Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, January 24, 2020

01/24 Links Pt2: President Trump leads the fight against antisemitism; Auschwitz and The New York Times, 75 Years Later; This must never happen again, says Saudi cleric as Muslim group tours Auschwitz

From Ian:

David Friedman: President Trump leads the fight against antisemitism

Some say – with breathtaking error – that protecting Israel has nothing to do with fighting antisemitism. The State of Israel is the ultimate defense against this evil force. It is the sanctuary to which Jews fled when they were expelled from North Africa or escaped the former Soviet Union and had no place else to go. When Jews were singled out for execution on the tarmac in Entebbe, Uganda, it was Israel that saved them in one of history’s most daring rescues. When Jews were persecuted in Yemen and Ethiopia, it was Israel that brought them to safety on missions such as Operation Moses, Operation Solomon and Operation Magic Carpet. To this day, Israel helps support local governments and NGOs around the world in defending the Jewish people.

The recent rash of antisemitic attacks in the United States is repugnant and shocking. But apart from baseless pronouncements from armchair pundits and opportunistic politicians, they have nothing to do with the president. Quite to the contrary, President Trump, in empowering law enforcement, preserving individual rights to self-defense, supporting tighter security in schools and places of worship and advocating for more protective mental health policies, is directly addressing concrete measures to keep us all safer and more secure.

Many have called for a softening of our public discourse and more education regarding the evils of hatred as a means of reducing antisemitic attacks. As one who has spent the better part of the past three years in Israel, where regrettably such attacks occur far more frequently but with far less international coverage than attacks in the United States, I can’t help but doubt the seriousness of that plan. We can always use better education and more civility, but those who will commit acts of antisemitism are not going to be the ones who attend the course. I have yet to see anyone present an effective method to identify in advance and arrest or cure the unstable and hate-filled miscreants who are attacking Jews. As in Israel, the primary approach must be increased security, better surveillance and intelligence, self-defense and mental health reform. President Trump is exactly in the right place on these initiatives.

I have an important message for the Trump haters who think they are fighting antisemitism by fighting Trump: In five years, President Trump will be out of office and your hysterical hyperbole will not have made a dent in combating this evil scourge. Whatever other policy differences you may have with the president, if you truly oppose antisemitism, then you have a friend and ally in the White House.

Caroline Glick: A great – but fragile – triumph of Zionism

A decade ago, the anti-Zionist forces scored their greatest political victory. On June 4, 2009, the new American president Barack Obama delivered his "Address to the Muslim World," at American University in Cairo. Before an audience that included a large contingent of Muslim Brotherhood members, specifically invited by the White House, Obama resonated their rejection of Jewish history and denial of the Jewish roots and rights to the Land of Israel.

In Cairo, Obama asserted that Israel’s establishment was a product of "a tragic history … Around the world, the Jewish people were persecuted for centuries, and anti-Semitism in Europe culminated in an unprecedented Holocaust."

Obama pointedly failed to utter a word about the nation of Israel’s historic ties to its homeland.

Instead, he announced that he would travel from Cairo to Buchenwald concentration camp. Jerusalem was not on his itinerary.

Obama’s speech was the single most hostile act any US leader ever took against the Jewish state. Speaking to a room full of Israel’s enemies, Obama resonated their lies and propaganda.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was reportedly stunned by the existential hostility towards Israel and the Jewish people Obama displayed at Cairo. But once he recognized the nature of the problem Netanyahu spent the next ten years insisting on the truth. Despite catcalls of criticism from the Israeli left, from liberal American Jews, from the EU, and from the Obama administration, Netanyahu and the governments he led insisted on telling the truth about Israel and Zionism over and over and over again and insisted that the truth be acknowledged. At every opportunity, Netanyahu stated and restated that Jerusalem is the eternal capital of the Jewish people and was never the capital of any other nation. He stated and repeated endlessly that Israel is the homeland and the nation-state of the Jewish people and was never the homeland or nation-state of any other people.

Over time, it made a difference.

Auschwitz and The New York Times, 75 Years Later

Perhaps The New York Times, which buried the Holocaust in its inside pages when it even deigned to mention that unprecedented horror, will finally take notice of what happened at Auschwitz. Publisher Arthur Hays Sulzberger, a proud American Reform Jew, fiercely opposed singling out Jews as victims of Nazi annihilation. Jews who were deported to death camps were identified in his newspaper as “persons,” not Jews. Its first published account of the Nazi extermination plan, duly identified as “probably the greatest mass slaughter in history,” appeared on an inside page at the bottom of a column of unrelated stories.

It got worse. In the summer of 1942, the Times cited a report by Szmul Zygielbojm of the Polish National Council documenting the slaughter of 700,000 Jews: “Children in orphanages, old persons in almshouses, the sick in hospitals, and women were slain in the streets.” For months, Germans had been “methodically proceeding with their campaign to exterminate all Jews.” But the Times front page that day featured articles about tennis shoes and canned fruit. Auschwitz horrors never received front-page attention.

The Times described the Warsaw Ghetto uprising in brief inside-page stories. Its first account, nearly three weeks after the revolt began, was four paragraphs long. Its solitary editorial about the uprising referred to 400,000 “persons” who were deported to Treblinka. There was no indication that those “persons” were Jews. As Sulzberger explained to a friend, “We chose to think of Jews as human beings instead of any particular religious group.” Only once in four years was the fate of Jews mentioned on the front page or as the subject of a lead editorial. Their horrific plight never qualified for the daily Times ranking of important events.

The Times can never erase its inexcusable dereliction of journalistic responsibility. At the upcoming Auschwitz memorial observances, it will be interesting to read its coverage of what it buried in insignificance 75 years ago, along with the six million murdered Jews who were deemed too inconsequential for notice in its pages.

