Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News: Freedom of Religion

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Friday, December 23, 2022

12/23 Links Pt1: Report by UN Middle East envoy ignores Israeli terror victims; Showing gratitude to the IDF, the modern-day Maccabees; Omnibus Bill Would Let U.S. Rejoin Antisemitic UNESCO

From Ian:

Report by UN Middle East envoy ignores Israeli terror victims

UN coordinator to the Middle East Tor Wennesland, reported to the Security Council on Thursday that more than 20 Israeli victims have been killed as a result of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since the beginning of 2022 – a number lower than Israeli estimations.

The Envoy reported 150 Palestinian casualties during the same time span, the largest number in recent years.

According to the Foreign Ministry, Wennesland relied on data taken from the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which only recognized 19 Israeli victims in terror attacks in 2022.

According to Israeli estimations, 31 Israelis and foreign workers were killed as a result of terror attacks, while the UN claimed the cause of the additional 12 fatalities were inconclusive or their perpetrators remained at large.

The Foreign Ministry said the UN’s report ignored terror attack victims including Aryeh Shchupak and Tadese Tashume who were killed in a bombing attack in Jerusalem last November, Shulamit Rachel Ovadia who was killed by a Palestinian terrorist in September, Victor Sorokopot and Dima Mitrik who were killed in a terror attack in Bnei Brak last March.

Also not mentioned were Ivan Tarnovksy who was killed in a stabbing attack in Jerusalem in March, Rabbi Moshe Kravitsky, Laura Itzhak, Doris Yahbas, and Meha and Menach Yehezkel who were killed in a terror attack in Be’er Sheva also in March, and Border Police officers Shirel Abukarat and Yezen Falah who were killed in a terror attack in Hadera that same month.

Wennesland did not mention that out of the 150 Palestinians who were killed since the beginning of 2022, at least 80% were what the ministry called "terrorists," describing them as Palestinian civilians.

Israel’s ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan’s appeals to the OCHA for the reevaluation of the data presented, have so far, remained unanswered.

Want to know why a @UN Special Rapporteur is advocating on behalf of a terrorist who murdered 7 people?

It's because she is a JEW HATER who believes that Palestinian terrorists have the right tto murder Jews!

She is a stain on the already tainted UN!https://t.co/8TWouT5djw
— Maurice Hirsch, Adv. ???? ??''? ????? ???? (@MauriceHirsch4) December 23, 2022

Showing gratitude to the IDF, the modern-day Maccabees

As we reflect on the joyous holiday of Hanukkah, a commemoration of the notable and valiant fighting prowess of the Jewish people in ancient times, we also celebrate the unyielding resilience and determination of the Jewish people and our homeland.

From Maccabees to modern miracles
For this year’s Festival of Lights, Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (FIDF) organized a “Live the Miracle” campaign. On each night of Hanukkah, Jewish celebrities and influencers welcomed soldiers from the IDF into their homes to light candles together in a symbolic act of solidarity with Israel and the never-ending fight against the darkness that is antisemitism.

The candle lighting took place at the homes of Lizzy Savetsky, a social media influencer, matchmaker and unabashed Zionist activist; Alexei and Loren Brovarnik, stars of the hit series 90 Day Fiancé; Modi Rosenfeld, a stand-up comedian and actor; Tova Friedman, an 86-year-old Holocaust survivor and recent TikTok sensation; Ashley Waxman Bakshi, a beauty, travel and fashion creator; Cathy Heller, an author and podcast host; Kosha Dillz, a rapper; and Noa Tishby, an Israeli actress, writer and activist.

In the face of social media attacks, these nine brave individuals stood up for morality, for dignity and for the young men and young women who are literally at the front line of humanity.

Hanukkah is the celebration of miracles, of right over might: of the small yet fearless Maccabee army’s defeat over the formidable Greco-Syrian forces and a tiny vessel of oil, enough to light the menorah in Jerusalem’s Temple Mount for 12 hours, that burned instead for eight days.

A group of educators, the Maccabees fought to defend the religious freedom and basic human rights of the Jewish people. Their victory over their imposing enemy ultimately emancipated the Jewish people so that they could live freely and exult each day in their fundamental humanity.

It’s time to light the candles—for Shabbat and the 6th night of Hanukkah!

Shabbat Shalom and Happy Holidays from the IDF ????? pic.twitter.com/hdcCLQeX67
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) December 23, 2022

Hamas says he was a "mujahid" was trying to stop Jews from prayer. The PA calls him a "soccer player" who was "assassinated." (UPDATE)

The messages about a Palestinian killed last night being sent to the West and for internal consumption are quite different.

Under the Oslo Accords, Jews should have free access to Joseph's Tomb in Shechem (Nablus), but because the PA refuses to follow the agreement, every few weeks scores of Jews visit the tomb in the middle of the night - so as to minimize any impact on area residents - and they are protected by IDF soldiers from the Palestinians who want to stop them from praying.

Make no mistake: the Palestinian opposition to Jews visiting Nablus is pure Jew-hatred. The religious Jews are not coming to build a settlement or to evict Arabs from their homes - they just want to pray and then to go home.

Overnight, Israeli forces protecting the worshipers came under heavy gunfire from the antisemites who hate the idea of Jews visiting a holy spot that existed way before anyone ever heard of "Palestinians." They fired back, injuring several of the militants. One, Ahmed Atef Daraghmeh, died.

Keep in mind that this happened the middle of the night. The only reason anyone would be outside the tomb at the time was to confront and try to block the Jews from worshipping.

Now, as is so often the case, the messages that the Palestinians send to the world are completely different than the ones they tell themselves.

