Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, July 02, 2019

07/02 Links Pt2: Dublin's Anti-Israel Boycott Bill; The Roots of the Pro-Israel, Pro-Peace Lobby; UK-based 'Muslim Scholars' Demand 'Fascist' Israel Returned to Arabs

From Ian:

Dublin's Anti-Israel Boycott Bill: Bad for Ireland, Worse for the Palestinians, Terrible for Everyone

The chief government figure opposing the bill is Foreign Minister Simon Coveney. Coveney argues that Ireland risks its standing in the European Union because the bill is legally unsound. He is correct. A Brussels-based EU trade official warned the Irish government that "the bill would be in contravention of EU competence on trade matters," as the EU Commercial Treaty demands uniformity in member-state trade policies.

Irish politicians who passed it would likely be regarded as racist, particularly in view of the German Parliament's recent resolution to designate BDS (the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel) as anti-Semitic.
In addition, there could be "potentially huge losses of US tax benefits for US companies with subsidiaries in Ireland, if the Bill is passed into law. This could potentially lead to major US companies pulling out of Ireland, and for other companies who were considering relocating, to not do so."

The bill may also may well hurt Ireland's effort to secure a position on the UN Security Council (UNSC) in the 2020-2021 vote by regional member-states in the General Assembly. Canada and Norway are competing with Ireland for the two seats allotted to the UNSC's West Europe/North America region.

[The] legislation... will harm the interests of Palestinians -- an estimated 30,000 of whom are employed by Israeli businesses in the West Bank... The Ireland Israel Alliance also accuses the bill's supporters of hypocrisy, and cites their failure to condemn analogous situations in which Irish firms invest in international companies that do business in other occupied territories around the world.

Germany: Some Hate Speech 'More Equal than Others'

Although the "military arm" of Hezbollah is prohibited in the EU, the "political arm" is not, which means that in Germany, Hezbollah is free to engage in "non-military" activities -- such as fundraising.

On the one hand, the federal police conduct countrywide raids on middle-aged Germans who post their thoughts on Facebook, while on the other, members of openly lethal terrorist organizations who espouse nothing but hatred towards a specific ethnic group, the Jews, are not only allowed to march in the heart of the German capital... but are free to organize and fundraise for their purpose.

That participants in the anti-Semitic Al Quds march have been allowed to flaunt their hatred for nearly four decades now, while middle-aged Germans are having their apartments searched for anti-Semitic and racist messages on Facebook, exposes a disturbing double standard in the application of the law.

At the very least, it shows that German authorities appear to harbor extremely selective views of what constitutes hate speech, based, it seems, on nothing more than the identity of the group that voices it.

BDS Spreads Through Community Organizations and K-12

In all these cases — as with the ongoing crackdown by YouTube and Facebook on “extremism” — institutions are shaping the information environment in pervasive and tendentious ways. In the process, Jewish history is redefined as an infinitely elastic metaphor while inevitable protests and corrections are regarded as parochial Jewish efforts to “claim” history. Conversely, any critical treatment of Middle Eastern history or Islam is “Islamophobic.” The specific effect is to cast Israel as the universal villain and Palestinians as the universal victim.

The extent to which BDS has helped normalize antisemitism was demonstrated at Cambridge University, where statements by former Indonesian Prime Minister Mohamad Mahathir, including about Jews’ resentment over being accused of having “hook shaped” noses, and “Can you imagine the Israelis taking over Cambridge and calling it Israel? How would you like that?” were met with polite laughter. Similarly, at an Intelligence Squared debate in London, the resolution that anti-Zionism is not antisemitism passed by a substantial margin, much to the satisfaction of an Islamist who participated.

Ironically, progressive vilification of Israel and its supporters, especially Jews, is expanding at the same time that neo-Nazis in the US and Europe are explicitly expressing support for BDS. A recent study showed that neo-Nazis in the US are increasing active in online forums dedicated to BDS and regularly share all manner of antisemitic materials without reproach.

Similarly, neo-Nazis in Germany have begun using the phrase “Israel is our misfortune,” a sentiment that converges with the German Green Party’s explicit support for BDS. The crossover between the two streams was seen recently when a founder of the Green Party spoke at a neo-Nazi event. This comes as the German Parliament voted to condemn the BDS movement as antisemitic. To date, however, progressives have not rejected or repudiated neo-Nazi support for BDS.

