Thursday, November 12, 2026

11/12 Links Pt1: Israel targets Hamas chief planning attacks from Nasser Hospital; Elliott Abrams: Where Does the U.S.-Israel Relationship Go from Here?; The intellectual fraud and moral vacuity of Benjamin Moser

From Ian:

Gen. (ret.) David H. Petraeus: It Matters How the Iran War Ends
Everyone wants the war with Iran to end. But how it ends is what matters. A settlement that lets Iran restore its revenue and maritime commerce, continue to threaten navigation through the Strait of Hormuz, rebuild its nuclear program and keep its highly enriched uranium wouldn't advance American and allied interests. It would set the conditions for the next crisis.

The U.S. has three essential goals: restore freedom of navigation through the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, account for and neutralize Iran's nearly 1,000 pounds of uranium enriched to 60%, and impose enforceable limits on nuclear enrichment. None of this requires regime change, occupation or indefinite war. These are the minimum requirements for a durable settlement.

Freedom of navigation can't mean temporary permission from Tehran for favored countries, routes Iran can close at will or a pause in attacks conditioned on concessions. Iran's uranium enriched to 60% could be used in a crude nuclear device without further enrichment or enriched to weapons-grade rapidly. The objective shouldn't be merely to dispose of yesterday's material but to prevent Iran from quickly re-creating the same nuclear threat tomorrow.

The U.S. shouldn't lift the blockade, release substantial frozen funds, or permit renewed Iranian oil exports in exchange for a promise that Tehran will reopen the strait and discuss the nuclear questions later. That would trade concrete American leverage for reversible commitments.

Iran should first stop attacking ships and help clear maritime hazards. It should then restore IAEA access, fully account for the enriched uranium and accept enforceable limits on enrichment. The blockade could be lifted, frozen assets released, and the U.S. force posture reduced only after safe passage is in effect, the 60% stockpile has been neutralized, and the nuclear restrictions and inspections are operating.
If You Think War Is Unpopular, Wait Till You See Defeat
Sometimes good politics is bad policy and good policy is bad politics, which brings me to our current fight against Iran. War is unpopular. It always has been. War is expensive, unpredictable and, most important, deadly. It almost always takes longer than planners thought and is deadlier than experts estimated.

Only a few years after World War II, President Truman made the unpopular decision to send American forces to Korea to prevent the people of the peninsula from falling under the yoke of tyranny. Americans didn't want another war. They were tired of overseas combat and wanted to focus on domestic issues.

Truman paid a price in the 1950 midterms, as his opponents made significant gains in Congress and public support for the war deteriorated. But his backbone in prosecuting the war saved half the Korean Peninsula from totalitarianism and solidified the U.S. position against the Soviets in the Cold War.

History often vindicates difficult decisions that were deeply unpopular in their time. Our fight against Iran will prove no different. This isn't a fight for Israel or Saudi Arabia. It is a fight for Western civilization and the security of American families.

The radical Islamist forces that control Iran and their proxy groups seek the destruction of the U.S. and all Western civilization. They have kidnapped, tortured, murdered and maimed thousands of Americans and many more innocent people worldwide.

They will use all weapons at their disposal to blackmail their neighbors, build regional (and eventually global) hegemony, and forge themselves into a world power that can't be confronted. The war is unpopular, but defeat would be far less popular. We owe it to our country and the West to finish the job.
Elliott Abrams: Where Does the U.S.-Israel Relationship Go from Here?
The U.S.-Israel relationship is under assault in both parties. Both the Senate and the House will have dedicated opponents of all aid to Israel, including even the sale of defensive weapons. They will see moves like an end to military assistance as weak half-measures, when much more must be demanded.

These views do not command a majority in the Democratic caucus, nor are they held by Chuck Schumer, the likely majority leader, or Hakeem Jeffries, the likely House speaker. But they now have a firm base in Congress and in the Democratic Party; policies that were considered fringe and extremist a few years ago will now be seriously debated.

It can be predicted that Democratic leaders will look for compromises that can maintain party unity, and every compromise with the new anti-Israel team will weaken U.S.-Israel ties and Israel's defenses. The DSA crew will fight every line in a new memorandum of understanding with Israel on future military and high-tech cooperation.

