Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

03/22 Links Pt1: Netanyahu: Brussels attack and terror in Israel part of same assault; Muslim police refuse to protect French synagogues

From Ian:

At least 34 said killed as terror attacks rock Brussels airport, metro

At least 34 people were reportedly killed and dozens were wounded in twin attacks Tuesday morning on Brussels’s airport and metro, authorities said.
By mid-afternoon official figures put the death toll at 26. But local media was reporting a total of 34 dead, 14 in twin bomb blasts in the departure terminal of the airport and 20 more in a bomb attack a short while later at the Maalbeek metro station.
Dozens were injured in both incidents.
Authorities defined the explosions as terror attacks and the public transport system in the city was shut down in the wake of the blasts.
According to the Belgian VTM TV channel, police discovered an unexploded suicide vest at the Brussels airport. The report said a Kalashnikov assault rifle had also been located at the site.
Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel, speaking on national television, described the attacks as “blind, violent and cowardly.”

Netanyahu to AIPAC: Brussels attack and terror in Israel part of same assault

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed AIPAC's annual policy conference on Tuesday, sending his condolences to the families of those killed earlier in the day in a string of terror attacks in Brussels, Belgium.
Speaking via live video feed, Netanyahu said that the chain of attacks currently being seen from Paris to San Bernadino and now in Brussels is one continuous assault that includes the daily terror attacks in Israel.
"In all these cases the terrorists have no resolvable differences," Netanyahu said.
"What they seek is our utter destruction," he added.
"Their basic demand is that we should disappear," Netanyahu told the conference. "That's not going to happen," he vowed.
Netanyahu said that political unity and moral clarity were needed to defeat terrorism.

Muslim police refuse to protect French synagogues

Muslim police in France refuse to protect synagogues as growing support for Jihad is affecting law enforcement, according to a Gatestone Institute report.
The report claims that a leaked confidential memo from the Department of Public Security, published by Le Parisien, detailed 17 cases of police officers radicalized between 2012 and 2015, noting that the police officers listen to and broadcast Muslim chants while on patrol.
According to the anti-terrorist unit of the French Interior Ministry, as of January 2016, France is already host to 8,250 radical Islamists (a 50% increase in one year). Some have gone to Syria to join ISIS while others have infiltrated all levels of society, including the police and the armed forces.
Some of these police officers have openly refused to protect synagogues or to observe a minute of silence to commemorate the deaths of Jewish victims of terrorist attacks.
The fact that police officers are armed and have access to police databases only intensifies the anxiety among France’s Jewish communities.

The flowers are a nice touch when threatening Jews

Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah just threatened yet again to grossly violate the laws of armed conflict and to kill tens of thousands of Israeli civilians. He said there are "no red lines" in what he would do in the next war with Israel.

Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah on Monday threatened the Zionists of striking all their petrochemical factories, biological institutes and nuclear stores as well as facilities if the Israeli army launches a major war against Lebanon.

In an interview with Al-Mayadeen TV channel, Sayyed Nasrallah eliminated the possibility of any Israeli war against Lebanon in the short term, noting that the Zionist entity does not carry out any military move without the American approval.

"The Israelis do not abandon the hostages and corpses taken by their enemies; this gives a chance for the Resistance to press the Zionist entity through this factor."

In this context, his eminence added that the Israelis know that Hezbollah possesses rockets that can reach all the occupied Palestinian territories, noting that Hezbollah will employ his capabilities only in case of an Israeli attack.

"The Israelis have been facing a deadlock since I threatened that Hezbollah would strike Ammonia tanks in Haifa because the Zionist government failed to move them to any other city due to the public rejection," his eminence pointed out.

Sayyed Nasrallah added that the Israelis built during the recent decades petrochemical factories, biological institutes and nuclear reactors in residential areas, considering that the Zionist entity did not expect that there would be any Arab force that can strike them.

"Either it relied of Arab regimes' guarantees or it positively expected that most of the Arab countries would not strike those targets."

Sayyed Nasrallah said that all the Israeli measures (Iron Dome, etc.) to deter the Resistance will fail, adding that any Israeli war against Lebanon would be very costly because Hezbollah will use sophisticated weaponry to strike all the Zionist targets without any limit if Israel attacks Lebanon.

His eminence addressed the Zionist settlers, "Ask your government that does not care about you to move the dangerous facilities from the residential areas."

See? He cares about settlers!

It is funny that someone who is upset over being labeled as a terrorist by most Arab nations is bragging that he will target civilians.

It is sad that even though the leader of Hezbollah - both the political and military wings - openly threatens to target civilians, the EU still refuses to designate all of Hezbollah to be a terror group. This is, after all, the very definition of terror.

It is sickening that such threats elicit no condemnation from the ICRC, the UN or any human rights organizations. I found no mention of Nasrallah's threat to target Israeli civilians by attacking an ammonia plant last month on the websites of major "human rights" organizations.

Because, you know, the only people being threatened are Israelis, and norms of human rights don't apply to them.

