Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, March 23, 2020

So how did Oxfam end up selling multiple editions of "The Protocols"?

Oxfam has pulled from its online shop two editions of a forged antisemitic pamphlet purporting a Jewish plot for world domination.

The virulently antisemitic tract first published in Czarist Russia at the turn of the century, inspired countless conspiracy theories and was invoked by Adolf Hitler.

The Israeli Ambassador Mark Regev took to social media on Friday after noticing editions of the Protocols of the learned elders of Zion donated to the charity appear on the global poverty charity’s online shop.

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A 1936 edition described as being in very good condition was marketed online for £100, while a 2002 reprint was being advertised for £12.99.

The books, both translated into English from Russian, appear to have been priced, photographed and online by volunteers.

The Board of Deputies vice president Amanda Bowman said on Friday: “It is unthinkable that a charity such as Oxfam would knowingly by offering for sale a book notorious for being an antisemitic forgery.

“Now that it has been removed, we urge Oxfam to ensure that procedures are in place to make sure this does not happen again.”

An Oxfam spokesperson said: “As soon as the books were brought to our attention we removed them from sale and they are being destroyed.

“They should not have been listed. We provide guidance to our staff on items that are not acceptable for sale. We apologise for the error and offence caused. We will look at steps to take to prevent it happening again.”

How did Oxfam come to sell antisemitic books?

The Oxfam shop accepts donations from Oxfam supporters. A team of Oxfam volunteers goes through the donations, photographs them and writes up descriptions of the products and prices them.

Here is the description of one of the books:

An entire chain of people who consider themselves supporters of human rights - the donor, the person who decided it was worth reselling, the person who photographed the book, the person who wrote up the description and set the price - every single one of these Oxfam supporters thought that this was okay.

And today Oxfam continues to offer problematic books. For example, this book that tries to exonerate Nazi war criminal Albert Speer:

Or this notorious book by Lenni Brenner, a key part of the hoax that Zionists colluded with Nazis during the Holocaust:

The problem is not simply that Oxfam accidentally is selling some antisemitic books. The problem is that these books are what Oxfam members are reading and recommending to others.

Meaning that many of the people who consider themselves in the vanguard of human rights cannot recognize, or worse, actively promote, antisemitism.

Too many British leftists, after decades of anti-Israel indoctrination from "human rights organizations" like Oxfam, have embraced mainstream antisemitism as normative.

Oxfam's problems are very, very deep.

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EoZTV: A decade of Hamas and the PA playing with Gazans' lives with medicine and medical facilities

My latest livestream is about how Palestinian Arab leaders have consistently and cynically used the Gazans as political/medical pawns.

A quick roundup of what they have done:

The video has been remove from YouTube for reasons that aren't clear. I do not have a backup. I'm trying to recover it. Moreover, YouTube says they don't have enough people to review appeals.

I'm a bit upset.

UPDATE: YouTube restored it:

Here was my recovery video - lower quality but should be good enough. The second half is a soundless duplicate of the video, I have no idea why - so only watch 21 minutes of this.

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"Apartheid Week" poster: Farah Raslan, Christian Lebanese chef in Israel

"Israel Apartheid Week" might be a bust this year, but that doesn't mean I can't keep ripping it "apart."

(h/t Irene)

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The spokesman for the Gaza ministry of economy, Abdel-Fattah Abu Moussa, assured Gazans that there are plenty of supplies of basic commodities in the markets of Gaza.

In an interview with Felesteen, Abu Moussa said, "The goods are still flowing in their usual manner from the Kerem Shalom crossing."

He stressed that there is no reason to panic, as there are plenty of goods available in all governorates of the Gaza Strip, saying that the ministry conducted an inventory of all foodstuffs in the governorates and confirmed the availability of stock.

"Bakeries continue to operate and fuel is available. We have dealt with crises before, such as the three Israeli wars on Gaza, during which we did not witness any food crisis."

In short, this Hamas spokesperson is assuring Gazans that Israel has been a reliable partner for providing their needs even during wartime and certainly that applies now.

Someone should tell the "pro-Palestinian activists" that they can celebrate that they are worried for nothing.

Oh, that's right, they want there to be a crisis in Gaza to justify their hate for Israel.

