Monday, September 16, 2019

  • Monday, September 16, 2019
  • Elder of Ziyon

Abbas DID cut some payments to terrorists and their families - but only for his political opponents

The Palestinian Authority has said, repeatedly, that payments for terrorists in prison and families of terrorists are sacred and will not be touched, no matter what economic sanctions are placed on the PA for their "pay for slay" system.

It turns out this is not quite true.

Hatem Abdel Qader
Hatem Abdel Qader, member of the Fatah Revolutionary Council,  this morning criticized the Palestinian Authority's continued cutting salaries of militants and to the families of "martyrs," wounded and convicted terrorists in Israeli prison.``We should not face a war from the Israelis and the Americans at the same time when the PA is distracted by cutting salaries of the martyrs and the wounded, '' he said.

Back in February, it was reported that the PA had cut the salaries to terrorists and their families - but only for those who belonged to president Mahmoud Abbas' political opponents in Gaza, including former Fatah members, Hamas and Islamic Jihad. At the time the cuts were blamed by PA officials as a "technical fault."

It was no such thing. By summer, it was clear that the salaries were not going to be paid for some 2700"martyrs", prisoners and their families. These included members of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and followers of Abbas' political rival Mohammed Dahlan, going back to late 2018.

Abbas similarly cut salaries completely to workers in Gaza as well, while he cut the salaries of those in the West Bank by 50%.

Suddenly, the "moral" stance of Mohammed Abbas where he claimed he would prioritize paying "martyrs" over all others only applies to members of his own Fatah faction.



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  • Monday, September 16, 2019
  • Elder of Ziyon

Egyptian newspaper not happy with Netflix' "The Spy" because of scenes making fun of Nasser

Arabic Egyptian news site Al Bidda is not happy with Netflix' The Spy, about Eli Cohen.

Its criticisms are all over the place. For example, completely missing the point of the story, the article says "It is strange for a spy series, which is taken from the Israeli narrative of Cohen's mission in Syria, that it embodies the story of a spy who ultimately failed and was arrested and executed in a public square in Syria after the discovery by Egyptian intelligence to trick him and inform their Syrian counterpart. "

I have not seen any story that credits Egyptian intelligence with having anything to do with Cohen's capture.

But the real issue that Egyptians have with the series is the scene I highlighted earlier, which could not have lasted more than three seconds, showing Syrians making fun of Egypt's president Nasser in posters on this wall.


The author is convinced that Netflix made the entire series for that one scene, "insulting the symbols of the July (1952) Revolution."
By presenting this "distorted" content, Netflix raised several questions, the most important of which are: Are the network's officials trying to pass political agendas against Egypt and the Arab countries within a dramatic content? 
Can you say "paranoid?"

From this review one would think that the series was about Egypt and not Syria and Israel.


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Sunday, September 15, 2019

Roger Waters Denies Flying On Epstein's Jet More Than Like 5 Or 6 Times (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column (delayed) from the humor site PreOccupied Territory. 


Check out their Facebook page.


Credit: Alterna2 via Wikimedia Commons
Credit: Alterna2 via Wikimedia Commons
New York, September 12 - The publicists for a former Pink Floyd front man sought to downplay reports today that their client had made frequent trips on the private aircraft of a late sex-trafficking kingpin, insisting that he traveled on that airplane maybe half a dozen times at most.

Roger Waters only made five or six trips on Jeffrey Epstein's private jet, tops, asserted Dane Brammidge to reporters Thursday, and that any talk of underage girls on the same flights remains pure speculation and fodder for a libel suit, at least until clear evidence emerges of same. Epstein committed suicide in his NY jail cell soon after his arrest on federal charges.

"Mr. Waters would like to assure the public in general, and his fans and activism allies in particular, that reports of his frequenting Jeffrey Epstein's underage brothels are spurious, possibly slanderous, nonsense," proclaimed Brammidge. "He took flights on the Epstein jet no more than, say, six times, but probably fewer, and any attempt to paint him as some sort of close friend of a sex-trafficker will be met by legal means."

