Will Tunisia withdraw from "African Lion" exercises because of Israeli participation?

From the US Army website:

African Lion 2023 is U.S. Africa Command's largest, premier, joint, annual exercise hosted by Morocco, Djibouti, Ghana, Senegal and Tunisia, between May 15 and July 18, 2023. More than 10,000 participants from 20 nations and NATO train together with a focus on enhancing readiness for U.S. and partner nation forces. AL23 is a joint all-domain, multi-component, and multinational exercise, employing a full array of mission capabilities with the goal to strengthen interoperability among participants and set the theater for strategic access.   

In last year's exercises, Israel sent two "observers" who appear to have participated fully.   Possibly the lack of outrage in Arab media last year was because they were characterized as mere observers. 

However, Arab media is reporting that Israel's participation is planned to be much more extensive this year - which puts Tunisia into a bind.

Tunisia is proud to be one of the main partners with the US in these exercises, but it is facing domestic pressure to quit this year because that would indicate "normalization" with Israel. Tunisia's Republican Party called on the government to withdraw from the exercises.

The decision by Tunisia is especially interesting since the President of Tunisia, Kais Saied, has described normalization with Israel as "high treason."

It will be interesting to see how they try to walk the line this year. 

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Anti-Zionism is antisemitism: Israel haters upset UAE schools will teach about the Holocaust

i24News reports:

The United Arab Emirates Embassy in the United States has announced that the Holocaust will be taught in school curricula. 

According to the embassy, ​​the content of the studies on Nazi Germany's genocidal murder of six million Jews during World War II will be developed in collaboration with Israel's official Holocaust Memorial Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, and will be included in the curriculum of primary and secondary school students.

This news is upsetting Arab haters of Israel.

The UK-based Al Quds site didn't directly criticize it - but it framed it this way:

Coinciding with the occupation’s violation of the sanctity of the Holy Mosque, and the escalation of attacks and threats against the Palestinian people, the UAE announced the inclusion of Holocaust studies in the educational curricula within its schools...

Hamas strongly condemned the announcement.

Hezbollah's Deputy Secretary-General in Lebanon, Sheikh Naim Qassem, tweeted his disapproval, implying that the Holocaust was not nearly as bad as what Israel does, and warning the UAE that "You will not benefit from appeasing the Israeli entity to obtain protection, they are moving towards annihilation."

The subtext is that teaching the Holocaust could make Arabs sympathetic to Jews, and this is unacceptable.

I expected more criticism, to be honest. But the Arabic op-ed cycle often takes a couple of days to get geared up.

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Most Arabs still oppose normalization with Israel, but there are pockets of hope

Arab Barometer released the results of a survey of selected Arab countries last September. One of the questions was about whether the people supported their country normalizing relations with Israel.

As one may expect, the percentages of supporters of normalization were quite low.

I'm not quite sure why this was not widely reported.

Even though the numbers are generally quite low, I find it interesting that Lebanon, traditionally extremely anti-Israel, was in third place behind Morocco and Sudan which had already started normalization. My guess is that with Lebanon's economy is a dumpster fire, a significant number of Lebanese think peace with Israel could help them out.

Egypt and Jordan, as well as the Palestinian Authority, all of which have peace agreements with Israel, are among the least interested in full normalization. Their leaders keep using Israel as a convenient scapegoat. But Israel trades with all of them and the Egyptian and Jordanian leaders have steadfastly resisted demands from their people to cut off relations - because their own basket-case economies need Israeli gas and/or water. 

The leaders will continue to insult Israel while quietly making sure that the relationship endures. 

Israelis might want it, but they don't need to be loved. In the Middle East, it is more important to be respected. 

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You can learn a lot from a single photo of a school in Gaza

On Sunday, the Acre Secondary Girls School in Khan Younis, Gaza, along with many other schools,  hosted a Palestinian official over video link who spoke about the evils of normalization and the necessity of boycotting the "Zionist entity."

Afterwards the girls held up signs against normalization for their Facebook page.

Here's one of the photos.

Let's look at this in more detail.

Most of the signs say "No to normalization" and "don't pay for Israeli bullets."

