Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, November 19, 2024

It was inevitable: Article pointing out that ancient Israel included much of Lebanon being criticized by Hezbollah media

At the Jerusalem Post, Michael Freund an utterly inoffensive op-ed that pointed out the obvious: that the borders of ancient Israel are not congruent with today's borders of the State of Israel.

As the IDF battles to clear southern Lebanon of Hezbollah terrorists, it is worth highlighting an intriguing historical fact, one that many seem to have forgotten.

Having grown up with an international boundary between the Jewish state and our neighbors to the north, we take it for granted that this is how it has always been and should be.

But the truth is that the current border between Israel and Lebanon is little more than a century old and is entirely artificial, a relic of a time when European colonialists whimsically drew lines on maps over a bottle of brandy in smoke-filled rooms.

Historically speaking, southern Lebanon is in fact northern Israel, and the roots of the Jewish people in the area run deep. Whether or not this can or should be translated now into a political reality is a far more complex question, but there is simply no denying our connection to the land.

He is in no way advocating annexing southern Lebanon, just as no one is seriously contemplating annexing parts of Jordan that also lie within the boundaries of ancient Israel - nor is anyone talking about giving up the Negev which was not part of the old borders, as this nineteenth century map shows.

But Hezbollah mouthpiece Al Mayadeen is freaking out:

Michael Freund, an American-born Israeli political figure of German descent, believes that southern Lebanon is historically part of "Israel" and that the Jewish people have deep-rooted connections to the area.
A recent opinion piece in The Jerusalem Post, titled "Southern Lebanon is Actually Northern Israel," exemplifies yet another attempt to legitimize expansionist ambitions through what can only be described as Zionist propaganda.
The article undermines Lebanon's sovereignty while distorting Judaism by weaponizing it to rationalize territorial conquest.

The New Arab also slammed the piece, without contradicting it.

Because everything Freund says is true and no one can seriously doubt it (although the exact borders of ancient Israel are always matters of dispute and they changed over time.)

There are two real questions one might want to ask.

One is is why the map above of what are clearly the 12 Tribes of Israel calls the area "Palestine?" The answer is, of course, that the term "Palestine" was historically used as a synonym for the Holy Land or the Land of Israel. It never referred to a land of Palestinian Arabs.

The second question is what, exactly, is "historic Palestine" that the Palestinians claim to have heritage over? All of those maps are indeed based on when "European colonialists whimsically drew lines on maps over a bottle of brandy in smoke-filled rooms." They consider the colonial boundaries of the 20th century to be their age-old lands - which is ridiculous.

Yet while they love pointing to these maps and claiming that it proves that "Palestine" is a historic country, they never use those same maps to claim their own stake in parts of Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.

No, for some reason the only lands they ever claimed as their historic homeland always coincides with the land that Jews control, and no more. And this includes before 1967 when they made no claims on the West Bank.

Funny how the more you look at their claims of having been part of a historical Palestine for thousands of years, the less tenable their claims turn out to be.

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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

Yesterday, the State Department said it was sanctioning a number of Israeli organizations that aim to settle Jews in Judea and Samaria.

The justifications are tenuous.

Today, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is sanctioning Amana the Settlement Movement of Gush Emunim Central Cooperative Association Ltd (Amana), a settlement development organization that is involved with U.S.-sanctioned individuals and outposts that perpetrate violence in the West Bank, and its subsidiary Binyanei Bar Amana Ltd. This action, taken pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 14115, is part of an ongoing multilateral approach by the United States and its partners to hold accountable those who are threatening the peace, security, and stability of the West Bank. Amana has also been sanctioned by the United Kingdom and Canada.
...
Amana is a key part of the Israeli extremist settlement movement and maintains ties to various persons previously sanctioned by the U.S. government and its partners for perpetrating violence in the West Bank. For example, Amana provided a loan to Israeli settler Isaschar Manne, and served as a partner in the formation of Meitarim Farm. The U.S. Department of State sanctioned Isaschar Manne and Meitarim Farm on July 11, 2024 pursuant to E.O. 14115. The settlers and farms that Amana supports play a key role in developing settlements in the West Bank, from which in turn settlers commit violence. More broadly, Amana strategically uses farming outposts, which it supports through financing, loans, and building infrastructure, to expand settlements and seize land.

By this logic, the US should sanction the EU.

For many years, the EU has explicitly pursued a policy of building Arab settlements in Area C, choosing areas deliberately to seize land that will stop Jews from living there. It is spending tens of millions of euros on buildings and structures that are against international law.

Some Arab terrorists come from Area C.

The terrorist who slaughtered the Salomon family during a Shabbat dinner came from Kobar, which is about half in Area C. An Arab from Az Zawiya, in Area C, stabbed Rabbi Itamar Ben Gal to death in 2019.

Did the EU play a role in these murders and others? Directly, no, but the State Department is not sanctioning Amana for direct support for violence, but for indirect support. There is no doubt some terrorists whose crimes don't rise to the level of media interest have come from areas that the EU helped build.

To put it mildly, that is a slippery slope. The last sentence quoted above, that "Amana strategically uses farming outposts, which it supports through financing, loans, and building infrastructure, to expand settlements and seize land" applies just as much to the EU.

That sentence shows that the intent of the sanctions goes way beyond Amana giving a loan to a person who is under sanctions. It is meant to stop all Israeli actions in Area C, even those that are legal under Israeli law.

The State Department sanctioning of Jewish organizations has little to do with protecting Palestinians. Settler leaders have consistently spoken out against violence by a small number of hotheads. These sanctions are political, not humanitarian, and meant to force US wishes on Israel.

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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

Iran's Deputy President for Strategic Affairs Mohammad Javad Zarif issued an English language video that is filled with so many risible lies that it almost seems like a parody.

