Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, November 21, 2018

Hamas Member Dismissed For Firing Personal Rockets On Company Time (PreoOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Khan Yunis, November 21 - A militant in the Gaza Strip lost his job with the terrorist group that employed him after supervisors discovered he misused organizational missiles for personal launches, a spokesman for the Islamist movement announced today.

Hamas issued a statement Wednesday that during the brief escalation of hostilities with Israel two weeks ago, a twenty-five-year-old fighter, whose name has not been released, misappropriated Iran-supplied rockets allocated for launch against Israeli communities, aiming them instead at targets of personal choice. An investigation of the matter concluded that the man, who holds the rank of field commander, has committed similar violations before, such as during the 2014 war with Israel.

The statement claimed that the dismissed fighter was assigned to fire rockets at Israeli farming and residential communities, but coworkers informed higher-ups that he instead directed fire toward a neighbor with whom he has long had a tense relationship. While Palestinians have for many years targeted rivals or personal enemies with accusations of collaboration with Israel, the man's behavior went beyond acceptable mores in Gaza society, and an inquiry revealed that his use of company rockets constituted only the latest in a long-running pattern of misuse of company resources for personal purposes.

In fact, continued the statement, further investigation uncovered other questionable use of Hamas resources, such as taking kites and balloons that had been earmarked to carry explosives and incendiary payloads into Israeli homes and fields, and instead using them as children's toys for his offspring. "The Islamic Resistance will not tolerate such a grave violation of these items' purpose," it concluded.

Some Gazans recalled a similar incident three years ago, when Palestinian Authority police arrested a Hamas-affiliated man for planning a kidnapping of Israelis to hold for ransom. "The guy wasn't even going to make it political," noted a shopkeeper who sells sweets. "What kind of a crazy thing is that? He was only in it for the money. Everyone knows you just don't do that. It's a good thing he was arrested before he could do it."

Hamas remains silent so far on the man's fate beyond dismissal from his job. Spokesman Marzouk intimated, however, that if circumstances allow, the victims of the man's rocket fire targeting personal enemies will be depicted as sympathetic to Israel, both to save the organization further embarrassment and to showcase for the weapons' Iranian sponsors the efficiency of Hamas use of the resources the mullahs provide.

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11/21 Links Pt1: PMW: Are terrorists good at football?; Iran’s Nuclear Archive Shows it Planned to Build Five Nuclear Weapons by mid-2003; The Depths to Which the Oslo Process Has Driven Israel

From Ian:

PMW: Are terrorists good at football?

Sports is considered a place where politics and conflict are put aside - but not in the Palestinian Authority. A football tournament for high school boys in Hebron, arranged by the local Fatah branch, named all 11 teams after terrorists - including terror leaders responsible for most of the deaths from terror Israel has suffered since its founding. Six were top Palestinian terror leaders and founders of terror organizations, while the other five were terrorists or members of terror organizations. The PA Ministry of Education endorsed the event's role modeling of terrorists with a representative who "honored the winning players and teams."

Here is the list of the teams in the President Martyr Yasser Arafat Football Championship:

The Martyr Yasser Arafat team (founder of the PLO and Fatah terror organizations in the 1960s, and former chairman of the PA),
The Martyr Ahmed Yassin team (founder of the Hamas terror organization),
The Martyr Fathi Shaqaqi team (founder of the Islamic Jihad terror organization),
The Martyr Salah Khalaf team (head of the Black September terror organization),
The Martyr Abu Ali Mustafa team (head of the PFLP terror organization),
The Martyr Khalil Al-Wazir 'Abu Jihad' team (terror leader responsible for murder of 125 Israelis),
The Martyr Marwan Zalum team (terrorist responsible for several murders),
The Martyr Abu Yusuf Al-Najjar team (commander of operations for Black September),
The Martyr Kamal Adwan team (senior member of Black September),
The Martyr Saad Sayel team (leader in Fatah terror organization),
The Martyr Majed Abu Sharar team (senior member of Fatah terror organization)
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Nov. 19, 2018]

During the PA's terror campaign - the second Intifada, 2000-2005 - the PA started naming sporting events after terrorists. For example, the Ministry of Education sponsored the Martyr Abd Al-Basset Odeh Championship - named after the suicide bomber who carried out the Passover Seder suicide bombing in Netanya on March 27, 2002, in which 30 Israelis were murdered and 140 injured.

This is a story about a young boy named Ali.
Ali can either grow up to be a functional member of society or wind up on our hit list. It all depends on how he's raised. #NoWayToTreatAChild #WorldChildrensDay pic.twitter.com/Szi4HE6xPB
— The Mossad (@TheMossadIL) November 20, 2018

David Singer: Australia's Jerusalem Embassy move sinks in a sea of Islamic threats

Forget about Australia moving its Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Indonesian threats to not sign a free trade agreement with Australia – coupled with veiled Malaysian suggestions of terrorist attacks on Australian targets if the Embassy is moved – will suffice to burst Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s thought-bubble.

Australia gave Indonesia $360 million in aid in 2016 and was the world’s 16thlargest donor in giving $15 million to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). Indonesia gave UNRWA $5000.