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03/22 Links: Israel can escape Italy's fate; Israel's "Social Isolation Until Herd Immunity" Strategy; Israel named world's 14th happiest country in annual UN report

From Ian:

945 Israelis test positive for coronavirus, 20 in critical condition

Some 945 Israelis have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, SAR-CoV-2, on Sunday morning, as numbers continue to increase.

The Ministry of Health reported that the majority of cases - 863 - are mild, 24 are moderate and 20 critical. One person died from coronavirus over the weekend. The 88-year-old Holocaust survivor was the first Israeli to die from the disease.

So far, 37 people have recovered.

The number of coronavirus patients in the country is expected to climb by even hundreds each day, according to Health Ministry director general Moshe Bar Siman Tov, as Israel expands the number of tests it takes each day.

When coronavirus first came to Israel, the Health Ministry tested around 750 people per day. That number climbed to 2,200 over the weekend. Some 3,000 people are expected to be tested on Sunday.

Bar Siman Tov said that Israel will likely test as many as 10,000 people per day in the coming days.

Israel can escape Italy's fate

The important question, however, is until when? How long will we have to live in such extreme quarantine conditions? The answer is complicated and depends on several factors. First, we will have to examine the morbidity rate in the coming weeks and determine whether the spread is fast or slow, and whether it's possible to start taking calculated risks.

We should not expect life to return to the way it was a month ago. Social distancing, on-line school and medical appointments will just be a part of our lives in the months ahead. But significantly expanding the scope of testing for the virus, including blood tests to determine morbidity or recovery, will provide us an "exit window" from complete quarantine.

This strategy will be predicated on the timely detection of as many infected people as possible in their early stages and putting them in quarantine. And on releasing those who have recovered from quarantine. All this will happen gradually, and it all depends on the public's ability to sufficiently heed the quarantine instructions.

To this end, what is required now is the complete and total separation of family units, to prevent chain infection and stop the spread of the virus in its tracks. This is the duty of each and every one of us, and this is the meaning of mutual responsibility at this time – if even just a few people engage in risky behavior the collateral damage will be immense.

We must not make light of the safety instructions handed down, not even a little. If the entire public adheres to them, we will traverse these coming weeks in one piece.

Israel's "Social Isolation Until Herd Immunity" Strategy

I reported last Wednesday that Palestinian leaders, including Mahmoud Abbas, Mohamed Shtayyeh and Saeb Erekat, were going to international bodies demanding pressure for Israel to unilaterally release Palestinian prisoners and terrorists, falsely claiming that Israel is negligent towards their medical needs and does not provide prisoners with cleaning supplies.

Now Ma'an quotes an Israeli broadcast saying that the Israeli Prison Service has a comprehensive plan to address the threat of infection in the prisons and is fully aware of the dangers of having a population in prison.

Strict sterilization and disinfection is being done in all prison cells, prison departments and shared places.

Sterilization, cleaning and disinfection materials are being distributed to prisoners in all departments, and members of the IPS are overseeing sterilization, disinfection and cleaning activities.

A team has also been established in each prison, whose specific mission is to maintain frequent cleansing.

Israel can expect no thanks from the Palestinian Authority or Hamas, who apparently would prefer that an outbreak occur for public relations purposes.

Last week, a rumor was spread by social media, Palestinian NGOs and then Hamas that four prisoners had contracted the virus, and Israel had to announce - together with the Palestinian Authority - that it wasn't true. In fact, four prisoners were suspected of being in contact with someone who became ill so the four, who have no symptoms, have been quarantined.

This doesn't stop haters from spreading ridiculous rumors, like the IPS is telling prisoners to use socks for masks.

The US State Department mentioned in a press briefing that the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem noted that "the Palestinians and the Israelis are having excellent cooperation and exchanges on COVID-19." There was an article about this cooperation in Al Monitor last week as well.

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The Ayatollah Khamenei, Iran's Supreme Leader, rejected any US medical aid to his country this morning.

His reason? The US might be sending them more of the Covid-19 virus under the guise of medicine.

"The US government has declared a few times that they are ready to help #Iran with medicines to fight the #CoronaOutbreak. That's strange. Firstly, based on the words of your own officials, you face shortages in the US. So use what you have for your own patients," he tweeted.

"[Secondly ]you're accused of having created #Coronavirus. I don't know how true it is. But when there's such an allegation, can a wise man trust you? You could be giving medicines that spread the virus or cause it to remain. Experience shows you can’t be trusted and you do such things," he continued.