Palestinian prime minister Mohamed Shtayyeh sent a formal complaint to FIFA, demanding that they condemn Israel's "assassination" of Daraghmeh - because he was a member of the Thaqafi Tulkarm football team. Shtayyeh is telling the West that Daraghmeh was an innocent person who was deliberately targeted and murdered by Israel.

At the exact same time, Hamas media is referring to Daraghmeh as a "mujahid martyr":

The Islamic Resistance Movement " Hamas " celebrated the masses of our Palestinian people and our Arab and Islamic nation, its fighter martyr, Ahmed Atef Mustafa Daraghmeh (23 years), from Tubas, who rose at dawn today in an armed clash while confronting the occupation forces' incursion into the eastern region of Nablus.

In a statement today, Thursday, the movement confirmed that the martyrdom of the Mujahid Daraghmeh in the field of pride and honor while he was defending our people sends a message to the brutal enemy that he will not pass safely and our people are alert and ready to respond to the call of the homeland, and that the settlers who brag about storming Nablus with the protection of the occupation forces will find In their faces only bullets.

Daraghmeh lived in Tubas, some 20 kilometers away - meaning that he specifically traveled there just to try to stop Jews from worshiping at their holy site. And as such, he is now a hero.

But good luck seeing any Palestinian or Arab media mention that in English.

UPDATE: Video of this innocent soccer player taking out and shooting his gun. Not for long. (h/t Adin Haykin)

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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

70,000 Muslims indirectly celebrate Chanukah on the Temple Mount

This morning, some 70,000 Muslims are reported to have visited the Temple Mount - a much higher number than a normal Friday, when between 40,000 and 50,000 typically come during winter months.

Thousands more visited the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron, spilling into the streets.

Why so many?

Because of Chanukah!

All week, there have been calls in Arabic media for Muslims to visit the Al Aqsa Mosque en masse because Jewish groups are asking Jews to visit the Mount on Chanukah, since the miracle of the oil happened there.

Which means that tens of thousands of Muslims came not because they wanted to worship there, but in order to express Jew-hatred ahead of Chanukah. If it wasn't for a Jewish holiday, they wouldn't be there.

The preacher at the mosque, Sheikh Muhammad Hussein, said, "We categorically reject any violation of Al-Aqsa Mosque and its sanctity by the occupation, its aides, settlers and groups."

For these Muslims, worship is a form of antisemitism.

As usual, even though record (non-Ramadan) numbers of Arabs are visiting the Mount, every article about the crowd emphasizes how Israel tried to stop them from coming, and that they somehow prevailed.

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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

11/24 Links Pt2: Thanksgiving Reaffirms the 400-Year-Old US-Israel Nexus; Irving, Stewart and Chappelle and the Double Standard for Jew-Hatred

From Ian:

Thanksgiving Reaffirms the 400-Year-Old US-Israel Nexus

Thanksgiving was reportedly first celebrated in November 1621 by William Bradford, the leader of the “Mayflower” and the Governor of the Plymouth Colony.

He enhanced his appreciation of the Bible — and especially the Five Books of Moses — in Leiden, Holland, where he found refuge from religious persecution in England. While there, he heavily interacted with the Jewish community.

Bradford and the other Mayflower passengers perceived the 66-day-voyage as a reenactment of the Biblical exodus, and the departure from “the Modern Day Egypt,” to “the Modern Day Promised Land.”

As a governor in this new land, Bradford announced the celebration of Thanksgiving by citing Psalm 107, which constitutes the foundation of the Jewish concept of Thanksgiving, thanking God for ancient and modern time deliverance.

The epitaph on Bradford’s tombstone in the old cemetery in Plymouth, Massachusetts, begins with a Hebrew phrase — “God is the succor of my life” (יהוה עזר חיי) — as befits the person who brought Hebrew to America. He aimed to make Hebrew an official language, suggesting that reading the Bible in the original language yields more benefits.

The Hebrew word for Thanksgiving’s central dish, turkey, is “Tarnegol Hodoo” (תרנגול הודו), which means “a chicken from India,” but also “a chicken of gratitude/Thanksgiving.”

The Original Puritans

Progressive causes and Protestantism in the U.S. frequently went hand-in-hand, from Prohibition to expanded public education, as the 19th century became the 20th. Indeed, the Social Gospel movement, the inspiration for many of the reforms of the Progressive Era, was led in its early years by Congregationalist minister Washington Gladden. In his book, Rothman quotes George McKenna, author of The Puritan Origins of American Patriotism, on the art of the overlapping Gilded Age and early Progressive Era: “The Puritans’ ethic of self-discipline and austerity was reflected in the numerous paintings and sculptures of Puritans that appeared during this period.” If this seems somewhat paradoxical—the cultural exultation of sober self-reliance alongside the excesses of the robber barons—consider that the progenitor of the New Deal was the blue-blooded FDR, himself the son of a cradle Congregationalist.

Rothman has a theory behind what he sees as a shift, from the late-20th-century paradigm of conservative Republicans as the “Just Say No” party fearful that “someone, somewhere, may be happy,” to progressive “New Puritans,” who, he writes in his book, “are draining life of its spontaneity, authenticity and fun.” Contending in his book that while the Democratic Party had broadened its tent by the 1990s to include upholders of the ’60s’ revolutionary legacy, by contrast, in 2016, Republicans were nominating a three-time divorced Howard Stern Show regular. “Conservatives didn’t so much lose the culture wars as much as they simply fled the field,” he writes.

