Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, November 27, 2024

11/27 Links Pt2: The International Criminal Court’s Folly; Jews Are Being Told to Hide in Berlin. Again.; How to defeat the antisemitism of the progressive left and strengthen America

From Ian:

Eugene Kontorovich: The International Criminal Court’s Folly

Supporters of the ICC should be embarrassed that its decision was cheered by Hamas and Hezbollah. Those groups understand that the court’s indictments of Israeli officials will make it more difficult for Israel to defend itself. Yet the ICC cannot deter dictators and warlords, because they can fall into its hands only if they lose power. If they remain in power despite their atrocities, a minor crimp in their travel plans is more than offset by the power and wealth they will enjoy. The three Hamas leaders indicted by the tribunal have already been killed by Israel; they might have preferred a cell in The Hague.

Leaders of democracies must make different calculations; they rotate out of power, and their private benefits in office are relatively minimal. ICC warrants against them, even if entirely unjustified, could deter them from vigorously and lawfully prosecuting defensive wars, for which their civilian populations would pay the price. Thus, the prosecutions of Israeli officials will actually make war crimes more likely, by tipping the scales against liberal democracies.

All of this poses a threat to the U.S.—as a non–member state that engages in a high level of global armed conflict—as well as to its leaders and soldiers. The ICC could recognize the Islamic State in the Levant as a “state” for purposes of its jurisdiction, just as easily as it recognized Palestine, and investigate American officials for alleged crimes during the U.S.-led campaign against the terror group. That campaign, started during Barack Obama’s presidency, included battles in Mosul, where an effort to evict approximately 5,000 ISIS fighters in the city led to perhaps 10,000 civilian deaths and the destruction of the city. The ICC did not have jurisdiction, because Iraq had not joined the treaty—but the Palestine precedent shows that this is not an insurmountable problem.

Gershom Gorenberg: Israel’s disaster foretold

The ICC’s disregard for law also threatens American troops on counterterror missions in countries that have joined the ICC. Washington has long relied on treaties signed with such countries as a safeguard against Hague jurisdiction, but the tribunal’s boundless view of its powers gives no assurance that those treaties will be honored.

This is not far-fetched: The ICC is already investigating alleged U.S. crimes in Afghanistan. Indeed, the ICC prosecutor recently suggested that sitting U.S. senators may have committed crimes against the court’s charter by speaking out in support of bipartisan legislation that would impose sanctions on the body.

Not all efforts to solve the world’s problems work—some backfire. The high aspirations with which the tribunal was founded should not shield it from the consequences of its decision to pursue other agendas.

Melanie Phillips: Dismantle the United Nations

The United Nations was created after World War II to bring the world together to promote peace and justice. Yet most countries aren’t democracies and don’t uphold human rights. It’s hardly a surprise, therefore, that the world body does not uphold peace and justice but promotes the precise opposite.

Its institutionalized malice against Israel has spread evil far more widely than in the Middle East.

The lies and distortions about Israel regurgitated by the United Nations and its satellite institutions and NGOs, along with the courts dispensing international “human rights” law, are treated as unchallengeable truths by the West because this whole “humanitarian” infrastructure is treated as a veritable religion of peace and justice.

In fact, it’s an unstoppable geyser of moral and intellectual corruption. In teaching the West that lies about Israel are truths and truths are lies, it has turned what the West tells itself is morality and conscience into an agenda of evil.

This has ensured that the West can no longer distinguish more generally between victim and oppressor, reality and propaganda, right and wrong.

The United Nations should be dismantled. It’s the pivot of the apparatus that has twisted the Western mind. Treating it and international law as the moral arbiters of the global order is not just a sick joke. It has made the world sick, too.

Jews Are Being Told to Hide in Berlin. Again.

In view of its Nazi past, Germany does not intrude; it is religious freedom über alles. (Still, when talk segues into incitement, the government does intervene. Last summer, it closed down Hamburg’s Islamic Center, also known as the “Blue Mosque.” The charge: aiding and abetting terrorism. Throughout the country, several affiliates have been declared verboten because of ties to Hamas or Hezbollah.)

Add into this mix Islamic studies centers in universities generously supported by regimes in the Middle East. These are not generally dispassionate scholarly institutions, but outfits teaching “postcolonialism” and the sins of the West—Israel above all.

Perhaps this sounds familiar to American (or British or Dutch or French) ears. The vast majority of people on both sides of the Atlantic want tighter controls on immigration and the speedy deportation of malfeasants. Due process and asylum laws, among the West’s noblest attainments, render such wishes brittle, legitimate as they may be. Though dented by Donald Trump’s trifecta (winning the White House and both House chambers), the faith of those who dominate elite culture—postcolonialism, cultural relativism, and wokeism—will not quickly fade.

Back to the Fatherland, formerly the engine of deadly Jew-hatred. Polls measure less than 20 percent of the general population holding antisemitic views. This is decidedly less than in Poland (48 percent) and Hungary (42 percent).

Given Germany’s murderous past, the country relentlessly makes amends. Last year, just days after October 7, the federal government doubled its subsidy for the Central Council of Jews to 22 million euros, a bit more in dollars. It is heartening that Germany keeps funding lots of Jewish museums and staging a plethora of commemorative rituals, like “Never Again” pledges on the anniversary of Kristallnacht, the first nationwide Nazi pogrom in 1938. Berlin sells U-boats at a steep discount to Israel, submarines that are one leg of the country’s nuclear triad. (The other two are American state-of-the-art strike planes and homemade long-range missiles.)

That’s the good news. The bad news? Surging antisemitism imported from the Middle East and North Africa. Plus demography: The Jewish community is literally dying. If the current rates of decline persist, Germany will be judenrein at the end of the century.

Hiding religious symbols, as Berlin’s police chief advised, is just a well-meaning Band-Aid, unless the powers that be get serious about arresting, prosecuting, and deporting malfeasants, and taking a hard look at what is being taught in mosques and Islamic centers—including those at publicly funded universities—and closing them down, like Hamburg’s Blue Mosque and its affiliates throughout the country.

In the U.S., the rethink started before Trump II. But look at the Netherlands after the Amsterdam soccer pogrom. The government reacted in horror—it must not happen here! And yet Amsterdam will honor the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant against Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is charged with crimes against humanity. So will London and Canada.

Is this unconscious antisemitism? Let’s put it this way: Given the global and singular condemnation of the Jewish state in the name of “anti-Zionism” after October 7, it is hard to ignore what may be the real thrust. After the Shoah, unalloyed antisemitism has been strictly verboten in the West. But sublimation, repression, and projection do come back, Dr. Sigmund Freud has taught. And Israel sure makes for a handy substitute for the Jew. But this time, the Israel Defense Forces pack more punch than the armies of Germany, France, or Britain.