Underlying this convergence are longstanding if understated alliances between extremist figures such as David Duke and Louis Farrakhan. While logically consistent (at least partially) from the neo-Nazi perspective, progressive tolerance for the convergence is more difficult to explain. One historical parallel from the 1960s, when elements of the German far-left converged with neo-Nazis over shared antipathy toward Israel and Jews, hints that a similar process may be underway today globally. Whether this will be self-marginalizing remains unknown but the corrosive impact on mainstream political discourse and social attitudes is already apparent.

Farah News Online, an Australian Arab news site, published an absurdly antisemitic article by .Mouaffaq Alsibai. It is hard for Google to translate well, but here are some highlights:

The Children of Israel seek to corrupt the world, by spreading oppression and evil and all categories of vice, with the intention of destroying the human race.

They want to destroy religious and moral values, and break up social and family ties, and destroy relations between people, using food, drink and sex.

They encourage new trends, and pressure people to buy new products like phones and cars which distract them.

Thus, the children of Israel - the demons of humanity - control humanity .. Utilizing the weaknesses created in our bodies .. And mentioned by Allah.

The author seems to be Syrian and he has a blog that is filled with hatred for Jews. A number of Arab media sites besides this one consider his opinions to be worth spreading.

(h/t WC)

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Who wants to erase history? 1960 Jordanian tourist map of Jerusalem erases all Jewish sites

In late 2017, Jordan's King Abdullah said, "Attempts to Judaize Jerusalem and to change its identity will bring additional violence and extremism."

Jordanians and Palestinian leaders regularly accuse Israel of attempting to erase Christian and Muslim history in Jerusalem, saying they will "defend" the holy sites of both religions from Israeli attempts to, presumably, destroy or erase them.

As is so often the case with Arab accusations against Israel, this is projection of what they have done and would do, not what Israel does.

Here is a Jordanian tourist map from 1960 of the Old City of Jerusalem.

The Kotel (Western Wall) - erased.
The Temple Mount is replaced with "Haram Esh Sharif" even though Christian tourists would be interested in the Mount.
The Jewish Quarter - erased. Along with its street names.

We have a track record of how Arabs act when they control Jerusalem and other ancient Jewish towns. And they are guilty of everything they falsely accuse Israel of doing.

Every single time.

(h/t Irene)

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07/02 Links Pt1: PA leaders implicitly threaten more terror against Israel; Caroline Glick: The Palestinian Authority Hated the Bahrain Conference Because It Was About Helping Palestinians

From Ian:

PMW: “There are thousands” of willing murderers - PA leaders implicitly threaten more terror against Israel

During the recent US-led Bahrain Conference, which the Palestinian Authority decided to boycott despite its stated purpose to discuss means of bringing financial prosperity to the PA, many PA and Fatah leaders spoke out against it.

Speaking at a rally protesting the workshop, PA Chairman Abbas’ deputy in Fatah, Mahmoud Al-Aloul, implicitly threatened Israel and the US that there might be more terror attacks and willing murderers on the way. Referring to a terrorist who murdered 2 Israelis just a few months ago - Omar Abu Laila - Al-Aloul addressed the US and Israel, stating that “your tyranny won’t pass” and that “there are thousands of Omar Abu Lailas who don’t agree to the tyranny”:

Fatah Deputy Chairman Mahmoud Al-Aloul: "We can’t in any way allow the implementation of your plans to eliminate the Palestinian cause. Never! Not your Deal of the Century and not the workshop in Manama [Bahrain]... This is Palestine - it is not for sale and not for purchase. The person has not been created who will relinquish Jerusalem...
Our message today to the US and this Israeli occupation: Your tyranny won’t pass like this. Don’t you understand? Have you not learned what the motives of Omar Abu Laila were? And there are thousands of Omar Abu Lailas who don’t agree to the tyranny and don't agree to the disrespect."
[Official Fatah Facebook page, June 26, 2019]

Fatah official threatens more terror against Israel

Abbas' deputy threatens: "There are thousands" of willing murderers, responding to US-led workshop

The EU Bias That Feeds the PA’s ‘Pay for Slay’ Policy

The EU again in June donated 15 million euros to the Palestinian Authority (PA). As Palestinian Media Watch has exposed, this is the second such donation.

The announcement of the donation exposes both the EU’s open bias against Israel, and its immoral support of the PA’s “Pay for Slay” policy.

Referring to the donation, Deputy EU Representative Tomas Niklasson explained, “We understand the financial crisis that the Palestinians are experiencing. … The EU has been in contact with both sides and … expressed our clear expectations that the governmental economic and financial agreements between the Israeli and Palestinian sides must continue to be fully implemented, including the Israeli obligations according to the Paris Protocol.”

