Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, December 26, 2022

Cartoon of the Day: The message of Chanukah

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From the official English translation of Mahmoud Abbas' Christmas message:

Today we are facing the policies and actions of our occupier with unity, commitment to our national values, steadfastness on our land, and with the world standing on the side of truth and justice. We will not accept the continuation of the occupation’s colonial-settlement policies targeting the Christian presence and Christianity in our region, which is an integral part of the social fabric of our people and of our region, something we always affirm and will continue to encourage all to preserve the mosaic of religious heritage that Palestine is proud of.

On this occasion we commend the positions of the Heads of Churches in Jerusalem, in which they accused extremist Zionist groups of carrying out continuous attacks on churches, intimidating Christians, attempting at expelling them and seizing their property.

We assure that we will continue to present our Palestinian narrative, refuting the false Zionist narrative, confronting any racist measures aimed at erasing our national identity, including our Christian and Muslim heritage. We will confront attacks on the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the Holy Sepulcher, Mount of Olives, Jaffa Gate, New Gate, the Armenian Quarter and others and attacks on every inch of the homeland.

We will not accept the practices of the colonial-settlement occupation and will confront them with peaceful popular resistance, in all international forums and courts. On this blessed occasion we call upon the international community break its silence and take concrete measures to stop Israeli crimes, including colonial-settlement expansion and ongoing annexation, the consolidation of a racist Apartheid regime, attempts at changing the identity and the character of the city of Jerusalem, the desecration of its Christian and Muslim holy sites , the seizure of church properties and all Palestinian properties, the forcible displacement of Palestinians from their homes, demolitions, as well as murders and other crimes and violations of international law. The homeland is mourning its martyrs, and we shall do everything we can to hold the criminals accountable.

Our hearts are squeezed with pain and suffering due to the killings of the Israeli occupation that led to the martyrdom of hundreds during this year, including the martyr journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, as well as the recent martyrdom of the hero Nasser Abu Hmeid, who died denied of his basic human rights as he was in the last stages of his struggle with cancer. We insist in the need for the international community to assume its responsibility to protect our people.

We affirm that the only way for our people, and all peoples of the region, to enjoy security, stability, prosperity and good neighborliness is for Palestinians to fulfil their legitimate and long overdue rights in accordance with international law and resolutions, including the end of the Israeli occupation and the freedom of the State of Palestine with East Jerusalem as its capital, including our Muslims and Christian sanctities, the right of return of our people and living in our homeland in freedom and dignity.

I extend my greetings and congratulations to our people wherever they are, and I say to them, be proud of your history and identity, tell the world that Christmas is a Palestinian message of hope which our people continues to embrace with love and hope to achieve justice, freedom and peace in the Holy Land.

In short: Jews are criminals who have no business to live here, people who murder Jews are heroes and we intend to destroy the Jewish state via "return."

7 paragraphs that were anti-Israel, and only two that talked about the usual Christmas messages of peace on Earth, goodwill towards men,

This is what happens when you define your entire purpose - and the purpose of your people - as destroying the Jewish state.

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12/26 Links Pt1: EU document proves ‘what we’ve been seeing on the ground’; PA’s incitement to terror and murder continues; Shin Bet foils Palestinian bomb plot targeting inside Israel

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.”

Lying is part and parcel of Palestinian NGOs

The International Commission to Support Palestinian Rights called on the international community and humanitarian organizations to intervene immediately to stop Israel from opening up nonexistent dams that are being blamed for flooding Gaza during torrential rains.

It would be easy to dismiss the hysterical lies of a tiny NGO in Gaza. Like many Palestinian NGOs, ICSPR is essentially a one man operation meant to attract funding.

Its chairman is Salah Abdel Ati, a "human rights lawyer" who is involved in a lot of other Palestinian NGOs. He is on the Board of Trustees of Law Palestine, and his bio there says that he is also "member of the Board of Trustees of the Institute for Middle East Studies, Canada, former director of the Palestinian Center for Policy Research & Strategic (Masarat) in the Gaza Strip (2015-2019), and former director of the Independent Commission for Human Rights in Gaza (2004-2015), Director of Programs and Training at Canaan Educational Development Institute (1997-2004). Besides, Abdel Ati is a researcher and writer who has published many books, studies, research papers, and articles in the fields of politics, law, human rights, and society. He has worked with the United Nations agencies and international, Arab and Palestinian organizations and has trained thousands of lawyers and human rights activists, judges, workers in civil society organizations, and he is the founder and a board member in several Palestinian, Arab and international NGOs and institutions."

So now we can link an obvious liar to numerous other NGOs and, according to him, "thousands of lawyers and human rights activists, judges, workers in civil society organizations" who he helped train.

There is an almost incestuous relationship between Palestinian NGOs and international NGOs who work in Gaza and the West Bank. They all build on each others' "research" and compete in who will innovate the latest anti-Israel libel.

Their funding - and salaries - depend on it.

Lying is not a disqualification from being an honored member of this cabal - it is a prerequisite.

