Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, February 01, 2018

Arabs cutting down thousands of trees

Makor Rishon reports that a forest in the area of Gush Etzion, Ya'ar Giv'ot, has been decimated over the years by neighboring Arabs who cut the trees down for firewood.

These photos show the stark contrast between what the area looked like in 1999 and today:

But who even reports when Arabs destroy thousands of trees?

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02/01 Links Pt2: Palestinian Children Are The Child Soldiers No One Is Talking About; Google Partners with Anti-Semitic Islamists; Fencer who survived 1972 Munich massacre passes away

From Ian:

Alan Baker: Trivializing and paying lip service to antisemitism

The annual Holocaust remembrance events, whether in the UN or in individual countries, held on and around the official, international day of remembrance on January 27, have now passed, until next year.

The hollow and disingenuous lip-service payed by international leaders to the greatest tragedy that has befallen the Jewish people, has passed.

The annual “day in the sun” of professors, Holocaust researchers and experts, whether in research centers in Israeli universities or elsewhere, is over until next year.

Life must go on.

The international community can now get back to its routine and regular agenda of political correctness. It can get back to ignoring and sidestepping the most tragic violations of human rights in the centers of conflict in Syria, Africa and elsewhere.

The UN and the EU and their organs can return to adopting meaningless and futile political resolutions, generated by political groupings with specific political agendas that achieve nothing other than to fan the embers of hatred and antisemitism.

The world can now get back to pandering to autocratic regimes, to ayatollahs and to artificial leaders, purveyors of incitement and hatred that seek, through their actions and words, to sow the seeds of the next Holocaust.

Dr. Gerald M. Steinberg: Palestinian Children Are The Child Soldiers No One Is Talking About

[The views and opinions expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Forward.]
Even more disturbing is the role of UNICEF — which was created to help children around the world. In 2013, UNICEF’s “copy and paste” version of the unverifiable and false claims made by NGOs like DCIP (based on “affidavits” that officials cannot understand or verify) gave them a UN seal of approval and significant legitimacy. In 2015, after Israeli officials demonstrated the systematic errors, and the degree to which their treatment of minors involved in illegal activities is consistent with international standards, the UNICEF office in Jerusalem acknowledged the falsehoods in discussions with Israeli officials. But in public, where the propaganda wars are waged, the UN organization and its NGO allies continue to quote the original.

Joining DCIP and UNICEF in this cynical campaign are the American Friends Service Committee, Amnesty International, the so-called Jewish Voice for Peace, and the “Ecumenical Accompaniment Program in Palestine and Israel” (EAPPI) — which brings activists for three months to “witness” the suffering of Palestinian children and is run by the notoriously anti-Israel World Council of Churches.

In addition to adding its prestige to political warfare that exploits children, and laundering the false allegations targeting Israel, UNICEF funds a number of the organizations in this unholy alliance, including DCI-P and EAPPI. Together, their goal is the get the UN Secretary General to add the IDF to the notorious group of warlords and failed states listed under the Children and Armed Conflict resolution, which includes ISIS and Boko Haram. Although UNICEF officials claim to be uninvolved in this effort, they are the ones who select the NGOs in their “working group” and in provide funding to DCI-P and EAPPI.

As a result of these factors, UNICEF’s reports on Israel are far more bellicose in comparison to other Middle Eastern countries. The allegations of “widespread and systematic abuse” echo the definition of crimes against humanity in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. UNICEF does not employ similar language in other conflict situations, sharpening the conclusion that the organization singles out Israel for political, rather than substantive reasons.

Countering the cynical “child mistreatment” propaganda requires highlighting the foundation of lies, and the naming and shaming of the participants, including the NGOs. In parallel, UNICEF officials and donors, including the US, Canadian, Japanese and European governments, must be pressed to review funding and move to end this complicity. The individuals and foundations who give generously to UNICEF under the illusion that unlike other UN bodies, this one actually acts morally, should reconsider. If UNICEF officials are seriously concerned about protecting children like Ahed Tamimi, as well as the Israeli child victims the ongoing terror war, they should keep far away from such exploitation.

How Anti-Semitism’s True Origin Makes It Invisible To The Left

Perhaps as disturbing as the resurgence of anti-Semitism on the hard left is the reluctance of leftists who aren’t anti-Semites to acknowledge it. This reluctance, argues John-Paul Pagano, stems directly from trends in left-wing thinking that have created a special blindness to the hatred of Jews.

[This] erasure of anti-Semitism . . . exposes a huge moral failure at the heart of the modern left. Under the enveloping paradigm of “intersectionality,” people are granularly defined by their various identities—except for white Jews, whose Jewishness is often overwritten by their skin color. . . .

