- Noting that Monday, November 15, is Independence Declaration Day.
- Approval of the nomination of the board of directors of the National School of Administration.
- Allocating 8 million shekels for emergencies in the winter season.
- Demanding companies and factories to use solar energy on their roofs, similar to public institutions.
- Recommending to Abbas to join the World Trade Organization, Amnesty International and the Organization for the Protection of Property Rights.
- Commemorating the anniversary of Yasir Arafat's death on November 11.
Tuesday, November 09, 2021
- Tuesday, November 09, 2021
- Elder of Ziyon
Emily Schrader: Claims of Israel bulldozing Palestinian graves are libel
Palestinian factions issued a statement promising “bloodshed” of the “Zionists” over the incident, and the Palestinian Authority news agency WAFA claimed that “dozens” of bodies had been dug up by Israel, another unsubstantiated claim. Adding fuel to the fire, figures such as the head of the Committee for the Care of Islamic Cemeteries in Jerusalem, Mustafa Abu Zahra, claimed that Israel was “covering the cemetery with dirt.”Lapid meets with congressional Democrats, ending Israel’s long snub of J Street
These false claims led to riots near the construction site throughout the week, which included violent attacks and rock throwing against Israeli police, as well as antisemitic calls to violence, with Palestinian crowds chanting “Khaybar khaybar ya yahud...,” a reference to when the army of Muhammad massacred the Jews in Khaybar.
Instead of investigating the issue thoroughly, social media spread the news of graves being “bulldozed” like wildfire in the West as well, thanks largely to celebrities such as Hadid, who shared false information about the Nababta case on her Instagram story to her 46 million followers. Similarly, her father, real estate mogul Mohamed Hadid, accused Israel of “not respecting the dead,” in a post that garnered over 42,000 likes.
Turkish news sources and Middle East Eye also shared stories with inaccurate information about the events occurring at al-Yusufiya Cemetery, intensifying the social media outrage.
While debating about the appropriateness of an archaeological park in Jerusalem is valid, outright incitement to violence and the spread of misinformation over these events on social media is unacceptable and dangerous.
Graves are not being excavated or demolished in al-Yusufiya, and those claiming otherwise are engaging in irresponsible reporting at best, and intentional incitement to violence at worst.
We cannot resolve issues between Israelis and Palestinians when misinformation continues to inflame the debate and twist the facts of the issue.
Foreign Minister Yair Lapid met Monday with a Congressional delegation brought to Israel by J Street, marking the first time in years that a senior Israeli cabinet member has engaged with the dovish Israel lobby.
Among the lawmakers making up the Democrat-only delegation in Israel are Reps. Rosa DeLauro, who heads the House Appropriations Committee, Mark Pocan, Barbara Lee, Melania Stansbury and Jamaal Bowman. The trip, which will also include meetings with Palestinian officials, was sponsored by the J Street Education Fund.
In a tweet, Lapid said he thanked the group “for supporting the replenishment of the Iron Dome missile defense system, and we discussed the importance of continuing to strengthen the US-Israel relationship.”
The meeting was the first between a minister and a J Street delegation in at least four years, according to Haaretz.
Meretz’s Minister of Regional Cooperation Issawi Frij also met with the group, and tweeted that J Street were “true friends of Israel and partners in promoting the two-states solution.”
Former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was in power from 2009 until June 2021, had a prickly relationship with the liberal group, and right-wing members of his governments pointedly stayed away from meetings sponsored by the group and from its annual conference in Washington.
Since the group’s first Congressional delegation to Israel in 2010, it has been consistently blackballed by members of Netanyahu governments. On that first trip, the top government official it met with was deputy minister Dan Meridor.
Ra’am party chief Abbas discusses 2-state solution with Jordan’s king
Islamist Ra’am party chief Mansour Abbas met with Jordanian monarch King Abdullah II in Amman on Tuesday, Ra’am party officials announced.
Ra’am official Walid al-Hawashleh confirmed the meeting, first reported by Israel’s Channel 12, to The Times of Israel, but declined to comment further.
In a statement, the Jordanian Royal Court said Abdullah and Abbas discussed the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians. Abdullah reiterated his support for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the court said.
Additionally, both Abdullah and Abbas stressed the importance of maintaining the status quo at Jerusalem’s Temple Mount.