For some reason no one thinks it is strange that Khamenei is spreading absurd conspiracy theories that the US is infecting the world with Covid-19.

By his logic, it was certainly very stupid for the US to ever make an agreement with Iran over nuclear weapons - because experience shows that they do not adhere to agreements and wise people can never trust Iran since there were (more than) rumors that they seek nuclear weapons capabilities and have tried to hide them.

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Iran's enriched uranium now at 5X JCPOA limits

With all the other news, this AP story from March 3 didn't receive enough attention:

The head of the UN's atomic watchdog on Tuesday sounded the alarm at Iran's cooperation with the agency and demanded "clarifications" over an undeclared site in Tehran where uranium particles were found late last year.

It comes on the same day as the IAEA issued two reports, one on Iran's current nuclear programme and the other detailing its denial of access to two sites the agency wanted to visit.

The IAEA has for months been pressing Tehran for information about the kind of activities being carried out at the undeclared site where the uranium particles were found.

While the IAEA has not identified the site in question, diplomatic sources told AFP the agency asked Iran about a site in the Turquzabad district of Tehran, where Israel has alleged secret atomic activity in the past.

In addition, according to a report issued by the IAEA on Tuesday, "the Agency identified a number of questions related to possible undeclared nuclear material and nuclear-related activities at three locations in Iran".

At one of them the report said the IAEA had from early July 2019 observed "activities... consistent with effort to sanitize part of the location".

A diplomatic source said that the three locations were separate to Turquzabad.

The source also said that the agency's queries were thought to relate to Iran's historic nuclear activities and not to its compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

The IAEA report says the agency first raised questions about the sites last year and that Iran refused access to two of them that the agency wished to visit in late January.

The second report from the agency detailed Iran's current breaches of several parts of a landmark 2015 international deal on scaling back its nuclear programme.

The report showed Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium now stands at more than five times the limit fixed under the accord.

It said that as of February 19, 2020 the Iranian stockpile stood at the equivalent of 1,510 kilogrammes, as opposed to the 300 kg limit set under the agreement.

Some experts consider this amount to provide sufficient material to produce a nuclear weapon, depending on its exact level of purity.

However, it would still need several more steps, including further enrichment, to make it suitable for use in a weapon.

Isn't it funny that the people who are using the coronavirus as a means to pressure the West to lift sanctions don't mention this?

(h/t Irene)

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03/21 Links: Israel’s first virus fatality named as 88-year-old Holocaust survivor Aryeh Even; Over 20 vaccines, multiple treatments currently in development for coronavirus

From Ian:

Israel’s first virus fatality named as 88-year-old Holocaust survivor Aryeh Even

Israel’s first fatality in the coronavirus pandemic was on Saturday named as 88-year-old Holocaust survivor Aryeh Even.

In a statement, Even’s family said they regretted that they were unable to be by his side for his final moments.

“He was a dear and beloved man, living a full life, devoted to his family, a strong man until the end. We are sorry to have passed his last days and moments at a time when his family members were prevented from being by his side.”

Even immigrated to Israel alone from Hungary in 1949. He is survived by four children, 18 grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center said late Friday that Even had been admitted in very serious condition with multiple preexisting conditions. Despite intensive treatment, including being resuscitated from heart failure, his state deteriorated rapidly and he died, the hospital said.

Even was among several residents of the Nofim Tower senior home in Jerusalem who have contracted the virus.

The virus generally only shows mild symptoms in the young and healthy, but can cause serious respiratory issues and death in older adults and those with underlying conditions.

883 Israelis diagnosed with coronavirus, 15 in serious condition

The Health Ministry announced on Saturday that 883 Israelis have tested positive for the coronavirus, 15 of whom are in serious condition.

Among those in critical condition are mostly older adults or those with pre-exisiting conditions. However, according to the ministry, one person is in his 40s and was healthy before contracting the virus.

Moreover, more than 3,000 medical professionals are in isolation, including 814 doctors and 893 nurses.

The 178-person increase represents the largest jump in numbers Israel has seen to date.The ministry added that 274 of those diagnosed are currently hospitalized.