When Niklasson says that the EU understands “the financial crisis that the Palestinians are experiencing,” he, in the name of the EU, is ignoring the fact that the PA “financial crisis” is actually self-imposed, because the PA is refusing to accept nearly 165 million euros a month that Israel has been transferring to the PA. This refusal is a direct result of the PA decision to prioritize paying salaries to terrorists at the expense of its law-abiding employees and the health of the Palestinians, including a seven-year-old undergoing cancer treatment in Israel.

Furthermore, it is shameful that Niklasson focuses solely on the implementation of the “Israeli obligations,” but ignores the fact that the PA is breaching its express commitments in the agreements that form the basis for the economic agreements.

Caroline Glick: The Palestinian Authority Hated the Bahrain Conference Because It Was About Helping Palestinians

PLO chief and PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas made it clear that this is his position when he deliberately forced the U.S. to defund the Palestinian Authority budget. Abbas forced the U.S.’s hand last year when he refused to end the PA’s allocation of 7 percent of its budget to convicted terrorists imprisoned in Israeli jails and to the families of dead terrorists. All Abbas needed to do to prevent defunding of the PA budget was end his regime’s subsidization of terrorism. And he refused.

So too, when Israel passed a law similar to America’s Taylor Force Act, which bars the U.S. from funding the PA so long as it pays salaries to incarcerated terrorists and to the families of dead terrorists, Abbas decided to refuse Israeli financial transfers to the PA. To deal with the funding gap, Abbas cut salaries of regular PA employees by 50 percent and raised the payments to terrorists.

In other words, Abbas chose to immiserate his own people to ensure the continued incentivization of terrorism against Israel.

For its part, Hamas, which destroyed Gaza’s economy, offers the residents of its terror state in Gaza no option other than to serve Hamas’s terror war machine against Israel. Like Hamas, by rejecting U.S. and Israeli funding in order to keep up his payments to terrorists and their families, Abbas denied the Palestinian residents of his West Bank fiefdom an alternative to supporting Israel’s annihilation through terrorism.

Another purpose that perpetuating Palestinian economic suffering serves is securing political support for the Palestinian campaign against Israel. Palestinian economic privation induces the United Nations, the European Union, and the international Left to maintain and expand their hostility to Israel, which is blamed for their plight.

UN and EU anti-Israel resolutions, BDS campaigns, and UN and European financial transfers to Abbas’s coffers will continue to flow only so long as the Palestinians living under the PA’s jackboot continue to suffer and Israel continues to be blamed.

If the Trump plan is implemented, and Palestinian suffering ends, the A-listers in the media, on college campuses, and on the diplomatic circuit also stand to lose.

In short, the Palestinian leadership doesn’t hate Trump and his team because they are trying to hurt the Palestinians. The Palestinian leadership hate Trump and his team because they are trying to help the Palestinians.

The annual State Department report on international religious freedom was released last month. It has a large section on Israel that concentrates on the Orthodox/non-Orthodox split in Israeli society and on Jews against proselytizing by Christians. It also highlighted reports by NGOs accusing Israel of selectively only excavating Jewish archaeological sites, but noted Israel's denial of that.

Here is what is had to say about Palestinian antisemitism, in an appendix on the report on Israel:

On April 30, [Mahmoud] Abbas spoke at a meeting of the Palestinian National Council, stating the massacres of Jews, including during the Holocaust, were related to their “social behavior, [charging] interest, and financial matters,” and not their religion. He issued a statement on May 4 apologizing to those offended by his remarks...

Religiously intolerant and anti-Semitic material continued to appear in official PA media. On October 5, the official Palestinian TV aired a speech by PA Islamic Law Judge Muhannad Abu Roomi describing Jews as “fabricators of history” who “dance and live on the body parts and blood of others.” In another instance, a guest on a Palestinian TV program on April 10 stated that the Holocaust was a lie, and that many Jews “colluded with Hitler to create a gateway to bring settlers to Palestine.” On December 14, Osama al-Tibi delivered a Friday sermon at the Taqwa mosque in al-Tira, near Ramallah, broadcast on Palestine TV. In his sermon, al-Tibi said he was not able to mention all of the Jews’ despicable traits, and that “Allah … turned them into apes and pigs.”