“Abbas expressed appreciation for His Majesty the King’s stances towards the Palestinian cause and Jordan’s tireless efforts to preserve the status quo in Jerusalem,” according to the Jordanian court.
The Jordanian monarch has never met an Arab Israeli party chief who was a sitting member of an Israeli government. Ra’am is the first Arab Israeli party to join an Israeli coalition in decades, while Abdullah has ruled since 1999.
Jordan’s ruling Hashemite family has also traditionally had an adversarial relationship with local Islamist factions, especially the Muslim Brotherhood. Ra’am shares ideological ties with the Brotherhood, and draws inspiration from some of the same Islamist thinkers.
Jordanian Professor Ahmad Nofal: Europeans Dumped the Jews on the Arabs; Arab Countries Should Sue Britain, Demand Compensation for the Balfour Declaration #Antisemitism #Jordan @dr_ahmadnofal pic.twitter.com/m874pwKSmd
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) November 9, 2021
- Tuesday, November 09, 2021
- Elder of Ziyon
- Tuesday, November 09, 2021
- Elder of Ziyon
- HRW
In an October 27 ruling, the Supreme Court denied tax-exempt status to an Israeli-registered group running a school in the West Bank because the school educates Palestinian, not Israeli, children. The precedent-setting decision imposes financial burdens on civil society groups providing services to Palestinians, including groups that step in to fulfill responsibilities that the Israeli government, the occupying power in the West Bank and Gaza, has flouted.The court's ruling means that Israeli-registered groups operating in the West Bank will get tax breaks if they provide services to Jewish Israelis living in unlawful settlements, but not if they provide services to Palestinians living under military occupation in the same territory.These are the facts that arise from the court ruling: For the past three decades, the Society of Islamic Sciences and Cultural Committee has run schools in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including in East Jerusalem. The Society submits regular reports to the Israeli nonprofit registrar. In 2004, as Israeli authorities built a barrier that cuts East Jerusalem off from the rest of the West Bank, the organization closed its Jerusalem schools and maintained just one school, in Bir Nabala, a West Bank Palestinian town inside an enclave surrounded by walls and fences.The separation barrier severs Bir Nabala from East Jerusalem and requires residents to access the rest of the West Bank through gates in the barrier and tunnels dug underneath it. Major roads in Bir Nabala, formerly commercial arteries, now reach a dead-end in an eight-meter-high concrete wall. After closing its Jerusalem properties, the Society rented them out to another educational organization, for a contracted annual sum of about US$600,000.Section 9(2) of the Israeli Income Tax Ordinance exempts nonprofit organizations from income tax if they perform a "public purpose," such as education. The ordinance does not specify a geographical scope for those services, and organizations serving Jewish residents of unlawful Israeli settlements in the West Bank receive Israeli income tax and other tax benefits.Israeli Supreme Court Justices Isaac Amit, David Mintz, and Alex Stein ruled unanimously that the Society must pay tax on its rental income because running a school for Palestinian children in the West Bank is not a "public purpose" that the Israeli government will indirectly subsidize through the tax exemption.Although the international law of occupation and international human rights law obligate Israel to ensure that Palestinian children in the West Bank are able to get quality education, and although the Palestinian Authority has no jurisdiction in Area C, where the school is located, the court found that educational services in Bir Nabala have no "link" to Israel for purposes of the tax law.
On 30.10.2020 the District Court dismissed the appeal. The court held that a "public institution", as defined in the ordinance, is an existing member of society and acts for a public purpose, and that the wording of the ordinance makes no explicit reference to the connection between public activity and the State of Israel and the public in Israel. Therefore, the court moved to examine the purpose of section 9 (2) of the Ordinance. The court noted that the recognition of a body as a public institution for the purposes of section 9 (2) of the Ordinance is the same as an expense distributed from the state coffers and it constitutes indirect financing of the activities of that institution by the state. Given the general nature of the definition in the Ordinance, there is a concern that without a restrictive interpretive policy the dam will be breached and state resources will be distributed without adequate control. The purpose of the legislation therefore requires a narrow interpretation of the term "public institution", so that it will also include a component of affiliation with Israel. In the absence of such an element, the range of cases to which the section will apply will be construed far beyond the original intention of the legislature. The extension of the range of cases to which section 9 (2) of the Ordinance also applies in cases where there is no connection to the State of Israel may harm the public coffers and in fact constitute a tax benefit for entities that promote purposes that do not contribute to the State of Israel and the Israeli public. The court noted that beyond the substantive consideration, there is also a systemic consideration leading to the said result, since the state does not have the ability to effectively monitor public institutions operating in areas beyond its control.