11/27 Links Pt1: A necessary though imperfect deal caps Netanyahu’s finest hour; This ceasefire has exposed Iran’s impotence; Trump Cabinet Picks Face Violent Threats

From Ian:

Jonathan Tobin: A necessary though imperfect deal caps Netanyahu’s finest hour

The myth of Hezbollah exploded
Iran and its Lebanese henchmen had counted on Israel being too intimidated by the prospect of another round of fighting with a Hezbollah force that had more than 120,000 rockets and missiles pointed at it. The evisceration of the leadership of the terrorist group and sustained damage done to its forces and arms caches confounded those who thought the Jewish state was too weak to achieve such a result. While Hezbollah and Iran will over time reorganize, rearm and recoup their losses, they also now know that their hubristic confidence that they were invincible has been exposed as a myth.

The fact that Hezbollah was forced by its losses to accept a ceasefire without it being tied to an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza is also an enormous setback for Iran’s multifront war strategy.

Though the next two months will remain a period of extreme danger for Israel, Netanyahu’s decision should also solidify his relationship with the incoming Trump administration. The president-elect has been open about his hope that Israel will conclude its wars in Gaza and Lebanon before he is sworn in on Jan. 20.

A deal that would disarm Hamas, guarantee it could not come back to power in Gaza and gain the release of the remaining 101 Israeli hostages still being held by the terrorists may be unlikely, given the fanaticism of the Islamists even after their abandonment by their Lebanese allies. Yet by concluding a deal with Hezbollah, Netanyahu can say he’s done as much as he can to give Trump a clean slate and be able to further strengthen the U.S. obligation to back the Jewish state to the hilt if the terrorists violate the accord.

The ceasefire in the north will also enable the IDF to concentrate on the tough task of mopping up Hamas guerrillas in Gaza after Netanyahu’s staunch refusal to accept Biden’s ultimatums to stand down made the destruction of their formal military forces possible.

Restoring deterrence
Oct. 7 was an enormous blow to Israel’s ability to deter its enemies and undermined confidence in its reputation as the “strong horse” in the region that could inspire Arab states to resist Iran. But the victories that the IDF achieved, albeit at the terrible price of approximately 900 soldiers and police officers slain fighting their nation’s genocidal foes, have restored its strategic position. With Hezbollah weakened and Hamas on the run, as well as with much of its own air defenses being taken out by Israeli military action, Tehran is far weaker than it was on Oct. 6, 2023.

None of that will convince those who hate Netanyahu—and falsely accuse him of undermining democracy and being a corrupt authoritarian—to admire him. Nor will they stop their incessant resistance to his government, whereby he is not only blamed for Oct. 7 (a guilt he shares with the entire leadership of the IDF and Israel’s intelligence establishment) but for Hamas’s refusal to release the hostages.

The lion’s share of the credit for the victories the IDF has achieved belongs to the soldiers who paid for them in blood. But honest observers must also acknowledge that it’s not likely that any other conceivable Israeli leader would have had the guts and the stiff spine to fend off a year of American pressure that made them possible. Certainly not Netanyahu’s political opponents Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid. During his brief time as temporary prime minister in 2022, Lapid folded in the face of far less American pressure to give up Israeli natural-gas fields to Hezbollah in a failed attempt at appeasement. Nor can one imagine anyone else in the Likud-led coalition government having the knowledge or the resolve that Netanyahu showed time and again.

The prime minister has been around too long, behaved too arrogantly and made too many enemies to ever be given universal praise, no matter what he’s done. But while opinion about him will always be mixed at best, his post-Oct. 7 stand has been his finest hour. One can only hope future historians will give him his due for what he’s accomplished in the last year.

John Podhoretz: Swiss Cheese, the Sot, and the Ceasefire

The 60-day ceasefire to which Israel has agreed, thus pausing its efforts to degrade Hezbollah in Lebanon to such a degree that 60,000 Israelis can begin to return to their homes near the Lebanese border, may exist because of blackmail. Blackmail from the United States. Netanyahu told the Israeli cabinet that if they did not agree to the Biden terms, the administration would move against the Jewish state in the U.N. Security Council. This threat was a first of its kind for any president; even Barack Obama only allowed a hostile Security Council action to go through without a veto in his final act of aggression against Jerusalem in 2017. This time Biden was threatening to lead the U.N. against its only true ally in the Middle East.

If what Netanyahu told his cabinet is true, and Biden’s own statement yesterday would seem to provide some confirmation, what we’re seeing here is the final capitulation by this government to the idea that Israel deserves to be held responsible for the crime of defending itself. Not only against the terrorist state that invaded it last October 7, but also against the terrorist state-within-a-state on its Northern border that has fired rockets at it for 13 months without letup, the catamite army of Iran that takes orders from the theocracy determined to destroy the Jewish state and all Jews worldwide.

So the Biden administration is concluding its time in office as a power player in the Middle East praising itself for its toughness in restraining Israel’s just cause. But in the name of what exactly? Well, a “ceasefire,” of course. Hallelujah. Yes, Biden and his people have secured a ceasefire, as though a ceasefire means anything but its literal definition—a pause in the use of projectile force. It means nothing else. It does not mean peace. It does not mean negotiations. It does not mean a change in the relative positions of the forces at war. It’s a freeze. And when such a freeze freezes the military that’s on the march, it implicitly favors the side that is on its back foot. Thus America has, in effect, sided with Hezbollah.

End scene. For a minute there, after October 7, Joe Biden knew Israel was in the right. But that knowledge quickly fell through one of the holes in the swiss cheese that is either his currently decaying octogenarian brain or just the same fourth-rate cognitive machine he has used to such pointless effect for more than half a century in Washington.

Richard Kemp: This ceasefire has exposed Iran’s impotence

So much for Hezbollah and its puppeteers in Tehran. But why is Israel agreeing to a ceasefire while it holds the upper hand over the terrorist gang that forced tens of thousands of citizens to evacuate from their homes in the north? There are two major issues, both to do with US pressure.

First, if this ceasefire had not been secured, it is probable that Joe Biden would have allowed through, and even himself orchestrated, a binding UN Security Council Resolution demanding a cessation of hostilities, potentially accompanied by a UN-mandated arms embargo on Israel. It would have been his cynical last ditch effort to rescue something at least from his woeful legacy on foreign affairs. Second, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu alluded to during his speech on the ceasefire, the Biden White House has been imposing a partial arms embargo against Israel that included vital munitions and combat equipment including 2,000 pound bombs. After more than a year fighting a war on seven battlefronts that is a significant constraint.

