Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, August 02, 2017

08/02 Links Pt2: Camp Stupid USA; Former UN Rapporteur Falk is a member of antisemitic FB groups

From Ian:

Ordinarily a story like this – the “Palestinian” flag flying over a Jewish camp for kids in Washington State, USA – would rate scant attention, except that it symbolizes two points: 1. Our desperate need to be loved. 2. It happened at the time when an Islamic preacher in California got caught sermonizing death to all Jews.
That imam at Davis, CA lamely apologized (to stem the bad PR), and so did the officials at Camp Solomon Schechter who explained that they won’t do it again, but that they hoisted the flag because some Arab kids were coming to visit so this would be a good time for some solidarity.
According to them at the camp, it was meant to provide “a teachable moment” and to foster “empathy…”hope”…”love”…and “peace.”
Talk like that is not exclusive to that camp where the leaders meant no harm and no disrespect to Israel. Their apology, I do believe.
They were simply caught being stupid.
Stupid is who we are when we keep pleading for acceptance against enemies who just won’t take love for an answer.
Groveling is what we do even at home in America and even with Israel at our side; blessings that ought to make us feel high spirited and invincible instead of pathetic and submissive. (Borrowed from and based upon the novel “The Bathsheba Deadline.”)
I guess it’s too late to remind (some) American Jews that the “Palestinian” flag represents nothing, zero, since there is no “Palestinian” country or nation…and if it does mean anything, it means precisely what that imam preached – “the annihilation of all Jews everywhere.”

Author of anti-Israel UN report is mixed up in antisemitic FB groups

Richard Falk, an American professor who has held multiple positions at the United Nations which he has in the past notoriously used to propel an anti-Israel agenda, was discovered to be a member of an antisemitic hate group on Facebook.
Sources close to The Jerusalem Post discovered Falk is one of 5,408 members of "Shoah," the Facebook group of an organization by the same name. The British group began operating in 2011 with the aim of ending "Zio-Nazi oppression" and the "environmental destruction of Palestine."
Although the complete members list and the true total number of members is visible only to accepted members, The Jerusalem Post obtained a screenshot of Falk's membership as of Sunday, July 30, 2017:
Screenshot of Richard Falk's membership in the Shoah: Palestinian Holocaust Facebook Group, taken in July, 2017.Screenshot of Richard Falk's membership in the Shoah: Palestinian Holocaust Facebook Group, taken in July, 2017.
The Shoah Facebook group has spread severely anti-Israel and antisemitic imagery, often depicting Israel and global Jewry as one and the same:
When questioned about his membership in the group, Falk told The Jerusalem Post, "Thank you [for] notifying me. I had never heard of this group before. I went to the link for the group, and found out that I had been added by someone named John Phoenix, whom I don't know..."
This is a curious statement, considering Falk is friends with John Phoenix (the administrator of the Shoah group) on that same Facebook account. Being "friends" on Facebook requires action by both parties:

Breaking silence, AIPAC announces support for Taylor Force Act

A day before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will consider a revised version of a measure that would strip US funding to the Palestinian Authority over its practice of paying terrorists and their families, the most powerful pro-Israel lobby in Washington broke its silence and came out in support of the bill.
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) urged the committee Wednesday to vote yes on the Taylor Force Act. The committee is due to meet on Thursday and the bill is on the committee’s agenda. Passage would send the bill to the entire Senate chamber.
For the last several months — since South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham (R) introduced the motion in February — AIPAC has refrained from unequivocally endorsing the bill, instead saying simply that it supported its principle objective.
But after the Senate unveiled an updated version Tuesday, AIPAC was prepared to fully embrace the bill.
The new text incorporates some of the concerns expressed among committee members, like allowing for continued funding to the PA for humanitarian efforts and security cooperation, but it does not include a waiver that would grant the US president the ability to disregard the law on national security grounds.
AIPAC signaled on Wednesday that the provisions were critical for earning its backing.

Michael Behar broke an important story this week, though you've probably never heard of him. He's the guy who first wrote about Camp Solomon Shechter flying a Palestinian flag. But you'd never know it from reading the coverage of that story. Because not a single one of the news outlets that subsequently ran the story thought to credit him.

Not the JTA nor any of the various news outlets that subscribe to this resource, for instance, Fox, Tablet, and Israel International News.

Not that Michael cares. What he cares about, is Israel. That is at the heart and soul of all the work he does.

(Of course, I thought it was DISGUSTING. Journalists and bloggers who do that sort of thing—yoink stories without credit—are generally shunned. Basic journalistic standards demand crediting one's sources for stories. It's just not right what they did, those news outlets.)

That story was a shocker. The camp did its best to clean up the mess it made after the fact, but its apology ran far short of even a modicum of sincerity. The administrators of the camp seemed only to be sorry about the fact that things got "political." As if it were not "political" for a Jewish camp to fly the flag of a wannabe state that would be founded on the principle that Israel cease to exist.

Now Mike and I have been friends for five years. He has shared every single piece I've ever written during that time (and that's a considerable number of pieces). We also collaborated on articles here and there.

No one has been as staunch a supporter of my views as Michael Behar. So naturally, I was going to share his shocker of a story. But I was going to share it even if I didn't know Michael from a hole in the wall. Because it was a huge story. And being that it was, in fact, coming from Michael, I knew it was a TRUE story, to boot.

He's the most honest guy I know.