[I]n a key sense, regular racism, [directed] against blacks and Latinos for example, is the opposite of anti-Semitism. [This sort of bigotry] comes from white people believing they are superior to people of [other races]. But the hatred of Jews stems from the belief that Jews are a cabal with supernatural, [or near-supernatural], powers. . . . Whereas the white racist regards blacks as inferior, the anti-Semite imagines that Jews have preternatural power to afflict humankind. . . . If Jews have power, then “punching up” at Jews is a form of “speaking truth to power”—a form of speech of which the left is currently enamored. In other words, it is because anti-Semitism pretends to strike at power that the left cannot see it, and is doomed to erase—and even reproduce—its tropes. . . .

Above all else, anti-Semitism is a conspiracy theory about the maleficent Jewish elite. And it’s this that makes it easy to disguise anti-Semitism as a “politics of liberation,” or at least, to embed it quietly in efforts for social justice. You can see this in the resuscitated efforts of groups like Black4Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace to portray Israel and America as bastions of capitalist white supremacy that collude to brutalize “people of color.” . . .

When the Palestinian Authority’s President Mahmoud Abbas delivered his recent rant of over two hours to assembled Palestinian leaders, he alleged wild conspiracies, . . . [declaring] that “Israel has imported frightening amounts of drugs in order to destroy our younger generation.” In response, the [lobbying] group J Street, after rejecting “the divisive and inflammatory rhetoric used by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas,” complained that Donald Trump had provoked Abbas to despair [rather than acknowledging that Abbas has thought and said such things about Jews for his entire career].

When Neturei Karta wear keffiyehs, are they "stealing Palestinian culture"?

In the past, Palestinians and their allies have gotten extremely angry when Israeli Jews would make their own versions of the keffiyeh headdress, or when they would wear patterns based on the keffiyeh, claiming that this is "cultural appropriation" and "theft of Palestinian culture."

For some reason, though, I hear no protests when the tiny number of members of Neturei Karta put on keffiyehs. Why aren't they stealing Palestinian heritage?

Or when Palestinians say that they are against others "stealing" their faux culture, does that only apply to Zionists, and anti-Zionists are free to steal away?

(screenshot from Google Translate of Al Hayat)

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Vic Rosenthal's Weekly Column

International Holocaust Remembrance day was observed this week. I suppose it is a good idea to have such a day, if simply to counteract the increasing popularity of Holocaust denial. But some aspects of it are disturbing.

There is the continuing phenomenon of Americans and Europeans who are moved to tears when they contemplate the horrific murders of the Jews of 75 years ago, while at the same time supporting the true heirs of Nazi ideology, the Palestinian Arabs and the Iranian regime (not to mention the crocodile tears shed by politicians like Barack Obama, a true enemy of the Jewish people, who recently had the chutzpah to call himself a “liberal Jew”).

The Germans, who provide massive funding for NGOs working against Israel’s interests everywhere, might behave better if they could forget about the Holocaust. The preferred outlet for their feelings of shame seems to be to try to get people to believe that Israel is worse than their grandfathers who served in the SS.

There are also those who see in the Holocaust a “lesson” that “Jews should not behave like Nazis” and criticize the arrest of terror sympathizer and provocateur Ahed Tamimi as Nazi-like behavior. Some have even compared her to Jewish heroes who were murdered by the Nazis.

This past Shabbat I listened to an Israeli rabbi say in front of his congregation that the arrest and deportation of illegal migrants from Israel is similar to the way the Gestapo rounded up Jews for deportation to extermination camps. “Of course, I am not making a comparison…” he said. But of course he did make the comparison.

We shouldn’t need to denounce this vile inversion of history. It’s odious to compare the besieged Jewish state’s response to the endeavor to destroy her with the almost-successful attempt by the Germans to exterminate the Jews of Europe. It is so wrong, so backwards, that our trying to survive as a people should be compared to that. But apparently, this isn’t obvious to many people, even Jews. Even rabbis.

Then there is the universalization of the Holocaust. I once attended a memorial service in which 11 candles were lit for the “11 million victims of the Holocaust.” I believe the 11 million number came out of thin air, but it is supposed to represent the Jews plus Roma, homosexuals, disabled and mentally ill people, and so forth that were murdered by the Nazis.

But why stop there? The Nazis murdered 100,000 Polish intellectuals, doctors, teachers, officers, members of the upper classes and so forth in order to destroy Polish culture so they could Germanize the parts of Poland that they intended to annex to the Reich. They, too, should be added. And what about the roughly 24 million Soviet citizens (civilians and military) who died in the war? Hitler was responsible for killing them, too.

