The International Union of Muslim Scholars wants more scholarship on Jews and Israel — as long as it is antisemitic

Ahmed Raissouni, a former president of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, just published an essay complaining that pro-Palestinian scholarship is too thin. He wants Muslim academics to build a real, long-term body of work on Jewish history, Zionism, and Hebrew and Torah scholarship, comparable to what Western universities produce.

In the Orwellian world of the IUMS,  "scholarship" means "cherry picking or fabricating facts to reach antisemitic conclusions."

Raissouni, who effusively praised October 7, names the models of the researchers he wants to see more of. 

The first is Roger Garaudy, the French philosopher whom Raissouni credits with "the study and refutation of the founding religious myths and legends of Zionist theories." He calls on scholars to continue "along the path Garaudy began." Garaudy was convicted in France in 1998 for Holocaust denial, for a book arguing that the Holocaust death toll and the gas chambers were largely invented to serve Israeli political interests. This is the ideal researcher to the Muslim scholars represented by IUMS.

The second model is Abdelwahab Elmessiri, praised for having "disturbed Israel and Zionism more than the Arab armies surrounding it." Elmessiri's life's work was an eight-volume Encyclopedia of the Jews, Judaism, and Zionism arguing that Jewish peoplehood itself is a fiction rather than a genuine identity — treating the existence of the Jews as a phenomenon to be explained away rather than a people to be studied.

Raissouni then turns to Morocco. He writes that Moroccan academic history has spent decades "falsifying" the record to inflate the role Jews played in the country's development, and that the professors doing this work are funded by "poisoned Zionist grants," some of them acting as brokers who bring in the money themselves. The Jews being studied, he says, are not really contributors to Moroccan history at all — "in reality they consider themselves an infiltrated Israeli mission serving the Kingdom of Solomon." Yes, the Jews are so crafty that they sent their people to Morocco in Roman times, before Islam, just so they can pretend to be part of Morocco's history. It takes a special kind of scholarship to come up with this conclusion, and that is exactly what Raissouni and IUMS want to see more of.

Raissouni also wants to tackle scholarship on antisemitism, which he calls "a sword hanging over politicians, thinkers, historians, human rights advocates, and judges." Obviously antisemitism doesn't really exist. Just as obviously, this article isn't Exhibit A.

He also asserts, without a single source, that "perhaps a third of Americans, a third of Europeans, and certainly tens of millions" of people are driven by fabricated Torah and Talmudic myths. Well, duh.

The thing is, as I read this, that the concept of perverting research to reach a predetermined conclusion is not a Muslim innovation. What he demands in the Muslim world is happening, today, among thousands of Western academics in captured fields like Middle East history, social justice, gender studies, art history and dozens of other fields; openly advocating a political position and twisting facts to reach the end goal. Muslims don't need more people who understand Hebrew; they can just read the papers being published constantly by Western universities. 

The only innovation Raissouni brings is that he is unusually candid about naming his goal and his heroes in advance. 

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Buy EoZ's books  on Amazon! Reclaiming the Covenant on America's 250th (May 2026) "He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024) PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

 

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08/02 Links: Gaza Illusions; The Children Hamas Chose to Weaponize; Deal said in the works to revive US-Iran MOU; Time for Israel to Go on a Narrative Offensive

From Ian:

Gaza Illusions

Hamas identifies more advantages than disadvantages in the Board of Peace agreement for Gaza and therefore welcomes it. The organization survived after three years of bitter war and remains the dominant force in Gaza. It does not assess that the arrangement threatens its status or its assets. In its understanding, it will be able to continue preserving its military and civilian power under the cosmetic cover of the technocratic government - adopting the Hizbullah model, meaning existing alongside a weak formal government.

Hamas emphasizes that the demand for disarmament relates only to heavy weapons, of which it has barely any left. The arrangement appears to be creating a trap for Israel, enabling Hamas to preserve its power, despite the promise that nothing would be advanced in the area unless Hamas was first disarmed.

Under the circumstances that have been created, vital interests in Gaza must be defined in the spirit of "prevention," first and foremost: preserving freedom of action against emerging threats in the area; designating a large area near the border where activity of any kind will be prohibited, all the more so the establishment of an enemy presence; preserving the right to veto foreign actors entering Gaza; and above all ensuring that the Philadelphi Corridor is not under Hamas control.

Did the PA's "Pay-for-Slay" Policy Facilitate the October 7 Massacre?

The Palestinian Authority established a comprehensive statutory framework governing financial benefits for terrorist prisoners and released terrorists. Over time, the remuneration system expanded beyond monthly salaries to include release grants, guaranteed employment within the PA apparatus, and continuing financial support where employment was unavailable. The legal framework progressively increased both the level of financial benefits and the institutional obligations imposed upon the PA toward terrorist prisoners and released terrorists.

The PA/PLO's remuneration policy was not merely a humanitarian welfare program or a series of isolated financial payments. Rather, it evolved into a comprehensive statutory and administrative framework that systematically rewarded terrorist imprisonment, guaranteed continuing financial support following release, and, in many cases, facilitated the reintegration of released terrorists into publicly-funded employment.

The policy substantially reduced the personal and economic consequences associated with terrorist activity and materially assisted a significant number of experienced terrorists who later resumed terrorist activity. Several ultimately rose to senior positions within Hamas or directly participated in planning, financing, directing, or executing the October 7 massacre.

Time for Israel to Go on a Narrative Offensive

Rewiring the narrative
Historically, the relative success in the turnabout on Israel and Zionism has been a long process. Even if we ignore Jewish anti-Zionism thinking, amongst Jews as well as non-Jews, or take into consideration general anti-Jewish sentiment whether racist or religiously-motivated, surely we are in a very different place as regards control of the narrative.

In a recent piece posted in the +972 Magazine, we learn that France’s Rima Hassan, European Parliament member representing the La France Insoumise party, wants to break four taboos in the French public debate on Palestine.

They are: recognizing Zionism as a colonial ideology; defending the right of return; discussing the legitimacy of armed struggle; and moving beyond the two-state paradigm.

That is not a simple alteration of a narrative but, as the chant that has been increasingly sounded at anti-Israel rallies is formulated, Zionism must be eliminated. We are back in the 1950s and 1960s with the “Throw them into the sea!” sloganeering.

Yet, because of the internal squabbling in Israel over policies, the fundamental truths of the Zionist narrative have been misplaced in our public diplomacy material, as well as the fierce willingness to engage in confronting the waves of lies and fabrications assertively. It appears the “in” thing is to appear at the Oxford Union in evening dress.

Rabbi Irving Greenberg, however, provides another problem. Appalled by Hasan Piker’s claim of how much better Hamas is than Israel, he writes in the LA Jewish Journal on July 16 that Piker’s political voice promotes a “toxic narrative … untethered from reality.”

