Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, September 30, 2015

09/30 Links Pt1: Terrified Jewish Children Hounded by Muslim Mob; IAEA at Parchin – a farce in 3 acts

From Ian:

Watch: Terrified Jewish Children Hounded by Muslim Mob

A hassidic child cries, clinging to his father's hand as an angry mob hounds them, hurling anti-Semitic abuse.
Scenes not from Europe in the early twentieth century, but from the streets of Jerusalem's Old City on Sukkot, 2015.
Muslims in the holy city have been rioting for more than two weeks now, clashing with police and attacking Jewish residents. Several people have been injured and one man - 64-year-old grandfather Alexander Levlovich - was murdered by Muslim terrorists who hurled rocks at his car, causing a fatal crash.
Arab Muslim rioters claim their actions are in order to "protect" the Al Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount from Jewish "invasions"; Jews note such "invasions" are merely peaceful visits to the Temple Mount (not even the mosque itself), which is Judaism's holiest site, and that the violence is meant to prevent them from visiting the Mount and even to drive from the Old City altogether.

Humiliated Father Describes Old City Assault

Yehonatan Levy, the haredi father who was assaulted and humiliated by an Arab mob in Jerusalem's Old City Monday, described the ordeal in a television interview Wednesday morning, on Channel 20.
The video that shows Levy and his two sons emerging from an alleyway has been widely circulated and photos of his sons crying in fear as he walks onward, silent and grim-faced, were disseminated worldwide by news agencies.
Levy said that the event began several minutes earlier, as he and his sons were making their usual route toward the Western Wall, in honor of Sukkot. They were initially accosted by women, he said, and these women were then joined by men. He described being kicked and spat upon. His son's kippah was knocked to the ground and when the father tried to pick it up, it was kicked away from him three times.

WATCH: Palestinian Kicks Jewish Baby In Stroller

Following the disturbing scenes of palestinians screaming in hatred at the Jewish man and his young, petrified son in the old city of Jerusalem comes this even more disturbing scene.

Iranian Commander on Mecca Stampede: The Jews Did It

Deputy Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Brigadier General Massoud Jazzayeri said that last week's stampede near Mecca which killed over 1,100 Muslim pilgrims may have been a "deliberate crime" on the part of the Saudis and the Israelis, reports the Fars News Agency [FNA].
On Monday Jazzayeri told the FNA that
"Given the usurper Zionist regime's infiltration and influence on the al-Saud, there is a growing possibility that the crane crash incident at the Grand Mosque [which killed over 100 and injured hundreds more two weeks ago] and the death of thousands of people in Mina were the result of deliberate crime.
"Given the eyewitness accounts and the increasing possibility that the two painful and regrettable incidents at the Grand Mosque and Mina have been the result of intentional action, fact-finding groups from all Muslim states have the responsibility to decrypt this al-Saud crime."
He also claimed that making the Grand Mosque in Mecca unsafe and insecure is a major policy of the US and Israel.
The stampede occurred during the ritual known as "stoning the devil" in the tent city of Mina, about two miles from Mecca. At least 169 Iranians died in the incident which claimed 1,100 lives [according to Fox News; the FNA's tally is 2,000].

PreOccupiedTerritory: Suspiciously, No Jews Killed In Mecca Stampede (satire)

Given the precedent of the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York and Virginia, in which many in the Muslim world believe no Jews were killed because they had been warned to stay home, authorities have quickly latched onto the similarities between the stampede’s outcome and that of 9/11, noting that coincidence alone was not enough to explain why no Jews seem to have been among the Mecca dead, said a Saudi investigator who spoke on condition of anonymity.
“While I cannot confirm hard evidence of any specific cause other than a systemic failure, the irregularity of no Jews dying in this stampede raises more than a few eyebrows,” he said. “Naturally, it would have to appear that the catastrophe was an accident, so the initial evidence would have to be consistent with human error, or some unfortunate confluence of circumstances. The red flag is the utter lack of Jewish deaths – not just in the stampede or its aftermath, but in the entire Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It strikes us as curious, to say the least, that not a single Jewish death was recorded in the country not only on the day of the stampede, but for decades.”
Indeed, the mysterious and suspicious lack of Jewish deaths is not restricted to Saudi Arabia. Certain towns and villages in Eastern Europe appear to have recorded no Jewish deaths since 1942, and until the first half of the sixteenth century, no Jewish deaths at all were registered in the Americas.

