Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, May 09, 2019

05/09 Links Pt2: With flags unfurled, jets overhead, and grills galore, Israel marks 71 years; Why Progressive Anti-Semitism — and Why Now?; Soviet Anti-Zionism and Contemporary Left Antisemitism

From Ian:

With flags unfurled, jets overhead, and grills galore, Israel marks 71 years

Hundreds of thousands of Israelis were flocking to beaches and parks, lighting grills, waving flags and craning their necks for a glimpse of Israel’s fighter jets to mark the country’s 71th Independence Day on Thursday.

After a night of fireworks, concerts, parties and an emotional crossover from Memorial Day to Independence Day, most Israelis were spending the day, a national holiday, celebrating the country’s birthday.

Celebrations in Jerusalem kicked off Thursday morning at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem where President Reuven Rivlin hosted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, IDF chief Aviv Kohavi and others for a musical ceremony honoring 120 soldiers receiving commendations for excellence.

Speaking to the soldiers, Rivlin said that for Israelis, “everything that is a challenge becomes an opportunity for us.”

The annual international Bible Quiz competition finals took place after the ceremony in Jerusalem and saw Israeli teenager Yonatan Weissman, a Jerusalem native, win the top prize. He beat out American candidate Benjamin Colchamiro of New Jersey’s Kushner yeshiva high school.

The IDF also opened its bases to the public, displaying jeeps, tanks and other equipment throughout the country.

On Wednesday night, the mournful and somber speeches of Memorial Day gave way to joyful celebrations as Independence Day officially started.

The juxtaposition of the two days is a key element of Israelis’ experience of national independence, ensuring that no commemoration completely excludes the achievement wrought by the sacrifice of the fallen and their families, and that the elation of independence is never far removed from an awareness of its cost.

Jewish People’s Story Is One of ‘Against All Odds,’ Knesset Speaker Says at Israeli Independence Day Celebration

The story of the Jewish people is one of “against all odds,” said Israel’s Knesset speaker at the official torch-lighting ceremony on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem on Wednesday to mark the country’s 71st Independence Day.

Noting that many other peoples were larger and more powerful, Yuli Edelstein asked, “What do we have? We have a story.”

“A story of a slave people who were liberated and became free men, and brought to the whole world a new hope of freedom, a new message of peace, and a new destiny of justice,” he said.

“And though this nation was scattered all over the world,” he continued, “it gathered into one small, magnificent land, and swore that its children would grow up on this land, and that its dreams would be fulfilled on this land.”

“This is our story,” Edelstein said. “A rebellious, striving, daring, insolent people, which has one motto: ‘Against all odds.’ They struck us — and we rose again. They preyed upon us — and we went on. They exiled us — and, against all odds, we always returned to our homeland.”

In a video message, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also spoke of Israel’s historic accomplishments, saying, “We have achieved something that no other people has achieved. We are the only people who live in the same land, with the same name, speak the same language, and have the same faith as we had 3,000 years ago.”

“Yes, we still have antisemitism; yes, we still have those who slander us,” he said, “but more and more people around the world see the truth about our achievement, about our freedom, about our hope.”

Video project tells tales of American Jews who helped fledgling Israel take wing

It’s often the most regular folks who find themselves at the crossroads of history, and that is true as well of those who lent their assistance in minor or major ways to the establishment of the State of Israel.

That is the theme behind Toldot Yisrael, a nonprofit project that is interviewing hundreds of people, many of them now elderly, all of whom were part of the effort to create the Israeli nation.

The organization is releasing 20 videos made from footage of interviews with American Jews for Israel’s 71st Independence Day Wednesday night.

The 150 Americans interviewed include World War II veterans; industrialists who bankrolled the purchase of ships; the grandson of Rabbi Shalom Zvi Davidowitz, who helped write Israel’s Declaration of Independence; even Norman Lamm, the former chancellor of Yeshiva University who was a chemistry student in 1948 and volunteered to help develop the bombs for the Davidka mortar that was used in battle.

It is difficult to fathom how much time the United Nations spends on its anti-Israel activities.

Next month, the UN will hold a conference in Geneva with the Orwellian title "Preserving the cultural and religious character of Jerusalem.”

It blames Israel for "Judaizing" Jerusalem.

The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People (CEIRPP), with support from the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), will convene the International Conference on the Question of Jerusalem “Preserving the cultural and religious character of Jerusalem” on 27-28 June 2019 at the United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG).

The Conference will address the issue of Israel’s policies and measures aimed at changing the character of Jerusalem, which have significant political, legal and socio-economic ramifications, including the threat of derailing prospects for a peaceful solution to the Question of Palestine. The Conference will seek to formulate concrete actionable recommendations and ways forward among the relevant stakeholders for the preservation of a City, considered sacred by three religions.

