12/14 Links Pt1: IDF Reveals Rocket Sites next to Gazan Schools; UN rapporteur said ‘Jewish lobby’ controls US, compared Israelis to Nazi; Iran kicked out of UN Women's Commission in 29-8 vote

From Ian:

IDF Reveals New Terrorist Rocket Launch Sites next to Gazan Schools

Hamas exposed: This is how the Hamas terrorist organization uses schools and education to promote its terrorist agenda. Additional instances of Hamas deliberately using children as human shields are now being exposed. Here are a number of instances that showcase how Hamas endangers the civilians of Gaza.

This exposure comes approximately two weeks after UNRWA reported that the ground of one of its schools had collapsed. The collapse was caused by the construction of a Hamas terrorist tunnel.

Hamas Rocket Launch Site Stationed Adjacent to the Mo'ath Bin Jabal School
Hamas stationed a rocket launch site adjacent to the Mo'ath Bin Jabal school in the Shejaiya neighborhood of Gaza City. Near the school, which is used by UNRWA as a shelter during emergencies, is a Hamas rocket launch site. Prior to Operation Guardian of the Walls, the school’s principal, Mehammed Abu Oun, maintained contact with an operative in the Hamas rocket array, Jalal Abu Aoun, who it appears enabled this shooting.

The cynical exploitation of schools proves once again that the terrorist organization consciously chooses to endanger Gazan civilians and use them as 'human shields' in benefit of their terrorist agendas.

Hamas Rocket Launch Site Stationed Adjacent to the Khalil Al Nobani School
Hamas stationed a rocket launch site near the Khalil Al Nobani school in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City.

The school is a completely innocent public building that was intended to provide a secure environment for the children in the Gaza Strip, but in reality, Hamas used it to launch rockets.

Rocket Launch Sites Stationed Adjacent to the Al-Furqan School
Terrorist organizations stationed rocket launch sites near the Al-Furqan elementary school located in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City. Terrorist organizations launched rockets from the sites near the school throughout Operations Guardian of the Walls and Breaking Dawn, thereby endangering the lives of the students and residents of the Gaza Strip.

Over 1,000 innocent students attend these schools that Hamas uses for terrorist activities. Hamas purposefully puts both civilians and pupils in danger by using them as human shields.

Hamas is only interested in its own terrorist agenda, and students in Gaza constantly find themselves in danger from being used as human shields.

Israel: impunity for UN officials speaking of the Jewish Lobby must end

Israel called on the United Nations to end its impunity for UN officials who use the antisemitic phrase the Jewish Lobby.

"The lack of accountability and impunity for comments made by UN officials only works to legitimize antisemitism and endangers the Jewish people," it said.

Israel's mission to the UN in Geneva spoke out after an Israeli English website The Times of Israel reported that "UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967" Francesca Albanese had used the phrase the Jewish Lobby.

Albanese is tasked with reporting on alleged Israeli human rights abuses to the UN Human Rights Council and the General Assembly. Other reports of the use of the antisemitic phrase

Earlier this year, The Jerusalem Post reported Miloon Kothari, one of three members of the UNHRC's Commission of Inquiry on Israel, had said in a public interview that social media was largely controlled by the “Jewish lobby.” He later retracted that statement due to its antisemitic connotations.

Albanese's comment "that surfaced today are yet another stain on the credibility of this body and yet another example of the impunity that exists today regarding antisemitism and antisemitic comments made by UN officials."

It referenced a Facebook post she wrote in 2014, prior to entering the post of special UN rapporteur in which she wrote that, "America and Europe, one of them subjugated by the Jewish Lobby, and the other by the sense of guilt about the Holocaust remain on the sidelines..”

UN rapporteur said ‘Jewish lobby’ controls US, compared Israelis to Nazis

The individual tasked by the United Nations Human Rights Council with probing alleged Israeli violations against the Palestinians had previously said that the “Jewish lobby” controls the United States and compared Israelis to Nazis, The Times of Israel reported on Wednesday.