The uniqueness of the Holocaust is that the Jews were targeted for extermination for their genetic content. The Nazis saw the Jewish people as a species, like the polio virus, and wanted to eradicate us. Their goal was that there would be no more Jews in the world, ever. The thoroughness with which they approached this task was remarkable. Nobody else got that treatment. Not the Poles and not the Roma (among whom the Nazis pardoned individuals of “pure blood” or who “didn’t act like Gypsies” or who had honorable war records). No such exceptions were made for Jews.

I am ambivalent, therefore, about the utility of an international day to remember the Holocaust. But especially for Jews there are clear lessons that can be drawn from history (and one of them is not that Israelis are in danger of becoming Nazis):

The most important lesson is about self-reliance: the world community, even those parts of it that understood what the Nazis were doing and the degree of evil involved, was unwilling to take even small steps – absorbing Jewish refugees fleeing Europe, bombing the tracks to the death camps, allowing Jews to enter the British Mandate of Palestine – that would have made a great difference in the outcome for the Jews of Europe. The Jewish people – and other peoples, like the Kurds today – must understand that their survival depends upon obtaining and deploying the means to protect themselves. They cannot rely on anyone else.

A corollary to that principle is that one needs to have a consciousness of oneself as a member of a people. Don’t think that when they come for you, you can say that you are a “citizen of the world.” Your enemies know what you are, and if you want to defend yourself, you better know too.

Another corollary: know the enemies of your people. They will usually tell you who they are themselves. Understand them and never turn your back on them.

Do not think that the world has progressed morally since 1940. It hasn’t.

Finally, understand that war is not only fought with guns and bombs. The Nazis prepared the way for the Holocaust far in advance by the use of propaganda. They employed the Big Lie technique to demonize and delegitimize a people, just as the enemies of the Jewish state are doing today. Self-defense starts by fighting back against the lies.

Today it seems that the real lessons of the Holocaust have not been learned, even by Jews, despite all the emotional catharsis that takes place on the various Holocaust memorial days.

That is unfortunate, because the consequence of not learning something easily from history is learning it the hard way from current events.

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02/01 Links Pt1: Word to the Palestinians: Grow up!; US puts Hamas chief Haniyeh on terror blacklist; Human rights orgs abandon PA's Arab torture victims

From Ian:

In plain language: Word to the Palestinians: Grow up!

Although the human being is the most sophisticated and capable of all of God’s creations, at our earliest stages we are among the most vulnerable and the most helpless. A newborn giraffe will start walking within an hour of birth; after 10 hours, the baby giraffe will be able to run and keep up with the herd. But it will take years for a human infant to become even partially self-sufficient; until then he will be completely dependent on others for his every need. As a result of this, the child experiences instant gratification; his food will be brought to him, he’ll be bathed and gently tucked in bed, and if he cries, his parents will rush to satisfy his every request.

Responsible parents know there comes a point when the child must learn to fend for himself, when it is permissible – even preferable – to say “No!” Otherwise, that child will likely become a demanding, spoiled, incorrigible brat who will struggle to find his place in society.

This is precisely what has happened to the Palestinians. For 70+ years, through three generations, they have been fed, wet-nursed, coddled and accommodated by a global set of “parents.” Rather than earn their keep and live within their means, they have been handed billions and billions of dollars – much of which has either been stolen by their handlers or illegally used to purchase weapons. Rather than move out of their squalid camps into decent housing – as Israel has offered numerous times – they have been cruelly kept in cramped surroundings by so-called “leaders” who foment their anger and prolong their agony for political and monetary gain. Rather than drop their refugee status and integrate into a variety of countries – as hundreds of thousands of Middle Eastern Jews did, and as millions of others are doing today in Europe – they tenaciously cling to their persecution complex as if it were a warm blanket. The misplaced mercy showered upon them has only served to ingrain within them a massive sense of entitlement that is now virtually impossible to eradicate.

So it comes as no surprise that when they finally get a long-overdue “spanking” by a head of state and berated for their atrocious behavior, the Palestinians react like that proverbial spoiled child and throw a tantrum. They threaten, they throw things (stones, Molotov cocktails, etc.), they curse, they break things (like signed agreements and diplomatic relations), they call the president names, they lock themselves in their room or they run and hide under the UN’s and the Europeans’ skirts. In typical infantile behavior, they blame everyone – except themselves – for their problems.

PMW: Abbas’ advisor: “This nation will awaken and uproot evil from its land”

In a recent sermon, Abbas’ advisor stated that “this nation will awaken and uproot evil from its land.”