Friends were sharing my share of his piece, and oddly, people kept sending me the link to it by PM. That's how I knew this was a big story. The kind of story bloggers dream about. Except for bloggers like Michael, who really don't care about fame and page views. (In case you're wondering, his piece got over 9K likes, which is all but unheard of in blogging circles, an amazing number.)

Like I said, Michael cares about Israel. So much so that during the last war with Gaza, Mike and his wife had siren apps on their phones so their kids would know what Israel was going through, and empathize. Michael's blogs are all about fighting the good fight for the land he loves most of all.

Imagine my surprise then, to wake up to a message request from one Yohanna Kinberg. She wrote:

"Please do not share anything from the Mike Report. He brings shame to Israel and the Jewish people through his lies, propaganda and hatred. He targets other Jews and fosters baseless hatred in our community. Sharing his words reflects poorly. Please delete what you shared, especially what he wrote about Camp Solomon Schechter. You do not want to be a part of spreading such negativity and animosity towards fellow Jews. Ahavat Yisrael: let us foster love and not hate."

This to me, was worse than what the journalists did by not crediting Michael for breaking the story. Kinberg was saying terrible things about Michael, horrible things, things that seemed the complete opposite of what I knew to be true. This, during the nine days leading up to Tisha B'Av, a time when observant Jews attempt to rectify the sin that led to the destruction of the Temple, that of baseless hatred.

Moreover, Michael's piece was honest. The camp did, in fact, fly the Ashaf (PLO) flag. Note that the PLO's charter calls for the destruction of the Jewish state. Not to mention continued terror against Jews. Which they call "resistance."

Why did Kinberg want to suppress Michael's blog piece? Why was she smearing him, a hateful act, and accusing him of "baseless hatred?" How does it foster love to fly the flag of a people determined to annihilate us?

It sure did seem like the animosity was all hers: all Rabbi Kinberg's.

I went to Michael and asked him if he knew her, and what this was all about. He said:

"Look, my blog focuses on the intersection of Israel and the Pacific Northwest so naturally as a local public figure, Rabbi Kinberg’s anti-Israel activism from my perspective is newsworthy. I’ve been told that Rabbi Kinberg has been on some sort of angry personal crusade against me, that’s okay—I see it as a symptom of the frustration she and her cohort feel over not having a monopoly on the narrative. I don’t take it seriously; she pretty much just lashes out online in the same way President Trump does when the press doesn’t frame a story to his liking.

"I am amused by her serial contradictions. Let me give you a few examples. She asserts that it is noble and brave to publicly vilify the Jewish state, but divisive and cowardly for bloggers to report that she has publicly vilified the Jewish state. She railed against a local synagogue for screening a film critical of J-Street, saying it was divisive, and then joined a public rally against AIPAC. She marches with the rabidly anti-Israel group IfNotNow and then excoriates anybody who dares to question her pro-Israel bona fides."

I was beginning to understand. "But," I wondered aloud, "Doesn't it bother you, her going behind your back and saying such awful things about you?"

"Nope. Aside from when I am reporting on her anti-Israel activities, I give her not a moment’s thought."

"Wow," I said. "I couldn't do that. I would be up all night tossing and turning."

"Well, I bear no animosity towards Rabbi Kinberg, I believe she is in many cases wrong, but she is entitled to her opinion.

"She seems to sincerely believe that she can march in an anti-Israel rally and that nobody is allowed to report on it unless it includes praise for her resilience, virtue and bravery. Her idea of Israel advocacy is marching with IfNotNow, a radical group that is agnostic on whether or not a Jewish state should even exist. She seems to be upset that I identified the anti-Israel march in which she participated. She libels as haters those who love Israel and long for peace.

"If she wishes to foment hate towards her fellow Jews that is her right, but it doesn't reflect well on her or her congregation."

"No it certainly doesn't," I said. "Especially so close to Tisha B'Av."

"Exactly," said Michael, "At a time when we need to have difficult conversations with those with whom we disagree Rabbi Kinberg is doing real damage to our community. She simply labels good people as haters and tries to shut them down.

"Baseless hatred brought destruction to our people. My prayer is that Rabbi Kinberg will open her heart to her fellow Jews, even Israel lovers. She cannot seem to fathom that those with whom she disagrees may be good people who long for peace as much, if not more so than her."

"Okay," I said. "But to simply shut people down, to try to suppress opposite viewpoints??"

"Shutting down the conversation is exactly the wrong approach, we need to be able to listen to one another," said Michael. "She has a history of trying to shut down different perspectives. She tried to stop a pro-Israel film from being screened in Seattle and seems to think supporting Israel is hate speech. To her, those who disagree are not just wrong, they are expressing anti-Jewish values. Of course, she gets to decide what Jewish values are."

All that day and during the long Tisha B'Av fast, I tried to make sense of it: Michael telling the truth, Rabbi Kinberg attempting to suppress his piece and calling it hate. Should it not be somewhat shocking to be approached during the Nine Days by a rabbi spreading rechilut (defamation) and lashon hara (harmful gossip)? This, in fact, was why the temple was destroyed.

In Rabbi Kinberg's words, I saw nothing of peace, understanding, or love. I saw one Jew denigrating and demonizing a fellow Jew, someone I knew to be a lover of peace and a lover of Israel.

My friend, Michael.

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Truck Drivers Unloading Tons Of Food In Gaza Unaware Of Brutal Siege (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Check out their Facebook page.