Here's the video and transcript:

Salaam/ Shalom

Peace to those – of any faith, language, or ethnicity – who cherish freedom, and justice. Greetings to the followers of all religions, and all children of Abraham, regardless of their creed, ethnicity, or language. Shalom to my fellow Iranians of Jewish faith and all followers of Prophet Moses across the globe.

Ask the women of Iran about how much they enjoy freedom and justice.

I begin in the name of our one Compassionate and Merciful God, to remind us, all, of the urgency of preventing the spread of war, bloodshed, plunder, and oppression.

Ask the people of Yemen how much Iran tries to prevent the spread of war, bloodshed, plunder and oppression.

I speak to you, Jewish people across the world, as a citizen of an ancient nation with a rich history of tolerance and humanity. For over two thousand years, my nation has been a symbol of peaceful coexistence among various religions, cultures, languages, dialects, races and ethnicities. Supporting the oppressed, the displaced, and those seeking refuge from genocide, has always been a trait of my nation in its long and proud history:
• Liberating the Jews suffering under the Babylonians over 2,600 years ago
• Receiving Jews displaced by the Nazis and fascists during World War II
• Opening its arms to millions of Afghans fleeing foreign occupation
• Assisting Palestinians, Lebanese, and Syrians displaced by aggression and apartheid.

Iran since the 1979 revolution has nothing in common with historic Persia. It is in most ways the antithesis of Persian traditions. Iran pre-1979 was mostly a tolerant and peaceful place for its citizens, although it was hardly a liberal democracy.

A few years ago, I had the honor of contributing to a unique achievement of multilateral diplomacy to end the manufactured crisis over Iran’s peaceful nuclear program. Yet, Netanyahu – who himself had contributed to the manufacturing of this crisis – made it his “historic mission” to obstruct and kill the nuclear deal: an agreement that would have ensured that the “wolf” this habitual liar was always “crying” about, would never come to town.

That agreement could have been the foundation of a new era of peace, tranquility, regional cooperation, and freedom from threats, conflicts, and escalating tensions.

However, before too long, Netanyahu and his Zionist and extremist cohorts succeeded in their satanic effort to rob the region and the world of this historic opportunity, standing on the wrong side of history.

Before Trump withdrew from the JCPOA, Iran was developing advanced centrifuges, violated the agreement on stockpiling heavy water, engaged in secret nuclear weapons development, banned the IAEA from inspecting military nuclear facilities, worked on building ballistic missiles to be a delivery system for nuclear bombs. Even after the withdrawal, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Russia, and China pledged to continue to adhere to the agreement while Iran blatantly violated all its major provisions.

Standing on the wrong side of history again, Netanyahu and his regime, along with Israel’s Western enablers, have unleashed the machinery of death and destruction in the region, causing carnage and crimes against humanity in a genocidal campaign that has murdered over 50,000 civilians, including over 10,000 children.

But resistance to occupation will not die by killing children or even its leaders.

50,000 civilians and not one Hamas member. That's impressive!

Dear friends, sisters, and brothers,
Aggressive Zionism is nothing but an expansionist secular movement, deceitfully using Judaism to advance its colonial and racist agenda.

It's always nice when anti-Zionists define Zionism.

It abuses the memories and blood of Jewish victims of the Holocaust who perished during World War II, while Zionism itself is nothing but racism, chauvinism, militarism, terrorism, expansionism, apartheid, and hatred against other nations and religions.

Funny that the Baha'i religion is persecuted in peaceful and tolerant Iran while its beautiful headqarters is in the hateful, apartheid Zionist state.

Iran has been behind attacks on Jewish religious centers and prominent Jews in the UK, Germany, France, Canada, Argentina and the US, for starters.

It deceitfully claims to be the representative and protector of Jewish people worldwide, while in practice, it is the greatest threat to the dignity and security of the Jewish people.

Of course, the weapons Iran gives to Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, Iraqi Shiites and the Houthis don't threaten Jews at all.• Sacrifices Jews and Gentiles at the altar of Zionism;

• Uses the name of the Lord in vain to justify genocide;

I'm stumped on this one. I've never heard a Zionist pronounce the Tetragrammaton.

You are not just horrified by the Zionist crimes committed against others; you too are victims of Zionist assault on your faith and identity. Continue to stand – as you have done in the streets of Western capitals – with all the innocent victims of Zionism in Palestine, and elsewhere. Continue to support those at the forefront of this resistance who defend human dignity. Save the Divine Abrahamic Jewish faith from Zionist forgeries, marred by aggression, apartheid, and genocide.

Literally everything he accuses Israel of doing is happening in Iran and in Iranian-controlled areas of the "Axis of resistance." And none of them are happening in Israel.

Notice that Zarif doesn't mention the other progressive things about Iran, like executing gays.

If Zarif wants "shalom," Iran should stop arming terrorist organizations, stop illicit nuclear development, keep its international obligations and promises, and stop inciting antisemitism.

Any Western Jew who actually believes this claptrap is an ignoramus. Unfortunately, there are no shortage of Jewishly illiterate morons.

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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

11/18 Links Pt2: How identity politics makes excuses for anti-Semitism; Chilling new report reveals just how widespread antisemitism is at US colleges

From Ian:

How identity politics makes excuses for anti-Semitism

Rachel Shabi’s aim in her new book, Off-White: The Truth About Anti-Semitism, seems to be to reassure those on what passes for the left these days that they are not anti-Semitic – and that accusations that they are anti-Semitic are just, as she puts it, ‘a stick with which the right clobbers the left’. Little wonder, perhaps, that Off-White has already won praise from various leftist luminaries.

Shabi herself is a self-avowed ‘progressive’ and a veteran Israeli-born British journalist of Iraqi Jewish origin. In Off-White, she seeks to apply contemporary ‘frames of analysis’ common on the left to the subject of anti-Semitism. In practice, this means reconceiving anti-Semitism in terms of the core ideas of the identitarian left.