Palestinians interpreting Macron's speech as a slap to Israel

Of all of the speeches given at the Holocaust Forum in Jerusalem yesterday, the Palestinian Authority news agency only covered one sentence of one speech.

Macron said, "no one has the right to invoke (those killed by the Nazis) to justify division or contemporary hatred."

The PLO is choosing to interpret this as meaning that Israel cannot use the Holocaust to justify its "oppression" of Palestinians.

Here's something Macron said the previous day in a meeting with President Rivlin:

We also decided to very frankly discuss and raise the issue of anti-Zionism, which is currently very much bound up with the issue of anti-Semitism. Thank you also for speaking so clearly just now. As I’ve had the opportunity to say, anti-Zionism, when it means negating Israel’s existence as a state, is a form of anti-Semitism. Which doesn’t mean it becomes impossible to have disagreements, to criticize this or that action by the Israeli government, but negating its existence today is clearly a contemporary form of anti-Semitism. So yes, we’ve passed laws, taken initial decisions, and others in particular will follow that enable us to fight more effectively against hate speech, including anti-Semitism on the Internet. But beyond this, we must indeed resist, in a way, this erosion of conscience we too often witness, and laws are not enough to change the human soul. To do this we must remember, remind everyone what anti-Semitism led to in Europe – the Holocaust – and as well as remembering, continue to educate and train people.

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01/24 Links Pt1: Why is the European Left so angry?; You can’t be a feminist and not be a Zionist; Trump plan said to give Israel sovereignty throughout Jerusalem, all settlements

From Ian:

Why is the European Left so angry?

Israel's primordial sin, according to progressives, is in its definition as a Jewish state and its close ties with the US. The disregard Israel has toward international organizations that are obsessively anti-Israel only makes this "sin" worse.

Had Israel heeded their advice, Israel would have had to commit suicide because they consider its self-defense as fascism and its Jewish character as racist.

The claim that Israel is a colonialist and apartheid regime could not be farther from the truth. It is designed to promote the Jewish state's delegitimization and compensate for the guilty feelings Europeans have over their own colonialist past and early support for Jewish statehood.

The clash between Israel and the progressive Left is a structural one. Israel's success has threatened the latter's very core.

It "brutal" approach and successful wars against its enemies and terrorists upended the notion that they should be appeased. And Israel's thriving economy has pulled the rug from under those who have tried incessantly to boycott and marginalize Israel.

Likewise, it's successful diplomatic stature despite the ongoing condemnations from international bodies, and its ties with Arab states, have shown the European Left to be feckless and pathetic.

Thus, it is clear why the Left in Europe is angry at us, for we have proved it wrong time and again. But what is sad is the anti-Semitic undertones alongside this anger.

In fact, the anti-Semitic attacks on the supposed evil of the Jewish state help those elites explain to themselves and others why Israel has succeeded and defied gravity.

Israel is strong enough to ignore those anti-Semitic attacks. European society should worry though.

Misrepresenting Zionism

On Jan. 15, ABC published "The moral case against Zionism" by Salman Abu Sitta, who argued that racism is intrinsic to Zionism. To dismiss an entire national liberation movement as racist - thereby calling into question its very existence - is extraordinary. Zionism is Jewish national self-determination.

Not only is national self-determination a universally-recognized right, but every national liberation movement in history has sought to create a state for their nation in their national homeland. Zionism is no different in this regard. If one thinks one national liberation movement is intrinsically racist, then, to be ethically consistent, one must consider all racist.

The Palestinian National Charter and the draft constitution of the future Palestinian state make clear the position of Arab Palestinians over any other people in the desired state. Either Palestinian nationalism and Zionism are both intrinsically racist, or neither are.

You can’t be a feminist and not be a Zionist

In the same way Zionism necessarily demands that Jews become the masters of their own fate. So too, does feminism. Feminism is the belief in the equality of the sexes, the notion that women too can be masters of their fate. That women need not be reliant on a man for their safety, success and happiness. It is for this reason that Zionism and feminism are upsetting to so many people: because equality is radical, indeed threatening, to those who hold power over others.

If the idea of a woman or a Jew being equal in society makes you feel uncomfortable, you should think twice about your own biases. If your “commitment” to the social order includes arranged marriage, female genital mutilation, domestic violence, excusing or diminishing domestic violence, sexual harassment or assault (also covering it up), victim-blaming, disrespecting or demeaning women, a media that berates women (more than men) for their appearance, legal systems that prevent women from coming forward when they are attacked, unequal pay, or demonizing “feminists,” you are enabling bigotry.

Similarly, when you hold double standards against Jews, support or protect organizations or individuals who demonize the only Jewish state, or that call for terrorism against the Jewish state or Jews, you are, intentionally or not, aligning yourself with antisemites.
Someone who believes in equality, believes in equality for all. It is for that reason that you cannot be a feminist who believes in equality for all, and not be a Zionist as well. Feminism and Zionism are two sides of the same coin.

This was published by the official Palestinian Wafa news agency, an essay by Fatah's representative to Poland that is a sickening example of Holocaust inversion, revisionism and minimization.