Thousands of Jews at Kotel "desecrating Buraq square" according to Palestinians

Today, thousands of Jews are flocking to the Kotel (Western Wall) in Jerusalem to participate in the semi-annual Birkat Kohanim ceremony as well as a "Hakhel" ceremony that occurs once every seven years.

Palestinian news outlet Safa.ps headlines their article about this as "Tens of thousands of Jews and rabbis desecrate Buraq Square." The article says that thousands of "settlers" are "flocking to Buraq Square to participate in Talmudic rituals."

Egypt's Masrarabia site calls the Jews arrival there an "intrusion."

Another Egyptian site, Masrawy, says that the Jews are "entering Al Aqsa Mosque."

This is the kind of antisemitic incitement that is blared daily in Arab media, but the Western media doesn't want to cover the issue.

Palestinians upset that world no longer considers them important - so they threaten World War III

Saeb Erekat is upset at President Obama for not mentioning Palestinians once in his UN speech:

Secretary-General of the PLO’s Executive Committee Saeb Erekat Monday expressed his disappointment in US President Barack Obama for ignoring the Palestinian question during his speech before the UN General Assembly on Wednesday.

The PLO official wondered if President Obama believes that he can beat ISIS and terrorism, and bring about peace and security in the Middle East by ignoring the continued Israeli occupation, settlement construction, and attacks on Al-Aqsa Mosque ]compound[?

Obama has dedicated large portion of his speech to the conflict in Syria, the campaign against the ‘Islamic State’ militants, the nuclear agreement with Iran and the refugee crisis in Europe.

Only a couple of years ago the concept of "linkage" was trendy among so-called academics and pundits, claiming that if only Israel did what everyone demanded, there would be peace throughout the Middle East.

The world has finally woken up to the fact that Palestinians are not the center of the universe.

Nothing upsets Palestinians than finding that they are irrelevant. They are so used to being coddled by the UN with their own agencies and permanent topics on the calendar and an entire Human Rights Council that spends more than half its time on them that when they fall from the top stories they are frightened by the idea that they might actually have to compromise for peace.

For example, last year Mahmoud Abbas' spokesman claimed that ISIS wouldn't exist if it wasn't for the "occupation."

That line of logic didn't get them far, so instead, they up the ante to push themselves back on the front pages.

Abbas promises a "bombshell" in his UN speech today.

And one of his officials yesterday threatened World War III over the Israeli restrictions of rioters on the Temple Mount.

Really.

Former Religious Affairs minister for the PA, Mahmoud Habash said that what is happening in Jerusalem at the Temple Mount will ignite World War III while speaking to official Voice of Palestine radio.

"Israel is sparking a war in its aggression against Al-Aqsa and this war will not be a political or a military war, but will be religious, and people all over the world will pay the price," Haash said, adding "if Israel does not stop its aggression against Al-Aqsa and if the world does not intervene right now, especially with the United Nations meetings currently taking place, there will be dire consequences. "

If there is any evidence that Palestinian Arab leaders have more emotional maturity than the average tantrum-throwing three year old, I haven't seen any evidence of it yet.

Did Muslims set fire to Al Aqsa on Sunday?

An interesting video has emerged showing what appears to be flames flickering inside the Al Aqsa Mosque where rioters had barricaded themselves on Sunday:

The Arabic news reports on this blame Israeli forces for the fire.

But as we have seen, the rioters inside the "third holiest place in Islam" routinely shoot firebombs and fireworks. In this video you can see some of them launching fireworks from outside the mosque before they barricaded themselves on that same day.

If there had been a fire as large as it appears in this video that could be blamed on Israel, you would expect by now that the Arab and Muslim media would be making this into a huge deal. But since Sunday I have seen nothing about a fire at Al Aqsa.

My guess is that some Muslim fireworks (or Molotov cocktails) ignited something inside the "holy spot" and it was decided that this is not something that they want to publicize because most people would realize that Israeli riot control weapons are not likely to have caused the blaze.

Old Daph’s plea to the Australian Jewish press: “Give it a rest already!” The cringe-worthy slavering over new prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, I mean, on the grounds that he’s let it be known that he thinks he might quite possibly have maternal Jewish roots. This nauseating hero worship seems to have had its genesis with this over the top article http://www.jewishnews.net.au/menachem-mendel-turnbull/32186, which was liberally quoted from in the Australian Jewish News a fortnight ago when Turnbull deposed Tony Abbott in a sudden coup. The paper may as well have breathlessly raised the question of whether Mr Abbott can claim to be one of the tribe; after all, his Dutch maternal great-grandmother’s name, Bredschneijder, does sound a tad more promising than the Anglo-Saxon monikers with which Turnbull’s maternal line is peppered.

