The head of Hezbollah’s Sharia Committee, Sheikh Muhammad Yazbek, came up with a convoluted logic to explain how Palestinians fighting other Palestinians in the Ein al-Hilweh camp in Lebanon is really Israel's fault.
Al-Ahed News reports that "He said the only beneficiary of the Palestinian fighting, in the Ain al-Hilweh camp, is the Zionist enemy, which is working in various ways to end the Palestinian issue and eliminate the right of the Palestinians to return to their lands and Islamic and Christian sanctities, pointing out that what is happening inside the camp and in Syria in terms of fighting, siege, security threats and displacement is an American-Israeli decision, implemented with local tools aimed at weakening the axis of resistance and confusing it security-wise and economically to discourage it from confronting the American-Zionist project."
I think he is saying that the Fatah faction in Lebanon is a tool of Israel and the US.
But the Association of Muslim Scholars had a much better conspiracy theory blaming Israel for the infighting - one that they don't even realize shows how little they care about Palestinians.
VDLNews reports this insanity that the group issued a statement saying that what the Zionists want for the Ein al-Hilweh camp "is to destroy this camp as a prelude to displacing its people and then settling them either in Lebanon or in a country to which they emigrate, through enticement and intimidation, which leads to the complete cancellation of the right of return, which necessarily means an end to the Palestinian issue."
What this Islamic group is saying is that the worst thing for Palestinians is to become normal citizens of Arab countries. The best thing for them is to remain stuck in an overcrowded, dangerous tinderbox surrounded by a huge wall where they are not allowed to build, not allowed many jobs, not allowed to own land and at the mercy of terrorists who are trying to take over the camp.
And while the "right of return" is fiction, Palestinians in Jordan are citizens and still claim that right. Why can't Lebanese Palestinians?
No one hates Palestinians more than the Lebanese. Not the Israelis, not the Saudis...no one. And no one treats them as badly as the Lebanese do. But where the Lebanese really outdo themselves is in insisting that their maltreatment of Palestinians is for their own good. And the Palestinians themselves cannot publicly complain about their being treated like dirt, because they are at the mercy of those same Lebanese.
This is why about two thirds of all of Lebanon's "registered Palestine refugees" have left Lebanon and gone anywhere else they could.
Yet the media and human rights organizations remain largely silent. Funny how that works.
It's almost like they don't really care about Palestinians.
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It's Ramadan, and we all know what that means: it is a month that we have come to expect jihadists to violently attack their enemies.
And, when the infidels and dhimmis respond, the Islamists instantly change from brave warrior to babies, crying about how immoral it is for others to attack them on their holy month. (And so do their useful idiots.)
It is a dynamic that everyone expects, yet hardly any Western media outlet dares point out the hypocrisy.
For Islamic militants, Ramadan allows them not only to reaffirm their religious observance but to strengthen their political ideological convictions as well. "Ramadan is a month of commitment and renewal to their faith and also to their cause, whether by military or nonmilitary jihad," says Prof. Nizar Hamzeh, a specialist on political Islam at the American University of Beirut. "It is a month of martyrdom and commitment to one's Islamic ideology."
Throughout Islamic history, Ramadan has been seen as a time of victory for Muslim armies - and a period when those who are martyred have a greater assurance of a place in paradise.
You can't say that nowadays. It is true, of course, but journalists are too afraid of being accused of Islamophobia to report on what everyone knows.
My home town of Fresno, California has a tiny Jewish community. The metropolitan area of about a million people, in almost the geographical center of the state, has only about 1000 Jewish families. There are three congregations: a Reform temple with several hundred members, a much smaller Conservative shul, and a Chabad house.
I haven’t been to the US since moving back to Israel more than five years ago. But I keep in touch. So recently I noticed an announcement on the Facebook page of the Reform congregation for a talk by a Rabbi John Rosove on the subject “The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, an American Zionist Perspective.” I thought that was interesting, since I, too, am a Zionist and (you can tell by my accent) will always be an American.