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A professor at the Jackson School of International Studies at Washington University visited Gaza City for six hours a few weeks ago, and he was astonished that after reading years of propaganda about how poverty stricken Gazans are, they really aren't.

I was flooded with impressions as we drove into the old city of Gaza. The first was, unexpectedly, that it looked nothing like India. Given the severe poverty, even humanitarian crisis, that Gaza as a whole is experiencing, I had expected the obvious and wrenching poverty that I had seen in some Indian cities or many other Third World countries, for that matter—collapsing infrastructure, rickety shacks, a surfeit of beggars, children in rags, adults sleeping on the sidewalks. At least in this part of the city and others that I saw later in the day, none of that was visible. Instead, I saw hordes of children going to school, university students walking in and out of the gates of the two universities—both the children and the university students reasonably dressed. I observed morning shoppers buying vegetables and fruits from stands, shopkeepers opening their shops, and people walking purposefully to wherever they were going for the start of the day. There were cranes and construction workers everywhere, with lots of uncompleted buildings being worked on. A garbage truck, with a UN sign on it, was making its rounds.

There was the occasional bombed out building, from the 2014 War. One had the entire top of the building, several stories, simply blown off. But other than those, most buildings were in decent shape, and some apartment buildings were downright nice. There were definitely some junkers on the road, but most of the cars looked like late-model varieties. Some of the side streets were pocked and broken up; the main thoroughfares, though, were in good shape. There were almost no traffic lights, and traffic was a bit chaotic. I must add again that I was in Gaza City (both the old and new parts of the city) only and did not go to some of the outer areas and refugee camps where the bombing in the 2014 war was the heaviest and where, I understand, destruction was massive.

People were certainly not in rags. Men were mostly in chino-type pants and button-down shirts. With very few exceptions, women were covered with the hijab and burka. Perhaps 10-20 percent of them were in black with their faces totally covered. Incidentally, this sort of veiling was not a traditional practice in Palestinian society; it is very much a product of the “new fundamentalism.”

The fascinating people I met during the day actually related to Israel in what I considered a very interesting fashion. In conversation after conversation, there was a kind of by-the-way acknowledgment of the destructiveness of Israel’s policies and, for sure, a general hatred for Israel. But what was striking was how everyone quickly went on from those sorts of almost off-handed comments to criticize how the Hamas government or the people themselves are also responsible for the state of affairs. There was no obsessing about Israel, which I found interesting. Indeed, there might even be a general acceptance of Israel in terms of realizing that Israel will long be part of their future.

Even a professor of international studies had no idea that Gaza didn't look like the most poverty-stricken parts of Third World countries. The power of anti-Israel propaganda and one-sided media coverage is immense.

And Hamas is building....lots of mosques.

...My final meeting was with a fascinating character, Atef Abu Saif. Atef holds a Ph.D. in political science from the European University Institute in Florence, having worked with a friend of mine, Professor Phillipe Schmitter. Atef is also a novelist. He now teaches political science at Al-Azhar Gaza University and writes frequently, including for the New York Times and Slate. An open member of Fatah (although critical of the Fatah leadership), he has clashed with Hamas on a number of occasions, landing him in jail for short stints.

Atef’s main contention is that there are actually two Gazas. One is the one run by Hamas and includes its supporters. He noted, for example, that there has been a mosque-building binge, leading to a total of 879 mosques in the Strip by 2014, as compared to two public libraries. In his words, “Gaza has become one huge mosque.” The second Gaza consists of the Palestinian public in Gaza, engaged in all sorts of cultural and social activities outside Hamas’s orbit. If not quite a civil society, he intimated, there is a lot that goes on beneath the radar.

My guess is that those libraries were built when Israel controlled Gaza.

(h/t Petra)

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Palestine Press Agency reports that Hamas has arrested a large number members of the Al-Tawhid Brigades over the past two days.

The Al Tawhid Brigades is made up of former members of the Nasser Saladin Brigades of the Popular Resistance Committees.

Sources say that Hamas confiscated a large number of weapons and missiles including rockets that could reach Tel Aviv.

The campaign by Hamas waged against the Tawhid Brigades came immediately after the meetings between Hamas and Egyptian intelligence services meant to limit the influence of jihadists fighting Egypt in the Sinai.

(There is another Tawhid Brigades group that fights in Syria but is unrelated with this one.)

The Saladin Brigades do cooperate closely with Hamas, but they also get support from Iran. Either the Tawhid Brigades are a more extremist Islamist offshoot, or perhaps Hamas is using the meeting with Egypt as an excuse to crack down on rogue terror groups that are not firmly in Hamas' camp.

Meanwhile, there are reports that two prominent Hamas Qassam Brigades members have defected and gone to Egypt, with their families, to fight on the side of the Islamic State,

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The AIPAC candidate speeches (plus Bernie and Paul Ryan) on video

Here they all are in one place.