"These reports are probably the work of those who resent or oppose my client's political activism and advocacy," continued Brammidge. "I would not be surprised to discover that the regimes or groups whose vested interests Mr. Waters opposes in his efforts to secure human rights for the oppressed are behind the idea that he made more than like five or six flights like that, and they certainly cannot produce evidence that any alcohol or underage prostitutes played any part in that small handful of flights, at least not yet."

Brammidge emphasized that Waters's several trips on Epstein's plane, which took place between 1990 and 2016, occurred as part of the musician's ongoing advocacy for Palestinian rights. "It is cynical at the very least, and perhaps even sinister, to smear my client's work in this manner. One can only wonder whether these allegations are part of a broader effort to tarnish the very causes for which he works so tirelessly, such as inflatable pigs with dollar signs and Jewish stars getting tossed around at his concerts."

The spokesman also wondered aloud whether any such media follow-up has dogged Israeli politician Ehud Barak after the latter was photographed entering Epstein's Upper East Side mansion, just a random thought, not for any special reason, even though of all the public figures he could have mentioned with documented or alleged ties to the deceased Epstein, he chose the one Israeli.

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09/15 Links: PMW: PA Minister of Culture denies Jewish history; Mohammad Tawhidi: I Was an Extremist and an Antisemite, Do You Know My Story?; Why is BDS dangerous?

From Ian:
PMW: PA Minister of Culture denies Jewish history
One of the central elements of the Palestinian narrative is the negation of the entire Jewish history in the Land of Israel in general and in Jerusalem in particular. Despite numerous sources and archeological finds proving the opposite, the Palestinian Authority regularly repeats this claim because it is the basis for the PA's denial of Israel's right to exist. Recently, the PA Minister of Culture emphasized this Palestinian lie, claiming Israel has "no connection" to Jerusalem, history, geography or even to the future. He then asserted the second fundamental Palestinian historical revision intended to create a Palestinian right to exist. He claimed that Palestinians were Canaanites with a 6,000-year history in the land:

PA Minister of Culture Atef Abu Saif: "Our struggle is with this State [of Israel] that came out of nowhere, without a history and without geography, stole our land, and wants to put an end to our existence... There is a lying author who wrote a story about his false presence on this land, and then comes and wants to realize his tale. There is nothing in history that proves this presence. They have not found one stone... [Israel knows] that they have no connection to this city [Jerusalem], that they have no connection to this history, and that they have no connection to the geography, just as they have no connection to the future... If Israel celebrated the lie of '3,000 years [of Jewish history] in Jerusalem,' we have 7,000 years in Jerusalem - so what? We Canaanites are the first ones who built Jebus more than 6,000 years ago. And perhaps we need no celebrations because it is natural that we are here. Those who celebrate are foreigners."
[Official PA TV, Palestine This Morning, Aug. 26, 2019]

Palestinian Media Watch documented that PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas himself recently voiced the PA claim that today's Palestinians are descendants of the biblical Canaanites in order to establish an ancient historical connection of "5,000 years" to the land:

Abbas: "[Israelis] will remember that this land belongs to its people; this land belongs to its inhabitants; this land belongs to the Canaanites who were here 5,000 years ago - and we are the Canaanites!"
[Facebook page of the PA Presidential Office, Aug. 10, 2019]


Jonathan Tobin: Critics Deny Jerusalem’s Past and Its Future
Its critics have accused Israel of a lot of terrible things over the course of its 71 years of existence, but The New York Times has now added one more to the list that will particularly resonate with intellectuals. While Israeli policies in Jerusalem since its reunification in 1967 have often been blasted, a recently approved proposal to deal with the city’s seemingly insoluble traffic problems is being put down as “Disneyfication.”

