Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, April 14, 2020

Ken Roth of @HRW really seems to believe that Hamas can arrest anyone who talks with representatives from Israel's government

When the New York Times first broke the story of Hamas arresting Rami Aman and several other Gazans for the crime of "normalization" by speaking with Israeli peace activists, the head of Human Rights Watch, Ken Roth, offered a curious response:

Roth seemed to imply that while it is indeed a human rights violation for Hamas to arrest people who want to talk to ordinary Israelis, if they would communicate with the "repressive Israeli government" then it would be OK.

Today, Human Rights Watch's Omar Shakir wrote a fairly good denunciation of Hamas that for the most part did not engage in the usual HRW and Amnesty motif of throwing in a bunch of anti-Israel stuff to make it look "balanced." The only exception was in this paragraph, where they did not put "repression" in scare quotes:

Authorities publicly stated that they had arrested Aman and the others for holding a “normalization” activity, a reference to activities held with Israelis that are not rooted in challenging the Israeli government’s repression. The statement likens normalization to “espionage” and “treachery.” Laws issued by Hamas authorities in Gaza criminalize all social, cultural, political, economic, sporting, or other activities with “the Zionist enemy.”

HRW gets the definition of "normalization" wrong. To Hamas as well as to the supposedly "liberal" BDS movement, any contact with Israeli Jews is forbidden, unless those Israelis are explicitly anti-Zionist. (No one in Hamas or BDS seems to have a problem with meeting with regular Israeli Arabs, only Jews, a bit of antisemitism that groups like HRW studiously ignore.)

But look at Ken Roth's tweet about this HRW article:

Worldwide governments are releasing prisoners to avoid coronvirus infection but Hamas is imprisoning peace activists for speaking by video conference with Israeli civilians, who are not the same as their discriminatory and repressive government. https://t.co/XtXD4yIvii pic.twitter.com/yGXn1c5GYk
— Kenneth Roth (@KenRoth) April 14, 2020

The article doesn't distinguish between Gazans speaking with Israeli civilians and officials - only Ken Roth does.

This is twice in a row that Roth seems to be saying that the only problem with Hamas arresting Aman and his friends is that they spoke with "civilians" - and Hamas would be within its rights to arrest any Gazan who communicates with Israel's "repressive government."

Now, Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs hosts some popular social media channels in Arabic that total millions of followers. They engage with Arabs online all the time, and their posts often make headlines in Arab media.

Is Roth really saying that any Gazan who responds to a post by the Israel MFA deserves to be arrested? Is he saying that it is not a human rights violation to arrest people who comment on the MFA site, since the Ministry is part of a "repressive government?" If the MFA would have set up this Zoom session, would Roth have condoned Hamas arrests?

Based on these two tweets, it is hard to see how his position is anything else.

It is a scandal that Roth is willing, even anxious, to minimize the crimes of the Hamas terrorist group. This is hardly the first time, as Roth has created an artificially limited and false definition of human shields to exonerate Hamas, to bring only one example of his consistent position of minimizing Hamas war crimes.

The leader of a human rights organization has a track record of making statements that are actually detrimental of the human rights of Gaza civilians.

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El Al helps ship millions of medical masks to Detroit

Homedics is a major manufacturer of home health products like massagers, air purifiers and fitness monitors. It was co-founded by Alon Kaufman, who has turned into a major philanthropist in the Detroit area.

Kaufman's wife Shari shared a video showing how Homedics has pivoted to now manufacture personal protective devices that are sorely needed in the US and around the world:

The video indicates that this manufacturing plant is in China.

The question is, how to get millions of masks from China to the US as quickly as possible?

On Sunday, Shari wrote on her Facebook page that the only airline they could find to do the job was El Al:

I just wanted to let my friends know that our first shipment was loaded and left China on El Al airlines last night in order to come to Detroit w millions of masks! They just landed ten minutes ago! I am so moved. So meaningful that it was El Al! Israel, once again, comes to the rescue when every other airline couldn’t commit.
Welcome to Detroit El Al!
Mission accomplished!!
History in the making !!

Here's a video of the masks being loaded onto the plane (presumably) in China.

