Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, March 11, 2021

03/11 Links Pt2: From Durban to The Hague: 20 Years of NGO Lawfare; UN Women’s Palestinian Youth Leaders Glorify Terrorism; South Park's citizens vaccinated against COVID-19 thanks to Israel

From Ian:

Gerald Steinberg: From Durban to The Hague: 20 Years of NGO Lawfare

It was only after the UN Human Rights Council’s 2009 Goldstone Report on Gaza repeated the NGOs’ accusations and threatened a referral to the ICC that the Israeli government began paying attention to this campaign. Israel’s foreign and defense ministries published rebuttals of the accusations mentioned in the report. In parallel, Goldstone was confronted with the unsubstantiated claims and inconsistencies that characterized it. (He later acknowledged these failures, but the damage was done, and the campaign gained momentum and visibility.)

Supported by the NGO network, Palestinians gained UN General Assembly approval for calling themselves a state in 2014, despite the absence of the necessary criteria (such as a government in total control of a defined territory), and immediately used this dubious achievement to join the ICC and file complaints against Israel. In 2015, ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda announced that she would consider jurisdiction. The Israeli government focused on convincing her to reject the Palestinian claims to statehood and on highlighting the integrity of Israel’s legal system. In theory, this should have prevented ICC involvement according to the Rome Statute, which states that ICC is only authorized to intervene (or “complement”) national courts in situations in which the states involved lack the ability to bring suspected war criminals to trial.

In practice, Israel’s claims were insufficient in the face of the powerful political forces promoting the lawfare strategy. In December 2019, Bensouda claimed jurisdiction and “a reasonable basis” for investigating possible Israeli war crimes, and in February 2021, after two of the three judges who reviewed her claims declared their approval, she moved quickly to open a formal investigation.

Major damage in the form of demonization of Israel has already been done, but if enough counter-pressure can be applied, including by negating the power and resources of the NGOs behind this process, the ICC travesty might be stopped. The current prosecutor is finishing her term, and her successor, Karim Khan, from the United Kingdom, might be persuaded to halt the pseudo-investigations, particularly if the survival of the ICC is at stake.

In parallel, European funders of the campaign must be confronted directly and consistently. Anyone who is concerned about the abuse of the ICC for political campaigns, including Americans and Israelis, should demand to end the demonization under the façade of human rights and international law. Germany, for instance, is one of the main funders of the ICC and the largest single supporter of the NGOs leading the campaigns. The absurdity of German funding for anti-Israel NGOs has not yet received the necessary priority.

September 2021 will mark the twentieth anniversary of the UN’s antisemitic Durban conference and the NGO Forum, where both ICC lawfare and the BDS campaigns against Israel were launched. The best way to mark this date is to ensure that the perpetrators and their allies have nothing to celebrate.

We Went Inside a Palestinian Village (get ready to bust some myths)

This week’s show is different! We went into Palestinian villages, met the people, and captured normal Palestinian life on camera.

Undercover, Joshua and Luke visit Rawabi, a Palestinian western city built for 40,000 people right in the middle of Samaria. How many people actually live there? You’ll be blown away by the answer.

After visiting another abandoned village, the team heads into Turmus Ayya, a place considered the “America of the West Bank”. 12,000 people claim this village as home, but less than 4,000 live here. Filled with villas and mansions, this place looks like it came straight out of Hollywood. Joshua even got to interview the mayor on camera!

This week’s show is truly on the front lines of Israel’s heartland. Get ready for some mythbusting adventure!

UN Watch: UN Women’s Palestinian Youth Leaders Glorify Terrorism

As the world marks International Women’s Day this week, the UN agency for gender equality should explain why they have selected Palestinian youth leaders who glorify women in acts of terrorism.

UN Women’s Palestine branch recently announced its new youth forum for dialogue and advocacy around gender, and “31 young leaders from Palestine were selected for their leadership and demonstrated contribution to promote gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls.”

Members of this Youth Gender Innovation Agora, according to UN Women, are “committed to the core values of the United Nations.” Yet a glance at the social media of some of these young leaders suggests that UN Women Palestine chose many young leaders with a demonstrated record of glorifying terrorism, and of opposition to core United Nations values of human rights and peace.

UN Women’s gender equality youth leader Mohamad Abu Samra could be credited with promoting female role models, except that his idea of female empowerment is the terrorist Dalal Mughrabi, who participated in the 1978 Coast Road Massacre in which 38 Israelis, including 13 children, were murdered.

In Mohamad Abu Samra’s Facebook post, his text accompanying a picture of Mughrabi details with reverence the heroism of Dalal to fulfill “the necessity to carry out a daring and qualitative operation to hit Israel in the heart of its capital.”

Abu Samra isn’t the only one of the GIA’s youth leaders who admires Mughrabi. Samar Saleh Thawabteh also commemorates the anniversary of Mughrabi’s “martyrdom” with her own post celebrating the terrorist attack which, in her words, caused “hundreds of dead and wounded on the Israeli side.” This UN gender equality leader gives Mughrabi further credit for exploding the bus she was in and killing the passengers and Israeli soldiers on board.

Unpacked: Can You Be Zionist and Progressive? | The Israeli-Palestinian Context

From global movements to college campuses, the intersection of progressivism and Zionism is one where nothing is black or white. In the complex political and social climate of the world today, the lines between fact and opinion have become increasingly blurred. One of those “gray zones” lies at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. What does it mean to be a proud Jewish Zionist in today’s liberal spaces?