The Conference will bring together Palestinian, Israeli and international experts, representatives of the diplomatic community and civil society to discuss viable and practical strategies to (1) stem efforts to alter the demography and character of the City, (2) provide viable alternatives that preserve the religious and cultural character of the City, and (3) ensure that all its Palestinian inhabitants enjoy their inalienable rights.

This is an annual conference; last year it was held in Rabat, Morocco. You can see a synopsis of the discussions here.

Of course, no one in history has preserved Jerusalem's historic, cultural and religious character more than Israel has. A look at how Jordan destroyed every single synagogue in 1948 and almost banned Jews from visiting for 19 years (not Israelis - Jews!) is all you have to know about how well Jerusalem was "preserved" under Arab rule for Jews.

Even Christians were oppressed under Jordan's rule, forcing many of them to leave.

In 1953, Jordan restricted Christian communities from owning or purchasing land near holy sites, and in 1964, further prohibited churches from buying land in Jerusalem...In order to counter the influence of foreign powers, who had run the Christian schools in Jerusalem autonomously since Ottoman times, the Jordanian government legislated in 1955 to bring all schools under government supervision. They were allowed to use only approved textbooks and teach in Arabic.Schools were required to close on Arab national holidays and Fridays instead of Sundays. Christian holidays were no longer recognised officially, and observation of Sunday as the Christian Sabbath was restricted to Christian civil servants.

Under Israeli rule, Muslim, Christians and Jews have simultaneous rights in Jerusalem for the first time in history.

Yes, we all know the UN is a joke, but it is worth being reminded every so often.

(h/t Irene)

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Israel haters just make things up, examples 3298 and 3299: The library and cute girl martyr that don't exist

Besides the hyena story referenced earlier, there have been a lot of other anti-Israel stories floating around that are simply made up.

For example this tweet from someone anonymous received over 20,000 retweets already:

The only part of this that has any truth is the National Cultural Center, which was bombed last August (not last weekend) because it also housed Hamas offices. It also had a library but that it not what the tweeter is referring to.

A building that was meant to be the Palestine National Library was never completed. Instead, the partially-built structure became a Hamas training camp and tunnel hub, which was bombed last July.

The only Azhar Library I can find in Gaza is the library at Al Azhar University. It was never bombed.

Here's another made up story:

I have searched high and low for any Arabic or English news story that mentions Fatmah Hjazi. There were two protesters killed last Friday, none of them had her name. No stories in Arabic news about any girl shot in the head. I see a number of pictures of this girl holding a flag, but none of her injured (which would normally be featured prominently.)

But I found lots of other tweets that repeated the lie, often followed with tweets about how inhumane Israel is to do such a thing.

These Israel haters literally make things up. They lie as easily as they breathe. And the thousands of people who are so anxious to believe them are either idiots, antisemites or both.

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05/09 Links Pt1: The Middle East Anti-Peace Movement; Col Kemp: Trump is right – the Iran deal is dead, and it's time to contemplate the unthinkable

From Ian:

A Looming Crisis in the Mideast

After raining down some 600 rockets that killed four Israelis this past week, the Netanyahu government responded with overwhelming force, deploying jet fighters to carry out multiple air strikes, killing 23 Gaza residents including a pregnant woman, according to Palestinian Authority officials. (The pregnant women and her child, however, are now confirmed as having been killed by a Palestinian rocket that feel short.)

And, so, the cycle of violence makes another cruel revolution. What makes the events of the past week different from earlier rockets-and-retaliation episodes? The reaction of Arab intellectuals and other thought leaders in Muslim world.

Consider the tweet of Dr. Turki Al-Hamad, a well-known Saudi author and thinker. He tweeted: "It's a repeating loop: rockets [are fired] from Gaza into Israel, Israel bombs [Gaza], someone or other mediates, the fighting stops – and the common Palestinian folks pay the price. This is 'resistance,' my friend. Iran and Turkey are in trouble, and the Palestinians are paying the price."

Note his use of scare quotes around resistance and his willingness to blame Iran and Turkey, two Muslim-majority nations, instead of the Jewish state. This marks a real rhetorical change.

And many influential Arab voices echoed the thoughts of Dr. Al-Hamad.

Muhammad Aal Al-Sheikh, a frequent contributor to the Saudi daily Al-Jazirah, tweeted: "The Persian ayatollahs have instructed their servants, Hamas, to escalate [the conflict] with Israel, and they obeyed. The result is seven Palestinians dead, versus one Israeli wounded. [The death toll increased after his tweet.] The Persians are tightening the pressure on the U.S. and Israel in retaliation for Trump's decision, and the victims are the people of Gaza."

Khaled Abu Toameh: The Middle East Anti-Peace Movement

[The Jordanian mayor] went on to say that he believes in the "liberation of Palestine, from the [Mediterranean] Sea to the [Jordan] River" – meaning that he supports the elimination of Israel.

