Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, December 27, 2018

Anti-Zionists justify Alice Walker's antisemitism, saying she's "wrong" - but her heart is in the right place

Mondoweiss publishes Sarah Schulman, the academic fraud who popularized the term "pinkwashing," to explain to their audience how Alice Walker's blatant antisemitism is sort of okay once you contextualize it.

Like many of us, Walker has tried to understand the source of Israeli cruelty, violence, self-righteous racism, and supremacy ideology. She has risked her life for Palestinian liberation on the Flotilla, and has been in deep confrontation with the Israeli state for years. Being in that place is shocking, it reveals behaviors and beliefs of the Israeli state that are almost impossible to comprehend.

According to Schulman, Walker claiming that rabbis have taught generations of Jews to enslave "goyim" and to kill the best of them isn't antisemitic - it is a reflection of her deep pain at the plight of the Palestinians and her honest attempt to understand how Jews can be so cruel.

At no point does Schulman admit that Walker's hate for Jews is antisemitic.

Schulman admits that Walker is wrong. Not offensive, mind you - just mistaken. Not because Walker is trading in Nazi-style Jew-hatred, but because she falls for conspiracy theories and doesn't understand that Judaism isn't the issue, but religion altogether.

By looking to the Jewish religion as the source of Israeli cruelty, Walker is making two significant errors. 1. Pathologizing Judaism itself, instead of the larger problem of religions in general and how they are used to justify supremacy ideology. and 2. Ascribing religion as the central motive for apartheid when many Jews who support the Zionist state are not religious, and many Jews who stand with Palestine are religious.

Notice that purported scholar Schulman does not say that Walker's description of the Talmud and Judaism is completely wrong. No, Schulman sort of agrees that Walker is correct in saying that the Talmud teaches Jewish dominance over "goyim," but by singling out Judaism and not generalizing it to all religions, Walker fell into the trap of allowing people being able to call her antisemitic - which detracts from the wonderful work she does.

That Alice Walker has chosen conspiracy theory tools to address important questions discredits some of her thinking. But it does not discredit all of her thinking. Sometimes people who do good things also do bad things. And that can be disappointing, or devastating, but that is life and here we are.

When a supposed scholar like Walker freely admits and even brags that her method of researching the Talmud is by watching YouTube videos made by neo-Nazis, and when she then takes that information and publishes poetry that could have been published in Der Sturmer, and when she refuses to apologize but doubles down on her hate for Jews, it doesn't discredit her at all, according to Schulman.

She's just misunderstood and human.

Really.

This is very funny coming from someone whose bogus "pinkwashing" charge is meant to tell the world that Israel does only bad things, and never does good things. When Israel treats women, minorities, LGBTQ, the disabled in ways that are more liberal than many other Western democracies, Schulman doesn't say that "sometimes people who do good things also do bad things" - she says that when Israel does good things it is by definition a bad thing.

The hypocrisy of Schulman is astounding. But not surprising.

(h/t Andrew)

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Continuing on with my 2013 lecture at YU (with some audio issues throughout - sorry!) here is how to answer the Palestinian claim that they made such a concession by giving up 78% of "historic Palestine."

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12/26 Links Pt2: Army finds, destroys fifth attack tunnel from Lebanon; Linda Sarsour’s Monumental Christmas Screw-up; Despite media narrative, Palestinians are far from ‘woke’

From Ian:

Army finds, destroys fifth attack tunnel from Lebanon

The Israeli military announced Wednesday it had discovered a new cross-border attack tunnel from Lebanon, the fifth such subterranean passage it has uncovered since launching an operation to destroy the Hezbollah-dug tunnels.

The latest tunnel was dug from Ayta ash Shab, a village across the border from the farming community of Shtula, and entered Israeli territory, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

The IDF said the tunnel was found “a number of days ago” and has now been destroyed.

“A short while ago, the tunnel was neutralized by an explosion,” it said in a statement.

Regional council heads and the United Nations’ peacekeeping force in Syria were notified ahead of the explosion, the military said.

The statement did not mention Hezbollah, the Lebanese terror group Israel has accused of digging the other tunnels.

The IDF reiterated it holds Lebanon’s government responsible for the cross-border tunnels.

“This is another blatant violation of UN Resolution 1701 and of Israeli sovereignty,” it said, referring to a UN Security Council resolution ending the 2006 Lebanon War, that requires all armed groups besides the Lebanese military to remain north of the country’s Litani River.

The military also said it would continue its efforts to locate and destroy attack tunnels from Lebanon.

The announcement by the military comes a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the military was close to wrapping up the operation to find and eliminate the tunnels.

