Jr., and School of Arts and Sciences Dean Steven Fluharty, to “emphasize that Palestinian activism has no inherent relation with antisemitism” and “protect the safety of Festival attendees.”

Kohen, a long-time supporter of PA Arab causes and an opponent of Israel stressed that, “By using this celebration of Palestinian literary traditions as an occasion to condemn antisemitism, your statement further marginalizes Palestinian experiences on campus, while supporting attempts to conflate Palestinian liberation with antisemitism.”
Roger Waters accuses student paper of ‘diversionary tactics’ after US campus ban
Roger Waters has lashed out at a student newspaper after apparently being told he is “not allowed” to enter a venue belonging to a US university that is staging a Palestinian literary festival.

The British musician had been due to appear at Palestine Writes, which is being hosted this weekend by the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia.

Billed as a celebration of Palestinian culture, the event, which ends today on the eve of Yom Kippur, included Waters – who has been widely accused of antisemitism – on the roster of speakers.

Waters was due to appear as part of a panel discussion at the Irvine auditorium, a performance venue on the University of Pennsylvania campus, on Friday evening, but said that, on his way to the event he learned he would not be permitted on site.

The discussion, entitled “The Costs, Rewards and Urgency of Friendship”, also featured fellow Briton, Guardian journalist and broadcaster Gary Younge, and Viet Thanh Nguyen, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author. There is no suggestion that these speakers hold antisemitic views.

According to the event’s organisers, the panel of “non-Palestinian distinguished personalities” would discuss “what it means to live ethically as writers, scholars, or creatives in the midst of empire”.


Thousands of Christians coming to Jerusalem for Feast of Tabernacles
Thousands of evangelical supporters of Israel from around the globe will gather in Jerusalem this week for the annual Feast of Tabernacles celebrations that run from Sept. 29 to Oct. 6

The gathering, the largest tourism event of the year, coincides with the weeklong Jewish holiday of Sukkot.

The eight-day event, which is expected to be attended by 3,000 Christian pilgrims from more than 80 nations, is the flagship happening organized by the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, the largest Christian Zionist organization based in Israel’s capital.

Fijian deputy PM leading delegation
The participants in this year’s event include delegations from regional Muslim countries such as Egypt and Turkey, as well as a group of Fijan pilgrims coming on the first-ever Fiji Airways chartered flight to Israel.

The Fijian delegation will be headed by Deputy Prime Minister Viliame “Bill” Gavoka, who is leading his government’s move to open an embassy in Jerusalem next year. Cabinet ministers, parliamentarians and dignitaries from many other countries will also attend, the ICEJ said.

The roster of prominent Christian leaders coming in for the Feast includes William Wilson, president of Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahama, and Pastor Enoch Adeboye, the head of a Pentecostal denomination based in Lagos, Nigeria, that has more than nine million members.
Full text: Biden’s message for Yom Kippur
As Jewish communities in the United States, Israel and around the world observe Yom Kippur, Jill and I extend our best wishes on this sacred and solemn holiday.

Jewish tradition holds that from the time the Book of Life is opened on Rosh Hashanah, until the gates [of heaven] close on Yom Kippur, our fate hangs in the balance. From the powerful Kol Nidre service to the haunting Neilah prayer and until the piercing sound of the final shofar blast, worshippers are given an opportunity to humbly atone for past misdeeds, repair broken relationships and commit to doing better in the future.

The blessing of Yom Kippur is that it is not just a day of reflection, repentance, and reverence—but a day of transformation, forgiveness and hope. God invites us to write a new chapter in the story of our lives, and in the life of our nation. As the High Holidays conclude, let us all summon the courage to make the changes required to bridge the gap between the world we see and the world we seek.

On behalf of my family and my entire administration, we wish you a meaningful and easy fast. May we all be sealed in the Book of Life.

G’mar chatimah tova.


Yom Kippur War: Henry Kissinger talks US role in Israel's darkest hour
“At six thirty in the morning, Joseph Sisco, then-assistant secretary for the Middle East, asked to see me urgently. ‘There is a crisis in the Middle East,’ he said. ‘And if you act immediately you can still stop it.’” Dr. Henry Kissinger, the legendary US secretary of state and national security advisor, was remembering the morning of Yom Kippur, 1973.