The campaign against the Jordanian mayor is the direct result of anti-Israel incitement in Jordan and most of the Arab and Islamic states. While some of the leaders of these countries may appear to be relatively moderate in their views towards Israel, their people continue to reject any form of normalization with the "Zionist enemy."

For decades, Arab and Muslim leaders have been radicalizing their people on a daily basis against Israel. They have delegitimized Israel in the eyes of their people to a point where they can no longer be seen talking to or making peace with Israelis.

One is left wondering how any Arab leader would accept any peace plan with Israel when a mayor is being widely condemned and shamed for being caught on camera in the company of Israelis.

In order to achieve peace with Israel, Arab and Muslim leaders need to start preparing their people for peace, and not inciting them against Israel.

The War for the Golan Heights

When Syrian and Egyptian forces launched simultaneous attacks on Israel on Yom Kippur of 1973, the IDF found itself woefully unprepared. The high command, just ten days before the war began, finally acted on repeated warnings of imminent war and ordered Colonel Avigdor Ben-Gal to move his tank brigade from the Sinai to the Golan Heights; the last units were still arriving when the fighting began. Even with Ben-Gal’s tanks, Israel had a single, understrength division on the Golan, which faced an onslaught from three battle-ready Syrian armored divisions. Abraham Rabinovich tells the story of how Ben-Gal’s troops held the line:

The Syrians calculated that Israeli reserve units could not reach the Golan in less than 24 hours. Damascus expected to capture the Heights before then. Until Israel’s reserves joined the battle, the main burden of holding the enemy at bay would fall upon young conscripts—draftees—and their regular army commanders.

Informed by [his superiors] at 10 a.m. on Yom Kippur of the warning [that Syria would attack], Ben-Gal summoned his battalion and company commanders by radio to a meeting at the main army base in the northern Golan, Nafakh. . . . The officers would meet again at 2 p.m., by which time the situation might be clearer. With that, the brigade commander drove to the front. . . . The officers were just arriving for the 2 p.m. meeting when MiGs dropped bombs on the camp. “Everyone to your tanks,” Ben-Gal shouted. A sentry already lay dead at the gateway. . . .

After days of [intense fighting], Ben-Gal’s control was unraveling as officers were hit and orders not passed on. There appeared to be no alternative but to have the tanks fall back. Even if they managed to outrace the Syrians to a new line, however, they would not be able to hold it for more than half an hour, he estimated, in the absence of proper defensive positions. He decided on a last desperate bid to shore up the collapsing line. . . .

The bid worked, and the remnants of the brigade managed to hold the northern Golan for five days, at which point reinforcements arrived and the Syrians retreated. Three-quarters of Ben-Gal’s tank crews were killed or wounded; he managed to get the survivors a one-day respite before beginning a counterattack.

Hyenas join the Zionist Attack Zoo

It's been a while since I added a new animal to the Zionist Attack Zoo, but Palestinian propaganda is nothing if not creative.

From Stop The Wall (h/t Israellycool):

The Israeli occupation forces together with the Israeli Nature and Parks Authority have this week set wild thirty hyenas in the northern Jordan Valley that are attacking the farmers and Palestinian communities in the area.

The animals have started attacking the communities and are a threat to the farmers and especially their families and children.

More often than hyenas, Israel uses the placement of wild boars so they destroy the crops and attack poultry and even people.

While wildlife protection, including the protection of the striped hyena would be a laudable act, using these animals as part of a systematic strategy to ethnically cleanse people from their homes is despicable.

There have been no reports even in Arab media about anything close to this. It appears that the Israel haters have decided not to bother with twisting stories, and instead make them up from scratch. Why not? Their fans will retweet even the most insane stories by the thousands before anyone can even begin to fact check.

The only recent hyena-related story was when an Arab from Hebron says he found an injured hyena, chained him up in a dirty warehouse and posted proud photos on social media. Israeli authorities found out and confiscated the animal.

The reason they confiscated the hyena proves that the absurd story is wrong. Hyenas are a protected species, and the Israeli Nature and Parks Authority receive word about once a month about Palestinian Arabs abusing hyenas, so they attempt to save them when they can and nurse them back to life. Apparently there are some superstitious Palestinians who believe that hyenas can hypnotize people so they try to run them over or torture them.

The Zionist Attack Zoo now includes eagles, wild boars, lizards, dolphins, rock hyraxes, storks, "super rhinoceroses," vultures, puffer fish, dogs, jellyfish, sharks, sheep, cows, lions, wolves, rats, squirrels and pigeons in addition to hyenas. A fairly impressive menagerie!

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There's a Palestinian Birthright! Let's insist that it allows pro-Israel viewpoints!

Know Thy Heritage is a program for Arabs of Palestinian descent in the West which "seeks to empower Diaspora from around the world by offering opportunities to become actively involved in the movement for a vibrant and flourishing Palestine."

