Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, May 05, 2020

Christian channel seems to have deceived Israeli cable company to proselytize to Jews in Hebrew

Jews have been extremely sensitive to Christian proselytization since Christianity started. There are a number of good reasons for this, not the least being that it was often accompanied with a harsh choice of being expelled or killed if we don't "choose" Christianity.

More recent attempts by Christians to proselytize to Jews came in the 19th century, as a type of proto-Zionism emerged to encourage Jews to emigrate to Israel as a way to hurry along the end-times, where they would be slaughtered ahead of the arrival of the Christian messiah. There were scores of lectures and books from England and the United States on the "conversion and restoration of the Jews" to Israel.

In recent decades the proselytizers began a campaign creating completely new movements specifically to fool Jews into thinking that Christianity is just another form of Judaism, with names of groups like "Jews for Jesus" and "Messianic Judaism." Ignorant Jews fell for the deception as these charlatans hijacked Jewish symbols and rituals to attract Jews, often staying away from using the word "Jesus" until the Jews already bought into the Christian message of salvation by embracing their god.

At its root, the entire idea of proselytization is antisemitic. After all, the entire point is that Jewish teachings are wrong and Christianity has supplanted Israel. Millions of Jews were martyred for defending their faith and the implication of the proselytizers is that they either died for no reason or, at worst, they deserved it for rejecting Christian teachings. This is profoundly offensive.

As a result of millennia of being cajoled, prodded, intimidated, fooled or forced into embracing a religion that is utterly incompatible with Judaism, Jews are understandably sickened by modern attempts to convert Jews. It took Vatican II for the church to say that Jews were not responsible for killing Jesus and to reject the antisemitism that underlied centuries of persecution and forced conversions, and only in comparatively recent times have major Christian denominations started to say that Jews have a place in Heaven without conversion. In 2011, the Pope explicitly wrote that the Church should not try to convert the Jews anymore.

As this new attitude started spreading, Jews started slowly accepting the idea that some Christians could be Zionist without an agenda of trying to set up an End Times scenario. The new, improved relations between Jews and Christians have taken a while to be accepted by Jews as being heartfelt, but over time Jews have felt more comfortable working together with Christians without the horrible history of Christian antisemitism being recalled.

Which is why this new channel from "GodTV" that somehow was allowed to be put on Israeli cable TV is such a punch in the gut.

Today we made history! For the first time ever, a Messianic television channel is broadcasting the Gospel across Israel in the Hebrew language! At 13:00 Israel time, Shelanu TV launched in Israel. And the mission field in Israel will never be the same again.

Shelanu translates to ‘Ours’ in Hebrew. We want every person in Israel to know, not a foreign Messiah, but a Jewish one! His name is Yeshua and He has not forgotten His people.

Shelanu TV has signed a seven-year contract with HOT Cable, the largest cable network in Israel reaching both Jews and Arabs. It will present new and original programming from local congregations on the ground in Israel. Additionally, international Messianic voices will share powerful real-life testimonies of Israelis who have come to know Yeshua as Messiah.

Notice that this press release avoids using the word Jesus. They make no secret that they want to convert Jews - and they want to do it in Israel.

Israel does not have laws against proselytization in general. It does have laws against proselytizing to children without parental consent, which would preclude such a channel on TV. There are Christian networks on Israeli TV that do not attempt to convert Jews and those are fine - but "Shelanu" is explicitly meant to preach to and convert Jews.

And it appears that they hid that fact from the Israeli cable company HOT:

Asked for comment, a spokeswoman for HOT said: “It [Shelanu TV] is an independent Christian channel, similar to other religious channels broadcast in Israel. It received a permit from the council and is broadcasting according to law.”

When asked about the missionary nature of its activities, she said that “full information was provided to the council, and the channel is operating in accordance with the permit it received.”

Shelanu TV is broadcast on Channel 182 of HOT. The description provided to subscribers on their television screens says it is a “faith-based channel geared toward pro-Israel Christians.”