Mideast Couple Pays Premium For No-Drone-Strike Option At Wedding (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Check out their Facebook page.

Predator drone Sana, March 11 - Families of a man and woman hoping not to be dismembered by missiles from an American Predator aircraft at the celebration of their nuptials lamented this week that securing a venue that can accommodate such a preference will cost them a metaphorical arm and leg.

The Jabari and Hufri clans agreed last month to a marriage between Ahmad, a scion of the Jabaris, and Asma, of the Hufris, to take place in mid-March, but planning has bogged down and the event postponed twice already because all parties to the arrangement have agreed on at least one condition that catering halls and other facilities have declared all but impossible: no American drone strikes during the ceremony or party. The only available option, they discovered, involves an underground facility that must undergo significant modifications to attain the 200-person capacity that the event requires, and as such much charge more than ten times the prevailing rate for above-ground venues of similar size.

"We knew, in the abstract, that Biden's election would mean a return to the Obama-era phenomenon of drone attacks on weddings," acknowledged patriarch Hussein Jabari, the groom's great uncle. "But that was before Ahmad got engaged. Now it's real, and personal, and we have to address the down-to-earth details and implications. So far the drone strikes under Biden have been confined to remote areas of Syria, but the Americans are somehow both unreliable and entirely predictable, so at one point we even considered calling off the wedding. But the two of them are so cute together, and it's not fair to put life on hold just because lives are at risk. The Americans have made that mistake, too, with their excessive school closures and lockdowns, when less severe mitigation measures would suffice."

"Anyway," he continued, "we did finally find a guy with a bunch of caves on his property and the remnants of some tunnel, but it's going to take weeks of work to make it safe for our purposes, let alone hooked up to electricity and the proper kitchen facilities. And I don't even want to talk about how much livestock this is going to set us back. The security deposit alone cost me some of my finest ewes."

"It wasn't just the venue," agreed Fatima Hufri, who has taken charge of some of the other logistical arrangements for the affair. "Try getting a band that's willing either to risk its members' lives at an event prone to drone attack or to perform underground where the acoustics are terrible. And don't get me started on florists. Though since they do funerals, too, it was easier to persuade them to make a deal since they're getting our business either way."

03/11 Links Pt1: Why Saudi Arabia, MBS are important to Israel, regional peace; Netanyahu visit to UAE cancelled due to diplomatic spat with Jordan; Murderers of the Fogel family set to get 50% salary increase from the PA

From Ian:

Seth Frantzman: Why Saudi Arabia, MBS are important to Israel, regional peace - analysis

The crown prince has been the lightning rod of harsh human rights criticism in many US circles because of accusations, backed by the CIA, that he was involved in the killing of former Saudi insider Jamal Khashoggi. Others, however, point out that MBS has been key to Saudi Arabia’s shift toward a less repressive society.

They describe the crown prince – who has driven these changes – as “a visionary.” He is moving his country to a different place, say those who have met him. Therefore, Saudi Arabia should not be pushed into a corner by US policies that are critical of the kingdom.

It has already lost US support for offensive operations in Yemen, but it should be listened to regarding Iranian threats, even as Washington has been messaging a desire to recalibrate relations with Riyadh because of the Khashoggi murder. as well as taking a tougher line on human rights issues in Egypt.

It may be that a tougher line toward the Saudis from the US, and renewing the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, will accelerate Israeli relations with Riyadh. But Saudi Arabia has been cautious. Last year, when rumors spread that it might normalize relations with Israel, it waited.

Saudi Arabia is carefully assessing elections in the US and Israel. In recent days it has held high-level meetings with Jordan, Malaysia, Sudan and other countries. Unsurprisingly, this dovetails with other high-level meetings that link Israel and Egypt, Israel and several countries in Europe, and a growing relationship between Greece, Cyprus, France, Egypt, Israel and the UAE.

A constellation of broader questions mark Saudi Arabia’s relations with this regional realignment. These include Riyadh’s and Abu Dhabi’s views on Syria’s role in the Arab world, concerns about Lebanon’s stability, its relationship with Russia, patching up the aftermath of the crisis with Qatar, and keeping an eye on Turkey’s ambitions.

They involve finding solutions to the conflict in Libya and increasing Gulf influence in east Africa, in Sudan, and farther afield in Pakistan. Israel’s growing sense of being part of the region now puts it increasingly at the crossroads of these discussions as well. While Israel wants the US to stay vitally connected to the region, the overall trend binding Israel and the Gulf and partners from central Europe to India is visceral.

Middle East: The Ghosts of Sovereigns Past

The State of Israel continues to enforce Jordanian law [in the West Bank, or Judea and Samaria] -- despite its clearly racist and backward underpinnings.

No matter what side of the political divide you view it from, a legislative and legal time-warp has trapped the residents of these territories – Jews and Arabs, Israelis and Palestinians – in amber for more than five decades. The result: legal chaos, injustice and incessant conflict.

Ironically, Israel's legal reticence continues to fuel the endless conflict over the land itself... that could be avoided by simply completing the process of land survey and registration initiated by the Ottoman Empire and continued by the British Mandatory and Jordanian governments in turn.

Surveying and registering land ownership was not perceived as an act of sovereignty when the British caretakers undertook it; there seems no reason why it should be regarded that way now.