Gaza stores are filled with products from Israel. Hamas controls Gaza. They could ban all Israeli goods - but they don't, because this is what Gazans want. 

And since Gazans started working in Israel again, everyone is trying to get work permits.

Hamas itself isn't boycotting Israel, and every Gazan knows this. So what is this about? Why a school day wasted on having the girls make posters and pose?

Because the point isn't boycott. It is to instill hate for Israel. That hate has to be reinforced day in and day out, and "normalization" is another vector, along with whipping up anger at Israel in other ways.

Let's look closer at the people in the picture.

Front and center, we have a girl holding a sign that says, "Normalization is treachery."

With a dagger on her sign.

No one has a problem with a violent image.

Now let's look at the principals of the school in the background:

They look like they are in Afghanistan. 

The heads of the school are teaching the girls that a burqa is the preferable way to cover up, not just a hijab. Students can barely read their expressions. 

Finally, the name of the school itself - Acre, named after a city in Israel. The school's very name is meant to teach the girls that they will "return" to Acre and other Israeli towns, and they will get rid of the Jews there. 

This is an ordinary photo from Gaza - but it teaches a lot, if you are willing to learn it.

(h/t Ibn Boutros) 

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Bahrainis protest against...Chanukah

"Death to Israel"

El Bashayer reports:

On Friday, a demonstration took place in the Sitra area of ​​Bahrain, rejecting the holding of Hanukkah activities in the country, and all forms of normalization with the Israeli entity, and in support of the Palestinian cause.

"Chanukah is a Zionist project and normalization program"

Palestine Today reports that the demonstration was repeated today, and managed to cancel a Chanukah event tonight.

 Sunday evening, a massive demonstration took place in Bahrain to condemn the normalization of Manama with the Israeli occupation.

Activists circulated on social media, video clips, the moment a mass demonstration began near Bab Al Bahrain, denouncing normalization and holding Hanukkah events in the country. 

The participants raised banners denouncing the condemnation and slogans of "Death to Israel".

The demonstration led to the cancellation of the first Hanukkah activities scheduled to start this evening at Bab Al Bahrain.

Here's video with plenty of chants of "Death to Israel."

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Moroccan education unions against coexistence and tolerance (of Jews)

This week, the Atlantic Council held the N7 Conference on Education and Coexistence in Rabat, Morocco.

Oren Eisner, President of the Jeffrey M. Talpins Foundation, explained the purpose of the conference: “It is critical to the future of normalization that the region’s younger generations engage with each other and learn from each other. Our Conference on Education and Coexistence is designed to produce actionable policy recommendations for the region’s governments that will increase cooperation and foster tolerance in education.” Eisner added, “We are thrilled to bring the N7 nations together to the conference and are grateful to the participating governments for working together to develop stronger and lasting friendships in the Middle East.”

The Kingdom of Morocco supported the conference, which included participants from Sudan, Jordan, Bahrain, the UAE, the United States and Israel.

Two Morocco education unions wrote a letter denouncing the conference, and the idea of coexistence altogether. The letter is a crazed combination of paranoia, lies and antisemitic conspiracy theories.

For example, it says, "They consider normalization to facilitate the future control of the Zionist entity over the wealth of the region and its people, and in an effort to complete its expansionist colonial project, and the ensuing dangers to future generations."

In a classic case of projection, the education union "considers the process of normalization in the school curricula as part of many manifestations of the attempt to normalize under the justification of spreading a culture of tolerance and coexistence..., while the Zionist educational curricula perpetuate absolute hatred of the Arabs."

And these open-minded educators also recommend that a "blacklist of shame" be created with the names of anyone who supports coexistence with Israel and Zionists.

It's hard to tell how widespread these opinions are in Morocco. There is a very noisy and active anti-normalization contingent, but mainstream media in Morocco has been treating Israel relatively fairly, and there have been lots of articles about the Jewish community and history there. There are more articles about the Moroccan anti-normalization movement in Algerian media than in Moroccan media. 

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Palestinians describe their nightmare "normalization" scenario

Bahrain's one synagogue

Al Resalah, which is a Hamas news site, is upset over Israeli President Isaac Herzog visiting Bahrain - not so much for the visit itself but for all the terrible things they predict will happen in its wake.