The object of scorn is a cable car that will start its journey at the First Station cultural complex in western Jerusalem and then travel over the Hinnom Valley to a stop at Mount Zion before landing in the City of David archeological park in eastern Jerusalem. There, visitors and worshippers will be able to tour the historic excavations at the site and walk to the Western Wall via recently excavated underground passageways that were taken by pilgrims on their way to the Second Temple 2,000 years ago. If planners have their way, this line will be the first of many that will crisscross the city in the future, delivering people to destinations that would otherwise require them to navigate jammed streets.

The accusation that Jews are trashing the holy city and turning it into a theme park due to this plan was the focus of a feature published this week by the Times. The cable-car scheme is fair game for criticism from architects and others who worry about the potential aesthetic damage to the ancient capital. But the subtext of the campaign against the initiative goes far deeper than whether or not it will make Jerusalem look like a Swiss ski resort or even Disneyworld. For Times architecture critic Michael Kimmelman and many of the Israel-bashers he quotes in his piece, the real story is about how Israel is seeking to emphasize Jerusalem’s Jewish history.

New York Times’ Jerusalem Cable Car: The Architecture of Bias
Kimmelman is perfectly entitled to critique the Israeli cable car plan on the grounds of architecture and design. Indeed, one of the critics he interviews is Moshe Safdie, the architect responsible for many Israeli building projects including within Jerusalem. But Kimmelman goes further:
The cable-car project is an example, illustrating how Israel wields architecture and urban planning to extend its authority in the occupied territories. Whatever its transit merits, which critics say are negligible, the cable car curates a specifically Jewish narrative of Jerusalem, furthering Israeli claims over Arab parts of the city.

What is this architecture and urban planning that Israel wields? An illustrative photo below the paragraph shows a walled section of Israel’s security barrier as an example. The barrier is not about extending Israeli authority but preventing acts of Palestinian terrorism against Israeli civilians.

And what exactly is a “specifically Jewish narrative of Jerusalem,” a city that has been central to Judaism and the Jewish people for thousands of years?

Later, Kimmelman also states:
Cable car passengers will be funneled through a Jewish version of the city’s history.

As if Israel is somehow imposing on or ‘Judaizing’ the city.

Indeed, according to Kimmelman:
the cable cars will swoop down from a Jewish neighborhood in the western part of Jerusalem to Mount Zion.

This is an interesting use of language given that cable cars usually descend fairly slowly. Instead, we have them “swooping down” almost like a predatory bird, which might well be a subliminal image for Kimmelman who sees Israel preying on the holy city.

Related reading: Deal With It: Jerusalem is Israel’s Capital

It’s also worth pointing out that while Kimmelman sees Israel promoting a “Jewish version of the city’s history,” Israel is the one authority that has consistently and effectively protected all holy sites in Jerusalem for all religions. Indeed there is nothing preventing tourists from visiting the many Christian or Muslim historical sites. The only party that denies a Jewish historical connection to the city is the Palestinians.


The Great Jewish "Whiteness" Thing (Michael Lumish)


The Great Jewish "Whiteness" Thing 
Michael Lumish

Micha Mitch Danzig, Attorney,
former IDF, Middle East analyst
The question of Ashkenazi Jewish "whiteness" is receiving increased attention.

If to be "white" means anything it means to be of European descent. But in today's western-left political culture what it really means is "bad, racist, colonialist, imperialist, hater of all-things-good."

In other words, it means to be a contemptible person.

To be "white" no longer merely suggests ethnicity, but a toxic ontology (way of being) and a toxic epistemology (way of knowing.)

Ironically, this racist view of "whiteness" primarily derives from those who claim to be the ideological descendants of Martin Luther King, Jr. If King stood for anything, however, he stood for judging people according to character, not ethnicity and not gender. Those who despise "whiteness" assign this racial category to Ashkenazi Jews in order to spread that hatred onto one of the most persecuted peoples on the planet. This tendency among "progressives" is nothing if not illiberal.

It is, at least in part, for this reason, that many American Jews are walking away from the progressive-left and the Democratic Party.

