Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, July 21, 2021

How can Israel overcome the pervasive lies about it? (Daled Amos)

By Daled Amos

After Israel's miraculous victory in the Six-Day War -- has Israel ever not had a problem with its image?

Israel's image problem got so bad that in April 2007, Newsweek described the quandary the Jewish State found itself in as Girls: Israel's racy new PR strategy:

The Israeli consular official based in New York approached Maxim six months ago. His proposal: the government and other pro-Israeli groups would fly a camera crew across the Atlantic in an effort to remake the Jewish state's public image. Israel's reputation had suffered after last summer's war with Lebanon; in a recent BBC poll taken in 27 countries, 56 percent of respondents considered Israel a "negative influence" in the world, higher than both Iran and the United States. But Israel's real PR problem, according to [the Israeli official], is that Americans—particularly men aged 18 to 35—either associate the country with war or holy relics, or don't think of it at all. "We have to find the right hook," he says. "And what's relevant to men under 35? Good-looking women." [emphasis added]

Newsweek goes on to quote Benny Elon, a former tourism minister and then a settler leader, who described Israel's marketing strength as being "the only state where you can take the Bible as your tourism guide." Based on that, Elon was open to a recommendation by the consulting firm Ernst & Young to target American evangelical Christian tourists, though focusing on attracting Christian tourists could alienate secular liberals.

Which brings us to 2008, and a new approach.

That was the year that Nefesh B'Nefesh's hosted an International Jewish Bloggers Convention. Zavi Apfelbaum, Director of Brand Management of the Foreign Ministry was a featured speaker and described the problem of Israel's negative image. She illustrated the issue with the results of focus groups where small groups of Americans were asked to imagine themselves invited to different homes, each one inhabited by people from a different country, and to describe what they expected to see and experience at each home.

The houses were described as warm, welcoming and colorful, filled with good food, talk and laughter.

But not Israel.

As opposed to all the other homes, the Israeli home was dominated with cement and did not have a grass lawn. The man of the house answers the door and the woman of the home is not even seen. One participant said that it would be uncomfortable to enter, because the home would be 'Orthodox' and the people living there would probably not even want guests.

These are the impressions people had, from Apfelbaum's presentation:

Hat tip: Mystical Paths

Here were intelligent Americans, people who tended to support Israel -- and yet they had no clue as to what Israel and Israelis were really like. Americans supported Israel, but not because they actually understood or could really identify with her.

Apfelbaum described the solution to the problem as "Nation Branding" or "Country Positioning," which would be a departure from the traditional Hasbarah approach, which assumed that Israel's image problem was due to a lack of knowledge, and that the goal was to gain political support.

As described earlier that year by Ido Aharoni, founder of the ministry’s Brand Israel concept, the problem was that

Israel is viewed solely through the narrow prism of the Arab-Israeli conflict…Israel’s personality is 90 per cent dominated by conflict-related images and some religious connotations. Those of us who know the brand intimately are disturbed by the divergence of brand and the perception. [emphasis added]

The new approach would take into account that

aspects of Israel are worthy of promotion, including its culture and arts; its accomplishments on environmental matters such as water desalination, solar energy and clean technology; its high-tech successes and achievements in higher education; and its involvement in international aid, he added.

This was not an entirely new approach to Israel advocacy. An article in The Forward from 2005 describes the competition between the old approach -- presenting Israel's side in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict -- and the new approach:

The new approach to Israeli image control first began to take on institutional form about four years ago with the founding of Israel21c, a small California-based group that has worked with public relations experts to place news stories about Israel that do not focus on the conflict with the Palestinians. The organization has a Web site where it posts articles about, among other things, medical and technological advances in Israeli laboratories.

...The battle of old approach versus new has been crystallized in the competition between Israeli21c and The Israel Project, another American group formed at about the same time. The Israel Project has followed the more traditional path of presenting Israel’s side of the conflict with the Palestinians. Among other things, The Israel Project has paid to air ads in influential markets touting Israel’s commitment to peace and democracy.

Larry Weinberg, executive vice president of Israel 21c, called The Israel Project’s work “crisis management” and said that such efforts frequently end up reinforcing Israel’s image as a conflict-ridden place. [emphasis added]

Comparing the goals then with the way Israel is perceived today, it would seem that the new approach has been a success: Israel today is in fact identified with hi-tech and international aid.

The question is: has this new approach actually helped Israel's image?

According to a 2017 article from JTA, via Haaretz -- not so much, claiming that, The more Americans learn about Israel, the less they like it, study suggests. Those studies are by the Brand Israel Group, which was launched by Ido Aharoni in 2002. In addition to focus groups in 2005, it also commissioned surveys in 2010 and 2016.

Those surveys found that across every demographic group except college students, knowledge of Israel increased: while 23% of Americans claimed they knew a fair amount about Israel in 2010, in 2016 that number had increased to 37%.

And at first glance, that sounds encouraging:

Israel’s touting of its tech industry, warm climate and Mediterranean food may have worked a bit on Americans, who view Israel as innovative (78 percent) and cool (63 percent).

Israel's image, however, did not change in the process:

But around three-quarters of Americans still see Israel as dominated by conflict. And though only 10 percent of Israeli Jews are Haredi Orthodox, 73 percent of Americans view Israel as ultra-religious. [emphasis added]

And when it comes to viewing Israel favorably, things are not getting any better:

The groups with relatively high levels of favorability toward Israel, according to the study, included men, Republicans and older Americans. The groups that like Israel less are the mirror image: women, Democrats and millennials, along with African-Americans and Latinos. And those population groups are all growing.

A majority of all of these groups still sees Israel favorably, but the numbers are falling. Favorability among Democrats dropped 13 points, from 73 percent to 60 percent. Among women, it dropped from 74 percent to 57 percent.

Among African-Americans and Latinos, favorability toward Israel fell 20 points each, from about three-quarters each to just over half. Fewer than half of African Americans and Latinos believe “Israel shares my values.”

That was in 2017.
And we all know that 4 years later, things have only gotten worse.

But wait.

How can Americans say they know more about Israel if they still think that Israel consists of fundamentalist, religious fanatics?

The JTA article doesn't address this, but the answer may be that when people claim they are more knowledgeable about Israel, they are in fact confusing their knowledge of Israel with the added exposure they get to Israel on social media.