Despite Biden’s efforts to hogtie Israel, there is still more work to be done against Hezbollah. Therefore the current ceasefire can best be seen as a diplomatic bridge between Joe Biden’s White House, intent on appeasing Tehran, and a Trump administration that is likely to be much more supportive of Israel’s defensive needs.

Nowhere will that be more important than over the Iranian regime. As well as directing, funding and arming the war against Israel, Tehran has been behind proxy attacks against US forces in Iraq, Syria and Jordan, strikes on Saudi Arabia and the UAE and assaults on international shipping in the Red Sea. Twice since last April, Iran has launched major missile attacks directly into Israel. As with its actions in Gaza and Lebanon, Israel’s response to those was constrained by US pressure.

More dangerous still, Tehran is on the cusp of achieving a nuclear capability to threaten Israel, the Middle East and the world. But Iran is now exposed more than ever before. The primary purpose of Hezbollah’s massive arsenal of rocketry, more extensive in number than most sovereign nations possess, was to deter against Israeli or US military assault on Tehran’s nuclear weapons programme. That deterrent is largely gone and the IDF substantially destroyed Iran’s air defences in its retaliatory strikes in October.

That means Israel is in an unprecedented position to put a stop to the Iranian menace. Decisive action against the Islamic Republic was a red line for Biden. But we must hope that Trump will give Jerusalem a fair wind, both to scuttle Iran’s nuclear project and to put some more holes into Hezbollah’s rotting hull.

Full text: The Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire deal

‘Cessation of Hostilities’ document sets out ‘commitments’ by Israel and Lebanon intended ‘to enable civilians on both sides of the Blue Line to return safely to their lands and homes’

Disclaimer: the views expressed here are solely those of the author, weekly Judean Rose columnist Varda Meyers Epstein.

Remember Ann Coulter? Thought so. You remember her, but when you hear the name perhaps you think, “Oh, yeah. I used to really like her. She was very popular.”

Then maybe you scratch your head, squint your eyes, and think back, “Didn’t she say something like “Jews need to be perfected?”

In fact, that is exactly what Ann Coulter said in 2007 to CNN’s Donny Deutsch, who clearly identified himself as Jewish during the course of their conversation on “The Big Idea.” Coulter said, just as clearly, that all Jews should be Christian and that Christians are “perfected Jews.”

Here’s the transcript in full:

DEUTSCH: Let me ask you a question. We're going to get off strengths and weakness for a second. If you had your way, and all of your - forget that any of them -

COULTER: I like this.

DEUTSCH: - are calculated marketing teases, and your dreams, which are genuine, came true having to do with immigration, having to do with women's - with abortion - what would this country look like?

COULTER: UMMMMM (pause) ... It would look like New York City during the Republican National Convention. In fact, that's what I think heaven is going to look like.

DEUTSCH: And what did that look like?

COULTER: Happy, joyful Republicans in the greatest city in the world…

Break

COULTER: Well, OK, take the Republican National Convention. People were happy. They're Christian. They're tolerant. They defend America, they -

DEUTSCH: Christian - so we should be Christian? It would be better if we were all Christian?

COULTER: Yes.

DEUTSCH: We should all be Christian?

COULTER: Yes. Would you like to come to church with me, Donny?

DEUTSCH: So I should not be a Jew, I should be a Christian, and this would be a better place?

COULTER: Well, you could be a practicing Jew, but you're not.
DEUTSCH: I actually am…

Break

DEUTSCH: That isn't what I said, but you said I should not - we should just throw Judaism away and we should all be Christians, then, or -

COULTER: Yeah.

DEUTSCH: Really?

COULTER: Well, it's a lot easier. It's kind of a fast track.

DEUTSCH: Really?

COULTER: Yeah. You have to obey.

DEUTSCH: You can't possibly believe that.

COULTER: Yes….

Break

COULTER: No, we think - we just want Jews to be perfected, as they say.
DEUTSCH: Wow, you didn't really say that, did you?

COULTER: Yes. That is what Christianity is. We believe the Old Testament, but ours is more like Federal Express. You have to obey laws. We know we're all sinners -

DEUTSCH: In my old days, I would have argued - when you say something absurd like that, there's no -

COULTER: What's absurd?

DEUTSCH: Jews are going to be perfected. I'm going to go off and try to perfect myself -

COULTER: Well, that's what the New Testament says.

After a commercial break, the conversation continued.

DEUTSCH: Welcome back to "The Big Idea." During the break, Ann said she wanted to explain her last comment. So I'm going to give her a chance. So you don't think that was offensive?

COULTER: No. I'm sorry. It is not intended to be. I don't think you should take it that way, but that is what Christians consider themselves: perfected Jews. We believe the Old Testament. As you know from the Old Testament, God was constantly getting fed up with humans for not being able to, you know, live up to all the laws. What Christians believe - this is just a statement of what the New Testament is - is that that's why Christ came and died for our sins. Christians believe the Old Testament. You don't believe our testament.

DEUTSCH: You said - your exact words were, "Jews need to be perfected." Those are the words out of your mouth.

COULTER: No, I'm saying that's what a Christian is.

DEUTSCH: But that's what you said - don't you see how hateful, how anti-Semitic -

COULTER: No!

DEUTSCH: How do you not see? You're an educated woman. How do you not see that?

COULTER: That isn't hateful at all.

DEUTSCH: But that's even a scarier thought. OK -

COULTER: No, no, no, no, no. I don't want you being offended by this. This is what Christians consider themselves, because our testament is the continuation of your testament. You know that. So we think Jews go to heaven. I mean (Jerry) Falwell himself said that, but you have to follow laws. Ours is "Christ died for our sins." We consider ourselves perfected Christians. For me to say that for you to become a Christian is to become a perfected Christian is not offensive at all.

Why bring up Ann Coulter’s perfected Jew comments now, 17 years on? For one thing, to gloat. She pretty much dropped off the radar after that. Her followers just fell off in droves. I can’t even remember the last time I saw a mention of her. What Coulter had said was just too gross and disrespectful; she had crossed all lines of decency and as a result, repelled her audience.

But there’s another reason for bringing up Ann Coulter’s “perfected Jews” comment. Last week, some readers were disturbed by my suggestion that Mike Huckabee, Trump’s choice as ambassador to Israel, and Pete Hegseth, slated to become secretary of defense, avoid making public pronouncements comparing Judaism to Christianity and just do their jobs.