There continued to be anti-Semitic and militaristic and adversarial content directed against Israel in Palestinian textbooks as well as the absence of references to Judaism alongside Christianity and Islam when discussing religion, according to Palestinian Media Watch and the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education. The two NGOs also reported that PA schoolbooks for the 2017-2018 school year contained material glorifying terror and promoting violence. In September media reported a European Parliament committee voted to freeze more than $17 million in aid to the PA over incitement against Israel in its textbooks.

...Palestinians at times violently protested when Jewish groups visited holy sites in the West Bank, particularly Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus. Palestinians threw stones and Molotov cocktails and clashed with IDF escorts during visits of Jewish groups to Joseph’s Tomb (located in Area A) on several days during the year. The IDF used tear gas, rubber bullets, and live fire to disperse Palestinian protesters, secure the site, and/or evacuate Jewish worshippers.

...In an article published by the independent Palestinian Ma’an News Agency, former Hamas official Mustafa al-Lidawi invoked the blood libel to describe how Jews prepared pastries for the Purim holiday.

This is only a small section of the entire report.

(h/t Irene)

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Jews silently praying on Temple Mount is "desecration," playing soccer isn't

Palestine Live tweeted a brief video of Jews praying on the Temple Mount:

A group of Israeli Jewish settlers desecrated today the sanctity of Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied #Jerusalem to perform Talmudic rituals inside its courtyards pic.twitter.com/nQCIxxnCYG
— Palestine Live (@pallive_en) July 1, 2019

I responded:

If Jews quietly praying on their holiest site is a desecration of the site's sanctity, but Arabs playing football or parkour isn't, then perhaps you have a warped idea of what the word "sanctity" means, @pallive_en. https://t.co/UwCbgRUci9
— Elder Of Ziyon ҉ (@elderofziyon) July 1, 2019

I also tweeted some pictures of Muslim respect for their holy spot:

I turned the parkour photos into a snarky animated GIF as well:

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From NPR:

Lebanon hosts more than 1 million Syrian refugees and only allows them to build shelters made of canvas and wood. But the laws have not been clearly stated. The government doesn't permit the establishment of formal refugee camps. So instead, many refugees live in informal settlements, in makeshift homes, some of which have grown over time into more durable homes with breeze-block walls.

A military decree issued in April now requires the refugees to demolish any concrete walls over 1 meter — about 3 feet — high. The military has given the refugees until July 1 to comply, or else authorities will come in and knock down the structures themselves.

But the fear among refugees is that if they leave it to the military to enforce the demolitions, the entire camp, along with their belongings, will be razed. And so they're going about the grim task of destroying the homes they have built.

"Why would I keep my belongings and my children in the house and let the house be knocked down on top of my kids and things?" Jumaa says.

Most of the Syrians have no alternative place for shelter, and it's unclear where thousands of them will go after their homes are destroyed.

The sudden ruling has left aid agencies scrambling to procure tents for those who will be left without homes. According to Save the Children, this military decree has affected more than 5,000 Syrian families, and as many as 15,000 Syrian children now face homelessness.

HRW notes that many Lebanese municipalities have been evicting Syrian refugees from their homes as well in an effort to pressure them to return to Syria, where they may face death.

Surely you have seen the screaming headlines about Syrian refugee homes in danger of demolition, right? CodePink and IfNotNow have been making public protests, right? The media has been all over this story, no?

(h/t JWD)

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07/01 Links Pt2: BDS ‘Anti-Normalization’ Is a Mockery of Progressive Values; ‘Nobel Prize in stupidity’: Holocaust survivor wants AOC out of Congress

From Ian:

BDS ‘Anti-Normalization’ Is a Mockery of Progressive Values

Anti-Israel BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) promoters have long tried to stake out the moral high ground — depicting themselves as the champions of the oppressed, and positioning their movement as being on the right side of history.

But the reality is that BDS rarely acknowledges, or works to prevent, harm to Palestinians that is meted out by their own governments and societal extremists.

What’s even worse is that BDS leaders often egg on and incite these depredations with an anti-normalization campaign characterized by coercion and strong-arm tactics against peace activists and co-existence groups — along with just about any Palestinian who dares to cross the BDS picket line to cooperate with or even just talk to Israelis.

This strategy of anti-normalization, long a mainstay of the BDS movement, originated at the 2001 UN World Conference Against Racism held in Durban, South Africa — an antisemitic hate fest where Jew-hatred became so ugly that the US delegation walked out. Ever since, BDS has opposed any contact between Palestinians and Israelis that fosters dialogue, so as not to “normalize” Israel’s existence.