The Israeli tax code specifies that non-profits must serve a "public purpose." The court rulings were that since tax breaks indirectly subsidize the activities of the organizations, the interpretation of "public purpose" must be made restrictively or else the Israeli public could end up subsidizing activities around the world or even those that could be covers for terrorism.
The court decision is a binding precedent and a departure from previous practices. It places a financial burden on Israeli-registered groups that serve Palestinians living under Israeli occupation and is the latest example of Israel's highest court rubber-stamping discriminatory practices that contribute to the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution, under an overall policy to maintain the domination by Jewish Israelis over Palestinians, even in matters of education.
- Tuesday, November 09, 2021
- Elder of Ziyon
The prayer of the Jews in Al-Aqsa Mosque and its courtyards is not worship nor is it an approach to God Almighty, and it does not soften hearts, nor purify souls, nor transcend souls, nor purify people, nor create goodness, nor call for peace, nor indicate the goodness of its performer or the sincerity of the one who carries it. It does not contain fear, tranquility, or reverence, nor is it preceded by humility or forgiveness, nor relinquishment of guilt nor abstinence from disobedience, nor intentions for righteousness or resolves for honesty and endeavors for purity.Rather, they are corrupt rites, hate chants, and prostitute chants, and they are malicious prayers and provocative movements, and deliberate quarrels and stubborn competition, sick souls, and malicious intentions.They are also an expression of arrogance, contempt and lack of manners, and worship with loudness and immorality, which is not worthy of worshipers who stand before the Almighty God with reverence and submission, and with the humility of the sincere and the acceptance of the hidden, and the fertilization of the truthful, so you see them clapping their hands with joy and raising their judgment, and their loud voices have proved their arrogance. Repeatedly their prayers in Al-Aqsa Mosque, despite the knowledge of their senior judges, show that they intend to provoke and restrict the Palestinians, crowd out their prayers, and compete with them over their mosque, in preparation for their empowerment in it and their control over it, their exclusivity in it and their seizure of it, which is the goal they have been pursuing for years, upon which they work and plan.
... the Arabs and Muslims in all parts of the world wish to contribute to the defense of Al-Aqsa Mosque and protect it from the plots and deception of the Jews. Occupation, subject to its will and satisfied with its policy, so you see that it is silent about its practices, accepts its procedures, and does not object to the oppression, injustice and coercion it is doing to the Palestinian people.
Monday, November 08, 2021
The invention of Arab Jews erases Mizrahi Jewish history
The status of Jews under Islamic rule varied between different regions, but generally, they did not enjoy the same rights as their Arab neighbors and were often persecuted. When the State of Israel was established, those same Jews were not "Arab enough" to their neighbors to be spared from violence and expulsion. Even the Jews of Iraq, who somewhat managed to integrate into the local society, were the targets of a violent pogrom in 1941, which became known as the Farhud.America, perfidy against Jews is never a good thing
These very same struggles are often erased by anti-Zionist organizations like Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP). In 2019, a coalition of Mizrahi organizations issued a statement against the appropriation and distortion of the history of the Jewish communities of the Middle East by JVP, who seek to strip the Jewish people of their indigenous origins.
However, why are anti-Israel media outlets like Al-Jazeera and antizionist groups like JVP trying to push this false narrative?
This false narrative is part of their bigger "Colonialism" lie. Anti-Israel forces have tried to delegitimize the Jewish State by calling it a colonialist project, claiming that Zionism is a Jewish-European colonialism project, despite it being a project of indigenous awakening.
Since more than 50% of Jewish-Israeli citizens are originally from families that have lived in the Middle East and North Africa, and not Europe, these anti-Israel forces had to make up a story to isolate the European Ashkenazi Jews from the broader Israeli-Jewish population, to fit their "colonialism" sham. They have totally falsified history and are spreading lies, to push their narrative of delegitimization and that the State of Israel shouldn’t exist.
Attempts to strip Jews of their Jewish identity and homeland always result in historical revisionism.