The Jewish Holocaust and the Palestinian Nakba

Written by: Dr. Khalil Nazzal / Secretary of the Fatah Region in Poland

The seventy-fifth anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz that German occupiers set up in Poland during the Second World War is approaching. ...The world was appalled by the horror of the crimes committed in this large prison, which killed huge numbers of citizens of the countries of the occupied Europe, especially the followers of the Jewish religions of various nationalities, in the context of a systematic Nazi policy that was aimed at the Jews. This includes the use of toxic gases as an effective method of mass killing. Not a single justification can be found that reduces the burden of the crimes that the peoples of Europe and the world were subjected to during the Second World War, and these crimes dealt with the Jews in particular, but they did not justify others, so dropping atomic bombs on Japan is a crime, and the destruction of Warsaw and the killing of hundreds of thousands of people 1944 is a crime, and the rape of thousands of German women by soldiers of the invading armies towards Berlin is a crime. We reject all these crimes, and we reject the crime of attacking Jews just because they are Jews, and the first reason we reject it is that it is a crime against humanity, and we cannot accept the persecution, prosecution, and killing of innocent people because of their religion, national affiliation, or the color of human beings.

Accounts differ on the number of victims of the Jewish religion who fell as a result of Nazi crimes during the Second World War, while some historians say that the number reaches six million, others reduce this number and limit it to hundreds of thousands. Despite our conviction that every soul is being unlawfully destroyed, as all human lives are lost, the debate over the number of victims does not stand up to logic and morality. Here we must emphasize the following issues:

First: The state of the Zionist settler occupation is not an heir to the pain and suffering of the Jews. It is a state based on racist ideology that despises human life and practices racial discrimination against our Palestinian people for no reason other than because they are Palestinians, and this is the thought that led to the Palestinian catastrophe, and it is what the Palestinian crime is still suffering. In this way, the thought that caused the Nakba practically aligns with the thought that caused the Holocaust. The minds of the perpetrators are identical in all times and ages, while the pain of the victims is similar, whether in Auschwitz or in Deir Yassin..

Second: While the hideous massacre against the Jews in Europe lasted for six years, the Nakba and Zionist crimes have continued against Palestine and its people for decades, and Western leaders still shy in the shameful silence when it comes to Palestine. The Second World was eighty years ago but they don't bother to stretch the sight a bit above the apartheid wall to see the victims of their ongoing crime since they planted in Palestine this entity where professional murder, terrorism, racial discrimination, and ethnic cleansing is practiced on a daily basis.

Third: No matter how large the number of Jewish victims, this does not give anyone the right to practice racial discrimination and national oppression against our people, as crime does not justify other crimes, and the tendency to dramatize the numbers of Jewish victims cannot be a smoke cloud to cover the daily Israeli crimes against legitimate Palestine, which is an attempt to ruminate the charge of "anti-Semitism" and attach it to all who possess the courage to reject occupation policies and to solidarity with the just struggle of our people. Just as courage and justice in World War II meant saving the Jews from the threat of genocide, today it means aligning with the Palestinian right and rejecting the crimes committed by the occupation army and its settlers against the Palestinian people. "Antisemites" and humanity are aligned with the policies of the occupation state and defenders of its crimes.

Fourth: [Those who reduce] the number of [Holocaust] victims rely on studies and research that aim only to seek the truth. Here, we must pay attention to the fact that those who practice reducing numbers fall into the Zionist trap and Israeli propaganda that uses intimidation to blackmail the world and force it to accept the occupation policy of racism. "Intimidation" does not justify the crimes of occupation, and "understatement" does not diminish the ugliness of the crime committed against European Jews! [This is a reference to Mahmoud Abbas' contention that only a few hundred thousand Jews were killed - EoZ]

Fifth: Our people were not a party to the Second World War, so why are we being blamed for the consequences of the crimes practiced by Europe against its citizens of different races and religions, especially against the Jews? The far and near know that Palestine during that war was subject to the British occupation seeking to establish a state for the Jews of the world at the expense of our people and the ruins of our homeland. The effort of our people at that time was focused on resisting the Zionist project and confined to the historic borders of Palestine without losing its human affiliation and siding with the oppressed wherever they were.

Jews have the full right to recall the pain that Nazi crimes have left in their memory. And because we are a victim of Zionist racism, we are biased without hesitation to the sufferings of the victims, Jews and others, and we refuse that those pains to be a justification for the continuation of the historical injustice to which our people are subjected. We are with the victims. As for the state of occupation and settlement, it is a sinful plant that poisons our lives and tarnishes the memory of the victims of Auschwitz, with the disgrace of racism, persecution and killing of innocent people of Palestine and its legitimate owners.

In short:

* Nazis killing Jews is a crime, whether it is six million or 200,000.
* There were lots of crimes in World War II by allies as well.
* The Palestinians are the real victims, and have been for 70 years.
* If you hate Nazis you should hate Zionist Jews.

This essay is a sickening attempt to co-opt and invert the Holocaust, to justify Palestinian terror against Jews and to say that the very existence of a Jewish state as a refuge for Jewish victims of antisemitism is a crime akin to the Holocaust.

The problem is that this sort of propaganda, as transparent as it is, is attractive to today's modern antisemites, and ignorant people who are influenced by anti-Zionist propaganda will read this and feel sympathetic towards its message. After all, many of the points made here are made every day by the anti-Israel crowd.

The article is also an illustration of how antisemitism and anti-Zionism are the same. Even as the anti-Zionists claim that they are against (only) Nazi-style antisemitism they are eager to say that today's Nazis are Jews.

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After an impassioned Holocaust speech, Prince Charles meets with Holocaust denier Abbas

Prince Charles' speech at the Holocaust Forum was quite good. Unlike most of the speakers who tried to insert their own political themes into their speeches, Charles spoke about individual victims and the importance of remembering and drawing lessons from the unthinkable.

The lessons of the Holocaust are searingly relevant to this day. Seventy-five years after the Liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, hatred and intolerance still lurk in the human heart, still tell new lies, adopt new disguises, and still seek new victims.

All too often, language is used which turns disagreement into dehumanisation. Words are used as badges of shame to mark others as enemies, to brand those who are different as somehow deviant. All too often, virtue seems to be sought through verbal violence. All too often, real violence ensues, and acts of unspeakable cruelty are still perpetrated around the world against people for reasons of their religion, their race or their beliefs.