Piker, he continued, is an example of how “Palestinians’ allies have led [the Palestinians] to the dark side of their national aspirations – destroying Israel rather than building their own potential state.”

Greenberg does not address that toxicity’s success. He does not ask if that negativity should be a cause to punish those exploiting such a message or if, and he is a rabbi, an ethical conclusion could be drawn that should advance the idea that an Arab Palestine state would be immoral.

There exists a major underestimation of the damage and danger the Palestine narrative dominance represents. And now that the pro-Palestine camp has reduced the rhetoric to a zero-sum situation, demanding our elimination and that our existence as a Jewish state must be denied, the hasbara (public diplomacy) approach of defense and explaining Israel’s actions needs to be refashioned.

Money is available. According to reports, since October 2023, upwards of $100 million has been allotted to hasbara efforts, most on social media platforms. I probably haven’t seen all the output, but I am confident little of it was framed in an attack mode.

We need to be past that stage of weak, explanatory public diplomacy. Attention must be shifted. The burden of proof and defense must be placed on the pro-Palestine side. Should a Palestinian national identity of less than 100 years be preferred over a 3,000-year Jewish national identity?

Were not the Arab Muslim conquests of the seventh and eighth centuries the real colonization process in the Middle East?

Who is truly engaged in an “ethnic cleansing” if not Palestinianism? Who initiated genocidal violence, beginning in 1920? Should not the side that violates agreements be punished? Should a constant rejection of diplomacy and willingness to compromise be tolerated?

It is time to make major changes in attitude and approach and to reassert Zionism’s narrative.

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In the UK, spending more on those who want to kill Jews than on protecting Jews

From The Daily Express:

Labour will spend 50% more taxpayer cash on aid for Palestine than it will on protecting British Jews despite rising antisemitic attacks. The revelation came as the result of ministerial questions which revealed £381 million would be sent to Palestine in the next three years. That's 50% more than the £250 million pledged by the Labour Government to protect Britain's Jewish communities.

Shadow Foreign Secretary Priti Patel, told the Daily Express: "Labour’s priorities are all wrong. This extraordinary funding, some of which will likely end up in the hands of the undemocratic and unaccountable Palestinian Authority, exceeds funding recently pledged for protecting British Jews from antisemitic violence and hatred.

The usual defense by the Left in the US to prioritize demonizing Israel is that tax dollars are going there, which would be better used locally. But they never talk about tax dollars to other foreign recipients, including Palestinians, Jordan, Egypt and others. 

Here we see the argument turned on its head against a progressive British government: spending more on those who support attacking Jews than on protecting local Jews from attack. 

The people who pretend that all tax dollars should be spent domestically when the argument is about Israel somehow change their position when the recipient is the Palestinian Authority which has proven time and time again that it celebrates terror attacks against Jews. 

The only people in the region who support genocide are the Palestinians. They just disagree on the specific methods of getting rid of all the Jews in the Levant. 

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Buy EoZ's books  on Amazon! Reclaiming the Covenant on America's 250th (May 2026) "He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024) PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

 

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08/01 Links: Hamas disarmament cannot wait for the IDF's withdrawal from Gaza; Trump cancels Iran attack, calls for immediate deal; Herzog accuses Mamdani of spreading 'blasphemy,' antisemitism

From Ian:

JPost Editorial: Hamas disarmament cannot wait for the IDF's withdrawal from Gaza

The latest Gaza proposal is better than the empty language that has surrounded much of the postwar discussion. It addresses Hamas’s weapons, the tunnels, the command structure, the future administration of Gaza, and the link between demilitarization and Israeli withdrawal.

That is important, but it is not enough. Israel cannot agree to a process in which withdrawal, reconstruction, or political recognition move forward on the assumption that Hamas will disarm later.

The issue is not whether disarmament appears in the document - it does - the issue is whether Hamas is required to carry it out before Israel gives up the leverage needed to make it happen.

Hamas has spent the period since October 7 using every negotiation to gain time, preserve control, and push the most difficult questions into the next phase. Deals have produced real achievements - above all the return of hostages - and that matters. But Hamas’s military power has remained largely untouched by diplomacy.

The negotiations show the same risk, with Hamas already presenting its obligations as conditional on Israeli steps that would come first in practice. It has repeatedly rejected disarmament, qualified it, or offered formulations that leave its weapons under a different name or authority.

The latest proposal may be more serious, but it still depends on sequencing. If Hamas is allowed to remain armed while a new Palestinian committee enters Gaza, while international bodies begin work, and while Israeli forces pull back, the result may be a civilian structure operating under the same threat that has shaped Gaza for years. Israeli withdrawal can not happen based on Hamas promises

The United States should be careful not to mistake a framework for implementation. Titles, ceremonies, international boards, and public declarations may help move negotiations forward, but they do not remove a single rocket, destroy a single tunnel, or prevent Hamas from rebuilding. Israel cannot base a withdrawal on what Hamas says it intends to do.

The standard must be physical and verifiable. Weapons need to be collected and placed beyond use, while production sites and tunnels need to be located and destroyed. Smuggling routes, command networks, and financing systems need to be dismantled. Inspectors must be able to enter sites without warning, and violations must stop the next stage automatically.

Food, medicine, water, shelter, and basic services should reach civilians regardless of Hamas’s conduct, and they should do so without strengthening Hamas’s control where possible.

Large-scale reconstruction is different. It brings money, building materials, jobs, contracts, and influence. If it begins while Hamas remains armed, it risks rebuilding the system that allowed the organization to embed itself in every part of life in Gaza. Reconstruction should expand first in areas that have been independently verified as demilitarized and where a civilian authority can operate without armed intimidation.

Orna and Ronen Neutra: Israel’s future is in jeopardy if it becomes a single-party cause

The late Sen. Lindsey Graham entered our lives during the darkest chapter our family had ever known. This week, as we traveled to Washington for his funeral, we came not only to honor one of Israel’s most steadfast friends, but to remember a leader who stood beside our family — and whose example offers an urgent lesson for Israel and its relationship with the United States.

We first met Graham shortly after Oct. 7, 2023, when we believed our American Israeli son, Capt. Omer Neutra, had been taken hostage by Hamas. We later learned that Omer had been murdered during the attack and that his body had been taken into Gaza.

From the earliest days of the war, Graham was among the strongest and most consistent voices in the Senate calling for the hostages to be brought home and standing firmly with Israel. He spoke with clarity about Iran’s central role in supporting Hamas and understood that Hamas could not remain in power if the region was ever to achieve lasting stability.

Within weeks of the attacks, he led a bipartisan Senate delegation to Saudi Arabia, Israel, and Egypt. He believed Hamas must not be allowed to destroy the historic possibility of normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia. He also recognized that building a regional coalition against Iran and its proxies was essential to creating a safer and more stable Middle East.