The headline says that Bahrain is opening up a loophole for Israeli espionage in all Gulf states, and here's how.

The main part of the scheme is based on a rumor that Bahrain was creating a Jewish neighborhood. As described last September:

In an interview with Lebanese radio station Al-Nour on 4 August, Yousef Rabie, a member of the Bahraini opposition party Al-Wefaq, reiterated his warning to the people of Bahrain about the kingdom’s plans to change the country’s identity.

Rabie accused Al-Khalifa of attempting to “Judaize Bahrain” in light of the surge in employment of recently naturalized Jewish foreigners or locals in administrative jobs.

Moreover, Rabie highlighted the increase in land purchases by international Zionist organizations in Bahrain, which was echoed by the spiritual leader of Al-Wefaq, Ayatollah Sheikh Isa Qassem, in his sermon on 4 August.

Bahrain Mirror has reported that the project for the Jewish “quarter” or “neighborhood” in Manama is being carried out by the Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities, and will be complete within the coming two years. As a result, 40 percent of Manama’s national Muslim identity will be compromised in order to make way for the Jewish portion of the capital, which will become a major tourism destination for Israelis.

Ayatollah Qassem called on Bahrainis not to sell land to Jews, stating “whoever sells land or a house is not selling soil and stone, but rather a homeland, a people, a nation, history and dear sanctities. He is betraying Islam.”

After the Jews buy the land, they will attempt to become Bahraini citizens. Then all hell will break loose, because when the Jews obtain a Bahraini passport, they will be allowed to travel to all Arab countries.

Not only that, but these Jews and Israelis will then be able to invest, trade and sell land in other various Gulf countries, according to the rules of trade in the Gulf Cooperation Council.

This could represent a security loophole for Israelis to enter different countries, specifically Iran and Lebanon, taking advantage of the social and sectarian ties that unite a number of Bahraini residents with these countries.

So Bahrain can be the Trojan horse that allows Jews to infiltrate and take over the entire Gulf!

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11/30 Links Pt1: Murdering Jews Should Be as Unacceptable as Murdering Druze; Biden Rewards Palestinians for Terrorism, Incitement; UNRWA Finds ‘Man-Made Cavity’ Under Gaza School

From Ian:

Israel’s UN ambassador: Mideast Jews were victims of the ‘real Nakba’

Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan inaugurated an exhibit on Tuesday highlighting the expulsion of Jews from Middle East countries, calling the story of these Jewish refugees the “real Nakba.”

The Palestinians have long used the Arabic term “Nakba,” or catastrophe, to describe Israel’s creation and the resulting displacement of some 700,000 of Palestinian Arabs during the 1948 war initiated by Arab nations to destroy the nascent Jewish state.

Marking the 75th anniversary of the U.N.’s adoption of a resolution to create Israel, Erdan said that “those who really suffered from ‘Nakba’ following the decision were Jews—almost a million were expelled from Arab countries and Iran. Since the vote [on Nov. 29, 1947,] which the Arabs rejected, the United Nations has been telling a completely false story about the ‘disaster’ the Palestinians brought upon themselves,” he added.

While the vast majority of Jewish refugees from Arab countries were absorbed into Israel, the United Nations, by contrast, created the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) to tend uniquely to Palestinian refugees. Today, the organization recognizes some 5 million Palestinians as “refugees,” having effectively transformed the status into a hereditary trait applicable only to Palestinians.

“A day after the [partition] decision, Jews were violently and cruelly expelled from Arab countries and Iran. This year, after a long struggle, we managed to place an exhibition with photos that document the story of the real Nakba. I will continue to fight for the truth and against the false narrative that the Palestinians and their supporters spread,” said Erdan.