They will oppose any U.S. or joint efforts against the Iranian nuclear weapons program. They will adopt the widespread European demand for immediate recognition of a Palestinian state. They will seek sanctions against Israeli military and political leaders, and boycotts that separate Israeli companies and banks from the U.S. economy.
Poll: 71 Percent of U.S. Voters Support Israel over Hamas
A Harvard CAPS/ Harris Poll taken on Oct. 24-26, 2026, found that 71% of U.S. voters support Israel over Hamas, while 75% agree that there are terrorist groups on Israel's borders including Hamas and Hizbullah.

72% say Hizbullah should be required to disarm.

77% think Israel has a right to exist as the homeland of the Jewish People, including 62% of those aged 18-24.

52% would be less likely to vote for a politician who called for the complete destruction of Israel, while 22% would be more likely, including 46% of those aged 18-24.


Israel targets senior Hamas brigade chief planning attacks from Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis
The IDF and Israel Security Agency on Wednesday night carried out a drone strike on a Hamas terror cell - including Khan Yunis Brigade commander Muhammad Abu Ismail - planning to carry out attacks from within Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, the IDF confirmed on Thursday. "Ismail was also responsible for holding numerous hostages captive throughout the war," the IDF said.

The strike came after Hamas "had established a presence within the hospital complex and used it as a command center for military and terrorist activities against IDF troops and the State of Israel."

Its activities there included "storing weapons within the hospital complex, conducting interrogations and torture by Hamas's internal security and intelligence services within the hospital complex, operating command-and-control rooms within the hospital complex, and using hospital facilities as observation posts and shelters for terrorists."
Eugene Kontorovich: El Arabiya interview on Israeli strike on Hamas terrorists in Nasser Hospital

BBC Arabic falsely claimed Israel targeted women and children in pager attack
BBC Arabic falsely claimed that Israel targeted women and children during a pager attack in Lebanon, The Telegraph can reveal.

The broadcaster claimed Israel’s attack in September 2024 – in which thousands of rigged pagers belonging to Hezbollah fighters blew up simultaneously – “caused severe injuries to non-combatants, especially women and children”.

The allegations were based on a survey of patients who underwent surgery following the attack. The British Journal of Ophthalmology published the survey.

The broadcaster issued a correction after a media monitoring group found that 96 per cent of those surveyed were adult men, contradicting the claim about women and children. The research paper also did not distinguish between civilian and combatant casualties.

In the remotely triggered pager attack, Mossad, Israel’s spy agency, wounded 3,000 people and killed at least 12, including two children.

After the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (Camera) filed a complaint, the BBC removed the false claim about women and children, along with a misleading quote from one of the story’s interviewees.

It is the latest example of anti-Israel bias at the BBC’s Arabic-language service, which opponents have accused of “demonising Israel” and “driving anti-Semitism”.

The Telegraph disclosed last month that a reporter for BBC Arabic described terrorists killed in Gaza as “journalists” and that he had a history of glorifying the murder of Jewish people.

In September, it emerged that 53 people whom the network had described as journalists killed in Gaza had links to Hamas or other armed groups.

Camera has counted 16 further cases since the October 7 attacks in which BBC Arabic distorted casualty figures in Gaza, either by misquotation or misattribution of sources, misrepresenting the ratio of women and children or making figures appear more reliable than they were.

Between July and December last year, the news service attributed the claim that most Gazan casualties were women and children to the Ministry of Health. Hamas, the terror group, runs the ministry.

This happened five times and continued after the ministry had stopped making the claim.


Khaled Abu Toameh: Hamas Destroys Gaza For Money, International Sympathy and So Israel Can Get the Blame
Even Palestinians are publicly accusing the terrorist group of obstructing efforts to help Gaza's population.

"Palestinian Authority employees inside Gaza have reported that professionals from the Ministries of Public Works and Relief Affairs were intimidated, summoned, and coerced by Hamas into signing pledges not to undertake humanitarian projects without the group's approval. According to their accounts, those who defied Hamas risked so-called 'field justice,' including beatings and worse." — Fouad Ahmed Alkhatib, Palestinian political analyst, X.com, November 9, 2026.