But the lesson Graham leaves behind is not only about foreign policy. It is about how meaningful change is achieved in a democracy.

When he believed in a cause, he fully embraced the democratic process required to advance it. He worked across party lines, sought consensus whenever possible, and used his voice, relationships, and influence to bring others with him.

That was how he approached the effort to bring the hostages home.

He never told us what we wanted to hear simply to make us feel better. He told us what he believed. He never offered false hope, but he always made time for us, listened carefully, and treated our concerns with honesty and respect.

During one meeting with hostage families, he said something we have never forgotten: “I wish you were all my constituents.”

As our family’s journey unfolded, from fighting to bring Omer home, to learning the devastating truth of his murder, to finally bringing him home for burial, we tried to follow the same principle.

From the beginning, we made a conscious decision that the hostage crisis could never belong to only one political party.

On Oct. 15, 2023, Donald Trump called us as a former president and private citizen. We thanked him for reaching out, but we also shared what would become one of the guiding principles of our advocacy: The hostages had to remain a humanitarian cause, not a partisan one, especially during a presidential election. He immediately agreed, and we appreciated that he honored that principle throughout the months that followed.

We carried that commitment through every stage of our advocacy. We worked closely with the Biden administration and later with the Trump administration. We met with Republican and Democratic senators, members of Congress, governors, administration officials, and leaders from across the political spectrum.

We participated in the Republican National Convention while proudly supporting fellow hostage-family advocates Rachel Goldberg-Polin and Jon Polin when they addressed the Democratic National Convention.

Our message was the same in every room: bringing the hostages home was not a Republican cause or a Democratic cause. It was a human cause.

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07/31 Links Pt2: After 25 years, the Sbarro bombing and its aftermath still matter; Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, and the serpent: Why their lies work

From Ian:

Jonathan Tobin: After 25 years, the Sbarro bombing and its aftermath still matter

For the rest of the world, including most Jews, Aug. 9 is just another day on the calendar. It doesn’t have the resonance of 9/11 or Oct. 7. Unlike those dates that remain inextricably linked to horrifying terrorist attacks, what happened on Aug. 9, 2001 has faded into memory for most Jews.

Some remember the Palestinian Arab suicide bombing at the Sbarro pizzeria at the corner of King George Street and the Jaffa Road in Jerusalem, which took the lives of 16 people, including eight children and a pregnant woman, and wounded another 130 persons. It was one among many such atrocities committed by the Palestinians during the terrorist war of attrition waged by the Palestinians from 2001 to 2005, known as the Second Intifada. And even that terrible struggle, which took the lives of more than 1,000 Israelis and many more Palestinians, has been overshadowed by the unspeakable crimes committed on Oct. 7, 2023, and the ordeal of the war against Iran and its terrorist proxies ever since.

Other than the families of the murdered and injured, that day isn’t likely circled on many calendars.

A date to remember
So, perhaps it’s understandable that it might fade from our consciousness.

Indeed, many such dates fade from the collective memory of nations because of the passage of time. Dec. 7 was once a turning point in the lives of Americans, who could tell you where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor, dragging the United States into the Second World War. But those who have such memories of the events 85 years ago are now few and far between.

Increasingly, the same is true for Nov. 22, which was once indelibly linked to the trauma of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, but which now has little resonance for any but the conspiracy-theory buffs among the overwhelming majority of Americans who were not alive then.

But we should remember Aug. 9—and not just because this year is the 25th anniversary of that horrible incident. It stands as a reminder of the folly and hubris of those who dabble in the Middle East peace process. That is something that President Donald Trump ought to keep in mind when he issues broadly optimistic statements about peace in the Mideast.

Trump’s Board of Peace, which is responsible for the rebuilding of the Gaza Strip in the aftermath of the post-Oct. 7 war, has announced a new plan for implementing the disarmament of Hamas and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the region. Israel’s moves would be contingent on the terrorists laying down their weapons and the president’s threats to Hamas if they don’t comply sound tough. But Trump’s breezy optimism about Hamas surrendering its armaments seems reminiscent of such predictions about the end of Palestinian terrorism the world has heard many times in the past, not least in the years before Aug. 9, 2001.

The Sbarro bombing was a shocking indicator of the barbarism of Israel’s erstwhile peace partners.

Nearly eight years earlier, most Israelis and the Jewish world had rejoiced in the signing of the Oslo Peace Accords on the White House Lawn by Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat under the optimistic patronage of President Bill Clinton. Only a year before the bombing, Israel’s then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak had journeyed to Camp David, where he and Clinton had followed up on Oslo by offering Arafat an independent state in Gaza, a share of Jerusalem, and almost all of Judea and Samaria. Arafat rejected the offer. By way of further response, he launched the wave of terror attacks that literally and figuratively blew up the peace process. Instead of trading land for peace, it exchanged land for terror.

Jonathan Tobin: Decoding the settler violence narrative for Americans

Debunking a false narrative
The truth about settler violence contradicts not merely the assertion of the CIS and those regurgitating it in America, like Stephens. Though the Times columnist and others have mocked Netanyahu’s claims that the problem is confined to approximately 150 “juvenile delinquents,” once you take a deep dive into the statistics about settler violence, you realize that he might not be entirely wrong about that claim.

As JNS has reported, the assertion that Jews living in Judea and Samaria have been regularly engaging in a crime rampage is based on reports that classify a great many things that no objective observer would call “Jewish terror.” A Kohelet Policy Forum report on the subject by Israeli legal scholars Eugene Kontorovich and Avraham Shalev details the facts that many of the alleged acts of settler violence consist mainly of Jews doing things like visiting the Temple Mount in Jerusalem or creating infrastructure in their communities.

More important is the fact that many of these alleged instances of Jewish terrorism represent incidents in which Jews have defended themselves against acts of Arab terror. They also include times when the IDF has conducted counter-terror operations.

The narrative about settler violence also ignores the context of life in the territories. Arab violence and terrorism aimed at Jews is a daily occurrence. It is so common that only the most violent incidents involving deaths at the hands of Palestinian terrorists are reported, even in the Israeli press. The hundreds of thousands of Jews living in communities in the heart of their ancient homeland face constant harassment and violence. Rock-throwing at vehicles—something that American prosecutors would have no qualm about classifying as attempted murder since it is done with the express intent to harm the occupants of the car—is a constant threat. As anyone who has taken the trouble to visit these “settlements” knows, Jewish towns and villages, as well as farms, must be guarded around the clock to protect their inhabitants.

The number of acts of Arab violence in the territories far outnumbers even most of the exaggerated claims of settler crimes.