Many of Shabi’s starting assumptions are conventional. She sees anti-Semitism as an ‘ancient hatred’. She also talks about how anti-Semitism is a conspiracy theory that often involves scapegoating Jews for the perceived ills of society. Few would take issue with any of this.

From there on, however, she offers up a strikingly instrumentalist history of anti-Semitism. In her view, anti-Semitism is a ‘tool’ used by ruling elites throughout history ‘to maintain their power’. Christian church leaders once needed to vilify Judaism ‘in order to ensure [Christianity’s] own spread and eventual dominance’, she says. Likewise, 19th- and 20th-century Western ruling elites needed to vilify Judaism to maintain and deepen their dominance – as evidenced by the Dreyfus Affair in France and the British government’s Aliens Act in 1905.

As Shabi sees it, there’s little difference, then, between these instances of historical anti-Semitism and other forms of racism and discrimination, such as today’s far-right targeting of refugees from Africa and the Middle East. These are all simply instances of instrumental, trans-historical prejudice.

But while anti-Semitism is presented here as one racism among many, Shabi also argues that the position of Jews has changed radically over time. After the Second World War and the Holocaust, Western elites’ view of Jews underwent a dramatic transformation, she says: ‘Jews in the West were by and large absorbed into whiteness and its corresponding power structures.’ Persisting with the jargon of critical race theory, she claims that Jews were used to ‘maintain [white privilege] as a social construct’.

Jewish group seeks six-month ‘emergency’ to fight Jew-hate in EU

A prominent rabbi from Brussels on Monday called on the European Union to declare a six-month emergency period for fighting antisemitism at anti-Israel protests and beyond. He warned that Jews would leave Europe in the absence of such action.

Rabbi Menachem Margolin, director of the Brussels-based European Jewish Association, issued the call in a speech he made in Krakow, Poland, to about 100 participants of a conference commemorating the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the nearby Auschwitz German death camp.

“The European Jewish Association calls on the European Union and its member states to declare a six-month emergency period to combat period, with high-level protection for Jewish communities but also special measures at public events,” said Margolin.

Such events have become “a fanfare where anything goes and anything can be said and done,” he said.

Organizers of protests under the plan would need to “sign an obligation” against speech that incites violence and face rigorous monitoring for such conduct and heavy punishments, said Margolin.

“If our call today won’t be answered, we will start to see an exodus of Jews from Europe and the end of Jewish life on this continent, and Europe will lose an important part of its history and rich culture,” he said.

David Collier: An open letter to the police and CPS

To the police and CPS.

With reference to complaints made by Gabriel Kanter-Webber about Rupert Nathan. I understand that the matter has now been referred by the police to the CPS. Given Webber is from Brighton I imagine the original complaint would have been received by Sussex Police but cannot be certain.

I have known about this complaint for some time – and was shocked from the outset when I learnt that the police had turned up early in the morning at Rupert Nathan’s home, arresting him in front of his child. This created unnecessary trauma. Webber (and remember we are talking about someone who – progressive or not – qualified to be a Rabbi), also reported the incident to Rupert Nathan’s professional body – the Chartered Institute of Securities & Investment [CISI]. Thankfully, they chose to take no further action. But we have every right to question the ethical position of a man (Rabbi or not) who would knowingly attempt to damage someone’s career over a single personal comment made on social media.

The reason I am writing this is because I believe I possess relevant information. On December 4 2023 (long before the incident you acted upon), and because of his behaviour, I felt compelled to write this in an email to Gabriel Webber:

“Please stop commenting on my website. You are deliberately goading people as part of your ongoing harassment. I have work to do and am not there to police deliberately provocative behaviour – and the responses to it.”

Despite my written request Gabriel Webber continued to post comments on my site – and I felt forced to disable his ability to post freely in my comment spaces.

11/18 Links Pt1: Biden threatened to leave Israel defenceless; Iranian plot to murder Irwin Cotler; Large Gaza food convoy violently looted, UNRWA says

From Ian:

Ruthie Blum: Elise Stefanik’s UN debut can’t come soon enough

Whether the Biden administration is planning a last hurrah for the Jewish state at the United Nations—a lame-duck good riddance, à la Barack Obama, in the form of an abstention in a hostile Security Council vote—remains to be seen. The updated draft of a resolution relating to the war in Gaza and Lebanon is no better, if not worse, than its first anti-Israel version.

No surprise there. The only question is how Washington’s current dubious “ironclad commitment” to its key Mideast ally will stand up to scrutiny where the international vipers’ nest in Midtown Manhattan is concerned.

What’s certain is that President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to replace U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield can’t come soon enough.

To grasp the difference between Thomas-Greenfield and her soon-to-be-successor, Elise Stefanik, one need only compare their statements about Israel and the Iran-backed enemies bent on its annihilation.

Thomas-Greenfield opened her address last week to the UNSC by issuing a harsh rebuke. Not to Hamas, of course. No, instead, she began her Nov. 12 tirade by citing remarks by acting U.N. under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and relief coordinator Joyce Msuya.

“There is no need to mince words here,” Thomas-Greenfield stated at the outset. “As we heard from our briefers, the situation in northern Gaza is dire. Catastrophic, as we heard from Ms. Msuya. An unconscionable number of Palestinian civilians, many women and children, have been killed.”

She proceeded to invoke a false Integrated Food Security Phase Classification report, according to which “nearly every civilian in Gaza is without adequate food, medication, clean drinking water or housing,” adding, “They simply cannot be left to suffer indefinitely.”

Paraphrasing Secretary of State Antony Blinken, she continued: “We need to end the armed conflict, bring the hostages home, including the seven Americans held by Hamas, and chart a path forward in the post-conflict period that provides governance, security and reconstruction in Gaza.”

Not a syllable about the monsters who make such a task impossible. Never mind, though, Thomas-Greenfield, like her boss Blinken and the rest of the outgoing administration, has been focused on currying favor with the world’s malign actors.