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Whoopi Goldberg's perverted mindset is a manifestation of the larger phenomenon of Black antisemitism

Over the weekend, the Times of London reported that actress, producer and TV commentator Whoopi Goldberg doubled down on her statements earlier this year that the Holocaust was not about race (and, incidentally, showing that her apology at the time was meaningless:)

Whoopi Goldberg doubled down on her comments that the Holocaust was "not about race," which she made before temporarily being suspended from cohosting the TV talk show "The View" in February.

In a new interview with The Times of London, Goldberg said the Holocaust was not "originally" about race.

"Remember who they were killing first. They were not killing racial; they were killing physical. They were killing people they considered to be mentally defective," she said.

She also questioned whether Jewish people were a "race" compared to herself as a Black person.

"It doesn't change the fact that you could not tell a Jew on a street," Goldberg said. "You could find me. You couldn't find them. That was the point I was making. But you would have thought that I'd taken a big old stinky dump on the table, butt naked."

When Goldberg was asked about the fact that the Nazis classified Jewish people as a race, she responded: "The oppressor is telling you what you are. Why are you believing them? They're Nazis. Why believe what they're saying?"

This is so ignorant that one does not know where to begin.

The two important facts that The View pundit gets completely wrong are:

1. For Nazis, everything was about race.

It is true that the Nazis started their extermination program with the disabled (not only mentally but physically.) But the reason for that was purely racial: to weed out what Nazis believed were undesirable genetic traits in order to breed a Master Race. It was a trial run for their genocide against Jews, targeted also because of their supposedly inferior genetic traits. (Indeed, the Jewish disabled were wiped out first.)

2. Race is a social construct that has no bearing on biological reality.

Whoopi Goldberg's question, "Why believe what they are saying?' also applies to her. She believes that race is critically important because it is often visible, but in reality there is no "Black" gene. There are no significant genetic differences between people whose ancestors come from Europe, Asia or Africa, and the genetic variation within each group is larger than between groups.

Goldberg says that Nazi misconceptions about race are meaningless, but anti-Black racist opinions are of the highest importance.

It gets worse. She seems to be saying that Jews in Europe could have blended into the larger population and not have been persecuted. For religious Jews, this would mean cutting off their beards and payos, changing their clothing, language and accents, and abandoning their religion.

That is as offensive as saying that Black people could simply bleach their skin to defeat racism. And in both cases, it wouldn't work.

In fact, Goldberg is being more offensive, because her theory appears to be that the Holocaust was partially the Jews' fault - it was white people fighting with white people, both sides responsible, and if only the Jews would have acted differently, they would still be alive today.

There is a deeper issue here, though. How does someone as intelligent and accomplished as Whoopi Goldberg believe such stupidity?

And the reason is because she is an antisemitic bigot herself.

When you ask Caryn Elaine Johnson why she chose the stage name "Goldberg," she says, "The true story is that my family is Jewish, Buddhist, Baptist and Catholic . . So I took the last name from a Jewish ancestor."

This is a lie. She has no Jewish ancestors that anyone could find. But according to one account, her mother thought that her last name Johnson was "not Jewish enough" to make her a star.

Taking a Jewish name was a career move because Jews control Hollywood.

But there is something deeper here, and it relates to the current flavor of Black antisemitism.

As we have seen in recent years, it has become fashionable in even mainstream Black circles to claim that Blacks are the real Jews, making Jews imposters. The logic is not based on facts, but on the idea that victimhood is the coin of the realm and since Jews have been history's most prominent victims, Blacks must be the real Jews.

When being a victim is considered desirable, and anti-Black racism is defined as the ultimate evil, then the Holocaust becomes an ideological roadblock. The Nazi genocide, which dwarfs the evils of slavery by orders of magnitude, is a problem that must be minimized and explained away to maintain the idea that (anti-Black) racism is the alpha and omega of inhumanity.

Goldberg needs the Holocaust to not be about racism, because that means that Jews have been much bigger, much more recent victims of racism than Blacks have been - and that waters down the effectiveness of claiming that everything is about anti-Black racism.

Saying that Jews aren't really Jews and are just other white people also becomes a way for some Blacks to rationalize why Jews went from being a despised minority to a successful group in only one or two generations while most Black people are still at a great disadvantage. It couldn't be that Jews worked hard to transcend anti-Jewish bigotry: that implies that anti-Black racism can be overcome just as anti-Jewish racism was. That is not an acceptable message in a society that values victimhood over accomplishments. Easier to push the lie that white people always accepted Jews as fellow whites.

The irony is that the main purveyors of the new Black antisemitism are some of the richest, most powerful and most famous Black celebrities - the very people who managed to become successful despite racism. The Whoopi Goldbergs, Professor Griffs and Ice Cubes prefer to cut Jews down than to bring their fellow Blacks up.

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A Palestinian environmentalist who loves his land

The problem with hyperbole is that it eventually loses its effectiveness - and to keep it going, one has to keep upping the ante.