In any case, in a July, 2017, piece, Micha Mitch Danzig writes:
The reality is that the entire notion of Ashkenazi Jews as “White people” is very new (from a historical perspective) and it is also completely detached from any historical context, including in America, where, as recently as the early 1960s there were still quotas on Jewish enrollment in some Ivy League schools. Ironically, since the origin of the European pseudoscientific racial classifications (dividing humanity as White, Black, and Yellow races); Jews in Europe (both Ashkenazi and Sephardi alike) were regularly persecuted on the basis of being “non-white.”
This is worth a read because the question of Jewish "whiteness" goes to the question of Jewish indigeneity within the Land of Israel.

And the fact of Jewish indigeneity goes to the very heart of the Movement for Jewish Freedom, which we affectionately call "Zionism."

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  • Sunday, September 15, 2019
  • Elder of Ziyon

A horse race in Gaza (photos)

Palestine Today published this photo feature of a horse race in Gaza at the site of the old airport.



The jockeys, spectators and horses all seem well-fed.


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  • Sunday, September 15, 2019
  • Elder of Ziyon

I'm no fan of the Jerusalem cable car - but the NYT is worse



The New York Times has an article that is very critical of the planned cable car system that will link the Kotel and City of David with the western part of the holy city.

I am not a fan of the cable car idea, but the Times article goes beyond valid points into much more fundamental criticism of Israel's excavation and preservation of ancient Jewish sites - criticism that cannot be viewed as anything but an anti-Israel narrative.

Examples:

The cable-car project is an example, illustrating how Israel wields architecture and urban planning to extend its authority in the occupied territories. Whatever its transit merits, which critics say are negligible, the cable car curates a specifically Jewish narrative of Jerusalem, furthering Israeli claims over Arab parts of the city.

...Cable car passengers will be funneled through a Jewish version of the city’s history. After disembarking at the City of David, they can tour the archaeological site, then proceed underground to the Western Wall via Herodian passageways walked by Jewish pilgrims during the era of the Second Temple and now partly excavated beneath the homes of Palestinian families in Silwan.

Notwithstanding that several Arab homes may be demolished to make room for it, in effect the cable car pretends Arab Silwan isn’t there. Tourists will fly over and tunnel under Silwan’s Palestinian residents without actually having to encounter them.
It is a cable car meant for tourists. Silwan is not exactly a tourist spot. This criticism is not about the cable car but about the fact that Arabs claim that Silwan, known earlier as Shiloach, is an exclusively Arab area.

It was, once, after the Jews were expelled in the 1930s.

The article notes that one of the cable car stations is at what is now known as Mount Zion, which is more associated with Christianity than Judaism - it has the "Room of the Last Supper" and other places more of interest to Christians than Jews. But the New York Times doesn't mention that because the thesis of the article is how Israel is Judaizing Jerusalem - exactly what the Arabs claim.

Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem, tweeted:





The NYT goes on:

The plan can bring to mind Israel’s so-called bypass roads, built to safely speed Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank to Jerusalem without passing through Palestinian towns.
The alternative is to endanger the Jews who want to reach their homes, who could easily be caught in Arab roadblocks and lynched. Apparently, that is preferable to the reporter.
Even the cladding of East Jerusalem’s settlements in Jerusalem stone, the architectural uniform traditionally worn by buildings in Jewish West Jerusalem, helps spread the image of a single Jewish city.
Guess who created the law that all buildings in Jerusalem be built with Jerusalem stone? The British, as can be seen in this 1995 article in the very same New York Times that glorified the city's use of Jerusalem stone:

Heaven intrudes upon Jerusalem in another way, too, in the recurring question of how much the whole city should itself resemble a perfect kingdom, or simply be allowed to look like other places. The British, who governed Jerusalem from 1917 to 1947, made a powerful gesture toward a higher Jerusalem when they decreed that all buildings had to be faced with Jerusalem stone, a local form of limestone with an exceptionally warm, golden hue. .... This rule may be the most important single act of city planning ever in Jerusalem. The stone is an extraordinary material, rich and textured and almost magical in the glow of dawn and dusk in the city's heavy light, and it brings even the most mediocre architecture into a sense of wholeness with the city.
The newer NYT article praises the British for doing the very thing it falsely berates the Israelis for doing:

Modern Jerusalem was spared Disneyfication, first by the highborn culture of British colonialism, with its awe for the city’s antique past, and next by Jordanian paralysis, which froze the Old City as if in amber.
Well, not exactly. The Jordanians destroyed a number of major synagogues that used to be part of the Jerusalem skyline and now are being rebuilt by those terrible Israelis who, the Times implies, have no regard for history by "Disneyfying" Jerusalem.