Bassam Tawil: UNRWA Hires Palestinian Terrorists, Glorifies Violence And Terrorism

According to Israeli intelligence, more than 450 terrorists belonging to terrorist organizations in Gaza, mainly Hamas, are also employed by UNRWA.

"By not firing them, the UN Secretary-General and UNRWA's Commissioner General are brazenly demonstrating their determination to continue employing members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad even after having been presented with incriminating evidence to this effect. It is time for donor governments to wake up and stop funneling their taxpayers' money to members of designated terrorist organizations." – www.idf.il, August 5, 2024

UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini recently told the UN General Assembly that his agency provides tolerant, respectful and anti-extremist education in Gaza. However, IMPACT-se's new report unveils institutional teaching material taught in five UNRWA schools in Gaza, where Hamas commanders have been exposed masquerading as school principals.

A poem taught to seventh-graders... calls on knights, symbolizing Arab leaders, to liberate the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem "from the fist of unbelief, from Satan's aides – revenge to the Jews."

What is disturbing is that the UN chief and other donor countries refuse to see what many Palestinians already see, namely that UNRWA has long been playing a significant role in inciting hatred against Israel and raising another generation of Palestinian children on the glorification of violence and terrorism. It is time for this agency, as well as the entire UN, to be dismantled and removed, or at least, as suggested years ago, to have nations pay only for what they want and to get what they pay for.

It is also time for the Palestinian "refugees" to move on with their lives and stop relying on Western taxpayers' money.

Canada foils Iranian plot to murder Irwin Cotler

Canadian security forces last month foiled an Iranian assassination plot against Irwin Cotler, the Jewish former politician and human rights advocate, the country’s The Globe and Mail newspaper reported on Monday.

A source told the daily that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police warned the former Liberal justice minister on Oct. 26 that he was the target of an “imminent threat of assassination within 48 hours from Iranian agents.”

The source said authorities knew of two suspects in the plot, but it is unknown whether they were arrested or fled the country. The RCMP did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The source claimed to The Globe and Mail that Cotler was informed last week that the threat level against him had been significantly lowered.

Cotler, 84, has reportedly been under 24/7 RCMP protection since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led cross-border massacre in Israel’s northwestern Negev.

The protection provided to Cotler by Canadian authorities was said to include bulletproof vehicles, armed bodyguards and other measures.

“After Oct. 7, my wife and I attended the March for Israel in Washington, D.C. When we flew back to Montreal, security asked us not to leave the airport. Security personnel spoke to me and informed me of what has been characterized as imminent and lethal threats, without going into further details,” Cotler said in an interview with JNS earlier this year.

The international legal scholar noted at the time that “the community of democracies including Canada does not understand the threat of Iran.”

Cotler, who served as Canada’s justice minister and attorney general between 2003 and 2006, has been on the Islamic Republic’s radar for his calls to list the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist entity.

The Jewish jurist has also represented Iranian political prisoners and is a strong supporter of Israel. He was Canada’s special envoy on Holocaust remembrance and combatting antisemitism from 2020 to 2023.

This was the BBC headline last week: "Nearly 70% of Gaza war dead are women and children, UN says."

The BBC is lying, and the UN is twisting numbers.

The UN is only counting what they call "verified" deaths, which is only 8,119 Gazans - not the 40,000+ that the health ministry claims. They are saying that among those "verified" deaths, 70% are women and children.

That's far higher than even the Gaza health ministry claims.

The latest Gaza health ministry count as of October 7 showed that women and children were 50.5% of the total that they counted. That already indicates that the UN is not counting a representative sample of Gaza deaths - only ones that are more likely to include women and children. It is a difference of 8,000 women and children that the UN is implying are dead compared to reality.

When you dig into the UN methodology, you can begin to see the problem.

It says:

[T]he number of killings verified by OHCHR by 2 September 2024 standing at 8,119 Palestinians in Gaza, including 2,036 women and 3,588 children (1,865 boys and 1,723 girls). Of these verified figures, 7,607 were killed in residential buildings or similar housing, out of which 44 per cent were children, 26 per cent women and 30 per cent men.

The footnote describes the methodology used:

That a large proportion of the fatalities verified by OHCHR were killed in residential buildings or similar housing is also partly explained by OHCHR’s verification methodology, which requires at least three independent sources, and the challenges in collecting and verifying information of killings in other circumstances.

The UN is only counting deaths that they can verify with three independent sources. The vast majority of Hamas members killed will not be verified by three sources, because Hamas is hiding its casualties. So the remainder that are far less likely to be Hamas are counted as if they represent all of Gaza!

And this is the reason that such a high percentage of those counted by the UN were killed in residential buildings. Those areas are public and Hamas cannot block people from witnessing the deaths, as opposed to in urban areas already cleared of civilians and tunnels, which is where most of the fighting is happening.

But, the UN asks, why are such a high percentage of people killed in buildings women and children? And the answer is because most of them are human shields!

We know that Israel warns residents before bombing their buildings - when they can. But if the target is a high ranking terrorist, they cannot issue a warning because then the terrorist will get away.

During the 2004 war, I counted 108 children who were killed while in the proximity of 24 known terrorists who were killed along with them. B'Tselem would usually (but not always) mention when women and children were killed along with terrorists who were the actual targets.

One major example was the Abu Jame family, 24 members of whom were killed because a top Hamas commander in Khan Younis named Ahmad Sahmoud was using them as human shields.

In other cases, it was a family member who was the Hamas terrorist.

The point is that when Israel has to go after major terrorists hiding in residential areas, while it has to perform a proportionality calculation, chances are there will be multiple innocent deaths along with the terrorist. Those situations would make the percentage of women and children killed look far higher than in most of the fighting. The UN methodology overcounts those relatively rare scenarios - 8,000 out of 40,000 deaths counted by the MoH. In the case of these 108 children killed in 2014, the UN would say that over 80% of those killed in those incidents were women and children. It is true - and the entire reason is because of Hamas war crimes of using human shields.