Mahmoud Abbas' Advisor on Religious and Islamic Affairs and Supreme Shari'ah Judge Mahmoud Al-Habbash: “This nation - I repeat - will awaken together with its clergy, with the religion, with its Quran, with the tradition of its Prophet Muhammad. This nation will awaken and uproot the evil from its land, and it will regain its rights to Jerusalem and Palestine.” [Official PA TV, Jan. 5, 2018]

Although Al-Habbash did not specifically mention Israel in this particular part of his sermon, his prior statements were about Israel and the US’ recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Right before his promise that “evil” will be uprooted, Al-Habbash mocked the US for thinking the world would support his declaration on Jerusalem:

“The entire world has recently had its say in the face of the oppression and arrogance that the American administration is attempting to impose on us and on the world. The world is not for sale or purchase. The world's honor is not for sale... The world said: 'No.' We send our greetings to the peoples of the world that stood with the Palestinian right. We send our greetings to the states, governments, figures, and organizations that stood with the Palestinian right... As for those who have sold themselves cheaply - there is still room on the trash heap of history.”
[Official PA TV, Jan. 5, 2018]

That Al-Habbash refers to Israel as “the evil” is not news. Palestinian Media Watch has exposed that Al-Habbash teaches that Israel is "Satan's project" and believes that Jews represent “evil.”

PMW: Fatah and PA TV hosts question Trump's mental capabilities

Relying on the book Fire and Fury, PA TV hosts question if "a man of this mentality is capable of determining the fate of the world?"

As part of the Palestinian Authority and Fatah's anti-US and anti-Trump rhetoric, which Palestinian Media Watch has documented, Fatah in Lebanon posted the above cartoon, questioning the "mental fitness" of US President Trump.

Headline: "The mental fitness of one who does not recognize the Palestinian people and its legal and historical right in Jerusalem, the capital of Palestine, is questionable!"

Text in upper right corner of cartoon: "The publication of a book that casts doubt on Trump's mental fitness."

The cartoon, which refers to the book Fire and Fury (see below) shows an angry Trump saying "I'm a genius." He is holding a lit match to an open book as small Twitter icons are seen rising from the flame. On the page Trump is burning is written: "Mentally deranged." [Falestinona, website of Fatah's Information and Culture Commission in Lebanon, Jan. 20, 2018]

Relying on the book, two hosts on official PA TV similarly cast doubt on Trump's mental capabilities, asking: 'Is a man of this mentality capable of determining the fate of the world... or of Jerusalem?"

Caption contest: The office chair rioter

From Reuters, December 17:

A protester sits in a chair in front of a barricade during a protest against U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, near the Jewish settlement of Beit El, near the West Bank city of Ramallah December 17, 2017. REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic

This is just screaming for a good caption.

"Miss Fatima? Please order more 10 centimeter rocks and Molotov cocktails"

"Guys? Do you mind not placing the stones where I can run over them?"

"Pallywood Barricade, take 2! Action!"

I'm sure my readers can do better!

(h/t/ Ghilmeini)

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UNRWA Commissioner-General, Pierre Krӓhebühl, launches the UNRWA Emergency Appeal for Syria, Gaza and the West Bank during a press conference at the UNOG Palais des Nations in Geneva on 30 January 2018.

On Tuesday, UNRWA started a new $800 million fundraising campaign to help make up for the shortfall of funding from the US.

Most critics of UNRWA, correctly, point out that the agency's definition of "refugee" is at odds with the definition of refugee used in every other context. But another argument in the context of this funding crisis is even more cogent.

Half of the funds UNRWA is demanding - $400 million - is earmarked for Palestinian "refugees" who live in "Palestine."

Why is he world paying a dime to "refugees" who live in their own land?

The PLO and the PA have insisted on the "right to return" of millions of descendants of people who lived in British Mandate Palestine to Israel, and they have made it clear over the years that the reason they insist on it is to destroy the Jewish State demographically. Otherwise, how can they say on the one hand that they must have an independent state for their people, and on the other hand insist that millions of those same people should not live in their state but in the state of their enemy?

When UNHRC manages to bring real refugees back to their original countries, it doesn't insist that they move to the exact spot they used to live in. That is absurd and it is not the definition of "refugee." As long as they can integrate into their countries, they are no longer refugees and no longer in need of international assistance.

But UNRWA's official position is that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who live in what the UN call the State of Palestine are not full citizens of their statelet, but instead belong in Israel.

And it is demanding $400 million from the world to help keep this situation of intra-Palestinian apartheid, against "Palestine refugees" in "Palestine," alive.

The US reduction in aid to UNRWA should be explicit about why funding an agency that encourages discrimination against "refugees" inside Palestinian territories is wrong. Europeans should ask why they should fund an agency that is keeping a fake "refugee" issue alive, even in Jordan where the "refugees" are almost all citizens and in "Palestine" where they are literally home. Let UNRWA concentrate, for now, on people in need in Syria and Syrian refugees in Lebanon, where real money is needed even if there is a two-class system for Syrian refugees depending on where their great-grandparents lived.