From a letter in the current issue of the communal newspaper: “At his [Turnbull’s] speech at the Caulfield Hebrew Congregation’s Yom Ha’atzmaut breakfast, it was indicated that he might have some Jewish roots or possibly he is halachically Jewish. Without being intrusive, it would be interesting to find out the facts about it.” Glad to oblige. Here’s his apparent lineage, which is close to what a commenter on my own blog posted: no hint of a Yiddishe momma anywhere. (See http://ethnicelebs.com/malcolm-turnbull)

Turnbull – a former head of the Australian Republican (i.e. anti-monarchist) Movement – is certainly to the left of his predecessor, Abbott. Many right-wing Liberal voters (the Liberal Party is Australia’s right-of-centre political party, corresponding to the British Conservative Party, and similarly “broad church”) are extremely bitter at his stab-in-the-back to Abbott during the latter’s first term as prime minister, and disgusted with Abbott’s deputy leader, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, for failing to warn Abbott of the planned coup against him as soon as she had wind of it. But that’s the grubby game of politics: in Australia’s case such disloyalty and jostling for place has over the last few years resulted in a spate of “revolving door ministries” reminiscent of the French Fourth Republic. Ms Bishop has emerged as a winner in all this: she retains the deputy’s position and she retains her Foreign Affairs portfolio. Another winner is Josh Frydenberg, a young, able and ambitious Jewish frontbencher who’s entered the Cabinet for the first time. Educated at two of Australia’s best-known Jewish day schools, he’s perceived, like Turnbull and Bishop, as a friend of Israel.

Moreover, it’s hard for this Liberal voter (yours truly) to disagree with the view that a Turnbull regime is far preferable to the political oblivion that was predicted to face the party had the unpopular and gaffe-prone Abbott not been replaced. Better a Turnbull-led Liberal government than a Labor (ALP) one, with its domination by trades unions and factions, some of which favour policies that are not in Australia’s best interests – or Israel’s. To say nothing of the ratbag dastardly Greens.

I tend to consider the worst Liberal government preferable to the best Labor one. But it’s impossible to ignore the current war of words taking place over Iran between Foreign Minister Bishop and Labor MP Michael Danby, who’s been a stalwart (Jewish) pro-Israel advocate long before as well as during his parliamentary career. Mr Danby has authorised a series of advertisements – some billboard-sized – (www.NoLibIranDeal.com) bearing a photo of a smiling Ms Bishop – blonde locks covered, barely, by a fetching lacy black hood – in conversation in Teheran with a contented-looking Hassan Rouhani. The advertisements bear the words “Say no to Bishop’s Iran deal”.

Danby states: “While claiming to be Israel’s friend, the Liberals appear intent on speeding up Iran’s passage from pariah to international acceptability despite the fact Iran has done little to show the world it deserves losing pariah status. Malcolm Turnbull can be a friend of Israel or a friend of the dangerous Iranian regime. He cannot be both. With Iran still making blood-curdling threats against Israel, Prime Minister Turnbull must call Ms Bishop in and order her to halt and reverse this slide towards appeasement of the hard-line, bellicose regime in Tehran.”

Furthermore: “Since the proposed nuclear deal with Iran, Australia and Julie Bishop have failed to respond, as they have in the past, to war-like announcements by Iran where Israel has been directly threatened. Only recently, the head of Iran’s parliament called for the annihilation of Israel. Supreme Iranian leader Ayatollah Khamenei forecast darkly that Israel ‘would not exist in 25 years’ because of Iran’s policy. Just three years ago, Ms Bishop supported international sanctions and loudly condemned Iran. In 2012, as Opposition Foreign Affairs spokesperson, Bishop came out swinging when an Australian diplomat planned to visit Iran. Ms Bishop has changed her mind on Iran, nearly as often as she’s changed her preferred Liberal party leader. I hope through my campaign to encourage her to change her perspective on Iran and to stay loyal to the democratic cause in the Middle East.”

Ms Bishop has dismissed Danby’s criticisms.