But the people quoting this report, like EU foreign policy head Josep Borrell, don't look past the headline. They, like the BBC, simply parrot the lie that 70% of those killed in Gaza are women and children, ignoring the evidence from Hamas itself that these numbers are nowhere close to true.

That eagerness to inflate Gaza casualty figures and the reticence to look beyond those numbers is simply another form of antisemitism.

(h/t Mark Zlochin)

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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

By Forest Rain

Sirens throughout the day, but not here. It was a beautiful Saturday (November 16th) and we were trying to enjoy the wonderful weather, lovely people, interesting things – although we knew that others were not.

I was hearing the sirens and interceptions in the distance. Israelis closer to the border with Lebanon were hearing sirens and rockets exploding. Huddled, waiting to see if the rockets would hit them. Or the shrapnel. Waiting for the bombing to end.

I was waiting for the bombing to begin. Eventually, it would come to Haifa too.

And in the evening, it came. Sirens. Down to the shelter.
Explosions, so loud they shook the house.
Not just interceptions. Impact too.
But where?

We got videos of the impact site on our phones. Something was on fire. A different neighborhood in Haifa, about a 10 minute drive away.

A cousin lives there. We called to ask if he was ok – he wasn’t at home but was worried about his dog. Neighbors had called him to say that his house was damaged. We promised to go to see what had happened until he could arrive.

Getting into our car, we could smell the fire.

When we got to the neighborhood the police had already closed off the section of the street where the missile hit. It smashed the beautiful Templar-period building used as the neighborhood synagogue – directly across the street from his house.

Firefighters were there, dealing with the fire. Ambulances were evacuating people. I hoped that no one was injured too badly. The Electric Company was there too. I didn’t know if the darkness was because the trees that had fallen in the blast pulled down lines or because the electricity needed to be turned off to keep people safe. Or both.

Instead of going through the crowd – people who lived there, rescue workers, media both foreign and local, and the curious – we approached the apartment from the back.

We walked through the darkness, the only lights from the rescue teams. Glass from the windows that had blown out of the houses crunching on under our feet. The sound of water pouring down from the roofs. Water tanks had been destroyed by the explosion… thank goodness the electricity was off for the area.

We got to our cousin’s house a moment before the Home Front Command rescue workers broke down his door. Their job is to go door to door, make sure no one is trapped inside, and help evacuate people. If they knock and there is no answer and they can’t contact the owner, they break down the door.

We told them that he wasn’t home and no one else was inside, that he was on the way. They marked the apartment as cleared and went on to check the rest of the building.

Neighbors who had been out came to check their apartment. As they surveyed the damage one of them broke down from the shock, crying, “Everything is broken. The walls, my paintings, my piano, I don’t have anything left.”

The blast broke the windows of their apartments and flung large pieces of shrapnel inside. There were holes in the walls, even in the piano. It was hard to see the full extent of the damage in the dark. Everything was covered in dust, smelled of the fire outside, and felt like the end of the world.

Objectively, not everything was damaged. A lot of cleaning up needed to be done. Windows and holes need to be fixed. Original artwork cannot be replaced but we told him over and over until he could breathe again: “It’s just property damage. Thank God you weren’t home when it happened.”

He nodded in understanding but still had a hard time shaking the hysteria. There’s something deeply shattering in having your sanctuary smashed. You have to pull yourself together, grit your teeth, and begin an uphill battle to put the pieces of your life back together. It’s hard to even know where to start…

Our cousin arrived. We were all relieved to see that the dog had taken shelter under the bed so she wasn’t hurt when the windows blew out. She came out shaking but wagging her tail.

We made a quick survey of the damage and helped him pack some things. It would take at least a few days to make the place livable again.

As we left the building, we saw others leaving. An exodus of people carrying small bags with some things, their cats and dogs.

In the morning it would be possible to come back, understand the true extent of the damage, and begin repairs. Thank God it was “just” property damage.

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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

Reuters reports:

The European Union's top diplomat on Monday confirmed he would suggest to members of the bloc that the EU pauses its political dialogue with Israel, citing the country's conduct of the war in Gaza.

"Many people tried to stop the war in Gaza... this has not happened yet. And I don't see a hope for this to happen. That's why we have to put pressure on the Israeli government, and also, obviously on the Hamas side," Josep Borrell told journalists ahead of an EU meeting.

The European Union's foreign policy chief last week proposed that the bloc suspend its political dialogue with Israel, citing possible human rights violations in the war in Gaza, according to four diplomats and a letter seen by Reuters.

He also falsely claimed that 70% of those killed in Gaza were women and children, a ridiculous assertion that even Gaza's health ministry has shown is not close to true.

Since the EU must "obviously" pressure Hamas, what has Borrell and the EU done in that area since October 7 2023?

I can find only one specific and meaningless move: Months after the October attack, the EU added Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Marwan Issa to its terrorist list.

It is astonishing that they weren't on the list beforehand.

I can find nothing else. No moves specifically to sanction Iran or even politically pressure it for arming Hamas and Hezbollah (although there are sanctions against Iran for arming Russia) . No effort to ensure EU aid to Gaza doesn't go to Hamas. No declaring Iran's IRGC to be a terrorist group, as the US and Canada (and Lithuania) have done.

The hypocrisy becomes crystal clear when you realize that while Borrell wants to isolate Israel diplomatically, he and the EU has been increasing efforts to diplomatically engage with Iran.

In April, Borrell spoke to Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and cringingly told hi exactly what Iran wants to hear from the EU. Borrell told him that the EU condemned Israel's airstrike on Iranian and Hezbollah terrorists in Syria, claiming (falsely) that they violated the Vienna Convention because it was inside a compound that included the Iranian embassy - even though it was being used to plan more attacks on Israel.

Following that meeting, Borrell told reporters that "the EU needs to have the best possible relations with Iran."

So Borrell simultaneously supports engagement with Iran, pressuring and isolating Israel and merely pretending to pressure Hamas.