One of its programs is "Know Thy Heritage (KTH) Leadership Program to “Explore and Live Palestine” [which] offers Diaspora Palestinians aged 18-30+ the opportunity to strengthen their knowledge of their Palestinian identity, culture, history, and traditions, as well as their understanding of Palestinian economic, political and social conditions. Over the course of a two and a half week educational tour, our KTHers bear witness to the lives of their fellow Palestinians, learning about their challenges, their struggles and their successes, but most importantly, about how to get involved in our movement. For many of them, this is the first time they have ever set foot in the land of their ancestors. The KTH journey is a life-changing experience that has a deep and lasting impact. "

Sound familiar? Yes, this is a direct copy of Taglit Birthright for Jewish youth.

Here's a group from 2017 visiting terrorist Yasir Arafat's grave.

KTH is supposedly planning their next trip to Judea and Samaria in July. Its Twitter account has not been updated in nearly a year.

Since the pro-Palestinian crowd is insisting that Birthright allow anti-Israel viewpoints, then Zionists have the same right to protest this organization to force them to allow pro-Israel messages to be given.

Just like IfNotNow/Jewish Voice for Peace proudly tried to block the building that houses Birthright offices, perhaps Zionists should go to Bethesda, Maryland and protest outside KTH's office.

Of course I'm joking. People of Palestinian descent are obviously allowed to organize their own trips, filled with propaganda and stories about their nonexistent history as a people and photo-ops at the gravesite of the 20th century's leading terrorist. It is free speech and insisting that outsiders control the agenda is oppression. We can point out the lies, but we cannot tell them what to say.

But for some reason, Jews are not extended the same rights, according to the crazed haters of Israel at IfNotNow and JVP.

If someone thinks that Birthright must accommodate other viewpoints on their trips, but they don't insist on the same for KTH, then the lofty moral standards they pretend to be advocating is nothing but dressed-up hate.

Similarly, anyone who thinks that protesting a Palestinian heritage organization is bigoted, but that protesting a Jewish heritage organization isn't, is the real bigot.

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EoZ Yom HaAtzmaut lecture (Kew Gardens Synagogue)

Last night I gave a Yom HaAtzmaut lecture in Kew Gardens Synagogue in Queens.

Titled "Bazman Hazeh - Miracles of Modern Israel," I discuss various improbable things that have happened since the mid-1800s that led to the rebirth of Israel as well as things that have happened since then.

I wante to make ure that my readers could get to hear it while it is still the holiday.

Sorry, no slides, only audio.

Enjoy!

1753 British book on restoring the Jews to Israel

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They want to win. Do we? (Vic Rosenthal)

Vic Rosenthal's Weekly Column

They want to win. Do we?

Earlier this week I wrote a long article explaining why dealing with Gaza is such a difficult task, and describing a solution in general terms (short answer: a massive blow to force Hamas to disarm, followed by a “light” military occupation).

I thought that this time – after all, for once we have an American administration in our corner – it would be different, this time the IDF would follow through, and do more than just “mow the grass.” Bibi was talking tough, armored forces were poised at the border, and, after all we had just absorbed some 690 rockets, $14 million in damage, and four dead Israelis.

But I was wrong. We barely trimmed the weeds, with the IDF ordered to end the fighting before the Memorial Day and Independence Day celebrations this week, and the Eurovision song contest which will begin next Tuesday in Tel Aviv. In particular it is being reported that the IDF was forced to “give up on striking Hamas' long range missile storage facilities,” which seems to me remarkably counter-productive if one wants to prevent disruption of events in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

Some kind of ceasefire deal was reached, which probably means that Israel must facilitate the transfer of millions of dollars to Hamas from Qatar, and who knows what other concessions.

Government officials insisted that nothing was less important to their decisions than Eurovision. But of course, nothing was more important.

Bibi and the others are absolutely aching to present Israel as an advanced European or North American style country, a country where (perhaps unlike the Europe or America of today) the chance of terrorism or war is minuscule, and where we put on massively excessive spectacles like Eurovision as a matter of course.

This isn’t true. We are a small country that has been at war since 1948, where successive negligent governments have allowed dangerous terrorist proxies of our enemies to flourish on our borders, and where terrorism and flare-ups of violence happen on a regular basis. We are not quite the first-world country we aspire to be, either (you can see this in the poorer neighborhoods of our cites or the so-called “periphery”).

Do you get the feeling I think we have our priorities wrong? You’re right.

Hamas and the Islamic Jihad organization understand the reasons for our reluctance to engage with them: because we fear a wider multi-front war, because we don’t appear to have a satisfactory plan for Gaza if Hamas collapses, and because we don’t want to be embarrassed by terrorism during – or even aimed at – Eurovision. So they made their demands and we gave in. Call it extortion or call it jizya, but they got what they wanted.