Basically, BDS calls for the boycott of all Israeli-Palestinian projects and programs that don’t sufficiently emphasize Israel’s alleged brutality and wrongdoings. In fact, the only people-to-people engagements that PACBI (Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel) condones are those that support “resistance.” All others are rejected as undermining Palestinian rights and the national struggle.

Investigation: Anti-Israel groups plan disruption of Christians United for Israel Annual Summit

On July 7-9, 2019, the largest pro-Israel organization in the United States, Christians United For Israel (CUFI), will hold its annual Summit in Washington, D.C. Thousands of CUFI attendees will gather inside the Walter E. Washington Convention Center to hear from speakers such as Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

In this post we will describe the preparations by leading anti-Israel groups to protest outside the venue, and cause a disruption inside the venue, as laid out at a planning meeting recently held in Maryland.

Table of Contents
1. Why Target CUFI?
2. Disturbance Inside The Venue Planned
3. Sunday, July 7 – Training and Panel, featuring Linda Sarsour
4. Monday, July 8 – Training and Protest
5. Groups Behind the Anti-CUFI Protest
A. Friends of Sabeel North America (FOSNA)
B. Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP)
C. American Muslims for Palestine (AMP)
D. U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR)
6. Conclusion – A Who’s Who of Israel Haters Desperate for Attention

1. Why Target CUFI?
CUFI, which now counts over 5 million members, has been a major force driving American Christian grassroots activism and support for Israel for more than 10 years

For anti-Israel groups, CUFI has become a white whale of sorts; with its ever-burgeoning membership and its popularity among America’s sizable Evangelical community, CUFI is a problem for those who seek to turn American Christians away from Israel.

This explains why a handful of the most aggressive anti-Israel groups, including (the inappropriately named) Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), Friends of Sabeel North America (FOSNA), US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR), and American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), have been planning a joint protest of CUFI’s upcoming convention. [See discussion of each group later in this post.] They’re calling it, “Rise Against Racism: Counter CUFI!”

It this were just a protest outside the venue, it would not be unusual. Almost every major pro-Israel conference attracts fringe Israeli-haters like Code Pink and various Hezbollah supporters. (h/t MtTB)

Progressive Jewish group IfNotNow expands forces for 2020

Other activists have already had success influencing the 2020 news cycle by confronting candidates on the campaign trail and asking them candid questions: Former Vice President Joe Biden was caught on camera telling an ACLU volunteer he supported repealing the Hyde Amendment. His campaign later said he actually backed the ban on using federal dollars for abortion services, only to reverse his position again after being rebuked by abortion rights groups.

“The Democratic base is quite far politically in their views on the issue from where the Democratic establishment is,” said Mayer, who named Biden and Sen. Cory Booker as presidential candidates who are particularly out of sync with liberal voters.

IfNotNow believes that the time is ripe to put Israel at the center of the primary debate: Only 26 percent of Democrats view the government of Israel favorably, according to a 2019 survey by the Pew Research Center.

Until now, IfNotNow has focused on trying to change the way Jewish people and institutions, such as Jewish summer camps, discuss the issue of Israel. The group’s move into electoral politics has earned them praise from the first Palestinian-American woman elected to Congress.

“It is about time we realize the status quo is not working to bring peace to the region,” said Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.). “IfNotNow is one of the organizations that gives me hope that we are making progress towards a just and lasting peace.”

IfNotNow trying to make the occupation a major Democratic issue

On Saturday, IfNotNow members posed for a photo with candidate Bernie Sanders in New Hampshire, holding a “Jews Against the Occupation” sign.

IfNotNow said in its announcement of the new endeavor that it founded the new arm in order to “expose the occupation as a moral crisis within the American Jewish community, end the weaponization of anti-Semitism in the political debate over Israel, and create political space for leaders who will stand up for the freedom and dignity for all Israelis and Palestinians.”

The group has raised its profile over the last year by protesting Birthright in a variety of ways, including walking off of its free 10-day trips to Israel.

*Photoshoped

Sheikh Khalid al-Jundi, a member of the Egyptian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, said on TV last night that the Muslim Brotherhood exploited religion as a means of controlling the government, the minds of the Egyptians and even the lungs and breath of the Egyptians.

You can see where this is going. After all, who has such powers?

"The Brotherhood is a Zionist industry," al-Jundi proclaimed. "[The year that they ruled] was a year of sadness, and we were thinking of emigrating whether we are Muslims or Christians."