Hilary Clinton:

John Kasich:

Paul Ryan (not a candidate but a good speech):

Donald Trump:

Ted Cruz:

Bernie Sanders gave a speech on his positions on the Middle East today as well, although not at AIPAC. It is quite different from what the other candidates said:

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03/21 Links Pt2: Anti-Semitism Always Comes Down to Hating Freedom and Democracy; A UN Council for Terrorist Rights

From Ian:

Anti-Semitism Always Comes Down to Hating Freedom and Democracy

Despite his name and ancestry, the British journalist Nick Cohen never considered himself a Jew; he was raised without religion, his mother was not Jewish, and he grew up without any sort of Jewish affinity. But after confronting the rising tide of anti-Semitism in the Labor party, he realized that his approach was wrong:
Nick Cohen: Why I’m becoming a Jew and why you should, too
[U]nless I wanted to shame myself, I had to become a Jew. A rather odd Jew, no doubt: a militant atheist who had to phone a friend to ask what on earth mazel tov meant. But a Jew nonetheless.
As one of the finest liberal ambitions is to find the sympathy to imagine the lives of others, you should become a Jew, too. Declare that you have converted to Judaism or rediscovered your Jewish “heritage” and see the reaction. It’s not just that, if you are middle-class and fortunate, you might experience racism for the first time, which in itself would be a “learning experience” worth having. You might also learn the essential lesson that anti-Semitism is not about Jews. Like rape, it’s about power.
Whether the anti-Semitic conspiracy theory is deployed by German Nazis or Arab dictators, French anti-Dreyfusards or Saudi clerics, the argument is always the same. Democracy, an independent judiciary, equal human rights, freedom of speech and publication—all these “supposed” freedoms—are nothing but swindles that hide the machinations of the secret Jewish rulers of the world. . . .
Consider how many leftwing activists, institutions, or academics would agree with a politer version: Western governments are the main source of the ills of the world. The “Israel lobby” controls Western foreign policy. Israel itself is the “root cause” of all the terrors of the Middle East, from the Iraq war to Islamic State.
Polite racism turns the Jews, once again, into demons with the supernatural power to manipulate and destroy nations.

WaPo Validates Anti-Israel Groups?

On Friday, Carol Morello, diplomatic correspondent for the Washington Post, covered a conference lambasting Israel’s supposed influence over America. The conference was sponsored by the Washington Report on Middle Eastern Affairs (WRMEA), which Morello described as “a D.C.-based magazine featuring articles questioning Israeli government policies and U.S. aid to the country.” That’s a curiously mild description given WRMEA’s history, legacy, and outlook.
WRMEA is famous for an obsession with Israel that goes beyond simple criticism and instead centers itself in conspiracy. Consider, for example, its suggestions that the Mossad killed John F. Kennedy, its belief that Israel was involved in the 9/11 attacks, its embrace of the most noxious USS Liberty conspiracies, and its description of American supporters of Israel as a “cancer.” In its May/June 1998 issue (no longer online), it suggested that Nazi Germany did not kill six million Jews. “New evidence, if true, would cut in half the Zionists’ original claim that six million died under the Nazi regime,” it argued, adding, “It would also raise the questions (sic) of, “Why did the Zionists grossly exaggerate the original numbers of Jewish victims?”
The conference organizers also advertised a book by Roger Garaudy, a Holocaust denier convicted in France for racial libel, which purported to examine “the Holocaust myth of Jewish extermination.” Anti-Semitic obsessions go deep. In June/July 1997, its publisher’s page declared, “Israel controls Congress, the media, the White House, and the State Department.” And, as for the media, Morello and her editors at the Washington Post might consider exactly what the conference sponsors say about her publication and other mainstream newspapers in December 1997: “[E]very New York daily newspaper… is Jewish owned …Technically speaking, the Washington Post… is not Jewish-owned. But it is owned by the descendants of the late Eugene Meyer, who was Jewish…”
Let’s give the Washington Post benefit of the doubt: It is doubtful Morello understood the background of the conference sponsor, although that itself is deeply problematic. She also apparently didn’t know much about the speakers either. She describes Larry Wilkerson as “chief of staff to former secretary of state Colin L. Powell,” [and advisor to Bernie Sanders] but didn’t see fit to mention that he’s spent much of the period since his retirement arguing that Syria’s chemical weapons use was actually a Zionist false flag.

Global Teacher Prize Winner's Husband Massacred Jews Celebrating Sabbath

The actual story is that her husband took part in the brutal terrorist attack on Jews walking home from synagogue. This was the Beit Hadassah attack. (Dabboya is the name used by Muslim settlers in '67 Israel to refer to the Jewish area.)
Six, not thirteen, Jews were murdered. Twenty others were wounded. There was no pursuit. This was a cold-blooded ambush. The terrorists set up their position on a rooftop and opened fire on Jews celebrating the Sabbath.
Every Friday night, following Shabbat worship at Ma'arat HaMachpela, a group of men would sing and dance their way down the street to Beit Hadassah, where they continued the festivity, joined by the women and children living in the building, adding to their Shabbat spirit.
Friday night, May 12, the 17th of Iyar, only one day before the Lag B'Omer celebrations. The men arrived as usual and began forming a dance circle…and then it happened. Shots rang out, blasts enveloped the pure Shabbat air.
Six were killed and about 20 injured. Among the killed was a young Torah scholar from the United States studying at Yeshivat Merkaz HaRav in Jerusalem, Tzvi Glatt. Another victim was also a former America, who had fought in Vietnam and converted to Judaism, Eli HaZe'ev.