Kerem Shalom Crossing, August 2 - Logistics personnel handling the hundreds of tons of foodstuffs, commercial goods, medical supplies, and other essentials that move into the Gaza Strip each day from Israel remain oblivious to the fact that the Gaza Strip is under siege, with nothing allowed in or out, local sources are reporting.

Truck drivers, fork lift operators, and other cargo delivery and processing professionals on the Palestinian side of the facility handle hundreds of incoming truckloads of such goods and materials each day from Israel, receiving delivery and coordinating further distribution of the cargo throughout the coastal territory. However, not a single member of the staff at the facility, nor a single driver, clerk, or other functionary appears to know about the cruel Israeli siege that is stifling Gaza's economy, causing shortage of medical and other crucial supplies, and threatening the entire population of almost 2 million Palestinians with starvation. Instead, they continue to process the importation of thousands of tons of goods per day to deliver, to supermarkets, warehouses, restaurants, hotels, hospitals, luxury boutiques, and other establishments that have imported the goods from or through Israel, as if no siege is underway.

"I don't know how they can be so ignorant," remarked Ken Roth of Human Rights Watch. "Don't they get their news from the same sources as the rest of us, according to which Israel's blockade and control of the border with Gaza are causing rampant malnutrition, power outages, and other disasters?"

The mystery of the workers' apparent ignorance deepens when one examines official Palestinian rhetoric, notably that of the Islamist Hamas organization that runs the Gaza Strip. "There is no way they can be unaware of the barrage of 'we're under siege' and 'they are depriving us of basic necessities' talk from Palestinian sources inside and outside Gaza," observed Jacob Burns of Amnesty International. "It's axiomatic that Israel's policies are the root of all Palestinian suffering - the human rights industr- I mean community established that long ago. Its doubly confusing to have such people who must answer to the Palestinian leadership, owing to the nature of their jobs, not aware that they are supposed to be acting accordingly, not just receiving tons and tons of goods without so much as a mention of the deadly, sadistic, illegal siege."

"In fact it's so bad that Gazans have taken to desperate measures to assuage their own suffering," he added. "It's painful to watch."

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08/02 Links Pt1: When a murderer is called a martyr; Kedar: Israel vs. Jordan; Phillips: The Temple Mount trap

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: The Temple Mount trap

I wrote here that Israel’s removal of the metal detectors from Temple Mount was a mistake, and that those in the west approving of the move merely showed how badly they failed to understand the Arab Muslim religious war against the Jews.
On the day the metal detectors were removed I attended a meeting in Jerusalem where Israel’s minister for housing, Yoav Galant, said erecting the barriers had been “a mistake”.
Staggered by this language which played directly into the Arab and Muslim “strong horse” mindset in which any retreat is viewed as a signal to redouble the attack, I asked Galant whether such a move wasn’t going to be taken as a sign of weakness which would merely incentivise more violence. “No!” he snapped before stalking off.
It was subsequently reported that Galant had been the prime mover inside the Israeli security cabinet to get the metal detectors removed.
What has followed, however, has been as predictable as it is alarming. The Palestinian Arabs have been crowing that they have Israel on the run. That has accordingly galvanised them to further violence, rioting on Temple Mount and attacking from this supposedly sacred Islamic space Jewish worshippers praying at the Western Wall. (It was a attack from al Aqsa upon Israeli police officers, two of whom were murdered, which led to the metal detectors being installed in the first place).
Palestinian Authority leaders then endorsed two weeks of Arab rioting at Temple Mount, calling on Palestinians to “rage” and “come to the defence of al Aqsa” against the entirely fictional threat from Israel.
Palestinian Media Watch published the cartoon reproduced here which Fatah (the party of the “moderate” Mahmoud Abbas) posted on its Facebook page and whose text PMW translates as “Victory is better than sleep”. It also published another showing metal detectors running away from cheering Arabs at the Dome of the Rock on Temple Mount.

Mordechai Kedar: Israel vs. Jordan

When Israel placed magnometers and security cameras at the Temple Mount entrance about two weeks ago, the King of Jordan, Abdullah, contacted America and European countries and warned that the security measures Israel implemented on the Temple Mount could potentially undermine his government. Since Jordan has a special status regarding Jerusalem, Israel’s actions will spark the rage of Muslims in Jordan and throughout Middle East against his government, because his inaction to influence Israeli policy on the Temple Mount would be seen by the Muslim world as collaborating with Israel. Therefore, in order for Abdullah to maintain his already unstable government, he demanded that the Israeli government remove the security measures it had recently installed on the Temple Mount. This request is unthinkable, and one wonders how Abdullah musters the chutzpah to demand such a request which implies that Israel should endanger its own police and citizens, so that he can remain secure in the monarchy inherited from his great grandfather who received it illegitimately from the British after World War I.
Israel’s conduct vis-à-vis Jordan, illustrates that here also, similar to its dealing with the Palestinians, the Israeli government continues to prefer short term tactical interests over long term strategic interests, such as allowing the Hashemite Kingdom to be toppled and replacing it with a Palestinian Arab state. The Hashemite Kingdom is living on borrowed time, and its fate will likely be similar to other Arab governments throughout the Middle East that were toppled; and these governments were stronger and more stable than the Hashemite Kingdom. The events of the last week prove that the peace agreement with Jordan not only limits Israel’s sovereignty and ability to defend its citizens, but also serves as a vehicle which allows Jordan to apply diplomatic pressure on Israel.
The Hashemite Kingdom in Jordan owes its life to Israel, and therefore the Israeli government need not acquiesce to their demands. Regretfully, it is difficult to expect the Israeli government, which surrenders to terror, to navigate correctly through the uncertain roads of the Middle East. The State of Israel needs to invest many resources to restore its image which has been severely damaged by this sad decision to remove the security measures from the Temple Mount. Maybe the time has come for Israeli citizens to demand a head of state who has the determination and backbone necessary to stand up for the security of its citizens.