As one EU parliament member said ahead of Borrell's end of term on December 1, “We won’t miss you, Mr. Borrell, but I’m sure the mullahs will.”

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Jews were treated horribly in Morocco by Muslims in the 19th century - before Zionism

Ten years ago, I discussed a book by a European traveler to northern Africa and the Middle East, using the pseudonym Ali Bey al Abbasi, about what he saw in Morocco in 1895.

THE Jews in Morocco are in the most abject state of slavery; but at Tangier it is remarkable that they live intermingled with the Moors, without having any separate quarter, which is the case in all other places where the Mahometan religion prevails. This distinction occasions perpetual disagreements; it excites disputes, in which, if the Jew is wrong, the Moor takes his own satisfaction; and if the Jew is right, he lodges a complaint with the judge, who always decides in favour of the Mussulman. This shocking partiality in the dispensation of justice between individuals of different sects begins from the cradle; so that a Mussulman child will insult and strike a Jew, whatever be his age and infirmities, without his being allowed to complain, or even to defend himself. This inequality prevails even among the children of these different religions; so that I have seen the Mahometan children amuse themselves with beating little Jews, without these daring to defend themselves.
...
When they meet a Mussulman of high rank they are obliged to turn away hastily to a certain distance on the left of the road, to leave their sandals on the ground several paces off, and to put themselves into a most humble posture, their body intirely bent forward, till the Mussulman has passed to a great distance; if they hesitate to do this, or to dismount from their horse when they meet a Mahometan, they are severely punished. I have often been obliged to restrain my soldiers or servants from beating these poor wretches, when they were not active enough in placing themselves in the humble attitude prescribed on them by the Mahometan tyranny.

It turns out that newspapers in the 19th century had a number of articles from multiple sources that showed that, if anything, Ali Bey was soft-pedaling the problem.

His reporting was confirmed and expanded upon in 1859, by a British diplomat based in Rabat. His letter was published in The American Israelite, December 30 1859-January 6 1860.

The Jewish Advance, July 9, 1880, describes earlier attempts to help Jews in Morocco have a modicum of human rights, but previous efforts had failed - and Jews were being murdered.

The article continued on the subsequent edition of the newspaper with more details of the history of Jewish persecution there:

The observer than adds a sarcastic addition:

The topic even reached the mainstream newspapers in 1888. A widely spread article said:

The Jews of Morocco are to my mind at once the most interesting and most trying race of people, says a writer in the Boston Transcript.....Among the anomalies connected with them is that they are hated and despised by the Moors, subject to every insult and degradation that can be imagined, yet they are recognized as such necessary members of society that there is a law which is actively enforced, forbidding Jews to leave the country under any circumstances. The Jews, outside of one or two coast towns, are treated worse than the meanest and lowest animals

... Moor thinks no more of killing a Jew, if he can do It quietly, then of killing a rat. The Jews are not allowed to carry arms of any kind, nor to ride upon a horse, mule or donkey, or bullock, but he must make all journeys on foot; neither are they allowed to wear any foot covering outside of their own quarter, where they are herded together like animals, their dresses being regulated and restricted so they may always be known from the believers at a glance and they are forbidden to build any places of worship or to hold religious services of any kind-which command is religiously disregarded, services being held regularly in their houses, with, in some cities, a guard posted to inform of the approach of strangers.

If there is any nasty work to be done, as for instance the embalming of heads of executed rebels 80 that they may bang the longer at the traitor's gate, the Jews are pressed. into service; if the sultan or one of his officers wishes a few thousand dollars to meet a sudden demand, some wealthy Jew who has paid the least for protection, is seized without notice and thrown into a dungeon until he has been squeezed out of a proper sum..

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11/17 Links: Why Jared Kushner’s return matters ; Yasser Arafat’s legacy: The death of Palestinian statehood; Senior Hamas officials in Turkey after leaving Qatar

From Ian:

JPost Editorial: Trump’s pro-Israel appointments: Dream team or a tightrope for Jerusalem?

One of the main missions of Trump’s team, and particularly his Middle East envoy, will be to expand the historic Abraham Accords that his first administration mediated, and bring Saudi Arabia into the fold to make it the most powerful bloc of nations in the region against the “Axis of Resistance.”

It is also likely to resuscitate the “Deal of the Century,” authored by a team headed by Trump’s senior adviser and Jewish son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

While Trump’s new team might go as far as supporting Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria and what former US ambassador David Friedman calls “One Jewish State” in his new book, it could also revert to the annexation of settlements combined with the establishment of a Palestinian state envisioned in the 2020 peace plan.

In April, the Biden administration signed $14.3 billion in emergency security assistance for Israel, and in September, approved an $8.7 billion aid package, including $3.5 billion for wartime procurement and $5.2 billion for defense systems such as Iron Dome and David’s Sling.

While Trump might maintain such a high level of security aid provided by the US to Israel, he could also cut it or use it as a way to pressure the Jewish state. This might become an issue for Israel in 2026, when the 10-year Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed by former president Barack Obama expires.

Perhaps most important of all will be the Trump administration’s policy on Iran. High-level sources told The Wall Street Journal that the president-elect intends to reinstate his “maximum pressure” campaign against Tehran, under the leadership of its original architect, Brian Hook.

At the heart of Trump’s foreign policy is the aspiration to end wars and expand peace initiatives in conflict zones, including the Middle East, a policy endorsed by supporters of an isolationist “America First” policy such as JD Vance, who will be vice president.

The bottom line is that while Israel can allow itself to be pleased with the make-up of the new Trump team, it should also be cautious.

Why Jared Kushner’s return matters for Jews, Arabs, and Muslims alike

Kushner’s familiarity with regional stakeholders and proven track record align with this goal, positioning him as a bridge between America’s interests and the needs of the Middle East. Today, the need for hope and healing is greater than ever.