Old Jokes about Jews part 9

From the 1902 book Choice Dialect and Vaudeville Stage Jokes: Containing Side Splitting Stories, Jokes, Gags, Readings and Recitations in German, Irish, Scotch, French, Chinese, Negro and Other Dialects, as Told by Such Well Known Humorists as Ezra Kendall, Geo. Thatcher, Lew Dockstader, Rogers Bros., Weber and Fields, Joe Welsh, Marshall P. Wilder, J.W. Ransom and Others

Joke books in those days had titles longer than some of the jokes themselves.

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Will Congress restrict funding the PA for its ICC actions?

Times of Israel reports:

Palestinians met Saturday with representatives of the International Criminal Court to brief them on the details of claims filed against Israel at the court which they hope will lead to the opening of formal cases and investigations of Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Palestinians provided the ICC team with data and aerial photographs of settlement activity and how it effects their lives, Haaretz reported on Sunday citing the Jordanian newspaper Al-Ghad.

This is interesting, because the FY 2016 Omnibus – State and Foreign Operations Appropriations description says:

The bill stops economic assistance to the PA if they obtain membership in the United Nations or UN agencies without an agreement with Israel, restricts aid if the PA pursues actions against Israel at the International Criminal Court, prohibits funds for Hamas, and halts funds unless action is taken to counter the incitement of violence.

It seems pretty clear cut that Congress must restrict funding the PA. (The wording from the FY2015 bill seems to have been changed to get around a tortured loophole that the White House used to keep funding going after the PA's move to accept ICC jurisdiction in retroactive to the events prior to the 2014 Gaza war.)

There is one other loophole, though, that the Palestinian leaders may be relying on. If Congress only limits a token amount of funding to them, it could be argued that funding was "restricted." Knowing that the current administration is unlikely to support any real restrictions on funding, this might very well be part of their calculus.

(h/t EK)

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03/21 Links Pt1: The International Community Justifies, Funds Palestinian Terrorism; Erdoğan is paying the price

From Ian:

Ben-Dror Yemini: Erdoğan is paying the price

The Islamist trend led by President Erdoğan has succeeded above and beyond. Maybe even a bit more than it appeared. The Turkish regime tried to claim that the Kurdish resistance (the PKK) was behind the terrorist attacks. The truth has been revealed. It was jihad. In fact, this isn't surprising.
Because the states that tolerate terrorism the most are the states with the highest concentration of supporters of radical Islam, Wahhabism and Salafism. It's happening in Pakistan, in Afghanistan, in Somalia, in Nigeria and in Libya. The fact that Muslim states and Muslims are the principle victims doesn't deter terrorism's supporters. They commit suicide inside of mosques in Nigeria just like in Pakistan. They're not Sunnis against Shiites. They're Sunnis against Sunnis.
One could argue that terrorism is a result of changes in alliances, and maybe even the cessation of Turkish support for ISIS. This is not exactly correct. Because terrorism flourishes wherever radicalization grows.
On Saturday, terrorism tried to wound Turkey and Turks. Israelis apparently were injured unintentionally. Erdoğan is leading Turkey to Islamization. Turkey is paying the price. There's no paradox here. To the contrary: this is the obvious result. Almost predictable. So Erdoğan has only himself to blame.

Daniel Pipes: Turkey's Erdoğan Gambles and Loses

Erdoğan's error of backing ISIS and other Sunni Islamist organizations in Syria has hurt him in another way, leading to a massive influx of Syrian refugees to Turkey, where, increasingly unwelcomed by the indigenous population, they cause new social and economic strains.
Which brings us to Erdoğan's latest gambit. The many Syrian refugees wanting to go on to northwestern Europe provide him with a handy mechanism to blackmail the European Union: pay me huge amounts of money (€6 billion at latest count) and permit 80 million Turks to travel visa-free to your countries, or I will dump more unwelcome Syrians, Iraqis, Afghans, Somalis, et al. on you.
So far, the ploy has worked. Led by Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel, the Europeans are succumbing to Erdoğan's demands. But this may well be a Pyrrhic victory, hurting Erdoğan's long-term interests. In the first place, forcing Europeans to pretend they are not being blackmailed and to welcome Turkey with clenched teeth, creates a foul mood, further reducing, if not killing off, Turkish chances for membership.
Second, Erdoğan's game has prompted a profound and probably lasting shift in mood in Europe against accepting more immigrants from the Middle East – including Turks – as demonstrated by the poor showing of Merkel's party in elections earlier this month.
This is just the start. In combination, these errors by Erdoğan point to more crises ahead. Gökhan Bacik, a professor at Ipek University in Ankara, notes that "Turkey is facing a multifaceted catastrophe," the scale of which "is beyond Turkey's capacity for digestion." If Iran is today the Middle East's greatest danger, Turkey is tomorrow's.