And that is something that the marketing gurus and branding experts might not have anticipated 16 years ago.

A 2005 article on the Israel21c website quotes a marketing CEO who explained that the fact that Americans see Israel as a war-torn country as opposed to a hi-tech wonder

doesn’t mean Americans are anti-Israel or pro-Palestinian. They just find Israel to be totally irrelevant to their lives, and they are tuning out, and that is particularly true for 18- to 34-year-old males, the most significant target in such studies. [emphasis added]

And according to Aharoni, part of that tuning out is because of “media fatigue,” and that the longer the Israeli-Palestinian conflict goes on, the less interested Americans become and the more they blame both sides for not ending the violence.

Larry Weinberg, executive vice president of ISRAEL21c chimes in that, "When it comes to Israel, 98 percent of what the media focuses on is the war with the Palestinians and 98 percent of pro-Israel advocacy is going to waste because it’s all about the crisis.” --

Proving that Israel is right and the Palestinians are wrong may be emotionally satisfying for advocates, said the former New York public relations expert, but not necessarily effective in changing people's way of thinking about Israel.
“We’re not saying there should be no more discussion of political policy,” he said, “only that we have to change the mix. Let’s not spend almost all of our time on it. We need a strategy that includes more positive imaging.”

The thing is, people are not tuning out to news about Israel.
There does not appear to be media fatigue or less interest.
And defending Israel on social media is not as emotionally satisfying as Weinberg makes it out to be.
In fact, it takes a toll.

This month, a poll came out finding that 25% of American Jews consider Israel to be an Apartheid state and 22% thought Israel was guilty of genocide. Despite questions on the objectivity of the poll, the results point to a major failure in the Jewish leadership in the US.

And a failure by Israel.

David Horovitz writes in the Times of Israel:

A multitude of factors, some of them far beyond Israel’s control, have led to poll findings such as these. But self-evidently, Israel would help its standing if it explained itself more effectively.

Yet Israel has a long history of failure in doing this.
According to Horovitz, just this past May, during Operation Guardian of the Walls:

o There was no experienced English-language spokesperson to regularly present Israel’s point of view to the media

o  Instead, the job of explaining the war was left to the IDF and to its Spokesperson’s Unit

o  But instead of presenting the context of the war for an international audience, the IDF’s prime focus was on Hamas and Gaza’s other terror groups, to impress upon them the IDF’s strength and capabilities.

o  Among the IDF's "diplomatic" failures were its attempts to deceive world media -- and Hamas -- with false information about a ground offensive and its inability to quickly produce compelling evidence to the public of why it was necessary to destroy a Gaza high-rise that it claimed was a Hamas military asset where the Associated Press had its offices.

o  In the US, Israel’s demanding diplomatic posts of ambassador to the US and ambassador to the UN were filled by one man, Gilad Erdan, who, according to Horovitz "avoided almost all of an avalanche of interview requests, apparently because he was concerned that his English, though serviceable, is not entirely up to the task."

o  The office of consul general in New York was unfilled at the time

o  Major international diplomatic posts, including the ambassadors to Canada, France and Australia, were vacant.

o  Prime Minister Bennet has no English-language spokesperson yet.

o  Erdan has stepped down as ambassador to the United States but has not been replaced

Let the experts argue about the best approach to improving Israel's image.

But first, Israel must finally address the bread-and-butter need for hasbara, to clearly present its case -- not just to its allies, but to Jews around the world inundated with the overwhelming flood of hate in social media, and threatened by the spike in antisemitic attacks that result from it.

From Notes from Poland:

At an anti-vaccine protest in Poland [Sunday,] participants chanted that “Jews are behind the pandemic” and “rule the world”.

In Głogów, a town of 70,000 in western Poland, followers of the local football team on Sunday held the latest in a series of protests against restrictions and vaccines. They called on people to join “the fight for our common future” against “the globalists”.

At [Sunday's] event, a man leading chanting through a megaphone asked the crowd: “We know who is behind this whole ‘plandemic’ and who rules the world, right?” In response, someone shouted “Jews”, and the man replied, “Of course it’s the Jews”.

The crowd then chanted together: “Every Pole can see today that behind the ‘plandemic’ are the Jews” (Dzisiaj każdy Polak widzi, że za plandemią stoją Żydzi).

Over 100 people attended the march, according to NaszeMiasto. Among them were families with children. Many carried white-and-red Polish flags or wore other patriotic symbols. Some also lit flares.

Separately, the far-right Confederation (Konfederacja) party – which has also been involved in protests against coronavirus restrictions – shared a video of one of its supporters saying that she “does not want Jewry” in Poland.

Confederation’s social media profiles shared a video of one of its supporters explaining why she likes the party. “Because I don’t want Jewry, I don’t want LGBT,” she said. “Only Confederation can ensure such normality.”

Following publication of the video, several firms cancelled contracts with the woman shown in it, Samuela Górska, who is a professional model, reports Wirtualne Media.

Górska has been deleting critical comments on her Instagram and Facebook pages.

Between Monday and Tuesday evenings HRW head Ken Roth posted no fewer than ten tweets blaming Israel or Jews for something or another.

This is clearly in response to the criticism he weathered when he essentially blamed antisemitism on Jews on Sunday, showing that in the face of adversity he will redouble his public campaign against Israel and Jews.

He deleted that tweet but didn't apologize - in fact, he instead said that his critics are all idiots for not understanding what he meant, rather they reacted to what he actually wrote.

Really.

He originally wrote, "Antisemitism is always wrong, and it long preceded the creation of Israel, but the surge in UK antisemitic incidents during the recent Gaza conflict gives the lie to those who pretend that the Israeli government's conduct doesn't affect antisemitism. "

On Tuesday, he wrote, "I deleted an earlier tweet because people misinterpreted its wording. " Not "I worded it wrong" but "I'm right, everyone else doesn't understand my English."

He also wrote no less than six tweets about the NSO Group, which makes spyware purchased by many governments, and which was reportedly used for spying on journalists and political opponents. There are many companies that provide tools that governments (and others) can use to illegally spy on citizens, and there is no evidence that the government of Israel knew what NSO was doing - in fact, after the story, the government said that it will investigate the claims. Yet Roth invariably emphasizes "the Israeli NSO group" as if the fact that it is in Israel is what is so damning about it.

