From Ian:
The Democrats must have a ‘Sister Souljah moment’ on antisemitism
The recent rise in American antisemitism is the result of a lack of consequences for those engaging in it.
For example, Americans Against Antisemitism studied 194 anti-Jewish assaults and 135 attacks on Jewish property in New York that have taken place since 2018. According to their July 2022 report, only two of the perpetrators actually went to prison.
A similar situation is occurring on college campuses. Students who harass Jews are rarely if ever suspended or expelled, and almost never face any consequences at all. This has emboldened antisemites on campus, with a chilling effect on Jewish and pro-Israel voices.
Colleges have codes of conduct according to which harassment of other students can result in serious ramifications. These codes have not been enforced against antisemites.
In the realm of politics, when Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar engaged in anti-Jewish and anti-Israel comments, and expressed support for BDS, their fellow Democrats were initially prepared to take action against them. A resolution passed by the House of Representatives (H.R.183) sought to “ensure safety” for Jews. It stated, “Accusing Jews of being more loyal to Israel or to the Jewish community than to the U.S. constitutes antisemitism.”
The resolution was a response to Omar’s comments, with Tlaib by her side, that supporters of a strong U.S.-Israel relationship “push allegiance to a foreign country.” In Jan. 2019, Tlaib criticized Sen. Marco Rubio’s efforts to punish those who attempt to boycott Israel, tweeting, “They forgot what country they represent.” Rubio posted, “The ‘dual loyalty’ canard is a typical antisemitic line.” Neither Tlaib nor Omar have apologized for these statements.
Instead of making it clear that Tlaib and Omar’s bigoted views are anathema to the Democratic Party, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi endorsed both for reelection.
Sadly, it is not surprising that several Jewish organizations, including the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism and Ameinu, along with the left-wing lobby J Street, issued a statement saying they “oppose Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy’s pledge to strip Representative Ilhan Omar of her House Foreign Affairs Committee seat based on false accusations that she is antisemitic or anti-Israel. We may not agree with some of Congresswoman Omar’s opinions, but we categorically reject the suggestion that any of her policy positions or statements merit disqualification from her role on the committee.”
With Jewish organizations like these, we should not be surprised that antisemitism is rising.
War of Independence veterans protest 'defamatory' Netflix movie
Veterans of the War of Independence, who are currently in the tenth decade of their lives, have joined the furor surrounding the Jordanian film Farha, which depicts Israel Defense Forces soldiers executing Palestinian children and babies, demanding Netflix immediately remove it from their library.
"We are Holocaust survivors who defended our country. Remove the defamatory film," the five ex-soldiers called.
The Israel Law Center has sent a warning letter to Netflix on their behalf concerning a potential breach of Israeli defamation laws.
The group consists of 96-year-old Oded Negbi, who served in the Givati Brigade and fought many battles in the Negev and Jaffa; 92-year-old Eitan Yavzory of Kibbutz Afikim, who fought in Gush Etzion and in the Negev; 94-year-old Ezra Yachin, who fought in Jerusalem; 92-year-old Lt. Col. (Res.) Ze'ev (Tibi) Ram, a Holocaust survivor who lost his entire family at Auschwitz and enlisted in the Golani Brigade upon the outbreak of the War of Independence; and 91-year-old Prof. Benny Arad, a veteran of the Haganah, who fought in the War of Independence, among other conflicts, and served as an IDF officer for many years. As a physicist, Arad was one of the founders of the Department of Experimental Physics at the Negev Nuclear Research Center.
"It's an antisemitic movie. When I heard about it, I was appalled. At the thought that this movie is being shown all over the world, I was driven to stand up and protest, and I called in my son. He contacted the Israel Law Center," Arad said.
"Personally, I don't watch television. But when we're defamed like this, I can't let it pass. The world doesn't know what the IDF is, what a moral army we have. So they may think that the lies that the movie shows are the actual truth. All we did is defend our country, our nation, and our nascent state."
Negbi also shares his frustration with the movie and the lopsided fashion in which it depicts his comrades in arms.
"The life I lived alongside the Arabs was completely different. When I heard about that movie, I shuddered. I went through many hardships. My mother taught me to give to others and help them. Not even the concept of killing children could come out of a home like that. The very notion of harming an Arab child was far from our minds. It's sheer slander," he said.