That’s not to say that a tiny minority of the Jewish population of these communities has never crossed the line from active defense to acts of retaliation. And when they do, they are often arrested by Israeli intelligence units and subject to the full force of the law. But such incidents are a small percentage of overall actions that the United Nations or others call settler “violence.”

So, to argue as Stephens does, that Netanyahu is lying and that a nation that can order its forces to perform amazing acts of derring-do when fighting Iran, Hezbollah or Hamas could, if it wished, put a quick end to a major crime problem is not merely missing the point of what is actually happening in Judea and Samaria. It’s a false claim whose purpose is to bolster the idea that Netanyahu’s government is hopelessly compromised by the presence of parties, like those led by ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich. The assertion is that these controversial parties and leaders that support the Jews of Judea and Samaria have prevented the prime minister from doing his duty to uphold the law.

There are reasonable, even strong, arguments to make that someone like Ben-Gvir, who does and says things that are irresponsible and undermine Israel’s reputation, is a liability to Netanyahu. In private, the prime minister probably thinks that himself. Netanyahu would almost certainly prefer some of the center-left parties as coalition partners for Likud and will likely try to get them to join him if he gets the chance to form another government after the Oct. 27 election. But except for the national unity government that existed for a time after Oct. 7, they have refused to join Netanyahu due to personal feuds. That has ensured that Ben-Gvir, Smotrich and the ultra-Orthodox parties are the Likud’s only available partners.

Seen from this perspective, the entire discussion becomes easily understandable as a tactic to persuade people not to vote for Netanyahu or his allies.

Plenty of legitimate reasons exist for Israelis not to want Netanyahu to continue in office, including his lengthy tenure as prime minister and the fact that Oct. 7 happened on his watch. Yet it should be remembered that his most likely would-be successors were just as guilty as Netanyahu of subscribing to the “conceptzia” idea that Hamas could be bought off from attacking Israel as it did that Black Shabbat. That goes double for everyone in the military and intelligence establishment that sold Israelis this false doctrine. Indeed, the entire point of the CIS initiative is to replicate the pre-Oct. 7 situation in Gaza in Judea and Samaria, with the same tragic results its most likely consequence.

And that’s a reminder to those citing the CIS letter that blind faith in military and intelligence officials—many of whom, like Vilnai, have political motives—is almost always a mistake.

Coercing Israel
Once you strip away the skewed statistics, emotive rhetoric and virtue-signaling about disassociating from Jews who are “bad” settlers, the talk of settler violence is revealed as a political tactic aimed at toppling Netanyahu. The main reason why the Israeli opposition and its allies in the United States talk about the subject is to paint the Jewish population of the territories as a bunch of violent thugs, and in doing so, convince the electorate that they should be sacrificed in some chimerical “land for peace” agreement.

Yet since the Israeli left knows very well that the Israeli public will never vote for such a thing, they must resort, as they have for decades, to pleas for Washington to pressure Jerusalem to adopt policies the voters have rejected, as well as to efforts to delegitimize the prime minister and his allies.

Those whom American supporters of Israel look to as champions of their cause, like Stephens, should not have fallen for this tactic since it does as much harm to Israel’s reputation as it does to the government. That he and others like him have done so speaks volumes about their hostility to Netanyahu and Trump. Stephens’ readers deserved better from him.

Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, and the serpent: Why their lies work

A biblical strategy
"Your eyes will be opened,” said the Serpent to an undecided Eve in the very first time this tactic was used.

The same tool that Carlson and Owens use today.

"Did God really say you shall not eat from any tree of the garden?"

The same build-up that the Serpent used before any claim is made, the same that Carlson and Owens use now. A redirect of attention. Not telling Eve what to conclude explicitly, but certainly implicitly.

Then comes suggesting something is being hidden from Eve.

And finally, the feeling that you see something others don't. It's framed by the Serpent, and now by the woke-right as joining an unseen tier, being a part of the people who see behind the curtain that everyone else is staring at.

The content of what's revealed almost doesn't even matter.

What's seductive is the exclusivity of the seeing. Once you believe you're one of the few who's noticed something hidden, the claim defends itself, because doubting it would mean giving up the very thing that made you feel exceptional in the first place. Owens, Fuentes, antisemites across Twitter/X even use that term to describe themselves. “Noticers.”

These lies are compelling for the same reason they always have been.

What makes this worth writing about, for me, isn't the tactics themselves, however. It's that I've fallen for them. Not in some abstract, theoretical "everyone's susceptible" way. Specifically.

There have been moments where a claim, made by conspiracy theorists, about 9/11, Kennedy’s assassination, or the moon landing, or even the claims made by Carlson, Owens, or Fuentes themselves, landed on me not because I'd examined it, but because it was framed in a way that made the examining feel unnecessary. Where "obviously" did the work that evidence should have done, where I felt the rush of waking up to something instead of the slower, less flattering work of actually verifying it.

Most of life, most of reality takes time to understand, and you actually shouldn't have it all easily comprehensible in an instant.

Maybe the Israel-Palestine conflict can't be fully understood from a 30-second TikTok clip; maybe it does actually take time.

That's the uncomfortable part of taking this seriously. It's easy to nod along to a breakdown of manipulation tactics when you're picturing the people who fell for them.

It is way harder to sit with the fact that skepticism isn't a personality trait you either have or don't; it's a discipline you fail at, repeatedly, usually in the exact moments you feel most certain you're finally seeing clearly.

Aristotle once said that “the mark of an educated mind” is the ability to “entertain a thought without accepting it.”

I quite like that. In an age where we're flooded with every idea imaginable, regardless of how shaky, I think it's more important than ever to be able to hear something, feel its pull, and still ask whether it's actually true.

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07/31 Links Pt1: Why Isn’t Trump Finishing the Job in Iran?; Hamas ‘disarmament’ deal is more Trump fantasyland; Evyatar David recalls captivity, being forced to dig his grave

From Ian:

Why Isn’t Trump Finishing the Job in Iran?

In a completely unforeseen development, Lucy has once again yanked the football away from Charlie—sorry, President Donald Trump has once again backed away from his threats to annihilate Iran and opted for more diplomacy.

We were also shocked—shocked!—to learn one of the alleged reasons Trump decided to stop bombing Iran on Friday night: a shortage of key munitions. Indeed, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Axios, and CNN all ran stories over the weekend on the supposed “munitions” shortfall, reportedly raised by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine during a meeting with the president last week.