JPost Editorial: Terror in Istanbul

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu voiced doubt that the horrific suicide attack in Istanbul on Saturday was directed at Israelis, although it took a heavy toll: Three of the four dead were Israelis – Yonatan Suher, 40, Simcha Damri, 60, and Avraham Goldman, 69. Suher and Goldman also held American citizenship. The fourth fatality was an unnamed Iranian citizen. Half of the 22 wounded were Israelis, and Israel dispatched planes to fly those who could travel home.
Damri, a retired kindergarten teacher from Dimona, was in Istanbul with her husband, Avi, taking part in a culinary tour along with other Israelis. She is also survived by three sons (two of whom flew to Istanbul to be with their father) and a daughter.
Suher had been on vacation with his wife, Inbal, to celebrate his 40th birthday. He is survived by Inbal, who was wounded in the attack, and their two children.
Goldman, who lived in Ramat Hasharon, worked as a tour guide, mostly taking important visitors around Jerusalem.
He is survived by his wife, Nitza, three children, and eight grandchildren.

From Ma'an:

Hundreds of Christian Palestinians from the Gaza Strip will travel to celebrate Easter in Bethlehem and occupied East Jerusalem after the Israeli authorities agreed to grant them permits, a Palestinian Authority official said Saturday.

Muhammad al-Maqadma, a public information officer for the Palestinian Ministry of Civil Affairs, told Ma’an that Israel had granted around 850 permits to Gaza Christians of different ages to travel to the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Al-Maqadma said the permits were the result of “dedicated efforts” by Minister of Civil Affairs Hussein al-Sheikh in order to enable hundreds of Christians to celebrate the holidays within a span of 45 days.

This is the first time such a large number of Christians from Gaza received permits to travel to the West Bank and Jerusalem, al-Maqadma added.

Ma'an Arabic adds that the permits include Christians aged 16 to 35, which has not happened before.

This happens after Israel revoked permits for Muslim Gazans to go to Jerusalem every Friday, saying that many of them never returned to Gaza and thereby violated agreements that allowed them to go in the first place.

It shows that even after such a violation, Israel keeps trying to accommodate the legitimate needs of Palestinians while protecting its own security. And too often, these accommodations end up being big mistakes.

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The LA Times reported last week:

University of California officials are proposing to include "anti-Zionism" as a form of discrimination that is unacceptable on campus, according to a long-awaited draft statement on intolerance released Tuesday.

The inclusion immediately drew sharply divergent reactions, with pro-Israel groups hailing it as a needed step to protect Jewish students from hostility and those supporting Palestinian rights criticizing it as a naked attempt to suppress criticism of the Jewish state.

Scholars were similarly divided over whether a statement meant to express the UC regents' principles against intolerance should include Zionism -- historically an international movement to establish a Jewish homeland and now viewed as the belief in Israel's right to exist.

One letter signed by more than 130 UC faculty members supported naming anti-Zionism as an expression of anti-Semitism, saying students need guidance on "when healthy political debate crosses the line into anti-Jewish hatred, bigotry and discrimination, and when legitimate criticism of Israel devolves into denying Israel's right to exist."

But another letter from more than 250 UC professors expressed fear that the proposed statement would restrict free speech and academic freedom to teach, debate and research about the complex and tumultuous history of Israel and the Zionist movement.

Eugene Volokh, a strong supporter of Israel who is a law professor at UCLA and someone I admire a great deal, wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post against the proposed language of the guidelines:

But I think the regents are flat wrong to say that “anti-Zionism” has “no place at the University of California.” Even though they’re not outright banning anti-Zionist speech, but rather trying to sharply condemn it, I think such statements by the regents chill debate, especially by university employees and students who (unlike me) lack tenure. (For more on that, see here.) And this debate must remain free, regardless of what the regents or I think is the right position in the debate.

Whether the Jewish people should have an independent state in Israel is a perfectly legitimate question to discuss — just as it’s perfectly legitimate to discuss whether Basques, Kurds, Taiwanese, Tibetans, Northern Cypriots, Flemish Belgians, Walloon Belgians, Faroese, Northern Italians, Kosovars, Abkhazians, South Ossetians, Transnistrians, Chechens, Catalonians, Eastern Ukranians and so on should have a right to have independent states.

Sometimes the answer might be “yes.” Sometimes it might be “no.” Sometimes the answer might be “it depends.” But there’s no uncontroversial principle on which these questions can be decided. They have to be constantly up for inquiry and debate, especially in places that are set up for inquiry and debate: universities. Whether Israel is entitled to exist as an independent Jewish state is just as fitting a subject for discussion as whether Kosovo or Northern Cyprus or Kurdistan or Taiwan or Tibet or a Basque nation should exist as an independent state for those ethnic groups.

I am a strong supporter of free speech. I am certainly sympathetic to Volokh's arguments. But there is a fundamental difference between how anti-Zionist rhetoric is espoused and how any of the other issues Volokh lists are discussed.

And the difference is hate.

Nearly all anti-Zionist discourse, on campus and off, is based on an irrational hate of the Jewish state. The pseudo-logical arguments that follow are not meant to be sober reflections on whether the idea of Zionism is a valid expression of nationalism for the Jewish people, but as elaborate cover for the hate that animates the discussion.