Malaysia gave nothing to UNRWA in 2016.
Read on for artiForget about Australia moving its Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.Indonesian threats to not sign a free trade agreement with Australia – coupled with veiled Malaysian suggestions of terrorist attacks on Australian targets if the Embassy is moved – will suffice to burst Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s thought-bubbleAustralia gave Indonesia $360 million in aid in 2016 and was the world’s 16thlargest donor in giving $15 million to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). Indonesia gave UNRWA $5000.
Indonesia and Malaysia – two Islamic states – flex their muscles on Islamic claims to Jerusalem – yet do not financially support their Islamic brethren.
Morrison first flagged the Embassy move on 16 October at a joint press conference with Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne:

“Now, in relation to our diplomatic presence in Israel. What I have simply said is this – we’re committed to a two-state solution. Australia’s position on this issue has to date assumed that it is not possible to consider the question of the recognition of Israel’s capital in Jerusalem and that be consistent with pursuing a two-state solution.

Now, Dave Sharma, who was the Ambassador to Israel, has proposed some months ago a way forward that challenges that thinking and it says that you can achieve both and indeed by pursuing both, you are actually aiding the cause for a two-state solution. Now, when people say sensible things, I think it is important to listen to them”

Australia’s commitment to the two-state solution– the creation of a second Arab state – in addition to Jordan – in the territory that comprised the 1922 Mandate for Palestine – is based on:

The 1993 Oslo Accords and
The 2002 President Bush Roadmap:

Guardian says Malaysian PM known for his “outspokenness”, omits what else he’s known for

A Nov. 15th Guardian article, about warnings by Malaysian Prime Minister, Mahatir Mohamad, that the Australian government’s decision to consider moving its embassy to Jerusalem would add to terror threat, began thusly:
Scott Morrison’s contentious Israel policy shift has encountered more diplomatic headwinds, with Malaysia’s prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad, suggesting relocating the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem would add to the cause of terrorism.

The Malaysian prime minister, known for his outspoken public interventions, raised concern in a meeting with Morrison at the Asean summit in Singapore about the prospect of Australia recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

However, in over 800 words of text, the Guardian journalist – Australian political editor Katharine Murphy – didn’t inform readers what else, beyond his “outspoken interventions”, Mohamad is “known for” – something that would provide important context to his objections to Canberra’s decision.

The 92-year-old leader has a long, well-documented history of antisemitism.

Last month, in a BBC News interview, Mohamad said Jews are “hook-nosed” repeating a variation of a charge he made in his 1970 book, where he wrote that “the Jews are not merely hook-nosed, but understand money instinctively”. He also claimed, in the BBC interview, that the number of Jews killed in the Holocaust was not six million.

In an interview with Associated Press in August, Mohamad said “Anti-Semitic is a term that is invented to prevent people from criticizing the Jews for doing wrong things”.

"Those who call me a bigot, a hater, an anti-Semite, I want you to listen to me real carefully. If anything like that comes out of my mouth I want you raise your hand and stop me."
Louis Farrakhan, October 8, 1985

Louis Farrakhan seems to have been in the news fairly often as of late -- not only for what he is saying but for what others associated with him have not been saying.

Louis Farrakhan. Screenshot of Youtube video

Seems like the antisemitism that comes out of his mouth doesn't get a reaction.
Social media platforms don't condemn it.
Politicians don't condemn it.
Black leaders don't condemn it
And of course, the leaders of Women's March don't condemn it either.

But there was a time when racist comments coming out of The Nation of Islam did draw condemnation.

In spades.

It's just that you have to go back 25 years in order to find it.

On November 29, 1993, Farrakhan's top aide, Khalid Abdul Muhammad, gave a speech at New Jersey's Kean College to about 150 students. At the time Muhammad held the positions of both minister and "national assistant" in The Nation of Islam.

And he had a mouth like Farrakhan himself.

Here is a small sample of what Khalid Abdul Muhammad said that day:

Brothers and sisters--the so-called Jew, and I must say so-called Jew, because you're not the true Jew. You are Johnny-come-lately-Jew, who just crawled out of the caves and hills of Europe just a little over 4,000 years ago. You're not from the original people. You are a European strain of people who crawled around on all fours in the caves and hills of Europe eating Juniper roots and eating each other. Who are the slumlords in the black community? The so-called Jew who is sucking our blood in the black community. A white imposter Arab and a white imposter Jew, right in the black community, sucking our blood on a daily and consistent basis. They sell us pork and they don't even eat it themselves. A meat case full of rotten pork meat, and the imposter Arab and the imposter white Jew, neither of them eat it themselves. A wall full of liquor keeping our people drunk and out of their head, and filled with the swill of the swine, affecting their minds. They're the bloodsuckers of the black nation and the black community. Professor Griff was right when he spoke here--and when he spoke in the general vicinity of Jersey and New York, and when he spoke at Columbia Jew-niversity over in Jew York City. He was right.

Khalid Abdul Muhammad. Screengrab from Youtube video

The black leadership reacted strongly.

o Benjamin Chavis Jr., executive director of the NAACP: "I am appalled that any human being would stoop so low to make such violence-prone anti-Semitic statements."

o William Gray III, president of the United Negro College Fund, deplored the "tragic and anti-Semitic comments at Kean College” and said anti-Semitism cannot be "justified as a response to repression."

o Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) condemned the speech

o Al Sharpton condemned it too

o Jesse Jackson made a point of calling The New York Times to condemn the speech as "racist, anti-Semitic, divisive, untrue and chilling...The madness of the speech is not in the tradition of our civil rights movement."

o Representative Kweisi Mfume, the Maryland Democrat who led the Congressional Black Caucus, stated that no alliance could exist between the caucus and Farrakhan's group as long as blacks in Congress had doubts about Mr. Farrakhan's tolerance toward Jews, Catholics and other groups

Even Farrakhan himself issued his own condemnation -- of sorts. But while he condemned the way the speech was given, he defended what he claimed were the "truths" it contained:

"I found the speech, after listening to it in context, vile in manner, repugnant, malicious, mean-spirited and spoken in mockery of individuals and people, which is against the spirit of Islam. While I stand by the truths that he spoke, I must condemn in the strongest terms the manner in which those truths were represented."