The residents of Sderot and other communities near Gaza have been remarkably patient as this happens over and over. It has been going on for decades: the first rockets were launched at Sderot in 2001, and the attacks increased in frequency after Israel abandoned the Strip in 2005, and still more after the Hamas coup in 2007. Every few months the residents’ lives are massively disrupted. Their children – who have been insecure since birth – are suffering from PTSD. It’s remarkable that so few families have fled. How long can we expect them to be patient? Of course it is hard to get a fair price for a home in the region, so maybe many of them not only feel anxious, they feel trapped.

And the zone of conflict is growing as Hamas and Islamic Jihad improve their rockets and increase their range. It used to be only Sderot and the local kibbutzim and moshavim, and now it is as often Ashkelon, where two of the four deaths – murders – occurred this week. They have rockets that can reach Tel Aviv or Jerusalem, although there are fewer of them. Today.

The government tells us that yes, it’s terrible, especially for those who have lost family members, but it’s not existential. And look at how many people are killed every year in traffic accidents. Meanwhile there are so many reasons that nothing can be done now; but we have a plan and it will be implemented real soon.

No. Enough. The most basic obligation of a government under the social contract is to protect its citizens, and they aren’t doing it. Don’t tell me that it is impossible. Why are the barbarians of Hamas and Islamic Jihad able to outthink us, to put us in a trap that we can’t escape? Do we have the wrong generals? The wrong government? Are all the smart people in high-tech? Is the problem, as some say, that every commander must have a lawyer by his side? We are stronger, we have an air force that is qualitatively the best in the world, we have a fleet of drones, tanks, the best weapons in the world. Why can’t we fix this?

Well, here is one possible reason. It’s illustrated by this recent news item.

Tuesday night will begin Israel’s Memorial Day for 23,741 fallen soldiers and terror victims with a ceremony in Jerusalem. This is a deeply moving event for Israelis, since there are few families that have not lost a friend or family member to war or terrorism.

An organization called “Combatants for Peace” (CFP) organized an “Alternative Memorial Day” event in which both Israelis and Palestinians from the territories who lost relatives in the conflict will mourn them together. CFP is funded almost entirely by foreign contributions, from the American New Israel Fund, and German and Swiss groups.

The implication is that there’s no moral difference. Someone who is shot to death trying to stab a random Jew in the street is a victim of the conflict, just like the Jew he stabs. The Palestinian who is killed when he plows into people waiting at a bus stop deserves the same respect as the ones he murders.

Unsurprisingly, many Israelis find it obscene to equate fallen soldiers, police officers, and terror victims with the Palestinian terrorists that murdered them. PM Netanyahu rejected a request for entry permits to allow Palestinians to enter the country for the ceremony. He cited security reasons, but I suspect that he felt that national self-respect required it.

The Supreme Court, in response to a petition from CFP, overruled the PM and ordered the government to grant 100 permits.

The members of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad want to win. They want to kill Jews and eliminate the Jewish state. They want this with all their hearts.

Do we want to survive as much as they want to destroy us?

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05/08 Links Pt2: How Anti-Zionism Became Anti-Semitism: A Historical Overview; Qanta Ahmed: Philadelphia’s ‘Children For Jihad’ Warrant Investigation; CAIR Director Compares Israel to Nazi Germany at UC Irvine

From Ian:

How Anti-Zionism Became Anti-Semitism: A Historical Overview

After the defeat of Nazism in World War II, the Soviet Union and its satellites became the main European incubators of anti-Semitism, a doctrine they soon repackaged, with great success, as anti-Zionism. Asael Abelman tells this story in a sweeping and penetrating essay that can be read in its original Hebrew here or in a rough English translation at the link below:

After 1945, and even more so after 1948, the war against the Jews ceased to be one against a people scattered and dispersed among the nations but instead against a people who had returned to their land. The banner of this war against the Jews was now borne by the Arab peoples as well as Muslims throughout the world, and even though a wide chasm separated most of them from the European left, all parties found in this struggle a common denominator. . . .

Take Poland, for example, in the late 1960s. During this period, Polish students were expressing their resentment of the Communist regime in their country. When the regime sought a way to rally its ranks and divert attention from its critics, it found it in anti-Semitism. By then, most of the Jews of Poland had been exterminated [in World War II]; many others had left for Israel and other countries; and many of the remaining Jews in Poland did not see themselves as Jews, were themselves unaware that they were Jews, or were completely indifferent to their Jewish identity. But none of this prevented the leader of Poland, Wladyslaw Gomulka, from looking for a way to use anti-Semitism to serve his political needs.