Kaufman also noted in her earlier post:

If anyone is looking for a large quantity of masks, thermometers or pulse ox, please PM me. Please share with those who need. There is so much junk that is being sold as good equipment. Homedics stands behind the quality of our products and everything is FDA approved.

So these aren't junky Chinese masks - they are made under contract to a US-based company to stringent standards.

Yasher koach to the Kaufmans and to El Al!

(This story is pieced together based on the two Facebook posts, some research and a little bit of conjecture, but I'm pretty sure I got it right.)

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04/13 Links Pt2: PLO Continues to Denigrate Trump Peace Plan and Ignore Elections; Does Progressive Judaism have an anti-Zionism problem

From Ian:

David Singer: PLO Continues to Denigrate Trump Peace Plan and Ignore Elections

The Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) has cranked up its propaganda machine to continue denigrating President Trump’s deal of the century – as a joint US-Israel Mapping Committee is finalising those areas in Judea and Samaria on Trump’s map where Jewish sovereignty can be restored after 3000 years.

The PLO rejected Trump’s plan on the day it was published – 28 January 2020 – even though it provided for the creation of a second Arab State in former Palestine – in addition to Jordan – for the first time in recorded history.

WAFA – the Palestinian news and information agency – has attacked Trump’s move to start implementing his plan in an article headlined: “PLO official warns of Israeli plan to annex parts of West Bank” – which headline itself is false and misleading for the following reasons:
- It is not an Israeli plan – but Trump’s plan being applied by Israel in tandem with Trump
- Trump’s plan does not involve annexation by Israel – rather the restoration of Jewish sovereignty after 3000 years in the Jewish people’s ancient and biblical heartland – in areas authorised by the San Remo Conference and Treaty of Sevres in 1920, the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine in 1922 and the United Nations Charter.
- “West Bank” was only coined in 1950 to replace the 3000 years old geographic place name “Judea and Samaria” – after all the Jews living there had been ethnically cleansed by Transjordan during the 1948 War of Independence – and Judea & Samaria was unified with Transjordan to form a new territorial entity – renamed Jordan.

Wafa’s report references a statement by Ahmad Majdalani – member of the PLO Executive Committee and Minister of Social Affairs:
“Uncovered reports that Washington and Tel Aviv are about to agree on the maps of annexation [of parts of the West Bank] – at a time the world is preoccupied with the war on coronavirus – falls within the framework of the US plan to implement the “deal of the century”

Note:
- No uncovered reports are produced
- Repetition of the false and misleading terms annexation and West Bank
- The world might be preoccupied with the war on coronavirus but Governments – including the US and Israeli Governments – have not stopped governing and making decisions – and to suggest they should is arrant nonsense

A disingenuous debate about annexation

The list of signatories to a new letter organized by the Israel Policy Forum protesting the possibility of Israel passing legislation in the upcoming months to annex parts of the West Bank is full of familiar names to those who have followed American Jewish organizational life in the last few decades. Some on the list – like current Reform movement leader Rabbi Rick Jacobs – are still important players in contemporary Jewish life. But many of the big donors and veteran activists mentioned could have been recycled from a host of similar efforts by liberal groups in the distant past.

The letter is a direct response to the latest news about the terms of a still not finalized coalition agreement to form a unity government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his chief rival, Benny Gantz.

But the tone and the language used seem straight out of the early 1990s, when some of the same people were speaking up in favor of the Oslo Accords and its promise of land for peace, or later in the decade when they were disingenuously protesting Netanyahu's policies during his first term as prime minister for being too slow to make concessions to PLO leader Yasser Arafat. Then, too, they were admonishing Israelis not to defend their rights because doing so would alienate the tender sensibilities of Americans.

Indeed, if a Jewish Rip Van Winkle were to have dozed off during the Clinton administration and awakened in the last week, he would feel right at home with the rhetoric admonishing Israelis not to alienate Americans or to sabotage hopes of peace with the Palestinians.

The push to annex parts of the West Bank, where hundreds of thousands of Jews currently live in settlement blocs, as well as the strategic Jordan Valley divides Israelis. Yet the notion that formalizing Israel's control over these lands is an obstacle to peace is as much a relic of the past as some of the IPF letter's signatories.