IsraellyCool: Linda Sarsour’s Monumental Christmas Screw-up

In a Merry Christmas message on Facebook to her followers, Israel-hater Linda Sarsour seems to have messed up. Big time (hat tip: Kweansmom).

You read that correctly. In that short message, Sarsour admits a whole bunch of things:

Jesus was Jewish (not a palestinian Arab as so many antisemites and Israel haters claim)
Jesus was a person of color. So much for the Jews are White. But in Sarsour’s defense, she has shown she has a hard time keeping track of her colors.
The word “Palestinian” used to apply to the Jews
There were Jews in the Holy Land at least in the time of Jesus – well before the Muslim conquest of the area.
She does realize Jesus was a “Zionist”, right? And that if he was alive today, he could be lynched if he wandered into the palestinian-controlled areas?

Thank you, Linda, for this gift. It’s like all our Christmases came at once

Ben & Jerry's political flavor doesn't suit all Israelis

Some Israelis want to boycott Ben & Jerry's for supporting left-wing US groups, while abroad BDS activists urge boycotting the ice cream because the brand operates in Israel.

In October, just before the US midterm elections, Ben & Jerry's launched a new ice cream flavor - Pecan Resist - chocolate and fudge mixed with pecans. The company said that it was part of a campaign to "lick injustice and celebrate those fighting to create a more just and equal country for all of us."

And who is creating the injustice and inequality, you might ask? Well, President Donald Trump of course. The company said, we cannot remain silent over the President's policies that are attacking and pushing back decades of progress on issues like racial and sexual equality, climate change, LGBT rights and immigrant and refugees rights - all issues that have always been at the core of our social mission for 40 years."

Pecan Resist was mainly launched to raised awareness among US voters and encourage them to vote. But the launch was also accompanies by announcement that Ben & Jerry's was donating $25,000 to each of four organizations spearheading the opposition to Trump. While many on the right in the US called for a boycott of Ben & Jerry's, Israeli ire was focused on women's rights organization Women's March, one of the four NGO's receiving Ben & Jerry's philanthropic bucks. One of the founders and co-chairs of Women's March is Linda Sarsour, a Palestinian-American liberal activist who has become a divisive figure in the Jewish community due to her anti-Israel activism and support of BDS.

Here’s a headline that had me scratching my head: “Three Orthodox Rabbis Ordained in Berlin after 80-Year Interruption.” I mean, I get that the last time a rabbi was ordained in Berlin had to be sometime around Hitler’s rise to power, may his name and memory be erased. And the opening lines of the article tell us that this is exactly the case:

The Nazis shut down Berlin’s Jewish seminary in 1938, and since then not a single Orthodox rabbi has been ordained in the German capital – until today, when three graduates of the Berlin Rabbinical Seminary: Alexander Kahanovsky, Shraga Yaakov Ponomarov and Shlomo Sajatz, were ordained in a historic ceremony, Deutsche Welle reported.

What I don’t understand is why there is a value to revitalizing Jewish communities in Europe, and in particular, in Germany. Germany wins the prize for worst ever host of the Jewish people, having gassed over 6 million of us. Why would we want to give them a second chance, or worse yet, a do-over?

What is the purpose of ordaining rabbis in Germany? What is the point of building synagogues or Jewish schools there? Why insist on reviving the Jewish community, or bringing Jewish culture to this place?

Why would anyone try to be a Jew in Germany after what they did to us?

I don’t get it. First of all, it seems spectacularly stupid. You didn’t get the message the first time around?

And anyway: why would you want to be in a place haunted by so many ghosts?

Why do you want to be where people hate you so much they gassed 6 million of your people? Do you think there’s some kind of courage involved in setting up (Jewish) shop there once more, so you’re just going to dig in your heels? You’re the guest no one wants. The guest who refuses to leave when the party’s OVER. (And you came back?!)

Here’s the part where you tell me: but it’s not regular Germans who are responsible for antisemitism. It’s all about the influx of Muslim immigrants. Not a terror attack happens that doesn’t begin with someone yelling “Allahu Akbar.”

But a poll published in May tells us in 2016, 40% of modern Germans (and not immigrants) hold antisemitic views, an increase of 28% from the previous poll in 2014.

Also, we need to think WHY Germany, and Europe in general, is teeming with antisemitic immigrants: the answer is they come to you precisely because they know you are birds of a feather. They hate Jews, YOU hate Jews. (“You” being Germany/Europe.) They know you gassed the Jews. This, they admire.