‘Activist’ or Antisemite? Dr. Noura Erakat’s Poorly-Timed Speech at OSU
Several incidents involving swastikas, harmful antisemitic libels, and images of the burning Israeli flag took place on Ohio State University (OSU)’s campus in the months and weeks leading up to the anniversary of Kristallnacht.
One would have hoped that OSU administrators and students could come together to resist this unprecedented and abhorrent increase in antisemitism on campus.
Sadly, those hopes were crushed by the invitation of a speaker to campus who spews the very same libels.
On November 9, the OSU Palestinian Women’s Association hosted Rutgers University Professor Dr. Noura Erakat, who spoke to Ohio State students over Zoom to discuss her new book, “Justice for Some: Law and the Occupation of Palestine.”
Although she is hailed by her university and many anti-Zionist activists as an expert in international law, fallacies in her book can be found as early as the introduction, where Erakat discusses “Zionist militias established Israel by force, without regard to the Partition Plan’s stipulated borders.”
This falsehood negates the indisputable fact that in 1948, most Jews accepted United Nations Resolution 181, which partitioned the British Mandate of Palestine into a Jewish and an Arab state. Arabs, on the other hand, vehemently rejected the proposal and tried to eliminate Israel and kill its Jewish inhabitants.
From Ian:
EU document proves ‘what we’ve been seeing on the ground’
A recently leaked European Union document outlining E.U. strategy to help extend Palestinian control over Area C of Judea and Samaria reveals “a gross violation of Israel’s sovereignty and jurisdiction by purported allies,” Naomi Kahn, director of the International Division for Regavim, an Israeli NGO that deals with land issues, told JNS.
Under the Oslo Accords, Area C, covering 60% of Judea and Samaria, commonly known as the West Bank, falls fully under Israeli authority.
The document, which came to light last week, for the first time reveals that official E.U. policy is to help the Palestinian Authority take over Area C, Kahn said. The document declares the ultimate objective is to integrate Area C with Areas A and B, which fall under Palestinian control.
“The goal of the Europeans is to encourage Palestinians to register land in Area C; land under someone else’s legal jurisdiction. It’s a violation of international law and treaty,” Kahn said. “The government of Israel has to make it clear to the European Union that foreign intervention that is changing the map and undermining its ability to negotiate a resolution will no longer be accepted.”
Forty Knesset members sent a strongly worded protest to E.U. leaders saying it constituted a “grave breach” of the Israel-E.U. relationship. A Knesset committee will hold a special hearing on the issue.
The E.U. document, dating from June and obtained by JNS, was composed by the E.U.’s mission in eastern Jerusalem and is marked “confidential—not for circulation.” It outlines a plan for “defending the rights of Palestinians living in Area C and preserving Area C as part of a future Palestinian State, in line with the Oslo Accords.”
The document focuses on the E.U.’s plan to strengthen the P.A.’s illegal holdings in Area C and suggests various improvements— a “strategic evolution”—to that plan. The document said the current plan rests on four pillars: 1) Planning and mapping; 2) Social and public infrastructure projects; 3) Private sector development, particularly in agriculture and green energy; and 4) Local governance.
“It’s essentially proof of what we’ve been seeing on the ground,” Kahn said. “Mapping, first of all, is an act that expresses some sort of sovereignty. If something is registered, that is legally binding and can be acted upon. It accrues rights and responsibilities.”
The P.A., which employs 600 people in its land registry department, doesn’t hesitate to register Israeli territory.
“Palestinians have shown up in Israeli courts when there’s a dispute over land, and said, ‘It’s registered to my name, or it’s registered in the State of Palestine.’ The [Israeli] Supreme Court hasn’t yet accepted these land registrations, but neither has it thrown them out,” Kahn said.
In 1967, Israel suspended land registration in Judea and Samaria. “We’ve created a vacuum and we’re allowing the other side to fill the vacuum,” she said.
Emmanuel Navon, a senior fellow at the Jerusalem Institute for Security Studies (JISS), agreed that Israel shares responsibility for the situation.