Of course, the actual spiritual descendants of the New England Puritans, who began as radicals in their native England, are Congregationalists like the United Church of Christ, who are themselves fairly progressive on social issues. And when the idealistic utopianism of the Transcendentalist movement arose in the 19th century, with a focus on the primacy of the self and individual personal experience, it did so in the old Puritan stronghold of New England. Among its most prominent spokesmen was Ralph Waldo Emerson, the son of a Unitarian (itself an outgrowth of Congregationalism) minister at the First Church of Boston, which had been founded by the Puritan John Winthrop of “City Upon a Hill“ fame. In his landmark address, Winthrop warned his fellow New England Puritans that the eyes of the world were upon them, and as such, righteous living was essential. The reward, he wrote, would be a New England that was “a praise and glory that men shall say of succeeding plantations, ‘the Lord make it like that of New England.’”

“Today,” Rothman said in his message to Tablet, “as the left gravitates away from liberalism and toward progressivism, they are assuming many of progressivism’s conceits—chief among them, a messianic utopianism that views everything, even life’s most banal pleasures, through the prism of political activism.”

But contradiction is something the Puritans accepted as a fact of life. “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling,” wrote the Apostle Paul to the young church at Philippi, and the Puritans took this charge seriously. “The [P]uritan life,” Winship writes, was “much more likely to involve protracted struggle with fear and doubt than it would a steady sense of God’s love.” They were a people ill-at-ease: with themselves, with each other, and with the wider world. That we perennially recast each other and ourselves in the New England Puritans’ story may suggest that the real mark that they left on the American character is something altogether more ambiguous than the saccharine annual depictions at Thanksgiving suggest.

The Case for Israel Celebrating Thanksgiving

Mark Twain wrote in his book Innocents Abroad about how desolate Palestine was when he visited in 1867, before the indigenous Jewish pilgrims and pioneers returned and made the desert bloom.

The success of Israeli agricultural innovation in feeding the people here, as well as in the Third World, is certainly worth celebrating. Israel’s successful hi-tech economy can be revered, as well as its unprecedented success in water conservation that would have made the environmentally conscious Native Americans proud.

Zionist visionary Theodor Herzl wrote in his 1902 book Altneuland that the Jewish state could transport water great distances. His vision and the success of the pioneers who implemented it could be celebrated on Thanksgiving in Israel.

Former diplomat Yoram Ettinger pointed out this week that William Bradford, the leader of the Mayflower and the Governor of the Plymouth Colony, interacted with the Jewish community and enhanced his appreciation of the Five Books of Moses in Holland before initiating the voyage.

“Governor Bradford announced the celebration of Thanksgiving by citing Psalm 107, which constitutes the foundation of the Jewish concept of Thanksgiving, thanking God for ancient and modern time deliverance,” Ettinger wrote. “Bradford was also inspired by the Jewish holidays of Pentecost (Shavuot in Hebrew) and Tabernacles (Sukkot in Hebrew), which highlight the importance of gratitude, and commemorating Thanksgiving for the harvest.”

Proper gratitude for the Land of Israel can be shown by eating turkey, whose Hebrew name, as Ettinger wrote, means both “a chicken from India,” but also “a chicken of gratitude/Thanksgiving.”

Thanksgiving falls this year on Rosh Chodesh, the celebration of the new Jewish month, when Jews say the Hallel prayer and its signature line Hodu LaHashem Ki Tov, which can be translated as “Give thanks to the Lord for He is good,” or “have turkey for God because it’s good.”

The final reason for celebrating Thanksgiving in the Jewish State is to remind the world and the often hostile international media that we – the People of Israel – are here in the Land of Israel, we belong here and we will always be here, even if we get bad press.

Lincoln, the Pilgrims and most of the Wampanoag are long gone, mostly due to tragic events that became part of history.

We the People of Israel have overcome countless tragedies, and yet we endure, which is clearly an excellent reason for us to be thankful.

Am Israel Chai!

More Muslims visit the Temple Mount every Friday under Israeli rule than EVER visited under Muslim rule

Today, according to Arab websites, 60,000 Muslims visited the Al Aqsa Mosque complex on the Temple Mount.

If you walk there on a weekday, it is far less crowded, but there are always hundreds of Muslims that can be seen there.

Here's what it looked like on Thursday, August 11, 1960, under Jordanian rule.

The visitor, a Christian, noted a few people inside the Al Aqsa mosque, saying that more would show up at prayer times. He was told that the mosque could hold as many as 5,000 people.

Even if we assume on holidays that 5,000 people showed up - okay, double it and make it 10,000 - there is no way that there were ever 60,000 people on the Temple Mount at any time under Muslim rule. If there were so many visitors, there wouldn't be weeds between the pavement stones.

During Ramadan, Muslim authorities sometimes claim as many as half a million Muslims on the site, although I don't think it can fit more than 150,000. Either way, it is indisputable that far more Muslims have visited Al Aqsa under Jewish rule than ever did under Jordanian, Ottoman or any other Muslim (or British) rule. (The entire Muslim population of Jerusalem was 54,000 in 1967.)

If the Jews are oppressing Muslims so much, then please explain why far, far more Muslims visit the Temple Mount on an average Friday under Jewish rule than ever visited before 1967?

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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

At Berkeley Law, everyone can choose their identity - except Jews. Everyone has free speech - except for nearly all Jews.

At Berkeley Law School, faculty and staff members are encouraged to include their preferred pronouns in email signatures. Students can indicate their preferred pronouns on their law school applications, as well as on their name tags during student orientation.