“Any major operation against Iran will face challenges because the U.S. munitions stockpile has been significantly depleted by Washington’s ongoing defense of Israel and support for Ukraine,” the Post reported Caine as telling the president. “Intensifying the war could dangerously drain the Pentagon’s already diminished stockpile of Patriot antimissile interceptors and other air defense munitions in the Middle East,” was the Times’ gloss on the same meeting. CNN and the Journal corroborated the claims about Caine, with CNN adding that Vice President JD Vance also warned Trump against resumption of the war. In an “analysis” article posted on Monday, CNN’s senior political reporter, Aaron Blake, argued that the question of “munitions stockpiles” had become “pivotal” to U.S. planning. Blake linked to an April analysis from CNN, which argued that there was now a “near-term risk” of the United States “running out of ammunition” in a conflict with a near-peer adversary such as China.

So, is the United States just too short on ammo to continue fighting? Unsurprisingly, the answer is that there is a partial truth here—but one wrapped in a whole lot of BS and spin.

The first point to make is that much of the media coverage—presumably guided by figures such as Colby—is intentionally conflating “munitions” with “air defense munitions,” used to defend against drones and ballistic missiles. U.S. inventories are classified, but most media coverage refers to estimates from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, which, according to CNN, “closely align” with classified U.S. data. Here’s a table on “key munitions” stockpiles from CSIS’s estimates published in April, at the conclusion of the intensive wave of fighting:

Of these “key munitions,” the Tomahawks, JASSMs, and PrSMs are all high-end standoff (i.e., offensive) weapons, for which the United States has plentiful cheaper substitutes. The concern is specifically with high-end air defense munitions such as Patriots, THAADs, and SM-6s (used to defend ships from missiles and drones).

However, none of these shortages precludes further operations against Iran. In U.S. military doctrine, air defense is not intended to provide an indefinite shield against drone and missile strikes; given enough time, any sufficiently capable enemy can overwhelm air defenses—a problem known as “overmatch.” The purpose of air defenses is to protect U.S. and allied forces long enough to suppress and destroy the enemy’s launch capability. Indeed, this was precisely the point reportedly raised by CENTCOM chief Adm. Brad Cooper during the president’s recent war council. According to The Wall Street Journal, Cooper “believes the U.S. can cope with the limited stocks of Patriot and other air defense interceptors because stepped-up U.S. strikes, if they are approved by Trump, would blunt Iran’s ability to launch large numbers of missiles.”

What is true—and what we suspect was the basis of Caine’s reported warning—is that munitions shortages do somewhat raise the risk of combat operations. “The United States and Israel definitely still have the capacity to conduct operations, but they’re going to have to maybe accept a little bit more risk than they have in the past,” Colby Badhwar, an independent defense analyst and fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis, told The Scroll in an interview. “They’re going to have to get in a little closer using things like small-diameter bombs, JDAMs, and glide bombs. The United States still has a lot of munitions available, but they definitely will have to be a little bit more judicious, perhaps, in how they execute and plan operations.” Indeed, as the CSIS report quoted above notes, “the United States has enough missiles to continue fighting this war under any plausible scenario.”

Jake Wallis Simons: Hamas ‘disarmament’ deal is more Trump fantasyland

It’s all an obvious strategy to buy some time while embedding itself even more deeply amongst Gaza’s civilians. There’s even word for it: “Hudna”, or “truce”, which in Hamas parlance means “strategic pause”. Yet Trump is apparently so keen for progress that he’s willing to play along. Forgive me if I do a little sick.

To the detail, which as usual with Trump remains rather vague. The four-page plan, which reportedly has 15 points, sets out a phased disarmament for the jihadis – sorry, I’m struggling to keep a straight face here – mirrored by a reciprocal IDF withdrawal from its current positions behind the “Yellow Line” buffer zone.

Weapons are to be handed over to a transitional body before being removed from Gaza, the Strip is to be fully demilitarised and, in the words of The Donald: “The International Stabilization Force will work with a new Palestinian police force to take responsibility for Gaza being safe for its residents and its neighbours.”

The most obvious of many practical questions presents itself right away. Where is this “Palestinian police force” going to come from? The Palestinian Authority, which was routed by Hamas in a bloody coup in 2007, is shambolic, corrupt, inept and supportive of terror, if another flavour of terror to that perpetrated by Hamas. Disarming the group, as the IDF discovered, means risking the lives of a great many troops.

It means going house-to-house in unfamiliar territory, amid booby-traps, tunnel shafts, snipers and child soldiers, and forensically searching hundreds of thousands of properties for arms. Israeli troops were willing to risk their lives in Gaza, as they were defending their families. Would Palestinians really do the same?

Even if the creation of such a force was realistic, it would take up to a year to recruit, train, equip and deploy. During that time, Hamas would take advantage of the reduced pressure to prepare strategies of resistance of survival, such as burying caches of weapons in layers of obscurity underground.

Similarly, where is the supposed Palestinian technocratic government going to come from? There is nobody with any support on the street, and anyone shipped in by Washington and Jerusalem will immediately be seen as a traitor. Not a good place to start.

In the final analysis, the best way to see this development is as another Trumpian fantasy, to join his failed Gaza Riviera plan in the dustbin of history. In recent months, the president has wantonly squandered his credibility with unhinged rhetoric towards Iran. When you vow apocalyptic consequences without delivering them and announce historic peace agreements that collapse at the first breath of air, how are your enemies supposed to take you seriously? Answer: they don’t. Having seen the Iranians taking Trump for a fool, Hamas are doing the same.

NYPost Editorial: A few questions about the new hopeful Gaza peace plan

Fine, Hamas has said it’s agreed to lay down its arms as per that 15-point plan from President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, but color us skeptical.

We absolutely hope it proves to be a genuine step toward bringing permanent peace to Gaza, but before we deem it a “historic agreement” as the prez announced, we need some questions answered.

For starters, who decides that Israel and Hamas and its allied terror groups have ceased “all military operations”?

We guarantee that some terrorists will keep shooting at Israel forces (and even more so, at any Gazans who defy them).

It seems a new International Verification Committee needs creating, but who’ll be on it, where will the staff come from, how long will it take to set up — and what happens when one side insists the IVC is wrong about the other side complying?

One enforcement arm is supposed to be the International Stabilization Force, but it’s meant to have a mere 5,000 troops — and so far only seems to actually have 200 or so even pledged by a few countries.

Also: What is the “Palestinian law” the plan mentions repeatedly?

There’s never been an actual Palestinian state to have any laws; are we talking about statutes created by the Palestinian Authority? By the rump government Hamas has run in Gaza? Something else?

And what judges are to interpret this “law”?

More generally, what parts of the Hamas-controlled government will transfer over to the new one under the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, and again who does the vetting of these “civil servants” selected by various gangs of terrorists?

Above all, how can any “existing police structures” possibly be trusted?

The Israel-Lebanon agreement will be won or lost in the first 150 meters

Before anyone could determine whether the Lebanese Armed Forces could dismantle Hezbollah’s infrastructure, seize its weapons and establish state sovereignty in Southern Lebanon, the new pilot program designed to provide the Lebanese army with an opportunity to do so encountered its first test.