There is no violence on campus associated with pro-Tibet or pro-Kurdish political activity. There are no death threats, no cursing, no intimidation.

Yes, in theory there is no difference between the idea of Jewish nationalism and Basque nationalism, and in theory there shouldn't be any restrictions on speech about both. But the number of examples of how anti-Zionist discourse on campus is merely a convenient cover for pure hate cannot be ignored.

As UC specifically, here are some examples from the current school year, courtesy of AMCHA:

2015 – 2016
• A Jewish member of the UC Santa Cruz student government was warned to “abstain” from voting on an anti-Israel divestment resolution because of his presumed “Jewish agenda.”

• In responding to a pro-Israel post by actress Mayim Bialik, a UCLA student and employee posted vile anti-Semitic comments on social media including, “Fucking Jews. GTFOH with all your Zionist bullshit. Crazy ass fucking troglodyte albino monsters of cultural destruction. Fucking Jews. GTFOH with your whiny bullshit. Give the Palestinians back their land, go back to Poland or whatever freezer-state you’re from, and realize that faith does not constitute race.”

• The online promotion of an anti-Israel UC Berkeley SJP event stated, “No to University Coordination and Strategizing with the ADL, JCRC, AJC, StandWithUS, ZOA...” The targeting of Jewish organizations, the Anti-Defamation League, the Jewish Community Relations Council and the American Jewish Committee, demonstrates how anti-Israel student groups target and alienate all Jewish groups.  

• A male member of SJP at UC San Diego recognized a fellow female Jewish student and followed and harassed her. The female student reported, “They followed me...calling my name...yelling that I was a ‘racist Zionist cow.’ I have never felt so unsafe in my life...I didn’t know anyone would...put me in danger...This problem is way more serious than I had imagined.”  

2014 – 2015
• At UC Davis, swastikas were spray-painted on a Jewish fraternity days after fraternity brothers spoke against divesting from Israel.

• At UC Berkeley, “Zionists should be sent to the gas chamber” was scrawled on a bathroom wall in the wake of a student senate campaign to pressure the university to divest from American companies that do business with Israel.

• At UCLA, “Hitler did nothing wrong” was carved into school property after a contentious BDS campaign.

• At UC Davis, “grout out the Jews” was scrawled on the university’s Hillel House following a heated BDS debate.  

• At UC Santa Barbara, stereotypical and demonizing statements of Jews were made during a divestment resolution vote. One student explained, "I am disgusted by the normalization of anti-Semitic language so casually thrown around at the [divestment] meeting. In those eight hours, I was told that Jews control the government, that all Jews are rich, that Zionism is racism, that the marginalization of Jewish students is justified because it prevents the marginalization of other minority groups.”  

• At UC Santa Barbara, flyers blaming Israelis and all Jews for 9/11 were posted on campus.  

• At UCLA, a Jewish student running for office was questioned about her eligibility by anti-Israel activists simply because of her religion.  

• At UCLA, campus activists led a pledge drive to keep Jewish students known to support Israel from serving on the student government.  

This is not free speech. This is hate speech, and it is all prompted by supposedly noble anti-Zionist goals that are used for cover.

Any time that anti-Israel activity crosses the line into hate - not necessarily antisemitic hate, but hate altogether - it should be regarded to be as offensive as any other hate speech against any other group. The hate of Zionist positions is no less reprehensible than hate against blacks or gays on campus, and must be treated the same.

If pro-Tibetan activists were being followed, harassed and cursed routinely as they went about their day on campus, and anti-Tibetan graffiti were scrawled on areas where they gather, I don't think anyone would object to the idea that they are victims of hate. However, nowadays there is only one group that is being subject to hate for their political beliefs, and those are the people who openly support the State of Israel. The hate is no less odious.

There are two other differences between anti-Israel hate speech and valid political discourse about the idea of realizing other groups' nationalist ambitions. One, which Volokh mentions, is that Israel already exists - alone among all nations it is criticized for its very being. The very nature of the "discussion" is dismantling of one state among all the nations on Earth. Valid criticism of Israel is legitimate, saying that it is uniquely evil and must be destroyed shows that the motivation is not justice but hate.

Finally, evidence that the anti-Israel forces are motivated by hate and not legitimate criticism comes from how they treat pro-Israel speech on campus. Instead of engaging in debate or allowing a multiplicity of views, they do everything they can to shut down any free speech rights of Zionists. Speakers are shouted down and even threatened, and students who want to hear them are harassed.

It is their intolerance that makes them intolerable.

Where to draw the line between hate speech and valid political criticism is always going to be an issue. But theory is one thing, and facts are another. If campuses are going to protect students from irrational hate then there is no difference between the hate associated with anti-Zionism and any other hate.

One may be able to design a reasonable sounding argument to support a return to slavery, but everyone understands that the most soaring pro-slavery rhetoric is just a cover for racist hate. The fact that there is a theoretical way to express anti-Zionist opinions without crossing over into hate speech is wonderful, but it isn't the reality and it cannot be used to support the continuous hate that Zionist Jews experience on campus under the cover of free speech.