(I am not convinced about the story altogether. It is based wholly on a list of 50,000 supposed targets that were "leaked" but no one says where it was leaked from. NSO denies that the list came from them, and there is no reason a company like that would maintain a list of targets from its disparate clients. The investigators are not saying where this list came from. This mystery list is a pretty big hole in the story. It is quite likely that governments that bought NSO Pegasus spyware misused it - any weapon can and will be misused - but the evidence that NSO is culpable for that is thinner than being reported, and there is even less evidence that Israel knew about it.)

Roth- human rights activist - then weighed in on the Ben and Jerry's story, twice. He claimed, incredibly, that anyone selling ice cream to Jews who live in Judea and Samaria are complicit in war crimes. Just like genocide.

But that wasn't enough for Roth. He also tweeted this:

As American Jews turn on the Israeli government for its repression of Palestinians, the government increasingly relies on American evangelical Christians for support, even though their support is based on beliefs that ultimately leave no room for Jews.

The article is behind a paywall. but based on the subhead and Roth's penchant for adding his own opinion as if they are in the link, Roth's comments on evangelicals are probably mostly his.

Even if evangelical teachings say that Jews will eventually be destroyed or converted, unless they are doing the destroying themselves, who cares? Jews don't believe in it! It is better to have allies who support you than as-a-Jew enemies like Roth who actively work to destroy you!

And if Jews should be concerned about working together with members of a religion whose teachings include antisemitism, then that means that Roth would advise Israeli Jews to never work with Muslims!

Roth is obsessed with Israel and Jews.

07/20 Links Pt2: To Antisemites, a Jew Is a Jew Is a Jew; Ben & Jerry’s joins long list of failed 'boycotts' of Israel; David Collier: Meet Alaa Daraghme – the BBC’s Hezbollah loving Journo

From Ian:

What are the real threats of modern antisemitism? - opinion

Jews gathered this week to fight antisemitism in two locations, and the very different results are telling.

In Jerusalem, several hundred NGO representatives convened for the tenth Global Forum for Combating Antisemitism, under the auspices this year of the Israeli ministries of foreign and diaspora affairs. The discussion of strategies to turn back the current tsunami of blended antisemitic and anti-Zionist expression were deep and fruitful.

In Washington, one hundred American Jewish organizations cooperated to organize a rally near the Capitol against the same tsunami, with meager results. Only 3,000 people participated in the “No Fear” demonstration, which amounts to about 30 Jews (and non-Jews) per organization. Some hard-Left American Jewish groups refused to participate all-together, because they reject the overriding message that Jewish identity and support for Israel are inseparable.

Alas, partisanship, “progressive” politics, legal pretexts, anti-Israel sentiment, and community divisions hamper the effort to combat surging Jew hatred. Worst of all, the surging Jew-hatred seems to have sapped the confidence of American Jews, which is, perhaps, the greatest threat of all.

These disturbing trends have been analyzed in a series of recent, important intellectual articles, as follows:

• False equation
The British columnist Melanie Phillip notes that even when condemning antisemitism, politicians and intellectuals feel the compunction to condemn “Islamophobia” and “all forms of racism” at the same time and in the same sentence. This politically correct refusal to acknowledge the uniqueness of antisemitism (and the overwhelming preponderance of antisemitism, above and beyond all other hatreds including anti-Muslim hatred) demonstrates precisely that Jew-hatred.

“People can’t stand the uniqueness of antisemitism because they can’t stand the uniqueness of the Jewish people.” Worse still, many progressive Jews make the false equation of antisemitism with anti-Muslim abuse in a misguided attempt to prove that they are not claiming any special status as victims.

• Mainstreaming
Writing on Bari Weiss’s blog, Peter Savodnik reviews just who is speaking out against antisemitism and who is staying silent. While Michigan Democratic congresswoman Rashida Tlaib and some her “Squad” colleagues are using their notoriety to bring antisemitic policies and rhetoric into the mainstream, many news outlets are far too obsessed with the novelty of their identity or enamored by their “progressive” politics to care, he writes.

Even when Tlaib and Ilhan Omar regurgitate the “dual loyalty” charge against pro-Israel Senators – a classic antisemitic trope – the national Democratic leadership has found it hard to condemn them outright or explicitly, without wrapping rejection of the slur in the bland blanket of rejecting “all racist” language.

This is because the American Left has stumbled into the bottomless rage of identity politics. “They have embraced the new racial-gender taxonomy, which reimagines thousands of years of Jewish history into a wokified diorama. Today, the conflict can only be seen through this flattening prism, with Israel playing the role of the white, colonial settler and the Palestinian that of the settler’s dark-skinned, indigenous victim.

David Harris: To Antisemites, a Jew Is a Jew Is a Jew

Pro-Israel students on numerous campuses were under assault in the classroom or on the quad.

Hostile faculty members, aggressive student groups, the impact of intersectionality, and some weak-kneed administrators combined to create toxic environments in a number of places. A few Jews were even being questioned about their eligibility for student government positions based solely on their identity.

But, hey, not only was I not one of “those” victimized students, but I avidly supported the victimizers, so it didn’t really touch me.

Wait a second. The walls are starting to close in. All those “woke” movements I support seem to find more and more reasons to point the finger at Jews, to blame Jews, to label Jews, to exclude Jews, to demonize Jews.

I thought I was ultra-safe in my space. I joined in all the ritualistic denunciations of Zionism. I always put the universal, not the particular, first and foremost. I distanced myself from those “clannish” Jews, those Jews who could never let go of their own history. It was a point of pride to put other Jews last, not first, in my list of priorities. I was totally convinced the danger to everyone only came from the far-right, the neo-Nazis, the QAnon crowd. All my attention was single-mindedly focused on them.

I tried to show that this Jew could be relied on, even as I was being used, it turns out, to shield “my” own groups from charges of antisemitism. After all, if I was a part of the crowd, and often pushed to the front when convenient, how could they possibly be accused of antisemitism?

Oh my goodness, they’re now starting to question me. But, wait, there’s no one left to defend me.

