Saturday, November 18, 2023

11/18 Links: The Return of the Progressive Atrocity; The Corruption of Human Rights; UNRWA: Ostacle to Peace; The BBC’s Israelophobia is out of control

From Ian:

The Return of the Progressive Atrocity
In recent years, the Left’s embrace of terror seemed to have ebbed; you won’t find many defenders of al-Qaeda, ISIS, the Taliban, or Boko Haram. The notable exception has been groups devoted to the destruction of Israel: Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Hezbollah, all of which still garner enthusiasm and deluded admiration. One might have thought that an orgy of sadistic murder, of the kind that Hamas committed on October 7th, would have inspired serious moral and political self-interrogation. As the past four weeks have illustrated, however, the exact opposite is the case.

The extraordinary nature of the pro-Palestinian demonstrations that have swept through the capitals of the West—demonstrations that began before Israel dropped a single bomb on Gaza—has, perhaps, not been fully appreciated. Horrific massacres of unarmed civilians are, unfortunately, taking place right now in South Sudan, Congo, Ethiopia, Syria, and Darfur. Unforgivably, the so-called international community usually ignores them. But none inspires cries of esteem for the perpetrators and acclaim for their crimes. And nowhere are the victims—defenseless civilians, including children and their mothers—blamed for being murdered. That is what is happening now. The deadliest single day in the post-Holocaust history of the Jewish people has been greeted in some quarters with joy and—to be blunt—an entirely undisguised hatred of Jews.

Many of the sentiments that have been expressed—on social media, during street marches, and in the pages of various publications—reveal an astonishing distance from anything that might be considered rational political judgment and ordinary humanity. At the “All Out for Palestine” rally in Times Square, held just one day after the massacre, elated chants of “700!”—the number of estimated Israeli deaths at the time—rang out, and demonstrators made throat-slitting gestures. A speaker at a Palestine Solidarity Campaign rally in Brighton, England, also held on October 8th, described the attacks as “beautiful and inspiring.” The image of a hang-glider—just like the ones Hamas used!—with a Palestinian flag has gone viral on the web, posted by everyone from Black Lives Matter/Chicago to neo-Nazi groups, which gives intersectionality a whole new meaning.

It is likely that many of these groups—especially those composed of privileged students who promiscuously toss about words like “genocide,” “settler-colonialism,” and “fascism”—have scant (if any) knowledge of Middle East politics or history, and couldn’t tell you the difference between the river and the sea. Many are simply advertising their “anticolonial” credentials, though I imagine that the usually stern Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran must be smiling in amazement as he sees just how many protestors in the West echo his thoughts and subscribe to his plans—openly articulated—to destroy the “Zionist entity,” even if they don’t quite know that they’re doing so.

But (presumably) knowledgeable intellectuals were also quick to jump into the fray. In the New Left Review, Britain’s leading Marxist journal, Tariq Ali praised the terrorists for “rising up against the colonizers” and implied, bizarrely, that the murders resulted from Palestinian frustration with Israel’s recent enormous pro-democracy demonstrations. In the London Review of Books, Amjad Iraqi noted the horrifying nature of the attacks but praised them for “shatter[ing] a psychological barrier,” though it might be argued that civilization depends on the maintenance of such barriers.

In Dissent, a journal with which I have long been associated and that was formerly the home of Michael Walzer’s liberal-left Zionism, history professor Gabriel Winant described Israel as a “genocide machine” and argued that Israeli victims should not be grieved. Joseph Massad, a tenured professor at Columbia who teaches Middle Eastern studies and intellectual history, was unable to contain his enthusiasm: the attacks were “innovative,” “astonishing,” a “major achievement,” “awesome,” “incredible,” and “a stunning victory”; he wondered with excitement “if this is the start of the Palestinian War of Liberation.” (Thousands have signed a petition demanding that Massad be fired; tempting though this is, I maintain that these are the times to defend free-speech principles.) Some student organizations do have ties to the region and, presumably, know what’s going on there. The inaptly named Students for Justice in Palestine, the most bloodthirsty of student groups, declared “Glory to Our Martyrs”; described the massacre as “a historic win”; and demanded, “Do not let Western media call this terrorism. This is DECOLONIZATION.”
Jake Wallis Simons: The BBC’s Israelophobia is out of control
Never trust a Jew. That was one of the adages that we thought had mostly faded into history. But it has been back in vogue ever since 7 October, when 1,200 Jews in Israel had the temerity to be massacred in their homes and hundreds got themselves taken hostage.