I guess the Jews all left Egypt because they perfected remotely controlling the Muslim Brotherhood.

(h/t WC)

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While I have occasionally critiqued specific people and policies connected to a political party or wing of the political spectrum, I’ve made it a point to try to illuminate what’s behind the Left-Right divide on Israel, rather than contribute to it.

With that as backdrop, the following critique of someone running for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States should not be seen as an endorsement of anyone else in that race, nor support (or condemnation) of those who don’t have a (D) after their name.

But the rise and (likely) fall of US Senator Cory Booker should be a cautionary tale for those who think they can betray their principles, then “pivot” back to integrity after the damage has been done.

Booker has been on my radar ever since I attended my first AIPAC event where the young and rising political star gave what was possibly the most powerful and inspiring speech on Israel I ever heard. His talk drew from his experience interacting with the Chabad community while he was a Rhodes Scholar in Oxford, notably how his relationship with their Rabbi Shmuley Boteach helped him appreciate both Judaism and the centrality of Israeli to Jewish life.

Since then I’ve kept track of Booker’s rise of the cursus honorum, hoping for the opportunity to vote for the man I saw all those years ago for President. Unfortunately, now that the chance to do so has arrived, the person I was so impressed with is no longer there.

I suspect that the turning point for Booker came when he had the opportunity to vote against President Obama’s Iran deal, a vote that might have eventually earned him a Profiles in Courage award, but which would have cost him support of a popular president and the enmity of the most powerful people in his party at a time when a presidential run was clearly in his future. Sadly, Booker took the expedient route and voted for something he probably knew was not right. Even more sadly, in justifying that vote, had had to justify moving away from all he said – and I suspect believed – as a younger, wiser man.

Given the dynamics of the current presidential race, where dozens of candidates have to go to extreme measures to stand out from the crowd, Booker seems to be playing the game of saying the right things to the Jewish community, while acting against Israel’s interests (by, among other things, voting against federal anti-BDS legislation) and justifying those choices with stale talking points I can’t believe he really buys.

Booker’s path has cost him the support (although not the friendship) of his old friend Boteach, and his current two-step regarding whether or not he will meet with Louis Farrakhan simply illustrates more of the same triangulation calculated to signal to Left wing primary votes that he is one of them, while trying not to alienate the Jewish community so much that he loses their long-term support.

Unfortunately for him, all of this calculated pandering does not seem to have budged him in the polls. Part of this is the sheer difficulty breaking through all of the noise, especially with the most aggressive members of the Democratic pack out-Lefting him at every turn. But I also suspect that primary voters with little involvement or even interest in Jewish or Middle East issues recognize inauthenticity when they see it.

The sad thing is that even Booker’s switch to a “balanced” position between Israel and her would-be destroyers has not earned him substantial or lasting support from Israel haters who are only too ready to not just abandon but punish anyone who deviates even an angstrom degree from their ever-changing list of demands.

Demands for fealty by the BDS crowd stands in sharp contrast to large swaths of the Jewish community not ready to abandon Booker even when he acts against their interests. Perhaps this longing for friendship (especially by a rising African American political star) represents weakness on our part, although it could also represent hope that the man who spoke so eloquently at AIPAC way back then is the real Cory Booker, who is just playing the cards he’s been dealt in a strange political era.

Maybe they are right and in five years we’ll be watching Cory Booker accept the nomination of his party for a second term in office. But I suspect that what we are really watching is a man sacrificing both his soul and his dreams by walking away from what he believes in order to achieve what he wants.

If Cory ends up an also-ran, with nothing to show for all he’s sacrificed, that should serve as a lesson not for just him, but all of us. In ways large and small, we are asked to (and often make) compromises to get through life, but our integrity – that which makes us truly us – is something that must never be put up for auction. Living an inauthentic life has a high cost, which Booker is currently paying. But his sacrifice might have value if it teaches the rest of us not to make the same mistake.

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07/01 Links Pt1: Kushner’s Peace Proposal Would End the Palestinian Refugee Problem; Abbas’ advisor repeats PA antisemitic narrative; Mossad head: Nuclear archive operation exposed 'big Iranian lie'

From Ian:

PMW: Abbas’ advisor repeats PA antisemitic narrative

According to this narrative, Jews were unwanted in Europe - an European plot created a homeland for them in Palestine.