That's a lie. The opening words of the video announcing the channel to Christians says:

If you've not already heard, GodTV has been given the government permission to broadcast the gospel of Jesus Christ Yeshua the Messiah in Israel on cable television in the Hebrew language. Never before as far as we know in the history of the world has this ever been done. God has supernaturally opened the door for us to take the gospel of Jesus into the homes and lives and hearts of his Jewish people.

Characterizing the channel as being geared towards Christians and then announcing that it is meant to bring the Gospel to Jews recalls the deceptions of the past Christian missionizers.

This is profoundly offensive, especially in Israel. And at a time that Christians have just started to be trusted by Jews to not have an agenda, this channel hurts the cause of Jewish-Christian relations immeasurably.

(h/t Real Jerusalem Streets)

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In this video, I (along with Mrs. Elder) fisk a two minute clip of Linda Sarsour, showing exactly how she uses propaganda methods to libel Israel (along with old fashioned lying.)

Framing a discussion is a major way to keep people from even thinking of bringing up facts you don't want to talk about, and Sarsour is good at it. I show how and when she does it.

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05/04 Links Pt2: Amb. Alan Baker: How to Rescue Civil Discourse on Israel; Linda Sarsour’s New Book Delusional

From Ian:

Amb. Alan Baker: How to Rescue Civil Discourse on Israel

Israel has been the only democratic nation-state whose existence has been rejected and attacked since the day of its establishment in 1948, 36 months following the revelation of the Nazi regime’s mass murder of European Jewry. It would appear reasonable that any well-reasoned civil discourse on Israel would include an appreciation of its security concerns, historical and legal rights, and its diplomatic claims.

The topics of settlements, occupation, the West Bank security barrier, and borders have been among the most politicized, distorted, and mischaracterized in the decades-long history of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Legitimate political critique would include the presentation of raw facts, stripped of political hyperbole, and couched in principles of evenhanded assessment and well-reasoned legal, historical, security, and diplomatic context. The principles of fact and context-based discussion on Israel would result in far more productive international dialogue than the current one.

Finally, Israel should be judged by the same values as other nation-states, values that overcome the current tendency to defamation, delegitimization, dehumanization, demonization, and denial of equal treatment under the law.

Coverage of Israel Has Undergone a Transformation amid Corona Crisis

Coverage of Israel has undergone a transformation in recent weeks, according to a report by the Department of Public Diplomacy at the Israel Foreign Ministry.

When the coronavirus pandemic first hit in January 2020, "Israel's [approach] was viewed with hostility, mainly due to its decisions to cancel flights, close borders and remove foreign nationals in the first stage."

Once the scope of the pandemic became more apparent in the West, articles began praising Israel's life-saving policies.

"In the second stage, Israel was portrayed as a model of a country successfully coping with the medical crisis, precisely due to all the reasons for which it was previously criticized."

Israel also received recognition for its immense efforts on behalf of its citizens stranded across the globe

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Top Jewish Leader Praises President Trump for Commitment to Fighting Antisemitism Amid COVID-19 Crisis

The head of a leading international Jewish group praised US President Donald Trump over the weekend for a proclamation condemning antisemitism, saying, “I know personally that he is committed to eradicating the spread of antisemitism from our society.”

“President Trump has consistently stood by American Jewry and the State of Israel throughout his tenure,” said World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder. He added that Trump’s commitment applies “even in the midst of the present immense global uncertainty and concerns accompanying the COVID-19 crisis.”

“As the president emphasized … antisemitic discrimination, persecution, and violence continue to plague our Jewish communities,” Lauder noted, saying the president’s words “must be repeated, over and over again … until it is made absolutely clear that incitement, bigotry, hatred, and xenophobia will not be tolerated.”

“The World Jewish Congress deeply appreciates the US administration’s ongoing efforts to combat the evil of anti-Jewish hatred, and its continuing support of American Jewry in its cherished traditions and innumerable contributions to society,” he added. “We look forward to the day when we will be able to say that antisemitism has truly been eradicated in America.”