The UK-based Al Araby, which publishes in English as "The New Arab," has an editorial whose headline declares that "The Zionist occupation is a threat to humanity."

Sounds ominous!

It starts off with the usual supposed crimes against Palestinians - "the ethnic liquidation of the people of Palestine," that somehow keeps growing; "destruction of the economy, cutting off livelihoods, and reducing job opportunities to a minimum" (even though record numbers of Palestinians have well-paying jobs in Israel,) "destroying the health sector and limiting the Palestinian’s access to appropriate and urgent medicine," even though it is the PA that no longer allows Palestinians to be treated in Israeli hospitals - except for their own VIPs.

But that's hardly enough for an op-ed. So the newspaper editors have to add that Israel is trying to eliminate Palestinians from existence by "destroying the Palestinian environment, by uprooting trees, confiscating lands, and polluting water and soil."

Given that Palestinians burn Israeli lands, burn tires in protests and ruin the groundwater, this is as absurd as the previous accusations. But here is where the editorial makes its leap:

It is clear that the disastrous repercussions of the Zionist project/occupation affect all human, animal, plant and environmental life, which represents a threat to all of humanity, which struggles to survive in light of other environmental threats. Therefore, it can be said that the liberation of Palestine from this cancerous project is a human necessity as much as it is a Palestinian necessity.

Whoa! So Israel's supposed crimes against the Palestinian environment is threatening to destroy the entire world! Therefore, this mainstream, moderate UK-based paper says, every country must work together to destroy Israel in order to save the world!

Now, that's a new take!

Every bizarre accusation against Israel starts off just as fringe and as untethered to truth as this one, but in a couple of decades, with enough Big Lie type repetition, it is entirely possible that Amnesty and Human Rights Watch will adopt this narrative as well.

It's happened before.

Of course, the English language edition did not publish this editorial. Arabs know when they are spewing nonsense that would make them lose their friends if they were reading themselves. It will take a couple of years of conditioning from SJP and JVP, and then the New York Times congratulating itself for publishing such a provocative op-ed. Only then will this new narrative of Jews trying to destroy the world be mainstream enough to spread it without fear of looking like idiots.

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Chanukah Music Video night 8: V'Kavu (TABC High School) plus Boys Town Jerusalem

Catchy.

Plus:

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"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."

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

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12/25 Links: Melanie Phillips: Happy inclusive holidays!; Israel should terminate the Oslo Accords; Israeli mayor attends funeral of terrorist who wounded 3 policemen

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: Happy inclusive holidays!

What a minefield this whole identity thing is. Thank goodness Chanukah doesn’t present this problem, eh?

For many diaspora Jews, Chanukah is regarded as Christmas-lite with gifts, diet-destroying delicacies and a lighted menorah in place of a glittering tree.

And there can hardly be much danger of offending anyone with a card displaying a chanukiah, dreidel or doughnut, or standard anodyne message such as “Festival of lights”, “Love, light, latkes” or “Peace, love and miracles”.

Hold on a minute. Chanukah is not actually a festival of peace and love. It celebrates instead the victory of the Maccabees who went to war against both the Seleucid Greeks and the Hellenists, Jews who were themselves drawn to the pagan ways of their Greek overlords.

The Maccabees were not apostles of peace. They were more like resistance commandos, fierce and uncompromising warriors who fought their Greek oppressors.

Moreover, they also committed violent atrocities against the Hellenised Jews who had absorbed Greek universalism and as a result had taken aim at circumcision, Shabbat observance and Torah study.

The Maccabees regarded those overly-assimilated Jews as traitors to Judaism and dealt with them accordingly.

In the saccharine world of much Chanukah observance, the Maccabees are commonly presented as heroes fighting and defeating the tyrannical Greeks. This was undoubtedly true.

But other commentators equally plausibly describe them as zealots, violent religious extremists who forced Jews to conform to a strict interpretation of Judaism and expelled non-Jews from the land. To the Hellenised Jews, they were religious nuts.

Ring any bells? Today, many diaspora Jews (and liberal Israelis) are hyper-ventilating over the likely inclusion in the new Israeli government of three men whose agenda has distinct echoes of the Maccabees.

Itamar Ben-Gvir, the putative security minister, called in his younger days for the expulsion of the Arabs from Israel (although he says he has changed his views). Bezalel Smotrich, tipped as a finance minister, has said his ultimate aim is an Israeli theocracy.

And Avi Maoz, who is set to run an office of “Jewish identity”, has taken explicit aim at the “Hellenising Jews” of the Israeli left and progressive denominations whom he terms “the real darkness”.

Celebrating the Maccabees might therefore be seen as celebrating Ben-Gvir, Smotrich and Maoz.

Well that’s the end of Chanukah cards, then.

PMW: Jesus the Palestinian terrorist and his 72 dark-eyed virgins

One of the many ways in which the Palestinian Authority distorts history in order to invent a centuries-old Palestinian identity, is to turn Jesus the Judean (Jew), who promoted peace on earth, into a Palestinian terrorist who was murdered by the Israelis, thus becoming the first Palestinian “Martyr,” who is now reveling in heaven with Allah, in the arms of 72 dark-eyed virgins.