Again, I think the cable cars are a mistake, but this article is blaming Israel for the remarkable job of keeping Jerusalem both a sacred place and a livable place over the past 52 years.

(h/t Yisrael Medad)



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Saturday, September 14, 2019

  • Saturday, September 14, 2019
  • Elder of Ziyon

Accused arsonist of Duluth synagogue looks like a crazy person, maybe an incel, but not like a white nationalist

Matthew James Amiot, from his Facebook page


From the NY Daily News:
Minnesota police made an arrest Friday in connection with a fire that destroyed Adas Israel Synagogue in Duluth earlier this week.

Matthew James Amiot, 36, was booked on a first-degree arson charge Friday and is in custody at the St. Louis County Jail. He is scheduled to appear in court Monday.

The Star Tribune reported that no one else was arrested on Friday and that the suspect had nearly a dozen misdemeanor convictions for trespassing, burglary and theft.

Amiot's Facebook page is a little sparse, but it gives a little indication of what he is like.

He doesn't seem to be a white nationalist. He has had previous profile images of Tupac Shakur with the quote "Is it a crime, to fight, for what is mine?"


He also has friends in Duluth who are black.

Amiot also seems obsessed with  organized crime, with a number of photos of this Goodfellas quote (his profile picture for the past year)  and a picture of noted crime bosses of the 1930s:



I don't think a white nationalist would quote a rap artists or show great affinity to Italian mobsters.(There are a number of Jewish mobsters in the photo as well.)

He loves guns, as the photo on top and this one shows:



He seems to be anti-Christian, based on this photo:


(He has one picture of Jesus but I think it is meant to be ironic.)

He announced his engagement in 2007 and one of the comments from a friend was "Church lady?" followed by a "Hehehe," so it seems to have been a joke.

The engagement didn't last, and this post might explain why.



If I had to make a guess, I'd think that Amiot is an incel, a trait shared by many mass murderers. Incel forums are known to include antisemitism along with racism and extreme sexism as well as anger against the world for their forced celibacy.

As bad as burning down a synagogue is, Amiot might have been very close to doing a mass shooting instead.



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09/14 Links: Trump says he talked Mutual Defense Pact with Netanyahu, will pick up after vote; Peace Now, AP Push Psuedoscience on Jerusalem Discrimination

From Ian:
Trump says he talked Mutual Defense Pact with Netanyahu, will pick up after vote
US President Donald Trump on Saturday said he had spoken with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the phone of a potential Mutual Defense Pact, or MDP, between the two countries, and that he hoped to continue such talks after Tuesday’s election.

“I had a call today with Prime Minister Netanyahu to discuss the possibility of moving forward with a Mutual Defense Treaty, between the United States and Israel, that would further anchor the tremendous alliance between our two countries,” he tweeted.

“I look forward to continuing those discussions after the Israeli Elections when we meet at the United Nations later this month,” he added, in a comment that was interpreted in Israel as indicting his hope that Netanyahu will win the elections on Tuesday.


In a statement Netanyahu thanked Trump, who he called his “dear friend,” and said he too looked forward to continuing the conversation to advance “a historic defense treaty.”


“The Jewish State has never had a greater friend in the White House,” the premier tweeted.

Haaretz reported earlier this month that Netanyahu and Trump were discussing such a gesture ahead of the election in Israel, in a bid to boost the Israeli premier’s electoral prospects.