"The terrorist group did not show any concern for the civilian lives that would be lost when the tower eventually collapses on its own, because it wants dead Palestinians and news of tragedy to keep Gaza in the news cycle and to gain global sympathy, hoping for more incoming resources and donations for the Strip's humanitarian and reconstruction needs that it could siphon. Additionally, Hamas has also been accused of obstructing construction projects intended to create safer communities for displaced Gazans in southern Gaza, prioritizing political control over humanitarian relief." — Fouad Ahmed Alkhatib, X.com, November 9, 2026.

Hamas had also used equipment necessary for civilian life for military purposes. A video published by Hamas's own media outlets shows Hamas operatives dismantling water and sewage pipes in the Gaza Strip to use in manufacturing rockets to fire at Israel.

Humanitarian assistance, for Hamas as for other dictatorial regimes, is just another instrument for exercising its control. Through its selective distribution of tents, food, money and supplies, Hamas rewards loyalists, intimidates opponents, and strengthens its grip on the population.

Hamas especially benefits politically and economically from the continued misery of Gaza's residents. The more dramatic the humanitarian images, the greater the international pressure on Israel and the greater the sympathy and financial assistance directed to the Gaza Strip. It is like professional beggar women who deliberately blind their babies to make them "better beggars." Hamas retains its ability to exploit international aid and supplies for reconstruction while avoiding responsibility for its own failures.

Any involvement by US President Donald J. Trump's Board of Peace in addressing Gaza's humanitarian difficulties should not be limited to monitoring rainfall, coordinating winter supplies, and expressing "concern" about flooded displacement camps. These measures do not address the fundamental problem: Hamas remains armed, maintains its military infrastructure, and refuses to relinquish control of the Gaza Strip.

The Board of Peace urgently needs to be concentrating its efforts on ensuring that Hamas disarms, dismantles its military wing, and cedes control of the Gaza Strip. Without these fundamental steps, reconstruction and meaningful improvements in living conditions will remain hostage to the interests of a terrorist organization.

Finally, the international community must stop treating Hamas as an innocent bystander to Gaza's misery. Hamas launched the October 7, 2023 war, embeds its military infrastructure in civilian areas, diverts civilian resources to terrorism, and continues to reject the disarmament necessary for Gaza to move forward.

The Palestinians in Gaza do not need more crocodile tears from Hamas leaders or another round of international condemnations of Israel. They need to be liberated from the terrorist organization, as well as its patrons in Iran, who sacrificed their present and threaten their future.
Iran Views Trump's Preference for Diplomacy as a Sign of Weakness
Israeli defense officials assess that President Trump would prefer to avoid a military confrontation with Iran.

However, Israeli security assessments suggest that the Iranian leadership views Washington's preference for diplomacy as a sign of weakness.

Tehran views the results of the U.S. midterm elections as a form of political "revenge" against the White House.

Israeli officials believe Iran is unlikely to rush into signing an agreement and will maintain a hardline negotiating position while attempting to prolong the talks.
Denmark, European countries pushing for emergency UN Security Council meeting on E1
The United Nations Security Council is preparing to convene an emergency meeting next week on Israeli plans to build in the E1 area of the West Bank, east of Jerusalem, Israel’s mission to the UN told The Times of Israel on Wednesday.

The effort was being spearheaded by a number of European countries, led by Security Council member Denmark.

The move was an attempt to forestall Israel’s tender process. The Israel Land Authority’s deadline for opening tender bids on the construction of 1,234 housing units is November 19.

Israel was working with its close allies on the Security Council, the United States and Greece, to torpedo the meeting.

“While the Middle East is on fire and Iran’s terrorist regime continues to threaten global peace, European countries are choosing to summon the Security Council for an emergency meeting simply because Israel is building in its own country,” Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon told The Times of Israel.

“This is a moral disgrace and proof of how completely out of touch with reality these countries have become. Our right to build and develop our country is indisputable. We will not accept dictates or moral lectures from those who choose to turn a blind eye to real terrorism.”


UN renews Iran's committee seat amid war with US, sparking backlash: 'Morally bankrupt'
The United Nations reconfirmed Iran to its seat on the Committee for Programme and Coordination on Wednesday, sparking outrage from member states who believe the country’s record of aggression should disqualify its representatives from the committee’s work to review human rights, women’s rights and counterterrorism programs.