Clearly, the right to identify oneself as one wishes is important at the law school, and anyone who chooses to ignore those wishes and tell students and staff that they refuse to address them as they self-identify would be marginalized as a bigot, and probably censured.

There is one exception, though.

This fall there has been a controversy at Berkeley Law when nine student organizations will not host events or invite speakers who have expressed views in support of Zionism. Many Jews protested, saying that this effectively discriminated against them as Zionism and Judaism are tightly bound.

The lawyer defending the student organizations, Liz Jackson of Palestine Legal, who is herself an alumnus of the school, defended the discriminatory bylaws in a most curious way:

“Some students say that their Jewish identity is so deeply identified with Zionism that this effectively discriminates against them," Jackson said. "But that’s their subjective view and choice about how they understand their own Jewish identity.”

According to Palestine Legal's lawyer, Jews do not have the right to say that their Judaism includes love of Israel. Self-identification is not a right for Jews, rather, Jewishness is defined by others and Jews must adhere to the definition that anti-Zionists impose on them.

This doesn't sound very progressive. But this is the argument of the Berkeley Law student organizations to defend their blocking any speaker for whom Israel is a central part of their Judaism, which includes the vast majority of Jews.

Jackson herself says she is Jewish. According to her own standards, I can declare that this is only her subjective view and that she is in reality not Jewish. How do you think that argument would go over at Berkeley? Yet that is exactly what she is saying about 95% of all Jews.

Jackson's hypocrisy doesn't end there.

Not only does she deny the right of Jews to define Judaism, she denies the right of Zionists to define Zionism!

In an Oct. 3 statement released by ASUC Senator Shay Cohen addressed to LSJP and student groups that adopted the bylaw, student groups alleged that the bylaw was “a deliberate attempt to exclude Jewish students from the community,” and likened anti-Zionism to antisemitism.

“When we say ‘Zionism,’ we mean the Jewish right to self-determination in their ancestral homeland, which is Israel,” said Amir Grunhaus, campus senior and president of Tikvah, a Zionist student group that signed the statement. “This does not say anything about the self-determination of Palestinians.”

Jackson expressed disagreement with this definition of Zionism, alleging that it was “colonial ideology” and that it is “problematic” to believe that a religious group has a right to a state of their own as it “requires discrimination” against people outside of that group.

This is "1984"-level thought police stuff. This lawyer defines what her political opponents believe.

Note also that Jackson here is defining Jews as a purely religious group, not as a people. According to her words, atheist Jews aren't Jews, either.

Jewish and Zionist identity can only be defined by those who oppose Jewish and Zionist identity.

And this is still not the height of Liz Jackson's hypocrisy.

She wrote an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times against the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act where she falsely claimed that the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism, which is incorporated in the Act, makes criticism of Israel illegal on campus. She's lying - the IHRA definition explicitly says that criticism of Israel similar to criticism of any country is not antisemitic.

Jackson wrote:

The State Department standard is highly controversial because it conflates criticism of Israeli policies with anti-Jewish hatred, shutting down debate by suggesting that anyone who looks critically at Israeli policy is somehow beyond the pale. It has no place on college campuses in particular, where we need students to engage in a vigorous exchange of ideas.

Jackson claims she supports a vigorous exchange of ideas on campus. No Zionist I know of disagrees. But at Berkeley, she has taken the exact opposite stand, and defends organizations making bylaws that ban not only speech that supports Zionism, but they ban Zionist speakers from speaking on any topic whatsoever!

To anti-Zionist hypocrites like Jackson and her organization Palestine Legal, these are the rules:

The right to self-identify is sacred - except for Jews.

The right to define your own beliefs is sacred - except for Zionists.

The right to free speech is sacred - except for nearly all Jews.

And calling out this obvious hypocrisy is anti-Palestinian racism.

(h/t Andrew P)

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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

10/31 Links Pt1: The UN CoI's 2nd: The Continued Assault on Israel; Sunak should acknowledge Jerusalem as Israel’s capital; NZ PM calls to expel Iran from U.N. Women’s Rights Commission

From Ian:

NGO Monitor: The UN Commission of Inquiry’s Second Report: The Continued Assault on Israel

Failure to Address Commissioners’ Antisemitism

In issuing its second report, the members of the COI ignored the numerous condemnations of the antisemitic statements they had made since the COI began.

In June 2022, speaking before the UN Human Rights Council, Commissioner Chris Sidoti appeared to trivialize the International Holocaust Remembrance Association (IHRA) consensus-building definition of antisemitism by dismissing it as “the definition of antisemitism promoted by the government of Israel, and its GONGOS.” He contended that “accusations of antisemitism are thrown around like rice at a wedding,” and claims that such accusations “legitimize” antisemitism.

In July 2022, Commissioner Miloon Kothari also made antisemitic comments on a podcast, claiming that the “Jewish lobby” controls social media and questioned whether Israel should have UN membership. In a letter to UNHRC President Federico Villegas, Pillay refused to condemn Kothari’s remarks, stating his comments “have deliberately been taken out of context…[and] deliberately misquoted.”

Dozens of countries, as well as UN Special Rapporteur Ahmed Shaheed, and HRC President Federico Villegas condemned these remarks. (Read NGO Monitor’s letter to United Nations Human Rights Council President Federico Villegas calling on him to initiate an assessment of the UNHRC’s Commission of Inquiry on Israel for violations of the mandate and UN codes of conduct as well as NGO Monitor’s joint letter to the UNHRC President calling for the removal of the Commissioners due to their antisemitic biases. NGO Monitor has also thoroughly documented the Commissioners’ prior anti-Israel biases and their links to Palestinian NGOs in detailed reports.)