This same vacuum has made it impossible to formulate forward-thinking policy for land use, environmental protection, settlement policy, and perhaps most critically, a negotiated resolution of the status of the territory. Without establishing who owns what, it is impossible to proceed toward a just division of resources or a peaceful resolution of the conflict.

The time has come to banish the antiquated ghosts of Ottoman, Jordanian and British Mandatory rule, and to fill the legal void in Judea and Samaria with a modern, humanist, democratic system of law for everyone.

Netanyahu visit to UAE cancelled due to diplomatic spat with Jordan

Israel and Jordan were working to calm the waters on Thursday after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's scheduled historic first visit to the United Arab Emirates was cancelled following a diplomatic incident between Israel and Jordan.

Netanyahu's scheduled visit to the United Arab Emirates was held up on Thursday morning when Jordan announced it would not allow Netanyahu's aircraft to cross its airspace en route to the United Arab Emirates,.

Officials think that the Jordanian decision, which was announced only shortly before the flight was scheduled to take off, was a response to Israel's decision to cancel a visit to the Temple Mount that had been scheduled for Jordanian Crown Prince Hussein bin Abdullah on Wednesday over disagreements about security protocols.

Israel Hayom has learned that the prince intended to visit the Temple Mount to pray prior to making the Haj pilgrimage to Mecca.

Officials in the UAE told Israel Hayom on Thursday afternoon that it appeared that Netanyahu's visit would most likely not take place as originally scheduled.

A senior government official in Amman told Israel Hayom that "high-ranking Israeli political officials and former Israeli security officials cooperated with Amman to torpedo Netanyahu's visit to the UAE, after Prince Hussein's visit to the Temple Mount was called off."

The official added that "Jordan and Israel will need to find a way to lower the flames and end the diplomatic incident, which has embarrassed both sides. King Abdullah has taken many calls from Israeli officials, who argued that the instruction not to allow some of Prince Hussein's armed security detail to cross Allenby Bridge came from the Prime Minister's Office."

The vaccine double standards against Israel keep piling up around the world

From The Independent:

If the US has leftover vaccines once every American has had the opportunity to get a jab, the Biden administration will share its inventory with the rest of the world, the president said on Wednesday.

“The surplus will – if we have a surplus, we're going to share it with the rest of the world,” Mr Biden said on Tuesday, shortly after announcing his government had secured a deal for the purchase of another 100m doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

“So we're going to start off making sure Americans are taken care of first, but then we're then going to try to help the rest of the world.”

I've pointed out months ago that Australia and New Zealand are doing the same thing - prioritizing their own populations before giving it to their neighbors.

Yet only Israel is expected to provide vaccines for others before its own population is fully inoculated.

Similarly, when Israel said a few weeks ago that it will give some symbolic amounts of vaccine to friendly nations as a form of diplomacy, it was pilloried in the media. How dare something that saves lives be used in this way - it is practically blackmail!

Yet China, India and Russia give out lots of vaccines specifically for the purpose of strengthening ties with other countries - and no one seems to have a problem with that.

Israel is now providing some 120,000 vaccines to Palestinians for free - with IDF soldiers helping out - and the coverage is sparse.

The double standards are overwhelming, and absolutely normal when it comes to Israel.

From The New Arab:

The Palestinian Authority [PA] on Tuesday vetoed the UAE's bid to join the Eastern Mediterranean Gas Forum (EMGF), according to Israeli media reports.

The PA reportedly used its veto to block the UAE's entry into the forum due to its normalisation of ties with Israel.

The move came as a surprise to members of the forum, who asked the Palestinian representative if he was willing to abstain, according to sources involved in the forum who spoke to Israel's Kan 11 news.

The forum admits members by unanimous decision only, causing the UAE's bid for observer status to be rejected.

This is the petty kind of retaliation one would expect from a child, not a would-be nation.

From The Jerusalem Post:

Jordan is blocking Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s planned flight to the United Arab Emirates from entering its airspace, a senior diplomatic source said.
“Netanyahu’s departure to visit the Emirates is delayed because there is no authorization of the flight path by the Jordanians at this time,” the diplomatic source said. “The assessment is that this delay, revealed shortly before the flight, is because of the cancellation of the Jordanian crown prince’s visit to the Temple Mount yesterday, because of a dispute over security arrangements.”
Jordanian Crown Prince Hussein bin Abdullah had planned to visit the Al-Aksa Mosque on the Temple Mount on Wednesday, following ongoing talks with Israel over his security.
However, the prince arrived at the Israeli border with more armed guards than Israel had authorized. The additional guards were not permitted to enter Israel, and Hussein canceled his visit.

Jordan is an actual nation, and it still engages in penny-ante revenge.

Much of the Arab world seriously needs to grow up. And it is that desire to act like adults that is prompting forward-thinking Arab nations to normalize relations with Israel, while the immature Arab countries are choosing to go the opposite way.

Adam Levick shares a beautiful story on Facebook:

An 'only in Israel' story: I was waiting to get an x-ray at Terem, and a mother with a baby boy (a few months old) in a stroller asked an elderly lady she clearly didn't know to watch her baby while she went in for an x-ray.

Then, the elderly lady had to go in for her x-ray, so she asks a man she doesn't know if she'll watch the child - because the boy's mother still hadn't returned.