For years, it has been common knowledge that Hamas’s subterranean command centre in Gaza lies underneath al-Shifa hospital. It even appeared in season two of the Netflix show, Fauda. Yet, as Israeli forces entered the hospital yesterday and then shared pictures of weapons and tunnels, the world was still sceptical.

The IDF’s images ‘have not proved the existence of the sprawling Hamas base that the Israeli military said the hospital had concealed, and which Hamas and the hospital leadership have denied’, insisted the New York Times. ‘That claim has been central to Israel’s justification for the death toll in Gaza… which has killed more than 11,000 people, according to Gazan health officials.’ Gazan health officials? You mean Hamas, the same lot that decapitated the babies? Great source.

Similarly, the BBC interviewed a woman this week who had previously worked at the hospital. She was asked whether Israel’s claims could possibly contain even a grain of truth. ‘Over the years we have never seen any evidence of any military activity in the hospital, period’, she said, adamantly, as if Hamas would surely have asked her down to the tunnels for a cup of tea by now. ‘This Israeli soldier who’s finding ammunitions, does this justify bombing a hospital?’, she then asks. ‘Does this justify raiding a hospital and interrogating patients and basically killing patients?’ Oh, the insinuation.

This journalism affects public opinion. In response to footage of a tunnel shaft just outside al-Shifa, one X / Twitter user wrote: ‘It’s Iraq and weapons of mass destruction all over again.’ No, it’s not. But you just can’t trust those Jews, you see. They’re shifty. They’re probably just the types who would invent a terror base to slake their appetite for the blood of hospital patients. Remember when they marked the Easter of 1144 by kidnapping, torturing and crucifying little William of Norwich? Remember, for that matter, when they manipulated the Allies to start the Second World War? With them, it’s all about the blood.


Seth Mandel: The Corruption of Human Rights
There are two kinds of ex-Human Rights Watch employees: whistleblowers and fanatics. Both tend to confirm all the public’s worst assumptions about the organization.

Danielle Haas is the former. “Following the Hamas massacres in Israel on October 7, years of institutional creep culminated in organizational responses that shattered professionalism, abandoned principles of accuracy and fairness, and surrendered its duty to stand for the human rights of all,” Haas emailed the staff on her last day as a Human Rights Watch senior editor. That email was leaked to the Times of Israel.

I’m not so sure HRW had any professionalism left to shatter, principles to abandon, or duties to surrender by that point, but Haas certainly describes the statements accurately. “HRW’s initial reactions to the Hamas attacks failed to condemn outright the murder, torture, and kidnapping of Israeli men, women, and children. They included the ‘context’ of ‘apartheid’ and ‘occupation’ before blood was even dry on bedroom walls.”

Haas is also correct that this was not a one-off. HRW did not display a lapse in judgment; it displayed the very focused judgment it has long trained on the democracies of the world, especially Israel.

And that was the dedicated obsession of a man who is the perfect example of the second category: the fanatic.

Kenneth Roth took over as director of HRW in 1993 and stayed there for 29 years. During that time, he nearly single-handedly destroyed the credibility of the human-rights NGO industry. Roth’s work possesses no saving grace—indeed, the man has no grace of that or any other kind to speak of. He is a dictator’s dream, spending three decades as a mercenary for authoritarians seeking to exploit the freedom of democratic countries for the cause of moral equivalence. Roth is what you’d get if Soviet “whataboutism” were a person, a golem manifested by the chantings of Oberlin freshmen.

But he is not a complex man. And his simplicity is a prime reason for HRW’s downward spiral beginning with the war on terror.


UN Watch: UNRWA: OBSTACLE TO PEACE
As war wages on between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, UN Watch has released a new report that reveals how UNRWA teachers in the enclave, funded largely by the U.S. and EU, indoctrinate Palestinian children and promote terrorism and antisemitism.

Entitled “UNRWA: Hate Starts Here,” the report uncovers 20 UNRWA teachers and other staff members who celebrated the October 7th Hamas massacre of Israeli civilians on their social media accounts.

The new cases are in addition to 133 UNRWA educators and staff who were exposed for promoting hate and violence in UN Watch’s last report, released in March 2023.
Full report _PDF)


UNRWA's Teachers of Hate — Hillel Neuer on NTD TV
Hillel Neuer appeared on NTD News on November 16, 2023 to discuss UNRWA's teachers of hate and the UN's mistreatment of Israel.