The State Department's Report on Terrorism Should Be Discredited

At the top of the list of supposed "continued drivers of violence" in the Palestinian Authority (PA) is an assertion even more fabricated: "a lack of hope in achieving Palestinian statehood..."
It is not "lack of hope" that drives Palestinian violence. On the contrary, it is precisely the propping up of hope -- that intimidation and terrorism work and deliver concessions, such as UNESCO's fraudulent rulings that try to strip the Jews of their history, or Israel's recent removal of metal detectors and cameras from the Temple Mount -- that keeps the Palestinians on the offensive.
The report's allegations are perceptibly false. The PA has absolute control over the content of school books, print and broadcast media pieces, and sermons in mosques, all of which are rife with blatant anti-Semitism and glorification of terrorism and terrorists. This means that the incitement to spill Jewish blood is approved by the PA leadership, when not directly planted by it.

1962 documentary on Israel - narrated by Frank Sinatra (including concert for the IAF)

The Jewish Virtual Library put together a non-comprehensive list of artists that have performed in Israel, most of them in the past few years. Over a thousand singers and other entertainers have been in Israel.

In the list I noticed Frank Sinatra was in Israel twice, in 1962 and 1975.

I found an amazing video, narrated by Sinatra himself, about his visit to Israel in 1962. He shows how Israel helps immigrants, teaches medicine to African doctors, and provides the best healthcare. There is also footage from Israel's 14th Independence Day celebrations.

The video is a fundraiser for the Israel Histradut Campaign.

It also includes footage of Sinatra singing at an IAF base.

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From Iran's Mehrnews:

Iranian official Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said attempts by certain Arab countries to normalize ties with Israeli regime “will get nowhere” due to public opinion’s awareness and attention to the Palestinian issue.

During the meeting, Amir-Abdollahian voiced Tehran’s support for Hezbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad within the framework of a united Islamic world and in the fight against the Israeli regime.

“Today, a great part of regional security and combating terrorism is provided through the unity and strength of the Resistance Front,” the Iranian official stressed.

The Resistance Front has achieved the expected results in the fight against terrorism and Zionism, he said.

Terrorist organizations are the leaders in the fight against terror. Orwell couldn't make this up.

The funny part is that Arab nations now consider Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah to be terror organizations too, and they hate Iran more than Israel. So these statements paradoxically push the Arab world closer to Israel, not further away.

Meanwhile, Iran is trying hard to leverage the Temple Mount incident to get the Arabs to hate Israel:

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif slammed the recent cases of Zionist aggression and provocation in the city of al-Quds (Jerusalem) and called for a united Muslim campaign against the Tel Aviv regime’s expansionist policies.
“We should not allow any agenda or cause to compromise the main goal of this Organization to enhance the unity of the Ummah against Zionist expansionism and in support of the establishment of a viable independent Palestinian State with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital,” the Iranian top diplomat said on Tuesday in an address to an extraordinary meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation’s (OIC) Executive Committee.

Iran always wanted to be leader of the Muslim world, but that is not working out too well for it.

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Google's "what is toxic" algorithm doesn't notice antisemitism

Tablet has an interesting article about the new Google Perspective API that is meant to notice what kinds of statements might be perceived as "toxic".

I ran a few unquestionably antisemitic statements through the algorithm to see what Google thought. These are some that came out less likely to be considered "toxic." Many came from Arab media.

"The Jews believe that their Lord has created Gentiles to serve them." 35% likely to be perceived as toxic

"The world is divided into two groups: the Jews and the Goyim, and the creation of non-Jews is to serve Jews, enslave them, steal from them." - 20%

"Israel is an apartheid state." - 44%

"The Protocols of the Elders of Zion are a fact." - 1%

"The Israel lobby controls America." 2%

"Jews were behind the World Trade Center attacks." - 11%

("Muslims were behind the World Trade Center attacks." - 9%)

"Much of the culture of mutilation practiced by Jews against Arabs comes through movies, books, newspapers, magazines and entertainment programs on satellite channels." - 1%

"The Jordanians will regain their rights with their hands, and Jews will pay the price sometime, as they did in Khaibar and in Germany. " - 13%

"With the whole world mortgaging their possessions to Jewish money, the Jews have excelled in all fields and disciplines and transformed Zionism into a political movement that has attracted international attention. They have also sought to develop science and Jewish culture and their scientists won a multitude of Nobel prizes, and here we can only say they have succeeded with resounding success in all of their tyrannical and scientific methods. They created the largest terrorist movement in history through this Zionist family's leadership, famous for the planning of the killing and bloodshed against Arabs and Muslims." - 12%

"The Shylock character in "The Merchant of Venice" by William Shakespeare is the finest embodiment of the Jewish character, which reflects his greed and hatred and desire for bloody revenge better than any other." - 9%

"Jews are still are planning and holding conferences for many years on how to destroy the world and to eliminate their enemies, they have conspired to anyone who stands against them or who impedes the achievement of what they are seeking." - 22%