The horrific terrorist attack of October 7 and the ongoing conflict have deepened mistrust between Jews, Arabs, and Muslims. Too many innocent lives have been lost on all sides, and the wounds from terror and violence will not heal quickly. But even amid this pain, there remains an opportunity to restore what has been destroyed.

In a world increasingly connected through technology, there are avenues for people to communicate, trade, and cooperate in unprecedented ways. Kushner’s return to diplomacy could capitalize on these opportunities, using technology and economic partnerships to break down barriers of fear and rebuild trust.

His experience in creating the Abraham Accords shows he has both the vision and commitment to make peace achievable again, despite entrenched skepticism on all sides. For peace to truly take root, someone is needed who understands the nuances, respects the complexities, and believes in the region’s potential.

Kushner is uniquely positioned to play that role. His approach—focused on investment, partnerships, and realistic goals—offers a path to a future where cooperation replaces conflict and prosperity unites rather than divides. As new challenges emerge, his guidance could help stabilize the fragile gains made in recent years.

The Middle East is at a crossroads, and the future depends on leaders who can foster hope and progress across communities. Now, more than ever, we need someone who can bridge the divides and build a lasting foundation of trust and shared purpose.

Jared Kushner has proven he can be that bridge.

Mark Dubowitz and Eugene Kontorovich: Lame-duck Biden ramps up sanctions on Israelis — and eases up on terrorists

Last week, 88 congressional Democrats wrote a letter demanding that the Biden administration go out swinging, sanctioning Israeli government members as well as a mainstream Israeli NGO that reports on illegal Palestinian activities.

These members of Congress want Israelis sanctioned for their political views and activism; their suggested targets are not alleged to have committed any violent or illegal acts.

Once he takes office, President-elect Trump can quickly rescind these sanctions or let them expire — but in the meantime, a new precedent has been set: The US government is mainstreaming the goals of the anti-Israel left’s Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign.

Meanwhile, US allies including Canada and Britain have already imitated the Biden administration, imposing even more far-reaching sanctions on Jews in the West Bank.

State Department progressives may hope these countries will keep the fire burning — including through another UN Security Council Resolution in the coming months punishing Israel — while Democrats are out of power.

US citizens have filed a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Biden’s sanctions. Trump’s Justice Department should quickly move to settle the suit, and to direct the government to stop basing sanctions on unreliable information from highly politicized NGOs.

For its part, Congress should investigate the process behind the sanctions.

Finally, Trump should warn the lame-duck administration that expanding the sanctions program could spur him to keep Biden’s executive order in place — and use it instead against progressive groups with connections to the Palestinian terrorists who are destabilizing the West Bank.

After all, turnabout is fair play.

Trump said to lift all military restrictions on Israel on 1st day in office according to reports

Amid escalating tensions between Hezbollah and Israel, President-elect Donald Trump has promised to lift all restrictions and delays on the supply of military equipment and ammunition to Israel immediately after his inauguration, Israeli Channel 12 News reports.

The assurance from Trump’s team came as Israel is considering a 60-day cease-fire with Hezbollah, which would provide a window until Trump takes office and implements the promised changes.

Sources indicate that this commitment from Trump’s administration clarifies Israel’s willingness to temporarily halt military actions, with the understanding that support will resume without delay once Trump is in office.

Unnamed Israeli officials have confirmed the reports from Israeli media to Fox News Digital.

Currently, U.S. restrictions include an embargo on a certain weapons shipment and limitations on various combat-related equipment, even if they do not involve explosive ordnance. This embargo has impacted Israel’s defense capabilities, especially as the military now contends with active fronts in both Lebanon and Gaza, requiring strict control over ammunition and supply use.

This pledge to lift all military supply restrictions, starting from Trump’s first day in office, would allow Israel to replenish its stockpiles and alleviate current constraints. With the 60-day cease-fire, Israel aims to temporarily suspend hostilities until the new administration takes office, enabling a resumption of full military operations if necessary, without the existing limitations.

On Thursday, the U.S. ambassador to Lebanon submitted a draft truce proposal to Lebanon's Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri to halt fighting between armed group Hezbollah and Israel, two political sources told Reuters, without revealing details.

Hezbollah calls a synagogue it bombed in Haifa a "military base"

This is what the Avot U'Banim synagogue in Haifa looked like before yesterday.

Here is a screenshot from a video published by Hezbollah showing the damage to a "military base in Haifa" from a barrage of rockets yesterday:

Hezbollah named five supposed targets of their rockets, all of them "military bases," including a gas station that they say is owned by the IDF.

In the video, the people clearly talk about the synagogue burning. Hezbollah knows that a synagogue was hit, but they do not admit it, and neither has Lebanese media.

The missiles hit the synagogue and its adjacent beit midrash only an hour after Saturday night prayers.

“This is divine providence,” Haifa Mayor Yona Yahav told Israel Hayom.

“There were no people in the synagogue, but in the surrounding buildings there were people who experienced a significant blast,” he said. “But as I said, most of the damage is not physical. There’s damage in many apartments, mainly windows. Some vehicles were also burned.”

Haifa residents are happy there were no injuries.

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The Genocide Convention defines genocide as "intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group."

"Intent" is a high bar. No one can read minds; unless the accused party specifically says that they intend to wipe out another people, all we have are actions that must be interpreted.

The only way for anyone to determine that Israel's intent in the current war is genocidal is if they already hate Jews.

By definition, if there are a preponderance of actions and statements that contradict the thesis that Israel intends to destroy all Palestinians or all Gazans, then the charge of genocide is false.

I will not get into all the counter-evidence - anyone can research that Israeli leaders have consistently said that their targets are Hamas and not Gaza civilians, that Israel has facilitated tens of thousands of truckloads of aid, that Israel has been careful to avoid civilian casualties, that Hamas deliberately places its military targets within and underneath apartments, schools, mosques and hospitals making avoiding all civilian casualties literally impossible and that many military experts have praised Israel for its efforts to avoid civilian casualties despite the unique challenges of fighting an enemy that depends on civilians to limit attacks.