Then, the man gets called into the x-ray room, and he then passes the baby to me. I watched him (for about 10 min or so) until his mother finally came out. The mother was thankful, but not inordinately so - as if I just told her what time it was, rather than ensured the safety and well-being of her infant!

Now, the funny thing is that this is not an uncommon occurrence here. I mean, don't get me wrong: on some level I'm thinking, 'wow!...she's trusting the life of her baby to complete strangers', and I couldn't imagine that happening in the US - certainly not in a big city.
But there's something about life here...you'd have to live here to know what I mean. On some level it seemed nuts, but on another it seemed perfectly natural - the best of what this country is.

This is only one "Only in Israel" story. There are hundreds of others. Some examples:

When nobody sees anything strange in asking you how much you paid for your house or how big your mortgage on it is, or for that matter, how much you earn.
When an elderly lady stranger comes up to you while you are holding your infant child and zips up the child’s coat and says it’s too cold for a little one to be outside like that. And then she takes your cab.
When your banker tells you that you could earn 2% interest in long-term savings, or you could invest in bonds, and also her son is around your age and happens to be single, and would you like to come over for Shabbat?

There is a common denominator behind these stories.

It is because Israel is far more than a Jewish state. It is a place where Jews of all kinds are truly family.

Not a community. Not a tribe. Family.

The same familial instinct that is expressed in trusting a fellow Jew with your child is also found in starting an argument with a fellow Jew you've never met before. The sense of family explains both astonishing Israeli kindness and apparent Israeli rudeness.

As a person who still lives outside Israel, I feel it keenly when I visit. It feels like I am home. It feels comfortable. In the US, I am always on my guard, worried about any negative impression I might be accidentally making as a Jew; in Israel I feel like I can kick off my shoes and put my feet up on the coffee table without asking permission.

It is intoxicating.

I don't feel this comfortable in even the most Jewish of Jewish communities in America. They al have their standards, their cultural mores, and some people fit in and some people don't.

This is not the case in Israel, where Jews of all backgrounds, levels of religiosity and skin color are part of the same family.

Families take care of their own first. Of course, they should treat non-family members with respect, and a moral family teaches all members to be kind to others. Everyone should treat their neighbors with as much goodness as possible. But if the boat is sinking and you can only save one person, you will choose your relative. This is both normal and moral.

Sickeningly, Israel-haters try to turn this sense of family into the worst possible crime.

When they say that Jewish Israelis are "Jewish supremacists," they are saying that treating fellow Jews like family is immoral. The haters try to turn what is beautiful and moving into something ugly and racist.

They want the world to see Jewish solidarity and pride as being equivalent to thinking that non-Jews are less than human. They are echoing the worst attitude of the antisemites throughout the centuries. Most of all, they want Jews to stop acting like a family. "We don't identify with our fellow Jews, and we don't want you to, either" is the message of the ones who by accident of birth also happen to be Jews.

This is why the charge of "Jewish supremacy" is so thoroughly offensive. It isn't only antisemitic - it is an attempt to destroy what makes the Jewish people, and Israel, so special.

Israel's strength comes from the sense of family that normal, healthy Jews have for each other. Nothing can take that away.

In less than two weeks (23 March), Israel will hold its fourth election since April 2019.
Since then the country has been “governed” by various interim governments with attenuated powers, and most recently by a dysfunctional “national unity” government which – while having the greatest number of ministers and deputy ministers in Israel’s history – can’t agree on anything, including a budget (which brought about the coming election).

Actual decisions, when they cannot be avoided, are taken by the Prime Minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, unless he is prevented from acting by his “legal advisor” – who has become a bitter enemy – or the Supreme Court. The Corona epidemic has provided a fertile field for governmental ineptitude. For example, recently restaurant owners made an agreement with the Health Ministry about how many diners could be seated in their establishments and how far apart the tables could be. The owners then went about setting up for their scheduled opening this week, organizing, staffing, and buying food and other supplies – when the government changed the rules at the last moment.

Meanwhile, the election campaign is at its height, with plenty of negative campaigning on offer. There are basically two major divisions in Israeli politics today: one is the traditional ideological right-left divide, in which the issues include security, government programs and involvement in the economy, relations with minorities, the justice system, synagogue and state, and so on. It’s generally agreed that the parties that fall on the right side of the spectrum on these issues constitute a large majority, even 80 seats in the 120-seat Knesset.

The other, of course, is the question of whether the next PM should be Netanyahu or someone else. Here, as in the previous three elections, the voters are almost precisely evenly divided. On one side is Netanyahu’s Likud, the Haredi and national religious parties, and (maybe) the Yamina party of Naftali Bennett. On the other is the center-left Yesh Atid party of Yair Lapid, the right-wing-but-not-Bibi parties of Gideon Sa’ar and Avigdor Lieberman, the left-wing Labor and Meretz parties, and the Arab Joint List. It’s hard to see how either side gets 61 seats, and it’s hard to see how some of these parties could sit together because of their ideological differences.

There are three possible outcomes: either Netanyahu puts together a weak coalition of close to 61, the anti-Netanyahu parties do the same, or nobody succeeds in making a coalition, in which case we start getting ready for election number five.