Why didn’t I bother to learn the history of the Jewish people? Antisemitism is antisemitism is antisemitism. Which means a Jew is a Jew is a Jew.

So, to the antisemites, my “good” (Jewish) credentials don’t count for much, at least not for long. No exemptions, it seems.

I thought I could save myself by, in effect, selling out millions of other Jews. Instead, I sold my dignity and got nothing, absolutely nothing, in return, except a punch-in-the-gut lesson in reality.

David Collier: Exclusive: Meet Alaa Daraghme – the BBC’s Hezbollah loving Journo

So it came as no real surprise that Bateman retweeted Alaa Daraghme’s post. But the connection still interested me – and I wondered – who this journalist was that the BBC correspondent felt so comfortable promoting. It didn’t take long for me to find his timeline was awash with problems.

This is the first images Daraghme shared that caught my eye – an image calling Israelis ‘ Nazis’.

It is possible to argue that he merely shared an image of someone else being antisemitic – but he still chose to promote the Nazi analogy. Then things soon got at a lot worse. Alaa Daraghme appears to be a full on conspiracy theorist – who often shares fake news.

Daraghme was recently caught, sharing a fake news video about an Israeli ‘ramming’ Palestinians in Jerusalem. This was one of those videos that went viral during the recent violence. In reality that Israeli driver only lost control of his car – because he was attacked by a Palestinian mob.

But there is far more than one viral video in his timeline. During the ‘knifing Intifada’ of 2015, antisemitic Palestinian propagandists pushed a vile conspiracy theory that the knifing attacks were not real. Instead – they claimed that Israelis shot Palestinian freely – and then placed knifes at the scene to provide a pretext for their bloodlust.

Daraghme pushed that line consistently:
The real story was that the terrorist attacked and injured a soldier – before he was shot.

The conspiracy is a constant trend in Daraghme’s posts. Here is another example:

In that post, Daraghme changes the knife for a gun – and has two Palestinians shot – ‘just because’ with Israel using a shooting attack as an excuse. In the real world – on 14th February 2016, Palestinians opened fire on police officers in Jerusalem. The terrorists were all shot.

If only antisemitic conspiracy theories were the worst of Daraghme’s behaviour.

Alaa is not an appropriate person to be an impartial @bbc journalist. But of course, despite him being a keen terror supporter & racist conspiracy theorist @BBCNews @tombateman merrily shares Alaa's distortions. As @mishtal says: why is the BBC not doing basic due diligence? pic.twitter.com/pFEKPqoZiV
— Queen of Broccoli 🥦👑 (@jobellerina) July 20, 2021

Palestinian propaganda State Department pool "journalist" admits he has terrorist relatives

At the daily State Department briefings, a so-called journalist for Palestinian newspaper Al Quds named Said Arikat always harangues the spokesperson with questions that are really meant to get anti-Israel propaganda into the official record.

In yesterday's briefing, he sad something interesting:

QUESTION: Real quick. Thank you, Ned. Last week, while Mr. Hady Amr was visiting the West Bank and Israel, the Israeli occupation authorities razed 50 structures – 50 structures – while he was there. Are you not offended by that? Why is there no statement on these things? Why can’t you say you have to cut this out, stop it, just stop it?

MR PRICE: Said, we have spoken very clearly in public and in private. We have made the point that we believe it is critical to refrain from unilateral steps that increase or exacerbate tensions and then make it more difficult to, over the longer term, achieve that two-state, negotiated solution. This certainly includes demolitions. We’ve certainly made that point. You’ve heard me make that point before. We have made that privately as well.

QUESTION: Yeah, I mean, I hear you all the time. But apparently, they are not hearing you. They are not listening to you. So, what is the use of saying what you’re saying without having – without putting some teeth or some oomph behind your statements?

MR PRICE: Well, Said, we certainly have, and you’ve seen that in any number of forms. We have spoken recently about the steps that we have taken to re-engage the Palestinian people, the Palestinian Authority, to provide humanitarian assistance, to provide support. And we do that not only for the humanitarian implications, because the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank – in the West Bank, are in need of this humanitarian assistance, but also because we are trying to set the conditions to eventually be able to work towards a two-state solution. That has been the overriding goal of successive American administrations, obviously has been an overriding goal that has eluded successive administrations.

As you have heard from us, we aren’t under any illusions that a two-state solution is right around the corner. We’re not under any illusions it will be here next week or even next month. But what we are trying to do now is to set the stage to make meaningful progress, and I think we’ve done that in ways that are both rhetorical but, more importantly, are tangible, including for the welfare and the well-being of the Palestinian people. We have repeatedly made the point that Palestinians and Israelis alike deserve equal measures of safety, of security, of prosperity, and importantly, of dignity. And that is what much of our humanitarian assistance, what much of our support, is aimed at enhancing: a sense of dignity that has in many ways eluded the Palestinian people for far too long.

QUESTION: I mean, you speak of dignity to me. As much as I hate to do it, it’s a personal thing. A cousin of mine, young cousin of mine, 29 years old, was shot dead in cold blood a year ago on the 22nd of June. They still hold his body. Last month, another relative of mine, a young woman, 29 years old, shot in my village. They still hold her body. I mean, talk about dignity. Why do this? Isn’t that collective punishment?

MR PRICE: Said, look, I’m, as you know, not in a position to speak to individual cases. We have spoken to the broader issue of what some might call collective punishment, and we spoke of home demolitions of Palestinians suspected to have been behind attacks. And we made clear that entire communities, entire families shouldn’t be punished for the actions of one individual. But again, I’m just not able to comment on specific cases.

QUESTION: Well, let the record note their names: Ahmed Erekat and Maya Afana.

Ahmed Erekat was killed while trying to ram his car into Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint. It is on video.

Mai Afana also tried to ram her car into soldiers at a checkpoint, then exited the car and tried to stab them.

Arikat sure has some family. And he defends their terror.

(h/t YMedad)

Ben and Jerry memes

Here are some memes I made about the Ben and Jerry's kerfuffle.

I have news for @BenandJerrys:

The Jews are indigenous to the land. Unlike, say, the headquarters of an ice cream company in Vermont. pic.twitter.com/JSYMGqF26P
— Elder of Ziyon 🇮🇱 (@elderofziyon) July 19, 2021

(tweet)

Let's be clear: In the Old City of Jerusalem, @benandjerrys wants only Arab owned shops to sell their ice cream and the Jewish owned shops a few meters away would be boycotted.