Nevertheless, no punitive action was taken against the COI or its commissioners, and the COI report made no mention of the controversy. As a result, following the presentation of the report, many countries, including Albania, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Federated States of Micronesia, Germany, Guatemala, Hungary, Liberia, Marshall Islands, Palau, Republic of Nauru, and the United States, again condemned the antisemitism exhibited by the Commissioners. Many of these countries also denounced the inaction of the United Nations to repudiate these statements or remove the Commissioners from their positions.

Once again, Navi Pillay ignored this glaring criticism, and made several false and dismissive statements in response to the State remarks. Pillay falsely claimed, “This has been dealt fully by the President of the Human Rights Council, who is the proper authority to clear up criticism of the mandate and clear up criticism of those he selected for appointment as commissioners. So I do encourage you to look at the President’s website on that.” To date, the President has taken no action. Pillay also rejected claims of antisemitism, stating that “I’m 81 years old now, and this is a very first time I’ve been accused of antisemitism. In my own country, that will not be received well because everybody knows the role I played, and similarly with the other two commissioners. So let me make absolutely clear, we are not antisemitic.” These remarks represented yet another attempt by Pillay to whitewash the clear antisemitism expressed by the Commissioners and to absolve herself and the COI from taking the necessary concrete steps to address the deep-seated problems.

At the United Nations, Israel Becomes the Outlaw when Palestinians Reject Peace

First and foremost, the COI claim relies on ignoring that Israel has, in fact, repeatedly tried to end the occupation. Nowhere in the COI report is there any mention of the repeated offers of statehood made by Israel, including in 2000 at Camp David, and then the even more generous 2008 offer by then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

How does one square these offers with the claim that Israel has “no intention of ending the occupation?” How does one square Israel’s agreement to the Oslo Accords, which gave a Palestinian entity autonomy over parts of the West Bank for the first time ever in history, with this charge? Any serious legal inquiry would have to account for and overcome these facts to come to the conclusion that the COI reached .

Second, the claim relies on ignoring all the instances when Israel gave up land for peace, and even gave up land in the hopes of reaching peace. Far from Israelis being “covetous aliens” and Israel being an “acquisitive occupier,” as Lynk claimed while using openly antisemitic tropes in his final report, the Jewish state has repeatedly traded land captured in defensive wars back to states like Egypt and Jordan in exchange for lasting peace. As Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid’s recent statement at the UN General Assembly demonstrated, that is still Israel’s desire when it comes to the Palestinians, too. No amount of baseless, conspiratorial assertions by the COI that Israel only “uphold[s] the appearance of agreement” — with a two-state solution as part of a duplicitous strategy — can overcome this history.

This is particularly evident when considering Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, which the COI only acknowledges to the extent necessary to absurdly accuse Israel of still “occupying” the territory. To admit that Israel completely uprooted not just its military, but also thousands of Israeli residents of Gaza, would require also acknowledging that many of the policies that the COI claims are designed to make Israeli occupation in the West Bank “permanent” are, in fact, quite capable of being overcome, just as they were in Gaza.

Third, and perhaps most telling, is that the claim relies on ignoring Palestinian rejectionism and maximalist demands. The entire narrative crafted by the likes of the COI members is that Israel alone bears responsibility. The fact that Israel prevailed in repeated wars of survival against invading Arab armies and decades of terror attacks that began long before the “occupation” started in 1967, does not square with the COI’s portrayal of pure Palestinian innocence and absolute Israeli malevolence. The COI has to conceal that the conflict persists in large part due to Palestinian rejectionism and refusal to accept the existence of a Jewish state in any part of the Land of Israel.

That is also why Palestinian leaders openly bragging about rejecting peace offers must go unmentioned, as with Mahmoud Abbas’ demand that “not a single Israeli” will be allowed to be part of a Palestinian state. It is why the COI cannot acknowledge that the Palestinian Authority (PA) arrests and tortures Palestinians for participating in peace workshops. It is why Hamas is rarely if ever mentioned — and no acknowledgement is made of its violent, antisemitic, and openly genocidal charter. The fact that the PA tells its people that the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Charter still calls for Israel’s destruction must also remain hidden.

Stephen Daisley: Sunak should acknowledge Jerusalem as Israel’s capital

Under Jordanian occupation, Jews were expelled from eastern Jerusalem and their synagogues burned, but under Israeli authority there are provisions to facilitate freedom of worship. This set-up is not particularly loveable. Jews are banned from praying on Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism, while Muslims are free to pray there. There are tensions. Clashes are not unknown. But on the whole it works.

The UK’s policy, one shared by the overwhelming majority of countries, is to deny recognition to this uneasy but enduring arrangement. We pretend that Jerusalem is not the capital of Israel because we fear doing otherwise would concede that international law, or at least the dominant reading of it, has failed as a conceptual framework in the most scrutinised conflict of modern times. We wish to see a viable Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria, Gaza and eastern Jerusalem and fret that acknowledging Israel’s capital would prejudice or hinder that.

This is an error born of a paradox. Mindful of its history in Palestine, Britain wishes to be uninvolved in the conflict but uninvolved in a way that aggrandises its status in the region. By withholding recognition of Jerusalem, we tell ourselves, the UK is advancing the cause of peace. Without wishing to sound like one of those ‘Britain is crap, ackshually’ historians, we are seriously overstating our swing in this part of the world. The Palestinian conflict with Israel will end when the Palestinians accept their own state alongside the Jewish state. Nothing we say or do is likely to influence them either way. This is their conflict, not ours.