By the same token, I had urged Israel to resist speaking of shared or “Judeo-Christian” values during official events or meetings with Huckabee or Hegseth. We don’t need to bring these things in and they don’t belong. We should all of us stick to policy and steer clear of discussing religion.

That is the polite and respectful thing to do.

Both men—Huckabee or Hegseth—appear to be sensitive to Jewish sensibilities, beliefs, and rights. I have never heard either of them make a peep about the things we supposedly “share.” They are careful never to cross the line, no doubt more so than our Israeli leaders, who in their panting desire to have someone, anyone, like us, do sometimes get carried away and wax lyrical about what Jews and Christians share. But this kind of talk is inappropriate, no matter who does it.

It’s as simple as this: We don’t need to talk about everything. In matters of faith, people make a choice. Christianity and Judaism are diametrically opposed theologies. According to Jewish belief, God gave the Torah to the Jews, who are very clearly told that the Torah is everything, and that it is perfect and eternal. Christians, on the other hand, believe that the Torah, in and of itself, is unfinished, imperfect, and so they added to it.

This, of course, is an oversimplification. But on the face of it, it must be acknowledged that we obviously do not share anything. Jews say the Torah is enough. Christians say it is not. It seems obvious that if Christians adopted the Torah, it is already not the Torah, but something vastly different because of the great yawning chasm between these two religions—viewed by one as perfect, and by the other as imperfect. But that doesn’t mean we have to talk about it. We don’t have to talk about it at all.

Ann Coulter, quite frankly, is an idiot, trying to be provocative. Telling a Jew that Jews need perfecting got her canceled, as it should have done. The things she said needn’t and shouldn’t have been said and aren’t by people of good character. At the same time, we don’t have to pretend that our religions are alike. We don’t have to say all this narishkeit* about the things we supposedly “share.” It’s dishonest.

No. We can't share our faiths, but together we can engage in polite, productive discussion and do good things for the world. That much is plenty for me, and likely enough for Mike Huckabee and Pete Hegseth, as well. But it wasn't enough for Ann Coulter the provocateur, who with her uncivil tongue, rendered herself utterly irrelevant.

*Foolishness

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!

Some more 18th century antisemitism from various British newspapers

After my last article, I continued to randomly look for Jews being mentioned in 18th century English language newspapers.

In the same 1753, one newspaper published arguments given to allow Jews to live in England and then responded to them. This one argument is relevant to today: (The Caledonian Mercury, Tue, Jul 10, 1753)

God says Jews should forever be a scattered people withou citizenship. Anything else is going against holy prophecies.

The Spanish Inquisition was still in full force, and this article from a British newspaper laconically mentions theexecution by burning of a "witch" and three Jews who had hidden as Christians. Note that the newspaper is on the Portuguese inquisitors' side. (Newcastle Weekly Courant, Tue, Nov 19, 1748)

In Holland, a new tax was levied on houses with chimneys...and Jews. (The Derby Mercury, Fri, Mar 10, 1775)

In Moravia, a Jew was claimed to have enticed a woman into his house where he butchered her. He ran away but on the following Monday, Easter Monday the community decided to pillage the Jewish quarter instead of going to church. (The Ipswich Journal, Sat, May 07, 1774)

This is the world that antisemites today want to go back to.

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!

18th century British citizens spread rumors that Jews, if allowed in England, would force them to be circumcised (update)

I found this letter from the famous Rabbi Manasseh ben Israel to the Caledonian Mercury newspaper urging England to allow Jews to return to that country. (July 9, 1753)

His defense of Jews says "they will ever zealously struggle for the Rights of the Crown and the Riches of the People, and that they will never cause any Persons to be circumcised against their consent;"

What?

If Ben Israel felt he had to say that to a general British audience, that means that this must have been a somewhat widespread fear among British antisemites.

I found corroboration from a book called "Marked in Your Flesh: Circumcision from Ancient Judea to Modern America" by Leonard B. Glick. It shows a lot of satirical opposition to the "Jew Bill" to allow Jews to re-enter England but it mentions that some took this fear of forced circumcision very seriously.

I found a copy of the satirical newspaper describing a future England ruled by Jews - including advertisements. It is grossly antisemitic, and I do not get all of the jokes, but I have to give credit for the entire concept of a satirical newspaper 100 years before Punch, 200 years before Mad magazine and 250 years before The Onion. (The Gloucester Journal, Oct 16, 1753)

It is worthwhile to note that the far-Right antisemites like the editor for The Daily Stormer hide their hate as just jokes - a conscious decision to spread hate while pretending to the larger world that they are not to be taken seriously.

UPDATE: Another satire, this one from a flyer posted outside a building:

And this is a serious list of reasons why Jews should not be allowed into England, with one of them the fear of circumcision.

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!

New study indicates that DEI training can turn people into bigots. Imagine what anti-Israel slanders can do.

From The National Review:

A new study found that diversity, equity, and inclusion materials have a wide range of negative consequences, including psychological harm, increased hostility, and greater agreement with extreme authoritarian rhetoric, such as adapted Adolf Hitler quotes.

Both the New York Times and Bloomberg were preparing stories on the findings, but axed them just before publication citing editorial decisions.

The Network Contagion Research Institute, or NCRI, and Rutgers University Social Perception Lab released the study “Instructing Animosity: How DEI Pedagogy Produces the Hostile Attribution Bias” on Monday. The study examined whether the themes and materials common in DEI trainings foster inclusion or exacerbate conflicts, and whether such materials promote empathy or increase hostility towards groups labeled as oppressors. The study consisted of three experiments — one focusing on race, one on religion, and the last on caste.

Although proponents of DEI trainings claim that they are designed to educate individuals about biases and reduce discrimination, the study found that participants primed with DEI materials were more likely to perceive prejudice where none existed and were more willing to punish the perceived perpetrators. In one experiment, the DEI materials made people more willing to agree with Hitler quotes that substituted “Jew” with “Brahmin,” the highest caste in the Indian caste system.

“Participants exposed to the DEI content were markedly more likely to endorse Hitler’s demonization statements, agreeing that Brahmins are ‘parasites’ (+35.4%), ‘viruses’ (+33.8%), and ‘the devil personified’ (+27.1%),” the study reads. “These findings suggest that exposure to anti-oppressive narratives can increase the endorsement of the type of demonization and scapegoating characteristic of authoritarianism.”