However, the people tossing the word "genocide" around discount and ignore all the counterevidence that refutes the charge. They grab onto isolated, out of context statements and incidents and try to build them into an edifice of proof.

I'll give just one example.

A recently released UN report accuses Israel of using methods "consistent with genocide." The very first quote they use from an Israeli official as evidence is:

On 9 October, the Minister of Defence of Israel announced a “complete siege” of the Strip with no electricity, no food, no fuel and removed every restriction on Israeli forces so they could “eliminate everything.”

The implication is that Gallant ordered troops to eliminate everything in Gaza and starvation was one of the methods.

These were two different statements.

Israel has been facilitating aid into Gaza since October 21, 2023 - the entire war except for two weeks. Statements made within hours or days after the horrific attacks on October 7 demanding a siege were never meant to be long term policy, and those who pretend that they are are knowingly lying.

The second statement to "eliminate everything" refers only to Hamas and other terrorists. It comes from a YouTube video of Yoav Gallant speaking to troops on October 9. His full statement is,

Take off the gloves kill everyone who fights us, even if it is one terrorist. From the air from the land, with tanks and bulldozers all means. There are no compromises. It won't be the same again. And Hamas will not be. Eliminate everything, it will take time, it won't take a day, it won't take a week, it will take weeks and maybe months.

Gallant is specifically talking about terrorists, not Gaza.

And this is the very first example given by the UN as proof. It is clear that the UN is consciously twisting the truth to reach its predetermined "genocide" conclusion, and it is trying to obfuscate its sources by referring not to the original statement but laundering it through other documents - in this case, the ICJ accusations by South Africa - that twisted the original statement.

The only reason for people like the authors of this UN report to ignore the massive amounts of counterevidence is if they start off their thinking with the assumption that Jews are liars. To them, every piece of counterevidence is either a lie or a coverup by Israeli Jews. They do not spend nearly as much time soberly looking at all the facts as they do at attempting to rebut the facts that disagree with their antisemitic assumptions. Their inherent, preconceived bias does not admit anything but the conclusion that Israeli Jews are evil, corrupt, lying murderers.

Indeed, is not a conclusion - it is the basis for choosing what "evidence" they will highlight and which they will ignore or judge to be lies.

Only people who already believe Jews are inherently bad people - people who are antisemites - believe the genocide slander while discounting or even belittling all the evidence against it.

Which brings up the other part of the slander that proves its purveyors are antisemitic.

The word "genocide" has been only rarely applied since World War II, for good reason: because the bar for proof is so high.

The prototypical case that all agree on is the Holocaust, since it is undeniable. Gas chambers and crematoria and mountains of shoes and hair are hard to argue with.

No one used the term for the Syrian civil war that included chemical weapons attacks on civilians - up to half a million civilians killed. It wasn't used against Russia for killing over a million civilians in Afghanistan in the 1980s. It was not used for the estimated million civilians killed in the Iran-Iraq war which included targeting cities and also use of chemical weapons.

Those who accuse Israel of genocide, while never using the term for virtually any other war, revel in the deliciousness of accusing Jews of being on the same moral level as the Nazis. To them, victimhood is righteousness, and taking away the idea that Jews can be victims is a huge part of the slander.

It is not new - Israel has been accused of being like Nazi Germany since its rebirth. In 1949, the Saudi representative to the UN argued that Israel should not be admitted as a member state by saying the Zionists " committed atrocities not unlike those perpetrated by the Nazis."

Now, the word "genocide "is being repeated in a Nazi-like "big lie" fashion to turn the falsehood into a reality. Applying the word "genocide" to Israeli military actions when the term was never used for nearly all of the many other wars with many more civilian casualties since 1945 is pure antisemitism.

The "genocide" terms is being used deliberately to equate Jews with Nazis. There is no other reason. it is a form not only of Holocaust inversion but also Holocaust minimization.

It is pure Jew-hatred.

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This is a 1971 Chinese propaganda poster that says on the left "LONG LIVE MARXISM, LENINISM & MAO ZEDONG THOUGHT" and on the right "Proletariat of the world, unite!"

It is also the profile picture of UC-Berkeley graduate student Christián González Reyes.

Reyes is the co-creator of a class that was scheduled for this coming spring called "Leninism and Anarchism: A Theoretical Approach to Literature and Film." its course description, since removed, said:

With the US-backed and -funded genocide being carried out against Indigenous Palestinians by the Israeli Occupying Force, many have found it difficult to envision a reality beyond the one we are living in today. At the same time, we have also seen a rise in global socialist (and in particular Leninist) movements that are actively combating this destructive imperial agenda. From the Hamas revolutionary resistance forces combating settler-colonialism to a continuous anti-imperialist politic by Cuba, Vietnam, Venezuela, China, DPRK, and various Indigenous and First-Nation peoples across the Americas, there continues to be a commitment to anti- imperialism and anti-capitalism in what has been termed the Global South ...

This is not a politics course. It is a comparative literature course. Yet that doesn't stop the instructor from engaging in spreading antisemitic and anti-Western ideologies.

Berkeley responded to criticism:

In response to a query from Ynet, Berkeley said, "The matter is being addressed. The original course description was changed.” A university official added, " While we can’t, as a matter of law comment on personnel issues, generally speaking we take our policies that prohibit using the classroom for political advocacy very seriously. If/when there is reason to suspect those policies are being violated we respond quickly." When pressed on specific actions taken, the university cited privacy laws as a reason for withholding further details.

Someone had placed this course description on Berkeley's website. There is no way graduate students could put u course material descriptions without the literature department signing off on it. It isn't like Reyes posted it on his personal Facebook page - this went through some vetting before being published.

What UCB takes very seriously is the threat of bad PR, not the issue of classes that are clearly meant for political indoctrination.

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