Francesca Albanese, the UNHRC’s Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967, made the comment in 2014 during the 50-day conflict between Israel and the Hamas terrorist group.

“America and Europe, one of them subjugated by the Jewish lobby, and the other by the sense of guilt about the Holocaust, remain on the sidelines and continue to condemn the oppressed—the Palestinians—who defend themselves with the only means they have (deranged missiles), instead of making Israel face its international law responsibilities,” Albanese wrote on Facebook at the time.

TOI also found that Albanese had sympathized with terror organizations, dismissed Israel’s security concerns and accused the Jewish state of potential war crimes.

Last month, Albanese spoke at a conference in Gaza attended by senior members of the U.S.- and E.U.-designated terror groups Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

In her speech, translated into Arabic in real time, Albanese told the crowd: “You have a right to resist this [Israeli] occupation.”

Francesca Albanese also cheered the removal of Hamas from a terror list, endorses their "right to resist," and writes “The Israeli lobby is clearly inside your veins and system” and speaks of “Israel’s greed.”

Source: @luketress @TimesofIsrael https://t.co/BtBeZNioxd /2

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) December 14, 2022

Israel condemns the comments made by Francesca Albanese. The term “Jewish Lobby” is a millennia-old antisemitic trope that has been used to direct hatred toward the Jewish people with horrific consequences. The UN must take action.

Full Statement ?? https://t.co/FxvtLeOs1C pic.twitter.com/ua3wzv2kv8

— Israel in UN/Geneva???????? (@IsraelinGeneva) December 14, 2022

Iran kicked out of UN Women's Commission in 29-8 vote

Iran was ousted from the United Nation's Commission on the Status of Women on Wednesday evening in a vote of 29-8.

Some 16 countries abstained from the vote. The eight countries to vote against the decision were Bolivia, China, Kazakhstan, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Oman, Russia and Zimbabwe.

The decision comes as Iranians continue to protest against the Islamic Republic throughout Iran for a 12th week. The protests were sparked after the killing of Mahsa Amini by Tehran "morality police" in September but has since expanded to cover more issues than just hijab, with many protesters calling for regime change.

One of the central slogans of the ongoing protests is "women, life, freedom."

An Iranian representative to the United Nations stated that the Islamic Republic "categorically rejects" the decision, calling the claims of women's rights abuses against Iran "baseless and fabricated."

The representative claimed that the US was "undermining" the principles of the UN charter and attacking the core principles of democracy.

"Our efforts to promote and protect women's rights are driven by our rich culture and well established constitution and is based on our cultural and ethical values. Just a cursory look at the advancement of Iranian women and girls and their status in various fields...can lead you to perceive Iran - away from prejudice - as a progressive society that takes into consideration their needs and listen to the voices of its women and girls eagerly."

VICTORY! ??
By a vote of 29 to 8, with 16 abstentions, the Islamic Republic of Iran was just expelled from the U.N. Women's Rights Commission. First time in United Nations history that any member state was removed from this body. Bravo to all who helped to make this happen! ?? pic.twitter.com/LDMBKTPWMO

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) December 14, 2022

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12/09 Links Pt1: A tale of two narratives; Melanie Phillips: The Good Jew/Bad Jew demonization strategy; Are Israeli-Australian ties in danger?; Bibi: What Rashida Tlaib Doesn't Seem to Know

From Ian:

A tale of two narratives

At the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict lies a clash of two narratives.

On the one hand the stirring, fact-based Zionist narrative, on the other, the openly conceded fabricated “Palestinian” narrative—which as one senior PLO official openly admitted “serves only tactical purposes”, and whose sole purpose is to function as “a new tool in the continuing battle against Israel.”

Although enormous international efforts have been invested in futile endeavors to portray these two narratives as reconcilable, the truth is that they are inherently and incontrovertibly mutually exclusive. Either one of them will prevail, absolutely and exclusively, or the other will.