But to continue to fund UNRWA to provide free food, medicine and education to people who are in "Palestine" and full citizens of Jordan is simply to throw money away.

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Older photo of Jewish students at Temple Mount

Every day from Sunday through Thursday, Jews peacefully visit the Temple Mount. And every one of those days, Arab media writes stories about it.

The usual template for these stories is "Settlers broke into/stormed the Al Aqsa Mosque today. They wandered through the courtyards and described the alleged Temple.They provoked worshipers there by attempting to perform Talmudic rituals."

The entire point of the stories is to incite hatred on behalf of Arabs against Jews.

But when these visits are routine, the stories get boring after a while.New ways to report Jews peacefully and respectfully touring the perimeter of their holiest spot are needed in order to continue to stoke anger. Just calling them "settlers" and that they are "storming" the area with "provocative tours" isn't enough.

A month ago, the new angle was that they were performing "silent Talmudic rituals." Which means they were standing silently, obviously a horrible crime.

The Palestinian Authority came up with a new twist this week. Since invoking "Talmudic rituals" has been so successful in instilling fear and anger among their people, now they are dividing up the visitors into two hated groups: "settlers" and "students from Talmudic schools."

From official PA news agency Wafa:

34 settlers, 45 students from Talmudic institutes, and 14 members of the Israeli occupation police stormed the Al Aqsa Mosque, through the door of the Moroccans, this morning, heavily guarded by the occupation forces.

The attackers carried out exploratory tours in the mosque. Attempts to perform Talmudic rituals were met by worshipers with shouts of indignation, and the occupation forces arrested one of the worshipers after beating him.

Claiming that the Jews are "from Talmudic institutes" is another way to incite hate and terror, because (outside of "settlers") nothing scares Palestinians more than Jews who actually act like Jews.

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01/31 Links Pt2: David Collier: The BBC promote Soviet style antisemitism; Tariq Ramadan detained in Paris on rape accusations

From Ian:

David Collier: The BBC promote Soviet style antisemitism

The new face of Soviet style antisemitism

To legitimise the denial of anti-Jewish racism in Labour, the BBC led with Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi. Naomi is part of the Corbyn cult’s modern day version of the ‘Yevsektsiya‘. A group designed in 1918 to carry the Communist Revolution to the Jewish masses. The Yevsektsiya had the explicit mission of the ‘destruction of traditional Jewish life, the Zionist movement, and Hebrew culture’.

Wimborne-Idrissi is part of a small clan. Their names are all known to us, because they are so few, and because the same faces appear in the media so often. Memory is ‘repetition and reinforcement’. Basic weapons in a propaganda war. Whenever a media outlet produces one of these propaganda weapons, it reinforces the idea that the new antisemitism isn’t really racism. It all becomes a ‘Jew v Jew’ thing that nobody understands. Jew bashing becomes a circus event to public applause.

If antisemitism goes wherever anti-Israel activity does, and activists seek to strengthen anti-Israel activity, then a rising antisemitism is a cost that anti-Zionists believe is worth paying. Which is why these Jewish Marxists are so valuable a tool. When you use them in a discussion like the BBC did, you are not trying to have a debate on antisemitism, you are explicitly helping to avoid it.
Without a constituency

These people, the same people, are behind all the anti-Zionist Jewish movements. With names like ‘Free Speech on Israel’, ‘Jewish Voice for Labour’, ‘Jews for Boycotting Jewish goods’. There are more groups than people, with the same people in one order or another, sitting as Chair and Secretary of these groups. When an email or petition is written up, the same names appear on them time after time.

If their social media output is liked or shared at all, it is liked or shared by non-Jews using their material to attack other Jews. When you read the names underneath, they often appear as a ‘who’s who’ of the hard-core antisemitic activists. All being allowed to hide behind the cover of having this Jew as a friend. All of the groups, have far larger non-Jewish support, and only really exist, because the non-Jewish anti-Zionists need the cover.

Caroline Glick: Trump Derangement Syndrome as Leftists Target Britain's Former Chief Rabbi, Jonathan Sacks

Trump Derangement Syndrome reached a new low last week, as Jewish leftists in America and Britain waged a brutal assault against Lord Jonathan Sacks, the former chief rabbi of Britain.

It isn’t only President Donald Trump that the “Resistance” seeks to destroy. And their bloodlust isn’t limited to those who work for him, or even to his voters.

If you so much as help the administration achieve a goal that you believe in, for the “Resistance,” you are a criminal.

Sacks served as Britain’s chief rabbi from 1991 through 2013. He is arguably the most widely respected Jewish religious leader in the English-speaking world.