The newspaper had reported that among options being considered were a vow by Trump — with few practical implications — that the US would defend the Jewish state from any potential existential threat; or a joint declaration by both leaders that they would seek an MDP between the two countries, the main upshot of which is that each side is obligated to come to the aid of the other in the event of military conflict.
Obama envoy says Netanyahu ‘encouraged’ plan that included settler withdrawal
Martin Indyk, a former US ambassador to Israel and the second of the Obama administration’s three Mideast peace envoys, on Saturday said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was not giving the true facts in his claim that he’d stopped an effort by rival Benny Gantz of the Blue and White party to support an Obama-era settlement withdrawal plan.

Indyk said it was in fact Netanyahu who had encouraged and shown interest in the plan, and that it was his defense minister at the time — now a Gantz ally — who had slammed the breaks on the discussions.

Netanyahu published a video on his Facebook page Friday which repeated his claim that Gantz, the former Israel Defense Forces head, had cooperated with the administration of former US president Barack Obama on a plan that included withdrawing settlements from the Jordan Valley and West Bank. It further claimed that Netanyahu had stopped these efforts in their tracks.

The so-called Allen Plan was drawn up by retired US general John Allen and advanced by then-secretary of state John Kerry as part of 2013-2014 peace talks with the Palestinians.

“The truth: Bibi encouraged and showed considerable interest in the Allen Plan and never said annexation was necessary. Blue and White’s Bogie Ya’alon, as Bibi’s Defense Minister, vetoed the Allen Plan, NOT Bibi. Bogie also forbad Gantz from discussing the plan with US officials,” Indyk wrote on Twitter, referring to both Netanyahu and Moshe Ya’alon by their nicknames.

While allowing for an Israeli military presence in the border area between Jordan and the West Bank, the plan would have required the dismantling of all Israel’s settlements in the Jordan Valley, according to reports at the time.
The unknown side of Kissinger: His war against Rabin
Until now, the controversy over inviting Henry Kissinger to speak at an upcoming Jewish conference in Manhattan has focused on his actions during the Yom Kippur War, his hostility to Soviet Jewry, and his mistreatment of Ambassador Daniel Patrick Moynihan.

But there is another important aspect to the debate: Kissinger’s harsh and vulgar treatment of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

The details of Kissinger’s mistreatment of Rabin are set forth in Prof. Gil Troy’s recent book, Moynihan’s Moment. Basing himself on previously unpublished internal memoranda and transcripts of Kissinger’s conversations with his aides, Troy presents a side of Kissinger that is not widely known—but should be.

The story began in early 1975. Kissinger undertook what was termed “shuttle diplomacy,” and it was aimed at getting Israel to make one-sided concessions to Egypt. He demanded that Prime Minister Rabin surrender the Mitla and Giddi mountain passes, two of the most strategic points in the entire Sinai Peninsula. Kissinger also insisted that Rabin surrender the Abu Rudeis oil fields in Sinai, which had the potential to make Israel energy-independent.

And what did Kissinger offer in exchange? A vague five year pledge of “non-belligerency” from the Egyptians. In other words, Israel would give up vital, tangible assets, and Egypt would be free to invade the Jewish state again in five years. No wonder Rabin hesitated to agree to those outrageous terms.

Kissinger was furious that Rabin was not immediately surrendering to all his demands. Israel was “bringing the world to the edge of war for three kilometers in the Giddi and eight kilometers in the Mitla,” Kissinger complained to his aides, according to Prof. Troy. Yes, the secretary of state accused Israel of provoking World War Three.

Friday, September 13, 2019

09/13 Links Pt2: Why Israelis have never forgotten their 9/11; Brooke Goldstein: Sanders, Warren, O’Rourke among Dems showing hostility to Israel; Polish judge called Jews a ‘despicable, filthy nation’

From Ian:
Jonathan S. Tobin: Why Israelis have never forgotten their 9/11
On the 18th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, government officials and institutions throughout America commemorated the horror of that day. But after all these years, there is a sense that – other than for those who lost family members or close friends – the ceremonies are increasingly becoming more a matter of going through the motions than of national grief.