Those of us who advocate recognition tend to do so in political, historical, moral, legal and, yes, emotional terms. But there is also a realist case. Under these terms, recognising Jerusalem is not about what Israel or the Palestinians want. It is about what the UK considers its foreign policy ought to be. What is in our interests? Some might argue that it is in our interests to be scrupulously even-handed and leave well enough alone. Even if that were true, the fact is that we are not neutral at present. Even as it refuses to acknowledge Israeli sovereignty in any part of Jerusalem, the UK government defines East Jerusalem as part of the ‘Occupied Palestinian Territories’. So our position is not one of balance or non-intervention. We have intervened in the conflict to say that East Jerusalem belongs to the Palestinians and West Jerusalem is up for debate.

Judaism's second holiest site was Judenrein yesterday - but no one reported that

Last week, Arab media was filled with anger at news that the Jews of Hebron had taken over the Tomb of the Patriarchs and held a concert there on Sunday for the Selichot prayers.

They emphasized that Muslims were not allowed into the building, insisting that this was unacceptable.

But yesterday, no Jews were allowed into the same building. It was filled exclusively with Muslims. It was Judenrein.

The reason? It was Mohammed's birthday, one of the ten days a year the shrine is dedicated to Muslims only. Just as there are ten days a year it is for Jews only.

Yet there are no screaming headlines about how no Jews were allowed to the site. Because the rules are clear and well-known. The holidays are published ahead of time every year.

Three of the exclusively Jewish days are coming up - this coming Wednesday and Thursday, and next Monday. Expect more angry articles in the Palestinian media, none of which will mention the fact that the holy site is exclusively Muslim exactly as often as it is exclusively Jewish.

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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

The latest desecrations of Al Aqsa

Palestinians must spend a lot of time looking for things to get offended by. The latest is a video of a woman - it is unclear if she is a religious Jew - doing a little dance on the Temple Mount which someone edited the song "I'm Sexy and I Know it" on top.

Tunisian journalist Imene Ben Slim tweeted the video, saying ,"Israeli woman dances provocatively in the courtyards of Al Aqsa ....How long will this flagrant violation of Al-Aqsa continue?"

Arab media picked up the story.

Indeed, how long will such desecrations continue? Here are some others from recent months, that somehow are not condemned.

A famous Turkish chef published a video of his playing soccer with kids on the supposedly holy site. Al Jazeera published this and it received over 14,000 views, and there were negative comments - about the chef "normalizing" with Israel, not about his playing a game on the "third holiest site in Islam."

Al Jazeera also published this video earlier this year of an older Palestinian man playing soccer with kids on the sacred site.

More adults....

...and children, encouraged to play tag and ball.

Indeed, how long will these desecrations continue?

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Waqf asking Muslims to perform "Talmudic rituals" on the Temple Mount (sort of)

Palestinian and other Arab media have been whipped into a frenzy over the idea that more Jews will be visiting the Temple Mount during the upcoming holidays, with daily stories about how the Jews want to blow the shofar and bring the "arba minim" during Sukkot.

The Waqf wants Muslims to respond with large turnout of their own during the Jewish holidays.

The Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs has warned of the danger of reviving “Jewish holidays” inside Al-Aqsa Mosque, and desecrating its sanctity and profaning it through the implementation of provocative rallies, calling for a public mobilization to travel to Al-Aqsa and to confront the settlers’ incursions into it on the eve of the alleged holidays.

She stressed that "Al-Quds and Al-Aqsa are a red line, and it is a sacred right that belongs to Muslims and the Jews have no connection with it..."

The Awqaf called on the Palestinian people in Jerusalem and all those who can reach Al-Aqsa to intensify their presence in the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Rabat there during the festive period to limit the implementation of these incursions and marches.

This will make the Temple Mount look more like it did...in the times of the actual Temple!

During the Second Temple period, according to Josephus, there was an outer court of the Temple where gentiles could gather and buy animals to be sacrificed by the Jewish priests. It is mentioned in Christian scriptures as well. I don't believe that this courtyard is mentioned by name in the Talmud but Menachot 73b does say that many Gentiles did come to the Temple (or send offerings to the Temple from remote regions) to relay various kinds of sacrifices of their own.

The site of Al Aqsa Mosque, which is built on one of the Herodian extensions of the Temple Mount and therefore of lesser sanctity, is very possibly part of this so-called "Court of the Gentiles." (Various Christian maps of the Temple place this court in different locations, but most of them seem to say that the southern part where Al Aqsa Mosque is was at least part of it.)

Effectively, the Waqf is asking that Muslims make a pilgrimage to the site of the Temple on the Jewish holidays, including Sukkot, the same occasions that one may presume that gentiles traveled to the Temple Mount two thousand years ago to be part of the Jewish pilgrimage holidays.

So in a small and indirect way, the Waqf is asking Muslims to mimic what non-Jews did at the Temple so long ago. They are coming to the Temple at the times the Jews flock there to show their respect for what everyone knows has always been the most sacred Jewish spot.

Hajj Sameach!

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Listen to the horrifying sounds of "Talmudic rituals at Al Aqsa"

Shehab News Agency last week published video of "Settlers performing Talmudic rituals during their storming of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque."

Turn up your sound to hear how disruptive they are to the sanctity of Al Haram al Sharif:

Starting at 0:12, you can hear the birds who are clearly in distress at the desecration they are witnessing.

Even worse, here we see the extremist usurping Jewish settlers provoking Muslims by smiling during their storming.

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Fatah music video incites Palestinians to "shake and burn" religious Jews

On August 30, five religious Jews stupids tries to visit Joseph's tomb without coordinating their visit with the Israeli army.