According to the Palestinian Authority’s historical revision, Jews have no connection to the Land of Israel. The reason there are any Jews in “Palestine” is because of a European plot to get rid of the unwanted Jews. This antisemitic part of the Palestinian narrative was repeated last week by PA Chairman Abbas’ advisor on Foreign Relations, Nabil Shaath, at a symposium in Iraq:

“Shaath presented the plotting role that the US has played throughout history in order to erase the Palestinian identity and right, beginning with the Balfour [Declaration] that would not have been issued without American support, and the European plot to settle the Jews who were unwanted in Europe in order to get rid of them, so that they created a homeland for them that would absorb them in Palestine.” [Al-Ayyam, June 26, 2019]

Palestinian Media Watch has exposed the antisemitic element of the PA narrative numerous times. Another of Abbas’ advisors, Mahmoud Al-Habbash, for example, has stated that Europe supported Zionism to get rid of the Jews:

Mahmoud Al-Habbash, Abbas' Advisor on Religious and Islamic Affairs: "After World War II ended, the colonialist states wanted to get rid of the presence of the Jews of Europe, who had a monopoly over the economy and capital. Therefore, they supported these claims and helped them establish their state on the land of Palestine at the expense of the Palestinian people, who are still suffering from this crime."
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, April 24, 2018]

Jared Kushner’s Peace Proposal Would End the Palestinian Refugee Problem

The U.S. “Peace to Prosperity” plan, unveiled at the Bahrain conference last week, calls for putting $50 billion toward improving the economic situation of the Palestinians; of this, over half is to be disbursed in Gaza and the West Bank, while the remainder would be divided among Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt—to be spent on descendants of Palestinian refugees living in the first two countries, and Gazans resettled in the last. From this part of the plan, Raphael Bouchnik-Chen sees an attempt to integrate these Palestinians into the countries where they live, and end their anomalous status as permanent “refugees”:

The Trump administration is pursuing the goal of changing the Palestinian experience from that of a society of miserable “refugees” into that of a prosperous society. . . . Kushner’s concept has a historical precedent. On June 15, 1959, the UN secretary-general Dag Hammarskjold presented a resettlement initiative. Hammarskjold assumed there were means available for the absorption of the refugees into the economy of the Arab region, and asserted that the refugees would be beneficial to their host countries by providing the manpower necessary to those countries’ development. He proposed that the program be financed by oil revenues and international funds up to $2 billion.

In 1959, [the Arab League] claimed that acceptance of the UN secretary general’s plan, with no guarantees, would have been tantamount to giving up [Palestinians’] economic and political rights. The Arabs accused Hammarskjold of exceeding his legal limits, and faulted him for ignoring the fact that the economic issues were the result of the political conflict. Addressing the economic question also separated the refugee problem from the conflict as a whole, which, so it was argued, was one of nationhood.

Why a U.S.-Israel Alliance is a Terrible Idea

Beyond the political imperatives on both sides, the decisive question regarding a US-Israel defense treaty can be cast in terms of cost-benefit analysis. The various costs have been outlined above. As to the benefits, a formal alliance would not necessarily add to the key components vital to Israel's national security.

US military assistance, which indeed provides the IDF with key components of its build-up and maintenance, clearly constitutes an element in Israel's deterrence equation. But this rests upon the existing long-term (ten year) commitments of the Administration and upon annual congressional allocations – not upon any treaty. The weight and size of the assistance package is a function of US determination to help an ally, and not predicated upon the existence of a formal treaty document. Nor would such a document change hostile perceptions of Israel's immense base of support in the US as it is today.

A US-Israel defense treaty would also pose some diplomatic difficulties. A degree of formal distance between Jerusalem and Washington is useful in Israel's diplomatic interactions with many of the Third World countries that are suspicious of a superpower. In addition, under a defense treaty, Israel will be even less free to compete with the US military industries than it is today. As a formal ally, Jerusalem would be less likely to conduct effective diplomacy with Moscow, let alone host a tripartite US-Russia-Israel summit of national security advisors.

Thus, a defense treaty between Israel and the US would reflect noble sentiment; but beyond the statement of friendship, it is neither desirable nor practical. The treaty may be a lofty idea, but one that works well only if it remains theoretical.

The real goal of "Never Again Action" isn't to help immigrants. It is to recruit Jews to hate Israel.

In only the past few weeks, a previously unknown group called Never Again Action has come out of nowhere to gain thousands of followers as a Jewish group to oppose US immigration policies.