There's a name for that....
— Elder of Ziyon 🇮🇱 (@elderofziyon) July 19, 2021

(tweet)

07/20 Links Pt1: Why Is Support For ‘Freedom of Worship for Jews’ on the Temple Mount So Controversial?; Ra’am party shows its true colors; Mahmoud Abbas Wants Israel’s Surrender

From Ian:

Jonathan S. Tobin: Why Is Support For ‘Freedom of Worship for Jews’ on the Temple Mount So Controversial?

This dispute is dismissed by some as an unnecessary conflict that is harming Israel’s security merely to satisfy the wishes of extremists. But the Palestinian claim that Jews have no rights on the Temple Mount is inextricably linked to their unwillingness to recognize the legitimacy of the Jewish presence and sovereignty anywhere in the country.

That Abbas and his “moderates” claim there were no Temples on the Mount or the historical nature of the Jewish claims to this land isn’t merely rhetoric that enables them to compete with Hamas. It goes to the heart of their long war against Zionism that they still refuse to renounce. A Jewish state that would officially renounce Jewish rights on the Mount would be sending a message to the Palestinian street that the extremist belief that Israel will disappear isn’t a pipe dream that they must abandon if they want a peaceful future.

Those who are still trying to pressure Israel to accept a two-state solution that the Palestinian Authority has repeatedly made clear it has no interest in pursuing need to understand that peace can’t be built on the denial of Jewish rights, especially in Jerusalem.

Israel has no desire to interfere with the mosques on the Temple Mount or stop Muslim (or any) worship there. Those who circulate this lie, whether among the Palestinians or their American cheerleaders, like Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), are opponents of peace, not people working for co-existence. That even some of those who claim to be Israel’s friends think it is reasonable to deny “freedom of worship” for Jews at their most sacred site are giving unwitting aid and comfort to the very extremist forces that make peace impossible.

The world’s tolerance for Palestinian intolerance and anti-Semitism that finds expression in a denial of Jewish rights to the Temple Mount has helped enable the conflict over Israel’s existence to linger on long after it should have been abandoned by its foes. By taking a position on the Temple Mount, Bennett has done something that should have been done by his predecessors decades ago. Having chosen to take a stand on the issue, he dare not retreat from it lest he justify his opponents’ belief that he hasn’t the right stuff to maintain his principles or his government.

Ra’am party shows its true colors

Those who have been pitching the “new and improved” Ra’am Party to the Israeli public as a moderate faction promoting a civil agenda, now that it is a member of Israel's governing coalition for the first time in Israel's history, had something of a rude awakening on Sunday, courtesy of the “old” Islamist Ra’am.

Its warning against “settlers and MKs violating the Al-Aqsa mosque” was taken right out of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar’s playbook. Similar statements were made by the Gaza-based terrorist group as part of its ultimatums to Israel prior to the 11 days of fighting that erupted in May.

Its statement, echoed by the Southern Branch of the Islamic Movement from which it hails, adopted the menacing terminology used by Hamas with regard to the Temple Mount.

Ra’am knows very well that no Jewish visitor to the Temple Mount plans to breach Al-Aqsa mosque. This didn’t stop it from adopting Hamas-style radicalism in its statement by claiming full proprietary Islamic sanctity over the compound’s 35 acres.

If anything, this means that the allegedly moderate Southern Branch of the Islamic Movement aims to take the place of its northern counterpart, which Israel outlawed in 2015 over its radicalism and ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Southern Branch officials are now expressing radical opinions over the Temple Mount similar to those expressed by Northern Branch officials who are now jailed.

It is time to admit that the status quo at the holy site has been eroded to the point that it exists in name only. The Muslims have turned the Dome of the Rock into a mosque, they have built two underground mosques at the site, Israeli enforcement of building regulations and protection of antiquities has weakened and Jews have been subjected to rigorous limitations with regard to visiting the site.

It is only natural in light of these developments that Israeli enforcement of the joke that is the “status quo” should slacken.

Khaled Abu Toameh: Arabs Warn Biden: The War on Terrorism is not Over

The Arabs are saying that the Americans are mistaken if they think that the war on terrorism will end with the withdrawal of the US troops from Afghanistan.

Adib warned that the US will pay the price for its exit from Afghanistan. "The cost of the withdrawal will be greater and more dangerous for America and the entire world," he said. "Al-Qaeda and the Taliban are preparing to establish a state whose features will be close to those of ISIS. The threat of ISIS is still there and its cells are still spread everywhere." — Mounir Adib, Egyptian expert on Islamic movements and international terrorism, Annaharar.com, June 5, 2021.

[T]he threat of terrorism will grow because of the Americans' failure to consult with their allies in the Middle East, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.... — Mounir Adib, Annaharar.com, June 5, 2021.

"The biggest catastrophe is that Afghanistan will become the capital of terrorism again, and now we have the threat of Al-Qaeda making a comeback... after America's withdrawal from Afghanistan as these groups feel proud and victorious, which will push them to continue fighting against America and the Arabs and Europeans." — Mounir Adib, Annaharar.com, June 5, 2021.

"[T]he problem is that extremist and terrorist groups and political Islam do not know how to live without rivalry, and they do not like to live in peace and without enemies. It is true that the US military force diminished Al-Qaeda and destroyed the dream of ISIS to have its own state, but it did not eliminate the terrorist ideology...." — Bahaa Al-Awam, Syrian journalist and political analyst, Al-Ain, July 12, 2021.

"What makes matters worse is that the American withdrawal from the region will mark a victory in favor of political Islamic organizations...." — Bahaa Al-Awam, Al-Ain, July 12, 2021.

These Arabs are telling the Biden administration in no uncertain terms: US policies and actions are undermining your credibility among your allies and paving the way for the return of Islamic terrorist groups.

Mahmoud Abbas Wants Israel’s Surrender

Reflecting a tactic of skilled negotiators, the list of demands made by Mahmoud Abbas as a precondition for renewing talks with Israel mixes sensible requests with unacceptable demands. His demand that Israel upgrade the Palestinian solar network, for example, appears fairly reasonable on the face of it but has security implications for the work of the Shin Bet.