The result was predictable: they were almost lynched, two of them including a child were shot, their car was burned.

They were not armed and couldn't defend themselves.

Right after the incident, Fatah's Al Aqsa Brigades took responsibility for the shootings and burning their car.

What was unusual was that Fatah itself took credit. Instead of pretending that the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade are a separate and unofficial offshoot of the party headed by Mahmoud Abbas, their violence was celebrated as a Fatah victory on the official Fatah Facebook page - to attack five civilians whose only "crime" was being Jewish.

Palestinian Media Watch translated their music video and poster:

In the video gunshots are heard, apparently from the shooting attack targeting Jews visiting Joseph’s Tomb, and a car is seen going up in flames, while a song is played in the background.

Lyrics: “Shake them and burn them, O knights of the night.”

Text on screen: “The Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, Fatah’s military wing, target a car of settlers. As a result, 5 Zionists were wounded (sic.).”
Posted text: “🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸✌️✌️✌️”
The image shows a masked terrorist holding an assault rifle.
Text on image: “Urgent:

The enemy admits the wounding of 5 Zionist settlers (sic.) in a shooting operation carried out by a squad of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, the Fatah Movement’s military wing against their car as they attempted to infiltrate Nablus early this morning [Aug. 30, 2022].”

Fatah is literally inciting Palestinians to burn religious Jews.

Mahmoud Abbas Fatah's leader, is a war criminal.

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"Jewish settlers storming Al Aqsa" have been upgraded to "terrorist settlers"

Every weekday from Sunday through Thursday, Arab media has articles that sound roughly the same: "This morning, groups of settlers stormed the courtyards of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque in the occupied city of Jerusalem. Dozens of settlers stormed the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque, toured it and performed Talmudic rituals, under heavy guard from the Israeli occupation police."

I imagine it gets boring after a while, trying to incite violence against Jews when all they do is quietly walk around and, sometimes, silently pray.

Now some Palestinian media are upping the ante, and referring to the Jews visiting the holy spot as "terrorist settlers."

It's rhetoric inflation!

The earliest I can find the phrase "terrorist settlers" referring to Jews visiting the Temple Mount is from Al Shabab Radio, last year.

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Palestinians freak out over a cell phone playing a shofar blast on the Temple Mount

Arutz-7 reports:

On Sunday morning, former Knesset member Yehuda Glick visited the Temple Mount and was detained by police after broadcasting the sound of the shofar (a ram's horn, blown daily in the month leading up to Rosh Hashanah, the Day of Judgment) via his cell phone.

Documentation from the scene shows Glick broadcasting the shofar blast via what appears to be a YouTube application, and a police officer approaching him just minutes later, and detaining him.

That ten second video has already caused hours of angst from Palestinian politicians and media, who are reporting the event as if Glick actually blew a shofar.

The Palestinian ministry of foreign affairs issued a statement with its usual run-on sentences:

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants condemns in the strongest terms the incursions of settlers and extremist Jews into the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, which take place daily and in two time periods under the supervision, organization and protection of the occupying state and its various arms, and the extremist settlement associations that boast daily and reveal their plans targeting Al-Aqsa Mosque and building the alleged temple in its place, including the storming that occurred yesterday, led by the extremist rabbi Yehuda Glick and his feet blowing the trumpet during his storming of the mosque and spreading provocative pictures on several Israeli platforms, in addition to these groups dancing and singing loudly and performing Talmudic rituals in the mosque’s courtyards, and the campaign of targeting and the continuous expulsion of his guards and the Islamic Endowment Department on the way to withdraw more of its powers and obstructing the performance of its legal, religious and administrative duties towards the mosque.The Ministry considers with great seriousness the process of blowing the trumpet and considers it a dangerous escalation in the continuous Israeli aggression on Al-Aqsa Mosque in order to establish its temporal division in preparation for its spatial division, if not an attempt to impose full Israeli control over it and demolish it and build the alleged temple in its place, it considers this escalation an integral part of the Judaization operations Jerusalem, and one of the episodes of its annexation to the occupying state, changing its landmarks and its legal, historical and demographic location, completely separating it from its Palestinian surroundings and linking it to the Israeli depth, as it is an extension of the occupation’s open war on Christian and Islamic holy sites, cemeteries, and archaeological, historical and cultural sites in the Holy City, and falls within an official Israeli policy aimed at resolving the future of the holy city unilaterally and by the power of the occupation and in favor of its expansionist colonial ambitions, which leads to stifling any opportunity for the embodiment of the State of Palestine on the ground with its capital, East Jerusalem.

Notice that they don't mention that Glick was detained for playing the recording - or that the volume of the video was minuscule compared to the Waqf loudspeakers that blast five times a day.

The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem also condemned the fictional blowing of the shofar.

Palestinian media certainly accepted the ministry's assertion that a shofar was blown along with a call to demolish Al Aqsa with these sorts of article illustrations:

In other "Al Aqsa is in danger" news, there will be a meeting between Mahmoud Abbas and Egyptian president Sisi today. The Palestinian envoy to Cairo said that a number of topics will be addressed:

He stressed that Tel Aviv wants to divide Al-Aqsa in terms of time and space between Muslims and Jews, pointing out that East Jerusalem is exposed to the implementation of Judaization schemes, and Al-Aqsa Mosque is subjected to daily incursions by settlers who practice dancing and striptease (nudity) in the courtyards of Al-Aqsa.

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Palestinians shoot Jews trying to visit a holy spot. Not Israelis, not Zionists, not "settlers" - Jews.