"Let us all be aware of the hostility and conspiracy hatched and planned by the Jews to fight Islam and Muslims." - 44%

"Jews lie as easily as they breathe, a fact that we Arabs who live in our homelands since ancient times know well." - 34%

"Jews only understand the language of force." - 14%

"The Zionist enemy seeks to create economic and political crises to many countries with different interests, specifically Egypt. " - 1%

"We ask God Almighty to foil their evil schemes against the Islamic nation, (as there is no God but Allah and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah,) and [we ask Allah to] cleanse the land of Palestine from defiled Jews and their supporters, and to support the mujahideen everywhere in Burma, Syria, Palestine, ...and may this century herald the era of the beginning of Islamic Renaissance, God willing." - 34%

"Abusing the Torah, they [the 'Rabbinic Council' of Israel] managed to turn its teachings into a real-estate book with ‘Divine Entitlements’ to possess Palestinian lands by Jews only as 'the chosen people of God. " - 2%

"Such egotistical doctrine being taught to Israeli youth brings back to memory the doctrine of 'the master white Aryan race' which ignited 'the Holocaust." - 1%

"The racist mentality prevailing in Israel has deep roots entrenched and nourished by the Ashkenazi (western) Talmud written to explain the Torah by Ashkenazi Rabbis who abandoned the Sephardim Talmud written by the Arab Jews who originally came from Arabia representing the real Hebrew community. " - 29%

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Today, August 2, is the anniversary of the Palestine Currency Law, which in 1926 established the Palestine pound as the legal tender for the area of British Mandate Palestine.

What I didn't realize is that the Palestine pound was the only legal currency in Transjordan as well until 1949!

So Transjordan used Palestinian currency until Israel was founded, and possibly for a year afterwards (when the Palestine pound was issued by the Anglo-Palestine Bank, owned by the Jewish Agency!)

Arabs in Palestine objected to using the currency at the time, wanting to keep the Egyptian pound as their official currency.

So when Palestinians claim that the Palestine pound was "their" currency that they want to recreate, are they also claiming sovereignty over Jordan which used that currency as well?

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08/01 Links: Melanie Phillips: A day to teach the world; When Progressives Embrace Hate

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: A day to teach the world

And that’s what so many in the west also don’t grasp – that the Jews alone are the indigenous people of the land, and that Judaism is based on an actual nation which practised its religion in the actual historic kingdom of Judea.
But because Islam holds that any territory ever occupied by Muslims remains Muslim for ever and can be ruled by no-one else, the Muslim world will not accept this. That’s why the war over Temple Mount is not being waged in the name of the Palestinians or even the Arabs but – according to Mahmoud Abbas amongst others – all Muslims.
It is an Islamic holy war – not just against the State of Israel but against Judaism itself. For both the Temple and the land of Israel are central to Jewish religious belief. Not all Jews are Zionists, for sure. Neither are all Jews religiously observant. But Judaism is inextricably composed of the people, the religion and the land. Those who want to strip away the land from the Jewish people are attacking Judaism itself.
Some Jews question why Tisha b’Av remains a day of mourning when Israel has been so triumphantly reborn from the ashes of history. But today it’s surely more important than ever to mourn. For the destroyers are still with us, the Temple Mount is still occupied and the stones are still being hurled down from it. The only difference is that the murderous destroyers hurling the rocks today are not the Romans but the Arab Muslims.
Well, the enemies of the Jewish people didn’t destroy us before; against impossible odds the land of Israel was restored to its indigenous people, the Jews; and they won’t succeed in destroying us now, or ever.

NYTs: When Progressives Embrace Hate

What wasn’t to like?
A lot, as it turns out. The leaders of the Women’s March, arguably the most prominent feminists in the country, have some chilling ideas and associations. Far from erecting the big tent so many had hoped for, the movement they lead has embraced decidedly illiberal causes and cultivated a radical tenor that seems determined to alienate all but the most woke.
Start with Ms. Sarsour, by far the most visible of the quartet of organizers. It turns out that this “homegirl in a hijab,” as one of many articles about her put it, has a history of disturbing views, as advertised by . . . Linda Sarsour.
There are comments on her Twitter feed of the anti-Zionist sort: “Nothing is creepier than Zionism,” she wrote in 2012. And, oddly, given her status as a major feminist organizer, there are more than a few that seem to make common cause with anti-feminists, like this from 2015: “You’ll know when you’re living under Shariah law if suddenly all your loans and credit cards become interest-free. Sound nice, doesn’t it?” She has dismissed the anti-Islamist feminist Ayaan Hirsi Ali in the most crude and cruel terms, insisting she is “not a real woman” and confessing that she wishes she could take away Ms. Ali’s vagina — this about a woman who suffered genital mutilation as a girl in Somalia.
Ms. Sarsour and her defenders have dismissed all of this as a smear campaign coordinated by the far right and motivated by Islamophobia. Plus, they’ve argued, many of these tweets were written five years ago! Ancient history.
But just last month, Ms. Sarsour proved that her past is prologue. On July 16, the official Twitter feed of the Women’s March offered warm wishes to Assata Shakur. “Happy birthday to the revolutionary #AssataShakur!” read the tweet, which featured a “#SignOfResistance, in Assata’s honor” — a pink and purple Pop Art-style portrait of Ms. Shakur, better known as Joanne Chesimard, a convicted killer who is on the F.B.I.’s list of most wanted terrorists.