Abbas’ demands as a whole indicate a desire to restore the status quo that existed before the terror war begun by the Palestinians against Israel more than 20 years ago, in September 2000. His wish list also indicates that he believes it is possible to go back to the state of affairs that prevailed when he rejected Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s sweeping proposal, though more than a decade has passed since then.

During the intervening years, the Middle East has seen many sea changes. In the past decade, for example, as the Syrian civil war unfolded and Iranian involvement increased, Qassem Soleimani’s plan to surround Israel with a ring of fire deployed and supported by Iran steadily progressed. Under those circumstances, Israel’s control of the Jordan Valley became far more vital than it was in the days of the July 2000 Camp David summit at which PM Ehud Barak was willing to cede the Valley and agree to the Clinton Parameters for a partition of Jerusalem.

In the business world, it is inconceivable that terms for a deal would not change with the passage of time. Abbas’ list of demands implies that when negotiating with Israel, the years that have passed and the events that occurred during those years should be dismissed as irrelevant.

Palestinian media trying to get people to lynch man who sold his house to Jews

As I have previously reported, Arabs sold two properties to Jews in the past few weeks.

Now one of the sellers is in danger.

Palestinian Media Watch reports:

The PA has publicly exposed, shamed, and literally endangered the life of an Arab who sold land to Jews in Jerusalem. According to the PA, Palestinians who sell land to Jews are considered “traitors” and criminals. In fact, the PA has forbidden selling land to Jews by law. Anyone who tries to sell land to Jews will be sentenced to 5 years of hard labor, and someone who actually sells land to Jews will be sentenced to life in prison with hard labor, as documented by Palestinian Media Watch.

Moreover, the religious establishment of the PA has declared it “a sin” against Islam to relinquish any part of “Palestine” to Israelis - the “enemies.” “Palestine” is said to include all of the State of Israel - “a pure right of its Muslim owners,” as one Shari’ah judge has put it.

Accordingly, an Arab named Walid Ahmed Atout has now been publicly exposed by Abbas’ Fatah Movement for having sold his property in the Silwan neighborhood in East Jerusalem to Jews as well as having “sold his morals.” Reporting on this, Fatah’s TV station Awdah even broadcast footage of Atout “fleeing” and a photo of him “because these images and this information are important for our people so that they will see this traitor.”

There have been media reports about torture and extrajudicial killings of land sellers such as this in English and a more extensive report here in Hebrew.

In the broadcast, the TV host called Atout “a traitor and land transferrer” and “betrayer of the homeland.” Needless to say, after this kind of designation by the PA/Fatah, Atout’s life may very well be in danger:

It isn't only Fatah. Atout's picture and condemnation of him is all over Palestinian media.

Here's video of his family leaving their home.

Here's video of a walkthrough of his house showing that the family left their possessions there to make it look like they will return.

And his photo is all over the place.

The point is clear: if you find Atout, take justice into your own hands.

Needless to say, no one ever says that the prohibition of selling land to Jews is pure antisemitism.

Judaism's two holiest places are filled with Muslims today

Over 100,000 Muslims filled the Temple Mount today, Judaism's holiest place, for Eid al Adha prayers today.

Thousands more filled the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron, Judaism's second holiest spot.

Imagine if the situation was reversed and there was Muslim control over these places. Would they allow Jews to enter on their holy days?

We don't have to imagine. When Muslims controlled them before 1967, Jews were banned from entering both. Muslims would not allow Jews to go beyond the seventh step at the Cave of the Patriarchs, and they would gather to pray at that step.

Even today, even though Jewish holy spots are listed in the Oslo agreements as places that Jews should be able to freely and safely visit, the Jewish sites under Palestinian Authority rule can only be visited sporadically and when protected by the Israeli army.

And Muslims insist, today, that these holy spots are exclusively Muslim and Jews should be banned altogether from them.

The international community, which wants to give control of these places back to Muslims, will never insist on Jewish rights to visit and worship at Jewish holy places. It is up to Israel to enforce that.

Only under Jewish rule is there respect for all religions in the Land of Israel.

A brief history of Arab boycotts of Jews. (Not Zionists - Jews.)

I'm seeing some people on Twitter ask why boycotting Israel is considered antisemitic.

One reason is that history shows that these boycotts are just a continuation of the boycotts that Arabs enacted against Jews in the decades before Israel was reborn.

Here is a list of boycott actions of Arabs against Jews - not Zionists, but Jews - between 1891 and 1945.

1891: Arabs request the Ottoman Empire not sell land to Jews.

February 1909: "In Hebron, where out of a total population of 18,000 about 2000 are Jews, the Arabs decide to boycott Jewish merchants."

January 1915: The American Jewish Yearbook reports "At Hebron, Jewish storekeepers are boycotted

by Mohammedan women."

April 2, 1920, AJC: "Rosh Pinah: Thirty Arabs attack Arab workmen in fields belonging to Jewish inhabitants in endeavor to bring about boycott by Arabs against Jews."

June 4, 1921: "Haifa: Arabs issue proclamation urging the populace to boycott the Jews and drive them out of their villages."

1922: Arab Congress calls on Arabs to boycott Jewish businesses in Palestine.

1924:

MUSLIM-CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION.—AS in the past, the Muslim-Christian Association again expressed its opposition to the Mandate and to the very idea of the creation of a Jewish national home in Palestine, and voiced its demands for the independence of Palestine. It conducted an anti-Zionist and also anti-Jewish propaganda. In a publication which it widely distributed in the past year, the Association repeatedly refers its sympathizers to the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion", as a book which should be read by every-one who still doubts the pernicious motives of the Jews. ...It voted to authorize the Executive Committee to boycott the forthcoming elections and to promulgate an economic boycott against the Jews. The economic boycott, however, was later abandoned.

1925:

ARAB ASSOCIATIONS.—The Moslem-Christian Union during the past year continued its policy of obstruction—not only in political matters but it also tried to interfere with the economic development of the country. Early in the year under review, a congress adopted a resolution urging the boycotting of the Ruttenberg Electrification Plan.

1929: Arab Congress vows to compel Arabs to boycott Jewish merchandise. Syria prohibits import of merchandise produced by Jewish businesses in Palestine.