Anti-Semites are emboldened the world over

Aviva Klompas: Worldwide antisemitism is the Jewish people's call to action

Muslim leaders should've condemned Hamas instead of fomenting hate

John Fetterman's courageous support for Israel

Jonathan Tobin: How dangerous are the anti-Israel conservatives?
Disdaining emotion about mass slaughter
But it was on his most recent show that featured fellow right-wing talker [Candace] Owens that he was most open about his disdain for supporters of Israel.

The two joined forces last year to defend Kanye West while that unstable rap star/fashion mogul was venting hatred for Jews prior to his dinner with Trump. Carlson devoted a full episode of his show to an interview with West, though he edited out his guest’s antisemitic smears. Owens weighed in on West’s behalf by saying that she knew better than the Jews what is or isn’t antisemitic.

Owens has been blasted by most conservatives for her equivocal response to Oct. 7 during the course of which she raised the issue of “genocide” of the Palestinians without mentioning Israel, though no one could be in any doubt about what she was alleging or her support for a ceasefire that would benefit Hamas. On Carlson’s show, they blasted the Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro for denouncing Owen’s anti-Israel positions though he should have pushed her out of that platform after her embrace of West and his antisemitism.

Carlson and Owens spoke about how they were both amazed about what they considered the overly “emotional” response of many Americans to the Hamas atrocities about which, they think, too many people care too much. Owens boasted of her more “even-handed” and “moderate” response to the largest mass slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust that avoided such emotions. They think the anger among Jews about the mainstreaming of antisemitism on the left is wrong. Indeed, as far as they are concerned, those who want to see the only Jewish state on the planet destroyed and its people slaughtered are not only not antisemites, they’re being persecuted by the Jews and their allies.

Rather than own up to their anti-Israel stands, they claim that they are, “just asking questions” about the establishment’s pro-Israel orthodoxies and not actually aligning themselves with antisemitic leftists that they oppose on other issues. Yet they echo the left’s anti-Israel conspiracy theories by asserting that those who support Israel are putting the Jewish state’s interests over that of America. Indeed, they blame the Jews for the same left-wing ideologies that are targeting them on college campuses—a classic tactic of Jew-haters down through the ages.

They’re not alone in this regard. Greenwald is a former hard-core leftist who founded the anti-Israel publication The Intercept but was pushed out because of his opposition to left-wing Internet censorship and COVID policies. He found new friends on the right in recent years and became a regular on Carlson’s program. But he has reverted to form by defending campus Jew-hatred and hosting Waters on his podcast, in which the hateful aging rocker engaged in denial about the Oct. 7 atrocities while claiming that Hamas has the right to engage in “resistance” in order to destroy Israel and kill its people.


How Israel will take the fight into Gaza's maze of tunnels

IDF steps up Gaza combat in Zaytun and Jabalya

US official says there will only be a ‘significant pause’ in Gaza when hostages released

Israeli police say extreme sexual violence, rape by Hamas terrorists was systematic

It’s just a bunch of women in powerful positions turning their backs on history

Sexual assault center at Canadian university signs onto open letter that disputes women were raped and sexually assaulted during Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel - despite horrific evidence

Mediator: 25 Thai hostages held by Hamas in Gaza are ‘safe’

Call Me Back PodCast: A conversation with Yonit Levi & Jonathan Freedland Hosted by Dan Senor
In this episode — which we recorded just after the historic rally in Washington, DC and as we approached the sixth Shabbat since October 7th — I have a wide-ranging conversation with Yoni Levi in Tel Aviv and Jonathan Freedland in London. Yonit and Jonathan are co-hosts of the popular podcast, UnHoly, which you can find here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/unholy-two-jews-on-the-news/id1548441108

This episode is a sharecast, in which we are dropping the conversation in each of our respective podcast feeds (“Call Me Back” & “UnHoly”). The episode begins with Yonit and Jonathan interviewing me, and then I interview them at the end. It’s a spirited discussion.

Yonit Levi has been anchoring television news broadcasts in Israel for over 20 years. She is the lead anchor of Israel’s top primetime news programme on Channel 2, Israel’s highest rated TV channel. Throughout her career, Yonit has interviewed numerous world leaders, including Presidents Joe Biden, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton.

Jonathan Freedland is a columnist for the Guardian newspaper and the host of the Guardian’s Politics Weekly America podcast. He also presents BBC Radio 4’s The Long View and is the author of the award-winning “The Escape Artist: The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World,” along with several thrillers under the pseudonym Sam Bourne.