In spite of the pretend repentance, we know for a fact, thanks, for instance to Tuvia Tenenbom, that overwhelmingly, funding for Israel’s enemies comes from (you guessed it) Germany. Muslim antisemites fit right into your zeitgeist, your milieu. It’s a comfortable place for them. Germans share their values and their hate.

German Jew-hatred is as prevalent as it always was. It just wears it differently. Back in the 80s, Israeli psychoanalyst Zvi Rex said that, “The Germans will never forgive the Jews for Auschwitz.” Germans tend to feel that Jews hold the past over their heads, exploiting the Holocaust to make Germans feel guilty. We Jews don’t let Germans move forward, move past the Holocaust. We don’t let them heal. This irritates Germans, giving them license to hate us (as if they needed permission), even if they use Israel’s imagined crimes as the pretext.

What about the Germans who swear they’re ashamed of their history? Let me tell you: the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Today’s German people have Nazis in their past. There’s no doubt that a vast number of contemporary Germans were raised to hate Jews. And even if you pride yourself on being open-minded, even if you feel somewhat guilty or soiled by what your grandparents or parents did, some of the antisemitic rhetoric heard at Mutter’s breast, is bound to sink in, to stick.

How different is the Germany of today compared to the last time a rabbi was ordained in Berlin, in 1938?

The answer is that for all the lip service we pay to “Never Again,” it’s not. Not with 40% of the German population agreeing with this statement: “Based on Israel’s policies, I can understand people having something against the Jews.”

I’ll admit it: I am lucky. I did not have to go through the horrors of the Holocaust. So I don’t know what it was like for German Jews who survived. Perhaps they wanted to cling to the little bit of familiarity left to them after all they experienced. Maybe that’s why we’re seeing a resurgence of the Jewish community there.

But me? My stomach turns at the sight of a German or on hearing a German accent. It gives me cognitive dissonance for me to imagine anyone doing CPR on the dead—nay MURDERED—Jewish community of Berlin. It is a place from which Jews should distance themselves forevermore.

We Jews went to Germany only because we were expelled from our own land: Israel, and forced to wander. Forty percent of the German population has made it abundantly clear that Germany does not want us. So stop trying to be rabbis there. Stop building schools and creating organizations. Stop condemning the way they treat you there, every time they target you.

Instead, use your Yiddishe kop to get the heck out of there. Keep your goodwill and your burning Jewish spirit, yes! Ordain many, many rabbis.

But not there.

Leave Germany, leave France, where the Yellow Vests hung a banner reading, “Macron is a whore of the Jews,” and invited followers to a Chabad Chanuka celebration saying, "The Jewish people celebrate while the French have nothing to eat."

Leave also Belgium, where soccer fans sang the following lyrics in August:

“My father was part of a commando / my mother was SS / and together they burned Jews / because the Jews burn the best.”

Leave England, where the rise of Corbyn looms, and where a soccer fan only last week called for “gassing Jews” during a match.

Leave all these places before the gates close shut, as they have so many times before.

Learn from Dorothy, who famously said, “There’s no place like home.”

Come to Israel. Build your own land. Create new institutions, organizations, and schools in Israel. Contribute to its culture.

Why be the guest who refuses to leave?

Dorothy had to click her heels three times. All you have to do is hop on a plane.

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Hamas Grant Writer Inflating Achievements In Funding Report To Qatar (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Check out their Facebook page.

Doha, Qatar, December 26 - An office staffer in the political echelon of the militant Islamist organization that governs the Gaza Strip has taken to exaggerating the attainments of his movement with the monies of the organization's chief sponsor, in keeping with the practice of not-for-profit grant reporting everywhere.

Grant writer Yusuf Mubalagha at Hamas's political headquarters in the Qatari capital has employed rhetorical and semantic sleight of hand, vague descriptors, and numerous weasel words in a report to the Qatari government on his movement's use of hundreds of millions of dollars provided by the latter, as functionaries holding analogous positions in NGOs and think tanks have done for decades.

Mr. Mubalagha has described Hamas's use of incendiary kites and balloons against Israeli communities, nature reserves, and farms, for example, as "strides forward in the campaign to liberate Al-Quds from the Zionist usurper," referring to Jerusalem by its Arabic name, when in fact the Islamist organization remains as distant as ever from achieving such a goal.

Elsewhere, the grant writer invokes the dozens of rockets fired at Israeli communities last month, which resulted in several injuries but only one death, of a Palestinian laborer in Israel, calling the two-day barrage "a mighty blow that sent the enemy cowering in his shelters and bunkers," when in fact Israel continued to function more or less normally during that time.