Rabbi Rosove went to Berkeley (not that there’s anything wrong with that) and Hebrew Union College, and is Rabbi Emeritus of Temple Israel in Hollywood. Investigating further, I found that the talk would be about “… the destructive impact of the Israeli occupation on Palestinians, Israelis and the future of Israel’s democracy.” And I noted that Rabbi Rosove is a national co-chair of the J Street Rabbinic Cabinet, and is associated with several “Reform Zionism” groups.
This is not my kind of Zionism – it demands a suicidal “two-state solution,” and wrongly analogizes our conflict with the Palestinians to the American civil rights struggle, two things that couldn’t be more different.
Let’s assume that Rabbi Rosove is one of these. His talk is being held at Clovis Community College, next door to Fresno, and is free. But who paid Rosove’s expenses? The announcement for the talk indicates that it is sponsored by GV Wire, a local progressive news website. GV Wire is a very slick production, with a professional staff including Bill McEwen, a former Fresno Bee columnist and editorial page editor.
The “GV” in GV Wire stands for Granville Homes, one of the biggest real estate developers and homebuilders in the Fresno area. And Granville Homes is owned by the Assemi family, who came to California from Iran just before the revolution. Among the founders of the Islamic Cultural Center of Fresno, the Assemis are among the biggest philanthropists in the Central Valley of California. Granville has done some projects in the downtown area which have improved parts of town that many people thought were lost forever. They donate large amounts to numerous causes and organizations, especially “progressive” ones.
The publisher of GV Wire is Darius Assemi, Granville’s President and CEO. He is deeply involved in local politics, and is probably one of the most powerful people in the area. And of course, he’s no friend of Israel. He’s described Israel’s shooting terrorists climbing its border fence as a “massacre.”
So why would he bring a self-described “Zionist” speaker to the area (even if he’s as much a Zionist as I am Queen of England)?
The explanation is the reaction to Assemi’s previous speaker, Alison Weir, who appeared on September 18 (her presentation can be viewed here). Weir is viciously anti-Israel and antisemitic, to the point that even pro-BDS groups like Jewish Voice for Peace have disavowed her. Her position is that the Israel/Jewish lobby dominates the US government, causing it to act against American interests in order to help Israel oppress, exploit, and murder Palestinians, which it does in the most sadistic way possible. She asserts that US media, controlled by Jewish interests, is biased in favor of Israel, and that any criticism of Israel is derailed by accusations of antisemitism. She is a low-key, persuasive speaker, and if you don’t recognize the lies, lack of context, and distortions, she will convince you.
Weir was originally invited by the college, which canceled the event following complaints by the ADL and other Jewish organizations.
But Assemi thought that she should be heard, so he had GV Wire sponsor the event and rent the hall, absolving the college of responsibility. ADL and the others protested again, but rather than cancel the event, Assemi decided to also invite “a speaker who will explain the deadly realities in this region from the Jewish perspective.” Balance. That would be Rabbi Rosove.
So now we will get a “Jewish perspective” on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from a Jew who says he is a Zionist, but represents an organization that is actually anti-Zionist, and is even supported financially by Israel’s enemies. And a Jewish house of worship is advertising it.
Welcome to the highest level of useful idiocy!
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It seems there are various former members of J Street, some who served in leadership positions, who are now involved in If Not Now -- and some of them are apparently founding members.
For example:
Max Berger
o He is identified as a co-founder of If Not Now in his 'bio' on Haaretz o A JTA article notes that before If Not Now, Max Berger worked for J Street as a new media assistant
Yonah Lieberman
o Yonah Lieberman has a twitter account that identifies him as a co-founder of If Not Now o Lieberman was very heavily involved in J Street. According to his LinkedIn page, from January 2010 on he was a member of the National Student Board, the Midwest Regional Co-Chair, and Campus Chapter Chair.
Carinne Luck
o Times of Israel identifies Carinne Luck as a co-founder of If Not Now. o Luck's website notes she was a founding staff member and Vice President for Field and Campaigns at J Street.