#OTD, as we celebrate 75 years since the #PartitionPlan, I am at the United Nations, with a reminder that, 75 years later, whereas #Israel continues to say Yes to peace, the Palestinian leadership is still saying: No, No, No! @The_ILF pic.twitter.com/ICXyh8Z8yM

— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) November 29, 2022

75 years ago today, the UN General Assembly voted on and passed Resolution 181. Watch the historic vote that laid the groundwork for the establishment of the State of Israel: pic.twitter.com/nouCKB91bS

— Israel War Room (@IsraelWarRoom) November 29, 2022

On this day in 1947, the UN passed #Resolution181, paving the way for the establishment of the State of Israel as well as an Arab state, with Jerusalem under international control.
33 countries voted in favor; 13 voted against; and 10 abstained. pic.twitter.com/NI0yznDRJU

— Israel War Room (@IsraelWarRoom) November 29, 2022

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Egyptian Writers' Union expels three members for "normalization," warns of Zionist "penetration of Arab culture"

Cairo24 reports that Dr. Alaa Abdel-Hadi, head of the Egyptian Writers Union, stressed the union's firm position rejecting normalization with Israel, warning of the danger of this entity penetrating Arab culture. 

What exactly does that mean? How can Israel "penetrate Arab culture?"

Perhaps we can get a hint of what this means from the steps being taken to expel three members of the union for the heinous crime of "normalization" with the "Zionist entity."

Alaa Al-Aswany, a prominent Egyptian writer, gave an interview to an Israeli radio station.

Youssef Ziedan, a scholar and writer of over 50 books, had said that he would like to visit Israel and lecture there. 

Mona Prince, a lecturer in English literature at Suez University, had a photo taken with Israel's ambassador to Egypt.

All of these are bizarrely seen as threats to Arab culture. 

 If mere speaking to Israelis is a danger to Arab culture, then it sounds like Arab culture is not very strong. 

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Al Haq: If Israel is involved in climate agreements, better to screw the environment

Al Haq issued a statement about Israel's participation at COP27, "Cooperation with Israel on Climate without Palestinian Self-determination Entrenches Colonial Climate Vulnerability of Palestinians."

It is a very interesting document. It looks at everything Israel agreed to with other countries to help the environment - and denounces them.

For example, 

The Abraham Accords are not only a shameful, dangerous acceptance and endorsement of Israel’s settler-colonial and apartheid regime, they also violate third states’ legal responsibilities under international law not to recognise the illegal situation arising from Israel’s violation of peremptory norms of international law.

Essentially, they are saying that any agreement with Israel is illegal. 

The EuroAsia Interconnector, an EU infrastructure project that aims to connect the national electricity grids of Israel, Cyprus, Greece and wider Europe, is denounced because...

...the electricity grid receives electricity from illegal settlement solar panel fields. Under the rubric of cooperation to address the climate crisis, the implementation of this project would in fact, contribute to the further entrenchment of grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Conventions, war crimes, crimes against humanity and the violation of peremptory norms under customary international law against the Palestinian people.

Yes, solar panels in Judea and Samaria are crimes against humanity!

The East Mediterranean Gas Forum, a cooperative group that includes Cyprus, Egypt, France, Greece, Israel, Italy, Jordan, and the Palestinian Authority, is denounced  as "a political smokescreen which enables Israel to perpetrate the exploitation and pillage of Palestinian gas resources." But why is this bad if it includes the Palestinian Authority? "Al-Haq warns that Palestinian Authority presence at the East Mediterranean Gas Forum table, does not qualify as consent for the exploitation of Palestinian gas resources by Israel, whose ownership vests in the occupied Palestinian population."

Essentially, if the PA makes any deal with Israel, that makes the PA illegitimate as well!

The only common denominator in the examples of things Al Haq condemned at COP27 was anything that treated Israel like a normal nation. The deal between Israel and Jordan to provide desalinated water from the Mediterranean  in exchange for electricity was twisted into somehow taking away Palestinian water rights. An agreement for Israel's water carrier to provide expertise to Bahrain is condemned for the same reason, even though Israel has signed agreements with the PA on water and is adhering to them. 

What this press release proves is that when anti-Israel groups pretend to care about other social justice issues like the environment, it is only meant to either recruit more dupes to their cause or to hijack it. Because when it comes down to it, they clearly don't care in the least about the environment - not as long as Israel is part of the solution. 

  

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Two interfaith events between Muslims and Jews, on opposite sides of the Middle East

The JC reports:

In the shadow of the UAE’s elaborate Grand Mosque and its white marble spires, interfaith representatives from across the world are gathered to listen to, of all people, a rabbi. 