It did not involve missiles, tunnels or units of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force. It involved approximately 150 meters.

On July 21, the Lebanese army began deploying in the village of Zawtar al-Gharbiyeh after the Israeli military withdrew as part of the first stage of a U.S.-brokered framework. Lebanese teams began clearing unexploded ordnance. A neighboring village, Zawtar al-Sharqiyeh, remained inside the Israeli-held buffer zone.

The Israel Defense Forces said Lebanese soldiers and an engineering vehicle crossed barriers and advanced about 150 meters into the security zone near Zawtar al-Sharqiyeh, outside the agreed pilot area and without coordination. Israeli troops fired warning shots, and the Lebanese force withdrew without casualties.

The Lebanese army said its soldiers remained inside Zawtar al-Gharbiyeh and were operating through the prescribed coordination mechanism when Israeli troops opened fire nearby. It described the shooting as an act of aggression that endangered its soldiers and could obstruct the pilot program.

Perhaps this was a navigation error. Perhaps the maps were unclear. Perhaps the vehicle crossed the agreed line unintentionally. Perhaps the Lebanese account is correct. The facts should be investigated immediately through the established mechanism.

But this is not an argument about a 150-meter tactical dispute.

The strategic question is how Israel, Lebanon and the United States will resolve the first disputed incident. Will it be documented, investigated and corrected, or dismissed as a local misunderstanding too small to justify endangering a major diplomatic initiative?

Israel knows this trap well. Quite often, violations of agreements become precedents.

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EoZ Presentation to CAMERA international students

I spoke at the CAMERA International Student Conference this week in Boston.  Here is my presentation and Q&A.

If you are interested in me speaking to your organization, let me know!

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Buy EoZ's books  on Amazon! Reclaiming the Covenant on America's 250th (May 2026) "He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024) PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

 

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UMich diversity admin says the university is controlled by wealthy Jews; her lawyer says she was criticizing Israel

From Deadline Detroit:

A federal judge Tuesday dismissed a discrimination lawsuit brought by a former University of Michigan diversity administrator Rachel Dawson, who was fired after allegedly making antisemitic remarks at a 2024 conference,

Dawson was accused of saying, “The university is controlled by wealthy Jews” during a conversation with two professors at an academic conference on diversity and equity in March 2024. 

She was also accused of saying, “We don’t work with Jews. They are wealthy and privileged and take care of themselves” and that “Jewish people have ‘no genetic DNA’ that would connect them to the land of Israel."

Dawson's lawyer, Amanda Ghannam, told Michigan Public that she still has a case pending before the Michigan Court of Claims regarding the free speech aspects of her termination.

"At the end of the day, she was fired for sharing her opinion about the situation in Palestine/Israel, including that she believes both groups of people deserve better leadership and equal rights, and her comments about the University’s attempts to address multiple types of bias on campus," Ghannam said.

It hasn't worked this time, but this is one instance of the "criticism of Israel" defense  being used for even the most wild antisemitic statements.

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Buy EoZ's books  on Amazon! Reclaiming the Covenant on America's 250th (May 2026) "He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024) PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

 

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07/30 Links Pt2: The tragic Israel wedge; The Islamists’ Long March; Israel is real, Unlike Palestine; Israel reports all-time high of $169 billion in 2025 exports

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: The tragic Israel wedge

Some liberal Jews still refuse to acknowledge this. The rise in Jew-hatred, they say, has been caused by the policies of Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the extremist members of his coalition.

Many British Jews, under siege from the largest rise in Jew-hatred in the world last year, similarly blame Israel for their plight.

Seeking scapegoats to avoid the reality that’s staring them in the face, such myopic Jews ignore the steady rise in Jew-hatred that’s occurred over the past several decades in lockstep with the radicalization of the left and the increasing dominance of “Palestinian” propaganda.

The most agonized Jews, however, are those liberal progressives who had the ground on which they stand knocked away from underneath them by the atrocities of the Hamas-led onslaught against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

Unable to deny that their own side had sanitized and supported the Palestinian Arabs, who revealed themselves on that terrible day to be depraved and psychopathic savages, they still cling to many of the delusional lies and distortions of the progressive mindset that cast Israel as the villain of the region.

Now, however, they are being presented with a choice they can’t ignore. To be accepted as New Yorkers, Jews are being expected to denounce Israel and renounce Zionism.

Buchdahl got the point. She told Mamdani: “You continue to divide Jews into those whose politics you deem acceptable and Zionists whom you cast beyond the pale.”

America is now following down a very hard road trodden by British Jews for more than two decades.

Even while Israelis were being blown to kingdom come in the Second Intifada, the Israel Defense Forces were being called “Nazis” in Britain for trying to destroy the terrorist infrastructure in the “West Bank.” And British Jews were accordingly presented with an ultimatum: If you don’t denounce Israel, then you aren’t to be considered fully British.

Today, the Israel wedge is also being used to marginalize Jews in New York by splitting them off from mainstream society. But it’s also splitting progressive Jews down the middle. An anguished debate is now taking place among them about the relationship between Zionism and Judaism.

The Islamists’ Long March By Abe Greenwald

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What virtually no one expected was for Islamists to exploit American freedoms (and the Constitution’s qualifications clauses) simply to work their way up the political ladder. Many warned of “creeping Sharia” in those days, but none warned of creeping democracy. I don’t even think the Islamists themselves believed that was a plausible way forward in the first decade of this century.

Here’s what changed: We won the War on Terror.

Critics of that war used to say that you couldn’t wage war on a tactic. But that’s exactly what the U.S. did—and with great success. We rolled back terrorist plots, deposed terror-supporting regimes, killed jihadist leaders, and fortified our country in countless ways. For a quarter of a century, there hasn’t been another jihadist attack on America anywhere near the scale of 9/11. We deprived the Islamists of what had been their most effective weapon. But while the U.S. had successfully guarded the backdoor, they walked through the main entrance.

To paraphrase Clausewitz, terrorism is the continuation of politics by other means. But for radical Muslims targeting the U.S., it became a dead end. So they turned to politics properly understood. This required a multipronged approach including stepped-up foreign investment in American academia, coordination with international NGOs and well-funded activist networks, and a flood-the-zone social media blitz promoting anti-American and anti-Israel propaganda. Taken together, these created the favorable conditions for an Islamist presence in the American public square and a viable shot at electoral politics. The American left bought it all and was happy to throw down that ladder for the Islamists to climb. And so the effort commandeered multiple movements and institutions and yielded both electable candidates and their constituents.

Everything was in place by October 7, 2023. From that day to this one, the left’s operators would corral anti-Israel animus, put it in the service of one Islamist candidate after another, and charge the voting booths. Instead of waging deadly attacks on government buildings, Islamists are now seeking (and attaining) positions inside them.