Simone Zimmerman
o Simone Zimmerman identifies herself as a co-founder of If Not Now on her Twitter page. o In an article for The Forward, Josh Nathan-Kazis writes that Simone Zimmerman was the national president of J Street U’s student board in the 2012-2013 school year
o Emily Mayer identifies herself as an If Not Now organizer on her Twitter page o Daniel Greenfield notes that Emily Mayer was with J Street U at Haverford
Sarah Beth Alcabes
Canary Mission lists Sarah Beth Alcabes as leading an INN disruption, in partnership with Taher Herzallah of American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), and also being an activist with J Street U at the University of California, Berkeley (Berkeley) from 2012-2014.
Times of Israel mentions Elianna Fishman, who was "heavily involved with J Street U Dartmouth" and who confirms "I interned for J Street, and helped set up a chapter on campus” before graduating and joining IfNotNow -- to which the article adds
In fact, many of IfNotNow’s leaders are alumni of J Street U.
[If Not Now] remains small, attracting several dozen participants, some of whom are leaders of J Street U, the group’s student-organizing arm.
But the question remains: why have these, and other members of J Street, made the switch?
It sure appears as if J-Street is a gateway drug for Jewish students to learn to hate Israel and to be comfortable to criticize Israel "as a Jew." But it might be more than that.
According to a Haaretz article from 2014, Gaza War Pushes Some to the Left of J Street. The logic, according to Haaretz, is that over time, J Street, even back in 2014, was becoming larger and more moderate, with the result that there were the beginnings of a limited exodus that benefited smaller more radical groups. One of those groups was If Not Now, described in the article as "an ad hoc group."
Of course, what the Haaretz article claims is a sign of J Street's moderation can also be seen as the failure in the eyes of some of its members, to become increasingly radical.
A similar theme to Haaretz is taken by Nathan-Kazis in the Forward also in an article from 2014, that in contrast to the more "moderate" tone taken by J Street, some members felt J Street was not doing enough:
Former high-ranking J Street staff members were among the organizers of a July 28 protest in New York City against Israel’s invasion of Gaza. They acted under the name #ifnotnow and made no mention of their former J Street affiliations.
He writes about another protest just a few days earlier, launched by 4 activists that included high-ranking members Carinne Luck who had left J Street in 2012 and Daniel May, director of J Street U from 2010 to 2013 as well as Max Berger.
Other participants in one or both of those #ifnotnow protests included Isaac Luria, J Street’s vice president of communications and new media from 2008 until 2011 and Tamara Shapiro.
Some of that former J Street staff said they were not opposed to J Street’s long-term strategy -- but felt limited by its tactics. Others, like Luck, said they did not share J Street's "patience" with the "Jewish institutional community."
That is the narrative. Daniel Greenfield of FrontPageMag.org isn't buying it.
The official narrative is that If Not Now parted ways with J Street because the group was insufficiently opposed to the Jewish State and insufficiently supportive of Hamas. As a practical matter though this is how radical groups have always operated, with a front group that makes efforts to appear moderate while incubating radical organizations within itself that "split off" but still pursue the same agenda.
Despite claims of a split, If Not Now is just pursuing the exact same agenda as J Street U, protesting Jewish charities for supporting Israel, while claiming to be the voice of a new generation.
It's the same scam with a new brand and slightly less of a paper trail.
If Not Now is J Street...
...New organizations are constantly being created and destroyed. But they all share one agenda. The destruction of the Jewish State.
If there is indeed an element of dramatic effect at work here, then this alleged break would be no more authentic than the recent break of Jesse Steshenko, who claimed to have been "a very ardent Zionist" who as a result of his recent J Street trip to Israel became "disgusted" with Israel.
Elder of Ziyon revealed that in fact as recently as 2016 as a member of Junior States of America, a mock Congress, he introduced a resolution calling Israel an apartheid state and demanding the recognition of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza as defined by the 1949 Armistice -- effectively depriving Israel of the Western Wall and the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem.