On Tuesday, a group of five religious Jews tried to visit Joseph's Tomb in Shechem (Nablus) without coordinating the visit with the Israeli army.

This is stupid. Everyone knows it is stupid. But sometimes even stupid things need to be explained to truly understand the situation.

Why is it stupid for Jews to try to visit a holy spot in Nablus?

Because everyone knows that Palestinians will try to kill any Jews wanting to pray in areas they control.

Which is exactly what happened.

Two of the Jews were injured, one seriously. One of the injured is a 17-year old child. One of the injured left a trail of blood as he hid in the bushes as the wonderful, tolerant Palestinians torched the car they were in.

Palestinian political and terror groups praised the shooting of Jews. Hamas called shooting a child who wanted to pray "heroic." Islamic Jihad also called shooting Jews "heroic." And so did the Palestinian Resistance Committees.

These would-be worshipers weren't armed. They didn't threaten anyone. They didn't hurl insults. They didn't humiliate anyone. Their only crime was being Jewish. If they were American tourists with kipot, the exact same thing would have happened.

They were in danger because most Palestinians are antisemites by every measure, every survey, every poll. They were shot because they were Jews - not because of Israel or Zionism or "occupation" or "humiliation" or "storming" or any other reason.

Even though practically everyone knows this obvious fact, it cannot be said in polite company.

The media knows the truth, but seemingly considers pointing out Palestinian antisemitism to be more offensive than their antisemitism itself.

The "pro-Palestinian" activists know the truth, but they consider it their job to hide that truth.

So even in a story like this, where the reason for the shooting is not at all a mystery, very few people are willing to point out that when Palestinians use deadly force against Jews who want to worship at a Jewish holy spot, it is because most Palestinians hate Jews.

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The eagle-eyed Waqf confiscate "Talmudic objects" being "smuggled" to the Temple Mount

Ma'an reports:

The guards of Al-Aqsa Mosque confronted today, Thursday, a settler who stormed Al-Aqsa, along with a candlestick and biblical artifacts.

The settler was among a group of tourists who stormed the mosque through the Mughrabi Gate, and the guards were able to seize him and prevent him from taking pictures in Al-Aqsa.

Here the guard shows off the contraband:

Good to know that the Waqf is protecting Muslims from these terrible weapons.

A reminder: In 2017, two Israeli guards in the Old City were murdered with guns that had been stored on the Temple Mount. So Muslims can bring guns but Jews (or, more likely, Christians) cannot bring a Kabbalistic "sh'viti" diagram meant for meditation.

(h/t Eliyahu who pointed out that Christian tourists buy seven branched menorahs)

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Iran's persecution of Baha'i is real apartheid

Baha'i family in Iran whose home was burned down

From Iran International:

Security forces laid siege to a village in northern Iran Tuesday and started demolishing houses and farms belonging to members of the persecuted Baha’i faith.

Simin Fahandej, a spokeswoman for the Baha’i International Community, told Iran International Tuesday that over 200 security forces were deployed to block the roads leading to Roshankouh, a village in Mazandaran Province, and begin demolition of the houses and farms belonging to Bahai’s.

According to Fahandej, security forces arrested some Bahai’s who tried to stop the operations, confiscated mobile phones of some villagers to prevent them from recording videos and publishing them on social media, and warned locals not to take any photos or videos of their operations.

A video posted on social media by the Baha'i International Community Tuesday shows security forces using heavy construction machinery to demolish buildings in Roshankouh.

Since early June security forces and the judiciary of the Islamic have intensified pressure on the followers of the Baha’i faith, raiding over a dozen households, arresting tens including three of the former leaders of the community, and shutting down businesses.

Iran's persecution of Baha'i fits Human Rights Watch and Amnesty's definitions of apartheid far better than Israel's treatment of Palestinians. This was pointed out in an article by South African Winston Nagan for PBS back in 2012: "Having grown up with the indignities of the apartheid system in South Africa, I bristle whenever I hear anyone equate a government's treatment of a portion of its citizenry to apartheid. Usually, the claims are exaggerated. But in Iran today, the government's treatment of the Baha'i community bears striking similarities."

He pointed out:

Both Blacks in South Africa and Baha'is in Iran have been excluded from being legislators.

Both have been excluded from universities.

Both have been limited under the law from building their own educational institutions.

Both have been excluded from certain jobs.

Both have had their property confiscated for no reason.

Hundreds of members of both groups have been executed for their political beliefs.

Iran has even banned Baha'i from burying their dead according to their laws. It has demolished Baha'i cemeteries and built parks and cultural centers on top of them.

Since that article, things have only gotten worse:

Under Iranian law, Zoroastrians, Jews and Christians are the only religious minorities accepted. Baha'is are considered to be "unprotected infidels," according to a July 2019 report by the UN special rapporteur to Iran, Javaid Rehman.

Despite facing persecution, Bahai's are forbidden by their faith to lie about their religion. This means that the new identity card application prevents them from applying for and obtaining official identification, as they cannot claim affiliation to one of the three legally recognized minority religions.

Iran's policy towards the Baha'i is arguably worse than that of apartheid-era South Africa towards Blacks, because it is meant to ultimately ethnically cleanse them from the country altogether - something that is nearly complete in Yemen.

Even though Israel has none of the discriminatory laws against Arabs that Iran has towards the Baha'i, major human rights NGOs have decided to declare only Israel guilty of apartheid. This hurts the Baha'i because these NGOs resist using the term anywhere else for their own anti-Israel propaganda purposes. This means that the Baha'i are not able to easily use that appellation to pressure Iran to treat them better.

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