While the language the PA uses to describe Jesus as a terrorist and as someone enjoying his virgins is less direct, the meaning is the same.

When referring to Palestinian terrorists, the PA calls them “self-sacrificing fighters,” or “fidai”. So, when the PA and its officials use the same terms to describe Jesus, they are in fact saying he is a terrorist.

As Palestinian Media Watch has shown, here, here, here, here, and here, among other places, the definition of Jesus as a terrorist enjoying his virgins is not a fringe idea, but rather one expressed by the highest order in the PA.

Jesus the “Palestinian” terrorist murdered by the Jews

When PA Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh sought to declare Jesus a terrorist, and link him to Palestinian terror, he referred to him as a “Palestinian self-sacrificing fighter” who, similar to the PA descriptions of suicide bombers, “paid for his mission with his life” and whose birth takes place “at the same time as the anniversary of the outbreak of the Palestinian revolution” – i.e the anniversary of the first Fatah terror attack:
“The birthday of our lord Jesus, peace be upon him - the first Palestinian self-sacrificing fighter from whom we learned Martyrdom-death, and who paid for his mission with his life - takes place at the same time as the anniversary of the outbreak of the Palestinian revolution (i.e., the anniversary of “the Launch” of Fatah, counted from its first terror attack against Israel), for which thousands of Martyrs have paid with their lives so that we will live and remain, and so that our children will dream of a better future.”

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 28, 2020]

Muwaffaq Matar, a member of the Revolutionary Council of PA leader Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party and regular columnist for the official PA daily similarly adopted Jesus as a Palestinian and compared him to terrorists calling him a “self-sacrificing fighter”:

By Daled Amos

This week, America First Legal sued President Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken for violating the Taylor Force Act. The group represents Stuart and Robbi Force, the parents of Taylor Force who was murdered by Palestinian terrorists, Sarri Singer, a survivor of a 2003 terrorist attack, and US Congressman Ronny Jackson (R-TX).

Taylor Force was murdered on March 8, 2016, and despite the fact that he was neither Jewish nor Israeli, the Palestinian Authority repeatedly praised the terrorist who killed Taylor as a martyr:

Biden was Vice President at the time and was in Israel, in Tel Aviv where the attack took place.

“I don’t know exactly whether it was a hundred meters or a thousand meters,” Biden, on a visit to Israel, told reporters about Tuesday’s assault.

“It brings home that it can happen, it can happen anywhere, at any time,” he said, after meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem.

Meanwhile, Abbas offered condolences at the same time that the official PA News was praising the murderer.

The Taylor Force Act was signed into law in 2018 to stop Abbas and the PA from incentivizing terrorism. According to the summary of the bill:

(Sec. 4) This bill prohibits certain FY2018-FY2023 economic support assistance that directly benefits the Palestinian Authority (PA) from being made available for the West Bank and Gaza unless the Department of State certifies that the PA, the Palestine Liberation Organization, and any successor or affiliated organizations:

o  are taking steps to end acts of violence against U.S. and Israeli citizens perpetrated by individuals under their jurisdictional control, such as the March 2016 attack that killed former Army officer Taylor Force;

o have revoked any law, decree, or document authorizing or implementing a system of compensation for imprisoned individuals that uses the sentence or incarceration period to determine compensation;

o  have terminated payments for acts of terrorism against U.S. and Israeli citizens to any individual who has been fairly tried and imprisoned for such acts, to any individual who died committing such acts, and to family members of such an individual; and

o  are publicly condemning such acts of violence and are investigating such acts.

During the Trump administration, payments to the PA were frozen. When he first started resuming aid to the Palestinian Authority, Biden did more than simply undo Trump's policy -- he attempted to bypass the law passed by Congress. When it was announced in March 2021 that the Biden administration would renew funding of the PA despite their refusal to stop "pay for slay" payments to the families of terrorists, it was unclear how the administration intended to avoid the restrictions of the Taylor Force Act:

The State Department has yet to explain how it will resume U.S. aid without violating that law, known as the Taylor Force Act.

A State Department official familiar with the matter told the Washington Free Beacon that "any decisions related to resuming assistance to the West Bank and Gaza will be consistent with requirements under relevant U.S. law."

The question is how the Biden administration will attempt to explain away its violation of the Taylor Force Act.

Concerns were already raised back in 2020 on how they would do this. Yossi Kuperwasser, a senior intelligence and security expert, expected the PA to continue its claim that the payments were based merely on financial considerations. He expected that the Biden administration would pull the same trick as the Obama administration in 2014, when it asked the PA to move the agency in charge of the payments from the PA to the PLO. On that basis alone, the State Department then claimed that the PA was making efforts and that things were moving in the right direction.

But nothing really changed and no action to prevent the payments was taken.