Ahead of the vote, Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, a human rights watchdog, said he believes the move gives Iran another tool for the regime’s propaganda machine.

"They use it," Neuer said. "You'll see a headline in Iranian propaganda right away: ‘Hey, look, we were elected to yet another body.' And it sends a signal… As they're killing their own people, what does the world have to say?"

Neuer believes Iran’s continued spot on the committee gives Tehran a nod of international legitimacy amid its ongoing conflict with the U.S., showcasing the U.N.’s uneven record for creating a forum to deter international violence.

"Sometimes [the U.N.] is effective. Sometimes they’re not. Sometimes, even when they’re effective, they’re effective in a bad way. There’s an effect, but it’s to empower dictatorships," Neuer said.

"The U.N. spends a lot of its time attacking democracies like America, like Israel. America gets condemned every year for the embargo in Cuba. Last year, there was one resolution on Iran, one on North Korea, one on Myanmar — and 15 on Israel. And Hamas, Islam and jihad were never mentioned once. That happens a lot at the U.N."

Iran was reconfirmed with the support of 144 ballots cast by the U.N. General Assembly.

The Committee for Programme and Coordination consists of 34 member states, each of which is elected to the body for a three-year term. Although it is not one of the U.N.’s six main committees, it reviews the organization’s plans and priorities, making recommendations on their design, priorities, coordination and effectiveness.

Iran’s renewal to the post prompted an outcry from lawmakers in the U.S. on Tuesday afternoon.


UK government ‘strongly regrets’ Iran’s Election to UN Human Rights Committee
The UK Government has voiced its “strong regret” following the election of Iran to a key United Nations committee overseeing human rights and counter-terrorism.

On Wednesday, the UN General Assembly elected 19 members to the committee for programme and co-ordination in a secret ballot, with Iran among the successful candidates.

The UK declined to disclose how it voted, citing longstanding policy not to reveal votes in secret ballots at the United Nations.

Baroness Winterton of Doncaster, a Foreign Office minister, stated: “We strongly regret that Iran has been elected to the UN committee for programme and co-ordination, and frankly, Iran’s continuing threats to its regional neighbours, its violation of human rights and its broader destabilising conduct serve to undermine multilateralism and make Iran unfit to serve on a UN body of this nature.”

Fellow minister Chris Elmore denied that the UK had supported Iran’s nomination, responding to parliamentary questions by explaining that the Asia-Pacific Group had put forward Iran, India, Japan, and Pakistan for four available regional seats.

He added that the UK gave “no expression of support” as the nominations went forward without a vote, in line with normal practice.

The committee plays a key role in planning and coordinating the UN’s activities, including reviewing priorities around human rights, women’s rights, disarmament, and counter-terrorism.

Lord Austin, a non-affiliated peer, pressed the Government to reconsider its policy of withholding voting records, especially after Australia and Canada both publicly confirmed they voted against Iran.

“Australia and Canada both confirmed that they voted against Iran yesterday,” he said. “So, can the minister tell us why did we not do more to oppose the nomination in April? And will she confirm on the record that we voted against yesterday?”

Lady Winterton reaffirmed the Government’s commitment to countering Iranian threats, especially those directed at the Jewish community in the UK, but insisted the Government could not comment on its vote.

“We will, I can assure him, use every power available to us to tackle the threat posed by the Iranian state, which we know is targeting our Jewish community,” she said.

The debate follows calls from Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, for countries to publicly declare their votes after Australia and Canada both spoke out.


Trump tells Vance to shift his focus as US doesn’t ‘need a deal with Iran’
US President Donald Trump said Thursday that he was directing Vice President JD Vance to focus “his complete and total attention” on domestic anti-fraud efforts and not negotiations toward a deal to end war with Tehran.

“Our Budget could be quickly BALANCED with the correction of this large scale criminal activity. CORRUPTION is in the Democrat Leadership’s blood!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. “We don’t need a deal with Iran. Those days have long since passed. We’ve got their money, Hundreds of Billions of Dollars, and we’ve got their Strait!”

His comments came shortly after the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that Vance was mulling face-to-face talks with a top Iranian security official.

The Journal’s report added Trump had told aides and counterparts that he was open to Vance reopening talks with Tehran, and that the president had empowered Vance to negotiate.