"We have to justify all the funding Qatar gives us," explained Mubalagha. "That can be a challenge when you have to point to intangible achievements, or achievements that don't lend themselves easily to metrics. Lacking a body count of Jews, there's not as much to go on. So I have to get creative. I can talk up the number of projectiles fired, the number of times Israelis had to run for shelter, and that sort of thing, and make it seems more impressive than it might have been at the time. We do have the resignation of the Israeli Defense Minister to tout, but that will only take you so far. Really it's all about marketing. That's what it comes down to. Standard grant reporting methodology."

His latest report also includes a colorful chart showing the breakdown of funding uses, in which the embezzlement of large sums from Qatari aid by Hamas leaders is included in a section labeled "Infrastructure Investment," giving the impression that said funds contributed to improved quality of life for Gaza Strip residents, or at least to more tunnels in which to hide weapons, fighters, and supplies.

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12/26 Links Pt1: US: top Hezbollah brass hit in alleged Israeli strikes in Syria; Israel rails at Lebanese government after 5th cross-border tunnel found

From Ian:

US official says top Hezbollah brass hit in alleged Israeli strikes in Syria

An alleged Israeli airstrike in Syria Tuesday night hit several senior Hezbollah officials as they boarded a plane bound for Iran, Newsweek reported Wednesday morning, citing a Defense Department source.

The unnamed source told the magazine he had received the information from top Israeli military brass.

He said strategic Iranian munitions were also targeted, including advanced GPS components for weaponry.

Syrian state media said the strikes, beginning at about 10 p.m., were carried out from Lebanon and that a number of targets were intercepted. It said its own air defenses had opened fire on “enemy targets,” shooting them down.

Syrian TV quoted a military source saying weapons warehouses were hit, and three Syrian soldiers wounded.
A screenshot from video purporting to show a Syrian surface-to-air missile being fired near Damascus on December 25, 2018. (Screen capture: YouTube)

Syrian media said Wednesday morning that Israel hit a base used by Hezbollah in Al-Dimas, a weapons depot at a base belonging to the Syrian army’s 4th division in Sabura and the military’s 10th Division command in Qatana.

Additionally, Syrian air defenses in Attal and the 68th Brigade and 137th Battalion in Khan-al-Sheikh were also reportedly attacked, Hadashot reported.

Netanyahu vows to keep hitting Iran in Syria: ‘We stand firmly on our red lines’

Brushing aside Russian criticism of a reported Israeli airstrike in Syria overnight, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday doubled down on Israel’s policy of attacking Iranian-linked targets in Syria.

“We will not abide an Iranian entrenchment in Syria,” Netanyahu, who is also the defense minister, said at a graduation ceremony for fresh Israeli Air Force pilots at the Hatzerim air base in the south.

“We are taking action against it aggressively and powerfully, including in these very days,” he said.

US President Donald Trump’s “decision to pullout American soldiers from Syria does not change our policy,” Netanyahu said. “We stand firmly on our red lines in Syria and everywhere else.”

The Israeli air force’s capabilities are unmatched, and can reach arenas “near and far, very far,” he added.

US President Donald Trump surprised the world and many of his own officials by announcing last week that he would pull all 2,000 US soldiers in Syria out of the warn-torn country. Israel is concerned that Iran will take advantage of the military vacuum to expand its entrenchment in Syria.

An administration official tells me this is “totally not true.” Senior Israeli official adds: “ridiculous” https://t.co/ukw9k3Coo8
— Amir Tibon (@amirtibon) December 26, 2018

Israel fires at missile from Syria; IDF jets said to pound Damascus arms depots

Israel said Tuesday night it had deployed its air defenses against a missile shot from Syria as Damascus attempted to repel an alleged Israeli airstrike against Hezbollah or Iranian targets near the capital.

The Israel Defense Forces said there was no damage or injuries from the surface-to-air missile fired from Syria at Israel.

“An IDF aerial defense system activated in response to an anti-aircraft missile launched from Syria,” the army said in a statement.

It did not say where or even if the missile was successfully intercepted.

Pictures shared on social media showed an air defense missile being fired near Hadera, a city some 100 kilometers (60 miles) south of the Syrian border where residents had earlier reported hearing a loud explosion.

YNet reports:

Authorities in Qatar are preparing to host thousands of Jews and Israelis during the 2022 FIFA World Cup competition. Arrangements need to be made to supply kosher food and places of prayer for soccer fans traveling to the Gulf state.