Sacks stands out for his universal accessibility. His written and oral Torah commentaries appeal to Jewish and non-Jewish religious scholars, and to the Jewish and non-Jewish layman, alike.

During his long tenure as Britain’s chief rabbi, Rabbi Sacks developed close working relationships with Britain’s leaders. Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, David Cameron and John Major all sought his guidance during their respective tenures as prime minister. They called on Sacks to help them prepare public comments that touched on themes of his scholarship.

And so, too, did U.S. Vice President Mike Pence.

Last week, Pence gave an extraordinary address before Israel’s Knesset. It isn’t often that a single speech rises to the level of an historic event. But Pence’s address easily crossed the line that separates a great speech from an epic address.

Oxford Islam scholar Tariq Ramadan detained in Paris on rape accusations

French police on Wednesday detained prominent Swiss Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan, a legal source said, months after two women filed rape charges against him.

The Oxford professor was summoned for questioning to a Paris police station and taken into custody “as part of a preliminary inquiry in Paris into rape and assault allegations”, the source said.

Ramadan, the grandson of the founder of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood Islamist movement, has furiously denied rape allegations from two women that emerged late last year, as the Harvey Weinstein scandal unfurled in the US.

Henda Ayari, a feminist activist, says Ramadan raped her in a Paris hotel room in 2012, while an unnamed disabled woman also accused the academic of raping her in a hotel room in Lyon in 2009.

In November, Oxford University announced that 55-year-old Ramadan was taking a leave of absence from his post as professor of contemporary Islamic studies, “by mutual agreement”.

Popular among conservative Muslims and a regular panellist on TV debates in France, Ramadan faces regular accusations from secular critics that he promotes a political form of Islam.

Ayari, a self-described “secular Muslim” who used to practise an ultra-conservative strain of Islam that she has since renounced, detailed her rape allegations in a book published last year, without naming Ramadan.

But in October she said she had decided to name him publicly, encouraged by the thousands of women speaking out against sexual assault and harassment under the “Me Too” online campaign and its French equivalent, “Balance Ton Porc” (Squeal on your pig).

Ayari, who lodged a rape complaint against Ramadan on October 20, charged that for him, “either you wear a veil or you get raped”.

“He choked me so hard that I thought I was going to die,” she told Le Parisien newspaper.

The almond trees are blooming in Israel, right in time for Tu B’Shvat, the new year of the trees. I like to bring a flowering branch into my home where my family can see this visible reminder of the holiday. Out of doors, it’s fascinating to watch the hillsides break out in spring-like blossoms in the dead of winter. It’s so cool to live in Israel and watch the way the seasons unfold according to the Jewish calendar.

I appreciate this blessing even more after having just returned from a trip to the States. It was lovely to see my hometown. I got a kick out of seeing this gold filigree reindeer on someone’s lawn:

But I thrilled at seeing the almond trees in bloom on my return. Here in Israel, the holidays, the seasons, are my own. They’re Jewish. And that’s why I live here. That’s precisely the reason. And there’s a special happiness, a kind of delight, to living a Jewish life in Israel.

Some of the goodies we had for Tu B'Shvat here in Israel.

The thing is, I can’t really get it through my head, can’t really understand why Jews want to live anywhere else. It’s one thing to pray for rain in your daily prayers. It’s another thing to actually understand the prayer and what it represents. You could be saying your prayers in Detroit, but you’re praying for rain in Israel. Why do that in Detroit?

You pray for something good to happen in your land, but you don’t live there??? What good is the land without inhabitants? Why pray for the place where you don't want to live?

By the same token, you can eat some carob on Tu B’Shvat in Pittsburgh. But it’s not the new year of the trees in Allegheny County. When you eat that carob you’re celebrating the new year of the trees in Israel. Why take pleasure in the fruits of Eretz Yisrael? Why mark the season while laying down ever stronger roots in Cincinnati or Lakewood?

It’s not your country there. It’s a land of filigreed reindeer.

Here in Israel, where the almonds blossom on Tu B’Shvat, is where you are supposed to be.

Dried fruit on sale at a local health food store in honor of Tu B'Shvat this week (photo credit: Chava Hyman)

But the cognitive dissonance I experience regarding Jews in America is kind of minor when compared to what I feel about Jews living in Europe.

Take, for instance, the comments by Josef Schuster, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, on antisemitism in Germany, “The very first step is the simple, though painful, acknowledgment that Germany, in the year 2018, is still facing a massive problem with hatred toward Jews,” said Schuster.

I found this statement difficult to understand. Germany rounded up, gassed, and burned over 6 million Jews. Why should it be painful to acknowledge Germany’s problem regarding the Jews? Why would anyone think that the antisemitism expressed through the Holocaust is gone from Germany? Why would Jews attempt to reestablish a Jewish community in Germany? The very name of Schuster’s organization is an oxymoron, from my purview.