It is a scene that would have seemed unlikely a few years ago, and at times impossible. In the ballroom of Abu Dhabi’s Ritz Carlton, among the chandeliers, dates and gold, Chief Rabbi Mirvis made an unprecedented address to the audience of hundreds of Islamic scholars and leaders.

The first UK chief rabbi to ever visit the Emirates, Rabbi Mirvis was welcomed to the Abu Dhabi Peace Forum by its president, Sheikh Abdullah Bin Bayyah, a revered Islamic scholar. 

Addressing the crowd in a mixture of Biblical Hebrew, Arabic and English, Rabbi Mirvis called on leaders of all faiths to “achieve the unachievable” and build on the historic peace brought about by the Abraham Accords two years ago. 

Over 7000 km away, another kind of interfaith gathering happened recently - in Morocco:

After a forced two-year hiatus linked to the pandemic, the emblematic Atlantic Andalusian Festival returned this year for its 18th edition. 

President and Founder of the Essaouira Mogador association, André Azoulay, adviser to King Mohammed VI. speaks of it with passion and fervor: “It is an indescribable festival, which never ceases to amaze and which, in the eyes of some, brings together all the paradoxes: a festival which has not always been understood. We were often seen as somewhat naïve dreamers, expressing a reality that many had turned their backs on.”

Azoulay repeats it frequently: this meeting is the only one in the world to bring together thousands of Muslims and Jews, who have chosen to meet in Essaouira for the simple “happiness of being together."

This is more than a slogan for the followers of this committed festival: against the current of a culture of indifference and denial. And this year, more than 10,000 came to listen to the songs and music of the malhun or the Judeo-Arab matrouz.

“We blew the numbers. Never - I who dream a lot for my country, my city and my Andalusia - had I dared to imagine that they would be there by the thousands from Israel, France, Canada, the United States, Latin America, from Africa and the Arab world… Shoulder to shoulder to sing and dance together.

On social networks, explains Azoulay, the videos of the concerts and the forums of the festival amount year after year in millions of views. 

And of course soon thousands of Israelis will descend to Qatar for the World Cup.

We live in amazing times. No wonder the Israel haters are perpetually angry.

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National Library of Tunisia stands up to antisemitic bigots

This week, The National Library of Tunisia sponsored an international symposium called "The Forgotten Languages of Tunisia," about works written by Tunisians in languages that are not widely studied in Tunisia nowadays, including Turkish, Berber, Hebrew and a flavor of Judeo-Arabic that is still spoken in Djerba.

Because of the latter two languages, the symposium was interrupted by antisemites, upset that Hebrew and Judeo-Arabic would be discussed in a scholarly environment. The protesters claimed that this was a form of "normalization" with Israel.

For two hours, the protesters stopped the symposium, chanting, "No to Zionism", "No to Judaism", "No normalization with Israel", "Brainless Jews", "No to Holocaust Museum" , "The Tunisian people are a free people who will not fold to the pernicious Zionist project."

Newspaper Al Chourouk complained that one of the speakers, Jonas Sinony, is a Jew with a Polish (Jewish)  mother. (He is a scholar of semitic languages.)

The good news is that the story doesn't end the way that most of these do.

Unlike most cases of attempted cancellation in Arab countries, the library stuck to its guns. 

The director of the National Library stayed calm in the face of the screaming protesters, repeating that they will not yield to intimidation. 

On their Facebook page, they wrote, 

The seminar "Forgotten Languages" was a success, and everyone resisted in the face of the forces of bigotry and extortion.

The presentations were valuable and posted on this page, the fair was a success, and the accusations of "normalization" are oppressive and unjust.

Many thanks to the attendees who sympathized with the National Library and remained in the hall waiting for the scholarly sessions despite the desire of a group of people to cancel them.

Many thanks to the helpers of the National Library  who fought to defend and preserve the institution. 

And many thanks to the members of the library core union for standing up to the aggressors.

Thanks also to the security forces who negotiated with the aggressors and forced them out peacefully.

66 years after independence, and 11 years after the revolution of dignity, we will not accept the confiscation of freedom of speech and academic freedoms, and we will not accept any arbitrary decision from those who forget that we have become free.