Lauder’s comments came in response to a proclamation late last week marking Jewish American Heritage Month. In the statement Trump said, “Hatred is intolerable and has no place in our hearts or in our society. We must therefore vigorously confront antisemitic discrimination and violence against members of the Jewish community.”

May is #JewishAmericanHeritageMonth. Jewish Americans have contributed in countless ways to our country and to the Department. This month celebrates their heritage and achievements and reaffirms the U.S. is committed to a world free of anti-Semitism. https://t.co/vIewlUstNz pic.twitter.com/AhwcKdiQST
— Department of State (@StateDept) May 4, 2020

Heritage month

Ghassan Salameh is the chair of UNRWA USA, the American fundraising arm of UNRWA.

He himself was born in Lebanon and attended UNRWA schools there. He made his way to the US:

Ghassan came to the United States when he was 20 years old and received his BS in Mechanical Engineering from the California State University-Sacramento and an MBA, focusing on marketing and finance, from the University of San Francisco. From there, he rose through the ranks of Booz Allen from Associate to the coveted position of Senior Partner. Since retiring from Booz Allen, he has held senior management positions at top global companies and is currently the Chairman and CEO of Rubix Holdings, a technology and investment company that has just launched its first two global social media platforms, with more on the way.

This successful American businessman is considered, according to UNRWA's definition, to be a "Palestine refugee" - today.

And so are any of his children and grandchildren, born and raised in the US.

If Salameh would decide to move back to Lebanon, he would be eligible for UNRWA services as a refugee. His American citizenship is not a factor in determining what UNRWA considers refugee status.

This is just one of the absurd stories about UNRWA's definition of "refugee" that the media does not cover. If UNRWA's definition would be in line with that of the Refugee Convention, then the number of "Palestine refugees" would plummet from millions to thousands. And places like Lebanon and Saudi Arabia would feel more obligated to actually give these people a path to citizenship instead of pretending that they will one day go "back to Palestine."

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Like most countries, Lebanon has been arranging flights from countries around the world to bring back citizens during the coronavirus pandemic.

Last Friday, the General Directorate of Lebanese Public Security issued a directive (No. 5932 / m) to Middle East Airlines to not allow people from the Palestinian refugee community in Lebanon to return to Lebanon on evacuation aircraft.

A small number of Palestinians in Lebanon have a Palestinian travel document or an PA passport so they can travel to some countries.

The directive said that Lebanese can return along with their families - but no servants, and no Palestinians.

As a result, many Palestinians who were preparing to return on the evacuation flights in Lebanon were informed that their names had been deleted from the approved lists. These people have no other place to go, and Palestinian media is regarding this as a kind of expulsion of Palestinians from Lebanon.

A Palestinian residing in Lebanon who is married to a Lebanese woman and who has a Lebanese mother (but Palestinian father) told Al-Akhbar that he was literally pulled from the plane after one of the General Security officers checked his papers. He was forced to stay at Dubai airport, although the Dubai authorities had already given him an exit visa. He managed to get himself onto the plane but he knows that many other Lebanese Palestinians are stuck in Dubai with no way of going back to the only home they ever had.

Because they are Palestinians.

Just some more Arab apartheid against Palestinians that doesn't get coverage in the West.

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05/04 Links Pt1: Israel’s Death Toll Rises to 234; Nearly 10,000 Have Recovered; UN Special Rapporteur incites Hatred towards the Jewish People; Palestinian Pay-to-Slay Economics

From Ian:

Israel’s COVID-19 Death Toll Rises to 234; Nearly 10,000 Have Recovered

The number of Israelis who have recovered from coronavirus infection stands at 9,858, the country’s Health Ministry reported Monday. The virus has so far claimed the lives of 234 citizens.

A total of 6,145 Israelis are currently defined as “active” cases, with 94 listed in serious condition. Of the serious cases, 72 are on ventilators. Another 62 patients are listed in moderate condition, with the rest considered light or minor cases. A total of 273 coronavirus patients are currently hospitalized, with 5,872 being treated in hotel facilities or at home.

Hospitals and medical centers throughout Israel continue to shut their coronavirus wards as the number of patients dwindles.