The study itself had people look at a fictional court case involving two individuals—Ahmed Akhtar and George Green—both convicted of identical terrorism charges for bombing a local government building. Even though the situations and descriptions of the case were identical, people exposed to anti-Islamophobia materials beforehand were significantly more likely to say that "Ahmed Akhtar" was treated unfairly at trial.

What strikes me most is that the anti-Islamophobia material that the subjects were exposed to was only three paragraphs long. Here they are in their entirety, all taken from popular training materials by the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding (ISPU).

Islamophobia in the U.S. manifests in many ways – harassment and violence by anti-Muslim hate groups, institutionalized anti-Muslim legislation, and bias in the justice system. The U.S. has a long history of the legalized othering of Muslims, with legislation like the anti-terror Patriot Act targeting Muslims as dangerous outsiders whose actions should be surveilled and their movements curtailed.

Anti-Shariah, anti-immigration, and voter-ID legislation go hand in hand in manufacturing bigotry and creating fear. Such restrictive measures limit the freedoms of Muslims and minorities. Muslims are also subject to harsher criminal charges and sentenced up to four times longer than non-Muslims.

U.S. officials openly exhibit Islamophobic views, with Islamophobic rhetoric being linked to violent crime. Anti-Muslim hate groups have gained traction, driven by a well-funded Islamophobia network fueling anti-Muslim activity like mosque vandalism and arson.

The subjects became measurably less objective in judging others after reading only these three relatively sober paragraphs a single time.

The India caste materials were similar. The study asked people this question, which is all the information they had:

“Raj Kumar applied to an elite East Coast university in Fall 2022. During the application process, he was interviewed by an admissions officer, Anand Prakash. Ultimately, Raj’s application was rejected.”

The names, which were flipped on half the questions, do not indicate caste.

Reading two paragraphs about the historic India caste system made the subjects significantly more willing to assume that caste was the reason the admissions officer rejected the student. Worse, the subjects were more likely to want the admissions officer to be punished. And even worse, the exposure to the short essay made the subjects more likely to agree with Hitler quotes demonizing Jews, changed to Brahmins, describing them as "parasites," "a virus" and "the devil personified."

The study indicates that exposure to these materials can actually increase authoritarian tendencies and the willingness to punish those who are perceived as being discriminatory - even when there is no discrimination at all.

This is only from reading a couple of paragraphs.

The study notes that ISPU has trained FBI employees. The safety of Jews is

Now, imagine what a full year of people screaming about Israeli "genocide," "Jewish supremacism" and

"Islamophobia" can do to otherwise disinterested observers. On college campuses, city centers and social media, the daily barrage of lies about Israel has a huge impact in creating and increasing antisemitism. There is no way it cannot.

As usual, this is not only because people are exposed to anti-Israel lies. They are also not exposed to any facts about Israel that contradict the lies.

ISPU uses this slide in their training materials:

They are using this to highlight how well integrated Muslims are in Michigan and how important they are to the state. One out of every six doctors being Muslim is pretty high, right?

It just so happens that the percentage of doctors in Israel who are Arab (most of whom are Muslim) is higher than Muslims in Michigan, about 20%. And the percentage of pharmacists in Israel who are Arab was 38% in 2017. Both those numbers are increasing to way beyond their proportions in the general population, with a nearly half of graduates from medical schools being Arab and 57% of new pharmacists.

In the medical field, Israel is a paradigm of inclusivity and integration. A 2017 report says that Arab doctors and nurses in Israel do not feel their cultural origin hinders promotion. Arabs are the heads of surgery and of other departments in Israeli hospitals, and no one there blinks an eye.

Students in colleges are not exposed to information like this. All they see is wall to wall hate, falsehoods and slanders about Israel - and, specifically, Israeli Jews. Sometimes from their own professors.

As usual, these are crimes both of commission and of omission. Both of those lead inevitably towards increased hate - and attacks on - Jews, by people who would swear they are only trying to do the right thing. As the Brahmin example shows, even small exposure to one-sided materials can easily lead to hate: Constant exposure to the lies leads directly to incitement and ultimately, violence.

DEI isn't the solution. It is part of the problem.

(h/t Jim)

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What, exactly, does the Lebanon cease fire agreement say? The text, Netanyahu, Biden and Hezbollah all disagree with each other.

Hezbollah media is claiming that the cease-fire agreement that Israel agreed to is a victory for Hezbollah. they say it is just implementing UN Security Council Resolution 1701 and not going beyond that, as Israel had demanded.

Lebanon's L'Orient-Le Jour obtained a copy of the agreement (I have no reason to not believe its accuracy.) Based on their text, hezbollah has a point. In fact, it might be considered 1701-Minus.

Here's the full text:

• Hezbollah and all other armed groups present on Lebanese territory will refrain from conducting any offensive actions against Israel.

• In return, Israel will not carry out any military offensive against targets in Lebanon, whether on land, in the air, or at sea.

• Both Israel and Lebanon recognize the importance of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701.

• These commitments do not waive Israel's and Lebanon's inherent right to self-defense.

• The Lebanese security forces and the Lebanese Army will be the only entities authorized to carry weapons or deploy troops in southern Lebanon.

• The sale, provision, or production of weapons and related material in Lebanon will be supervised by the Lebanese government.

• All unauthorized facilities related to the production of weapons and related materials will be dismantled.

• All non-compliant military infrastructure and positions will be dismantled, and all unauthorized weapons will be confiscated.

• A committee approved by both Israel and Lebanon will be established to oversee and assist in the implementation of these commitments.

• Israel and Lebanon will report any violations of these commitments to the committee and to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

• Lebanon will deploy official security forces and the Lebanese Army along all border crossing points and the defined line for the southern zone, as outlined in the deployment plan.

• Israel will gradually withdraw from the southern zone of the Blue Line within a period of up to 60 days.

• The United States will enhance indirect negotiations between Israel and Lebanon to achieve an internationally recognized delineation of the land border.

The major difference between this and 1701 is the committee to oversee the implementation of the other provisions. We do not know if this committee has any power.

On the other hand, 1701 called for Hezbollah to be entirely disarmed, not just south of the Litani:

full implementation of the relevant provisions of the Taif Accords, and of resolutions 1559 (2004) and 1680 (2006), that require the disarmament of all armed groups in Lebanon, so that, pursuant to the Lebanese cabinet decision of 27 July 2006, there will be no weapons or authority in Lebanon other than that of the Lebanese State;

That is a huge difference.

Another difference is that 1701 respected the Blue Line as the boundary between Israel and Lebanon; this agreement says that this is now negotiable, giving credence to Hezbollah's land claims.