Michael Elgort traced the evolution of their Twitter account:

Few days ago this account was created to provide coverage for @aoc shameful words and it was created by a group of marginalized Jews from @IfNotNowOrg. Account had 30 followers day before yesterday. Today it has more than 4000 and Beinart is promoting it

Peter Beinart

✔@PeterBeinart

This perfectly captures the generational and moral divide among American Jews. Establishment Jewish leaders were offended that @AOC applied the language of Never Again to Trump's barbarism. Young Jewish activists are invoking Never Again to fight it https://twitter.com/NeverAgainActn/status/1145427476547588097 …

Never Again Action @NeverAgainActn

Replying to @NeverAgainActn

Our Jewish faith and practice is why we are here today. It’s what drives us to take action. #JewsAgainstICE #NeverAgainMeans

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8:42 PM - Jun 30, 2019

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This is how it looked 3 days ago. First followers were Sophie-Ellman Golan and If Not Now. Now it suddenly came into the spotlight, gained thousands of followers and RTs from blue ticks. Of course @aoc follows it now, it fully supports her wildest claims.

Sophie started to promote account she was a first follower of.
Immediately after other blue ticks followed to promote it (including Beinart in my first tweet above) and list of followers grew to Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg, @popchassid, Simone Zimmerman and @aoc of course

And now a sitting American congresswoman @aoc is promoting an unknown org created few days ago by @IfNotNowOrg - an organization that supports BDS and other antisemitic orgs. Will anyone ask her does she support BDS now? Look at the screenshots. She moneyraises for them. WTF?

I think this is more insidious than Elgort is saying.

It is bad enough that they are using the Holocaust and their supposed Jewish identities to push their agenda. This cheapens the Holocaust by comparing it to whatever is the flavor of the week. (Their video of saying Kaddish for people who died crossing the border, when they never said Kaddish for actual Holocaust victims, speaks volumes.)

This, however, is not about ICE. This is about Israel.

It was started by IfNotNow, which is an anti-Israel organization (which in turn seems to have been spun off from Jewish Voice for Peace.)

The purpose of Never Again Action is twofold, and neither have to do with ICE.

One is to hijack the Holocaust so that Israel's purpose to be a safe haven for Jews that was so obvious in the 1940s is weakened as just one more Holocaust analogy. Here is theirs:

We’ve seen this groundwork laid before. We were taught to never let anything like the Holocaust happen again.
We refuse to wait and see -- we know from our own history what happens when a government targets, dehumanizes and strips an entire group of people of all their civil and human rights. Never again is now.
Many of our ancestors narrowly escaped from conditions like what we are seeing today in concentration camps at the border and detention centers around the country. We repeated the phrase "Never Again" within our synagogues, day schools and summer camps. We learned our history so that we, as Jews, would never allow for this scale of injustice and horror to occur again.

Not to defend how the US is dealing with a very difficult problem, but it is incredibly offensive to directly compare the conditions in these detainment facilities and the Nazi concentration camps.

The other, and primary, goal of Never Again Action is to enmesh hatred of Israel in every single liberal cause.

Never Again Action is trying to mobilize young people to get angry and demonstrate against Trump and his policies - to get them to protest, write letters, get active.

Once they are active in that cause, then they are primed to be active against Israel. They will be exposed to a constant barrage of explicit and implicit anti-Israel messages (comparing US policy towards illegal immigrants to how Israel treats Palestinians.) Never Again Action is a preparatory school for IfNotNow.

Right now, IfNotNow has a lot of publicity but not a lot of members. They need to recruit more Jewish youth, but most of them don't care about Israel one way or another. These extremist anti-Israel activists are trying to get Jews involved in any liberal cause so they can then join their recruiters in their main purpose: to destroy the Jewish state by pretending to uphold Jewish values.

This is a refinement of the strategy the Palestinians have used since the UN General Assembly declared them a state. The PLO joined lots of international organizations, but all they really do is try to hijack their causes against Israel. This has not been very effective.

It has been more effective in the West, as anti-Israel activists use Black Lives Matter and the Women's March to push their messages along the others in the name of "intersectionality." But there has been pushback there as well, as the antisemitism of some leaders of both organizations have been exposed.

The main weapon the IfNotNow folks have is to claim that they represent a significant number of Jews. Surveys show that they don't, and that they make more noise than real impact. So this is the tactic they came upon: recruit Jews for a completely unrelated liberal cause, make a bogus linkage (like they try to link police brutality with Israel,) and then they have new recruits to go on anti-Israel marches.

This isn't about human rights. This is a cynical hijacking of a human rights cause with the ultimate aim of depriving Jews in Israel of their human rights.

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.