Don't give in to Jordan's scare tactics

After the Hashemite kingdom let the Jordan Valley go in the 1967 Six-Day War, and 32 years after it announced that it was cutting ties with the "West Bank" and even gave up its claims to sovereignty there, Blue and White is trying to drag Jordan into its own "annexation dispute" with the Likud.

Blue and White leaders Benny Gantz and Gabi Ashkenazi, as part of negotiations to form a government, are claiming that annexation without agreement from Jordan will endanger our special ties with the kingdom, and the long-term quiet on our eastern border in particular.

But this argument ignores the hidden aspects of Israel's relations with Jordan, especially the fact that there is a wide discrepancy between how Jordan openly conducts itself in regards to Israel – using critical, sometimes inciting, rhetoric aimed at pacifying its Palestinian majority – and how the kingdom acts behind the scenes.

Jordan has swallowed a lot of toads over the years to maintain the informal relationship with Israel that is vital to its own continued existence. Jordan enjoys economic, military, and intelligence cooperation with us that is often critical to its interests. Jordan also holds special status on the Temple Mount, and has in effect become Israel's silent partner in managing affairs there. The way Jordan sees it, that status is of almost existential importance, given the place Al-Aqsa holds in the narrative and consciousness of the Hashemite dynasty and many of the kingdom's residents. Jordan will think twice before putting that at risk.

Israel gives loans, training to Palestinians for COVID-19 while the haters still scream "blockade!"

For weeks, the Israel haters have been almost salivating at the hope that the coronavirus would sweep through Gaza and kill thousands, just so they can blame Israel.

And that hope has not faded, as this article by inveterate Israel hater Jonathan Cook in today's National shows.

Not one of their warnings has panned out. Israel has allowed all medical equipment to go to Gaza, and the only cases in Gaza came from people who entered via Egypt, not from Israel.

Gaza, and the West Bank, are now far safer from the virus than Israel is. But this doesn't stop the haters from beating their drum, itching for a breakout so they can say "I told you so!"

Meanwhile, the media that was falling over itself to call on Israel to lift restrictions on medical aid that have never existed is ignoring some other stories.

Like Israel allowing a sophisticated COVID-19 testing device into Gaza yesterday.

The machine, costing tens of thousands of dollars, was donated by an international organization with the help of the @WHO and will be sent to Shifa Hospital in Gaza City where it will process samples for detecting the coronavirus, doubling the rate of examinations in Gaza. 2/2 pic.twitter.com/HsA9JJ7iG0
— COGAT (@cogatonline) April 12, 2020

Like Israel reportedly loaning a half billion shekels to the Palestinian Authority to help it battle the virus as tax revenues that they rely on dry up because of the crisis.

Like Israel providing direct training to doctors and other health care workers from Gaza on how to deal with the virus.

The only people who will celebrate a coronavirus outbreak in Gaza are the ones who are itching to use it as ammunition against Israel. To these immoral cretins, the more Palestinian deaths that they can blame on Israel, the better.

Conversely, when Israel actually helps people in Gaza, these people are disappointed.

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How Have The Media And The Palestinian Arabs Changed Over The Last 50 Years? (Daled Amos)

By Daled Amos

Have the attitudes of Palestinian terrorists and of the West itself changed over the last 50 years?

Last week, I came across a collection of old articles that illustrate some of the attitudes following the Six Day War.

All 3 articles are by Yehoshafat Harkabi, the chief of Israeli military intelligence from 1955 until 1959 before he became a professor of International Relations and Middle East Studies at Hebrew University. Along the way, he changed from a hardliner to a supporter of negotiations with the PLO. The collection is entitled "Three Articles on the Arab Slogan of a Democratic State."

The first article, "The Slogan 'Democratic Palestinian State'," translated from a piece he wrote for Ma'ariv in April 1970, shows how the Arabs wrestled with their image as terrorists so as not to turn world opinion against them.

Back in those days, world opinion was actually a source concern.