She told the Australian J-Wire news service: “The Australian government is a steadfast friend of Israel and reversed several UN voting positions of the former Labor government, of which Michael Danby was a member. The government also rejects the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign supported by many within Labor and the union movement. Mr Danby voted for the weakening of Australia’s border protection laws under the Labor government, which resulted in thousands of Iranians entering Australia illegally. The Coalition government [under Abbott] stopped the flow of illegal migration and is negotiating with Iran to facilitate the return of its citizens. Mr Danby should apologise for his role in supporting the weakening of our border protection laws, and for the Labor movement’s support of BDS before making further juvenile comments.”

Danby has retorted: “Julie Bishop’s responses to the story about the media campaign I have launched were laughable and embarrassing. Ms Bishop has completely avoided the Iranian issue. Instead of attempting to defend her Iranian policy, Ms Bishop attacked Labor on unrelated issues. Having organised hot chocolate sit-ins across Australia to support Max Brenner against BDS, it is shameful that the foreign minister is divisive on an issue we all agree on. At its July National Conference, the ALP passed a resolution that specifically rejected the BDS campaign against Israel… I have asked for a Parliamentary debate before any decision is taken about weakening Australian sanctions against Iran. Sadly, based on her comments [talking up the resumption of trade relations between the two countries] on ABC Rural (http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-09-07/julie-bishop-trade-iran/6751132), it sounds like Ms Bishop has already made that decision.”

He added: “The Jewish community justly fears the setting up of Iranian consulates in Woollahra [in Sydney] and Toorak [in Melbourne], given that the role Iranian diplomats played in the bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires [in 1992] and the AMIA [Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina] Jewish centre two years later is beyond doubt. Together with the Labor leadership, I am going to demand Parliamentary debate and public scrutiny of Bishop’s slide towards Iran. If she thinks the issue will go away, then she’s wrong.”

Pro-Palestinian or anti-Israel? Saudi Arabia refuses to play soccer in West Bank

From AFP:

Palestinian football's governing body has said it is "impossible" to accept FIFA's decision that it must play a 2018 World Cup qualifier against Saudi Arabia on neutral territory.

The fixture, set for October 13, had been scheduled to take place in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, but Saudi Arabia on September 23 demanded that it be played on neutral ground.

The teams met each other in the Saudi city of Jeddah in June, with the Saudis winning 3-2.

That match was actually supposed to be played in Palestine but Saudi Arabia had refused to travel to the West Bank, citing undefined "exceptional circumstances."

Palestine agreed to the switch but had requested that the return fixture, originally scheduled to be played in Jeddah, be hosted by Palestine instead, thus essentially just reversing the home and away fixtures.

Palestinian FA officials said the Saudi decision could have been due to reluctance to pass through Israeli checkpoints on their way to the game.

On Monday, Saudi media said FIFA had agreed to transfer the October match to neutral territory.

The official SPA news agency said the country's FA had received the organizing committee's decision, in which "the international federation understands the justification put forward" by the Saudis to transfer the game.

It did not elaborate on what that justification was.

Many Arab national teams refuse to play in the West Bank, saying it "normalizes" Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory.

Following the FIFA decision, Palestinian FA chief Jibril Rajoub said: "Depriving Palestine of the right to play at home is a dangerous precedent and impossible to accept under any conditions."

The World Cup organizing committee's decision does not say where the game against Saudi Arabia will be played or explain either the reason for the decision or the Saudi FA's objection to playing in the West Bank.

Israel controls all access to the occupied Palestinian territory, and Saudi Arabia has no diplomatic relations with Israel.

Cited by the Palestinian FA, Rajoub said he would lobby internationally to have the FIFA decision revoked.

But FIFA in its decision said the ruling is "final and binding."

On September 8, the UAE team traveled to play the Palestinian team at their al-Ram stadium, saying that they were happy to show solidarity with the Palestinians. They crossed Israeli checkpoints "in record time" with no incident.

But the Saudis successfully convinced FIFA that their hate for Israel is more important than their love for "Palestine" and their respect for the normal protocols of international sports.

This article shows that there is an acid test that can be made to find out if Arab countries are pro-Palestinian or just use the Palestinian cause as an excuse to show their hate for the Jewish state. When they spurn Palestinian pleadings, you can be very sure that they really don't give a hoot about Palestinians to begin with.