Farrakhan went on the attack, framing the criticism as an attack and practically called the Black leaders who participated in the criticism traitors:

And in a clear rebuff of the calls to distance himself from the Kean College speech, Farrakhan reportedly said people were using Muhammad’s words against him to “divide the house,” and that Farrakhan’s enemies “want to use some of our brothers, and some of our brothers are willing to be used” to curry favor.

He also made a point of singling out the ADL as an enemy of blacks, a tactic that has been picked up by Sarsour. Farrakhan announced

"I therefore, am calling on the Black Caucus, the N.A.A.C.P., Reverend Jackson and the Rainbow Coalition, black churches, and black leaders to review their relationship with the A.D.L. in view of its wickedness against our people."

Nevertheless, Farrakhan did demote Muhammad, who later left the group.

Reaction to Khalid Muhammad was so strong that even Congress took action.

On February 23, 1994, Congress voted on Resolution 343, "Expressing the sense of Congress on the senior representative of the Nation of Islam":

Whereas the United States House of Representatives strongly oppose racism, anti-Catholicism, anti-Semitism, and all forms of ethnic or religious intolerance;

Whereas the racist, anti-Catholic, and anti-Semitic speech given by Kahlid Abdul Muhammad of the Nation of Islam at Kean College on November 29, 1993, incites divisiveness and violence on the basis of race, religion, and ethnicity; and

Whereas Mr. Muhummad specifically justifies the slaughter of Jews during the Holocaust as fully deserved; disparages the Pope in the most revolting personal terms; and calls for the assassination of every white infant, child, man, and woman in
South Africa:

Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the House of Representatives
(1) condemns the speech given by Kahlid Abdul Muhammad as outrageous hatemongering of the most vicious and vile kind;

and

(2) condemns all manifestations and expressions of racism, anti-Catholicism, anti-Semitism, and ethnic or religious intolerance.

While it may be reassuring to see that there was a time when leaders were more interested in calling out the Antisemitism of The Nation of Islam than in forming alliances with the group, the fact remains that as the leader of The Nation of Islam, Farrakhan faced minimal backlash back then -- even as he resorted to antisemitic remarks to attack his critics.

And that is unlikely to change.

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Arabs unearth a secret Zionist map showing Israel's intent to take over all land from Saudi Arabia to Egypt!

The Al Jazeera Mubashir website has a hilarious article that claims to have unearthed a secret Zionist plan to take over the entire Middle East, and claims that Saudi Arabia is now cooperating with Israel in this endeavor.

The main "proof" of this nefarious plan comes from an article written by Itamar Ben-Avi, son of the famous Eliezer ben Yehuda and the first child born in the modern era who was raised speaking only Hebrew. Ben-Avi wrote this in "A Zionist primer; essays by various writers" published by the Young Judaea movement in 1917 (before the Balfour Declaration) as an introduction to Zionism for teenagers.

In the essay, Ben-Avi indeed wants Zionist youth to think not only in terms of the area of eretz Yisrael as the Jewish kingdoms controlled in the past, but a future Eretz Yisrael that would fulfill the Biblical promise of lands from the Nile to the Euphrates.

Here's his hand-drawn map:

Ben-Avi was an iconoclast, pushing the idea that Hebrew should be written in a Romanized alphabet and even once creating a short-lived journal in that transliterated Hebrew.

He was hardly a leading Zionist, and even if he was, the idea that a "secret Zionist plan" would be published in a book aimed at teenagers is ridiculous.

Nevertheless, the conspiracy-minded writer at Al Jazeera uses this map as proof of a hundred year old plan that is finally coming together. Apparently, a major Saudi tourism/smart city initiative called Neum is really a Zionist initiative, as the Ben Avi map supposedly shows:

The map explains what is going on in Sinai and the northwest of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. All the puzzles are solved. In the southwestern corner of Greater Israel, the population is being disposed of and ready to be handed over to the Israelis as a gift without war. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman plays the main role. On the Saudi side in the name of the project of Neum or Sinai with the consent of Abdul Fattah al-Sisi to buy the islands and land, and finance the so-called Deal of the Century to evacuate the area of the population.
The Neum project is an Israeli settlement on the eastern bank of the Gulf of Aqaba, which has historical and religious significance to the Jews. It is the land of Medina where our master Moses sought refuge from Pharaoh. The Jews established it after leaving Egypt according to the Jewish narrative. And the investment is to expel the Saudi population from there.
The most important observation that appears from the map and exposing what is happening is that Mohammed bin Salman when he announced the area allocated for the project "Neum" make the southern axis exactly match the line drawn in Ben Avi map, in the same place and the same angle (30 degrees) until reaching the latitude 28 Which runs east to the latitude of about 45 degrees to climb north to Samawah on the Euphrates River.