Netanyahu’s corruption trial has been put on hold until after the election, but it is to be expected that the pressure will be on him if he becomes PM again; he will try to get the Knesset to pass some kind of law that will protect him. As always, I will note that some of the charges against him make sense and others are entirely bogus. He says that the legal establishment is trying to frame him (in Hebrew, the word for both a criminal file and a purse is “tik”, so he can say “they sewed me up a tik”). So if he wins, we can expect a continuation of the subordination of important issues to his personal problems that has recently characterized his leadership.
On the other hand, if somehow the anti-Bibi parties manage to put together a government, it’s hard to see how it will be able to hold together with the left-wing Meretz party and the right-wing Gideon Sa’ar in it. The nature of the difficulties will depend on the precise coalition that is created and who ends up as PM, but regardless of the results of the election, a stable government doesn’t seem likely.

The campaign itself is both ugly and stupid. In addition to the negativity and personal attacks, the candidates are shameless braggarts, with Netanyahu the worst. His campaign ads consist of him saying over and over again, “whom do you trust to deal with [Iran, Corona, the economy, etc.], me or the other guy?” Every other word seems to be “I” or “me.” “I got the vaccines, I stole the Iranian nuclear documents, I improved the economy, me, me, me.” Of course he is right that he has had many accomplishments, but also many of the failures in handling the epidemic and economy were due to his inattention or his need to appease the Haredi parties that are essential to his coalition. And some of “his” accomplishments weren’t entirely his, such as the Mossad operation to steal the nuclear documents.

I think Bibi’s ads are emblematic of his approach to his job, which is to keep his cards close to his vest, personally micromanage everything of importance, refuse to delegate responsibility, and – above all – ensure that nobody else comes close to being able to replace him. Now given the added problems from his legal entanglement, I think the negative aspects of his personality and style outweigh his truly impressive intelligence and competence.

But who, indeed, could replace him? Not Yair Lapid, leader of the opposition, with negligible security experience, too far left for my taste, and few if any real accomplishments from his years in politics. Maybe Sa’ar or Bennett (my personal choice) but neither of them appear to have the votes. Sa’ar and Bennett, incidentally, used to be members of Likud, but quit after they were marginalized by Netanyahu because he saw them as threats to his leadership.

The politicians all like to say, in sepulchral tones, that nobody wants a (second, third, fourth, or fifth) election, but I don’t believe them. The elections are incredibly expensive. Estimates run to half a billion shekels ($150 million), and the government is paralyzed during the pre-election campaign and the after-election coalition-forming period (someday an enemy will decide that that is an even better time to attack than Yom Kippur). But after all, it’s not their money, and they love the opportunity the campaign gives them to brag about how great they are, to be interviewed on the radio and TV, to be the news themselves instead of having to do the boring, hard work of – for example – putting together and passing a budget. And then there is always the possibility of personal advancement, to become a government minister who is paid more than a plain MK and has a driver, a secretary, and an office!

What’s next? Unfortunately, the best I can hope for is another Netanyahu government, and that it will last for more than a few months. Bennett keeps saying that he will be PM, and all I can say is “from your mouth to God’s ear,” although I can’t imagine how it can come about. But the State of Israel has been the beneficiary of miracles before, so who knows?

03/10 Links Pt2: Corruption affects everything in Palestine – even vaccines; The Anti-Semitic Rhetoric of Anti-Zionists; Starmer’s Video Call with Palestinian Ambassador Who Claimed Israel “Fabricated” Holocaust

From Ian:

Corruption affects everything in Palestine – even vaccines

Visit certain parts of the West Bank and you’ll encounter mansions owned by senior officials in the Palestinian Authority (PA). By any standards – let alone those to which ordinary citizens are accustomed – they are impressive, with arches, colonnades and tall windows. If you’d been watching them in recent weeks, you might have seen vaccines being quietly delivered to these residences in unmarked cars, having been skimmed off the supply intended for medical workers.

Those, at least, were the allegations made by a number of Palestinian human rights and civil society groups. Last week, the Palestinian health ministry was forced to come clean. In a statement, the ministry admitted that 10 per cent of the 12,000 doses it had received had been put aside for government ministers and members of the PLO’s executive committee.

The rest, it claimed, had been given to workers treating Covid patients and employees of the health ministry. Aside from the 200 doses that were sent to the Jordanian royal court, that is. And those reserved for presidential guards. And those that had been given to the Palestinian national football team.

None of this should come as a surprise. One of the many sufferings that afflicts the residents of the West Bank, not to mention Gaza, is the corruption of their rulers.

Mahmoud Abbas is currently 16 years into a four-year term. New elections were promised as a gesture for the new American President, but few observers believe they will actually take place. The administration has been mainlining international aid dollars for years while continuing to funnel cash to reward convicted terrorists, with the worst crimes attracting the most wealth – a story that I first covered in 2014 and that continues unchecked, despite widespread outrage.

According to AMAN, a Palestinian anti-corruption body linked to Transparency International, almost 70 per cent of Palestinians believe that their government institutions are corrupt. An EU report found that embezzlement had led to a loss of £1.7 billion of aid money between 2008 and 2012 alone. Huge sums are spent on fake companies and projects, including – in 2017 – a non-existent airline.

New Book Explores UK-Jewish Relations Through Humor and Firsthand Experience

The Taming of the Jew, by Tuvia Tenenbom (Geffen Publishing, 2021).

Prophecy is gone from Israel. We no longer hear vox dei, but only vox populi, in this case, through the medium of the brilliant Israeli writer Tuvia Tenenbom. Posing as a German or Arab journalist (and sometimes even posing as himself), Tenenbom travels the world, provoking people from all walks of life into telling him what they really think about the Jews.