Since coronavirus was first identified in Israel, a total of 16,237 Israelis have tested positive for it. This is double the number of positive tests confirmed in Israel on April 5, meaning that since the first week in April, it has taken 31 days for the number of Israelis who tested positive for coronavirus to double, in comparison to the number doubling every three days at the height of the crisis, when the government enacted the shutdown to contain the spread of the virus.
May 4, 2020 10:31 am
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Five HR Executives Share What It Takes to Get Hired During the Covid-19 Crisis

CTech - Even now, amid the coronavirus (Covid-19) crisis and the uncertainty and restrictions that come with it, some companies...

The proximity to coronavirus carriers has taken a toll on the country’s healthcare workers: As of Monday, 582 health care professionals were in self-quarantine, including 112 doctors, 217 nurses and 253 other professionals.

Legal Insurrection: Investigation: The Islamist Origins of Anti-Israel Activists’ Coronavirus Narratives

In April 2020, we published an in-depth investigation: How Anti-Israel Activists Are Hijacking The Coronavirus Crisis And Turning It Against Israel. Our research demonstrated how proponents of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel have exploited the COVID-19 pandemic: namely, blaming the Jewish state and its supporters for as many aspects of the outbreak as possible.

Now, we’ve taken a closer look at how international Arab, Muslim, and especially Palestinian sources have rhetorically weaponized the virus against Israel. And it’s clear that the BDS campaign’s appropriation of COVID-19 is only part of a larger effort to fold the pandemic into pre-existing anti-Zionist and anti-Jewish ideology.

A. Introduction: Historical Accusations of Jews and Disease

The exploitation of COVID-19 as a propaganda tool against Israel is not a unique phenomenon. For hundreds of years, civilizations all over the world have invented false claims about Jews facilitating the spread of sickness; lies about Jews as disease vectors have long been used as a justification for their persecution.

Contemporary allegations about Zionist connections to the coronavirus outbreak are simply the newest iteration of a well-worn conspiracy theory.

David Singer: UN Special Rapporteur incites Hatred towards the Jewish People

Michael Lynk – UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967 – has issued an explosive anti-Jewish statement that fails to acknowledge the Jewish People have any vested legal and human rights claims to reconstitute the Jewish National Home in Judea and Samaria.

Lynk’s statement is the latest in a steadily-growing outpouring of hatred towards the Jewish People that could lead to violence between Jews and Arabs as the 1 July date of destiny approaches for restoring Jewish sovereignty in about 30% of Judea and Samaria after 3000 years.

Couched entirely in the language of the enemies of the Jewish People, Lynk uses the terms:
- “annexation” instead of “restoring Jewish sovereignty”
- “West Bank” instead of “Judea and Samaria”

Lynk lays the groundwork for inflaming violent Arab responses with this highly-exaggerated claim:
- “Israel’s decision to unilaterally march ahead with the planned annexation on July 1 undermines human rights in the region, and would be a severe body blow to the rules-based international order”

Israeli sovereignty will be applied in about 1697 km2 (i.e. square kilometers) – approximating 30% of Judea and Samaria -where 65000 Arabs – 4% of Judea and Samaria’s Arab population – live.

Lynk then misleadingly states:
“It would also further undermine any remaining prospect for a just and negotiated settlement”

Rubbish.

Sovereignty in the remaining 70% – 3958 km2 – home for 96% of Judea and Samaria’s Arab population – will be allocated in direct Israeli-Arab negotiations.

Lynk continues:
“If Israel’s annexation plans proceed, what would be left of the West Bank would become a Palestinian Bantustan, an archipelago of disconnected islands of territory, completely surrounded and divided up by Israel and unconnected to the outside world”

Lynk makes this sensational claim without having seen the actual joint US-Israel Mapping Committee proposals.

Adham Mahmoud Mohamed Al-Masry, 18, died of an unspecified "accident" while on the job with Hamas yesterday.

Usually when this happens the victims either shot themselves or blew themselves up. (Although, judging from this guy's love of phallic objects, it seems possible this was an honor killing.)