Best Friends: Linda Sarsour and Muslim Brotherhood Supporter Omar Suleiman

In late August 2014, Linda Sarsour declared that Imam Omar Suleiman made her “more proud to be a Muslim and a Palestinian.” One year later, she praised him as one of several Muslim “scholars … who speak truth w/ courage & w/o apology.” Suleiman responded: “jazakiallah khayr [may Allah reward you with goodness] and thank you for being a leader in the trenches!”
In July 2016, Sarsour promoted a glowing tribute to Suleiman and told [archived] her Twitter followers: “Check out this profile of one of America’s most prominent imams @omarsuleiman504. Proud to call him a friend.” Suleiman warmly returned her compliments, responding: “Just following in your footsteps 🙂 It’s an honor to have you as a sister, friend, and leader.” And just a few weeks ago, Sarsour shared yet another article praising Suleiman; she told her followers: “Imam @omarsuleiman504 has inspired me to love my religion even more. A man of spirituality, conviction & justice.”
We all know the saying, “Tell me who your friends are, and I’ll tell you who you are.” So perhaps finding out who Omar Suleiman is will tell us a bit more about the controversial activist Linda Sarsour.
Suleiman describes himself on Twitter as “Scholar & Community Servant. Founder & President of @YaqeenInstitute, Professor @SMU, Resident Scholar @ValleyRanchIC.” According to the first article that Sarsour shared, Suleiman is also “a new kind of American imam” with “a wildly popular social-media presence, with more than a million likes on his Facebook page and tens of millions of views for his YouTube sermons.”

We've seen before how BDS activists talk big about boycotting Israel - meaning, everyone else must boycott Israel.

We know how Omar Barghouti wants everyone to boycott Israeli universities while he attended (attends?) one. We've seen how BDS groups happily use Israeli website technology - and even try to justify it!

Add to this list Saeb Erekat. Erekat has publicly called for BDS in Europe. But now, he needs medical help in Israel, and he doesn't hesitate to use it:

Palestinian Authority chief negotiator and secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization Saeb Erekat has a serious lung disease and is currently on the waiting list for a transplant in Israel and the US, according to a report Tuesday on the Ynet news site.

Erekat, 62, was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis over a year ago and had been on medications that were effectively treating the disease. However, the drugs stopped working several months ago, and his condition has since deteriorated dramatically.

The chief PA negotiator has been receiving additional treatment at a hospital in central Israel, but doctors have warned that his condition cannot improve without an immediate transplant, the report said.

Suddenly, Israeli goods and services seem to be not so terrible!

Erekat could go to Europe or an Arab country to get the transplant and treatment. But - he chooses Israel.

The hypocrisy doesn't end there. The PA has recently slashed the number of medical permits for Gazans to get treated in Israel, but for Erekat, of course, he must get the best medical care possible.

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Mourning the destruction of the ancient Jewish Temple is a wake-up call for our future (Forest Rain)

The 9th day of the month of Av (Jewish calendar) is the day when both the first and second Temples were destroyed, the first by the Babylonians in 586 B.C.E.; the second by the Romans in 70 C.E. It is a day of fasting and mourning for religious Jews around the world.

The destruction of the Temple meant the destruction of the centerpiece of Judaism, tearing apart of the foundation of Jewish culture and the Nation of Israel.

This and the exile that followed should have been enough to eliminate the Jewish people. It wasn’t.

2000 years did not make the Jewish people forget.

The image people around the world today have of the Temple Mount is that of the golden domed mosque which was built on the ruins of the Temple in 691 C.E. Since that time the Dome of the Rock has been a holy place for the Muslim people – although not central to their religion. Considered the third holiest location in Islam, it is not mentioned a single time in the Koran. In fact, the reason Al-Aqsa became important in Islam was to further a political agenda, not a religious one (See the historical explanation by Dr. Mordechai Kedar here ).

Within the Dome of the Rock is the Foundation Stone, the foundation on which it is believed that God created the earth. This was the Holy of Holies, where the Ark of the Covenant was placed, within the ancient Jewish Temple.

Although the Nation of Israel has re-established the State of Israel we have not really returned to the heart of our nation, the pulsing center, the source of the holiness of Jerusalem – the Temple Mount in the heart of the capital of our State. Jews are not allowed anywhere near the site that is most holy to us. We may not enter the Dome of the Rock, not even to look. Ascending to the Temple Mount is highly restricted and prayers are strictly forbidden. International attempts are being made to deny Jewish connection to the Temple Mount and to Jerusalem, for the same reason ancient conquerors did.

Today we mourn what was lost to our people. Today we mourn what we have yet to regain.

This is our legacy. Through Judaism, this is also the legacy of the Christian world. Will we allow ourselves to be denied our roots in order so others may have our future?

“May my tongue cleave to my mouth, if I ever think not of thee, if I ever prize not Jerusalem above all joys!” Psalm 137

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Palestinian music video (in Hebrew) encourages stabbing and murdering Jews

Ma'an, the supposedly liberal news organization funded by Western sources, is pushing this music video that glorifies murdering Jews.

There is really no other interpretation, although Ma'an calls stabbing and running over Jews "defending Al Aqsa."

The video "promises to cleanse Palestine of Jews."

Not much subtlety here.

If any Israeli - even a private citizen - made a comparable video and it was featured on a major Hebrew news site, it would be front page news worldwide about Israel's Islamophobia or Arabophobia.

This video will be ignored, except for some mentions in Israeli media.