09/29 Links: The festering swamp of anti-Zionism; Dershowitz: Obama 'Committing a Crime' with Iran Deal

From Ian:

David Collier: The festering swamp of anti-Zionism

In theory it is possible to be an anti-Zionist and not be antisemitic. At its core, Zionism is simply the belief of the right of Jewish people to be independent. Strict opposition to Zionism could come therefore, from people who are anti-nationalists; ‘one-worlders’ who see borders and nation states as arcane unwanted relics with no place in the coming ‘golden age’.
Back in the real world, the ‘non antisemitic’ anti-Zionist would have nothing to do with a movement like BDS simply because BDS is the flagship of the BNC, a coalition of groups supporting an independent Palestine. BDS singles out Israel as a nation and supports nation status for Palestinians and everyone else, everyone that is except the Jews. A non antisemitic anti-Zionist supporting BDS is simply a fool or a contradiction.
In reality, anti-Zionism is to antisemitism what a swamp is to Malaria. Regardless of its reason for being, the core essence of the swamp cannot fail to provide a fertile breeding ground for Malaria. Antisemitism is therefore the swamp fever of anti-Israeli movements and there is absolutely nothing anyone can do to change that. The only way to clear the disease is to drain the swamp, which is why movements like BDS should be restricted from entering any publicly funded building and opposed everywhere it materialises. Not standing up to BDS, giving it a chance to breath (as with the University of Exeter) directly contributes to a growth of antisemitism.
It is in this swamp that we see the 3-way marriage between left wing idealists, Islamists and rabid antisemites. It is there that antisemitism does what all diseases do, mutating to find a different way of multiplying and attacking. It will attach itself to any and every cause, any and every body of thought. It is why we witness the most absurd partnerships in the name of gay rights, human rights, democracy, academic freedom and free speech, each in turn becoming infected by seeking mutual engagement with the Palestinian cause. Supporting movements like BDS in any way promotes and spreads antisemitism; it must because it is within its genetic make-up. Left wing idealists who permit this activity are not only guilty of creating the very environment in which antisemitism breeds, they are incapable of restricting its growth; just like Malaria in a swamp.

Ben-Dror Yemini: BDS: The lies and the truth

The following short answers do not attempt to defend this government, or any other government of Israel. They are meant only to refute some of the false claims that are uttered time and again against Israel.
Serious accusations have also been heard from within Israeli’s academia and the Israeli media. Here, too, you can hear the accusation that Israel is an apartheid State. Here, too, there are people who claim that Israel is involved in genocide. Israelis claim that the IDF treats the Palestinians the same way the Nazis treated the Jews. The fact that such claims are heard in Israel does not make them true. It is simply proof that Israel is a vibrant democracy, with freedom of speech that allows for the expression of false accusations.
The problem is that throughout the world such claims gain very serious platforms. “Factual” claims are not examined, even though a simple examination would lead to their dismissal.
The ideas presented here are not intended to be a political stance. It is a presentation meant to fight incitement, propaganda and demonization, and facilitate a fair political debate.

Max Blumenthal tells lies about #Israel – a continuing series

It's all on the record: Blumenthal lied, for example, when misquoting Zionist founding father Chaim Weizmann. He lied when claiming Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the September 11 attacks. He lied when falsely attributing a statement to Ariel Sharon. He lied when misquoting CAMERA. He lied about supposed Zionist collaboration with Nazi Germany. He lied about Israel opening dams to flood the Gaza Strip. He lied about Israeli Bedouin; about a Netanyahu-backed "Jewish state" law; about Israeli funding for a radical NGO; about Israeli support for a Palestinian state; and about the expulsion of 750,000 Palestinians.
So why wouldn't he lie, on Chicago public radio, about the 2014 war between Hamas and Israel? Below, in chronological order, are some of Blumenthal's falsehoods on the Sept. 21 edition of Wordview.