The existence of Jews in Arab societies has always been conditional, much like the existence of Jews in European societies has, not only in the 20th century, but throughout the entire history of the diaspora. Now that Jews finally have a place to rest, where we can feel safe in our indigenous homeland, we won’t let our adversaries distort our identity and history, just to delegitimize our very own existence.
The 1967 liberation of Jerusalem and Judea & Samaria are intertwined. Both places are integral parts of the biblical heartland. Any accommodation with the Arabs must take this, and the topographic advantages of retaining the high ground, into consideration. Both must be controlled by Israel as an integral security necessity, as well as biblical legitimacy, in any agreement with the Palestinian Arabs.Is Dave Chappelle an Admirer of Louis Farrakhan?
It is puzzling that the Biden Administration is willing to put such strain on US-Israel relations over this minor issue of opening a consulate in the middle of Israel’s capital in west Jerusalem to serve non-Israeli Arabs who publicly declare Israel as an enemy state that must be annihilated.
When Israeli officials recommended that the State Department locate their office in Ramallah or in Gaza City, the State Department took great offence. Yet they remain deaf to Israel’s claims that there is no legal or historic precedent for a capital to be used by the United States to serve an external nation or entity, let alone an enemy.
Both sides of the warring Palestinian factions, backed by their Congressional supporters, are pushing the current Administration hard on this point.
It is clear that there is a growing anti-Israel, even anti-Semitic, groundswell in the Democrat Party, led by a radical grouping within the ruling government, that is dictating thought, language, and policy.
Some observers say that the anti-Israel strategy adopted by the US State Department is a sop to the leftist radical wing of the party. This is precisely the point. They are the ones who are calling the shots, not Biden in the White House, nor Blinken in the State Department.
As we have learned from our history, when a great power tacks away from its original and affirmative support and caters to those who are baying for Jewish blood, bad things happen.
Planting a consulate in Jerusalem to assist an enemy is akin to planting a stake in the heart of Judaism.
Perfidy against Jews is never a good thing.
Again, that seems about right, but there’s more to be said. The gag that Chappelle offered about world-conquering Jews sounds a lot like the things Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam and a well-known antisemite, has said about Jews over the years.
Farrakhan, who has recruited a fair number of African-Americans into his movement, has described Jews as evil figures who dominate the world.
With his “space Jews” gag, Chappelle was channeling — and sanitizing — Farrakhan’s antisemitic bigotry.
I’m not interested in getting Chappelle canceled; I just want answers to the following questions that Letterman didn’t have the nerve to ask:
Was your introduction into Islam through the Nation of Islam? Do you think Louis Farrakhan represents a legitimate expression of the Muslim faith?
Why did you have your picture taken with Farrakhan at Muhammad Ali’s funeral in 2016? And why did you invoke Farrakhan’s presence at the funeral in such benign terms when you spoke to a journalist writing a piece for the New York Times Style magazine?
Dave, this is what you said: “I was at Ali’s funeral and I saw Farrakhan there, and Arnold Schwarzenegger, and I saw Bill Clinton. They all looked great, but I realized that these guys are getting old. And then I realized I’m getting old, and we’re all here because Muhammad Ali is dead!”
Is Farrakhan’s name one you want to drop so blithely?
In 2020, Christianity Today published an article by a fan of yours, who anointed you as the “cultural pastor America needs.” Well, OK, but who were the people who helped prepare you for this pastorship?
Was Louis Farrakhan one of your mentors?
And if he wasn’t, why are you retailing his brand of hate to a larger audience?
- Monday, November 08, 2021
- Elder of Ziyon
Universities devoted to the unfettered pursuit of truth are the cornerstone of a free and flourishing democratic society.For universities to serve their purpose, they must be fully committed to freedom of inquiry, freedom of conscience, and civil discourse.In order to maintain these principles, UATX will be fiercely independent—financially, intellectually, and politically.
David Singer: The UN and EU semantic war in Judea and Samaria backfires
Travel tour operators cannot escape identifying ancient Jewish sites in Judea and Samaria – even as they use this false and misleading UN and EU language designed to bury their existence:
Tripadvisor describes Kalia Kibbutz, with its lovely Israeli resort, camping site and beach as being: “Adjacent to the Caves of Qumran Kalia 90666 Palestinian Territories”
The Dead Sea Scrolls were initially discovered in the Caves of Qumran in 1947. The Scrolls comprise more than 800 mostly Hebrew documents written on animal skin and papyrus, that shed light on the histories of Judaism and Christianity. Among the texts are parts of every book of the Hebrew Bible — the Old Testament—except the book of Esther. The Scrolls also contain the earliest version of the Ten Commandments.