Israel: The World's Heroic Scapegoat

Israel is continually falsely accused -- often by countries committing enormous war crimes -- of being a "settler-colonialist" nation, of practicing apartheid, and of genocide against Palestinians. It is excoriated in the United Nations, in European parliaments, by the international media, and by so-called human rights groups. None of the allegations against it are true. They cannot even be substantiated with facts or evidence. Not that this matters much to those determined to express their Jew-hate, even if under the guise of "social justice" or other fatuous constructs.

It was betrayed even before the start by Britain, which, at the 1921 Cairo Conference, divided the territory of the Mandate for Palestine in two: 22% for the Jews and 78% for the Hashemite kingdom of King Abdullah (now Jordan).

According to Jonathan Tobin, "[Vance] warned them that they had no recourse but to accept whatever Trump did..." It is a blessing that we have all had a chance to see who he is now, along with his disastrous Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding with Iran, rather than just before a possible run for president in 2028.

Israel is a sovereign nation, entitled to defend its borders and people without permission from anyone.

Yesterday, Trump met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington, DC. It will be interesting to see what these two undauntable leaders are cooking up.

In its short history, Israel has shown itself to be beyond heroic in defending civilization and the West. Netanyahu has duly earned the title "the Churchill of the Middle East." Israel's cowardly detractors, some of whom refused even to let the US use their airbases for strikes against Iran, whose ballistic missiles threaten them, should take the back seat they deserve and pipe down. It is time for the disparagement to stop.

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07/30 Links Pt1: Trump Can Still Win the Iran War; UN Is Actively Obstructing US Probe Into UNRWA links to Hamas; Hamas has agreed to disarm, Trump says

From Ian:

Trump Can Still Win the Iran War

The Revolutionary Guards, who now run Tehran very much as the SS did once Hitler died, have no plan other than to keep fighting, and a readiness to hang anyone who disagrees. This latest bout of warfare started with June's botched "Memorandum of Understanding," which was so loosely worded that it could be read as surrendering the Persian Gulf to Iran - as well as its direct opposite. It was also inevitable that the surviving Revolutionary Guard officers who now rule Iran would go for the maximum; all along they have boasted about their glorious victories, so they were hardly going to stand down and let America's Arab and Sunni friends ship out their oil, liquefied natural gas, and fertilizers undisturbed.

So they made an unprecedented and plainly illegal claim of sovereignty over the whole Gulf, together with a demand for transit fees. When Iran started attacking ships to assert its claim, the Trump administration imposed a total embargo on the Islamic Republic's oil exports.

Because Iran's usable foreign exchange reserves are very small, the oil export embargo had an immediate impact. It hampered Iran's ability to import rocket fuel, drone motors and other such urgent necessities from China. It also slowed its money transfers to Shi'a allies in Iraq, to Hizbullah in Lebanon, and to Yemen's Houthi militia. Meanwhile, in Iran the stop to oil exports has collapsed the rial. It now costs 1,900,000 rials to purchase one U.S. dollar in Tehran; a year ago it was 590,000 rials.

The regime's paid inspirational orators spell out their victory plan: If the war is pursued vigorously enough, the Twelfth Imam (the Mahdi), who has remained hidden since the year 874, will return as the redeemer, to install Shi'a Islam as the world's only religion. They insist that Iran is on a path to certain victory.

In the latest round of fighting, Iranian missiles and drones have targeted Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria and the UAE, but not Israel. The Revolutionary Guards could easily draw Israel in by launching missiles towards it, or ordering its Houthi auxiliaries to do so. They have chosen not to.

The reason is no mystery. The bombing capacity of the U.S. is far greater, but only the Israelis have demonstrated a consistent ability to find and kill Iran's top leaders - and a willingness to do so. In Washington's foreign affairs and intelligence bureaucracies, by contrast, there is a dogmatic opposition to attacks against political leaders. But when a leadership is willing to impose unlimited sacrifices on its own population, it is no use inflicting more hardship on that same population - and the leaders are the only valid targets.

American strategy continues to target the country's economy and infrastructure rather than the regime itself. But destroying bridges would only raise the cost of war; removing the Revolutionary Guard leadership could end it. It would immediately comfort the desperate, oppressed population, and might sooner or later bring to power new leaders less eager to enjoy the luxuries of Islamic martyrdom.

Trump's Iran Strategy

Wednesday's U.S. airstrikes on Iran following its missile attack on Jordan were confined to the Persian Gulf region, as Trump appears intent on avoiding a major escalation.

According to assessments by officials in Israel and other Middle Eastern countries, Trump does not want a broad confrontation before the U.S. midterm elections in early November.

The three months remaining would allow the U.S. to accelerate production of munitions, particularly interceptors, and make other preparations for a wider confrontation that is expected to resume later.

Washington has concluded that diplomatic efforts with Iran's new regime will not succeed or produce results, either with regard to reopening the Strait of Hormuz or preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

The conclusion is that another significant military confrontation will be required, with Israel participating.

While the Pentagon and U.S. Central Command assess that airstrikes in their present form have exhausted their ability to pressure the Iranian regime and produce results, the maritime and economic blockade is viewed as effective and as a threat to the regime's ability to govern.

According to U.S. intelligence officials, Iran's military and Revolutionary Guards have been unable to pay salaries for several months because of the loss of oil revenue.

U.S. officials have concluded that intense military action would only allow the Iranian regime to divert public attention from domestic hardship. Their preferred course is to maintain and possibly expand the economic blockade.

Clifford D. May: How to Break Iran's Terrorist Regime

President Trump has stated repeatedly that Iran's rulers must never be permitted to obtain nuclear weapons. But he hasn't clearly explained why, so let me put it bluntly: They would use them. Iran's rulers are self-proclaimed Islamic revolutionaries and the world's leading sponsors of terrorism. For 47 years, they've vowed "Death to America!" If they were to obtain nuclear warheads and missiles that could deliver them to American cities, why would they refrain?

These are jihadis who, for decades, have been murdering their own people. Under a nuclear umbrella, Iran's rulers could subjugate their neighbors, attack American assets, and insist that all Americans retreat from the Middle East. Maybe they'd champion the "right" of American Muslims to live according to Sharia - Islamic law.

Before last year's Twelve-Day War and this year's Operation Epic Fury, Iran's rulers were making steady progress toward the development of nuclear weapons in subterranean fortresses while simultaneously amassing an enormous arsenal of missiles and drones. The regime's nuclear weapons program has been set back from just a few weeks to as much as three years. That's progress. But it's not mission accomplished.

Military experts I've consulted suggest this strategy: Maintain the blockade which denies the regime revenue, dries up supply lines and will soon force the regime's troops to battle pro bono. Continue airstrikes against military targets, especially weapons depots and factories.