After the Six-Day War, when the Arabs became aware that by making extreme statements they had prejudiced their position in foreigners' eyes, they commenced to seek a way of evading the trap of politicide [calling for the annihilation of a State] that entails genocide that is, a way of lending a moderate tone to their position calling for the annihilation of Israel.

This was actually a problem that forced some Palestinian Arab leaders to twist their words in order to appear 'moderate' -- a problem that does not seem to exist today.

For example, Ahmed Shukeiry, the first Chairman of the PLO, from 1964 to 1967, said that he had never advocated throwing the Jews in the sea -- that was a Zionist libel.

He explained that what he meant was that the Jews would return to their countries of origin by way of the sea: "They came by the sea and will return by the sea" (Palestine Documents for 1967, p. 1084). Thus, from a means of annihilation the sea was metamorphosed into a simple means of transportation.

Thanks to a compliant media, such gymnastics are not required today.

Hamas has no problem declaring their intent to destroy Israel, just as they are able to fire thousands of rockets at Israeli civilians without the West saying a word, let alone invoke international law.

As far as the Palestinian Authority goes, Abbas knows what to say in Arabic and what to say in English, secure in the knowledge that the media will obligingly focus only on the latter.

In fact, after the Six Day War, the Arabs began to catch on to how easy it was to lead the West and its media by the nose.

Arab spokesmen began to brandish the slogan of "a Democratic Palestinian State in which Arabs and Jews will live in peace." Indeed, this slogan was well received among many circles in the world at large as evidence that the Arab position had become more moderate. Many people overlooked its ambiguity and disregarded that fact that it by no means contradicted the basic Arab position of the past, for the slogan may still mean that Jews would be reduced to an insignificant minority which would be permitted to live in peace.

The problem, of course, was that the Arabs had no intention of living side-by-side with Jews in a democratic state. The idea was discussed at the Sixth Congress of the Palestinian National Council in Cairo in September 1969, where the consensus was that the slogan was purely a propaganda device.

Making the slogan anything more than that was dangerous.

That is, if this slogan is taken literally, the Arab character that the country must have after its "liberation" will be undermined, for a large group of Jews would be permitted to remain. the Palestinian National Covenant stipulated that only the Palestinian Arab people has the right of self-determination in the country, whereas the slogan "Democratic State" makes the Jews partners. Moreover, this slogan may imply reconciliation with the Jews rather than a war a l'outrance [out-right war].

So much for proposals for a 'one state solution' today.

The Democratic Front went so far as to offer that

The Palestinian State, which will eliminate racial discrimination and national persecution, must be based on a democratic solution of the existing conflict resting on coexistence between the two people, Arab and Jewish.

However, Harkabi notes that the implied recognition of "a Jewish people" is misleading, because Jews were seen as a people with no right to a state of its own -- and instead would have to settle for participating in a state with a Palestinian Arab nationality. Jews were to be accepted on a cultural level, not a national-political one.

Keep in mind that the same 'Democratic Front' that offered the possibility of a bi-national state with Jews is also known for the 1974 Ma'alot massacre in which 25 schoolchildren and teachers were killed. Not surprising, since this same 'Democratic Front' was accepted in the PLO's Command of Armed Struggle, which required it to accept the Palestinian National Covenant.

As for Fatah, Harkabi quotes from a public statement on January 1, 1970, on the 5th anniversary of their activity. Fatah had high hopes for guerrilla activity in the heart of Israel, attacking civilians and not just military targets, in the hope that the Israeli

will find himself isolated and defenceless against the Arab soldier in his house, on his land, on the road, in the cafe, in the movie theatre, in army camps and everywhere, far from the area under control of the Israeli Air Force and mechanical equipment which assures him protection and security of life. These acts will force him to consider and compare the life of stability and repose that he enjoyed in his former country and the life of confusion and anxiety he finds in the land of Palestine. This is bound to motivate him towards reverse immigration.

Fatah was unduly optimistic.

But the same can also be said for Harkabi.
He trusted the media to do its job:

The article in the Palestinian National Covenant which is so extreme regarding the Jews is becoming known in the world. A number of foreign journals recognized the importance of this document and reproduced the English translations of my article which explains the Covenant. There will most likely be pressure among the Palestinians to change the Covenant and make it more moderate and palatable.