Over 20 vaccines, multiple treatments currently in development for coronavirus

The World Health Organization has said at least 20 vaccines for coronavirus are in development around the world — though the process is likely to take many long months, as the medical world races to find both preventive measures and treatments for those infected.

“At least 20 vaccines are in development for COVID-19. Their first clinic trials are already starting,” Maria Van Kerkhove, head of the WHO’s emerging and infectious diseases unit, said Friday.

She cautioned that “We are still some time away before we would have a vaccine that could be used, and they still need to go through the trials for efficacy, but this work is under way.”

The head of WHO’s Health Emergencies Program, Dr. Mike Ryan, stressed that “There is only one thing more dangerous than a bad virus, and that’s a bad vaccine.

“We have to be very, very careful in developing any product that we are going to inject into potentially most of the world’s population.”

He added that China’s work on sequencing the genome of the virus before it became a global pandemic, and its sharing of that data, had helped work on vaccines around the world move much faster.

On Wednesday, The Times of Israel spoke with Dr. Ofer Levy, of Boston Children’s Hospital’s Precision Vaccines Program, whose team is one of the groups working on developing a vaccine, with a unique focus on a solution for the elderly.

Currently, there is no medicine specifically approved for treating COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, which has infected nearly 300,000 people worldwide and killed nearly 13,000 people.

03/20 Links Pt2: Israel’s first coronavirus death; Blood Libels, Conspiracy Theories, and Coronaviruses; Heartwarming Applause for Israeli Doctors During Coronavirus

From Ian:

Man, 88, dies in Jerusalem hospital, Israel’s first coronavirus death

An 88-year-old man died in Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek hospital on Friday night from the coronavirus, Israel’s first fatality in the global pandemic, while several other patients were in a critical condition.

The hospital said the patient had been admitted in a very serious condition with multiple preexisting conditions. Despite intensive treatment, including being resuscitated from heart failure, he had deteriorated rapidly in recent hours and died, the hospital said.

The condition of three other Israelis being treated at Wolfson Medical Center in Holon for COVID-19 deteriorated Friday, with all of them in serious to critical condition.

The three patients include a 67-year-old woman with a preexisting medical condition, a 91-year-old woman and 45-year-old man with no past health problems, according to the Kan public broadcaster.

Another 10 people infected with the virus are receiving treatment at the hospital, three of them in moderate condition.

Global virus death toll tops 10,000 as epicenter shifts west

The worldwide death toll from the coronavirus pandemic topped 10,000 on Thursday, as the scourge extended its march across the West, where the United States and other countries increasingly enlisted the military to prepare for an onslaught of patients and California’s governor ordered people in the most-populous U.S. state to stay home.

Worldwide the death toll surpassed 10,000 and infections topped 240,000, including 86,000 people who have recovered.

Italy’s deaths from the coronavirus pandemic eclipsed China’s on Thursday, infections across the globe passed the 240,000 mark, including some 86,000 people who have recovered.

In Israel, the number of cases jumped to 677, a single day increase of nearly 200, and a Jerusalem woman, 89, was fighting rapid respiratory deterioration to avoid becoming the country’s first fatality from the COVID-19 disease.

The virus has infected at least one European head of state: Monaco’s 62-year-old Prince Albert II, who continued to work from his office. And it appeared to be opening an alarming new front in Africa, where health care in many countries is already in sorry shape.

Record 627 deaths in Italy; military vehicles said used to transport bodies

Italy on Friday reported a record 627 new deaths from the novel coronavirus and saw its world-leading toll surpass 4,000 despite government efforts to stem the pandemic’s spread.

The Mediterranean country’s daily death rate is now higher than that officially reported by China at the peak of its outbreak around Wuhan’s Hubei province.

Italy’s previous one-day record death toll was 475 on Wednesday. Italy has seen more than 1,500 fatalities from COVID-19 in the past three days alone.

It has now recorded the five highest one-day tolls officially registered around the world.

Italian media broadcast pictures it said was military vehicles brought into the Bergamo area to transport away the hundreds of coffins.

Italy’s total number of deaths now stands and 4,032. Infections rose by nearly 6,000 to 47,021.

The nation of 60 million currently accounts for 36.6 percent of the world’s coronavirus deaths after surpassing China’s total on Thursday.

The Daily Beast has an article about the charge we've been hearing for weeks that says that US sanctions on Iran is causing life-threatening supply issues.