I didn't know Moses went to Medina! I guess that's where the Burning Bush was!

We learn so much from Arab media!

UPDATE: The city of Medina is not etymologically connected to Midian, where Moses fled, but Neum is indeed in the area of where scholars identify Midian. (h/t Sara)

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11/20 Links Pt2: Palestinian children's TV - a world of hate; The Truth About George Soros; Women’s March Founder Calls on Leaders to Quit, Citing Antisemitism and Bigotry

From Ian:

On anniversary of UN’s ‘declaration of the rights of the child,’ Palestinians still imbue youth with hate

Nov. 20 marks the date when the U.N. General Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child (1959) and the Convention of the Rights of the Child (1989).

While the Palestinian Authority joined the U.N.’s Convention on the Rights of the Child in 2014, the Palestinian leadership is abusing its own children, presenting terrorists as heroes, “martyrs” as role models, and glorifying the murder of Jews and Israelis.

In the decades of monitoring the Palestinian Authority’s open sources, Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) has exposed that the P.A. Ministry of Education teaches that terrorist “martyrs” are “heroes” and “the crown of their nation, the symbol of its glory, the best of the best.” Official P.A. TV has Palestinian children recite that “Our enemy, Zion, is Satan with a tail,” and that “Jews are the most evil among creations … they descend from apes and pigs.” TV cartoons teach young kids that “Jews work on earth for Satan, to try to destroy Muhammad.”

Sports tournaments, school books, cultural events and even music videos glorify terrorists and encourage Palestinian youth to aspire to kill and be killed.

What we have found in more than 20 years of monitoring the P.A.—through the broad range of institutions and infrastructures that they control—are messages in Arabic of hatred, indoctrination and incitement, while in English, to the world, the P..A, the ruling Fatah Party, and leader Mahmoud Abbas present themselves as moderates who are Israel’s peace partners.

Meanwhile, murderers, such as the infamous Dalal Mughrabi (who in 1978 with a group of terrorists hijacked a bus and murdered 37 civilians, including 12 children) is immortalized by the Palestinian Authortiy naming schools, town squares and community centers after her. Terrorist murderer Baha Alyan (who murdered three Israelis on a bus in Jerusalem in 2015) is used by the P.A. as a role model to promote the value of reading to children. Terrorist murderer, Ahmed Jarrar (who killed Rabbi Raziel Shevach, a father of six, in a drive-by shooting earlier this year) and 13-year-old Ahmed Manassreh, who attempted to murder an Israeli child, are glorified by having sports tournaments named after them.

The message Palestinian kids are getting is clear. If you kill an Israeli, you are a hero. If you make peace with an Israeli, you are a traitor and you are committing a crime against humanity.

Palestinian leaders actively encourage distortion of the universal platform of sporting events in this way. In September 2014, Jibril Rajoub, the P.A.’s Secretary of the Fatah Central Committee and head of the Supreme Council for Sport and Youth Affairs, stated that: “Any activity of normalization with the Zionist enemy is a crime against humanity.”

PMW: Palestinian children's TV - a world of hate

The world of hate that the PA creates for its children includes messages of violence against Israel, teaching that Israel has no right to exist and all of Israel is Palestinian, and that Israel's eventual replacement by "Palestine" is inevitable.

One recent episode of the PA TV children's program The Best Home included all of these messages.

A girl recited a poem that called for "vengeance" and "liberation" and for "war that will... destroy the Zionist's soul":

Palestinian girl Raghad: "Saladin (i.e., Musim leader who conquered Jerusalem in 1187; see note below) calls to me from my depths
All my Arabness calls me to vengeance and liberation...
Thousands of prisoners... call to this great nation and call to millions and say to them:
To war that will smash the oppression and destroy the Zionist's soul
and raise the Palestinian banner in the world's sky
And strengthen my word that goes on:
Palestinian, Palestinian, Palestinian."
Official PA TV host: "Bravo, bravo! You are very talented."
[Official PA TV, The Best Home, Nov. 1, 2018]

For years, PA TV has been inviting children to sing this song that urges Palestinians to seek "war" that will "smash and destroy" Israel.

"A Zionist stole the land of Palestine"
In the same episode of the program, a girl recited a poem denying Israel's right to exist with the words: "A Zionist stole the land of Palestine." The poem speaks of the Palestinians becoming "refugees" "70 years ago" - in other words, in 1948 when the State of Israel was created. Palestinian children are taught to deny Israel's right to exist since its creation in 1948, and not in the borders of 1967 as the PA claims in international circles. This education does not leave room for Israel in any borders. The poem encourages Palestinians to "rebel" and "shoot with your fire, like volcanoes," so that they will be "victorious" and "return." Upon hearing this poem, the PA TV host ensured her audience of children that "we are returning. Soon, Allah willing, we will return to our land":

Girl’s poem on PA TV: “To war that will… crush the Zionist’s soul”

“Death to Israel” - song on Hamas TV

From an op-ed in by Rashid Hassan in Addustour, a major Jordanian newspaper, about Mohammed's birthday:

The most stubborn enemies of Islam and the Islamic nation were the Jews, and they still are. They embraced the Zionist ideology, which is based on racism, occupation, blood-shedding, ethnic cleansing, and worshipping force. The Jews were the first ones to scheme against the new religion, and the first ones to form alliances in order to kill it in its cradle. They knew full well that the victory of this religion (i.e. Islam), with all that it represents – noble notions, lofty and noble values – is sure to finish off their influence, which is based on civil strife, spreading corruption, usury, the spreading of lies and myths, etc. Their role in supporting ISIS and the (other) terrorist organizations is nothing but the continuation of their role in supporting the pagans of Quraish (Muhammad’s tribe that tried to kill him and his religion), supporting the munafiqun (pagans in Medina that embraced Islam only outwardly, in order to fight it from the inside). Their fate will be nothing but the fate of the Jews of Bani Qurayza, Bani Qaynuqaa and Bani Nadhir (the Jewish tribes of Medina, that Muhammad either slaughtered, or drove out). These tribes were mentioned by the prime minister of the enemy, Golda Meir, one day, when she was giving a speech at Umm Rashrash, Eilat. She said: “I can smell the smell of my folk in Khaibar” And what do you know about Khaibar? It is the den of conspiracies.

But they don't hate Jews, no, no, not at all, how dare you think so? Just because their media openly publishes antisemitic lies and not one person ever seems to get upset over it, that's no evidence!

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

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Is it possible to mourn a man you don’t know?

A wave of sadness hit me and, with a sigh, I sat down next to the grave of Lt. Col M., tears welling up in my eyes.

The fresh grave was piled with flower wreaths, bright and beautiful, a silent testament of the grief of those who truly understood the enormity of the loss. To them he was not anonymous – a son, husband, father, friend, colleague and mentor who touched countless lives, influenced organizations and helped shape the country we have today.

This man, who must remain anonymous for national security reasons and for the safety of his own family, dedicated his life to our country, knowing that he would never get public credit or glory. Heroism, unsung.

On Nov 11^th, we learned of a special operation happening inside Gaza that developed into a gun fight between IDF soldiers and Hamas terrorists. The reporting that night ended with the information that 7 Hamas terrorists were killed, including one of their regional military leaders. We were told that all the IDF soldiers returned to Israeli territory.

No one reported what condition they were in.

The next day we learned that M. had been killed and another soldier had been injured. Later the media released some details of the heroism of that night – how M drew fire to himself, giving the other soldiers the time needed to react to the threat. How the injured soldier tried to save M. How the IAF pilot rescued the soldiers from the midst of a full-blown firefight.

Hollywood creates blockbuster films from the stories of lesser deeds.

During my years in Israel I learned that real heroes don’t like to be given that label. In their minds, they just did what needed to be done. Often, their focus will be on what was not accomplished, feeling uncomfortable and upset that they did not do more.

Lt. Col M. was an Israeli hero. He died heroically but more than that, he lived heroically. He was an example and an inspiration to those who knew him, a friend who listened more than he spoke, always there, always ready to help.

The results of his unsung deeds (and those of others like him) are living Israelis, people who would otherwise be dead.

I am glad I had the opportunity to speak with his parents and wife. It is such a small thing… there is no real way to repay such an enormous debt or to provide solace for such depths of grief.

To his parents I said: “The people of Israel know that we owe him so much but we can’t thank him so I came to thank you for raising your son to become who he was.”

His father’s response was: “We all owe so much to this country. We need to do everything possible for each other.” His mother thanked me and expressed what many bereaved parents before her have said: “I hope that he will be the last one. That no other mother will have to feel this.” How many mothers have said that before her? How many will say that after?

When I saw his wife, my heart cracked. Straight and small, she had tissues balled up in her hands. She cried, almost silently. I gave her a hug. Relatives and friends surrounded her, supporting her, strained to hear what we were saying.

What could I say?

Nothing can really comfort when your foundation is suddenly shattered, ripped out from underneath you. How do you reconcile the fact that your husband had two loves, your family and your country, and that his dedication to one resulted in him being taken from the other?

I told her: “I know this doesn’t help but maybe it will make things a little less terrible to know that there are people all over the country and even around the world who don’t know your name but know about your sorrow and are praying for you, that you will have strength and comfort. That your children will be okay. That knowing that their daddy was a hero will help. Please hug them knowing this. Knowing that many, many people care.”

Softly she responded: “Thank you. I will hug them a lot. Give them many, many hugs.”

True heroism isn’t in glory. It is modest and quiet. Unsung.

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

11/20 Links Pt1: Shapiro: AirBNB Goes Anti-Semitic, Targets Jewish Businesses In Judea, Samaria; The NGOs Behind Airbnb’s BDS Policy; Abbas rejected billions of dollars in return for J'lem concessions

From Ian:

Ben Shapiro: AirBNB Goes Anti-Semitic, Targets Jewish Businesses In Judea, Samaria

This is absurd. As Dr. Michael Oren points out, AirBNB lists apartments in Turkish-occupied Cyprus, the Moroccan-occupied Sahara, Chinese-occupied Tibet and Russian-occupied Crimea. Not only that, but AirBNB allows listings in a wide variety of countries without any democratic rights and with wildly discriminatory policies.

Judea and Samaria are disputed territories, not “occupied” territories. Israel controls those territories thanks to repeated refusal by Arab states that repeatedly declared war on Israel to accept any peace deal. Radical Muslim anti-Semites and their left-wing apologists insist not only that these territories be turned over to the terrorist Palestinian Authority for control, but that Jews evacuate those territories entirely, making them Judenrein. Remember, this AirBNB policy isn’t targeting the Israeli government — it’s targeting Jews themselves for living in areas under international dispute.