Instead, in April 2021, a package was put together for the Palestinian Arabs that was supposed to avoid circumventing the Taylor Force Act:

o $150 million went to UNRWA
o $75 went to economic development programs in the West Bank and Gaza
o $10 million went to "peace building" initiatives.

According to Blinken at the time, the money would not violate the Taylor Force Act because it would not go directly to the PA. Instead, the money would go to agencies that are independent of both the Abbas government and Hamas.

Jonathan Tobin notes that according to a Government Accounting Office report that preceded Trump's cutoff of funds, money given to the Palestinian government by US officials was not closely monitored and wound up in the hands of terrorists. While the report indicated that better oversight could solve the problem, it remains unclear how the Biden White House and the usual bureaucracy are going to succeed what they have previously failed to do.

Another issue is that Palestinian NGOs receiving the funding are not really independent of the Palestinian governments, whether these groups deal with Abbas and Fatah in the West Bank or Hamas in Gaza.

An additional point Tobin makes is that the money itself is fungible. The money received by the NGOs is money that the Abbas government might otherwise have had to spend for those non-government purposes. The money from the US thus allows Abbas to divert the money it saves due to US largesse on other purposes, including those that are terror-related.

The State Department itself acknowledged that there is a problem of Abbas funneling money to terrorists. In a March 18 non-public report in 2021,

The State Department admitted it was "unable to certify" to Congress that the Palestinian Authority and Palestine Liberation Organization are complying with the Taylor Force Act, primarily because they have "not terminated payments for acts of terrorism to any individual, after being fairly tried, who has been imprisoned for such acts of terrorism and to any individual who died committing such acts of terrorism, including to a family member of such individuals," according to the report. [emphasis added]

In a separate memo, the State Department also admitted that the PA had "not taken proactive steps to counter incitement to violence against Israel." In other words, they could not certify for Congress that the PA had fulfilled repeated promises to end incitement and recommit itself to peace negotiations.

There is a problem of Abbas encouraging terrorist attacks.
The State Department admits there is a problem.
The Biden Administration has failed to present a clear plan on how provide funding for Palestinian Arabs without it being used for encouraging the murder of Israelis.

Maybe its time to let the Taylor Force Act do the job it was intended for.

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The "UN Special Rapporteur on Occupied Palestinian Territories" has shown, yet again, how little she cares about the truth - and about Jewish lives - in this Twitter thread about the lung cancer death of arch-terrorist Nasir Abu Hmeid (Hamid).

Abu Hamid, Palestinian refugee from Al-Amar Camp, West Bank, was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2002, for alleged involvement in attacks against Israeli forces during the 2nd Intifada. His detention appeared to violate basic human rights standards, including denial of family visits.

Lie #1: He was not a "Palestinian refugee." By definition, a refugee cannot live in the same country they are supposedly refugees from. The definition of refugee is very clear in the UN Refugee Convention.

Lie #2: He was not sentenced for "alleged involvement in attacks against Israeli forces." He was sentenced to multiple life sentences for his involvement in murdering seven Israeli civilians, not soldiers.

And there is nothing alleged about it. Palestinians openly brag about his so-called "resistance."

Lie #3: While Israel may have sometimes denied family visits for specific technical reasons, but they certainly allowed them. Not only did the family get to visit Abu Hamid and his three terrorist brothers in prison - they would all get together in a single group, with no glass wall between them, laughing and having fun together. I have seen two separate visits documented in photos:

That's only one tweet.

Albanese links to a letter she co-write about Abu Hmeid in October, that shows how little she cares about fairness and truth. Even though she tries to ensure that no one can call her a liar because she liberally sprinkles her spurious accusations of Israeli mistreatment of Abu Hmeid with "allegedly" and "reportedly," she still manages to show her contempt for Israel and for Israeli civilians, and the lies still shine through:

* She again makes the false accusation that his arrest was for "attacks against Israeli forces." This shows that she believes Palestinian propaganda, where every Israeli civilian is considered a legitimate military target.

* She repeats the lie by saying "On 19 September 2022, the Board postponed the date of the hearing for Mr. Abu Hamid’s case until 6 October 2022, allegedly in light of objections to his release by the families of Israeli soldiers allegedly killed by Mr. Abu Hamid."

This is not a mistake - she repeats the lie that he did not kill civilians, only "soldiers."

* She writes, "Mr. Abu Hamid has served most of his sentence in Askalan Prison, where he was reportedly subject to detention conditions that do not respect the minimum safety, hygiene or health standards. He was placed in a narrow and overcrowded cell without proper ventilation and deprived of adequate health care."

First of all, the prison name is Ashkelon, not Askalan. Even if you use the Arab name of the city, the prison does not have that name. This shows that Albanese simply does not accept any information from Israel as truth, while she believes Palestinian lies implicitly.

Secondly, she doesn't couch her accusations of prison conditions with any "allegedly." Albanese states, as fact, that the prison is overcrowded and has improper ventilation. Has the Red Cross said that there is no proper ventilation there? Has she read any Israeli inspection reports? Of course not.