Most, experts say, were written between 200 B.C. and the period prior to the failed Jewish revolt to gain political and religious independence from Rome that lasted from A.D. 66 to 70.
Tripadvisor fails to disclose that Kalia Kibbutz was established in the 1930’s but was destroyed by Transjordan in 1948 when it invaded and conquered Western Palestine. Residents of Kalia and nearby Kibbutz Beit HaArava – established in 1939 - fled by boat on 20 May 1948.
The area remained unpopulated save for a Jordanian military camp until lost by Jordan to Israel in the 1967 Six Day War. Kalia was re-established and resettled by Jews in 1972 - Beit HaArava similarly in 1996.
The UN and EU use of language denying Jews have any proprietary rights in Judea and Samaria is pointedly racist.
UN engagement in such reprehensible conduct in blatant violation of its own Charter explains why the UN has failed to end the 100 years old Arab-Jewish conflict. Palestinian Arab insistence on providing false information to airlines and others about "Palestinian territories" or the non-existent "State of Palestine" when referring to Israeli-populated land explains the rest.
JPost Editorial: Israel must stand strong against reopening of US consulate
The consulate issue is being tied to another thorny question: construction over the Green Line. Here, too, the Biden administration is opposed to building plans, while some parties in the Bennett government want to proceed with major West Bank settlement projects.
There is a broad consensus within Israel that reopening the consulate in Jerusalem is not only unnecessary but harmful. A consulate in Jerusalem would in fact undermine the pursuit of peace by giving the Palestinians a false hope that one day they will have control over the city. Reopening the consulate, particularly now that the US Embassy is located in Jerusalem, would in effect bring Israel’s sovereignty in its own capital into question, and possibly encourage other countries to follow suit. Instead of opening embassies to Israel in Jerusalem, there could be a move to open consulates and trade representations for the Palestinians in the Israeli capital.
The Bennett-Lapid coalition is eager to repair ties with the Democrats after the Trump and Netanyahu eras, but both the prime minister and the alternate prime minister need to stand firm on Israel’s interest. Reopening the consulate for the Palestinians in Jerusalem does direct harm to Israel’s interests, and would not help a future peace process. To gain a consulate in western Jerusalem in return for nothing but intransigence will not encourage the Palestinians to return to the negotiating table in good faith.
Israel must continue to stand strong in its opposition to reopening the US consulate in Jerusalem. As for construction over the Green Line: it is time the government itself decides what it wants, where its red lines lie, rather than letting it be determined by outside forces.
Mohammad Shtayyeh: "Jerusalem is an occupied city and an integral part of the land of Palestine. We hope that the Biden administration will keep its promise to reopen the US consulate." pic.twitter.com/T7XeTKtD31
— Khaled Abu Toameh (@KhaledAbuToameh) November 8, 2021
PMW: “We will give our children’s blood” to undo Balfour Declaration, says Fatah official in Gaza
Senior Fatah official in Khan Yunis Faisal Fayyad: “We demand that the international community and the free people of the world stand with us to restore our rights in this usurped land. It was stolen in 1917 in the cursed Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration), and also in the May 15, 1948 Nakba (i.e., “the catastrophe,” the establishment of Israel). We all emphasize that we are still defending this stolen land, and that we will give our blood and the blood of our children and our families for the sake of Allah and the homeland.”
[Official PA TV, Palestine This Morning, Nov. 3, 2021]
The Balfour Declaration of Nov. 2, 1917 was a letter from British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour to Baron Rothschild stating that “His Majesty's government views with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.” In 1922, the League of Nations adopted this and made the British Mandate “responsible for putting into effect the declaration,” which led to the UN vote in favor of partitioning Mandatory Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state in 1947. In response, Britain ended its mandate on May 15, 1948, and the Palestinian Jews, who accepted the Partition Plan, declared the independent State of Israel. The Palestinian Arabs rejected the plan and together with 7 Arab states attacked Israel, in what is now known as Israel’s War of Independence.