Leaders of the BDS movement are explicitly anti-Semitic, calling openly for the end of Israel’s existence. The very notion of labeling Jewish products from particular areas for boycott is reminiscent of Nazi policy directed against Jews. As Alan Dershowitz writes:

The boycott against Israel and its Jewish supporters (to many Palestinians, all of Israel is one big "settlement"; just look at any map of Palestine) began before any "occupation" or "settlements" and picked up steam just as Israel offered to end the "occupation" and settlements as part of a two-state solution that the Palestinians rejected. BDS is not a protest against Israel's policies. It is a protest against Israel's very existence.

Still, the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement (BDS) is gaining serious steam on the mainstream Left these days thanks to the intersectional notion that Jews rank high on the hierarchy of privilege. Such thinking allows anti-Semitism to thrive across the world, and particularly in the Middle East. AirBNB’s latest move is simply the best evidence yet that the intersectional Leftist ideology has invaded the corporate world, and that anti-Semitism is perfectly acceptable among otherwise “woke” actors on the Left.

NGO Monitor: The NGOs and Funders Behind Airbnb’s BDS Policy

On November 19, 2018, Airbnb issued a press release announcing it was “removing listings” in “Israeli settlements in the Occupied West Bank.” The company provided no details as to how it defines “Israeli settlements” or the “Occupied West Bank” and whether its decision relates to Jerusalem, and in particular, the Jewish Quarter of the Old City. This change in policy was a clear result of a coordinated and well-financed campaign targeting the company by NGOs involved in BDS (boycott, divestment, and sanctions) campaigns against Israel, led by Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), in concert with the UN Human Rights Council (HRC), at least three Israeli groups, and the Palestinian Authority. The funders responsible for this campaign include a number of European governments as well as the US-based Rockefeller Brothers Fund.

Airbnb faced an intensive multi-year attack and threats of being included in the forthcoming UN HRC “blacklist,” boycotts, and other forms of negative publicity. Indeed, the company acknowledged that offering listings in West Bank “settlements” was not illegal, meaning that its decision was the result of political pressure.

The company provided five vague criteria used in the process of making this decision:
“1. Recognize that each situation is unique and requires a case-by-case approach.
2. Consult with a range of experts and our community of stakeholders.
3. Assess any potential safety risks for our hosts and guests.
4. Evaluate whether the existence of listings is contributing to existing human suffering.
5. Determine whether the existence of listings in the occupied territory has a direct connection to the larger dispute in the region.”

Airbnb did not disclose details of how these criteria were implemented, how it analyzed these factors, nor identify the supposed “experts” and “community of stakeholders” consulted.

After Airbnb, watchdog calls for Booking.com to remove settlement listings

Human Rights Watch on Tuesday urged Booking.com to follow the example of Airbnb and withdraw listings for rentals located in settlements in the West Bank.

Airbnb said Monday it will remove such listings, just ahead of the release of an HRW report criticizing them.

Israel strongly denounced Airbnb’s decision and threatened legal action against the company, while Palestinian officials welcomed it.

The US-based rights group issued its report on Tuesday and called on Booking.com to follow Airbnb’s “positive step.”

“By ending its brokering of rentals in illegal settlements on land off-limits to Palestinians, Airbnb has taken a stand against discrimination and land confiscation and theft,” Omar Shakir, HRW’s director for Israel and the Palestinian territories, told AFP.

“It is an important and welcome step and we encourage other companies like Booking.com to follow their lead and stop listing in settlements.”

HRW issued the report on the online reservations firms, entitled “Bed and Breakfast on Stolen Land,” along with Israeli NGO Kerem Navot.

When the popular demagogue Linda Sarsour demonizes Zionism, she tends to talk in generalities, leaving its evils to the imagination of her audience. Considering her unconditional support for Louis Farrakhan and his own incitement of Jew-hatred, it is not difficult to figure our where Sarsour and her allies stand.

But Zionism, for all of Sarsour's talk, is simply the national movement of the Jewish people in support of the re-establishment of the Jewish homeland in its historic territory.

That being said, how many Jews in the US are Zionists, that is -- how many Jews are pro-Israel?

According to a national survey done last month by the Mellman Group, a lot:

While 32% of those surveyed were pro-Israel and supportive of its policies, 35% described themselves as pro-Israel while being critical of some of its policies and 24% described themselves as pro-Israel while remaining critical of many of its policies.

That's 91% - and the report itself actually puts the number at 92%:

Most Jewish voters (92%) consider themselves to be “generally pro-Israel,” but fewer than a third (32%) say that they are also supportive of the current Israeli government’s policies. A majority (59%) say that they are “pro-Israel,” but critical of at least some Israeli government policies, with 24% critical of many of the government’s policies.

The implication?

Its one thing to generalize and attack the idea of Zionism, but when the real numbers indicate that the vast majority of Jews in the US are pro-Israel, attacks on Zionism and upon those who support Israel is no longer an abstraction.

But those same results play into another of Sarsour's attacks on the Jewish community.

Sarsour, who has difficulty dealing with criticism, reacted harshly to criticism of Ilhan Omar's support for BDS. Sarsour lashed out, claiming that Omar was

“being attacked for saying that she supports BDS (Boycott Divestment Sanctions) and the right for people to engage in constitutionally protected freedoms. This is not only coming from the right-wing but some folks who masquerade as progressives but always choose their allegiance to Israel over their commitment to democracy and free speech.”