Doctors Without Borders Openly Supports Hamas, Condemns Israel

As an internationally recognized humanitarian organization, Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders, aka MSF) is viewed by many as apolitical, solely concerned with improving the well-being of people in need. In truth, MSF has strayed far from its goal of providing emergency medical aid, and it has violated its own pledge to observe “neutrality and impartiality.” Instead, it is taking advantage of its reputation to engage in anti-Israel political warfare.
Over the summer, a number of MSF publications adopted an extreme anti-Israel narrative. First was a July 7, 2015, opinion piece written by MSF-USA Executive Director Jason Cone that whitewashed Hamas attacks against Israeli — and Palestinian — civilians. In the article, Cone ignored Hamas’ war crimes, which include targeting Israeli civilians for death and using innocent Palestinians as human shields. Incredibly, Cone’s only criticism of Hamas related to its decision to ban painkillers in Gaza.
Cone said that rocket attacks against Israeli civilians are “called acts of resistance on one side and terrorism on the other.” Similarly, Cone casually mentioned the rise in “Palestinian attacks against Israeli civilians (mostly settlers),” suggesting that some terrorist attacks are more acceptable than others.
In contrast, Cone showed no nuance or understanding when it came to Israeli policy: “Israeli fears of rocket fire from Gaza… and the ongoing threat of tunnel-enabled attacks… cannot justify the devastating medical and psychological consequences for Palestinians of the barriers, checkpoints, bombing campaigns, blockades, and incursions.” It is unclear what expertise an executive officer of a medical organization has that allows him to weigh military and security strategies in the complicated dynamics of an ongoing conflict.

Chag Sukkot Sameach!

The holiday of Sukkot starts tonight and I will not be blogging until Tuesday night. (And next week the same thing happens again.)

A couple of years ago I created a Sukkah decoration inspired by the artists of Safed, and I completely forgot about it until now. So feel free to print it and use it in your sukkah!

Have a great holiday!

Today's UNRWA teacher advocating hate and violence

This series could go on forever...

Nidal Abu Ghneim has taught at UNRWA schools in Jordan since 2002.

On his Facebook page, he features this graphic:

The map of British mandate Palestine and the AK-47 make up part of the number "67" for the number of years of Israel's existence.

The caption says ""What was taken by force will only be regained by force. The 67th anniversary of the Nakba."

Note that the gun is also a key, the symbol of "return." Which shows that when the Palestinian Arabs say they want to "return" to homes in Israel, they mean they intend to do it by force.

And this is what UNRWA teachers openly advocate, in explicit contradiction to UNRWA's stated policies. But they know that they won't be disciplined, so they have no fear of espousing their hate in public.

I have documented scores of these sorts of postings, and UNRWA refuses to do anything about it in a transparent fashion. But they claim that they take it very seriously.

09/27 Links: Jews against Themselves; Israel's biggest fears are materializing; UN bias

From Ian:

Jews against Themselves

J Street is an organization that describes itself as “pro-Israel” and proclaims itself “devoted and committed to Israel’s future.” Yet, as Edward Alexander observes in an important new book, J Street “misses no opportunities to blacken Israel’s reputation and very few opportunities to encourage campaigns to delegitimize it.”
And J Street is not alone. Similar Jewish organizations, some without J Street’s pretensions to Zionist commitment, have been proliferating in recent years both here and abroad. In the United States, they include, among others, Jews for Justice for Palestinians, Jewish Voice for Peace, Jews against the Occupation, Jews for Free Palestine, Jews for Justice in the Middle East, and a multitude of local chapters, offshoots, and branches.
In Jews against Themselves, Alexander takes up the curious and disturbing phenomenon of his volume’s title. A professor emeritus at the University of Washington, Alexander is a distinguished student of American and English literature and an essayist whose erudition is ornamented by a coruscating wit. Among his highly regarded books is The Jewish Idea and Its Enemies (1988), an examination of the various intellectual strands—liberalism, rationalism, relativism—that, emerging from the Enlightenment, have long been in tension with, or in outright opposition to, central tenets of the Jewish tradition.
In Jews against Themselves, Alexander engages in a related project but one that entails turning over a rock. His inquiry examines the disfiguring yet critical subject of Jews who defame their own people. Over the centuries, Alexander writes, there has been “fruitful interaction” between Jewish apostates and the world’s anti-Semites, making for a distinctive Jewish contribution to “the politics and ideology of anti-Semitism” itself.

Ben-Dror Yemini: The treachery of the free world

Global jihad and terrible diseases plague the third world, but cameras only seem to capture little girls biting IDF soldiers.
This outcome is one of the biggest frauds of international opinion. The outcome is a hate campaign against Israel. The outcome is the ignoring of the genuine suffering in the world. The responsibility belongs to "B'Tselem" and to the abundance of inciting articles. The manipulation is winning. And because of this distortion of morality millions continue to be wretched. They are the victims of global jihad, from Syria to Somalia, from Libya to Iran, from Afghanistan to Cameroon.
And instead of fighting a murderous ideology, Žižek and Judith Butler and Jeremy Corbyn and the rest of the "forces of progress" concern themselves with the supply of girls and justifications and empathy for an ideology that inflicts destruction, oppression, ruin and bloodshed. They send aid packages to the terror regime of Hamas, and Noam Chomsky even rose to honor Nasrallah. All in the name of progress. And they sling mud on the only country in the world that is fighting jihad.
The global left will continue to cleanse its conscience with boycotts and demonstrations against Israel. B'Tselem will continue to provide video clips in order to pour oil on the fire. Preferably with a little blonde girl, loud and cute. This is how one can distort the reality. This is how one can ignore the monster that creates millions of refugees. See you at the next demonstration against Israel, in London or San Francisco. And don't forget the Hamas and Hezbollah flags.