- Monday, November 08, 2021
- Elder of Ziyon
- Monday, November 08, 2021
- Elder of Ziyon
Vice President Kamala Harris is set to denounce the singling out of Israel “because of anti-Jewish hatred” in a speech at the Anti-Defamation League’s annual Never Is Now conference.“Three years ago, we suffered the most deadly attack on the American Jewish community in the history of our nation at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,” Harris will say, according to prepared remarks Harris’s office released ahead of her appearance at the virtual conference on Sunday evening. “And I want to be very clear about this: When Jews are targeted because of their beliefs or their identity, when Israel is singled out because of anti-Jewish hatred that is anti-Semitism. And that is unacceptable.”
- Monday, November 08, 2021
- Elder of Ziyon
Sunday, November 07, 2021
- Sunday, November 07, 2021
- Elder of Ziyon
Palestinian Schools Have a Problem—and Are Running Out of Time
Nearly 60 percent of UNRWA’s roughly $1 billion annual budget is allocated to education programs which claim to teach children values of peace, tolerance, and nonviolent conflict resolution. Yet according to various studies of the Palestinian curriculum, which is taught by UNRWA in the Palestinian territories, the agency is falling far short of that goal. Textbooks depict Jews as enemies of Islam, glorify so-called martyrs who have died while committing terror attacks, and promote jihad for the liberation of historic Palestine, including areas firmly within Israel’s pre-1967 borders, such as Jaffa and Haifa. Maps of the region do not include the state of Israel, which throughout the curriculum is referred to as “the Zionist Occupation.”
A comprehensive report released in June, financed by the European Union and conducted by the Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research, examined 172 Palestinian textbooks used in UNRWA schools. It found “ambivalent—sometimes hostile—attitudes toward Jews and the characteristics they attribute to the Jewish people,” noting “frequent use of negative attributions in relation to the Jewish people in, for example, textbook exercises [that] suggest a conscious perpetuation of anti-Jewish prejudice, especially when embedded within the current political context.”
The only mention of peace with Israel was in one 10th grade history book, which quotes a speech delivered by late Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and letters of mutual recognition exchanged between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization in September 1993. “The recognition of Israel’s right to exist in peace and security documented in the letters by [former Palestinian leader] Yasser Arafat to [former Israeli Prime Minister] Yitzhak Rabin stands in contrast to the questioning of the legitimacy of the State of Israel expressed in other passages and textbooks,” the report states. It also determined that although textbooks focus heavily on human rights, they “do not apply these notions to Israel” or “to the rights of Israelis.”
A 5th grade Islamic education lesson “asks students to discuss the ‘repeated attempts by the Jews to kill the Prophet’ and then asks them to think of ‘other enemies of Islam.’” The report goes on: “It is not so much the sufferings of the Prophet or the actions of the companions that appear to be the focus of this teaching unit but, rather, the alleged perniciousness of the Jews.”
Another troubling example is a 5th grade lesson about Dalal Mughrabi. A perpetrator of the 1978 Coastal Road massacre, she carried out one of the worst terror attacks in Israeli history, killing 38 Israeli civilians, including 13 children. The lesson about her reads, “our Palestinian history is full of many names of shuhada (martyrs) who sacrificed their lives for the homeland, including the shahida (martyr) Dalal Mughrabi whose struggle took the form of defiance and heroism, which made her memory immortal in our hearts and minds.” The report found that “no further portraits of significant female figures in Palestinian history are presented,” so “the path of violence implicitly appears to be the only option for women to demonstrate an outstanding commitment to their people and country.”
A 7th grade social studies textbook propagates the conspiracy theory that Israel removed stones from ancient sites in Jerusalem and “replaced them with stones bearing ‘Zionist drawings and shapes.’” A 9th grade Islamic education textbook features passages on jihad and “the wisdom behind fighting the infidels.”
In addition to criticism of its education system, UNRWA has also been roiled by other scandals. During the 2014 Gaza War, the agency discovered rockets stored in its schools and, on at least one occasion, returned them to Hamas. In 2019, the head of UNRWa resigned amid allegations of corruption and mismanagement, including abuse of power and suppression of dissent within the organization. Long accused of lacking transparency, a leaked ethics report that year led several European countries to suspend their funding.