Where is God?, he asks in effect, when so much hatred afflicts God’s people? The result is quizzical and tragic at the same time, the sort of comedy sketches that Samuel Beckett might have written if he were Jewish rather than Irish.

Tenenbom’s 2011 book Allein unter den Deutschen (“Alone among the Germans”) became a bestseller in Germany, as did his romp through the world of non-governmental organizations, Catch the Jew. In 2011 I reviewed a self-published English edition of his first book — to my knowledge the first review he received — and characterized him as a Jewish Hunter S. Thompson. That was glib, and wrong.

A Talmud prodigy in his native Bnei Barak who moved to New York to learn mathematics and then theater, Tenenbom brings a deep religious sensibility to what at first seems like journalistic street theater. In his latest book, The Taming of the Jew, a political travelogue of the British Isles, he speaks with the prophetic tone of Mordechai in the Book of Esther. In place of Haman his antagonist is former British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, one of the world’s leading antisemites.

The book was complete, but for an epilogue, before the December 2019 national election, Labour’s worst humiliation since the general election of 1935. That led quickly to Corbyn’s removal as leader and a purge of the antisemites he had brought into the party leadership.

In the book, we learn at length that many Scots, Irish, and English hate Jews, especially the Scots and Irish, who seem to believe a lot of the anti-Israel propaganda that they hear, and the English aren’t much better. We tour Gatestone, the site of Britain’s largest yeshiva, and find that the talmidim live at constant risk of physical assault. We tour Manchester, home to several kosher restaurants, several of which were firebombed

Pope Francis and Part Two of the Abraham Accords

Our father, Abraham, has had a lot on his plate lately—always for the good of humanity, as is his habit. “Lech lecha,” the Creator commanded him, “go from your land and from your birthplace and from your father’s house, to the land that I will show you.”

From that time on, the adventure of monotheism began. Unfortunately, the task was left to Abraham’s two sons, Isaac and Ishmael, whose eternal dispute has relentlessly pursued us to this day.

Pope Francis bravely went to Syria on Friday—to Mosul, Najaf and Ur—where he led a prayer reminding attendees of Abraham’s message: that God is invisible, infinite and very close; full of love towards and demands of man, foremost among them to live in peace.

Peace is a moral attribute of monotheism, the son of Judaism, as well as the founder of what has come to be called the “human spirit,” which includes Christianity and Islam.

Pope Francis’s meeting with Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, a key spiritual leader of Iraqi Shiite Muslims was significant. After years of atrocities committed against Christians at the hands of ISIS particularly and by political Islam in general, he traveled from Rome to the Middle East to talk to the most suitable of interlocutors among Shiites, who have not only traditionally suffered as a poor minority within the Sunni-majority Islamic world, but today—due to the regime in Tehran—represent the thorniest current issues: imperialism, uranium enrichment and the persecution of minorities.

Yet Sistani is a notable exception. A balanced character, he was born in Iran but significantly distant from his homeland, which is dominated by a group of Khomeinists who, according to Islamic religious law, will become the recognized leaders—only with the coming of the Mahdi, Imam Hussein—of the world’s redemption.

He is a moderate, cautious with politicians, but powerful within his community. He tried to placate the former after the 2003 invasion of Iraq by a combined force of troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland, while also attempting to contain attacks against Americans. He pushed hard, as well, for the war against ISIS. Moreover, he maintains a relationship with Iran without demonstrating devotion to it.

Michael Che on SNL, JPost Editorial Wapo Piece on Michael Che's antisemitic joke

Sometimes I think we’re our own worst enemy. Case in point, a Jerusalem Post editorial that made excuses for Michael Che’s antisemitic joke. It was not at all surprising to see the Washington Post cite that same Jpost editorial as authoritative, in order to make further excuses for the antisemitic content aired February 20, on NBC’s popular late-night Saturday Night Live (SNL) comedy show.

“Israel is reporting that they’ve vaccinated half of their population,” said Che. “I’m going to guess it’s the Jewish half.”

Che’s suggestion that Israel vaccinates only its Jewish population, parrots a classic antisemitic trope in which Jews are depicted as opportunistic, greedy, and selfish. This is not funny. It is an ugly lie told with the malicious intent of fomenting hatred against the Jewish people and the Jewish State.

Had the object of Che's "joke" been a woman, LGBTQ, black, Hispanic, or Asian, the comedian would be long gone, canceled, and relegated to celebrity Siberia. Jews, on the other hand, are fair game. You can say what you like about Jews, for as often and as long as you like.

How do we know?

Michael Che’s antisemitic libel, in the guise of a joke, was broadcast to some 9.1 million viewers. NBC did not apologize for playing host to antisemitic content. Che did not apologize for the antisemitic “joke” or the lie it contained, and he was not canceled.

Prominent Jewish and Israeli leaders spoke out against this outrage. They shouldn’t have had to. But countering hate and calling the haters on their hatred may make them a little less brazen the next time. Which means that on some Saturday night in the future, 9.1 million viewers may not watch dishonest content that stirs them to hatred of the Jewish people and Israel. Which means that some future terrorist may be nipped in the bud before he gets it in his head to kill a Jew.

That doesn’t seem like too much to ask. The lede for the JPost editorial, however, begs to disagree:

“Response to Michael Che's SNL joke is unreasonable,” reads the JPost lede, “If everything is antisemitic, then nothing is, so the appellation must be used sparingly.”