Airports, government buildings, banks, and communications facilities used by Iran's military should be added to the target list, as should the military commanders and government officials responsible for the mass murders of innocent Iranians. None of the above requires "boots on the ground."

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He's A Great Shidduch But He Doesn't Try To Say 'Creole' During Sultans Of Swing (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Check out their Facebook  and  Substack pages.

Jerusalem, August 2 - Mrs. Abramowitz, thank you for setting me up with Avigdor Marcus. He’s sweet, motivated, attractive even, and we share important values. On paper he looks like exactly the kind of young man a serious girl should be happy to meet. We had coffee, talked about our families, our plans for the future, and he was courteous, funny, and clearly committed to Torah learning. I left the café thinking, for a few hopeful minutes, that this might actually work.

Then I remembered the red flag.

When that Dire Straits song comes on, he doesn’t even attempt to speak the one word the vocalist repeats in a seemingly random place. Not a half-hearted mumble, not a delayed echo, not even a knowing nod that acknowledges the moment is approaching. Nothing. It raised a serious red flag the first time I noticed it, and the more I thought about it afterward, the clearer it became that this is a deal-breaker. I’m sure it would be for anyone normal.

I’m not talking about getting the timing slightly off, or even way off. That would be forgivable. Not everyone can tell precisely when to say “Creole” so it lines up exactly with Mark Knopfler at around the three-minute mark. I’m talking about a complete failure to acknowledge that the word exists at all. The compulsion to say it is involuntary in any genuine human being. You feel it rising in your throat the same way you feel the need to answer “Amen” when someone else makes a bracha. Avigdor simply sits there, polite and blank, as if the most diagnostic three seconds in twentieth-century popular music are not happening.

This is not a minor cultural preference. It is a more reliable indicator of in-group membership than the original Biblical shibboleth ever was against the Ephraimites. Those poor souls only had to mispronounce one consonant at the Jordan fords. The test was crude, binary, and easily coached if you knew it was coming. The “Creole” test cannot be coached. It operates below conscious control. Either the word forces itself out of your mouth or it does not. There is no middle ground, and there is no faking it under social pressure.

I cannot share a life with someone missing such a fundamental piece of what it means to live in this world. If, at his age, he has not yet absorbed that this small act is a basic requirement for belonging to a society of normal people, then I am not going to be so naïve as to believe I can change him. Too many women make that sort of mistake. They convince themselves that love, or shared values, or a nice apartment in Ramat Beit Shemesh will eventually override a missing instinct. History, both ancient and recent, suggests otherwise.

So with genuine gratitude for your efforts, Mrs. Abramowitz, I must decline a second meeting. Avigdor is a wonderful young man in almost every respect. He simply fails the one test that actually matters.

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Buy EoZ's books  on Amazon! Reclaiming the Covenant on America's 250th (May 2026) "He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024) PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

 

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Basket Weaving for Palestine (and a PhD at Stanford.)

Here's how Stanford's course catalog describes "Decolonization and Decoloniality: Theory, Praxis, and Pedagogy," taught in Spring 2024 (ARTHIST 460, FILMEDIA 460, TAPS 460):

This seminar mobilizes multiple approaches and orientations from anti-colonial, postcolonial, and decolonial traditions to study discourses of race, caste, indigeneity, gender, and sexuality across a variety of regional and cultural contexts... we will begin to explore decolonial praxis through somatic workshops (including basket-weaving and dance) and through radical pedagogy and critical university studies frameworks.

Neither description begins to describe what a waste of time this course, whose credits count toward a Stanford PhD, actually was.

The instructor, Usha Iyer, and one of her graduate students, Sophie D'Souza, co-authored a chapter in the academic volume Decolonial Entanglements: Praxis, Pedagogy, and Social Theory that proudly lays out what the Spring 2024 seminar actually involved. That spring happened to coincide with Stanford's anti-Israel encampment, and the syllabus changed accordingly. Iyer describes it herself as a "living syllabus," rewritten week to week to track the protest movement outside the seminar room.

 Before long the seminar wasn't meeting in a seminar room at all; the class relocated to the encampment itself, a decision the chapter describes as taking "two weeks strenuously building consensus" — with no indication any student who objected had anywhere else to go.

What did Stanford PhD students do in a graduate seminar, for credit, in place of the coursework the catalog described? Among other things, they:

• Lay on the floor of the classroom in a "die-in" while the names of Gazan families were read aloud, a substitute the chapter explicitly frames as an alternative to close reading
• Took markers to a published scholarly monograph, blacking out most of its words to produce "found poems" from what remained
• Wove baskets with a visiting weaver, framed as resistance to a classroom that demands students "be still, quiet, and resolutely cerebral"
• Danced, in a workshop built around an Audre Lorde essay
• Cooked and shared communal meals as part of the course's "social life"
• Watched a film by a Gazan filmmaker described in the chapter as having been "martyred"
• Wrote weekly posts, in whatever language they chose, processing course material

Iyer writes that she and her students discarded the distinction between professor and pupil, embracing Paulo Freire's model of "teacher-students" and "student-teachers" learning together as equals. It's a nice sentiment for someone who alone decided the syllabus would abandon close reading for die-ins, who alone decided basket-weaving counted as scholarship, and who alone relocated the entire course to a political encampment. Equality between teacher and student apparently stops at the point where the teacher has to give up authorship of (and salary for) the course.

The seminar also had a host of unstated assumptions students were expected to accept before a single reading began — all while the same students, per the chapter, prized their classroom as a space to speak freely against "liberal academic panic over freedom of speech." Among the premises never up for discussion: that Israel is committing genocide; that Israel is best understood as a "Zionist entity" rather than a state; that the university itself is a colonial institution requiring "decolonization" rather than reform; that all Western scholarly traditions are instruments of "epistemic violence" simply by virtue of being Western; and that academic neutrality is itself a form of complicity rather than a professional norm worth defending. 

A seminar that begins by requiring agreement on its conclusions isn't teaching theory. It's issuing a catechism.

This wasn't a one-off. It's a credentialed, credit-bearing course at one of the most selective universities in the country, cross-listed across three departments, now enshrined in an academic press book as a model for other instructors to follow. 

The chapter title is "4Decolonial Pedagogy and Praxis in a Time of Live-Streamed Genocide." Perhaps there is no space between the chapter number and the chapter title because that space represents the patriarchy, but I cannot be sure.

I don't need to argue that the academy has become a parody of what higher education is supposed to be. Usha Iyer already made that argument for me, in her own words, in a book chapter she was proud enough of to publish.

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Buy EoZ's books  on Amazon! Reclaiming the Covenant on America's 250th (May 2026) "He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024) PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

 

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