Such an in-person meeting would mark an unusual move.

Oil prices rose after Trump’s remarks on social media, while Wall Street futures slipped further.


Abraham Accords enter a new chapter as US Congress pushes for regional cooperation
It has been more than six years since the Abraham Accords were signed in September 2020. Much has happened since then, and many have tried to advance the Abraham Accords and expand its role.

On Wednesday, Rep. Brian Mast (R-Florida), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee (HFAC), said he had “convened the first-ever congressional forum between HFAC Members and Abraham Accords Ambassadors.”

“The discussion focused on strengthening regional cooperation, addressing challenges, and Congress’s role in advancing the next chapter of the Abraham Accords,” he posted on X/Twitter.

Mast is well known for his long-standing support of Israel. A US military veteran, he has served in Congress since 2017 and recently won reelection.

The meeting demonstrates the Abraham Accords’ continued relevance and its ability to bring together diplomats and members of Congress.

Youssef Amrani, Morocco’s ambassador to the US, said: “At the Capitol, I took part in a timely and engaging roundtable hosted by Congressman Brian Mast, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, bringing together members of the committee and the ambassadors of the UAE, Bahrain, and Israel.”

“We exchanged views on the progress made under the Abraham Accords, evolving regional dynamics, and the prospects for advancing cooperation and strengthening partnerships,” he said. “A valuable opportunity to reaffirm the importance of dialogue and sustained diplomatic engagement in shaping a more peaceful and prosperous region.”


Damascus is fighting Hezbollah, too
Syrian security forces announced on Nov. 3 that they had foiled a plot to attack the Homs oil refinery. According to Syrian authorities, two suspects were arrested, explosives were seized and the alleged perpetrators were linked to Hezbollah.

Hezbollah immediately denied the accusations, insisting it had no presence in Syria. Whether or not every detail of the Syrian allegations is ultimately substantiated, the incident illustrates a remarkable reversal.

Homs and the territory stretching westward toward Qusayr and the Lebanese border are precisely where Hezbollah once fought to preserve former Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

For years, this region served as a critical artery for Iranian weapons, money and military equipment flowing into Lebanon. Today, Syrian security forces are working to disrupt networks associated with that same organization.

I write these lines from Kibbutz Dafna, near Israel’s northern border. Having commanded Operation Good Neighbor along the Syrian frontier and now serving as a reservist in the Golan Division, I have spent much of my military career watching Syria and Lebanon function as interconnected fronts: Damascus provided strategic depth, while Hezbollah served as Iran’s forward arm against Israel.

That relationship has fundamentally changed, and Israel must act accordingly.

The Homs incident is part of a broader pattern. In March, Syrian forces uncovered and sealed smuggling tunnels along the Lebanese border in the western Homs countryside. In July, Syria’s Interior Ministry announced that it had intercepted, near the Iraqi border, a shipment of long-range missiles, anti-tank guided missiles and drones reportedly bound for Hezbollah. Additional seizures have shown that Damascus is increasingly willing to confront networks that once operated under the protection of the Syrian state.


Two Iranian men found guilty in UK of spying on dissident journalists on IRGC’s behalf
Two Iranian men were found guilty on Thursday of spying on dissident journalists in Britain on behalf of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a case British police said reflected increasing activity by Iran.

Mostafa Sepahvand, 41, was found guilty at Woolwich Crown Court of two offenses, and Farhad Javadi Manesh, 46, was convicted of one offense under ⁠Britain’s National Security Act.

Police said the convictions marked the first time Iranian nationals had been convicted under the National Security Act, introduced in 2023 to counter threats from foreign states including Iran, which the authorities say have risen sharply.

Sepahvand was directed by the IRGC or “middlemen” for Iranian intelligence, Senior National Coordinator for Counter Terrorism Policing Vicki Evans said, adding the case “highlights the continuing and increasing threat to the UK from Iran.”

Iran has repeatedly denied involvement in spying or any such activity, and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said he was “disturbed” by the arrests of Sepahvand and others in May 2025.

Prosecutors said at the start of Sepahvand and Manesh’s trial last month that they had been carrying out surveillance on journalists working for Iran International, a Persian-language television station that is critical of Iran’s government, between August 2024 ​and March 2025.