The thrust here, by a major English-language Israeli publication is that all the uproar, the furor, and the outcry by prominent Jews is an overreaction. Che’s joke, according to the JPost, was no big deal: just a tempest in a teapot. And like the boy who cried wolf, if we keep calling innocuous jokes such as that told by Michael Che, antisemitic, everyone will stop listening to us:

Did the American Jewish Committee really have to issue a statement, organize a petition, and demand an apology?

Did the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations need to weigh in with a statement of its own saying that “NBC should know better, and must not only stop spreading harmful misinformation, but take action to undo this damage caused by propagating Jew-hatred under the guise of comedy?”

And is this really something that Gilad Erdan, Israel’s ambassador to both the US and the UN and a man whose two jobs must keep him very busy, really needed to tweet about?

Might that not be a little overkill?

Unfortunately, the response of @Jerusalem_Post is just as bad.https://t.co/AVOe52yich
— (((Varda Epstein))) (@VardaEpstein) February 23, 2021

The dismissive nature of the JPost editorial on the Michael Che incident was disturbing. More disturbing, perhaps, is that the JPost editorial was used by the Washington Post to excuse Michael Che’s behavior, and that of NBC. In other words, if the JPost—an Israeli newspaper—says the joke wasn’t antisemitic, but only “stupid” and “insensitive,” then who are we/Wapo, to say otherwise?

Wapo writer Timothy Bella’s coverage of the Michael Che incident, which so far has received 2.9k comments, suggesting a very wide reach, used the JPost editorial as follows:

Neither Che nor SNL has publicly responded to the blowback, while others have come to the comedian’s defense and even praised him for questioning Israel’s vaccination program. An editorial in the Jerusalem Post on Monday called the criticism “unreasonable,” noting that the Jewish community’s messaging toward more explicit examples of antisemitism would be diluted “when the same ammunition is loaded up to deal with Che’s joke.”

Bella, moreover, insinuates that Che’s accusations have merit, by suggesting that the territories ruled by the PA and Hamas are, in reality, controlled by Israel:

[Human rights groups] have argued Israel has a moral and legal obligation to give access to vaccines to the roughly 5 million Palestinians living in territories the country controls . . . Israeli officials have cited the Oslo Accords in arguing that the Palestinian Authority and Hamas are responsible for their own health systems.

This is a lie from start to finish. Israel is not in control of PA territory. It is not in control of Gaza. Gaza, for example, has been Jew-free since 2004 when Jews were forcibly expelled from their homes for this purpose. And Israel doesn’t “argue” that the PA and Hamas are responsible for their own health system because of the Oslo Accords. The PA and Hamas demanded and were granted this right at Oslo.

How are u better for suggesting Israel controls territory controlled by the Palestinian Authority and Hamas? "Israel has a moral and legal obligation to give access to vaccines to the roughly 5 million Palestinians living in territories the country controls."
— (((Varda Epstein))) (@VardaEpstein) March 9, 2021

It is precisely because Israel does not control these territories that the Jewish State has absolutely no responsibility for the health care of those who live there. To suggest otherwise smacks of paternalism. (Either you believe the Arabs have a right to self-determination and the ability to govern themselves, or you don’t. Which is it, Wapo/Timothy Bella?)

Not to mention that the PA and Gaza have both rejected Israeli offers of assistance and coordination in establishing their own vaccination programs. It is only to Israel’s benefit that PA and Gazan Arabs be vaccinated, since they mix with Israeli citizens. And of course, Israeli Arabs, and other non-Jews with Israeli citizenship have all been vaccinated, free of charge. Just like the Jews.

It’s too damned bad that the JPost offered every reporter worth his/her salt, the chance to make light of Che’s joke. Why wouldn’t Bella use this material to say that Che’s “joke”—and NBC’s absent apology—are matters of little concern? Especially when the JPost piece ends by questioning the very idea that Michael Che’s antisemitic “joke” has any wider implications or even much import at all:

Is Saturday Night Live antisemitic? Is NBC? Do the Jewish people or Israel gain anything from insinuating antisemitism was at play here?

Antisemitism is a serious charge. It is the heavy ammo. And you don’t need to take out the cannons to kill a mosquito. If you do, not only will you be wasting valuable ammunition, but when you actually do need to use the big guns, they will make much less of an impact since everyone will have become inured to the blast, having heard it so many times before.

Michael Che’s antisemitic “joke” was a lie at the expense of the Jewish State and the Jewish people that was broadcast to 9.1 million viewers. The English-language newspaper of record in Jewish Jerusalem, however, refers to Che’s joke as nothing more than a “mosquito.” This cannot help but sadden and dismay those of us with a proud Jewish tradition: those of us who love Israel.

But the real issue and the irony here, is that the JPost made itself a tool in the hands of those who would demonize Israel and the Jews, by making light of Che’s behavior and NBC’s nonresponse. Reporters are just waiting to pounce on an editorial such as this. This is the material that is a joy for them to find, as it lends credibility to their anti-Israel agitprop.

The issue here is not the joke, not Michael Che or NBC, but the pervasive anti-Israel, antisemitic narrative of the wider world news media. In publishing that editorial, the JPost only served to add fuel to the fire, fanning the flames of hatred against the Jews and the Jewish State. The editorial was bad enough on its own, but far worse in the hands of the enemy. We may not know all that goes on from behind the scenes—we may not see the men and women behind the typewriters—but these are not good people and have not the best interests of the Jewish people and Israel at heart.