Also, an Islamic Jihad member, Anwar Mustafa Hassan Abu Hamada, 45, died in an Egyptian hospital with an unspecified terminal illness.

May Allah accept such martyrs by the tens of thousands.

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

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Gideon Levy builds an entire anti-Israel article in Haaretz around a fake quote

The execrable Gideon Levy, writing in Haaretz, proves yet again that he is not a journalist but an anti-Israel hack.

He wrote a loving obituary to Denis Goldberg, a long time fighter against South African apartheid. But the entire article is centered around a single quote, and the rest of the article is filler:

A Jewish hero died on Independence Day, with his death unmarked here. Denis Goldberg died in Cape Town, the city he was born in, at the age of 87. He was the epitome of struggle, sacrifice, courage and solidarity, all the qualities so lacking in Israel’s left. If he’d immigrated to Israel, he’d be considered a traitor and terrorist here. But Israel never had Jews such as him, willing to sacrifice everything in the struggle for the freedom of the Palestinians.
...
Like his partners to the struggle, he detested what was happening here. He told historian Tom Segev that Israel was the Middle East’s South Africa and that the solution in both places should be identical: one state with equal rights for all. His vision was realized in his own country and Goldberg returned there, crowned in glory.

The link that Levy gives towards the "he detested what was happening here" is from Middle East Monitor (MEMO), a well-known Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood mouthpiece. That quote, where he called Israel an apartheid state, cannot be confirmed by any other source. Perhaps he said it; but the source is quite suspect. In fact, Levy's fellow Haaretz columnist Anshel Pfeffer called MEMO a "conspiracy theory-peddling anti-Israel organisation."

In other words, perfect for Levy to quote.

Trusting a quote from MEMO is poor judgment, but that is not Levy's major crime here. His quote from Tom Segev is.

Here is what Goldberg himself wrote in his autobiography about that quote (italics his, bolded mine)

In all the time I have been out of prison, and it is now about thirty years, only one joumalist has deliberately misrepresented my political attitudes, and that was Tom Segev, an Israeli who was reputed to be the intellectual agenda setter in the Israeli media.

Segev, who wrote for a weekly magazine, Koteret Rashit, asked to interview me. He came, he said, because he wanted to know about the ethics of the armed struggle. And I gave him a long interview. After all, it is a very interesting topic for an intellectual discussion.

At the outset I explained, using the words off the record, that I would not speak about the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) during this interview because I was addressing an Israeli audience about South Africa and apartheid, and no one would give or a hearing if I spoke about the PLO. Those were the conditions of the interview. Now, off the record is off the record. He wrote an article of such blatant dishonesty in which he so blended quotations with his own opinions that his views appeared to be mine. His introduction read, "The ANC is the PLO of South Africa. Oliver Tambo is the Yasser Arafat of South Africa. Israel is the Apartheid nation of the Middle East." I had said none of these things.

Because the subject of the interview was the ethics of armed struggle, I had said as a condition of the interview that the examples I would give would be from South Africa and Southern Africa. For example, General Peter Walls of Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, flew in a civilian passenger plane so that he had civilians covering his military movements. At the last moment the general switched planes. When the plane he had been in was shot down, who was ethically responsible? The general who used unknowing civilians to shield him, or the people who shot the plane down? You can discuss until the cows come home, but the general is not innocent. Segev simply omitted my examples, which were relevant to my discussion, and took examples from the Middle East—Palestine, Lebanon, Israel, and so on —to poison the audience against what I was saying. But more than that, he translated every word related to liberation war, armed struggle, just war, anticolonial war, all such terms, as one Hebrew word, terrorism.

How can you discuss ethics if you don't distinguish categories? Worse still, by merging all these different ideas into one, he was saying there is no such thing as ethics. In the political sense he was saying, "The bullets and the bombs and the napalm, and the brutality that comes from the government of the day, are clean, and everything else is terrorism," whether you are talking about Israel, or apartheid South Africa, or any other conflict.