But it gets worse. Schuster cites polls that show some 20-25 percent of Germans have antisemitic attitudes. He says, “It’s high time to combat this irrational hatred.”

I read Schuster’s words and thought: it’s high time you, Josef Schuster, realized that Germany is no place for Jews!

Combat hatred? What is the point of combatting Jew-hatred in Germany? I don’t see this as a noble purpose. A noble purpose is picking up and moving to Israel and strengthening the Jewish State. A Jew living in Germany, on the other hand, is the definition of insanity so often misattributed to Einstein.

But I don’t mean to pin all this on Schuster. Jews like Schuster are in no short supply in Europe or in other parts of the world. Commenting on a report showing that antisemitic incidents in Germany had increased three-fold in 2015, Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, president of the Conference of European Rabbis said, “We are in a new era of antisemitism globally. There is a rejection of mainstream politics and we need to be aware of the waves of antisemitism sweeping across Europe. As a society we must take measures to reject antisemitism and ensure that it does not become a new norm.”

Um, how can antisemitism in Germany become a “new norm”? Is that because it was the “old norm” in 1938? I really cannot wrap my head around this statement.

He seems to think something changed in Germany after the Holocaust. Actually, something did change. They stopped shoving us into gas chambers. And the sentiment was driven underground just a bit. Because the world was appalled. Germany had to improve its rep.

But why would anyone delude themselves into thinking that Germans stopped hating Jews? Tuvia Tenenbom and NGO Monitor’s Gerald Steinberg have done an excellent job exposing German state funding of antisemitic and anti-Israel organizations. German antisemitism cannot only be pinned on Muslim immigrants, but must be recognized as part and parcel of the German culture and ethos, no matter how many official denials are issued. No matter how many big machers speak of “new norms” and “painful acknowledgements.”

It may be that European antisemitism is a kind of industry. Otherwise, how is one to understand the words of Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, regarding a court-ruling on the attempted arson of a synagogue in Wuppertal in 2014 as “criticism of Israel” rather than “antisemitism”? “It sets a legal cover to extremists and terrorists to ‘express’ their hatred the way that Hitler and company expressed their hatred of Jews. Left unchallenged, this outrage could signal open season on German Jewry and their institutions by those who hate the Jewish state and everything it and the Jewish people stand for.”

No, no, no. It’s the other way around. Hitler “and company” offered the precedent the court wished to adopt as law. The Muslim arsonists knew they could get away with this sort of behavior in Germany precisely because of German history, in particular with regard to Hitler and the Holocaust.

Open season on German Jewry?? That too, is a holdover from the Holocaust, which brings us back to the question: Why the heck did the Jews reestablish the German Jewish community? Why would Jews come back there to live?

It’s just mindboggling.

And we didn’t even get past Germany. Antisemitism in Europe is now so rampant that 51 percent of Jews in Europe say they feel unsafe wearing visibly Jewish symbols.

So I read the stories of antisemitic incidents. The protestations by the local Jewish councils. And I just shake my head. I don’t get it.

I don’t know why Jews insist on living in these places or what it will take to make them leave, what the cost will be.

All I know is that tonight my family made a Tu B’Shvat seder at a table decorated with the blooming branch of an almond tree.

It was so sweet.

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UN Agency To Keep Migrants Deported From Israel Stateless Till They Can Return (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

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Geneva, January 31 - Officials at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees disclosed today that they are lobbying various governments to support an expansion of the organization's mandate beyond serving Palestinians to include migrant workers who entered Israel illegally and were then deported, plus their descendants, until that, population, too, can be resettled in Israel.

UNRWA Director-General Pierre Krahenbühl told reporters the agency had ambitious plans that go beyond the decades-old mission it has pursued since 1949, and which accords unique treatment to Palestinian refugees in comparison to those fleeing other conflicts: whereas the UN High Commissioner for Refugees focuses on resettlement of refugees outside the conflict zone, UNRWA is charged with maintaining Palestine Refugees as stateless dependents of the international community pending a "return" to homes that no longer exist, in what is now Israel. Krähenbühl explained that treating deported illegal migrants the same way would simply be a logical extension of the organization's existing activities.

As UNRWA faces funding shortfalls amid a diplomatic row between the US and Palestinians, the agency has sought alternative funding sources, and has formulated a strategy to that effect. "Much has been said about the unique, even discriminatory, treatment accorded to Palestine Refugees," he remarked. "But many Palestinians depend on UNRWA not just for education, medical care, and food, but for jobs. Calls to fold UNRWA into UNHCR and have Palestine Refugees treated as other refugees would deprive these millions of Palestinians of their lifeline and birthright. Now, we are aware that no other refugee populations are considered as having a 'birthright' to return to their ancestral lands, and UNHCR doesn't keep them stateless and dependent. It also, unlike UNRWA, doesn't define as a 'refugee' anyone except the persons who fled or were driven from the conflict, and not their descendants in perpetuity."