Parsing the article, however, shows that the "experts" are all speaking about a theoretical threat, and can't point to any actual issues.

The Trump administration’s policy of crippling Iran economically through “Maximum Pressure” is exacerbating the novel coronavirus outbreak in one of the epicenters of the global pandemic, according to sanctions experts.

While U.S. sanctions formally exempt humanitarian supplies, sanctions-watchers say the reality is more complex. The breadth of the Maximum Pressure sanctions is extensive enough to dissuade firms, foreign governments, and banks from participating in the transfer of life-saving medical supplies, for fear of incurring secondary or third-degree sanctions from Washington. Reports of medical shortages followed very shortly after the Trump administration reimposed sanctions in 2018, long before a global medical crisis arrived.

But have the sanctions actually stopped any world government or company that wants to help Iran from doing so?

In October, the Trump administration established a channel, through Switzerland, to ease payments for Iran’s importation of food, medicine, and other humanitarian supplies. That operation began in late January, coincidentally around the time the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global public health emergency. “A big part of our Iran strategy from the very beginning is standing with the Iranian people instead of standing with the regime,” the State Department’s Iran special representative, Brian Hook, said at the time.

Asked about the sanctions’ impact on the Iranian coronavirus outbreak, a Treasury Department official said the administration “encourage[s] companies to use the recently established humanitarian channel in Switzerland.”

But those who follow the Iran sanctions closely say that the Swiss channel isn’t going to be sufficient. Sanctions make it difficult for Iran to access its foreign currency reserves held in banks in countries that purchased Iranian oil. “You can have a channel, but no foreign currency to pay through it,” said Esfandyar Batmanghelidj of Bourse & Bazaar, which tracks the Iranian economy.

“The Swiss channel is a good development, but because it funnels payments through a single Swiss bank, BCP [Banque de Commerce et de Placements], it isn't useful to companies that don't maintain accounts at that bank. Moreover, the Swiss channel has probably the most onerous due diligence and disclosure requirements of any payment channel ever created for Iran. So setting up to work through the channel, though possible, isn't going to cut it at this time of emergency,” Batmanghelidj explained.

Ah, the bolded sentence in the last paragraph explains it all. It is certainly more difficult for Iran to get supplies, because the US wants to make sure that any aid is used specifically for helping people and not going towards nuclear research, missile development or funding Hezbollah. So there are a few more hoops to jump through. For saving people's lives, the hoops are worth jumping through. And, frankly, who isn't jumping through hoops to get what they need nowadays?

These "experts" are really against sanctions altogether, so instead of pointing out that Iran can get what it needs, they are saying flatly "it isn't going to cut it."

I see little to nothing that stops Iran from getting needed medical supplies. I do see people who were always against any sanctions on Iran using the coronavirus as an excuse to pressure the US to lift them.

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For Palestinian leaders, everything has to be about them. They try to hijack every issue from the environment to feminism to water.

It is hard to hijack a worldwide crisis. But they are still trying, as this video shows.

NEW VIDEO| As countries worldwide focus on combating the #coronavirus pandemic, for Israel it's occupation as usual. pic.twitter.com/UcaoMiymZS
— PLO Department of Public Diplomacy & Policy (@PalestinePDP) March 19, 2020

This video was made by the PLO Department of Public Diplomacy, headed by Hanan Ashrawi, the person responsible for lots of antisemitic propaganda through her Miftah NGO. (It seems funny to call it an NGO when it is headed by a PLO operative.)

There are two themes to this video:

1) Israel is still oppressing Palestinians even during the coronavirus crisis, by doing everything it has been doing for decades.

Yes, Israel is still defending itself from terror attacks. Here the Palestinians are trying to grab the spotlight from and hijack the coronavirus story, because, like children, they hate not being the center of attention.

2) Israel is actively stopping Palestinians from fighting the virus.

This was a cynical provocation by the Palestinian Authority. They sent their "medics" into Jerusalem to pretend that they were the official health authorities for the city, putting up notices and saying they were spraying disinfectant. Israel properly arrested them because there can only be one municipal authority and one unified plan of action, and the Palestinians were engaged in a political maneuver disguised as humanitarian - a game they have played before.

As the world combats Covid-19 -the PLO is making anti-Israel propaganda videos.

(h/t Teresa)

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