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Iranian media silent on Israeli victims of Istanbul suicide bombing

Three Israelis and one Iranian were killed by the suicide bomber in Istanbul on Saturday.

Iranian English-language media have been covering the story closely, but based on coverage in state-run PressTV and IRNA, not one article has mentioned that Israelis were victims.

I see six articles in IRNA English and at least five more in PressTV that discuss the terror attack.

The idea that Israelis could be terror victims is anathema to Iran, which styles itself as a major player fighting terrorism. Which is funny for a major world power behind terrorism.

Now, Turkish media is reporting that the Israelis were the targets of the bombing, and the bomber tailed an Israeli tour group, waiting for them to exit a restaurant before blowing himself up.

Iran tries to paint ISIS as an Israeli organization. Last year the regime held an ISIS cartoon contest, modeled after their cartoon contests making fun of the Holocaust. One of the winning cartoons associated ISIS with Jews.

So the idea that ISIS is anti-Israel or antisemitic cannot and must not be mentioned in Iranian media, and Israeli victims of terror are stripped of their nationhood.

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Let's compare Columbia's pro-Israel and anti-Israel faculty, shall we?

From The Columbia Spectator:

Over 200 faculty members have signed a petition expressing their commitment to Columbia’s ties with Israel and opposing divestment from companies that conduct business in the country.

This petition, released Sunday afternoon, follows the launch of Columbia University Apartheid Divest, which is calling on the University to “divest from corporations that supply, perpetuate, and profit from a system that has subjugated the Palestinian people.”

Addressed to the Board of Trustees, the petition—the fourth in a series of petitions both in support and in condemnation of boycott, divestment and sanctions at Columbia—argues that the “shared values and interests” between the University and Israel are worth preserving through formal ties, though not every Israeli government policy is worth supporting.Over 200 faculty members have signed a petition expressing their commitment to Columbia’s ties with Israel and opposing divestment from companies that conduct business in the country.

“It would not be just or principled to respond to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by disengaging from Israel or from companies that do business with Israel,” the petition said. “It would be unjust to blame only one side for this conflict, and unprincipled to single out Israel for this sanction, while maintaining ties with other nations that – unlike Israel – are undemocratic, repressive, and much less restrained in their use of force.”

The list of signatories includes prominent members of the University’s faculty and administrators, including Glenn Hubbard, dean of the Business School, Dorothy Denburg, former dean of Barnard College, Nicholas Lemann, former dean of the Graduate School of Journalism, and University Professor Eric Kandel, the co-director of the Mind Brain Behavior Institute.

Former New York City mayor David Dinkins, who serves as a professor at the School of International & Public Affairs, also signed the petition in support of Columbia’s ties with Israel, which emphasizes that Columbia benefits from its links to Israeli academia, research, and technology.

“Israel is a thriving democracy. It has democratic elections, a free press, rule of law, and strong protections for the individual rights of all citizens, including Arabs as well as Jews,” the petition said. “Israel also is the home of great universities, a vibrant culture, and an innovative high-tech sector.”

Of the 69 Columbia professors who signed a pro-BDS petition. 15 of them work in the anthropology department, six in philosophy, 13 in Middle East studies, two in Gender & Sexuality Studies, four in art history, six in history and eight in English, and only one in law.

The pro-Israel petition, on the other hand, has 26 signatures from the College of Physicians and Surgeons, 75 from the Columbia Medical Center, 27 from the Law School, and many others in the engineering and other medical fields.

In other words, the professors who support Israel are overwhelmingly specialists in fields where the truth often means the difference between life and death, and the ones who are anti-Israel largely do their work in fields where truth is a quaint and elastic concept.

This explains a lot.

(h/t Diana)

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From Hebrew Tales, by Hyman Hurwitz, 1826, a collection of midrashim and other old Jewish stories translated to English and embellished.

The Quadruple Tale: Or, Rabbi Joshuah instructed.

"No person," said Rabbi Joshuah, "ever conquered me (in wit), except two children,— a little girl and a widow." He then related the following tales.

The Wise Child.

Once on my travels, I came near a town where the road separated to right and left. Not knowing which to take, I enquired of a little boy who happened to be there, which of the two led to the town. "Both," replied he; "but that to the right is short and long — that on the left is long and short." I took that on the right; but had not Tar advanced, when my progress was stopped by a number of hedges and gardens. Unable to proceed, I returned, and asked the little fellow, how he could be so cruel as to misdirect a stranger? "I did not misdirect thee," replied the boy. "I told thee what is true. But art thou a wise man amongst Israel, and canst not comprehend the meaning of a child? —It is even as I said. This road is the nearest, but still the longest, on account of the many obstructions. Unless thou wouldest trespass on other people's ground, which I could hardly suppose from so good a man. The other road is, indeed, more distant, but it is, nevertheless, the shortest, being the public road; and may, therefore, be passed without encroaching on other people's property."—I admired his wit, and still more his good sense, and went on.