Knowing, as we do, the darkness to which such behaviour leads, we must be vigilant in discerning these ever-changing threats; we must be fearless in confronting falsehoods and resolute in resisting words and acts of violence.

So it is especially jarring that Charles followed up his visit to the hallowed ground of Yad Vashem to honor Mahmoud Abbas, a Holocaust denier who has engaged in explicit antisemitism, who honors terrorism and literally pays terrorists every day.

Abbas met with Charles in Bethlehem, a city where Christians have been fleeing Muslim persecution, and claimed that Christians and Muslims under his rule live in peace and harmony.Charles, of course, didn't say anything, because he is not "fearless in confronting falsehoods."

It isn't only Charles, of course. Vladimir Putin and Emannuel Macron both met with Abbas as well during their visits.

I am not saying that it is always inappropriate to pay a state visit to the dictator of the Palestinian Authority. But to do so within a day of a visit to Yad Vashem where impassioned speeches are made about learning the lessons of the Holocaust, and immediately paying honor to a modern day Nazi who teaches his people that they must destroy the Jewish state via terror and "return," is the height of hypocrisy.

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From "The Muslim 500:"

Dr Abdulaziz Othman Altwaijri was the Director General of the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO) from 1991 to 2019, and ex-officio Secretary General of the Federation of the Universities of the Islamic World (FUIW). Dr Altwaijri is an accomplished academic, a senior lecturer, and an eminent writer and poet. Armed with a keenly holistic vision for human civilizational development, Dr Altwaijri played a vital role in the development, supervision, and launch of 16 strategies approved by the Islamic Summit Conference. He also established the Supreme Council of Education, Science and Culture, an alliance designated for work outside of the Islamic world. Dr Altwaijri is also a staunch advocate of cultural dialogue and the alliance of civilizations.

He recently tweeted:

Translation:

Senior #Trump administration officials in blue are Jews. And the percentage of Jews from the population of #America is only 1.6%! Clear dominance.

The head of the major Islamic cultural organization for some 29 years pushes anti-Jewish conspiracy theories.

Incidentally, the chart is a complete lie. A little research shows that only one person in the entire cabinet is Jewish, Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin. (The original color photo is from CNN and lists everyone there.) Wikipedia does not mention that any other person is Jewish although Attorney General William Barr's father was born Jewish and converted to Catholicism.

So instead of the cabinet being 75% Jewish, it is about 4% Jewish.

The longstanding head of ISESCO is an antisemite and a liar.

Altwaijri is not stupid or uneducated. He has an MA and PhD from the University of Oregon. He's certainly familiar with Jews from his university days.

And none of that helps. He's an antisemitic conspiracy theorist who retweets antisemitic lies.

The real scandal is that this is not a scandal, and it will never be a scandal. Because the enlightened liberal West expects Muslims to be antisemites and liars, and holds them to no standards whatsoever. Any prominent Israeli who tweeted something remotely as offensive would be on the front page and forced out of whatever job he or she had.

Holding Muslims to standards you would never tolerate from non-Muslims is bigotry, plain and simple.

But, strangely, the Left considers anyone who points out Islamic bigotry to be an "Islamophobe," not the people who assume Muslims are bigoted by staying silent.

(h/t WC)

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Just another #Pallywood moment - a fake "100 year old Palestinian grandpa"

A tweet:

Nope, this is Pallywood.

The photo came from an excellent photo essay I found on a Chinese language site, of many old people working and playing in rural Turkey. And a search of those photos confirmed that they were all from Turkey.

This is not an accident. Some Palestinians scour the web for photos that they can then claim comes from them. They then make up stories to fit the photos. Thousands of people believe them.

If the Palestinian narrative was so obviously righteous - why do they have to lie?

(Since I tweeted back the origin of the photo, the original tweet was deleted, with no acknowledgement that he was wrong.)

(h/t Gidon Shaviv)

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01/23 Links Pt2: Honoring Holocaust victims means fighting anti-Semitism; Why Muslims from Around the World Should Remember the Holocaust

From Ian:

JPost Editorial: A powerful message at the Fifth World Holocaust Forum

For so many of them to come together and stand shoulder to shoulder – and say that they will remember the horrors of the Holocaust and work to combat hatred of Jews so that something like that may never happen again – is an incredibly powerful message that will hopefully reverberate around the world.

Before Thursday’s event at Yad Vashem, we implore leaders not to corrupt the message with their political messages. Now is not the time to fight over different versions of history that are more advantageous to one country over another. Now is the time to say: “Never again.”

And when the leaders and their entourages – including hundreds of foreign journalists – return to their home countries, they should make sure that this message continues to reverberate among the general public.

Talking is not enough; they should take action to combat the scourge of antisemitism, which has continued to rear its head with increasing intensity in recent years.

One good way to start is to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism: “Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”

The definition, which Israel has encouraged countries to adopt as a nonbinding code or a guideline in combating antisemitism, also includes many examples of the ways people try to launder their antisemitism as hatred of Israel, such as comparing Israel’s actions to those of the Nazis.

The European Union and many of its member states have already adopted the definition. Italy took it on last week. What a powerful message it would send if even more of the governments whose representatives are gathered in Jerusalem would announce they are adopting it as well.

Isaac Herzog: Honoring Holocaust victims means fighting anti-Semitism

The significant gathering of leaders at Yad Vashem this week presents an opportunity to examine what has been accomplished since the 2005 UN resolution in the fight against antisemitism, racism, and Holocaust denial, as well as the work to preserve the memories of those who were lost. It is gratifying to note the many countries that hold official events on this bleak day, along with historical, cultural and educational activities that preserve information for future generations and combat ignorance, indifference, and historical revisionism.