Palestinians lie about the prison conditions all the time...and yet, when they go on strike for better conditions, we can see the truth. This extensive list of demands in 2004, during the height of the second intifada, asks for things like allowing second cousins to visit and "to allow all cells to have access to a computer and not only students." But it doesn't demand basic things like better ventilation or less crowded conditions!

Why not? Because that wasn't a problem even in 2004, let alone today!

Here is more proof, as if any is needed, that Francesca Albanese is a liar. And her refusal to believe a word that Jewish Israelis say while believing the accusations of murderers and their supporters shows, yet again, that her railing against the "Jewish lobby" was not a mistake, but antisemitism is part and parcel of who she is.

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Palestinians still repeating the "flood libel"

In 2015, mainstream media did what it does best - parrot ridiculous Palestinian claims without checking - and reported that Israel opened dams to flood Gaza. Social media user made fun of AFP for being so stupid, and for once, AFP actually checked the facts and retracted its story, acknowledging that there were no "dams" in the Negev that Israel could open up to flood Gaza.

AFP said that its reporting was "shattering a long-held Palestinian myth."

Someone should tell the Palestinians that.

The mayor of Zawaida in Gaza, Sami Abu Muhaisen, said that "the occupation" deliberately flooded the eastern regions in the center of Gaza by opening dams and opening water and sewage culverts, which caused the flooding of agricultural lands, damage to crops, and the accumulation of water in large quantities in Salah al-Din Street.

There was also heavy flooding in Mecca this weekend, but Israel has not been blamed for that.

Yet.

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12/24 Links: “Rabbi” Who Said Kaddish for Hamas Threatens to Boycott Israeli Government; Police release body cam footage from Kfar Qassem terror attack

From Ian:

Far-right MKs said to agree not to impede Netanyahu efforts to normalize with Saudis

The far-right elements of Israel’s incoming government have agreed not to hinder any efforts by incoming prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reach a normalization agreement with Saudi Arabia, according to a Saturday report.

Such a deal has been one of Netanyahu’s greatest goals since signing the historic Abraham Accords with Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates in September 2020, as he has stated several times since.

While Morocco and Sudan also joined the accords later, Saudi Arabia has been reluctant.

The Saudis have been widely reported to maintain clandestine ties with Jerusalem. Though Netanyahu himself is reported to have flown to the country in secret to meet with Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, Riyadh has continued to insist publicly that a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians was a “requirement” for any normalization agreement.

Still, Netanyahu is optimistic that such a deal can be reached with the Gulf state and his political partners understand this, according to Channel 12.

The report said there was an understanding between Netanyahu and far-right lawmakers Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich to not sabotage any effort to normalize relations with the Saudis.

As one example, the unsourced report cited the vague wording of Netanyahu’s agreement in principle to advance annexation of West Bank land as part of the coalition deal with Smotrich, head of the far-right Religious Zionism party.

The agreement was worded in a way that could allow Netanyahu to make no movement on the issue if he chooses. And the report said Smotrich understands that such a scenario is dependent on US approval, which would only be feasible under a Republican president. It hinted he may remain quiet on the matter for the time being to allow Netanyahu to make overtures to Riyadh.

A second example given was Ben Gvir’s statement that though he wants to advance bills providing security forces with immunity from prosecution and looser open-fire rules, he has also agreed to adhere to international law — another apparent agreement not to rock the boat.

Ron Dermer meets Netanyahu, will only join gov’t if made foreign minister — report

Incoming prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly met this week with Ron Dermer, a close confidant and a former Israeli ambassador to the US, to continue talks on bringing Dermer into the government in a top role.

Netanyahu is said to have been considering appointing Dermer as foreign minister, an idea that has been contested by senior Likud members who, in recent weeks, have seen a number of key cabinet portfolios handed over to the Likud’s far-right and ultra-Orthodox coalition partners as the Likud leader has tried to cobble together a coalition. As the number of top jobs dwindled for lawmakers within his own party, Netanyahu has faced tough criticism for such decisions.

Netanyahu announced Wednesday that he has finally come to agreements with his coalition partners to form Israel’s 37th government. The Likud leader has yet to finalize coalition agreements with any of his party’s intended partners, however. Knesset Speaker Yariv Levin will announce the development during Monday’s legislative session. Netanyahu will then have until January 2 to swear in his coalition.

On Friday, Channel 12 reported that Dermer and Netanyahu met a day prior and that the ex-envoy expressed a strong willingness to be part of the incoming government but only in the position of foreign minister. The unsourced report also said Netanyahu was pitched the idea of appointing two foreign ministers, Dermer and a senior member of the Likud, but this move was deemed unlikely.

The report said Netanyahu sees Dermer as very closely aligned with his right-wing ideology and a future part of the Likud. Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition

Palestinians slam Israeli coalition deals, warn of Middle East ‘explosion’

Palestinians have expressed deep concern over the agreements signed between Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right coalition partners, especially Otzma Yehudit head MK Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich of the Religious Zionists Party (RZP).