Harkabi could hardly have been expected to foresee the degree to which those foreign journals would come to take sides and exhibit the kind of bias and outright support for Palestinian terrorists and against Israel that we see today.

And the Palestinian National Covenant remains unchanged.

He concludes his article optimistically, seeing the Arab adoption of the slogan "Democratic State" -- even as pure propaganda -- as a stage in the retreat of the Arab position:

The contradictions contained in the slogan "Democratic State" will bring about many inner struggles, debates, forums and symposiums. This slogan will become another subject over which the Arabs will be divided. The Jewish community will increase and the possibilities of digesting it as a minority will become smaller. For some time now they have been non-existent. The retreat in the Arab position will continue, for the meaning of the Arab position is becoming more apparent, and the attitude which stemmed from ambiguity and euphemistic expressions, which the Arabs used to define their aims, is becoming restricted. The difficulties involved in a politicidal position will become more obvious. From the Arab point of view, brandishing the slogan "Democratic State" creates more problems than it solves.

True, Israel has flourished and its population has grown.

But as it turns out, many of those "inner struggles debates, forums and symposiums" that Harkabi anticipated among the Arabs are these days taking place among Jews, especially as divisions develop between the Jewish communities in the US and Israel.

The retreat in the Arab position has developed -- but it is the position not of the Palestinian Arab but the Arab world that has changed, in ways that Harkabi could not have imagined.

Those negotiations he encouraged with the Palestinian Arabs came to pass, and brought about Palestinian territories, but have only become a greater source of danger for Israeli security.

Harkabi could hardly have been expected to anticipate the cynical world of today.

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04/13 Links Pt1: 8 new fatalities take Israel’s COVID-19 death toll to 113; The Mossad: Israel's Not-So-Secret Weapon in the Coronavirus Fight

From Ian:

8 new fatalities take Israel’s COVID-19 death toll to 113

Eight people died overnight and during Monday morning from COVID-19, bringing the coronavirus death toll in Israel to 113.

An 80-year-old resident of a senior living home was the 12th person from the assisted living facility in Yavne’el, in the north of the country, to die from the virus.

Additionally, an 81-year-old woman and a 96-year-old woman died at the Ichilov Medical Center in Tel Aviv, while a 78-year-old man with preexisting medical conditions died of the disease at Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem in Jerusalem.

A 41-year-old woman succumbed at Kaplan Medical Center in Rehovot. The hospital said she had suffered from preexisting illnesses and that it shared the family’s grief.

In addition, an 80-year-old man died Monday afternoon at Laniado Hospital in Netanya, and an 85-year-old woman succumbed to the virus at Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center.

No further information on their identities were initially released, and there were no immediate details on the eighth fatality.

Former Sephardic chief rabbi Bakshi-Doron succumbs to coronavirus, aged 79

Rabbi Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron, the former Sephardic chief rabbi of Israel, died due to complications from the coronavirus at Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center on Sunday. Israeli leaders mourned his passing, hailing him a great spiritual guide.

Bakshi-Doron, 79, who served as chief rabbi from 1993 to 2003, succumbed to the virus five days after checking into the hospital with COVID-19 symptoms. He was tested shortly upon his arrival and found to be a carrier.

The hospital said his condition deteriorated during the day and efforts to revive him in the evening were unsuccessful.

With his death and that of another woman, Israel’s toll rose to 105 Sunday night.

Born in 1941 in Jerusalem, Bakshi was first chief rabbi in Bat Yam and then Haifa, before rising in 1993 to become the Rishon Lezion, a title given to the chief Sephardic rabbi.

During his time as chief rabbi, he devoted efforts to interfaith dialogue, and together with Ashkenazi chief rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, met with Pope John Paul II during his 2000 visit to Israel.

NYTs: The Mossad: Israel's Not-So-Secret Weapon in the Coronavirus Fight

The Mossad, the storied Israeli spy service, has been deeply involved in Israel's fight against the virus, and has been one of the country's most valuable assets in acquiring medical equipment and manufacturing technology abroad, according to Israeli medical and security officials.