His article caused a media uproar. Many journalists who had been in support of Denis Goldberg of the ANC and of the struggle against apartheid now turned around to attack me in the media. I hoped that the controversy would die down, but k mounted day after day.

Peter Allen-Frost, the doyen of Middle East journalists, phoned me after some days. He said that serious journalists were embarrassed by Segev's artide because it was such a blatant misrepresentation of everything I would have said. He said that the editor of the magazine, Nahum Barnea, was embarrassed and indicated that if I asked for the right to reply, I would get it. I followed his advice. The editor offered me space for a letter to the editor. I insisted on an article with the same prominence as the original. I wanted a cover story, too. He agreed to an article bur not to a cover story. We agreed that I would write the article and that he, the editor, would personally translate it to ensure that it was accurate. He did publish it, and friends told me that it was accurately transcribed. . .

So Goldberg wrote a rebuttal article in the same magazine, strenuously denying Segev's quote, but Levy pretends that this never happened and quotes Segev's lies as truth.

There is no question that Goldberg criticized Israel's treatment of Palestinians. Based on what he wrote in his book, some of that criticism seems to be based on twisted information about Israel. But he denies telling Goldberg that Israel is the Middle East's South Africa and that Israel is the apartheid nation of the Middle East - and this book was published after the MEMO article, further casting doubt on whether he ever called Israel an apartheid state at all.

Levy once again proves that his zeal to smear Israel outweighs integrity and journalistic ethics.

Naturally, the Palestinian press is republishing Levy's piece. I wonder if Haaretz gives permission to them.

(h/t Lawrence)

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Yes, that's really him.

Syksy Räsänen is a board member of Amnesty Finland, and a veteran anti-Israel activist who has written a book about "Israeli apartheid."

Germany announced last Thursday that it was declaring all of Hezbollah a terrorist organization. Räsänen went on a rant about this on Sunday:

Germany's ban on Hezbollah is a perfect illustration of how terrorist lists are tools of power politics.

Hezbollah is banned because it "calls for the violent elimination of the State of Israel and questions the right of the State of Israel to exist".

Replace Israel->Palestine, and this describes most Israeli parties.
Admittedly, there is the difference that most Israeli parties have been implementing the elimination of Palestine, not just called for it.

Yet Likut, Yesh Atid, Shas, Labour etc. are valued partners for Germany and the EU, instead of being labeled terrorists.
Also Syrian islamist rebel groups, which not only called for but fought to bring down the Syrian government were not labeled terrorists by the EU.

Instead they were supported by European states, in line with official EU policy.

Räsänen used as source material a CNN report that the reason for the ban was Hezbollah's anti-Israel stance. But Hezbollah's terror activities are widely documented:

Hezbollah was behind a bombing in Istanbul in May 2011 that wounded eight Turkish civilians in an assassination attempt on the Israeli consul to Turkey, Moshe Kimchi.

In July 2012, a Lebanese man who admitted working for Hezbollah was detained by Cyprus police for planning attacks against Israeli tourists.

The 2012 Burgas bus bombing terrorist attack against Israeli citizens in Bulgaria, which killed six, was done by Hezbollah.

These are only the European attacks since 2010. Hezbollah has been involved in attacks and attempts in Singapore, Argentina and elsewhere. Denying that they are terrorists is the worst kind of pandering.

Oh, and Germany seems to have acted after the Mossad helpfully informed German authorities of the locations of warehouses in Germany where Hezbollah was storing explosives. But that's a minor detail to someone as big-brained as Syksy Räsänen.

But Räsänen, the human rights activist, has nothing bad to say about these attacks - because the intended target was Israeli civilians, and to him, Israelis are not human.

In fact, one does not need a PhD. in psychology to understand that the only reason Syksy Räsänen supports an Islamist terror group that is anti-woman, anti-gay and antisemitic is because Hezbollah is also anti-Israel, and therefore a partner.

And then he goes on to defend the Assad regime, of barrel bombs and poison gas - a truly strange position for a supposed human rights activist to take. But Assad is also anti-Israel so it all makes sense.

Isn't Amnesty the slightest bit embarrassed by their prominent members condoning terror and supporting groups that are against everything Amnesty pretends to stand for?