The claim of Jewish dual loyalty is, of course, an old antisemitic standard, something that Sarsour doesn't think applies when she talks about the Palestinian roots of herself and other Muslims.

But the same poll dashes that idea.

Jewish attitudes towards both Israel and the US defy the simplistic labeling tossed about by Sarsour:

According to the poll, despite 92% of Jews identifying as being pro-Israel -

o American Jews are not pro-Trump, despite his strong support for Israel
o American Jews oppose moving the US embassy to Jerusalem
o American Jews oppose the way Trump is handling US relations with Palestinian Arabs

And this goes beyond being anti-Trump.

According to The American Jewish Committee's 2007 Annual Survey of American Jewish Opinion, taken 11 years ago strong feelings about Israel did not translate into favoring Israel interests over US interests.

Yet despite 70% feeling close to Israel and 69% responding that caring about Israel was very important to them when it came to picking priorities of what were the most important issues in the 2008 election - only 6% chose support for Israel as being a main factor in deciding whom they would vote for:

The bottom line is while Jews continue to consider themselves pro-Israel and support her, that support has not overshadowed their concern for domestic issues in the US itself.

That fact has been a source of frustration because many would like to see that level of support for Israel to translate into support for politicians who are even stronger in their support for Israel.

At the same time, however, it proves the lie to the antisemitic incitement Sarsour tries to stir up against American Jews, claiming they are disloyal to the country they live in.

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The EU spends lots of money to help the Palestinian Authority arrest critics, opponents, and people who sell land to Jews

From their website:

EUPOL COPPS, established on 1 January 2006, is the EU Police and Rule of Law Mission for the Palestinian Territories. Initially the Mission was established as a Police Mission comprising a Police Advisory Section. In 2008 a Rule of Law Section was added.

EUPOL COPPS (the EU Coordinating Office for Palestinian Police Support), mainly through these two sections, assists the Palestinian Authority in building its institutions, for a future Palestinian state, focused on security and justice sector reforms. This is effected under Palestinian ownership and in accordance with the best European and international standards. Ultimately the Mission’s objective is to improve the safety and security of the Palestinian people.

The organization recently built a huge headquarters in Ramallah:

EUPOL COPPS has been around for nearly 13 years now, and they seem proud of their accomplishments. They have an annual budget of nearly EUR 13 million.

But while they advise the Palestinian Authority police, the PA police are arresting and torturing critics and political opponents. They are arresting people who commit the crime of selling land to Jews.

At what point does the EU own responsibility for being complicit in the crimes of the PA security forces? If they cannot get the PA to understand the basics of human rights after 13 years, what are they still doing there?

How many years does it take to cross the line from being mere advisers into being collaborators in violating the rights of Palestinians?

(h/t Irene)

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Yesterday, the founder of Women's March, Teresa Shook, issued a blistering critique of the current leaders of the organization and their tolerance for antisemitism:

Bob Bland, Tamika Mallory, Linda Sarsour and Carmen Perez of Women’s March, Inc. have steered the Movement away from its true course. I have waited, hoping they would right the ship. But they have not. In opposition to our Unity Principles, they have allowed anti-Semitism, anti- LBGTQIA sentiment and hateful, racist rhetoric to become a part of the platform by their refusal to separate themselves from groups that espouse these racist, hateful beliefs. I call for the current Co-Chairs to step down and to let others lead who can restore faith in the Movement and its original intent. I stand in Solidarity with all the Sister March Organizations, to bring the Movement back to its authentic purpose. As Women’s March founder, I am stepping up to bring focus back to the Unity Principles on which our movement began, and with the support of all of those who marched and have continued to march, I pledge to support grassroots, decentralized leadership promoting a safe, worldwide community devoid of hate speech, bigotry and racism.

Predictably, Sarsour and Mallory and the rest issued their own statement accusing Shook of trying to fracture the movement that she herself founded.

But it was a comment from Mercy Morganfield to Shook's post that really identified the specific outrages that Bland, Mallory, Sarsour and Perez do:

As an African American and past president of the DC chapter’s Women’s March. I agree with you, Ms. Shook. I’d repeatedly denounced Tamika’s anti-Semitic rhetoric in public and in private. I was shushed by Bob Bland as she protected Tamika. I was shushed by others who didnt want their criticism to reflect badly on women. But not only have they not held up the Unity Principles, they refused to give the chapters any accountability for the money they receive in donations and grants. The travel with a glam squad. They employ The Nation of Islam as security detail. They fly their family and friends everywhere. They stay in 5-Star hotels. They pay themselves a monthly stipend. They refuse to show financial records when asked. They want to trademark the name Women’s March although most of the original marchers have left. They are not only non-inclusive of certain segments of women but Tamika and Linda have betrayed all women by their subservience to radical religious beliefs that do not believe in equal rights for women. Tamika wrote about “enemies of Jesus” just as any right-wing anti-semitic establishment would write. All six should step down. It is a board of six friends and zero accountability. The four mentioned and two more friends. No involvement of state chapters who actually do all the work. I don’t think they will resign, not as long as millions of dollars are available for their personal use. This happens when four tokens are chosen. They were handpicked to make the movement look less white. That is not intersectionality. That is tokenism. And tokenism attracts predators.

Practically every sentence here is a bombshell, and I see no reason to doubt any of it. The accusation that the current board of the March is siphoning funds for their own use is something that needs to be investigated.