Netanyahu claims that the agreement allows Israel to respond to Hezbollah violations:

With the United States’ full understanding, we maintain full freedom of military action. If Hezbollah violates the agreement and tries to arm itself, we will attack. If it tries to rebuild terrorist infrastructure near the border, we will attack. If it launches a rocket, if it digs a tunnel, if it brings in a truck carrying rockets, we will attack....

They tell me Hezbollah will be quiet for a year or two, grow stronger and then attack us. But Hezbollah will be in violation of the agreement not only if it fires on us. It will be in violation of the agreement if it obtains weapons to fire at us in the future. And we will respond forcefully to any violation.

President Biden said it quite differently:

Biden said “If Hezbollah or anyone else breaks the deal and poses a direct threat to Israel, Israel retains the right to self-defense, consistent with international law — just like any country when facing a terrorist group pledged to that country’s destruction.”

Biden seems to be saying that Israel can attack but only under circumstances where international law allows it, in self-defense. Netanyahu is saying that any Hezbollah violation, even if it doesn't directly threaten Israel, is a reason to attack.

But I don't see that language in the published agreement. That omission makes Netanyahu's words appear false.

1701 failed because the Lebanese Army and UNIFIL didn't enforce it. I don't see how a committee whose only mandate is to report on violations will do any better. I also don't see where this agreement gives Israel the right to attack, say, Hezbollah digging a tunnel, at least not during the 60 days.

Maybe there is an additional memo that we have not seen. But so far, assuming the text of the agreement published is accurate, this does not look like nearly as good a deal as Netanyahu is making it appear.

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

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11/26 Links Pt2: Israel is treated like Shylock by the world; Study Shows DEI Programs ‘Increase Hostility’; College antisemites and their enablers think they’re the victims

From Ian:

Israel is treated like Shylock by the world

To satisfy its friends such as the US and the UK, Israel has to fulfill a fantasy straight out of a comic book. To have the right to self-defense, Israel has to be like Batman and never kill those who come to kill its children, a standard the nations who demand it of Israel know they are incapable of reaching themselves because it is impossible. Israel’s right to self-defense is conditional on it achieving the impossible.

To satisfy the antisemitic United Nations, even perfection is not enough, as that moral travesty of a Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, proved when he accused Israel of disproportionate force in an operation in 2023 in which not a single civilian was killed. Guterres is in the camp of Francesca Albanese in that the only thing Israelis are legally allowed to do is die.

The truth is that Israel is not Shylock, and should not be treated as such. Those attacking Israel are not merely spitting on Jews, calling them names and encouraging their children to leave the fold, like Antonio did They are seeking to butcher, to slaughter, to murder every Jew, down to the last child. To fight back is not a crime or a sin. It is not seeking a pound of flesh. It is the preservation of life. This is not the 16th Century or the 1930s. Jews have the right to live and can defend themselves if need be.

In their quest to treat Israel like Shylock, Israel’s critics and haters are in fact treating Israel like Antonio by telling Israel its only option, the only thing it is legally allowed to do under international law, is to commit suicide, to lie down and die, to be beheaded, burned in ovens, kidnapped, raped, and slaughtered in the millions. It is these haters of Israel who seek the real pounds of flesh and gallons of blood from innocent Jews.

Peace will come when that right to live and the right to defend Jewish lives is finally acknowledged, when the UN, the ICC, and the Arab and Muslim worlds stop pretending this is the time of Shakespeare, barely a century after the expulsion from Spain and hundreds of years before the concept of emancipation and giving Jews the rights of citizenship. There is no right to kill Jews with impunity as Antonio Guterres, Francesca Albanese, and Karim Khan are attempting to recreate.

Peace will come a lot sooner when Israel’s friends and allies stop treating it with condescension and stop saying “but” every time they acknowledge Israel’s right to defend itself.

Peace will come when the world is a place where Jews have rights with no “buts” or lawfare to strip those rights in practice, when the right to live is sanctified over the right of Nazis to kill, when friends and enemies alike stop acting like the world is a stage where the Jews are the eternal villains.

Peace will come when the real Shylocks at the ICC and the UN stop seeking their tons of flesh and oceans of blood from the Jews who they condemn for refusing to be slaughtered again.

Melanie Phillips: Mr Sammler's prescience

In 1970 the novelist Saul Bellow, a titan of American letters, published his masterpiece Mr Sammler’s Planet.

Its eponymous hero is a Holocaust survivor who, in a decaying New York City, sees into the heart of things. A calculated attack on a range of liberal pieties, the novel caused intense controversy. Sammler, and thus Bellow himself, was accused of being misanthropic, racist, sexist, and reactionary.

Not surprisingly, liberal literary America was outraged and affronted. Equally unsurprisingly, the book was brandished as proof that Bellow had “moved to the right”. This is, of course, the standard denunciation of irredeemable evil that has sunk countless reputations and careers on the jagged rocks of elite disgust — but is so often instead proof positive of the denounced individual’s clarity of vision and moral purpose.

So it was with Saul Bellow. Sammler is a latter-day prophet, seeing with his one functioning eye straight through liberal hypocrisy to call out civilisational decay.

What now seems all too familiar was all there in the novel — racial prejudice, sexual violence, civil disobedience and a no-holds-barred capacity to give offence, it seemed, to as many hyper-sensitive groups as possible. The premonition of today’s culture wars is striking.

Now Bellow’s son Adam has written in Sapir journal a reflection on the novel and the reputational charges levelled against his father. The result is an insightful, wry, luminous article (full disclosure: Adam is my publisher at Wicked Son — but it’s still a truly wonderful read).

Ta-Nehisi Coates: the dangers of black-and-white moralising

The longest chapter is the book’s most controversial. It is about Coates’s visit to Israel and the West Bank, when he attended the Palestine Festival of Literature. Here, he also received a tour from Israeli progressives associated with an anti-occupation group called Breaking the Silence.

This chapter is a one-sided diatribe against Israel. Consistent with his Manichaean view of the world, Coates casts Israelis as white colonisers and Palestinians as the oppressed enslaved, drawing a parallel between Jim Crow in the United States and Israel’s occupation of the West Bank. The terms ‘ethnic cleansing’ and ‘genocide’ (which are not regarded as being part of Jim Crow in the US) appear frequently, as do comparisons between Israel and the Nazis. In a heated exchange after the book was published, a CBS interviewer – perhaps justifiably – said Coates’s book ‘would not be out of place in the backpack of an extremist’.