Much like the way the memory of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941 – a comparable tragedy that altered the life of the nation – because routine and then ultimately a footnote as the decades passed, 9/11 is becoming a moment frozen in the past and not a reminder of the dangerous world in which we still live.

That this is true is probably as much a product of human nature as it is of the failure of our leaders in the post-9/11 world. But it’s worth pointing out that this same process hasn’t been repeated in Israel as time has passed since the end of the Second Intifada that brought similar widespread horror to its victims. As a prescient op-ed published in The New York Times by Matti Friedman noted, the memory of the slaughter hangs over Israeli society and is still a decisive factor in its politics.

There are profound differences between 9/11 and the intifada. September 11, 2001 was one day that thankfully was never repeated again on American soil (a point that seemed to earn President George W. Bush no credit with the public even though most of us assumed that it would be). By contrast, what happened to Israelis was several years of a terrorist war of attrition involving hundreds of attacks, including suicide bombings that struck throughout the country rather than being concentrated in just a couple of places.
Brooke Goldstein: Sanders, Warren, O’Rourke among Dems showing hostility to Israel
Throughout history, rising anti-Semitism has always been accompanied by other forms of radicalization and the degradation of democracy overall.

Will Democrats continue to creep closer to radical anti-Israel and even anti-Semitic policy positions? Will they undermine the party’s traditional values of tolerance and equality? If so, they risk consigning themselves to the tragic fate of Jeremy Corbyn’s British Labour Party, which has allowed a culture of anti-Semitism to take root and poison the entire institution.

In an all-too-familiar routine, far too many Democrats pander to the Jewish community on pro-Israel issues when running for office and then turn around and show their true colors after Election Day.

To date, the candidates running for president have skated by – banking on the fact that no one is asking them about a subject they’d rather ignore.

It’s time for the media to ask these questions and get real answers. Voters like me will be watching closely.

We grew up from childhood hating, cursing Jews
We were taught in the Arab world that the Holocaust was just a big lie. It was only when we grew up and opened ourselves to the world of ideas and humanity that we discovered Jews are in fact human beings, and good people, too.

Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Ensaf Haidar. I am the wife of Raif Badawi, a prisoner of conscience who is now serving his seventh year behind dark, cold prison walls in Saudi Arabia.

Two days after the horrific Charlie Hebdo massacre, my husband was dragged from his jail cell in Jeddah, brought to a square in front of Al-Jafali Mosque, and administered the first phase – 50 lashes – of a public flogging.

His crime? His indictment says he was guilty of “insulting Islam” and “producing what would disturb public order, religious values and morals.”

His real crime, in fact, can be summarized in one sentence: He believed in his fundamental right to express his opinion.

Freedom of expression is at the heart of Raif’s case.

Also central to his case is Raif’s vision of a different future for his country and region; a future based on our shared humanity; one based on acceptance, respect and mutual understanding; one that aspires for peace in the region.

  • Friday, September 13, 2019
  • Elder of Ziyon

This week's tweets that went unblogged

My Twitter audience has been increasing a lot lately. I have gained over 1000 followers in the past month alone.

A sample of what you have been missing if you don't follow EoZ on Twitter:










In response to this tweet:

I wrote:


Feinstein blocked me after I showed that his "I'm more moral than you because I have Holocaust survivor relatives" logic is stupid.



















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09/13 Links Pt1: Melanie Phillips: Boltonism must not be allowed to disappear; Caroline Glick: Israel and John Bolton’s departure; Most Arab Israelis Satisfied with Life in Israel

From Ian:
Melanie Phillips: Boltonism must not be allowed to disappear
Even when Iran was killing American and British soldiers in Iraq, or when its proxy army Hezbollah bombed the US embassy in Beirut in 1983, and the Israel embassy, and a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires in 1992 and 1994, the West failed to treat these as acts of war.

It failed to do so even after Iran seized a British-registered oil tanker this summer in the Strait of Hormuz and harassed other commercial shipping there.