Sepahvand was convicted of assisting a foreign intelligence service and a second charge relating to what prosecutors said was a plan for Sepahvand to attack one or more of their targets.

Manesh was convicted of assisting a foreign intelligence service, but acquitted of the second charge relating to preparing for an attack. They will both be sentenced next month.


300,000 weapons, equipment items returned to IDF during no-questions-asked collection drive
The Israeli military on Thursday said it had so far collected over 300,000 pieces of military equipment as part of a weapons return campaign, including enemy assault rifles stolen from the battlefield and a submachine gun that has not been in service in over three decades.

On November 1, the Israel Defense Forces opened 62 stations and collection points at army bases across the country, where weapons and gear that were being held illegally could be returned — with no questions asked.

The military said that soldiers, both in the standing army and reserves, could return the weapons and equipment “without the need to identify themselves and without prosecution for their unlawful removal, possession or carrying.”

The program was supposed to end this weekend, but the military said Thursday that “in light of the campaign’s success, it has been extended by an additional two days,” until this coming Monday.

“At the conclusion of the campaign, legal immunity will end, and enforcement against the unlawful removal and possession of military equipment will resume,” the military said Thursday.

Over the past two weeks, the military said, it had collected more than 300,000 pieces of military equipment, including some 210 firearms; 3,800 stun grenades, fragmentation grenades, mortars and launchers; 8,700 uniforms and textile items; 3,000 weapon accessories; 1,600 combat equipment items, including vests and helmets; 430 medical equipment items; and tens of thousands of rounds of ammunition.

Among the firearms returned to the military were an Uzi submachine gun that the IDF said was “phased out of IDF service more than 30 years ago,” Kalashnikov rifles apparently taken by soldiers during operations in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, and an FN MAG machine gun.

The aim of the operation was to “strengthen public safety,” prevent the use of military equipment outside the IDF, and ensure that weapons are held only by authorized personnel, the military said at the start of the campaign.


The intellectual fraud and moral vacuity of Benjamin Moser
Moser describes the Holocaust as Zionism’s “biggest trump card”, a phrase so grotesquely cynical that it is difficult to believe it came from a man who claims to care about Jewish history. The murder of six million Jews becomes something Zionists supposedly used to legitimise an illegitimate state. The fact that Zionism existed long before Hitler came to power, that the Balfour Declaration was issued in 1917 and that the League of Nations recognised the historical connection of the Jewish people to Palestine in 1922 is of little interest to Moser.

Yet, the Holocaust neither invented Jewish nationhood nor created the Jewish connection to the land. It simply demonstrated, with unimaginable horror, the danger of Jewish powerlessness and the consequences of leaving the fate of Jews in the hands of others and at the mercy of tolerance.

Moser’s insistence that every inch of Israel was always Palestine is another example of his disingenuity and dishonesty. Jewish history in the land is hardly a matter of conjecture. Jewish artefacts, sites and culture permeate the land. Israel, Judah, Judaea, Jerusalem and the continuous Jewish connection to the land existed long before modern Zionism, and long before the emergence of Palestinian nationalism, a 20th-century invention. Indeed, early Mandate-era Palestinian Arab leaders sought Arab sovereignty, initially as part of Greater Syria, while opposing Jewish sovereignty. The official idea of Palestinian statehood was established with the PLO itself in 1964.

Yet Moser would have us believe that an ancient Jewish homeland is somehow a foreign European invention, while a relatively modern Palestinian national movement represents an eternal claim to the land. A rather extraordinary and wholly false rewriting of history, even by his standards.

It is easy enough to denounce a country’s creation from the comfort of a Dutch-American literary career. The consequences of declaring that country illegitimate are rather more serious for the people whose lives he is discussing.

Moser’s most valuable contribution to the modern-day anti-Israel movement has little to do with his research. It is his Jewishness. A Pulitzer Prize-winning Jew who denounces Zionism as racism, colonialism and imperialism is an extraordinarily useful figure for people who already believe precisely that. He provides the reassurance that their hostility to the Jewish state is entirely respectable, that their understanding of Jewish history is superior to that of most Jews, and that accusations of antisemitism can safely be dismissed because a Jew has endorsed their conclusions.