Megyn Kelly: Exclusive Reaction From Rob O’Neill on Bin Laden Letter & Gayle King’s CBS Interview, w/ Dave Rubin
Megyn Kelly starts the show by giving a history lesson on 9/11 to educate young Americans and TikTok influencers sympathizing with Osama bin Laden. Then, US Navy SEAL combat veteran Robert O'Neill, widely known for being the man who shot and killed Bin Laden, joined Megyn for an exclusive interview to discuss his opinion on Gen-Z’s praise for the terror leader, the uneducated reaction by college students to the Hamas attacks, and more. Plus, Dave Rubin, host of “The Rubin Report,” joined Megyn to talk about Gayle King’s inappropriate interview with a father of an eight-year-old Israeli hostage and King’s lack of sensitivity to the father, the feud between the Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro and Candace Owens, what it means for Conservatives, and more. Plus, JP Sears, comedian and author of “Chomp Chomp Chomp” on peer pressure, the importance of having courage, and more.




Crowd of anti-Israel protesters try to disrupt Ben Shapiro event in Calgary
Ezra Levant reports from outside the Grey Eagle Event Centre, where dozens of anti-Israel protesters gathered outside of an event featuring Daily Wire commentator Ben Shapiro.


Jack Carr: Michael Oren: What Led to the Hamas Terrorist Attacks and What Happens Next - Danger Close
Today’s guest is Middle East scholar, historian, diplomat, soldier, and New York Times bestselling author, Dr. Michael Oren.

From 2009-2013, Dr. Oren served as Israel’s ambassador to the United States. He is a former member of the Knesset and was Deputy Minister for Diplomacy in the Prime Minister’s Office. He served as an IDF Paratrooper in the 1982 Lebanon War.

He is the author of numerous books including Ally: My Journey Across the American-Israeli Divide, Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East, Reunion, Sand Devil, The Origins of the Second Arab-Israel War: Egypt, Israel and the Great Powers, 1952-56, The Night Archer, To All Who Call in Truth, and, most recently, 2048: The Rejuvenated State.


The Re-Education with Eli Lake: Ep. 84: The Hard Bigotry of High Expectations
In this episode, Eli interviews Sol Stern about his recent essay in Commentary on the history of Palestinian pogroms against Jews.
https://www.commentary.org/articles/sol-stern/century-of-palestinian-jew-hatred/
His monologue examines why Israel's response to a genocidal act of terror is being slandered as a genocide.


Maher: The Israeli Arabs Living in the Area ‘From the River to the Sea’ Prefer Israel over Hamas

The Rubin Report: Pentagon Confirms What the Media Has Been Denying About Hamas
Dave Rubin of “The Rubin Report” talks to Ami Kozak, and Meira Cowland about Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh confirming Israel’s claims that Hamas has a massive military operation under Gaza hospitals.


The Rubin Report: Justin Trudeau Condemned Israel & Israel's Response Is Perfect
Dave Rubin of “The Rubin Report” talks to Ami Kozak, and Meira Cowland about Justin Trudeau echoing Hamas talking points and Benjamin Netanyah’s terse response to Trudeau telling Israel how to defend itself.


The Rubin Report: Watch MSNBC Host’s Face As Jerusalem Mayor Turns Her Question Against Her
Dave Rubin of “The Rubin Report” talks to Ami Kozak, and Meira Cowland about MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell blaming Israel for rising antisemitism and Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem Fleur Hassan-Nahoum refuses to let her get away with it.


The Rubin Report: Watch MSNBC Host's Face When Jerusalem Mayor Corrects Her Misleading Lie
Dave Rubin of “The Rubin Report” talks to Ami Kozak, and Meira Cowland about MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell having her lies about Al-Shifa Hospital corrected live on air by Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem Fleur Hassan-Nahoum.


The Rubin Report: No AOC Moment Is Dumber Than Her Plan to Solve Israel Conflict
Dave Rubin of “The Rubin Report” talks to Ami Kozak, and Meira Cowland about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez being delusional enough to say out loud how she feels the conflict between Israel and Hamas could be solved.


The Rubin Report: Ilhan Omar Admits She’s Confused by People Not Agreeing with Her on Israel (Full Show)
Dave Rubin of “The Rubin Report” talks to Ami Kozak and Meira Cowland about Ilhan Omar being openly confused why rabbis and faith leaders aren’t supporting her plan for an Israel ceasefire; Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez being delusional enough to say out loud how she feels the conflict between Israel and Hamas could be solved; Justin Trudeau echoing Hamas talking points and telling Israel to use more restraint; Benjamin Netanyahu’s terse response to Justin Trudeau telling Israel how to defend itself; MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell having her lies about Al-Shifa Hospital corrected live on air by Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Fleur Hassan-Nahoum; Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh confirming Israel’s claims that Hamas has a massive military operation under Gaza hospitals; and much more.