Hassan al-Thawadi, Secretary-General of the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy (the organization responsible for coordinating among public and private entities to ensure that infrastructure and development projects are delivered in readiness for the 2022 FIFA World Cup), met with US Rabbi Marc Schneier, considered the unofficial Jewish chaplain of the Persian Gulf states, and asked him to serve as an adviser with regards to matters relating to hosting Jewish sports fans who will attend the matches.

"This is an exceptional development that attests to the sensitivity that the Qataris show toward Israelis and the Jewish world," said Rabbi Schneier. He said the Qataris sought his advice with concern for the needs of Jewish fans in everything related to kosher food. "I responded to the request with joy. The fact that our conversation took place on this subject is already amazing," Schneier said.

Whether the Qataris will set up a synagogue for Jewish fans to pray inside Schneier said: "No comment. They have left me to advise them on how to host the Jewish fans. We have begun discussing the details. Al-Thawadi told the New York Times in an interview with that Israelis will be very welcome during the Mondial games in Qatar."

Arabic site Mobtada is not happy, saying that Qatar, by welcoming Jews, "shows its ugly face."

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EoZ suspended from Twitter for 12 hours

Yesterday, I asked Ken Roth from Human Rights Watch a question, and some idiot from Gaza answered this way:

Ahlam is a freedom fighter. Nazi Israel uses its "civilians" as human shields.
— Refaatesque (@ThisGaza) December 25, 2018

I responded:

My obviously sarcastic suggestion for this lowlife to contribute to world peace in the only possible way he physically can was flagged by Twitter as a violation of their rules.

Since strictly speaking it was a violation, I am not appealing.

So no tweets from me for the next 11 hours and change.

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Dictator Mahmoud Abbas also controls the court system that just consolidated his power even more

A few days ago, Mahmoud Abbas dissolved the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), the largely symbolic Palestinian parliament. He pretended to do it in a "legal" way, and therein lies a tale.

The PLC is dominated by Hamas, who won more seats than Fatah in the only parliamentary election ever held in the territories. While it hasn't met since 2006, it still has one meaningful function in Palestinian law: If Abbas dies, the Palestinian Basic Law says that the speaker of the PLC becomes acting prime minister, and that is a Hamas member. So Abbas has incentive to ensure that Fatah remains in control should he expire.

In October, the Fatah Revolutionary Council called on the Palestinian Central Committee to dissolve the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) — the Palestinian parliament. The Fatah Revolutionary Council is dominated by Abbas supporters.

However, the PCC does not have the legal right to dissolve the PLC. And neither does Abbas.

In early December, Abbas vowed to dissolve the PLC "in a legal way." It is unclear if there is any legal way to do so under the Palestinian Basic Law.

But now Abbas has declared that the Palestinian Constitutional Court has indeed dissolved the PLC, just like he wanted.

The Court does not have a webpage. It has a Facebook page that doesn't mention any such decision, or indeed any of its decisions. From that page it appears that members of the court travel to other Islamic countries to conferences on constitutional law - and do little else.

But the Palestinian Constitutional Court, although mentioned in the 2003 Basic Law, was not set up until 2016.

And guess who handpicked all members of the court? Mahmoud Abbas!

Even when that court was created in 2016, it was seen as a power play to further restrict what the PLC could do, or even as an effective replacement for the PLC.

So it is fitting that Abbas declared that his "Supreme Court" made the decision he told them to do. They could do little else.

Hamas members of the PLC vowed to meet anyway, or at least to hold a press conference in front of the shuttered building of the parliament. Abbas' security forces went there to physically stop them from doing so....claiming that they are just following the decision of the court.

It is remarkable how the Western media still reports on Abbas as if he is somehow a legitimate ruler who is accountable to his people. He is just as much a despot as Syria's Assad, and he controls every single major Palestinian legislative, executive and judicial power.

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A group of Technion students won a competition for creating new, protein rich and sustainable foods by inventing falafel balls based on Spirulina seaweed.

The tahini is enriched with astaxathin.

This was part of the international competition where innovative micro-algae products were developed and business plans for their commercialization and exportation were presented.

The Technion students algae-based falafel were judged to be ready to market, now.

Congratulations....I think.

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EoZTV - Review of Xmas Tweets

Mrs. Elder and I review my tweets during Christmas in the latest episode of EoZTV.

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EoZTV - The Reboot

Mrs. Elder and I have rebooted our EoZTV podcast/videocast. In this episode, Mrs. Elder interviews me to go back to basics - what is antisemitism and anti-Zionism? Why do people hate Jews? Why should people support Israel?

It is about 30 minutes long but it is pretty good.

Any feedback or suggestions for future topics are welcome!

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