His opportunity arrived with Israel’s victory over the Arab states in the Six-Day War. Immediately thereafter, Gomulka publicly announced that “Polish citizens of the Jewish nation are not prevented from returning to Israel if they wish. Our position is that every Polish citizen should have one state: the Polish People’s Republic; . . . we do not want a fifth column.” Thus, parallel to the Arab desire to destroy the state of Israel, anti-Semitism came out of the mouth of the leader of the Polish Communist regime, a man who no doubt considered racist Nazism to be the absolute evil, [who was himself married to a Jewish woman], and who subscribed to an ideological doctrine strongly opposed to national hatred.

Qanta Ahmed: Philadelphia’s ‘Children For Jihad’ Warrant Investigation

The Muslim Association of America, designated by the United Arab Emirates as one of 84 terrorist groups with Muslim Brotherhood ties, was caught red-faced after posting a video on Facebook of Muslim children conducting a musical performance in the Philadelphia Islamic center glorifying Islamic jihad, suicide martyrdom, and jihad on Israel.

Martyrdom songs and indoctrination of youth are a hallmark of Islamist organizations. It’s commonplace in Gaza, but shocking when found in the home of the Declaration of Independence. The songs romanticize both martyrdom and the destruction of Israel — classic Muslim Brotherhood Islamists tenets.

Such indoctrination of Muslim children in Islamist ideology leads directly to violence, such as the assault on Israel over the last weekend. More than 700 rockets were fired on sovereign Israeli territory by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad — both extremist Islamist terror groups.

For the Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad movements to remain alive, in addition to generous funding from both Iran and Qatar, these Islamist groups require support from youth, including those here in America.

The children in Philadelphia sang songs demonizing Israel while claiming to be the “Army of Allah,” yet disregard that the Quran documents the Israelites as the chosen people to whom God promised the Holy Land. Muslims must accept their legitimacy, their prophets and their Holy Book.

These children in Philadelphia are being indoctrinated in Islamist anti-Semitism — a cosmic, not mortal, form pursued as a divine mission to combat a cosmic, not mortal, enemy. This anti-Semitism is among the most virulent and rapidly growing forms today.

The Tikvah Podcast: Matti Friedman on Israel’s First Spies

Long before the Mossad became known as one of the world’s greatest intelligence agencies; before the capture of Eichmann and the raid of Iran’s nuclear archive; before Eli Cohen and Rafi Eitan; before Fauda captured audiences around the world, Israel’s first spies were dispatched to Beirut without so much as a radio to contact home. In the spring of 1948, before the State of Israel had even been declared, a handful of young Mizrahi Jews were recruited to serve in the Palmach’s Arab Section and charged with going undercover among the Arab population of Palestine and neighboring countries. Sent back into the Arab lands they had left behind, these brave Jews risked their lives to become spies for a country that was yet to be born.

In Spies of No Country: Secret Lives at the Birth of Israel, journalist and author Matti Friedman tells the story of these mista’aravim, Jews who went uncover as Arabs. Focusing on the lives of four of these men, Friedman transports us back to a world without a State of Israel or an IDF, where the fate of Palestine’s Jews remained uncertain and the project of Jewish statehood hung in the balance. This was the world of Israel’s first spies, the unsung heroes of the nation’s founding.

In this podcast, Matti Friedman joins Jonathan Silver to talk about his new book. They discuss the challenges and risks the spies faced while undercover, the complex identities of these Mizrahi Jews who had to pose as Arabs, and the importance of telling the stories of these Jewish heroes from Middle Eastern lands.

“Shakked was really scared,” my son said, when asked how he and his young family had managed during the rocket attacks on Shabbos and Saturday night.

That was more than it would be usual for my quiet son to volunteer. Which is how I knew that what he’d written on the family Whatsapp group was an understatement. But since I am a writer and my mind runs wild, I could picture how it was that night, in a small room in Southern Israel. Two young parents, a sleepy three-year-old, and an exhausted one-year-old, with sirens and explosions going off all night long, one siren interrupting the next, explosions upon explosions, some farther away, some much too close, making the people in the room, jump. I imagined my granddaughter crying--perhaps screaming in fear--and her parents trying so hard to comfort her while being helpless to reassure her in any real way, or to do anything about the endless sirens and explosions: to do anything to stop the night.

My mind kept going back to that picture though they were safe now, the next day, having gone to stay with my daughter-in-law’s family in the center of the country, until things were calmer.

That bothered me, too. What kind of life is it really, if you have to leave your home to get a break from danger? What kind of home sweet home can you really have when living there puts you and your children in mortal danger? And here were my brave children, building a home in Netivot, in the Gaza Envelope. How should I feel about that?

Proud, of course, even as my mind wrestled with competing narratives: Is it right to raise children in a dangerous part of Israel? Is it right to build a home in a place that suffers from near constant rocket attacks, sirens, and Molotov balloons? Is it right to live in a place where kindergartens suffer direct hits and oncology wards are a target?

This kindergarten in Sderot suffered a direct rocket hit on Shabbat. The writing on the blackboard says: "My Eretz Israel."