Actually, J Street itself has a history of being less than straightforward.
Carinne Luck's involvement in If Not Now is another reason for apprehension.
Here is a 2012 video of Luck explaining J Street's job:
The main takeaway from what Luck says:
o A sizable percentage of J Street is not Jewish o J Street responds to the wishes "the Hill, the (Obama) Administration" which wants J Street to "move Jews" o The bulk of J Street resources are dedicated to this o There is an uneasiness about those in J Street leadership who are not Jewish who may present themselves as Jews
This idea of misrepresentation that Carinne Luck shares with the group -- without condemning -- is an issue that arises again with If Not Now, both in terms of questions about its connections with J Street but also in terms of its own claims to represent today's young American Jews.
We have seen there is a failure of J Street to live up to what it claims it does.
Should we be surprised that there are doubts about what If Not Now claims as well?
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A representative of the “Independent Jewish Voices” (IJV) fringe group admitted Saturday that the organization takes its direction from Palestinians and not members of Canada’s grassroots Jewish community.At an anti-Israel protest at Yonge-Dundas Square in Toronto, an IJV spokesperson concluded her speech by saying: “I’m really grateful that Palestine House is rejuvenating also, and that we continue, as Jews, to take direction from Palestinian leadership.”As previously revealed by B’nai Brith Canada, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), a Damascus-based terror group, took credit for winning the Palestine House elections earlier this month. The DFLP staged the 1974 Ma’alot Massacre, in which 31 Israeli civilians were murdered, most of them children.It continues to support terrorism to this day.
“This admission demolishes any credibility IJV could ever claim as a so-called Jewish organization,” said Michael Mostyn, Chief Executive Officer of B’nai Brith Canada. “Real Jewish groups take direction from within the Jewish community, and certainly not from outside groups with a history of celebrating anti-Jewish terror.” On its website, IJV describes itself as “a grassroots organization grounded in Jewish tradition.” However, a landmark 2018 survey of Canadian Jews showed that only 6 per cent of Canadian Jews believe that Canada is too supportive of Israel, which is the position taken by IJV.
The screenshot above is of the woman who said this, whose name appears to be Beverly.
I grabbed video of the admission as well as the mindless chanting that followed, where the Orwellian newspeak continued. "Stop the killing stop the hate, Israel is a racist state" they chant, when the only hate being expressed is from the protesters themselves.
In a similar vein of Jews taking direction from others in fomenting hate, notice the socialist flags at this event. At Fathom Journal is a really well done article discussing the history of Soviet pre-Internet fake news where they made up anti-Zionist and antisemitic lies and spread them around the world as news stories, along with other disinformation that even fooled CBS News and Dan Rather. There is a direct line between the Soviet propaganda and today's far-Left antisemitism.
A particular trick of Soviet anti-Zionism, according to the Israeli historian Kiril Feferman, was that it ‘proposed a version of antisemitism to Western audiences that did not have obvious antisemitic overtones.’ It did so by substituting anti-Zionism for antisemitism in its propaganda, which made it passable for the many well-intentioned, idealistic individuals who otherwise would have recoiled in disgust from this rhetoric. Yet, underneath the relatively benign covers, the messages of the campaign packed a powerful antisemitic charge. The messaging emanating from today’s far-left anti-Zionist camp is strikingly similar to the messaging of the Soviet anti-Zionist campaigns. From the claims of Zionist collaboration with the Nazis in the Holocaust, to the idea of Zionism as an inherently racist and oppressive ideology, to the concept of Israel as a settler-colonialist state that engages in genocidal behavior and apartheid – all of these ideas were part and parcel of the Soviet anti-Zionist narrative.
(h/t Josh K., Aidan)
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A Safe Place?
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[image: Dry Bones cartoon, Sinwar, Iran, Israel, Hostages, War, Hezbollah,
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Tuesday, September 12, 2023
Elder of Ziyon