At the same time, alarmingly, antisemitism is increasing significantly: data collected in a number of countries show a dramatic increase in antisemitic violence, including the murder of Jews in their homes, schools, and synagogues. The conference in Jerusalem must, therefore, establish strong momentum for a collaborative effort to reverse this trend.

The way to deal with hate crimes is, of course, appropriate legislation in each country and enforcement of those laws by local judicial systems. Concurrently, we must be forward-thinking and focus on educating younger generations.

I call on the leaders gathering in Jerusalem to invest in ambitious and large-scale education programs that combat racism, antisemitism, xenophobia, and supremacism, just as The Jewish Agency does through our Israeli emissaries throughout the world. This can also be accomplished through international bodies such as the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), or through new frameworks set up to address the issue. None of us are exempt from the obligation to instill in our young people a commitment to tolerance, diversity and understanding of the other.

Seventy-five years after the liberation of Auschwitz, we must launch a widespread war on anti-Semitism and hatred wherever they rear their heads. Doing so will demonstrate true respect for those who perished and bring a comforting semblance of meaning to their sacrifice.

Honest Reporting: We Remember

Sign our petition asking the media to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism: It's Time for the Media to Endorse the Internationally Recognized Antisemitism Definition

HonestReporting joins the World Jewish Congress's #WeRemember campaign as part of a united voice in memory of the six million Jews killed in the Holocaust.

In the 1930s the German mass media came under complete control of the Nazis, enabling them to spread propaganda against the Jewish people on an unprecedented scale. This, in turn, villainized and dehumanized the Jews.

We have seen the consequences of biased, unfair coverage and believe fair news coverage is integral to the safety of Israel and Jews worldwide.

Irwin Cotler: Auschwitz 75 years later: Universal lessons

Indeed, I write on the eve of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz – the most brutal extermination camp of the 20th century – of horrors too terrible to be believed, but not too terrible to have happened.

Of the 1.3 million people murdered at Auschwitz, 1.1 million were Jews. As Elie Wiesel put it, “The Holocaust was a war against the Jews in which not all victims were Jews, but all Jews were victims.”

I write also in the immediate aftermath of the 75th anniversary of the arrest and disappearance of Raoul Wallenberg on January 17, 1945. Wallenberg demonstrated how one person with the compassion to care and courage to act can confront evil, prevail and transform history. It is a tragedy that this hero of the Holocaust who saved so many was not saved by so many who could, and we owe a duty to Raoul Wallenberg to determine the truth of his fate.

I write also on the occasion of a global resurgence of antisemitic incitement, violence and terror, and in the midst of ongoing ethnic cleansing and mass atrocity.

And so, at this important historical moment, we should ask ourselves: What have we learned in the last 75 years – and more importantly – what must we do?

Cartoon of the Day: As long as you avoid the J-word....

Continuing my series of re-captioning single panel comics...

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If Not Now To Offer 'Ultra-ULTRA-Orthodox' Rabbinic Ordination (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Check out their Facebook page.

New York, January 23 - Two progressive, pro-Palestinian organizations that play up Jewish connections and names to bolster their otherwise negligible Hebraic legitimacy have launched a joint initiative to underscore the traditional bona fides they often get accused of lacking, the groups announced today, with a program that aims to train members for the title "rabbi," the main qualification for which will be anti-Zionism. Based on the group members' understanding that "true" Jews oppose Jewish sovereignty in the Jewish ancestral homeland, the two organizations intend to identify their rabbis as "ultra-ULTRA-Orthodox," reflecting a level of anti-Zionism that goes even beyond that of such groups as Neturei Karta.

If Not Now and Jewish Voice for Peace unveiled a new syllabus today for members who wish to carry the religious title Rabbi, so they can wield it to fend off criticism of their manifestly anti-Jewish activities, rhetoric, and ideologies, representatives of the organizations disclosed Thursday.

According to materials distributed at a press event, the curriculum will include homiletic pointers on how to extract anti-Israel messages from facile readings of canonical texts; how to distort the plain meaning and intent of a passage to make Zionism appear evil; and how to remove context and neighboring material to prevent discovery that the source in question actually means the opposite of what the activist contends.

"We've struggled with Jewish authenticity issues for some time," admitted If Not Now founder and director Seth Woody, an evangelical Christian. "At first we simply dismissed challenges to our Jewishness as pretexts for fascist Jewish supremacism, which is basically what Zionism is - just ask Linda Sarsour, for example, if you want an authentic Jewish perspective. But gradually we realized what an opportunity we had on our hands."

"We're used to taking terms and redefining them to suit our purposes," he continued. "Well, we figured, why not do that to the entire institution of rabbinics? Before long, we and our Jewish allies at Jewish Voice for Peace - have I mentioned they're Jewish? - will be ordaining rabbis of our own who can challenge the mainstream idea of who gets to interpret Jewish tradition, without the distraction of who actually has the background to do so. And we're going to be unassailable in that, because it'll be even more anti-Zionist than our Neturei Karta friends who visit Tehran for Holocaust denial conferences. It'll make us more Jewish than all the Jews. Kind of like followers of Jesus."

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01/23 Links Pt1: Caroline Glick: Sovereign or beggar – It is Israel’s choice to make; Richard Grenell: Why EU should ban Hezbollah; The time the CIA took a terrorist to Disneyland

From Ian:

Caroline B. Glick: Sovereign or beggar – It is Israel’s choice to make

And after the damage he caused, in 2011, Barack had the gall to accuse Netanyahu of causing a "diplomatic tsunami" against Israel due to his refusal to make even more expansive concessions to the PLO.