What happens, on the other hand, if they leave? If many leave? Will we lose our hold on the land? Which begs the question: shouldn’t more of us move south to strengthen the area, and live under fire, too?

I called my mother in Pittsburgh. I didn’t say a lot. I didn’t need to. She has long wrestled with the same concerns. This is how she felt when I moved to Gilo, and she couldn’t figure out if it was over the Green Line. It's how she felt when I moved to Gush Etzion, which is indisputably over the Green Line. She worried that it was dangerous. That I and my children were in danger.

And yet she came to visit us many times, staying in our home or nearby. Her friends worried about her. During the Second Intifada, when they voiced their concerns on the eve of yet another one of her trips, this time for my daughter’s wedding, Mom dismissed their worries with a wave of the hand, saying, “What’s the difference if a 75-year-old-woman blows up?”

Just the idea of this makes me laugh. My mom is such a Litvak, possessed of such a dry sensibility and humor. She deals with things by making light of them, by minimizing their impact. It’s not that she’s unaware of the danger. It’s that she sees the bigger picture.

And the bigger picture for her was being there for a granddaughter’s wedding.

The bigger picture for me is the mitzvah of living in Eretz Yisroel. I believe in this mitzvah with all of my heart and soul. And if someone said to me: “we need you to move to the South” I would totally go there, in spite of the missiles, the need to be near a shelter at all times, heart racing whenever there is a siren, living to the accompaniment of explosions, lack of sleep, interrupted sleep, interrupted business, interrupted education, interrupted showers, interrupted love, for crying out loud—yes. I would do it.

My daughter in-law said to me, “Every place here in Israel has its own risks. We choose to live here for many other reasons and we shouldn't let anyone stop us from doing that.”

This is also true. My friend Ari was murdered for being Jewish while talking on his phone, next to our local supermarket. And his family didn’t leave. None of us did. Efrat is a beautiful place, with great neighbors and every convenience. We doubled down. Our community had more children and named them after Ari. Ari’s daughter got married.

You can’t extinguish us. Not with your sirens, your rockets, your knives, balloons, petrol bombs, stones, kidnappings, decapitations, rapes, terror tunnels, and car-rammings. Not in Auschwitz with gas. And certainly not in Israel, no matter what you do.

We won’t go. And we will keep getting married and having children. Our children will have children, too.

Couples, on the other hand, should not be getting married in bomb shelters, but in beautifully appointed wedding halls. My granddaughter, not yet four, should not be losing sleep, afraid in a bomb shelter to the tune of sirens and explosions. She should not have to take shelter, to cower and fear. It is not 1948.

Scout leaders should lead. Children should not have to, with their own bodies, shield other children

But mistakes have been made. There was the Gaza Disengagement, perpetuated against the will of the people, by a former hero of the right, under suspicious circumstances. A deed not so different from an earlier one, hailing back to 1967: What Ariel Sharon did was not so different from what Moshe Dayan did.

Back in 1967, Moshe Dayan gave away the Temple Mount. We’d just wrested it from the enemy after centuries of longing. No one gave Dayan permission to do that. He just did it. And we are left to deal with the aftermath.

Many years later, it was Ariel Sharon, expelling thousands of his own people from Gaza, after promising he would not do so. Sharon’s actions have brought us here, to a small room in Netivot where my granddaughter can’t be lulled to sleep with a lullaby of sirens and explosions.

Disengagement means there is no easy solution. No matter the good intent we sense in the naming of this latest military operation, there will be no “enduring silence” in the South. Not as long as we continue this pattern of letting Hamas build up its arsenal, shoot up the South, and then agree to a ceasefire after one or two operatives are killed and a bunch of empty buildings are taken out.

Can we go on like this for endless years?

The answer is yes. We can, and if we must, we will. In spite of feeling exhausted and blue at this endless battle.

Because that is what it is to be a Jew. To be an Israeli.

It’s why we have stiff necks. And we also hope. We hope that if we do not know what to do about this state of affairs in the South, someone else will, and if not, we still hope that God will preserve us.

To live in this country one has to have hope. And this is what the children of the South will be hearing tonight, on the occasion of Israel’s 71^st birthday. They’ll be hearing the sound of hope, sung louder than ever before. It is a sound that is louder than sirens or explosions or even a little girl’s fear. They will hear no voices faltering, as our anthem is sung, Hatikva.

It’s a song of hope, of two thousand years and counting. And this is the lesson our children are learning tonight.

That to be alive and in Israel is to hope.

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500,000 CE: Last Remaining Organisms In Yarmouk Camp Still Trying To Kill One Another (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

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Damascus, May 8 - Few living things remain on Earth, but the small number of protozoa, bacteria, and other microscopic life forms inhabiting an area best-known for a sprawling Palestinian refugee camp on the outskirts of the Syrian capital continue to follow the age-old practices that long characterized the locale by engaging in deadly violence.