1931: World Islamic Congress passes resolution requesting Muslim countries to boycott trade with Jewish businesses in Palestine. Arab Labor Federation pickets Jewish businesses in Palestine.

1945: Arab League Council adopts Resolution 70, recommending that all Arab states establish national boycott offices.

The antisemitism is clear. It is absurd to think that the continuous boycotts by Arabs of Jews (the boycott office of the Arab League is still in place) suddenly changed in 1948 from a boycott of Jews to a boycott of Israelis.

Moreover, the Arab League boycott was explicitly against Jews even through the 1950s.

My sources were the American Jewish Yearbook and a chart in the book Effects of the Arab League Boycott of Israel on U. S. Businesses By Constance A. Hamilton, 1994.

07/19 Links Pt2: Kenneth Roth says Israel is responsible for rise in antisemitism; David Collier: Make no mistake – Wikipedia is at war with the Jews

From Ian:

Kenneth Roth says Israel is responsible for rise in antisemitism

The executive director of one of the world's leading international human rights organisations has been criticised after suggesting Israel is responsible for the rise in antisemitic incidents during the recent Gaza conflict.

Writing on Twitter, Human Righst Watch director Kenneth Roth said: “Antisemitism is always wrong, and it long preceded the creation of Israel, but the surge in UK antisemitic incidents during the recent Gaza conflict gives the lie to those who pretend that the Israeli government's conduct doesn't affect antisemitism.”

His tweet accompanied a link to an article in Ha'aretz about the fact antisemitism rose to record levels according to data collected by the Community Security Trust.

A report by CST stated that 628 antisemitic incidents were recorded during the one-period between May 8 and June 7, a rise of 365 percent over April and “the highest number CST has ever recorded in any month-long period.”

Mr Roth’s tweet was widely condemned as people pointed out that he would not look to place the blame on any other minority community facing an increase in hate crime.

Instead of apologising, he went further to defend his comments.

In another tweet he said: “Interesting how many people pretend that this tweet justifies antisemitism (it doesn't and I don't under any circumstances) rather than address the correlation noted in the Haaretz article between recent Israeli government conduct in Gaza and the rise of UK antisemitic incidents.”

There should be no justification for #antisemitism or those who perpetrate it.
Blaming Israel for the recent rise in violent antisemitic incidents, instead of blaming the antisemitic actors themselves, is plainly false and offensive. pic.twitter.com/nAEsK6UGPx
— Jonathan Greenblatt (@JGreenblattADL) July 19, 2021

2: https://t.co/zeHUtyugx6
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) July 18, 2021

4: https://t.co/cvzG7MR6Ys
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) July 18, 2021

Reminder: Ken Roth actually tweeted out this picture during a war to defend Hamas terrorists in the name of international humanitarian law. https://t.co/tgH4vRKH3S
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) July 19, 2021

When Jeremy Corbyn compared Israel to ISIS, @KenRoth defended him.

Today, Corbyn was suspended by his own Labor Party for antisemitism.

Ken Roth still heads Human Rights Watch. https://t.co/9CTdi1wxPS
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) October 29, 2020

One of the most repeated lies made by Palestinian Arabs is that before Zionism, Jews lived in harmony with the Arabs of Palestine and throughout the Middle East.

Israel Joseph Benjamin was a Jewish explorer who traveled the world seeking to find the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel in the 19th century. He describes, in simple terms, his visits to Jewish communities worldwide.

His straightforward testimony shows how poorly Jews were treated by their Arab and Muslim neighbors.

Here he describes the situation of Jews in Palestine, whom he visited in 1847. He notes that their plight was in some ways the worst that he had seen among Jews anywhere. (Bolded highlights are mine, italics are his.)

The State of the Jews in Palestine

Deep misery and continual oppression are the right words to describe the condition of the Children of Israel in the land of their fathers. — 1 comprise a short and faithful picture of their actual state under the following heads.

1) They are entirely destitute of every legal protection and every means of safety. Instead of the security afforded the law, which is unknown in these countries, they are solely under the orders of the sheiks and pachas, men, whose character and feelings inspire but little confidence from the beginning, It is only the European Consuls who frequently take care of the oppressed, and give them some protection.

2) With unheard of rapacity, tax upon tax is levied on them. With the exception of Jerusalem, every where the taxes demanded are arbitrary. Whole communities have been impoverished by the exorbitant claims of the sheiks, who, under the moat trifling pretenses, without any control, oppress the Jews with fresh burdens. It is impossible to enumerate all these oppressions.

3) In the strict sense of the word they are not even masters of their own property. They do not even venture to complain when they are robbed and plundered; for. the vengeance of the Arabs would follow each complaint.

4) Their lives are taken into as little consideration as their property; they are exposed to the caprice of any one; for even the smallest pretext, even a harmless discussion, a word dropped in conversation; is enough to cause bloody reprisals. Violence of every kind is of daily occurrence, When; for instance in the contests of Mahomet Ali with the Sublime Porte, the City of Hebron was besieged by Egyptian troops and taken by storm, the Jews where murdered and plundered, and the survivors scarcely even allowed to retain a few rags to cover them. No pen can describe the despair of these unfortunates. The women were treated with brutal cruelty; and even to this day, many are found who from that time became miserable cripples. With truth can the Lamentations of Jeremiah be employed here. Since that great misfortune up to the present day, the Jews of Hebron languish in the deepest misery, and the present Sheik is unwearied in his endeavours, not to better their condition, but on the contrary to make it worse.

5) The chief evidence of their miserable condition is the universal poverty which we remarked in Palestine, and which is here truly characteristic; for nowhere else in our long journeys, in Europe, Asia and Africa did we observe it among the Jews. It even causes leprosy among the Jews of Palestine, as in former times. Robbed of their means of subsistence from the cultivation of the soil and trade, they only exist upon the charity of their brethren in the faith in foreign parts.

... In a word the state of the Jews in Palestine, body as well as mind, is an unbearable one; and yet there the land yields most abundantly. If the possession of it were not to completely in the hands of the Arabs, — if one could only secure for the Jews some little portion of it and give them the means for its cultivation - sufficient sources of industry would be open to them; wherewith to obtain a livelihood. But what does it benefit them to cultivate the ground, if the Arabs rob them of the harvest?