It was revealed this week that two British-Australian women and one man have been arrested and jailed in Iran, adding to a growing number of British nationals being effectively held as hostages in Iranian jails.

And yet, Britain has not only been a principal cheerleader for the Obama nuclear deal but, along with the European Union, is seeking ruses to get round the sanctions on Iran reimposed by America.

It is still possible that Trump will hold firm against Iran. If he does not, Israel will act alone to defend itself if that becomes unavoidable; and if that happens, the United States will find itself unavoidably sucked into a terrible war.

John Bolton’s steady and clear-minded focus on preventing this from happening was a standing rebuke to the feeble-minded West that has supinely stood by as this unconscionable threat by the Iranian regime has remorselessly increased.

Bolton has now left the West Wing; but Boltonism — the strategic grasp of how to defend the West against its mortal foes — must not be allowed to disappear with him.

With Bolton’s departure, the world has not become a safer place. It has become far more dangerous.

Caroline Glick: Israel and John Bolton’s departure
From the day he took up his duties a year and a half ago as Trump’s third national security adviser, Bolton was under assault. The campaign against Bolton was initiated by the Iranian regime.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif blamed poor US-Iran relations on Bolton, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Zarif’s campaign was quickly joined by Obama administration officials who took to the US media parroting the same allegations. The Iranians, by their telling, were guileless lambs. The big bad wolves were Bolton, Netanyahu, and the crown prince.

In recent months, as Iran stepped up its aggression against international shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, the attacks against Bolton were joined by members of the isolationist wing of the Republican Party led by Fox News host Tucker Carlson and Kentucky Senator Rand Paul.

It is true that Bolton is known as a prickly policymaker, out of his element in the Trump world. But it is also true that Trump and Bolton agreed far more than they disagreed. Unfortunately, every time there was a dispute between the two men, former President Barack Obama's carry-overs in government and their allies outside government from the Obama administration and the media were quick to report those disagreements and angrily slander Bolton as a warmonger and a mercenary who had neither America’s nor the president’s best interests at heart.

The allegations were entirely false. But their force and volume transformed every normal and entirely legitimate disagreement between Bolton and Trump into a major, widely reported event.

Under the circumstances, it was probably a foregone conclusion that Bolton’s days would be numbered.

In other words, Bolton’s departure had more to do with the stress of working in the toxic environment in Washington than with a change in Trump’s basic predisposition regarding foreign policy.
JPost Editorial: Fair-weather friend
Asked on Wednesday whether the US would ease up its “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran, Trump left open the possibility that he would ease sanctions, saying “We’ll see what happens.”

“I do believe they’d like to make a deal,” Trump added. “If they do, that’s great. If they don’t, that’s great too.”

Not long after, The Daily Beast reported that Trump is also open to a proposal from Macron to extend a $15b. line of credit to the Iranians if they comply with the Iran Deal.

These recent developments follow a trend that is extremely dangerous, and it appears that there is no longer someone in the White House fighting Iran.

Iran has never stopped cheating, and sanctions have been putting the necessary pressure on the regime. Lifting them now would squander all of Trump’s work before Tehran is ready to make real concessions. And a $15b. credit infusion would allow Iran to bolster its sponsorship of terrorism across the Middle East.

Trump has, thus far, been a good friend to Israel. Most of the Israeli political spectrum views his recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and of the Golan Heights as part of Israel to be extremely positive; and while he plans to present his “Deal of the Century” later this month, he is not expected to put undue pressure on Israel.

But if Trump were to repeat his performance with Pyongyang – talking tough about North Korea before negotiating weakly without following up – in the Iranian arena, he would be putting Israel in great danger.

Trump needs to be a true friend to Israel, and not a fair-weather friend that would pander to those who seek to destroy us. The Iranian threat not only endangers Israel; it is a matter of national security, and, as Netanyahu said, the way to handle it is through “pressure, pressure and more pressure.”

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2019 Nobel Peace Prize nominee

Elder of Ziyon - حـكـيـم صـهـيـون



This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For 20 years and 40,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.

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