03/10 Links Pt1: Israel Is the Arab World’s New Soft Power; Netanyahu heading to UAE to meet crown prince; ICC prosecutor gave PA advance notice but asked to “keep secret” her decision to open an investigation ?

From Ian:

Israel Is the Arab World’s New Soft Power

The Middle East is currently split among this Saudi bloc, Iran, and Turkey. Israel is not particularly at odds with Turkey but is irked by its support for Hamas, a Palestinian movement and militia. The Saudi bloc is perturbed by Turkey’s support for the political Islamists of the Muslim Brotherhood, which has local branches in the Gulf and, those countries’ leaders fear, enough potential popularity to subvert their monarchical rule. Israel is set to benefit from this rivalry too.

“Israel’s policy focuses on degrading capabilities of radical enemy forces—starting from Iran to Hezbollah, Hamas and more,” said Koby Huberman, co-founder of an Israeli think tank working on regional cooperation. “In addition, Israel, together with other Arab states, aims to block the negative impact of the Muslim Brotherhood movements and forces, supported and funded by Turkey and Qatar.”

But while Netanyahu would love to sell Israel’s improving ties as his own achievement in the upcoming elections on March 23, the fourth in the last two years, there is a risk of too much cooperation, too soon, backfiring.

Bassam Barabandi, a former Syrian diplomat currently living in exile in the United States, said while Arabs are happy to see Israel take on Iran, they still see Israel as an enemy state that stole their land. Ahmad is a dentist in Damascus, Syria and from an area that witnessed the worst of the coronavirus. Speaking to Foreign Policy on the condition of anonymity, he said he did not think much of Israeli largesse in purchasing Sputnik V, Russia’s coronavirus vaccine, for Syrians. “First Russians bomb, and now they give us vaccines. Who is going to trust them?” he asked rhetorically. “Israel is bombing Syria too, but the regime says nothing to them. This is all their deal-making. People can see through it. In fact, the vaccines must be coming for regime officials.”

Other Israeli analysts said they worried Israel may lose its leverage in the Gulf under Biden’s presidency. For decades, Arab nations have eased ties with Israel to seek U.S. pardons for their excesses at home. But as Israel itself is under the Biden scanner now, it can hardly put in a word for them.

Israel hopes to present itself as a soft power in the region, a worthy but unobtainable goal as long as it continues annexing Palestinian lands. Within the Israeli expert community too, some of the government’s policies are criticized, especially when they entail aiding the suppression of dissent in Arab nations. Elizabeth Tsurkov, a fellow at the Newlines Institute for Strategy and Policy, said Arab companies will be hesitant of purchasing Israeli products mainly because they would not want to “alienate customers.” She said business cooperation thus far has been in surveillance technologies, which might grow but at a cost. “It will further increase the repressive capabilities” of Gulf nations, Tsurkov said, “and their ability to track dissidents and surveil their private communications. Therefore, Israeli-Gulf cooperation will likely be quite detrimental to political freedoms.”

Bar said he is quite certain his company’s services were not misused to crush dissent in Saudi Arabia. However, he would be more comfortable conducting business with a country like Sweden.

Despite the challenges, Israel’s relationship with the Saudi and Emirati bloc seems to be on the up and up. And as they present a united front against Iran, Biden’s attempt to rejoin the nuclear deal will only become harder.

Pinsker Centre: Ep. 4 - The ICC's Probe Into Israel - Credible or Credulous? - with Colonel Richard Kem?p?

Colonel Richard Kemp is a distinguished retired British Army Officer. His experience includes commanding troops during Operation Fingal in Afghanistan, before going on to work in the Joint Intelligence Committee and Cabinet Office Briefing Rooms (commonly referred to as COBRA).

Today, he sits down with Daniel Sacks, a Pinsker Centre Policy Fellow, to discuss the legitimacy of the International Criminal Court's probe into Israeli activity.

Netanyahu heading to UAE to meet crown prince

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu plans to fly to the United Arab Emirates on Thursday, for the first time since its normalization agreement with Israel last year.

Netanyahu is expected to meet with Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Mohammed bin Zayed.

The trip is set to take place less than two weeks before the March 23 election, despite reports that officials in the UAE were hesitant to host Netanyahu at a date that would be viewed as political.

A well-connected source in Abu Dhabi confirmed that the election was a consideration, but the UAE decided to welcome Netanyahu regardless of the date.

The prime minister is expected to take a private plane to Abu Dhabi and conduct meetings in the airport.

The plan is for a quick jaunt to Abu Dhabi, the UAE’s capital, for several hours. Netanyahu would leave Thursday morning and arrive back in Jerusalem in time for a 6 p.m. meeting with the prime ministers of Hungary and the Czech Republic.

Netanyahu canceled three planned visits to the UAE in the past, due to COVID-19 lockdowns and restrictions, as well as political developments. He had originally planned a trip of several days, with stops in Dubai and Bahrain, as well.

How petty, how vindictive from the #Palestinian Authority! This after #UAE continues to provide them aid and support at UN. And why? Simply because they chose to also normalize relations with #Israel.

Kids, be like UAE. Not PA. https://t.co/KZFBpM5goR
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) March 10, 2021