The reason for this unfortunate impasse is—as is becoming ever clearer with the passage of time--that Palestinian-Arab enmity toward a Jewish state does not arise from anything the Jews, do, but from what the Jews are.

This enmity, therefore, can only be dissipated if the Jews cease to be.

Successive Israeli governments, cowered by left-leaning civil society elites, have refused to articulate this "inconvenient truth", and refrained from formulating policy that takes it adequately into account.

Accordingly, they have perpetuated the myth that there is some fictional "middle ground", which, if found, would leave both sides not totally un-aggrieved ", but still tolerably satisfied enough to eschew violence.

Melanie Phillips: The Good Jew/Bad Jew demonization strategy

One of the favorite strategies deployed by Jew-baiters is to divide the community into Good Jews and Bad Jews.

Good Jews have politically correct, progressive opinions. Jews who don’t hold with those opinions are Bad Jews.

This distinction is helpful to Israel-bashers, who can use it to claim that they can’t possibly hate the Jews because there are Jews who support their hostility to Israel.

The White House this week hosted a round table on antisemitism to discuss the alarming escalation in attacks on American Jews. Yet the Biden administration conspicuously failed to invite to this discussion the Zionist Organization of America, the Coalition for Jewish Values and the Jewish Leadership Project.

These organizations defend Israel and the Jewish people against left-wing ideologies. They are therefore Bad Jews.

Sadly, this odious Good Jew/Bad Jew trope is now being promoted within the Jewish world itself.

Both in Israel and the Diaspora, progressive Jews have been convulsed over the composition of the new government being assembled by Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu.

This is because he is handing out government positions to three highly controversial lawmakers.

The rabble-rouser Itamar Ben-Gvir is set to become minister of national security.

Bezalel Smotrich, who hankers after an Israeli theocracy, will reportedly be a junior defense minister with certain powers over the disputed territories of Judea and Samaria.

Avi Maoz, whose party opposes LGBTQ rights and other progressive causes, is apparently being given control over outside input into the school curriculum and a new office devoted to “Jewish identity.”

This has produced epic pearl-clutching by Diaspora Jews, who are falling over themselves to announce that they might now withhold their support from Israel. Such hysteria also promotes the Good Jew/Bad Jew agenda.

Caroline Glick: Lapid and friends use demonization to incite a civil war

Outgoing Prime Minister Yair Lapid has never been a high-minded politician. During his five months in power as caretaker prime minister, he tried to get the only non-leftist television station in the country thrown off the air. He called his political opponents and their voters “s**ts,” and “forces of darkness,” who have no right to exercise their legal right to oversee the actions of his lame duck government.

In the leadup to the elections, he accused Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu of being anti-democratic and warned that Netanyahu would not accept the election results if he lost.

As is invariably the case with progressive elitists like Lapid and his colleagues, it turns out that it is they who reject the basic rules of democracy and refuse to accept the results of the elections. Rather than accept that they received a drubbing at the polls and will spend the next four-and-a-half years in the opposition, Lapid and his comrades have doubled down on their demonization. They use their slanders of Netanyahu and his colleagues to raise the barricades and call for civil war.

Lapid’s opening volley came last Wednesday during the official annual memorial ceremony for Israel’s first premier, David Ben-Gurion. In his speech, Lapid used Ben-Gurion as a means to justify the statements and actions he took in the days that followed. Lapid did two things in his address: First, he totally distorted Ben-Gurion and what he stood for, and then he used his imaginary Ben-Gurion as a foil to demonize Netanyahu and his coalition partners.

Ben-Gurion, of course was the leader of the Zionist revolution. He was a Jewish nationalist. He led the settlement of the Land of Israel before and after the establishment of the state. He built and led the IDF in two wars. He defied the American Jewish leadership and transformed Israel into the voice of the Jewish people and the center of Jewish life worldwide.

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