They warned that the policies of the incoming government will lead to an “explosion” and urged the Palestinian Authority and the international community to prepare for the worst scenarios.

The Palestinian Authority called on the international community, the US administration, and the European Union to link their relationship with the Netanyahu government “to the extent of its commitment to international law, international legitimacy decisions, and human rights principles.”

The Palestinian foreign affairs ministry said that it views “with great seriousness” reports in the Israeli media regarding Netanyahu’s “ill-fated agreements with his far-right fascist coalition partners.”

Palestinians fear move giving West Bank control to Smotrich
KAN News reported Friday that as part of the coalition agreement with RZP, Netanyahu has agreed to relinquish significant control over the approval process for settlement construction to Smotrich.

Netanyahu reportedly agreed to hand authority over the two key bodies responsible for Israeli control in the West Bank – the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) and the Civil Administration – to Smotrich’s party.

The Palestinians fear the move would pave the way for the new government to extend Israeli law to large portions of the West Bank, especially Area C, which is exclusively controlled by Israel.

The Palestinians, in addition, are concerned about Ben-Gvir’s insistence on including a clause in the coalition agreement that imposes a death sentence on convicted terrorists.

“Rabbi” Who Said Kaddish for Hamas Threatens to Boycott Israeli Government

Israel has a new conservative government and its enemies, and by that, I mean anti-Israel leftists, couldn’t be angrier. Ron Kampeas at the JTA has another anti-Israel press release disguised as a news story promoting a push by anti-Israel activists to boycott members of the incoming Israeli government.

“More than 330 American rabbis, including some who occupy prominent roles in major cities, are pledging to block members of the Religious Zionist bloc in Benjamin Netanyahu’s new government from speaking at their synagogues,” Kampeas gushes.

The list largely consists of anti-Israel clergy, many, if not most of them, also members of the ‘Rabbis for Hamas”. This was a list that Annie of Boker Tov Boulder put together back in the day of leftist clergy who signed a letter urging “constructive engagement” with Hamas.

Over the years I’ve noted the same bunch of names on assorted anti-Israel letters as the ‘Rabbis for Hamas’.

Sure enough, Melanie Aron, a speaker at the Islamic Networks Group, has signed both letters. As did Elliot Baskin, James Bennett, Phil Bentley, Leila Berner, Jonathan Biatch, Rena Blumenthal and Jonathan Brumberg-Kraus. And that’s just the A’s and B’s.

That’s impressive considering that a number of these people must have died or retired since then.

While I won’t bother going through the list, a few names do pop out. Most notably, Sharon Kleinbaum.

Sharon Kleinbaum, the girlfriend of teachers’ union boss Randi Weingarten, is infamous for her role at a gay temple in New York City where her hatred of Israel was so extreme that it drove the members away.

Chanukah Music Video Night 7: Yoely Weiss - Haneiros Haluli (Yiddish)

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12/23 Links Pt2: The top 10 Jewish stories of 2022; A startup nation for Zionist causes; Norway’s huge sovereign wealth fund said weighing divesting from Israel

From Ian:

Jonathan S. Tobin: The top 10 Jewish stories of 2022

It’s been a difficult decade. 2020 was the year of coronavirus-pandemic panic and the general collapse of established norms. This was compounded by the Black Lives Matter riots that set off a moral panic about race, with the mainstreaming of fringe ideas and intersectionality.

2021 was a little better, as the world gradually shook off its COVID paranoia. But it was notable mainly for the Jan. 6 Capitol riot that has roiled American politics ever since, the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan and the creation of an Israeli government that combined members of the right, the left and even Islamist parliamentarians.

2022 has been something of a challenge, with war and antisemitism dominating Jewish news just as much, if not more, than in the previous two years. As it comes to an end, here’s a look back at the year with my list—in reverse order—of the top 10 stories and how they’ve shaped the Jewish world.

For good or for ill, JNS has covered them all. Stick with us in 2023, as we continue to give you the best in Jewish journalism with news, analysis and opinion you can’t find anywhere else.

10-The U.N.’s and ‘human rights’ groups’ war on Israel escalates
The report of the U.N. Human Rights Council’s Commission of Inquiry (COI) on the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, published in June, was a textbook case of antisemitic incitement. In its view, there is no Palestinian incitement, no Palestinian terrorism, no Palestinian rejection of peace. Led by open antisemites like Navi Pillay, the document denied Jewish history and the truth about the century-old war that Palestinian Arabs and their enablers have been waging on Zionism.

Like the rest of the hatred directed at Israel from the world body and so-called “human rights” NGOs, this campaign is often downplayed or ignored by the Jewish world. That’s a mistake, since efforts such as those apparent in the COI report serve as the foundation for the ongoing “lawfare” endeavor to isolate and turn Israel into a pariah state. Far from being insignificant enough to warrant a lack of attention, these undertakings legitimize antisemitism throughout the world and undermine otherwise successful normalization moves between the Jewish state and its Arab neighbors.