JPost Editorial: UN bias

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas vowed to prevent Jews from “defiling Al-Aksa Mosque with their filthy feet.” Was there no-nonsense condemnation of such incitement from the UN? Not a hint thereof.
The UN never ceases to blow our minds although the organization’s barefaced bias shouldn’t surprise any reasonable Israeli. Yet somehow we compulsively continue to assume that abundant, incontrovertible evidence before all eyes would finally even the skewed international scales.
Invariably, however, we are shown that no absurdity is too absurd for the UN.
The UN Security Council for instance managed in one outlandish statement to ignore the in-your-face aggression by Muslims on the Temple Mount while inter alia also expunging all trace of Jewish links to Judaism’s holiest site.
It was a fantastic feat of obliterating the truth and propping up the lie.

Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, for those of you who may not know, is US representative to Florida’s 23rd congressional district and chair of the Democratic National Committee. This would make her not only among the most powerful Jewish women in the United States Congress, but among the most important people in national politics, period.

Shmuley Boteach has a piece published in the Jerusalem Post concerning Representative Wasserman-Schultz.

Boteach notes that although Wasserman-Schultz supports the Iran deal, she nonetheless cried about it on national television. Her heart was torn. Boteach writes:

She cares deeply about her Jewish family and relatives and would never want any harm to come to the Jewish people...

And yet she chose to support the deal but cried while doing so. A friend of mine who is a financial supporter of hers told me she did the same at a private meeting a few weeks before the vote.

But while tears are nice, resisting the barbarity of Iran is nicer.

Indeed. Everyone agrees that even if Iran does not cheat on Obama's non-treaty, the deal paves the way for Iran to get the bomb in ten to fifteen years, just in time for your children or grandchildren to have to cope with the possible consequences.

Boteach compares Wasserman-Schultz's stance on the deal with the action of two American presidents vis-à-vis Israel, neither of whom were crazy about Jews, Harry Truman and Richard Nixon. Truman, you may be unaware, despite his longstanding friendship with his old Jewish partner at the haberdashery, Edward Jacobson, clearly had a low opinion of Jews.

He wrote in his diary that Jews “...when they have power, physical, financial or political neither Hitler nor Stalin has anything on them for cruelty or mistreatment to the underdog.”

Yet, Truman recognized the State of Israel on May 14, 1948, the very day that Ben Gurion declared it to be. He did so over the strenuous objections of his popular Secretary of State, George Marshall, and others within his government.

We, also, have Nixon on his famous White House taping-system claiming, “You know, it’s a funny thing, every one of the bastards that are out for legalizing marijuana are Jewish. What the Christ is the matter with the Jews, Bob? What is the matter with them? I suppose it is because most of them are psychiatrists.”

The "Bob," of course, might refer to Nixon White House Chief of Staff, Bob Haldeman.

Boteach goes easier on Truman's anti-Jewish racism than Nixon's who he says "expressed constant anti-Semitic beliefs." Nonetheless, during the hair-raising 1973 Yom Kippur War, despite significant opposition from Congress, Nixon airlifted the weaponry and supplies that the Jews of the Middle East needed to prevent themselves from being driven into the Mediterranean Sea by Arabs armies.

At the end of the day, Boteach tells us that he would rather:

...take the anti-Semitism of a leader like Truman or Nixon who nonetheless stands up with courage to save Israel over the river of tears shed by a proud Jewish woman who fails in her responsibility to stop an Iranian nuclear holocaust. It is ironic when a non-Jew with prejudiced opinions is in touch with the Jewish principles of action and responsibility more than a prominent Jewish leader who forgets that saving life overrides every other consideration.

Along with Boteach I do not doubt the sincerity and depth of Wasserman-Schultz's feelings for the State of Israel or for the Jewish people. Of course, I also could hardly care less about Wasserman-Schultz's feelings for the State of Israel or for the Jewish people.