(h/t Tomer Ilan)

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Palestinian editorial cartoons REALLY hate "Umm Haroun" Ramadan miniseries

Here are some Palestinian editorial cartoons (mostly from Felesteen and Shehab News) about how much they hate the Umm Haroun miniseries that is sympathetic to Jews.

Here the TV is spouting out the Jewish equivalent of the coronavirus:

Here the miniseries is the hammer and the Palestinian is peacefully sitting on the anvil:

Yesterday Arabs wanted to fight Jews, today they want to promote pro-Jewish art:

"Drama of Arab normalization"

Here the Saudis, Abbas rival Dahlan and IDF spokesperson all coordinate to make the miniseries.

Arabs are letting the Israeli soldiers into their living rooms in the "Occupied Arab Drama." (h/t Aboud)

This one is only indirectly about the show - the Jewish screw is causing the rift between the holy sites in Jerusalem and Mecca. This may have been after a Saudi on TV said that there was nothing wrong with the Jews having the Temple Mount.

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05/03 Links: World Health Organization lies about Israel on coronavirus; The Palestinian Refugee Scam; Top Israeli judoka raises quarter million shekels to help fight virus

From Ian:

World Health Organization lies about Israel on coronavirus and other health issues

Trump recently suspended U.S. funding of the WHO. America is by far the largest donor to the agency and was scheduled to give it $894 million during the current two-year funding period.

The president said Thursday that “the World Health Organization should be ashamed of themselves because they’re like the public relations agency for China.” He could have also added that the WHO has operated like a PR and propaganda agency for the enemies of Israel – the only democracy in the Middle East.

A year ago, WHO member countries voted 96 to 11 – with the U.S. in opposition – for an annual resolution blaming Israel for “health conditions in the occupied Palestinian territory, including east Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syria Golan.”

While one might expect the WHO to be apolitical, it – like nearly every other U.N.-associated organ – is used by Israel’s enemies as a platform for viciously attacking the Jewish state. What may be even more disturbing is that democracies that should know better – including France, Belgium and Sweden – joined in the unjustified condemnation of Israel.

As U.N. Watch noted, out of 21 items on the WHO agenda, the only one focused on a specific country applied to Israel. This targeting of Israel has been going on since at least 2000.

U.N. Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer noted that “anyone who has ever walked into an Israeli hospital or clinic knows that they are providing world-class health care to thousands of Palestinian Arabs.”

It will not be surprising if this year the WHO adopts the usual Israel-bashing resolution and falsely accuses Israel of preventing Palestinians from getting treatment for COVID-19 – the disease caused by the coronavirus.

In fact, Israel is doing a great deal to help the Palestinians contain the coronavirus outbreak that first apparently arrived in the West Bank in Bethlehem.

NGO Monitor: BDS Group Makes a Mockery of Global Pandemic

On April 20, 2020, the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) published a “fact sheet” titled “Coronavirus under Israeli Apartheid.” The document promotes numerous allegations originating with Israeli and Palestinian non-governmental organizations (NGOs), which, since their original publication, have been removed, have been proven false, or are simply outdated. This failure to utilize factual and accurate information and make reasonable policy recommendations demonstrates that the purpose of this document is to demonize Israel and not to advocate for Palestinian health.

A core component of the “fact sheet” is the intersectional claim that Israeli policies “embody” something called “#CoronaRacism,” drawing false parallels between Palestinians and minority communities in the US and the UK. BNC also negates the responsibility of Palestinian actors for healthcare and ignores the diversion of resources by Hamas and other actors to weapons, tunnels, and terror, instead of public infrastructure in Gaza.

Distortions in the document include:
“Epidemics … are disproportionately violent to populations burdened by poverty, military occupation, discrimination and institutionalised oppression.” — Letter in The Lancet, March 26, 2020: The document opens by quoting a letter to The Lancet, which was, in fact, removed by the journal shortly after its publication. The letter was written by a group of anti-Israel activists, including repeat offender Mads Gilbert, and attacked “Israeli oppression and international complicity.” Ironically, the since-removed letter calls for Palestinians to “return” to Israel precisely when Israel was suffering from a much higher rate of infection than Gaza. The authors shamefully declare “no competing interests,” hiding their years of virulent anti-Israel advocacy behind a pledge of scientific objectivity.