"But while the idea of folding UNRWA into UNHCR is a non-starter, we have proposed the opposite: give all refugees the same privileges, funding, and promise that UNRWA does for Palestinians, and including deported migrant workers in the definition of 'refugee,'" continued Krähenbühl. "In other words, fold UNHCR into UNRWA. Obviously such an ambitious program will take years to implement, and we have therefore proposed a pilot involving only migrants who entered Israel illegally or who overstayed their visas and were expelled. We can provide for them as we have provided for generations of Palestine Refugees, and I am confident we can count on Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and other Arab states to provide hospitality for untold generations of this new population of refugees, until such time as they, too, can reenter Israel, as opposed to going where they originally came from, or some third country."

Critics of the proposal noted that funding for such an ambitious expansion of UNRWA remains in the realm of fantasy. "I don't see this lasting beyond the pilot," predicted Ken Roth of Human Rights Watch. "But I'm fine with it that way, actually, because, like BDS, there are some things that you just have to see as universal values but then only insist are important when Israel is involved."

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01/31 Links Pt1: PA TV to kids: "Follow the example" of arch-terrorist Abu Jihad; Why Polls on a Palestinian State Are a Mirage

From Ian:

PMW: PA TV to kids: "Follow the example" of arch-terrorist Abu Jihad, he is "a symbol"

A new children's program on PA TV called From My Country teaches children that arch-terrorist Abu Jihad, who the PA has bragged was responsible for the murder of at least 125 Israelis, is a role model to be followed.

The opening of the weekly 10 minute program, which has been broadcast twice so far, shows a cube with photos of six different Palestinian personalities. One of them is terrorist Abu Jihad, who orchestrated numerous terror attacks against Israelis, among them the most lethal attack in Israel's history - the Coastal Road Massacre - in which Palestinian terrorists hijacked a bus and murdered 37 civilians, among them 12 children.

Also included among the six personalities promoted to kids is Ghassan Kanafani - a writer and a leader of the terror organization Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

In each episode, a young PA TV host emphasizes that the program is about "our country," stressing that its beauty "is reflected by great personalities who have given and are giving much to the homeland." Presumably the six people from the opening are among these "great personalities":

Young PA TV host: "Hello my dear friends and welcome to the program From My Country. You certainly know how beautiful our country is: its villages, cities, historical, religious, archaeological, and tourist sites. The most beautiful thing is that all of this beauty of our country is reflected by great personalities who have given and are giving much to the homeland, whether in the political, literary, artistic, or scientific struggle."

Why Polls on a Palestinian State Are a Mirage

The Steinmetz Center asked respondents if they supported a “two-state solution” that would include:

1. A “permanent settlement.” In reality, nobody can guarantee that any settlement would be “permanent.” The Palestinian leader who signs an agreement could be overthrown the next day. Arab leaders are constantly being ousted and replaced by arch-rivals.

2. The agreement would include “demilitarization of the Palestinian state.” This, despite the fact that every Palestinian leader has rejected the idea of demilitarization. Even if they signed such an agreement, what’s the likelihood that they would abide by that? If a “demilitarized” Palestinian state started importing tanks that it claimed were needed for self-defense, Israel would face international condemnation and sanctions if it tried to intervene.

3. There would be “family unification in Israel of 100,000 Palestinian refugees.” Notice the use of the sympathetic term “family unification.” What cruel person would oppose unifying families? More important, the PA’s position has always been that millions of Palestinian “refugees” — not a mere 100,000 — must be allowed to settle in Israel. The 100,000 figure is an illusion that supporters of the Palestinians trot out to try to sell their imaginary deal.

4. “The Palestinian state will fight terror against Israelis.” What a joke. The heart and soul of the Oslo Accords was that the PA would stamp out terrorist groups. Yet here we are, 25 years later, and the PA has never disarmed or outlawed any of the terrorist groups, never extradited any terrorists to Israel, never even expelled terror factions from the PLO, etc. But now, when they have a state, they will suddenly “fight terror?”

So there you have it: The “Palestinian state” that 47 percent of Israeli Jews would favor is a creature of the Steinmetz Center’s imagination. A permanently peaceful, totally demilitarized, terror-fighting Palestinian state that won’t insist on flooding Israel with “refugees.” Who wouldn’t want such a neighbor? Frankly, I’m surprised only 47 percent of Israeli Jews voiced their support.