The newspaper "Kapitalis" was also angry at the protesters, writing, "This is our heritage and history, and we are the most worthy to study it. By knowledge we are liberated, not by cancellation, erasure and denial."

"These groups (that protested), who pretend to be defending Palestine, will drag the country into more ignorance and misery," the newspaper quoted observers. "These armies of ignorance, fools, ignorant people and promoters of violence are issuing fatwas against Professor Raja Ben Salama, director of the National Library. They will not rest until they get rid of all the enlightened people and assassinate knowledge..."

I do not recall reading such a direct attack at antisemites in any Arabic media. Normally the most extreme voices win by default, because moderates in Arab countries are not willing to risk being publicly slandered as "Zionists" or "Jews." 

This is a very encouraging story, and it will take many more similar stories to root out the antisemitism endemic in the Arab world. 

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Lebanese, Iraqis, Tunisians very upset when their leaders are reported in the same room as Israelis

The COP27 conference in Egypt has the usual comedy that we see at all major international conferences.

Israeli delegates say that they met, or talked with, or were in the same room as Arab enemies, and the Arab delegates are forced to deny or downplay it, as best they can.

In this case, as AP reports:

Israel's environmental protection minister attended a regional meeting Tuesday alongside Iraqi and Lebanese leaders at the global climate conference taking place in Egypt, the minister's office said, where the group pledged to work together to tackle climate change.

According to a statement from the office of Israeli Environmental Protection Minister Tamar Zandberg, the meeting took place as part of a regional forum of eastern Mediterranean and Middle Eastern countries.

The agreement by the member countries said the parties would work to “strengthen regional cooperation" and “act in a coordinated way” on climate change.

“The countries of the region share the warming and drying climate and just as they share the problems they can and must share the solutions. No country can stand alone in the face of the climate crisis,” Zandberg said in the statement.

In photos provided by her office, she is seen seated behind a small Israeli flag. Two seats away from her is Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid and across the room is Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati, each behind their countries' flags.

 

The Lebanese caretaker prime minister was upset:

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Tuesday denied “any communication with any Israeli official,” after the website of Israeli newspaper Haaretz published a photo showing him and Israel's environmental protection minister along with several world leaders and officials at the U.N.’s COP27 climate summit in Egypt.

“The objectives of the noise that the Israeli media fabricates at such conferences have become known,” Mikati’s office said.

There was also angst at this photo of Zandberg shaking the hand of Palestinian prime minister Mohamed Shtayyeh:

This screenshot from a video of President Isaac Herzog seen joking  with Tunisia’s Prime Minister Najla Bouden, both smiling, has also caused upset in the Arab world.

It is a little childish on both sides - Zandberg's announcing that Israel and Lebanon and Iraq are cooperating when there were lots of other nations represented in the room, as well as Israel's Arab enemies getting bent out of shape over any reports of treating Israeli representatives as human beings. 

What Israeli officials should do is attempt to shake hands with their enemies with a big smile. If the Arabs reciprocate, wonderful; if they refuse the handshake the Israelis can shake their heads, still smiling, and call out "Have a nice day!" or "No, my hands are really clean, see?" or some other joke, for the cameras.  

Even better, calling out to the Arab leader loudly and laughingly, "How wonderful it is to see you! We'll catch up later, OK?" or "Send my best regards to your wife!" or "Meet you at the bar tonight!"

It would instantly turn the supposed Arab honor at refusing to treat Israelis as humans into a bigger embarrassment.  And the fear of shame is the major motivating factor in the Arab world.

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A story of Palestinians fuming over a Star of David

Earlier this month, a Filipino Christian group rented out a hotel meeting space in Bethlehem and decorated it with cardboard cutouts that included a Star of David and a Temple menorah:

They were almost certainly visiting to join thousands of other Christians for the annual "Feast of Tabernacles" parade and celebration in Jerusalem held during Sukkot every year.

The Filipino delegation probably had no idea that the Palestinians were antisemitic when they put up these decorations. After all, how much media coverage is there of systemic Palestinian hate of Jews? They are only anti-Zionist, right?

Here's what happened.

Shehab News Agency tweeted a video of the hall.