Prof. Yitshak Kreiss, the director general of Sheba Medical Center, said, "It is only in Israel that Sheba hospital could have enlisted the help of the Mossad. Can you imagine Mount Sinai Hospital going to the CIA for help?," referring to the New York medical center.

According to Israeli officials, the Mossad used international contacts to avert shortages that might have overwhelmed Israel's health system, enabling Israel to acquire ventilators and testing material that the health ministry had been unable to secure. In some instances, Mossad Director Yossi Cohen personally contacted his counterparts to expedite the purchase of goods. In other cases, Cohen spoke directly to the rulers of particular countries.

On this Passover, anti-Zionists should be ashamed.

Anti-Zionists should be ashamed that while they pretend to be tolerant, they cannot tolerate a Jewish state.

Anti-Zionists should be ashamed that while they pretend to be liberal, they support the most illiberal Arab politicians - leaders who are misogynist, anti-gay and intolerant of any dissent.

Anti-Zionists should be ashamed that on the very holiday where Jews celebrate their freedom from oppression, they want Jews to go back into exile.

Anti-Zionists should be ashamed that they claim to want people to be free but they are against the self-determination of only one people.

Anti-Zionists should be ashamed that they claim to be against antisemitism but they publicly and proudly support the world's worst antisemites.

Anti-Zionists should be ashamed that they pretend to hate racism, but in fact they hate people, and then justify that bigotry by labeling their opponents as racist.

Anti-Zionists should be ashamed that their supposed love for Arabs and Muslims disintegrates past Israel's borders.

Anti-Zionists should be ashamed that their arguments against "Zionists" echo centuries-old arguments against Jews, and that their cause is just the newest twist on the oldest hatred.

If you are anti-Zionist, you are against the fundamentals of the lessons of Passover - the freedom of a people to be a nation, to be unique, to chart their own course in history, to be a beacon of hope to the world.

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Lowlights of the "Jews for Rashida" "seder" by JVP

I suffered through the "seder" by Jewish Voice for Peace in support of Rashida Tlaib's election campaign so you won't have to.

Here are a few clips.

Their cleric, Rabbi Alissa Wise, is enamored that Jews have traditionally removed wine when mentioning the Ten Plagues because we should not be happy at Egyptian suffering. But she goes much further, saying that the Egyptians were "set up by an angry God eager to demonstrate his own superiority."

In other words, to JVP, God is an insecure, vain, Trump-like figure punishing Egyptians simply to boost his inflated ego.

Wise also added some "plagues" to the regular list of ten, what she calls plagues happening today. They include racism, antisemitism, sexism, homophobia, political oppression, and war.

Yet neither Wise nor her group has ever said a word against Arab states, including the Palestinian Authority and the Hamas terrorists they support, who proudly uphold every one of those "plagues" as ideals.

The Rashida Tlaib clips are actually boring, she says very little about Israel and talks a lot about water as a human right. But the person who introduced her prominently wore earrings that said "Fuck Trump."

This is part of a theme I've been exploring lately, that the hate that these far-Leftists exhibit is not hate for ideas or policies but hate for people. They claim to be anti-racist but they act exactly the way racists do - by basing their entire existence on hate for their political opponents, enemies that are 90% of the the Jewish community they pretend to be a part of.

Finally, the host of the fiasco gives a final blessing over the fourth cup of wine - but says the blessing for bread instead.

Which goes to show how little they actually care about Jewish ritual to begin with. This event was advertised for days but there was no preparation to even ensure that the host knew the basics. To them, a seder is a political event where they can subvert Judaism for their own agendas - they do it with havdalah and other Jewish rituals as well.

While I was watching on YouTube, I put in a snarky comment ("I came late - was your Kadesh the kiddush for Hamas terrorists?") and got banned from adding more. That's fine, but I noticed that during the live session, if I downvoted the video and then watched it with a different ID, my downvote disappeared. The JVP is so insecure about criticism that they even censor the downvotes during the session (they cannot do it afterwards.) This is how committed they are to free speech.