But within the tsunami of complaints is an accusation that would explain why the leaders of the Women's March do not want to repudiate Louis Farrakhan and instead try to downplay his obvious hate.

They have a financial relationship with him.

The Women's March is paying an antisemitic, anti-gay, anti-white, misogynist hate group - while at the same time pretending to adhere to Unity Principles that are against everything Nation of Islam stands for.

Morganfield's post is not getting the same press as Shook's, but hopefully today she will be interviewed and her accusations investigated by the media.

UPDATE: Here's a post where Linda Sarsour offers her "security detail" to protect an author from "Zionist" threats.

Source

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11/19 Links Pt2: Seth Mandel: Ostracizing Jewish Trump Supporters Will Only Hurt the Jewish Community; Airbnb to stop operating in Judea and Samaria

From Ian:

When America doubted my Jewish grandmother’s loyalty

As I reflect on these events in my grandmother’s life, I am left wondering if our country has learned anything at all since she sat in that El Paso courtroom. And I confess that these reflections do not leave me feeling terribly cheerful.

Today, Jews are still painfully aware that no matter how “American” we may feel, we can easily be accused of having divided loyalties. Politicians sow fear of immigrants, stoking suspicion among neighbors. A simple mistake, a scurrilous rumor or “foreign-looking” family members can leave many among us vulnerable to others’ suspicions that we cannot be trusted – or, as we have seen in recent days, vulnerable even to violence.

My grandmother’s case offers an early glimpse into this aspect of our national culture, which would continue to corrode in the years that followed. Her hearing in the spring of 1949 was 5 1/2 years before Senator McCarthy would finally be chastened with the famous rebuke “Have you no sense of decency, sir?”

We are – thankfully – several decades beyond the paranoia of McCarthyism, but its tenacious cells still sleep in the veins of fear beneath our nation’s skin. Today one can witness firsthand how easily some Americans’ love of our country can metastasize into a strain of xenophobia so pernicious that they can be convinced to turn against their fellow citizens.

Seventy years after my grandmother was summoned before a committee of the federal Justice Department, anti-Semitism is ascendant once again across America. And once more it is garbed in the belief that Jews cannot be fully American, that our values threaten the integrity of the nation which has been our beloved home for centuries.

When we discovered the nondescript black binder among my grandmother’s belongings, we had no idea what secrets it would hold. We could never have predicted the story that those yellowing photographs and official documents would tell. And, I confess, we never expected that the historical territory through which that binder led us would look quite so familiar.

Seth Mandel: Ostracizing Jewish Trump Supporters Will Only Hurt the Jewish Community

On the day of the massacre in Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue, the political commentator Franklin Foer wrote in the Atlantic that “any strategy for enhancing the security of American Jewry should involve shunning Trump’s Jewish enablers. Their money should be refused, their presence in synagogues not welcome. They have placed their community in danger.” Foer was not alone in this sentiment, which was echoed by at least one influential rabbi. Seth Mandel warns of the dangers of this passion for anathematizing political opponents, made even more dangerous by the tendency to blame Israel for the anti-Semitic violence:

Two versions of this [claim] predominate: one, that Israel’s strength has deceived Jews into weakening their position in America; two, that Israeli policies are to blame for the bloodshed. . . . The former Anti-Defamation League official Harry Reis [stated that] Benjamin Netanyahu, the Knesset member Naftali Bennett, the Israeli ambassador to Washington Ron Dermer, and the U.S. ambassador to Israel David Friedman “are enablers and defenders of [Donald Trump’s] hate and the white supremacists who support him.”

The New Yorker’s Adam Davidson took the next logical step in this progression and—ironically, endorsing a key neo-Nazi talking point—proclaimed: “The bizarre and terrifying nexus between Israel and white nationalism actually starts to make sense when you understand the ethno-nationalist literature. Extreme-right Zionists and anti-Semitic white nationalists have the same core beliefs.” Liberals have thus unwittingly been reprising the old “Zionism equals racism” calumny with the 2018 version: Zionism is borderline Nazism. . . .

So there you have it: the Jews are the authors of their own destruction, supporters of Israel are disloyal Americans, Zionism is a first cousin to Nazism, right-wing Jews are Nazi collaborators, and Trump-supporting Jews should be expurgated from Jewish communal life.

Why are [Foer and others] fixated on excommunication? [There] is a great irony here: liberal laymen and clergy are deploying one of the most heavy-handed rabbinical retributive powers on the menu. . . . But of course the religion we’re talking about isn’t Judaism, is it? It’s progressivism—the Torah of Liberalism. In leftist politics, isolation is the first, not the last, line of defense against upsetting ideas.

EastEnders tackles antisemitism with storyline about vandalised Jewish grave

The BBC’s EastEnders has become the first soap to tackle the issue of antisemitism, in a new storyline introduced this week.

The programme has used the character of Dr Harold Legg, thought to be the only identifiably Jewish role in British soaps, to address the issue. Dr Legg is played by the 92-year-old Jewish actor Leonard Fenton.

Thursday’s programme showed the elderly doctor visiting his mother’s grave in a Jewish cemetery, together with “Dot Cotton”, the role played by June Brown, who is 91.

Dr Legg is explaining to Dot the custom of leaving a stone on a grave, when the pair, to their horror, see graffiti and a swastika daubed on Esther Legg’s tombstone.