There is something depressingly familiar. Montagu wanted to be more English than the English. Moser appears determined to be more anti-Zionist than the anti-Zionists, anxious to demonstrate to his enlightened friends that he is one of the “good” Jews, untainted by the nationalism, tribalism and supposed moral blindness of the rest. His dedication of the book to Palestinians as an act of “repentance” is particularly revealing. Moser was born in Houston, has not personally committed the acts for which he is repenting and does not live in Israel. Yet he has managed to turn Palestinian suffering into a public performance of his own Jewish moral purification. It’s as sick as it is sanctimonious and narcissistic.

His remarks at a Greens for Palestine event take him into considerably uglier territory. Discussing accusations of antisemitism, Moser went on to spout a litany of conspiracy theories and antisemitic tropes as old as history itself. This ‘as a Jew’ Jew said this: “But in the case of the Jews, they scream at you, and they call you a racist, and they call you an antisemite, and they call you a self-hating Jew. And at the same time, they have a lot of money, so they’re very good at producing propaganda. They’re very good at bribing politicians.”

Oh, the irony.

The man who has devoted 400 pages to supposedly rescuing Jewish morality from Zionism exposes rather more about his own morality. ‘As a Jew’ he claims the moral high ground over Zionists, while basking in the approval of a progressive audience and the red-green alliance, only too happy to have a Jew legitimise their antisemitism. They get their prejudices endorsed. He gets to parade his moral grandiosity. His Jewishness, used as the perfect alibi for both.

Moser’s entire exercise reeks of intellectual dishonesty.

He begins with a verdict, manipulates Jewish history to support it, distorts the convictions of those he claims to honour and passes off his prejudices as scholarship. He appoints himself an arbiter of Jewish morality while casually recycling antisemitic stereotypes, apparently oblivious to the irony and hypocrisy. His Jewishness does not excuse his dishonesty. His Pulitzer cannot compensate for his lack of factual integrity.

For a man so eager to lecture Jews on their morality, Moser seems remarkably unconcerned with his own. He has taken a genuine and complex history of Jewish opposition to Zionism, misrepresented it, perverted it and exploited it to lend credibility to his campaign to demonise the Jewish state. For a writer who has built his reputation on serious research, his willingness to bend the facts to suit his prejudices is nothing short of disgraceful.

With this book, Moser exposes himself as little more than a scam artist, while the cult of Palestinianism has found itself another willing Jewish accomplice.
Comedy Cellar USA: Anti-Zionism: Does the History Hold Up? | Benjamin Moser | Live From the Table
"I've done thousands of interviews in my life. I've never been talked over quite as much as I have tonight." - Benjamin Moser

Moser came on to defend his new book, Anti-Zionism: A Jewish History. Noam Dworman came with Moser's own sources and a list of what he says the book gets wrong.

Was Herzl an antisemite who wanted the Jews to disappear, or a man flailing for any way out of European antisemitism? Did Iraq's Jews leave because of Zionist bombs or because of official persecution, and what does Avi Shlaim himself say? Who started the Six-Day War: the side that fired first, or the side that closed the Straits of Tiran? Should Balfour be judged the way Frederick Douglass judged Lincoln? One thing neither disputes: Jews had a right to come to Palestine as immigrants. Moser's objection is to coming "as conquerors."

Also: Theodor Herzl, Lord Balfour, Abraham Lincoln, Derek Penslar, Benny Morris, Norman Finkelstein, Anwar Sadat, Nasser, the Kishinev pogrom, the Farhud, the Nakba, Gaza.

Benjamin Moser won the Pulitzer Prize for Sontag: Her Life and Work. Anti-Zionism: A Jewish History is out now https://tinyurl.com/y343wbuy

0:00 Noam: "This interview did not go as I hoped"
2:16 "Moserism": the opening statement on Lincoln and Balfour
14:55 Herzl's "genitals" line: diary or letter?
22:41 Herzl's mass-conversion plan and the Penslar tape
31:01 "Did European Jews have the right to come to Palestine?"
49:56 Why did Iraq's Jews leave? Avi Shlaim and the Baghdad bombs
58:42 Who started the Six-Day War?
1:13:22 After Moser leaves: Dan and Periel weigh in





 



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