The Lapid/Barak/Peres model of statesmanship is the Beggar in Jerusalem paradigm. The beggar paradigm begins with an assertion that Israel's default status is that of a pariah state. Its very existence depends on the goodwill – and pity – of America and Europe.

Lapid's Beggar in Jerusalem paradigm requires Israel to dance to the US-EU fiddle. To this end, the paradigm requires that Israel surrender Judea and Samaria and half of Jerusalem to the PLO while sucking up to Arafat's PLO heirs. It is only by pleasing them, the beggars claim, that Israel will make Europe – and the American Left happy.

The beggar paradigm was the basis for Israel's foreign policymaking from 1992 until it was exchanged in 2009 for another one. That alternative paradigm should rightly be called the Sovereignty paradigm.

The Sovereignty paradigm is the model championed by Netanyahu. At its core is the assumption that Israel's strength is the key to its success. The Sovereignty paradigm asserts that Israeli strength is what attracts foreign partners to work with it in ways that advance its economic, diplomatic and military interests. The advancement of those interests makes Israel even stronger, which in turn, attracts still more foreign partners.

The motorcades of the dozens of foreign leaders who ascended the Judea Hills to Mt. Herzl in Jerusalem this week are like a thousand bells proclaiming the victory of the Netanyahu's Sovereignty model of foreign policy over the Beggar in Jerusalem paradigm of his predecessors and would-be successors.

The fact that these leaders have come to Jerusalem at the same time that Israel's elected leaders are openly working to extend Israeli sovereignty to the Jordan Valley and northern Dead Sea only underscores the wisdom and success of the sovereignty model.

Clifford D. May: Iranian regime's 'gray-zone' war tactics are the new norm

In his recently published book, “Call Sign Chaos,” former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis recalls that when he led U.S. Central Command from 2010 to 2013, he understood that “we faced two principal adversaries: stateless Sunni Islamist terrorists and the revolutionary Shiite regime of Iran, the most destabilizing country in the region.” He adds: “Iran was by far the more deadly of the two threats.”

Gen. Mattis was disappointed when President Obama treated the foiled 2011 Iranian plot to bomb a restaurant in Washington — yet another “act of war” — as merely “a law enforcement violation, jailing the low-level courier” and making no attempt to hold the regime accountable.

Mr. Obama went on to conclude a deal that gave Iran’s rulers a $150 billion windfall. If they were appeased, they didn’t show it.

Mr. Trump exited the deal. France, Britain and Germany remained. Nevertheless, in June 2018, French authorities foiled a plot by Tehran to bomb a gathering of Iranian dissidents in Paris.

In response, the French froze the assets of two suspected regime intelligence operatives. You think that caused Soleimani and Ayatollah Khomenei to shiver in their shoes?

Here’s what we should know by now: Gray-zone war is the new normal, the new black, if you will. After four decades, we ought to have settled on a strategy to counter this threat.

But when a distinguished scholar on the left and a popular television host on the right don’t even grasp the reality — insisting instead that striking back at those attacking us could put us on “the brink” of war — it becomes apparent why we have made so little progress in this conflict.

Richard A. Grenell: Why EU should ban Hezbollah

In one of its last acts of 2019, the German parliament called on the government to ban Hezbollah. Recent developments show the government is ready to act, using available legal tools to deny the Iranian terror proxy the ability to plan, recruit and raise funds on German soil. The European Union should follow the German parliament’s lead and recognize Hezbollah in its entirety as a terrorist organization.

Berlin’s action comes in the wake of continued paralysis in Brussels, where some member countries still argue for Hezbollah’s legitimacy due to its political role in Lebanon. The EU thus maintains an artificial distinction between Hezbollah’s “political wing” and “military wing,” a division the terror group itself does not recognize. The EU’s stated intent for creating this false distinction is to preserve an open channel with Hezbollah and its representatives in the Lebanese government.

The facts belie the EU’s stance. Hezbollah works for the Iranian regime, not the Lebanese people, who have protested against Iran’s influence in their country since October. It contributes to the 400,000-plus death toll in Syria, and remains dedicated to the extermination of Israel. It has planned and executed terrorist attacks on European soil. And it flouts the rule of law, raising hundreds of millions of dollars in financing per year through criminal networks and transnational money laundering schemes originating in or transiting Europe. An EU-wide designation of Hezbollah is necessary to deny it the vast European recruiting and fundraising networks it needs to survive.

This designation would not deprive Brussels of its open channel to the Lebanese government. The Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States, and others each recognize Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, and each maintains a robust relationship with Lebanon. In fact, Lebanon receives more foreign assistance from the U.S. than from any other country in the world. Designating Hezbollah as a terrorist organization does no harm to U.S.-Lebanese relations, but it does empower the U.S. to disrupt the international criminal networks that help fund Hezbollah’s support for the Assad regime and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

On January 10, U.S President Donald Trump signed an executive order targeting revenue used by the Iranian regime to fund and support its terrorist proxy networks. The U.S. imposed additional sanctions against broad sectors of the Iranian economy, including construction, manufacturing, and mining, to further deny funding to terrorist groups that threaten the U.S., Europe and our partners in the Middle East.

An Alternative Solution

Michael Lumish

Enno Raschke is a researcher and historian for Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Center in Jerusalem. I am happy to say that we occasionally cross swords, but I respect the guy. It is, after all, difficult for me not to respect a historian with Yad Vashem.

On Facebook, I recently put out a brief note claiming that "The two-state solution is dead. Get over it."