The Little Boy.

Arriving in the city, I met another little boy carrying a covered dish. "What hast thou in that dish, child?" demanded I. — "My mother would not have covered it, master, had she been willing that its contents should be known;" replied the little wit! — and went on.*

The Little Girl kind and witty.

Another time, during my travels, I came near a well, where a little girl was drawing water. Being very thirsty, I asked for a draught. She handed me the pitcher.— "Drink," said she, "and when thou hast done, I will draw some for the beast on which thou ridest."

I quenched my thirst, and the good girl gave some to the poor animal. As I departed, I said, "Daughter of Israel! thou hast imitated the virtuous example of our good mother Rebekah.

"—"Rabbi," said the little girl, (with a smile, that indicated the most kindly feelings, and that the reply was a mere play of wit.)—" Rabbi, if I have imitated the example of Rebekah, thou hast not imitated that of the faithful Eliezer."*

* And it came to pass, as the camels had done drinking, that the man (Eliezer) took a golden ear-ring of a half shekel weight, and two bracelets for the hand, of ten shekels weight of gold (and gave them to her). Gen. xxiv. 22.

The Widow.

I Happened once to take up my lodging at the abode of a widow. She prepared something for my dinner, which she placed before me. Being very hungry, I eat the whole, without leaving the customary remnant for the servants.* The next day I did the same. The third day, my hostess, wishing to make me sensible of the impropriety of my conduct, so overseasoned the dish she had prepared for me, that it was impossible to eat it. Ignorant of what had been done, I began to eat ;but finding the food so very salty, I laid down the spoon, and made my repast on bread. "Why eatest thou not of what has been prepared for thee?" asked my hostess. — "Because I am not hungry," answered I. —" If so," rejoined she, "why eatest thou bread I Do people eat that by way of desert. — But," continued she, with a significant smile, "I can perhaps guess thy motive. Thou leavest this for the poor servants whom thou didst, yesterday and the day before, deprive of their due! Is it not so Rabbi?" I was humbled, and I acknowledged my fault.

* It Was a custom amongst the ancient Hebrews to leave a portion in the plate for the use of the waiters or servants, that they might partake of the same food as the rest of the family.
T. Erubin.
Medrash Echoh.

This interesting story follows, from which Arthur Conan Doyle possibly owes a debt.

The Athenian and his one-eyed Slave.

An Athenian went to study at Jerusalem. After remaining there three years and a half, and finding he made no great progress in his studies, he resolved to return. Being in want of a servant to accompany him on his journey, he went to the market-place and purchased one. Having paid the money, he began to examine his purchase more closely, and found to his surprise that the purchased servant was blind of one eye. "Thou blockhead," said he to himself—" see the charming fruits of thy application. Here have I studied three years and a half, and at last acquired sufficient Avisdom to purchase a blind slave !" — " Be comforted," said the person that sold the slave; "trust me, though he is blind of one eye, he can see much better than persons with two." The Athenian departed with his servant. When they had advanced a little way, the blind slave adr dressed his master—"Master," said he, "let us quicken our pace, we shall overtake a traveller, who is some distance before us." "I can see no traveller," said the master.— "Nor I," replied the slave; "yet I know he is just four miles distant from us." — "Thou art mad, slave! How shouldest thou know what passes at so great a distance, when thou canst scarcely see what is before thee?" — "I am not mad," replied the servant, "yet it is as I said; nay, moreover, the traveller is accompanied by a she-ass, who like myself is blind of one eye: she is big with two young, and carries two flasks, one containing vinegar, the other wine." "Cease your prattle, loquacious fool,"—exclaimed the Athenian. — "I see, my purchase improves: I thought him blind only; but he is mad in the bargain."—" Well, master," said the slave, "have a little patience, and thou wilt see I have told thee nothing but the truth." They journeyed on, and soon overtook the traveller; when the Athenian, to his utmost astonishment, found every thing as his servant had told him; and begged him to explain how he could know all this without seeing either the animal or its conductor.—"I will tell thee, master," replied the slave. "I looked at the road, and observing the almost imperceptible impression of the ass's hoofs, I concluded that she must be four miles distant; for beyond that, the impression could not have been visible. I saw the grass eaten away on one side of the path, and not on the other; and hence judged she must be blind of one eye. A little further on, we passed a sandy road, and by the impression which the animal left on the sand where she rested, I knew she must be with young. Further, I observed the impressions which the liquid had made on the sand, and found some of them appeared spungy — whilst others were full of small bubbles, caused by fermentation, and thence judged of the nature of the liquid." The Athenian admired the sagacity of his servant, and thenceforth treated him with great respect.

Medrash Echoh.
T. Sanhedrin.

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Hasby Award winner for Best Celebrity Tweeter

And the winner, in a close race, is...

(drumroll)

Mayim Bialik

Mayim Bialik is one of the stars in the Big Bang Theory and a very proud, religious Jew. She is an unapologetic supporter of Israel although it is not a major part of her Twitter feed. But this was a voters' choice award and she won, edging out Roseanne Barr.

Mazel tov!

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