During the "seder" I wondered - how do they look at God telling the Children of Israel to inherit Canaan and to drive out the inhabitants? What do they think of the heartfelt, short prayer "Next Year in Jerusalem"? When it comes down to it, Passover is the most Zionist of holidays, celebrating the Jews freedom not only of fleeing slavery but of becoming a people and a nation in the land God promised to their forefathers. This is what Passover is about, and there is no freedom without the land where a people can determine their own future. Yet these "Jews" want to take that freedom away from today's Jews, in Israel and outside.

The idea of ripping Israel from Jews is offensive enough. But using Judaism as a cover to do that is reprehensible.

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Richard Landes is a brilliant academic and a strident critic of the Western response to Islamic terror. He is the person who coined the term "Pallywood" for the many staged photos and videos that Palestinians use to push their agenda.

We had a wide-ranging conversation on Sunday, and we would probably still be talking now if we didn't have connection problems after 45 minutes.

It was lots of fun and I hope to continue the conversation at another time.

Incidentally, I fixed the URL for adding my YouTube channel to your podcast software. Here it is if you want to subscribe.

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Saudis to provide holy Zamzam water for COVID-19 patients. (It might be poisonous.)

On Sunday, the Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz instructed the President of the Grand Mosque and the Prophet’s Mosque to distribute the water of the Zamzam well in Mecca to those who were infected with the novel coronavirus.

According to the official Saudi Press Agency, the head of the affairs of the Grand Mosque and the Prophet's Mosque, Abdul Rahman bin Abdul Aziz Al-Sudais, ordered that "Zamzam water" be distributed to coronavirus patients.

According to Islamic legend, the well, which is adjacent to the Kaaba in Mecca, was the one that God created for Ishmael when he was thirsty in the desert with his mother Hagar.

One would think that this is a harmless idea which could offer a significant placebo effect for patients, but a BBC investigation in 2011 found that the Zamzam well water contained high levels of nitrate, potentially harmful bacteria, and arsenic at levels three times the legal limit in the UK. So it is a mild poison.

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This year, in response to the pandemic, Koren Publishers offered a free download of their Haggadah with the commentary of the former Chief Rabbi of Britain, Lord Jonathan Sacks.

But they didn't offer the other half of the book, the one that opens from the left-to-right side. I didn't even realize that this haggada had such an extensive set of essays - nearly 190 pages, which is pretty much book-length itself.

I love Sacks' writings and his weekly divrei Torah. He has an astonishing ability to notice things that others have not. His essays on Passover truly shine.

Sack's fluency with a wide range of sources, whether they be ancient or modern, history or poetry, sacred or ordinary, allows him to come up with startling conclusions that strike you with the dual realizations that no one ever seems to have made these points before, and that they seem to be correct. Here is an enthusiastic celebration of the Torah and specifically the Exodus as not only a story but as a work of philosophy, history and morality that pre-dates all others, and that was far ahead of its time and that had unparalleled influence in modern Western civilization.

Just one stunning example. Up until after World War II, the concept that one is obligated to adhere to higher standards, and to disobey if necessary, ones own leaders was hardly considered mainstream. Only after the Holocaust was the defense of "just following orders" no longer considered valid. Everyone is expected to disobey commands, even at the risk of one's life, that violate the higher values of human rights - but that is a relatively new concept.

Or is it? More than three thousand years ago, two women named Shifra and Puah - who according to the literal text seem to have been Egyptian, not Jewish - refused to obey Pharaoh's direct orders to murder all Jewish males upon birth. To them, there was a moral imperative that outweighed the demands of a deity-king.

This was, Rabbi Sacks notes, the first known example of civil disobedience, and one that was thousands of years ahead of modern times and completely alien to all peoples before (Sacks argues that the example in the Greek tragedy of Antigone is in fact not based on a higher moral code but on family loyalty.)

That insight alone would be enough to make a book notable, but these essays are filled with them. Sacks' essay on antisemitism is as good a treatment of the topic as any and better than most. He shows how the Exodus story influenced the founding fathers of the US to build a completely new type of nation, based on a Biblical-style covenant and concepts of inalienable rights that were most definitely not self-evident in 1776, but that were first written in the Torah.