PMW:
PA’s incitement to terror and murder continues
The incitement of the Palestinian Authority to murder Israelis takes many forms. In some instances, the incitement is clear and direct, such as when PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas called to take revenge for the death of three terrorists and “dish out to them [Israel] twice as much as we’ve received.” In other instances, the incitement is more complex and subtle, and takes the form of glorifying imprisoned terrorist murderers and inventing libels to blame Israel for their deaths.
While the latter form of incitement is less direct, for the PA it is often sufficient in order to drive Palestinians to participate in terror, especially when the claim is made over and over and over again, ad nauseam.
This was the case with terrorist Muhammad Kabha, who cited the insidious PA incitement regarding the death of his imprisoned terrorist murderer friend, as his reasoning and motivation to murder Israeli Esther Horgen, on December 20, 2020.
Imprisoned terrorist murderer Nasser Abu Hmeid died on Dec. 20, 2022 after a year and a half long battle with lung cancer. He was serving 7 life sentences and 50 additional years in prison for his part in the murder of 7 Israeli civilians and the injury of many others in multiple terror attacks, during the 2000-2005 PA-instigated terror war.
Following the same pattern of incitement that drove Kabha to murder Ester Horgen, and as if they were quoting from a pre-prepared message sheet the PA, its officials and other Palestinians are again banging the same drum of incitement. According to the PA libel, Abu Hmeid died as a result of cancer, that was intentionally injected into his body, and was then left to die in his cell as part of a premeditated policy of medical negligence.
While the incitement was led, as Palestinian Media Watch already exposed, by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, PA Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh, and their Fatah party, many others also joined the effort.
PLO Executive Committee Secretary Hussein Al-Sheikh, who also serves as Head of the PLO Negotiations Affairs Department, Fatah Central Committee member, and Head of Civil Affairs in the PA combined the “medical neglect” libel with praise for the terrorist, whose body he said should be returned to his family to “honor him as is fitting for a Martyr,” and for his extended family:
For a long time we have been investing great efforts on the regional and international level to release Nasser Abu Hmeid, who was subjected to deliberate and planned medical neglect. What interests us now is that we sent a direct request to hand over his body to his family, his friends, and his people, so that they will honor him as is fitting for a Martyr and fitting for his family, the fighting family, which all words are dumbstruck before the greatness of this family and this mother.”
[Official PA TV News, Dec. 20, 2022]
Abu Hmeid’s family, especially the mother of the family Latifa Abu Hmeid, who is also known as Um Nasser Abu Hmeid, enjoys a special status in the PA since 6 of their children actively participated in terror and murdering Israelis. Prior to Nasser Abu Hemid’s death, the family claimed one “Martyr” - i.e. a dead terrorist - and 5 sons serving life sentences for murder. In recognition of her terrorist children, as PMW exposed, Abbas even asked Latifa Abu Hmeid to symbolically lead the PA’s effort to gain full state membership in the UN.
Shin Bet foils Palestinian bomb plot targeting inside Israel
The Shin Bet domestic intelligence agency announced on Monday that it thwarted a Palestinian terrorist bomb plot and a separate suicide bombing targeting areas inside Green Line Israel, involving operatives from Judea and Samaria who were being directed by handlers from the Gaza Strip.
A working bomb hidden in a fire extinguisher was seized.
According to the Shin Bet, a joint investigation with the Israel Defense Forces saw the plot foiled on Dec. 14, adding that the Popular Resistance Committees directed it together with Shuhada Al-Aqsa, both of them terrorist organizations based in the Gaza Strip.
Four suspected terror operatives from Judea and Samaria are under arrest, the Shin Bet said.
The Israeli security operation focused on known terrorist operatives in the Strip headed by Ahmad Fathi Hajaj, an explosives expert who lives in Jabalia in northern Gaza, the agency said.
The thwarting of the plot is “part of an ongoing campaign that the Shin Bet together with the IDF and the Israel Police are conducting, to foil terrorism in Israel while using a range of techniques and tools,” the Shin Bet said.
Prime Minister Yair Lapid said, “Following an operation that lasted several weeks, the security forces have arrested terrorists in Judea and Samaria who were planning to carry out a large-scale bomb attack in Israel, assisted by terrorist organizations from the Gaza Strip. The war against terrorists and their cells continues on a daily basis in all sectors. The security forces are constantly working to thwart all attempts to attack us.”
Wednesday, December 28, 2022