French author and social critic Georges Bernanos once said that ‘the worst, the most corrupting lies are problems poorly stated’. So it is in The Message. Israel’s harassment of the West Bank Palestinians must certainly be addressed and ultimately ended. But an easy solution is not obvious, especially because so many Palestinians deny Israel’s right to exist (Coates appears to feel that way, too). Some even publicly celebrate every murderous attack on Israelis. Assuming Israel has the right to exist as a Jewish state, the problem with the two-state solution advanced by many is how to guarantee the nascent Palestinian state would not become another terror proxy on Israel’s border, should it be taken over by radical Islamists, as happened with Hamas in Gaza.

Coates seems deliberately incurious about this dilemma. He writes: ‘The second half of my trip… was not an empty declaration to “hear both sides”. I had no interest in hearing defences of the occupation and what struck me then as segregation.’ This lack of concern is certainly his right, but it is reasonable to expect more from a MacArthur ‘genius grant’ recipient and award-winning author – especially one who writes and presents himself as a moral arbiter.

Some cursory research would reveal that Coates’s take on the conflict being between ‘black’ Palestinians and ‘white’ Israelis is demonstrably in error. Israel is not a ‘white country’. Half its citizens are from North Africa or the Middle East, or are black. Nor is there an Israeli ‘apartheid’ regime. Despite being a Jewish state, Israel’s population is roughly one-fifth Arab, which is well-represented in government and the justice system. Conversely, there are 49 predominantly Muslim countries with very few Jews living in any of them. This is because most Jewish communities were forced to flee these countries for Israel. This is one of the reasons Israel must exist.

Far from being colonialists, as Coates suggests, much of the territory Israel has acquired since its founding in 1948 was not due to colonisation, but the result of four wars that aimed to eradicate Israel. These were wars that Arab countries started and lost.

Israel is certainly not ‘genocidal’, either. There is no genocide in Gaza or the West Bank – the population growth rate in both areas is among the highest in the world.

11/26 Links Pt1: Israeli Security Cabinet approves truce with Lebanon; Cutting the Hezbollah-Gaza axis; The U.N’s Anti-Israel ‘Genocide’ Purge

From Ian:

Seth Frantzman: Cutting the Hezbollah-Gaza axis

However, Hezbollah’s ties to Hamas, as a second front, plus its ability to dictate terms regarding strikes on Iran, are new aspects of Hezbollah’s growing strength. In essence, Israel was trying to get back to square one with Hezbollah by attacking it more intensely in September rather than waging a war of attrition – which was in Hezbollah’s interests.

So now, the story of Hezbollah and Hamas looks increasingly like the parable about a poor man, a rabbi, and a goat. This story, which has different variations, includes a poor man who lives with his kids and wife in a house so small that he is miserable and goes to the local rabbi for advice.

The rabbi suggests he bring a goat into the house, and the man follows suit, crowding his house even more. So, he goes back to the rabbi to complain. The rabbi suggests removing the goat, which makes the house feel larger again. Nothing has changed for the man, but removing the goat changed his perspective on his space.

Israel has removed the “goat” – direct Hezbollah threats along the border – and perhaps keeping Hezbollah from tying the northern front to Gaza. However, this merely puts Israel back on October 6, 2023. It doesn’t turn the clock back to 2006 or other times when Hezbollah had 10% of the rockets it had on October 6.

The fact is that Hezbollah became far too strong, making itself into a monster that could dictate strategy to Israel. Weakening it is good, but victory cannot be bringing things back to square one.

Victory means going further; removing the Hezbollah goat is only one part of the process.

The Criminal Court of Injustice

Two weeks after the hunt for Israelis in the streets of Amsterdam, the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague decided to issue arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant - a decision unprecedented in the history of the Free World.

Everything is permitted in order to judge the Jewish state and its people. They dare to issue arrest warrants against the leaders of a democratic country, against a state where justice is implacable, and against a representative of a people who offered humanity the Ten Commandments.

How can we put the leaders of a country that has been the victim of genocide and terrorist attacks on an equal footing with notorious criminals and barbarians who have sworn to continue to murder, rape, and take citizens hostage until Israel is completely wiped off the map? How can we trust international law and its institutions?

Worse still, according to the ICC decision, every Israeli minister, officer, or soldier is now at risk of being detained and taken hostage by numerous courts around the world.

Unfortunately, the decision of The Hague judges encourages Islamist leaders to continue terrorist acts. It gives the green light to all pro-Palestinians and critics to boycott the Jewish state and to demonstrate their hatred towards all Israelis. International reactions prove that antisemitism is omnipresent, injustice triumphs, and deception gains points.

All political parties in Israel have united against the ICC decision. The Israeli people as a whole continue to defend their state against all universal injustices.

WSJ Editorial: The U.N’s Anti-Israel ‘Genocide’ Purge

The UN's assault on Israel is hitting a new low. On Wednesday, the UN will refuse to renew the contract of Alice Wairimu Nderitu, the Kenyan who is the Special Advisor on the Prevention of Genocide.

She is being dismissed because she has stood firm in her belief that Israel's war with Hamas isn't genocide.

In 2022 her office issued a guidance paper on "when to refer to a situation as 'genocide'" due to "its frequent misuse."

The paper explains that the term describes massacres of entire ethnic groups with the intention of eliminating them.

That definition includes the Holocaust, the Hutus' genocide of the Tutsis in Rwanda, and the Serbian slaughter of Bosnian Muslims.

Establishing a pattern of violence as a genocide requires demonstrating intent. Israel's campaign of self-defense doesn't qualify.

In its war against Hamas, Israel's strategy is intended to dismantle a terrorist regime, not eliminate an ethnic group.

Israel has gone to great lengths to minimize Palestinian civilian casualties, even as Hamas uses civilians as shields so their deaths can be used as propaganda.

Ms. Nderitu's refusal to endorse a lie in service of a political agenda has been a profile in courage.

The New York Daily News reports that the chancellor of the CUNY network of schools, Félix Matos Rodríguez, could not answer basic questions about what CUNY is doing to combat antisemitism.

New York City Council members slammed the head of CUNY Monday after he was unable to answer questions about the steps he is taking to fight antisemitism on campus.

“I do think it is outrageous that when we’re having this hearing on such an important topic, that the most rudimentary questions you’ve been unable to answer,” said Councilwoman Julie Menin (D-Manhattan), part of its Jewish caucus. “It’s not enough just to show up.”

...Council members repeatedly chided top CUNY officials for coming unprepared to answer their questions. Neither the chancellor nor his deputies were able to say how many complaints had been made since the [anti-discrimination] portal’s inception, or what was the most common form of discrimination on campus.