Other essays and insights are equally dazzling, from noticing that the first speech Moses gives to the people on the cusp of freedom is an exhortation to teach their children, to brilliantly pinpointing the exact timeframe of the rabbis' seder in Bnei Brak and the importance of the anecdote to Jewish history.

You do not have to wait until next Pesach to enjoy the insights from Rabbi Sacks.

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04/12 Links: Dr. Miriam Adelson: We shall shake off the dust and arise; Western Wall priestly blessing held with 10 worshipers, including US envoy

From Ian:

Dr. Miriam Adelson: We shall shake off the dust and arise

It is rare, at times like this, to begin the week – yet another week in the shadow of the coronavirus - on a note of joy and excitement. The crisis persists, and with it, heartrending stories of people lost, as well as of loneliness, of challenges to livelihood and of worries about what yet awaits us.

But it is precisely at such moments that the heart looks to the small stories, of individuals. And it is on one such story that I would like to embark – a story that heartens me in these dark days.

It is the story of Eli Beer, an esteemed friend of Sheldon and mine renowned for the fact that, at the age of 16, he founded "United Hatzalah" and runs it to this very day. Alas, Eli contracted the coronavirus during a visit to the United States and, last month, at the height of the attendant COVID-19 disease, his condition deteriorated and he was sedated and placed on a ventilator at a Miami hospital.

Three days ago, Eli's condition improved. He was taken off the ventilator and, with God's help, is on the path to a full recovery.

A person's convalescence is, in itself, excellent news. But here it is fitting to invoke the axiom of the Jewish sages which holds that every life is a world unto itself: For Eli is, to the fullest, the realization of this - a world unto himself who has been brought back to life, and to us.

Israel’s first 100 virus deaths: More men than women; nearly 1/4 from Jerusalem

Data released by the Health Ministry showed that a slight majority of Israel’s coronavirus fatalities were men, a statistic that appears in line with a global trend, and the city that saw the highest death rate was Jerusalem.

The Health Ministry figures are Israel’s official tally and only include deaths in hospitals or assisted living facilities. It is unknown whether there have been fatalities in private homes or other locations. As of Sunday, the ministry said 103 people have died of the virus.

According to the Health Ministry figures released Saturday, which are based on 96 fatalities and were collated last week, 51 men died in Israel from COVID-19, compared with 45 women. This appears to tally with statistics from Asia and Europe, where a slightly higher proportion of fatalities were male.

Globally, men are statistically more likely to smoke, which is thought to possibly play a role in susceptibility to COVID-19, and men are also more likely to have underlying problems that could act as a contributing factor, such as heart disease. In addition, there are some studies that suggest hormones may play a role in the severity of the disease.

Israel’s oldest victim was 98 years old and the youngest was 37 years old. The majority of those who died were over the age of 70, according to the figures. Almost all of those who have died from COVID-19 in Israel have suffered from preexisting conditions, according to hospital officials.

UN Watch: Amnesty International official gets Hamas to arrest peace activist

Amnesty International is being asked to fire a Gaza researcher after the New York Times reported that she got Hamas to arrest a Palestinian peace activist for holding a Zoom call with Israeli peace activists.

Gaza Youth Committee leader Rami Aman, 38, who organized the peace dialogue, has not been heard from since he surrendered Thursday morning at Hamas Internal Security headquarters in Gaza City, a family member said late Friday afternoon.

According to the Times, Hind Khoudary, who is described by the London-based human rights organization as an “Amnesty International Research Consultant” and “worker”, “posted angry denunciations on Facebook of Mr. Aman and others on the call, tagging three Hamas officials to ensure it got their attention.” Then Hamas arrested him for “betrayal of our people and their sacrifices.”

In wake of the controversy this weekend, at about 1:00 am Gaza time on April 12th Khoudary deleted the Facebook post where she had tagged the Hamas officials. Here is the screenshot:

See some of Khoudary’s numerous other Facebook posts from that day denouncing Aman here, here and here.

Even long-time Human Rights Watch official Peter Bouckaert, who always sided with Hamas in its wars with Israel, has condemned Amnesty International’s researcher, and removed her from a private Facebook group.

“You should be ashamed of yourself,” Bouckaert wrote to Khoudary.