Scandalous: Refugees from Syria, Venezuela, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Myanmar and other places worldwide receive 17 times less U.N. aid than Palestinians who are not even refugees—including 2 million of them who have lived in Jordan for generations and hold Jordanian citizenship. https://t.co/gKbskp0Oso
— UN Watch (@UNWatch) November 7, 2021
Jonathan Tobin: Anti-Israel bias in one of America’s biggest newspapers matters
The question is, does this matter? Some pro-Israel activists and most Israelis will say “no.”Howard Jacobson: Advice to a Jewish Freshman
Israelis have always considered worrying about international opinion to be not in keeping with their goal of making their actions more important than what other people say about them. American friends of Israel say they stopped reading the Times years ago and that doing so is a waste of time.
Still, it’s a mistake to ignore what remains one of the most widely read publications in the world.
While the trend that Tracy’s article inflates into an “unraveling” is discussing the opinion of only a small minority, the support it gets from the newspaper that is still viewed by liberal Jews as the flagship of journalism can only strengthen it. Undermining Israel’s image by negative articles serves to help those trying to transform the Democratic Party from one with an increasingly vocal anti-Israel element to one in which that faction dominates.
That’s why it’s important that the calumnies of the Times never be allowed to go unanswered. If that answer can be in the form of mass mockery, as is the case with #SadSadIsrael, then all the better.
Ignoring the danger of allowing the “apartheid Israel” lie to gain traction in popular culture or even in Jewish forums is folly. Nor should Jewish organizations be shy about speaking up in condemning the sorts of actions that the seminary letter represents since it is providing cover for anti-Semites elsewhere.
While the vast majority of Americans remain steadfast friends of Israel and are generally unaffected by media bias, the one group that is impacted by it—and especially, at the Times—are American Jews. Fighting for Jewish opinion in this country means that no one who cares about Israel can afford to not care about what the Times publishes, no matter how wrongheaded or biased it might be.
If all this seems more than enough to be going on while you are endeavoring to concentrate on your studies, there is, I am afraid, one more stratagem those who don’t want you to enjoy a quiet life have up their sleeve. This is Holocaust Denial, not the original Alpha or Beta Strains but the more recent Omega Variant.
In its early, primitive forms, Holocaust Denial was mainly a matter of macabre geometry. That many bodies could never have been processed in so few rooms, etc. The spectacle of the deniers scampering over what was left of the camps with their rulers and drafting triangles rendered them ultimately absurd. Their conclusion, that 6 million Jews could not possibly have been gassed in that space and in that time, still makes an appearance on pro-Palestinian marches, but it looks increasingly cranky.
What came next was less actual Holocaust Denial, more Holocaust Relativization. Yes, it happened, but who hasn’t it happened to? Your best bet when confronted with this is to concede that Jews are not the only people who have faced extermination; but you could try adding that few have faced quite so determined and thoroughgoing a version of it, or the ambition to have all trace and memory of them removed from the face of the earth for all time, and this as a consequence and fulfillment of centuries of Christian loathing, to say nothing of a fair amount of dislike from elsewhere. But, but, but, suffering the Holocaust was not a competition, and, if it had been — hand on heart — Jews would be more than content not to have been proclaimed the winners.
Uglier by far, and more sinister by virtue of what it concedes and why, is the new Omega Variant, which allows the horrors of the Holocaust but shakes its head over the failure of Jews to have learnt its lessons. By this reasoning, the Holocaust was a sort of University of Compassion into which Jews were, for their own benefit, enrolled, but where, as witness their subsequent hard-heartedness to the Arabs of the West Bank and Gaza, they paid scant attention and flunked their exams. The next time you see the Holocaust figured as a University at which, uncharacteristically, Jews were the worst students, inquire politely,
- Sunday, November 07, 2021
- Elder of Ziyon
Al-Quds Legislative Committee: Al-Quds is a purely Islamic endowment to which the Jews have no rightThe Al-Quds and Al-Aqsa Committee in the Legislative Council affirmed that the people of all of Palestine, from its sea to its river, and its armed resistance stand behind the people of Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in occupied Jerusalem in their decision rejecting the settlement option presented by the unjust so-called Zionist Court of Justice.The Al-Quds Committee stressed in a press statement regarding this continuous escalation against Al-Quds and its people and its sanctities, that Al-Quds and the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, like all of Palestine, are a purely Islamic endowment and holy site in which the Jews have no historical, religious or cultural right, and this was confirmed by the resolutions of the United Nations and its various bodies, especially UNESCO.