....CUNY’s online reporting portal was [described as] “ineffective” and “operates as a black box,” where people seldom know if their complaints are being addressed or even considered. Students echoed those concerns during the hearing, saying they have been openly targeted with harmful stereotypes or excluded because of their backgrounds.

Adding to their concerns that little action was being taken, administrators declined to share student and staff disciplinary data.

Over the past two years, CUNY has invested $1.3 million in campus programs to combat hate, including $550,000 provided by the Council, Matos Rodriguez said during the hearing.

Among the legislative body’s investments was an effort to scale up constructive dialogue trainings for CUNY students and faculty and staff.

Students testified as to what they have experienced on campus:

“They publicly labeled me a genocide enabler simply because I called out the antisemitism of their protest,” one student said.

“All I ask is that Jewish students are treated with the same respect and dignity that any other student would be granted.”

Another student, who was told to remove his star of David necklace while on campus, said his return to school after a trip from Israel was “something of a nightmare.”

“I came to understand that my safety at school could not be guaranteed.”

CUNY planned to open up a "Center for Inclusive Excellence and Belonging" to combat hate by October 1, but I cannot find its webpage.

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The New York Post reports:

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) will be forced to open its books and reveal its sources of funding after a defamation suit it filed against a former employee completely backfired.

US Magistrate Judge David Schultz ruled Monday that CAIR’s donors, funding sources — potentially including foreign ones — and any assets owned by the group are all within the “scope of permissible discovery” as part of former chapter leader Lori Saroya’s lawsuit against the controversial Muslim rights group.

What happened was that Saroya was a senior member of CAIR and even a member of its board of directors. She resigned from CAIR in 2018 and then started posting about how awful the organization is, accusing it of discrimination, harassment, retaliation, union busting, financial mismanagement, lack of board oversight, board incompetence, creating a hostile work environment, negatively portraying Muslims, making mistakes on legal cases, receiving foreign funding, and withholding money it owed her.

CAIR sued her for defamation. When the judge asked CAIR to amend the lawsuit to specify what she said that damaged the organization, CAIR dropped the case.

But then CAIR issued a press release accusing Saroya of cyberstalking, as well as claiming that the judge ruled in their favor before they dropped the case and that Saroya's lawsuit had no merit. In that press release, CAIR said the only reason it dropped the case was "Lori’s attorneys were using the discovery process to overwhelm our chapters, drain their resources, and even demand the names of CAIR supporters who have donated to us, among other private information that anti-Muslim groups have long wanted to acquire. We would never risk letting the community’s information fall into the hands of Lori or anti-Muslim groups. "

This opened the door for Saroya to sue CAIR - and, significantly, to force the group to open its books to see exactly what CAIR said it didn't want the world to see, where it gets its funding from, since CAIR accused her of lying about their getting money from known terror-linked organizations.

It's also funny that CAIR is accusing Saroya of being anti-Muslim. There is a website set up by Muslims that discusses CAIR's ethical and legal lapses and general sketchiess.

This is going to be fun.

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Israeli athletes need more protection in Europe than presidents and prime ministers

The Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball team is playing in Berlin this Thursday. Here is only part of the description of security being set up from a local news site:

The area around the Uber Arena and the Israeli team's hotel, the Courtyard by Marriott Berlin-Mitte, are particularly affected. The police recommend that you avoid both areas.

Around the hotel, parts of the adjacent Axel-Springer-Straße, Krausenstraße and Schützenstraße will be closed from Wednesday, 4 p.m. to Friday, 11 a.m. At the Uber Arena, the area runs from the Spree and Mühlenstraße, across Mildred-Harnack-Straße, parts of Helen-Ernst-Straße and Hedwig-Wachenheim-Straße from 9 a.m. on match day.

Public gatherings and open-air marches are not permitted in either of the cordoned-off areas. Motor vehicles, bicycles, motorized two-wheelers and other electric vehicles may not be parked in the zones during this period. Mobile containers such as clothing containers and garbage bins must also be removed. According to the police, objects already parked there will be removed if they are not removed during the specified periods.

The police ask residents or authorized persons to carry their identity card and their service or company ID in order to be able to enter the cordoned-off areas smoothly.

In response to an rbb|24 inquiry, the Alba Berlin press office wrote: "The Berlin police, the Uber Arena and Alba Berlin are in close contact with each other regarding the game against Maccabi Tel Aviv and are acting according to the authorities' assessment of the situation in order to ensure a pleasant and safe basketball evening for everyone involved. Due to the increased security measures, we ask that you arrive early on Thursday evening."

This is US Presidential level security - for a sports club.

If the residents of the area have to go through this, imagine what the Israeli players are living through.

They cannot sightsee, they cannot run out to buy a Coke - they are hermetically sealed. Because people who claim they are merely critics of Israel and only want peace might try to kill them.

For the "crime" of being Israeli.

It does no one any good to pretend that this isn't Jew hatred.

While these sorts of measures are necessary at this time, it is necessary for the education systems worldwide to understand and teach that this rabid form of "anti-Zionism" is just bigotry and hate and is unacceptable. It has nothing to do with Gaza or Palestinians and everything to do with hating Jews.

The haters know that this is not sustainable. Their goal is to make it more expensive to host Israelis than it is to ban them. Maybe that can point to an economic solution.

Perhaps local governments should charge the groups calling for public protests to pay the cost of security. Everyone violating the law should pay a fine equivalent to the cost of police to arrest and process them.

Right now, the cost to protect is hugely disproportionate to the cost to protest. As long as protests are meant to intimidate and threaten, protesters should be forced to pay to protect the very people they want to attack.

(h/t Daniel)

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According to Turkish media, Gaza Civil Defense announced that 15 women and children were poisoned after eating canned food left by the Israeli army east of Gaza City.

“15 children and a woman suffered from poisoning and seizures after eating canned food left by the Israeli occupation army east of the Shuja’iyya neighborhood during a previous incursion into the area," the statement purportedly said.

The Civil Defense warned Palestinians against eating any canned food or food products they might find, especially dairy products, saying "the occupation army may deliberately leave spoiled food items in order to harm those who eat them."

I could not find this announcement on the Gaza civil defense Telegram channel. This seems to have originated in Turkish media (the image above comes from Yeni Akit) and then a couple of Arabic sites picked it up from there. It may have been made up, or perhaps it is a twisting of a story in the summer of Gazans getting sickened from eating foods that had spoiled in the sun when agencies didn't pick them up.

The IDF hasn't been in that neighborhood since July.

When Turkish and Arabic media and their audiences are antisemitic, every story accusing Jews of crimes is believed no matter how utterly dumb it is.

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