A loose, shifting coalition of single-cell organisms calling itself the Eukaryotic State in the Levant has besieged Yarmouk for years, as rival factions within the camp fight micron-by-micron to gain or regain control of territory they held at some point during the age-old conflict. Humans abandoned Yarmouk eighty thousand years ago, but the remaining creatures maintained the ancient fight, whose origins remain shrouded in mystery but whose continuation gives the area the only character and identity it has ever known.

"We're hoping to defeat the infidel enemy by the end of Ramadan," stated General Staphylo Coccus of the Al-Staphylococcus Front, which now controls about two thirds of Yarmouk, but faces supply shortages amid the siege. "I have no idea what Ramadan is, but that's the term we've inherited, and it would be kind of shame to relinquish that piece of our heritage."

"Victory will be ours and the kufar will die or flee in everlasting shame," countered Colonel Cyano Monera of the Petri Mujaheddin. "We will liberate the Dar-al-Islam from the Zionist usurper once and for all. I hope you're writing this down and can look it up later, because in my 36-hour lifespan I don't really have time to learn what all those things mean. I have infidels to kill."

The last multicellular organism in Yarmouk succumbed to the fighting ten thousand years ago, leaving only the microbes and a slew of viruses to keep going at one another. "The so-called higher life forms despaired of living - or even dying - here a long time ago," observer Proka Ryota recalled. "Earth became unable to sustain complex life about fifty thousand years ago, possibly because of something called climate change but also possibly something called nuclear holocaust. We're not sure, because all records were destroyed in the fighting, and who cares, anyway?"

Representatives of the warring microbial colonies vowed to bring glory to Allah and their ancestors one ruptured enemy cell wall at a time, and to hoist the flag of their movement over Al Aqsa in triumph, though none of those involved could say for certain where or what Al Aqsa is or was.

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05/08 Links Pt1: Israelis Stand in Silence to Remember Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terrorism; Caroline Glick: Israel Must Prepare for Next War with Hamas

From Ian:

Israelis Stand in Silence to Remember Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terrorism

Israelis stood in silence on Tuesday night as a one-minute siren sounded nationwide to mark the start of the annual Memorial Day for Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terrorism.

A total of 23,741 soldiers have died defending Israel, while 3,150 civilians have lost their lives in terrorist attacks throughout the country’s history.

Another siren — two minutes in length — will be heard in the morning on Wednesday, when many Israelis will visit military cemeteries to pay respects to departed family members and friends.

At an official state ceremony at the Western Wall in Jerusalem on Tuesday, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin said in remarks addressed to the bereaved, “Our wellbeing is bound up in yours. I know that you think and believe that we do not understand. That we will never understand. But today, we ask you, despite everything, to tell us.”

“Tell us about her, about him, tell us about the person,” he continued. “Take us to that space which is so full, crammed full, that they left behind in your hearts. Allow us to remember them.”

At the same event, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi said, “This is a unique moment that makes it possible to feel the heart’s screams and the storm of emotions.”

“There is no consolation, but there is meaning,” Kochavi noted. “We have a state, an army that defends it and, therefore, the [bereaved] families have an eternal right to exist.”

Tonight marks the beginning of Israel's National Memorial Day.
Together, we remember
the fallen,
the courageous,
and the brave.
The IDF soldiers that fell while defending their homeland. pic.twitter.com/IzrgTr3FMN
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) May 7, 2019

From siren to siren: Rocket trauma deepens grief as Ashkelon marks Memorial Day

With the red alert sirens triggered by Gaza rocket fire over the weekend still fresh in their ears, bereaved families in Ashkelon slowly filed into the southern coastal city’s military cemetery Wednesday morning to visit the graves of their lost loved ones on Memorial Day.

The official ceremony would not start for two hours, so the grieving parents, siblings and children had some private time with their fallen relatives before the cemetery would fill with over a thousand members of the general public.

Dozens of young soldiers dispatched to the burial ground in order to participate in the municipality’s official ceremony sat at benches near the entrance, talking among themselves.

Just days earlier, two more people in the city had been added to the rolls of those killed in war or terror attacks. By Memorial Day, calm had returned to the city, the wisps of smoke in the sky from rockets and interceptors replaced by downy clouds, but anger over the deadly round of violence still bubbled.

“At least these bereaved families can be comforted by the fact that their sons’ deaths stood for something. Think about that man killed Sunday when his home was hit by a rocket. What did he die for?” one fresh recruit asked in reference to 58-year-old Ashkelon resident Moshe Agadi, one of four Israeli civilians killed in attacks from the Gaza Strip over the weekend.

Last week on Holocaust Memorial Day, we remembered the cost of not having a state.

Today, on Memorial Day for our Fallen Soldiers, we remember the price we pay to have one. pic.twitter.com/dWZV2Clnbu
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) May 7, 2019