Because the world expects Palestinians to be bigoted barbarians. And very often, some of them live up to their expectations.

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Have an easy fast

I will not be blogging until Tuesday afternoon (EDT) to mark Tisha B'Av.

Have an easy and meaningful fast.

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07/31 Links Pt2: Anti-Semitism is still alive — even on the left; Israel Losing The PR War

From Ian:

What victory looks like

I once heard Bill Maher say that: “Israel has won every war she ever had to fight because she has to, she has no choice. If she loses she will be wiped off the map.”
So true.
In 2006, Israel was attacked by Hezbollah and was forced to go to war in Lebanon. The war had no frontline, it was Israelis in their home who were under attack by terrorists shooting missiles from the neighboring country, Lebanon. For 34 days Israelis in northern Israel (me included) hunkered down in bomb shelters while missiles slammed into our towns, our homes. We waited patiently while our soldiers took the battle to the terrorists who were attacking us, doing everything possible to make it stop.
We waited, never knowing when the next missile would come, never knowing where it would hit. Sometimes the air-raid siren worked. Sometimes it didn’t. I will never forget stepping outside after a missile slammed down behind my home and hearing the neighbor across the street screaming: “Why didn’t the siren go off??” That was the only warning we had to race to the bomb shelter, the only hope of protection. There was no Iron Dome then.
While our soldiers were battling for their lives and ours, we waited. Scary and difficult, we would wait however long it took. We didn’t mind.
Because we knew our soldiers would win.
The war ended with a UN brokered ceasefire on August 14, 2006. Israeli news commentators and security analysts told the people that while there was no visual that showed our decisive victory, Israel had won the war, Lebanon had been bombed back into the stone age (poor Lebanon that was being used as a launching pad for Hezbollah to wage a war) and that the IDF had destroyed much of Hezbollah’s missile arsenal.
Victory is similar to pornography. You might not know how to define what it is but you recognize it when you see it. Victory is not something that necessitates interpretation.
Since then, the Israeli government has carefully defined wars as “military operations.” Part of this is for financial reasons (the government is obligated to compensate citizens for financial loss due to war). I believe that this definition also has something to do with the idea that wars have to be won.

Anti-Semitism is still alive — even on the left

In late June, thousands from across the Midwest congregated in Chicago to demonstrate their support for legal rights, recognition and cultural heritage of LGBT communities in the city’s annual Pride Parade. The event, which typically emphasizes inclusion regardless of ethnic or religious background, left Laurel Grauer feeling discriminated against after being removed from the parade for carrying a rainbow flag adorning the Jewish Star of David. Organizers of the program, justifying her removal, claimed that the flag was deemed unacceptable due to its association with the State of Israel.
Unfortunately, this incident signals a trend of increasing anti-Semitism masquerading under the guise of anti-Zionism in the United States and abroad. Although not every rejection of the Zionist movement stems from racially-motivated sentiments, the lack of adequate justification for much of the anti-Zionist movement and an active unwillingness to dissect the complexities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict reflect a malignant underlying reason for opposition to the Jewish state.
Perhaps one of the worst perpetrators of anti-Zionist bias is the United Nations. The international organization has dealt disproportional criticism to Israel in relation to other, arguably far-more-guilty member nations. In its 2015 session, the U.N. passed a whopping total of 20 resolutions condemning Israel, while only passing 3 condemning resolutions against other member nations. In June, U.S. Ambassadors threatened to pull out of the U.N. Human Rights Council for its consistent discrimination against Israel. The 78 resolutions and decisions passed against Israel dwarf the 29 passed against the next biggest offender, Syria. Meanwhile, Russia, China and Saudi Arabia have faced no condemnations at all.
In the words of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel is a country where “women fly fighter jets, lead major corporations, head universities, preside over the Supreme Court, and have served as Speaker of the Knesset and as Prime Minister.” Contrast these conditions to Saudi Arabia’s, where women are not only denied their autonomy, but also (quite literally) enslaved into arranged marriages.

Jewish Summer Camp Flies Palestinian Flag, Teaches Kids Bad Lesson in Politics

Camp Solomon Schechter, one of the Pacific Northwest’s longest-serving and best-loved Jewish summer camps, caused a bit of a stir this weekend after it hosted a group of 14 children, including Christian and Muslim Palestinians, and flew the Palestinian flag in their honor. This upset some campers, parents, and alumni, who wailed that the black-white-green-and-red had no place among the blue-and-white, and that a camp committed to Zionism and Israel shouldn’t kowtow to the enemy.
Those outraged—and I say this as an uncompromising supporter of Israel’s right to defend itself against Palestinian terrorism and incitement—are missing the point. The problem here isn’t that the camp chose to welcome its Palestinian guests by flying their colors; that alone is a sweet gesture, especially when the Palestinians in question are prepubescents, not armed members of the Tanzim. The problem is that the camp chose to address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a mindless, morally preening way, treating it not as something concrete but as a collection of grand symbolic gestures.
Here, for example, is the email the camp sent out in the aftermath of the controversy:
“For the sake of a teachable moment, we did raise the Palestinian flag as a sign of friendship and acceptance. It was met with uncertainty by some campers and staff, especially the Israeli’s [sic], but all understood that the message of hope for peace by flying the Israeli flag alongside helped develop empathy. Still we plan to take down all the flags for Shabbat since there is no peace and also to relieve the sadness and anger that some feel by the site of the flag. It was so fun to watch the kids from Jerusalem play soccer with our chanichim and madrichim!”
Ignore, if you can, the writer’s tenuous grasp on grammar, or the jarring shifts in tone between talk of sadness and anger and peppy reports of a spirited soccer game. But consider the logic at play here: we flew the flag because we hope for peace, then we took it down because there is no peace, and also because some people were upset.
You hardly have to be a great educator to realize just how profoundly idiotic this sentiment truly is, and how likely it is to raise a generation of children who are thoroughly confused. First, it reduces a thorny issue with real complexities and uncomfortable truths to one easy empty gesture. Why bother with facts and figures and nuance when you can just wave a piece of colorful cloth? And then, rather than use this gesture responsibly and invite the campers and staffers to talk about why the flag makes them uncomfortable—maybe, say, because the authority it represents spends a considerable portion of its budget promoting and rewarding the systemic murder of Jews—the camp opted to double down on the symbolism and take the flag down as a way to bemoan the elusiveness of peace. This is how you do bad performance art; it’s not how you educate children.