9-Normalization with the Arab world continues
The second year since the signing of the 2020 Abraham Accords, which led to the normalization of relations between Israel and four Arab and Muslim countries, saw those ties strengthened, with tourism and economic activity continuing to expand in 2022. But, while progress towards full acceptance is slow, the steady rise in trade and the growing signs of security cooperation testify to the Arab world’s belief that it can no longer be held hostage by Palestinian intransigence.

These positive trends might have been even stronger by now, had the administration in Washington prioritized the quest to build on its predecessor’s achievement and expand the circle of peace, especially with Saudi Arabia. But President Joe Biden has botched relations with Riyadh. And though he doesn’t oppose the accords brokered by former President Donald Trump, his foreign-policy team is still more interested in appeasing Iran and the Palestinian Authority.

The European Genizah

The term “European Genizah” refers to thousands of individual pages that were torn out of Hebrew manuscripts centuries ago, and then used to bind books and cover archival files. Sometimes these pages were discovered by chance, and sometimes as a result of a systematic search. They were discovered mainly in Central Europe, in dozens of libraries, archives, and monasteries, and even among private possessions.

The European Genizah is not limited to Hebrew manuscripts. Tens of thousands of manuscripts in Latin, Greek, and other local languages were discarded as worthless throughout Europe, mainly in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, but also during the medieval era. They were then used by bookbinders and notaries in bindings, to cover files, and occasionally for other uses as well. An unwanted manuscript—whether because the ideas and opinions they contained had been invalidated, because better versions of the works had been published, or because newer and more beautiful manuscripts (or printed books) had been obtained—was removed from the shelves and sold to bookbinders. It goes without saying that ordinary folks had no interest in preserving manuscripts for which they no longer had any use, but even esteemed university libraries did not hesitate to discard thousands of manuscripts, some of which were purchased by craftsmen who used the parchment in bindings and to cover archival files. Parchment is a valuable material, easy to cut but hard to tear, and light (especially in comparison to the heavy wooden bindings that were common then). Therefore, bookbinders found much use for passé manuscripts that no one wished to read any longer. A handful of scholars understood by the middle of the sixteenth century that bookbinders were in possession of ancient manuscripts that should be rescued from their blades, but the phenomenon continued unabated for a long time and throughout Europe. Tens of thousands of such pages have been discovered recently in various countries, some in old bindings, and some in the covers of archival documents.

I will not presently address non-Hebrew manuscripts that have been discovered in book bindings, but I nevertheless note that even these contain, albeit infrequently, information of importance for Jewish history or the history of the Hebrew book. I cite three examples: The first is the remnant of a very old Hebrew manuscript that was discovered by chance within a Latin fragment used in a binding. The second is from a Marseille notary who bound his archival files in the early 1320s with a Latin document that he had written himself a short time before. By then, he no longer needed that document, so he excised and repurposed the parchment. The document contains the account of an investigation conducted by the Inquisition in Toulon, a city near Marseille, against a Jew suspected of helping an apostate Jew return to his original faith. It provides important information about the history of the Jews of that community during this period. The third consists of strips of outdated bills in Latin, which were used in England to bind newer bills. These strips contain information on loans made by English Jews to their Christian neighbors in the thirteenth century.

A startup nation for Zionist causes

Israel is rightly appreciated as a fount of innovation in a vast array of technologies and industries. Being a startup nation demands a mindset that looks at matters afresh, without being constrained by the way things have always been done.

To have a startup nation mindset is to have vision, see the big picture and move towards the fulfillment of that vision. It also entails the willingness to create something new and possibly unprecedented, rather than await approval or direction from others.

Happily, this mindset is not only prevalent in the private sphere, but also – though less visibly – in the realm of organizations seeking to strengthen and defend Zionist values and policies in Israel.

There is a growing coterie of individuals and organizations who understand that the blessings of Zionism, Jewish sovereignty and control of our own land cannot be taken for granted. As Herzl knew, Zionism and its logical extension, the State of Israel, had to be willed into being – "im tirtzu."

But the willing of Zionism and Israel is a constant process, always facing new problems and seeking new opportunities.

The new Zionist NGOs have proven themselves an essential part of Israeli society. Think of the amazing contribution made by groups like Regavim, which call attention to illegal construction. Ad Kan points out the lies of certain Israeli "human rights" organizations. Im Tirtzu and NGO Monitor address foreign government funding of anti-Zionist Israeli organizations. Organizations like B'yadenu have relentlessly pressed for Jewish civil rights on the Temple Mount.

Realistically, if these organizations were not front and center, it is quite likely that the problems they have raised would have gone unaddressed.

These NGOs did not simply emerge fully-formed. They too were willed into existence. In part, this was done by a small fund that has been instrumental in identifying nascent organizations worthy of support and incubating them with seed funding, organizational advice and networking opportunities.

This small fund is the Israel Independence Fund, which since 2007 has had conspicuous success in identifying fledgling organizations with the potential to make a difference in Israeli society.