I will continue to excerpt parts of this book. Sometimes his slightest side comment is stunning.

Ben and Jerry's stops sales to Jews in Judea and Samaria; Arabs who support terror there continue to get their ice cream

Ben and Jerry's announced:

We believe it is inconsistent with our values for Ben & Jerry’s ice cream to be sold in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). We also hear and recognize the concerns shared with us by our fans and trusted partners.

We have a longstanding partnership with our licensee, who manufactures Ben & Jerry’s ice cream in Israel and distributes it in the region. We have been working to change this, and so we have informed our licensee that we will not renew the license agreement when it expires at the end of next year.

Although Ben & Jerry’s will no longer be sold in the OPT, we will stay in Israel through a different arrangement. We will share an update on this as soon as we’re ready.

So Jews who live in their ancestral homelands in Judea and Samaria are banned from getting Ben and Jerry's locally - but their Arab neighbors can continue to get it.

From Brothers Supermarket in Ramallah, a sale on Ben and Jerry's for Eid al Ahda:

Arabs can buy their ice cream, Jews cannot.

The moral team and Ben and Jerry's don't seem to have a problem selling their goods to an entity that literally pays terrorists and their families, with citizens who cheer terror attacks, and who would love to ethnically cleanse the Jews from their homeland - and who are about to start slaughtering cows and lambs in the streets to the cheers of crowds.

Sounds like Ben and Jerry's agrees that this is what social justice looks like.

07/19 Links Pt1: What on Earth Is the Problem with a Jewish Majority in Israel?; Iraqi man in pro-Israel video beaten up and hospitalised; Rashida Tlaib’s Tisha B’Av Edition of Lying & Spreading Hate on Twitter

From Ian:

Ha'aretz: What on Earth Is the Problem with a Jewish Majority in Israel?

Why should the Jewish state not do what it can legally do to maintain a Jewish majority? Why do so many of its champions find it difficult to affirm what is so clearly sensible and right? Students of Israel and Zionism know that demography is destiny.

Zionism has always been about creating a democratic state with a Jewish majority. The State of Israel can, and must, take appropriate steps to assure that a stable Jewish majority is maintained. Taking such steps, and being honest about your intentions, need not be inconsistent with democratic principles or with the ideals of Israel's Declaration of Independence. The loss of a Jewish majority means the end of Zionism and the disappearance of the State of Israel.

The premise of Zionism is that there are many Jews who desperately want to live in a majority-Jewish state. Their eagerness is understandable, and they make no apologies for this fact. They are grateful that the State of Israel, after millennia of Jewish exile, finally enables them to do so. Israel, they remind us, was created to promote the religion, civilization and culture of the Jewish people and its dominant Jewish majority.

To forcibly transfer Arab citizens out of the country would be a violation of democratic norms and international law, not to mention Jewish values and tradition. But assuring a Jewish majority by adopting laws and policies that are consistent with democratic governance is an altogether different matter. It is both acceptable and desirable.

Absent a Jewish majority, would Israel continue to provide no-questions-asked refuge to Jews facing danger and distress in countries around the globe? Almost certainly not.

We Jews want a state of our own, where the Jews, a secure and confident majority, will call the shots, govern democratically, and live in peace with our neighbors. That is what Zionism is.

Caroline Glick with one of the BEST pro-Israel argument you will ever hear regarding #Israel's "settlements" in Judea and Samaria pic.twitter.com/P6IhQ0DUpk
— ZionistCommand (@ZionistCommand) July 18, 2021

Can anyone explain the US State Department "illegality statement?"

Israel’s former Justice Minister was “mystified” when a State Department spokesperson recently said Judea-Samaria "settlements" were “illegal even under Israeli law.” In fact, such building and developing in the region that flourished as an integral part of the Jewish monarchy in biblical times, are “of course” fully legal under Israeli law, former Israeli Justice minister Zachi Hanegbi wrote last Monday.

His letter was published in the Israeli English language daily, The Jerusalem Post, which had covered what the State Department spokesperson said last week.

In a 30 June Department briefing, an American reporter and two Arab reporters cooperated to elicit statements from a State Department spokesperson, Jalina Porter, about Judea-Samaria "settlements," a loaded word for Jewish communities in the area that was originally meant to be part of Israel, overrun by Jordan in the 1948 War of Independence, and regained by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War. Due to Palestinian Arab counter-claims, the area can be called "disputed" territory, but is certainly not "occupied," despite the common use of the term.

Said Arikat, Washington bureau chief at Al Quds Daily Newspaper, said to be the most widely read Palestinian Arab daily, joined forces with Hiba Nasr (Correspondent at Asharq News, a Saudi media group) and Abigail Williams (State Department reporter for NBC News). Porter, a former political advisor for Democratic elected officials, took all the trio’s questions.

Former Justice Minister Hanegbi complimented Porter, saying she was an “experienced communications professional”. Yet, Hanegbi said, Porter may “have been led astray by a recent illegality allegation about Evyatar by a (non-attorney) Meretz minister.” Meretz is a radical left wing party and member of Israel's new government.

Hanegbi (Likud), an attorney by training, explained that Jewish residence in Israel’s Judea-Samaria region is “fully legal” and not only under Israeli law. Prof. Eugene Rostow, dean of the USA’s leading law school, “affirmed this decades ago, adding that it is impossible to contend that Israeli settlements are illegal”, the former Justice Minister said.

Israeli ministers vote down West Bank annexation bill

The government of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett rejected a West Bank annexation bill of Likud MK Miki Zohar in the Ministerial Committee on Legislation on Monday morning.

Zohar had dared Yamina and New Hope ministers to support the legislation, even though the coalition has been voting against every opposition-sponsored bill.

He said he will still bring the bill to a vote next week in the Knesset plenum, where Bennett himself will have to vote against it. Zohar released a statement bashing Bennett, Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked, Justice Minister Gideon Sa'ar and Construction Minister Ze'ev Elkin.

"You promised again and again that you will take action to bring about sovereignty over Judea and Samaria and you once again broke your word," Zohar said. "You once again proved that you have no ideology and that no values are holy for you except for keeping your cabinet seats.