Rumors started flying that the hotel was hosting Israelis for a normalization conference.

Elias al-Arja, the owner of Bethlehem Hotel, told a Palestinian radio station, “I was surprised to see that they installed the Star of David. I removed it and told them that they are not permitted to hold the conference in my hotel. I don’t want any problems....We don’t allow Jews to come here."

A group of angry armed Palestinians threatened the hotel and reportedly shut it down.

Gunmen shot bullets towards the hotel; luckily no one was injured.

The Palestinian Authority Ministry of Tourism announced on Facebook that it closed the meeting hall and launched an investigation into how this terrible thing might have happened.

Needless to say, this is not "anti-Zionism." This is pure hatred of Jews and anything peripherally associated with Jews. 

No matter how much the Palestinians insist that they have nothing against Judaism, only Zionism, this incident - the anger shown, the hate that surrounded all aspects of the incident - proves what everyone knows but few are willing to say out loud:

Palestinians don't hate Jews because of Israel, they hate Israel because of Jews.

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How pathetic are Israel's Arab neighbors? A tiny but telling example.

Egypt's El Balad and Jordan's Ammon News describe an Israeli TV report that some 12,000 Israelis visited Jordan during the Jewish holidays over the past month, as many Israelis felt that it was less expensive than going overseas. Most of these visitors went to Aqaba as a cheaper alternative to Eilat. 

That's a fairly significant number of visitors, and Jordan's tourism sector no doubt benefited a great deal.

But when the TV station wanted to interview a representative of Jordan's Ministry of Tourism, a fairly innocuous request to get some generic quotes, the Jordanian government didn't grant the request.

How childish can they be? They are afraid of being seen, or quoted, on TV along with Israelis in any context. They'll take money from Israeli "settlers" (as the articles described all the tourists) but they won't deign to speak to Israeli TV.

Do they think they are going to destroy Israel through microaggressions? Because that sometimes seems to be the prevailing mentality.

The microaggressions don't end there. 

Both articles headline the fact that Jordan refused to speak to the Israeli news crew, even as they eagerly covered what the news channel had to say about Jordan. They seem to want to give the impression to their readers that they are so strong and mighty that they can refuse a request from the all-powerful Jews. 

It's sort of pathetic.

The news producers didn't lose a minute of sleep over the snub. The story ran without any problems. The mighty Jordanian decision to boycott Israeli TV was taken as par for the course by the Israelis.

Also, neither one of the news outlets deign to mention which Israeli TV station it was that tried to get the interview. As if mentioning a specific channel is a sign of weakness.

And that is the point. Their attempts to appear consequential by refusing to answer a couple of softball questions makes them look even weaker.  

They are utterly clueless.

This immaturity is accepted as part of Arab culture by the world. But nothing will change until people ask - what is wrong with these guys?

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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!

 

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Terror group publishes great list of BDS Fails last month

The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) is one of those communist terror groups, like the PFLP,  that tries to destroy Israel both with bombs and with BDS. And left-wing "human rights" groups love to conveniently overlook the bombing part.

Anyway, the DFLP published a list of announcements about BDS for August, whether praising pro-BDS actions or condemning "normalization" with Israel. It turns out the list of things it condemns is a great list of BDS failures.

Here is their inadvertant list of good news for Israel in August:

 The American Sierra Club returns to sponsoring annual trips to Israel, which includes hiking in a variety of nature and wildlife reserves, as well as walking tours in places such as the Old City of Jerusalem, Caesarea and Jaffa.

 An Israeli delegation of investors, technicians and commercial officials visited Indonesia, with the aim of identifying opportunities for investments, projects, start-ups and social impact initiatives, to complement the Israeli initiatives to normalize with a number of Islamic countries.

 Israel's El Al Airlines started flying into Saudi airspace.

French channel BFMTV edited out an excerpt from the interview with a French journalist denouncing Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid announced the resumption of diplomatic relations with Turkey.

Bahraini hotels began to offer Israeli channels.

The UAE is financing the construction of an Israeli sports stadium.

Morocco signed an agreement to build the Israeli embassy in Rabat.

Israel announced the establishment of a joint industrial zone between Israel and Jordan.

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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!

 

Read More