IsraellyCool: Jewish Camp Doubles Down on Palestinian Flag Fiasco

The clumsily worded statement in fact doubled down on the offending act, elevating the raising of the Palestinian flag as a demonstration of “the Jewish value of Hachnasat Orchim (welcoming guests)”, the guests being a Palestinian delegation spending several days with the Jewish camp under the auspices of Kids4Peace. Adding insult to insult, the Schechter administration further justified the Palestinian flag raising as an attempt to create a “safe space for all”, disregarding the emotional impact the flying of the Palestinian flag would have on their young Jewish campers. Despite the jumbled messaging the camp firmly maintains their Zionist bona fides.
While many in the tight-knit Pacific Northwest Jewish community expressed indignation at the flying of the Palestinian flag at the legacy Jewish camp, radical anti-Israel blogger, BDS supporter and terror apologist Richard Silverstein endorsed the camp, adding that “there should be nothing wrong with raising a Palestinian flag”.

Terror apologist Silverstein declared his support of the Palestinian flag raising.
Rabbi Yohanna Kinberg, who recently marched alongside anti-Israel group IfNotNow, posted a broadside attack against me (I broke the story on my own blog before posting here):
“This blog [The Mike Report] is a vile piece of trash it is truly anti-Jewish and anti-Israel in promoting hate. Camp Solomon Schechter is a very very Zionist camp and bringing kids 4 peace into their community was Jewish leadership at the highest level shame on all of you for reading this man’s blog.
Which leads us to ask the question, with endorsements like these, who needs endorsements?

Hamrin News, a Saudi news outlet, describes a favorite topic: Jews. Here are some excerpts.

The Jews believe that their Lord has created Gentiles to serve them. ..The world is divided into two groups: the Jews and the Goyim, and the creation of non-Jews is to serve Jews, enslave them, steal from them, but this is forbidden for them to do among themselves.

The Gentiles are the donkeys whom the Lord created for the chosen people of God.When Abraham went to slaughter his son, Isaac, he was accompanied by his servants, and he said to them: Stay here with the donkey, while I and my son go to the mountain, hence it is known that non-Jews are donkeys!

Whoever kills a Christian or a foreigner or a pagan is rewarded with immortality in paradise and sitting there in the fourth palace. ...If a Jew intends to kill an animal, kill someone wrongly, or want to kill a pagan or an alien who kills a Jew, his sin is forgiven, and whoever kills a Christian or an alien or a pagan is rewarded with immortality in paradise and sitting there in the fourth palace.

The difference between the Jewish nation and other nations is similar to the difference between man and the rest of the animals. Some rabbis say that only Jews are created in the image of God (despite what is said in Genesis 1:27 on the creation of God in His image). ... In the Book of the Prophets, the Gentiles are considered beasts, and the non-Jew is no different from the wild boar....The Jewish doctor should avoid breaking the sanctity of the Sabbath in order to treat the gentiles. The Jew should not remove the rubble of a house that was destroyed on Saturday [if a Gentile is inside]. If one of the pagans falls into a pit, the Jew must close the opening with a stone.

In the Talmud it is common to find phrases such as "Kill the righteous from the Gentiles" and "The Jew should feed the dogs and not feed the Gentiles."

The Jews have the right to rape non-Jewish women, the wives of foreigners are permissible; because women are non-Jewish beasts.

The Jew is not permitted to be polite with the non-Jew , or to claim his love, unless he is afraid of harm.

It is not permissible to offer charity to non-Jews.

On the Day of Atonement all of the sins committed by Jews during the year are wiped out.

If the Gentiles steal something - even if its value is very trivial - they deserve to die; because they have violated the commandments that the Lord commanded them

If a foreigner and a Jew come before you in a lawsuit, and you can make the Jew a winner, then say to the foreigner: This is what our law requires...

The religious leaders must curse the heads of the religions (Muhammad, Christ, peace be upon them and the scholars of the unholy) three times every day,

Anyone who sees the tombs of the Goyim should curse them and curse them with specific words found in the Talmud.

All the goods of the land belong to the children of Israel, the land and all that is in it, and it all belongs only to the Jews, and they have full disposition in them; Jehovah gave the Jews control over the money of the rest of the nations and their blood.

The use of foreigners as practical animals has produced a profession in Palestine called "Shabbos Goy", which is mostly Arabs, and their function is to do what is forbidden to the religious Jew to do on Saturday.

See? Now you know all about Jews!

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