This seems pretty self-evident at this point, but people -- particularly Jews -- will always disagree about almost anything. Enno responded in a way that I consider entirely reasonable. He wrote:

People who say "The Two State Solution is dead" never have a credible, doable alternative solution (as in: one that is acceptable for people outside of their own political bubble). And as long as that remains the case, the 2SS is not dead.

This is a core question among those of us who care about the Jewish people and the Jewish State of Israel.

Enno seems to think that there is no other possibility than continuing to pursue a two-state solution that the Arabs have rejected since at least the Peel Commission of 1937. That is to say, he refuses to take "no" for an answer. He wants us to go on and on and on requesting peace while the Arabs always refuse.

What I am considering is more along the lines of Caroline Glick and Martin Sherman. It is one possible answer to Enno's question. Annex Judea - Samaria, up to the Jordan River. Those hillsides above Jerusalem and Tel Aviv are traditional Jewish land. The Arabs, along with others, conquered it, but the Jews are the only extant indigenous people to that land. That is our land and we should not respect the rights of conquerors to steal it from us, particularly within living memory of the Holocaust (Shoah).

There are two major fears concerning the Jewish annexation of Jewish land. The first is demographic and the second is international reaction. What I propose -- with some modesty, thank you -- is that Israel annex Judea - Samaria up to the Jordan. The demographic problem need not be a problem if it is dealt with in a straightforward manner. A reasonable percentage of non-Israelis who live on that land would need to be interviewed. Those who despise Jews would need to move elsewhere. Those who do not express any such hatred would need, just like Jewish citizens of Israel, to do a few years of national service. Those who complete that service with good report should be offered Israeli citizenship.

The international reaction to a Jewish annexation of Jewish land is more complex. Western-Europe, the European Union, the United Nations, and the Democratic Party leadership essentially despise the Jewish people and our state. If Israel were to annex our own land they would throw a fit. But if we fail to do so in coming years than we will never be able to do so and we will remain forever back on our feet. We will always be at the mercy of Europeans who think that persecuting Jews is a matter of "social justice" and Arabs and Muslims who simply want us dead or gone from our own historical homeland.

But if there was any a moment in recent Jewish history to claim our land, now is probably the time. Not only do we have an ally in the White House, but we have greater economic, technological, medical, scientific, and diplomatic reach than in any time in Jewish history.

What I would suggest to my friend, Enno, despite the fact that I am sitting in my perch in northern California, is that perhaps now is the time for bold action.

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Hundreds gather to celebrate 55th anniversary of Fatah's first terror attack against Israel - in London

Every year the terror group Fatah, headed by Mahmoud Abbas, celebrates the anniversary of its first terror attack against Israel, a failed attempt to attack Israel's water carrier on January 1, 1965.

Fatah holds these events for weeks, including in other countries. This year they held them in Turkey, Syria, Tunisia, Malaysia, Egypt and Cyprus.

And Britain.

Hundreds gathered in London this past Saturday night to celebrate the terrorists of Fatah.

And, yes, they were celebrating violence:

As far as I can tell, Cyprus and the UK were the only non-Muslim nations to host celebrations for this terror anniversary.

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Palestinian reaction to Holocaust forum: "Palestinians have lived with a Holocaust every day for 70 years"

Felesteen has an article of Palestinian reaction to the International Holocaust Forum being held in Jerusalem. And it is quite predictable.

"The Palestinians are subjected to the Holocaust and daily crimes committed against them for 70 years. The international presence indicates that the world is heading towards the extreme right, and the peoples of the world deal in the language of self-interest, not in the language of principles of international law," the article states.

Writer and political analyst Rasim Obaidat told the newspaper, "The participation of the leaders of about 40 countries in the (Holocaust) Forum demonstrates that the countries of the Western world and the colonial powers always stand by the occupation state." He added that the forum also demonstrates the weakness of Palestinian diplomacy and the collapse of the official Arab system. The presence of major countries is an indication that the occupation is achieving international successes, he said.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine said the large participation in the forum indicates the "hypocrisy of the capitalist system with the Zionist entity's crimes against the Palestinian people." The PFLP added that "this forum and other endeavors of the Zionist entity to exploit the issue of (the Holocaust) is aimed at covering up the imperialist and Zionist crimes against our Palestinian people that have continued to be committed around the clock since 1917".

An article in Fatah's website says

Europeans victorious in the European war called the Second World War meet to announce remorse for their heinous colonial actions against the Jews, but at the same time they put their hands in the new terrorist monster they made, which is the state of the Zionist aggression, ....to atone for their sins where the persecution took place, but they were established on our land, with a loose religious cover.
They wrote history and lied in their racial greed, just as the priests of the Torah lied. Instead of respecting them in their countries in Europe and Russia, they considered them garbage that must be disposed of.

....The Holocaust of Palestine has been happening since the entry of General Allenby to Palestine.

Again, Holocaust denial seems to be out of fashion. Now it is Holocaust revisionism where the main victims are Palestinian.

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Vic Rosenthal's Weekly Column

“…the person who has done the most or best to advance fellowship among nations, the abolition or reduction of standing armies, and the establishment and promotion of peace congresses.” – the will of Alfred Nobel

The Nobel Prize for Peace has been awarded several times for accomplishments in Middle East peacemaking. It’s been given to some truly deserving people, like Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin, to some undeserving ones, like Shimon Peres, and to some who – if there were such a thing – in truth deserved the Hitler/Stalin Prize for evil, like Yasser Arafat.

Because of its anti-nationalist and anti-Western bias, the chance that the Nobel Committee will award the prize to US President Trump is microscopically small. But I think that an dispassionate examination will show that they ought to think about it.