He was in New York with the entire State Department senior team on the occasion of the United Nations annual conference. It was both Yom Kippur and Shabbat. Dawn was beginning to break. The most Jewish city outside of Israel was not yet awake.

He recalls: “The reports were vague. It was said that the Israelis must have attacked because nobody believed that the Egyptians were capable of launching an attack across the Suez Canal. I said: ‘The one thing that is not happening is that the Israelis would attack on Yom Kippur. That is practically – almost – impossible. But by the middle of the day, it became apparent that this was a regular war, that it was a full-scale attack. Our team believed that the Israelis would smash them in a few hours. The first thing I did was turn to the Israeli ambassador Simcha Dinitz. He was not in Washington. He was in Jerusalem.”

In Israel, hours and days passed as chief of staff Maj.-Gen. David Elazar’s promise, to “break Egypt’s bones,” made on the first day of fighting, still awaited fulfillment. Israel had been caught off guard.

Fifty years have passed since the drama of the Yom Kippur War. In an exclusive conversation, Kissinger is ready to discuss that chapter of his life. We speak on Zoom at the end of the summer, before he returns home to New York from his Connecticut farm. He sits in his study, surrounded by shelves filled with books and files of as-yet-unpublished documents.

Kissinger expresses himself with ease. His thinking is sharp. His wise gaze is focused. His memory for details belies his age. Four months ago, he celebrated his 100th birthday. His hair, which had already begun to turn gray during his trips, hopping between Jerusalem and Cairo at the end of the Yom Kippur War, has become silver. He is wearing a blue blazer over a gray polo shirt. Vital, as always.

“Forgive me, I am not wearing a tie. It’s summer and it’s not a TV interview,” he half apologizes.

Full disclosure: I am a Henry Kissinger fan. I admire him not only as a statesman, not only for his ability to see the bigger picture, nor only for his writings, or his special way of navigating and influencing. I feel deep affection for him as a human being. I love his implicit sense of humor. Despite the criticism evoked by his controversial statements about Judaism, I believe that the memory of his relatives lost in the Holocaust is sacred to him.

I believe that his Judaism is dear to him; and that his contribution to the existence of the State of Israel was decisive, at a fateful time for our people. I learned about this from Yitzhak Rabin, who spoke of him with much admiration, warmth, and great appreciation.
50 years on, filmmaker Amos Gitai remembers Yom Kippur War in museum exhibit
For decades, filmmaker Amos Gitai tried to forget about the 1973 Yom Kippur War and what happened during his time on the battlefields.

He became an architect, earning a doctorate in architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, and ultimately turned to filmmaking, making sometimes-controversial films over the last 40 years about the complicated Israeli reality that he both loves and hates.

Now, 50 years later, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art is featuring an exhibit created by Gitai, “Kippur, War Requiem,” unpacking pieces of what happened to him, his comrades and so many others during the three harrowing weeks of war.

The exhibit opened on September 13 and closes January 13, unfolding its contents throughout two of the museum’s main galleries.

The first room is an introduction to Gitai and his personal Yom Kippur War history. He was just 22, a veteran of the Egoz unit starting his second year of architecture school at the Technion, when the war broke out.

Gitai and a childhood friend traveled to the front, trying to figure out where they could help as reserve soldiers, and ended up joining an ad hoc helicopter rescue team.

They rescued injured soldiers from the front for five days. On the sixth day of the war, October 11, Gitai’s 23rd birthday, they were on a mission to rescue a pilot who had been shot down in Syrian territory when their own helicopter was shot and their pilot immediately killed.

The copilot crash-landed inside Israeli territory, and Gitai and the rest of the wounded crew were rescued and sent to a hospital to recover. Gitai never returned to the battlefront.

Those five days and the traumatic crash landing were imprinted upon him, reverberating for years but also frozen in time. There were also physical remnants left over from those days of war.

Gitai filmed snippets of images and impressions during the five days, using a Super 8 camera his mother had gifted him for his birthday. Now purpled and aged, those shots offer indelible moments of what Gitai was seeing around him.

“They are like the nucleus that later informed his work,” said curator Mira Lapidot in an interview at the museum.




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

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