The shameful nods to antisemitism from Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson



Police move in to arrest demonstrators at London Waterloo while others chant at Downing Street in day of pro-Palestine protests across Britain

Now pro-Palestine protesters target Pret and Starbucks in Manchester after enraged demonstrators stormed McDonald's while police battle crowds across London Police are under orders to step in if pro-Palestinian protesters climb war memorials today - with hundreds of thousands expected at more than 100 rallies across the UK

MP’s office besieged by hundreds of pro-Palestine supporters chanting 'shame' and ‘get out’

'We're ashamed': Wall Street banker issues groveling apology after being fired for screaming 'go back to your country' at Jewish family in NYC - as he and his wife covered up posters of Israeli hostages

Lawrence H. Summers: The Cancer of Antisemitism Is Spreading. Colleges Must Take the Right Stand.
I am shocked and appalled by what I have seen on university campuses since Oct. 7. Antisemitism is a cancer - a lethal adversary best addressed as rapidly, thoughtfully and aggressively as possible. Harvard and many other elite universities have not been swift in their response.

It is the responsibility of university leaders - deans, presidents and outside trustees - to assure that universities are sources of moral clarity on the great questions of their time. It is shameful that no honest observer looking at the record of the past few years, and especially at the last month, can suppose that universities' responses to antisemitism have paralleled in vigor or volume the responses to racism or other forms of prejudice.

Too often, those most directly charged with confronting prejudice - Offices of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion - have failed to stand with Israeli and Jewish students confronting antisemitism, the oldest prejudice of them all. Some university DEI officials have themselves taken positions that are widely viewed as antisemitic.

Moral clarity as a central component of education includes recognizing the difference between wanton acts of terrorism and defensive responses. It means seeing that singling out Israel with calls for its annihilation is Jew-hatred.


University of Florida graduate student Simon Nicolas Lowry banned from campus for slicing through the word 'Israel' on a banner at Jewish fraternity

Open Letter From Artists Calls For Release Of All Palestinian Terrorists From Israeli Jails & Denies Israel’s Right to Exist

Anti-Israel Articles In Dawson College Newspaper Whitewash Hamas & Accept The Group’s Claims Uncritically

Poetry house that gets £100k grant backed Palestinian ‘liberation’ in wake of Hamas terror

GUARDIAN LEGITIMISES THOSE TEARING DOWN POSTERS OF ABDUCTED CHILDREN

BBC EXPLAINER ON HOSPITALS WHITEWASHES HAMAS EXPLOITATION

THE LA TIMES EDITORIAL BOARD FAILS TO CALL FOR HAMAS TO SURRENDER, RELEASE HOSTAGES

Rehashing Discredited Theory, Le Devoir Columnist Claims Jews Do Not Originate in Israel

Andrew Mitrovica, Sheridan College Professor & Al Jazeera Columnist, Accuses Israel Of Controlling Canadian Government



MEMRI: Top Hamas Official Ahmad Bahr And Palestinian Freedom Movement Secretary-General Khaled Abu Hilal Killed In IDF Gaza Airstrikes; Bahr Prayed For Killing Every American And Jew 'To The Last One,' Glorified Martyrdom; Abu Hilal Called On Palestinians Abroad To 'Target Every Infidel Zionist' – Clips From The MEMRI TV Archive

In Berlin, Erdogan says Germany can’t criticize Israel because of the Holocaust

MEMRI: In Issue 21 Of Urdu-Language Magazine 'Taliban,' Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Promotes Antisemitism, Says Jews Are 'Pigs And Monkeys,' Urges Muslims To Aid Palestinians: 'The Strength Of Muslims Is Not Protest, But Jihad... Muslims Have Always Been Successful With Jihad'

Hitler-worship, porn in the boardroom and psychotic meltdowns... GUY ADAMS investigates how Kanye West's multi-billion trainer line with Adidas became the most toxic celebrity tie-up in history

Kanye West raps about having sex with a 'Jewish b****' to address claims he's anti-Semitic in controversial new song Kanye is under fire for rap Israel and Poland Under 21 players hold minute silence AFTER kick off to protest UEFA's refusal to hold a moment of remembrance for Hamas attack victims 'Bring them home': Pro-Israel rally against antisemitism calls for return of hostages
On November 16, a rally against antisemitism and calling for the return of 230+ hostages took place in front of the Henry F. Hall Building at Concordia University. A substantial police presence was deployed to ensure the event proceeded without any violence.




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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424. 

Read all about it here!
 

 



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