Palestinian communities in Israel are “likely to become epicenters of the coronavirus outbreak” due to deficiencies in testing, information and health services: BNC links to an opinion article published on March 31, which provides no citations to back up its allegations, and is in any case, outdated. Reality over the ensuing month showed the prediction to be false: Jewish communities, in particular Ultra-Orthodox areas, were the epicenters in Israel, whereas Arab communities were relatively unaffected. Indeed, Haaretz now features an “update” in the article, linking to an April 2 piece titled “Israel ramps up coronavirus testing in Arab cities where infection rate relatively low.”

Corona doesn't stop the NIF from trying to harm Israel

People of Israel, fear not – while the world, including Israel, deals with corona virus, record level unemployment and what the “new normal” looks like, the radical, extremist New Israel Fund and their grantees continue to apply pressure on the Jewish State.

The goal of the New Israel Fund – an organization which continues to openly advocate a boycott of the Jewish State – is to create a “New” Israel, this, despite the fact that Israel is only a 72 year old country.

Take Hamoked, an organization which since 2008 has received upwards of $720,000 from The New Israel Fund, and claims to work “for the enforcement of standards and values of international human rights and humanitarian law,” and to date has focused on defending the families of terrorists. Just this month, Hamoked sent an urgent letter to demand the authorities "stop preventing Palestinian Arabs undergoing family unification procedures who live in Jerusalem.”

Do you get it? While all those who live in Israel were restricted for health reasons to not exceed 100 and then 500 meters from their home, Hamoked – in defiance of global distancing procedures – advocated for Palestinian Arabs to be able to move “freely and without delay.” And in Jerusalem, which has one of the highest ""rates of infection in the country.

Then, a group of New Israel Fund grantees led by Hamoked petitioned the High Court of Justice “… to demand that inmates classified as security inmates, and particularly those among them who are minors, be allowed to maintain family contact with their families at this time via the telephone.” In its April 1 response to the petition, the state announced its decision to allow “juvenile security prisoners and detainees who are not held in Damun prison [where a telephone-contact pilot test is being run] to have one telephone call with a first degree relative during the next two weeks…”.

Is that what American Jewish supporters of the New Israel Fund want from the State of Israel, for Palestinian Arabs (or anyone?) to move freely while corona is endangering the world?

Surviving COVID-19: Special Interview with Eli Beer of United Hatzalah

In the first episode of Together with Rabbi Yonah we speak with the incredible and inspiring Eli Beer about his experience surviving COVID19. Eli is the President of United Hatzalah in Israel, the volunteer paramedic organization.

In this video you will hear his incredible saga of how a person dedicated to saving lives was himself saved miraculously by doctors in Miami.

This moving and powerful story of survival and his message are potent medicine during this difficult time. Eli heard the doctors in the ICU unit deciding his fate. Then he prayed to God for healing.

Eli also shares a heartwarming story about a Hatzalah volunteer helping a Holocaust survivor and much more.

Simply put, Eli’s amazing recovery is teaches us that when God hasn’t decided on bringing someone back home, that our actions, prayers and good deeds can and do make a difference.

Quds Day is the Iranian holiday created by the late Ayatollah Khomeini on the last Friday of Ramadan to incite against and attack Israel.

It is not only celebrated in Iran but by Iranian proxies around the world from Toronto to London.

This year, the Iranian rallies are canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. Head of the "Intifada and Quds Center" at Iran’s Islamic Propagation Coordination Council, General Ramezan Sharif, said this year’s Quds Day rallies won’t be held.

Instead, they will try to move it all online. "Supreme Leader" Ayatollah Khamenei will deliver a speech on May 22, and organizers are hoping that Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh "or another major figure of resistance" will come to Tehran to attend.

What a shame.

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