Before I explain what I suppose will be considered my contrarian position, I should note that Nobel said nothing about ethical business practices, avoidance of conflict of interest, or general likeability. He did not require monogamy, or insist that a Nobel Laureate refrain from vulgarity in expression, or other unsavory things that Trump could be credibly charged with. The prize is awarded to those who have “conferred the greatest benefit to humankind” by promoting peace; and as I will argue, nobody has done more in recent years to reduce Middle Eastern conflict than Donald Trump.

The biggest threat to peace in the Middle East today comes from the Iranian regime: its expansionism, support for terrorism, and of course its nuclear weapons program. Less serious, but still relevant, is the ever-ongoing Arab war against Israel. Trump has acted in a way that promotes peace in both of these areas.

The Obama Administration agreed to a deal (the JCPOA) which removed painful sanctions from Iran in return for an agreement which – in the best case – would have merely delayed Iran’s breakout as a nuclear weapons state for a decade. In fact, the agreement was full of holes relating to inspections and verification, so it is doubtful that even the hoped-for delay would have been realized.

The removal of sanctions mandated by the deal enabled Iran to invest its newly available funds in training and arming terrorist militias in Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon, in missile development, in undercover terror cells around the world, and in its nuclear program, taking advantage of the various loopholes in the agreement.

Trump exited from the deal, re-imposed sanctions, and took other actions – for example, the targeted killing of Qassem Soleimani – which have greatly weakened the Iranian regime and thrown a monkey wrench into its plans, at least temporarily.

The Iranian regime wants a nuclear umbrella to protect it against the US and Israel, while it implements its plan to dominate the region and its oil resources, to push out all American influence, to destroy Israel, and to establish a Shiite caliphate that will replace Saudi Arabia as the center of the Islamic world.

Apparently, the Obama Administration believed that the interests of the US would be served by aligning itself with the Iranian regime against former American allies Israel and Saudi Arabia, even if this meant providing Iran a safe path to acquire nuclear arms. On the face of it, this seems absurd, but the administration’s actions throughout the eight years of its tenure can’t be interpreted in any other way. The deeper motivations of Obama and his people remain a matter of (dark) speculation. But Trump’s leaving the JCPOA and his killing of Soleimani unambiguously mark the repudiation of this policy.

The Iranian regime’s Hezbollah subsidiary has been exporting terrorism, particularly against Jewish targets on every continent except perhaps Antarctica. Arch-terrorist Soleimani was pulling the strings at the center of this web, and his elimination was a serious blow to it. He was in the process of setting up proxy militias similar to Hezbollah in Iraq and Syria when he received his 72-virgin salute.

Soleimani was in charge of foreign operations for the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), but was also considered one of the three most powerful men in the regime, who might even become the successor to Ali Khamenei. The IRGC is also responsible for suppressing dissent and protests within the country, and Iranian dissidents cheered the death of Soleimani, which they saw as greatly weakening the regime.

Trump’s tweets of support in Farsi to the Iranian people (as opposed to the lack of support shown to Iran’s Green Movement in 2009 by the Obama Administration) also bolstered popular opposition. Although the regime is highly oppressive and not loath to shoot protesters, the present unrest is its most serious challenge since the 1979 revolution.

Trump hasn’t limited his activism to the problem of Iran. It used to be fashionable to claim that the “plight of the Palestinians” was the primary source of instability in the Middle East, and that when it was “solved” (always at Israel’s expense), all of the various players in the region would lie down together in peace. And while this theory ignored things like the Sunni/Shiite conflict, Iranian expansionism, and radical Sunni groups like ISIS, it is nevertheless true that the Palestinian Arabs created chaos for decades, leveraging the Cold War, and now the Iranian-American conflict, to keep their anti-Israel war going.

In 1970, the PLO fought a mini-war against Jordan. Then it moved to Lebanon, where it started a vicious civil war whose embers still smolder and threaten to flare up. In 1982, it provoked Israel into a destructive war in Lebanon. During the 1980s, Palestinian terrorists brought their murderous activity to Europe as well as the Middle East, hijacking planes and even a cruise ship, and murdering Jewish athletes.

Part of the Obama/Ben Rhodes plan mentioned above to realign US interests included “solving” the Palestinian problem by weakening Israel and creating a Palestinian state. The idea was originally enunciated in the Iraq Study Report that Rhodes contributed to in 2006. Forcing Israel back to pre-1967 lines was part of the plan.

Obama and his people ignored the fact that Palestinian objectives didn’t stop at the Green Line (maybe they were aware of this and thought that the original creation of a Jewish state was a mistake anyway). They ignored the Iranian regime’s oft-stated intent to “wipe Israel off the map.” They followed a course that would reinforce the belief of both the ayatollahs and the PLO/Hamas that they would be given Israel on a platter, a dangerous tactic that could bring about a regional war that might dwarf the “big wars” of 1967 and 1973.

Trump short-circuited all of this. He cut funding to UNRWA, the UN agency dedicated to building an army of stateless “Palestinian refugees” to use as both a diplomatic and military weapon against Israel. He rectified the embarrassing failure of the US to admit reality, recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, and move the US Embassy there. He signed the Taylor Force Act to keep American taxpayers from subsidizing Palestinian terrorism. He recognized Israel’s possession of the Golan Heights, essential for her security. His State Department rejected the idea that Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria were automatically illegal. In short, he took steps to put an end to the decades-long policy of encouraging the PLO and Hamas in their belief that a combination of terrorism and diplomacy would ultimately evict the Jews from the land of Israel.

Trump may have cut the Gordian Knot in the Middle East. If the American voters give him time to follow through, he may be able to prevent Iran from going nuclear, and perhaps help the Iranian people throw off the oppressive revolutionary Islamic regime. He might even end the Arab war against Israel, after some 100-odd years.

And if he succeeds, nothing could be more fitting than Donald Trump becoming the fifth American president to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

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