Wasserman-Schultz knows as well as anyone else that the Iran non-treaty does not prevent Iran from getting the bomb, but paves the way for Iran to get the bomb... just not this Tuesday. It will be a number of Tuesdays hence, but it is coming and Wasserman-Schultz is doing her part to see that it happens.

She seems to represent a good example of the kind of left-leaning American Jew who thinks that Judaism - or, at least, being Jewish - is more or less synonymous with support for the Democratic Party. Harvard scholar of Yiddish literature, Ruth Wisse, has discussed this tendency with great insight. The broad idea is that Judaism is fundamentally a religion grounded in ethics. Islam is about submission. Christianity, despite the behavior of many Christians, is about peace. Judaism is about ethics and justice, and thus, law.

The tradition of Tikkun Olam, a medieval mystical notion which translates as "repairing the world," was an obscure idea within the Kabbalistic tradition until yanked from that obscurity toward the end of the twentieth-century among well-meaning Jewish liberals. Tikkun Olam, we were told, means social justice and universal human rights and that this is the very heart of the Jewish tradition. To be Jewish, we were to understand, means to fight for social justice and, within the United States, the political party doing most to stand up for social justice is the Democratic Party. Thus in order to be a good American Jew, one must be a Democrat. It is, in fact, considered a moral imperative by very many Jews in the United States to this day.

From the 1930s until now, the tendency among Jews to support the Democrats has become embedded within the American Jewish soul. This is at least part of the reason why, despite Barack Obama's support for the Muslim Brotherhood, he received 70 percent of the Jewish vote his second time at bat.

Many American Jews would prefer to gnaw off their right arm and beat themselves silly with it rather than vote for a Republican.

The problem with this kind of long-term consistent devotion to a political party is, obviously, that political parties change and evolve over time. What may have been a barely noticed, or entirely unnoticed, malicious trend within the party might at some point come to the fore. This is what we are seeing with the increasingly obnoxious presence of anti-Zionists and BDSers within the Democratic Party and the progressive movement. It is not a coincidence that Democrats are trending away from Israel. The party leadership may denounce BDS, as they should, but this does not prevent anti-Semitic anti-Zionism, as a political ideology, from having an influence on how regular Democrats view the Jewish state as time goes by.

This is the broader context that Wasserman-Schultz is operating within and it puts her in a very tough spot. Whether she realizes it or not as an American Jewish progressive her own political movement has forced her into a choice between supporting Israel and the Jewish people or supporting the progressive-left and the Democratic Party.

I made this choice quite consciously only a few years ago and my choice could not have been easier.

But, then, I was not chair of the DNC, now was I?

Ultimately, though, I wonder if Wasserman-Schultz, in her heart, knows the difference between what it means to be Jewish - whatever that might be for the individual - and what it means to be a Democrat. In the meantime, she has attacked fellow Floridian, presidential candidate Marco Rubio because Rubio dared to visit the home of Harlan Crow, a wealthy supporter and collector who includes among his holdings an Isaac Newton first edition book, a Benjamin Franklin first edition book, and, along with other items of historical interest, a pair of paintings by Adolph Hitler.

Wasserman-Schultz said:

There's really no excuse for such a gross act of disrespect... It is astounding that the presence of these items that represent horror for millions of Jews the world over would not stop Rubio or anyone on his team in their tracks when planning this event.

This is nonsense, particularly on such a flimsy and cynical charge, and I would peruse Mr. Crow's holding with much gratitude if given the opportunity. What there really is no excuse for is using the Holocaust as a political club against one's partisan opponents. It is, in fact, disgraceful. But, again, the question is, does she understand that being Jewish is not in any essential way the same as being a Democrat?

The two are synonymous for untold numbers of American Jews, including perhaps the chair of the Democratic National Committee.

No wonder she cried.


Michael Lumish is a blogger at the Israel Thrives blog as well as a regular contributor/blogger at Times of Israel and Jews Down Under.

Amazing holiday message of peace from an Egyptian

From Egyptian peace activist Ahmed Meligy:

(The music in the background is a very interesting version of a Hebrew song from Sabbath prayers, El Adon.)

Meligy has a similar video created with terror victim Kay Wilson:

There are surprisingly few views on YouTube of these videos. They need to be shared widely, and Egyptians like Meligy who support peace must be honored.

Chag sameach!

(h/t Yoel)