Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, April 03, 2018

04/03 Links Pt2: Bari Weiss: French Jews Face the Hatred That Can’t Be Named; Brendan O'Neill: The return of the socialism of fools; Jeremy Corbyn and the far left’s anti-Semitism doublespeak

From Ian:

Bari Weiss: French Jews Face the Hatred That Can’t Be Named

In Paris, two Muslim men, one of them yelling “Allahu Akbar,” recently murdered the eighty-five-year-old, wheelchair-bound Holocaust survivor Mireille Knoll. Noting that this is hardly an isolated incident, Bari Weiss scrutinizes the official French response:

Parisian authorities are investigating the murder as being motivated by the “membership, real or supposed, of the victim of a particular religion.” But euphemisms should have no place in describing the nature of Mireille Knoll’s death. She was murdered by men apparently animated by the same hatred that drove Hitler. . . .

[Knoll’s] neighborhood . . . has already borne witness to a nearly identical crime. Almost exactly a year ago, a sixty-five-year-old Jewish widow named Sarah Halimi was murdered by her neighbor, twenty-seven-year-old Kobili Traoré. Other neighbors said they heard Traoré scream “Allahu Akbar” as he beat Halimi, a retired doctor, to near death in the early hours of April 4, 2017. He then threw her body into the courtyard below. It took months for Halimi’s murder to be categorized as an anti-Jewish hate crime. . . . This time, French authorities have been quick to call the crime by its proper name. . . . But the people actually killing Jews in France these days are not members of the National Front. They are Islamists. . . .

Here are some facts that are very hard to talk about: Jews represent less than 1 percent of the population in France, yet in 2014, 51 percent of all racist attacks were carried out against them, according to the French Interior Ministry. A survey from that year of about 1,000 French respondents with unknown religious affiliation and 575 self-identified Muslims . . . found that the Muslim respondents were two or three times more likely to have anti-Jewish sentiments than those from the random French group. Nineteen percent of all respondents felt that Jews had “too much” political power. Among Muslims, the number was 51 percent. As for the idea that Zionism “is an international organization that aims to influence the world and society in favor of the Jews,” 44 percent of Muslims surveyed approved of this statement. . . .

The Moment That Made Israel a Nation

‘Jews do not shoot at Jews.” So the young Menachem Begin confidently assured a worried young man on June 20, 1948, just after Israel became the world’s newest nation. A ship under the control of Begin’s militia, the Irgun, had come ashore at Kfar Vitkin with badly needed arms and ammunition for the fledgling Jewish state. A disagreement ensued between Begin and Israel’s leader, David Ben-Gurion, as to the allocation of the arms on the Altalena. Ben- Gurion ordered Israeli Defense Forces to surround the ship. A boy assisting in the unloading of its cargo fretted that those who had just come ashore might be fired upon. Begin assured him that this was inconceivable. Whatever might happen, Jews do not shoot at Jews.

He proved badly mistaken. A firefight did break out, and the Altalena fled back to the Mediterranean, landing near what is now Tel Aviv’s Frischman Beach on June 22, with Begin on board. David Ben-Gurion ordered the ship shelled. Sixteen members of the Irgun were killed. Standing on the ship while being fired upon—with dear friends of his dying—Begin ordered those aboard the Altalena not to fire back, declaring milkhemet ahim le-olam lo, never a war between brothers. After leaving the smoldering Altalena, with much of its arms cache lost forever, Begin went on the radio and again ordered his seething followers not to seek revenge. After wrongly predicting that Jews would never shoot at Jews, Begin now enunciated an even more extraordinary principle: Jews do not shoot at Jews, even when those Jews are shooting at them.

This was his greatest moment. The survival of the newly born state was anything other than assured, and shooting back, however justified the self-defense might have been, would have torn the people apart. In his memoir The Prime Ministers: An Intimate Narrative of Israeli Leadership, Yehuda Avner quotes Begin explaining his motivation: “Twenty centuries ago we faced the bitter experience of the destruction of our Second Temple, the destruction of our capital Jerusalem. And why? Because of our senseless hatred of each other, a hatred that led to civil war and to our utter ruin: behiya le-dorot [a weeping for generations].” This time, civil war did not take place, and the nascent Jewish state flourished into the mighty, vibrant, “start-up nation” we know it to be today.

This coming month, millions of Israelis and Jews around the world will celebrate the 70th anniversary of Israel’s birth. Far fewer will mark, a month later, the 70th anniversary of the Altalena affair, and Begin’s decision on that day. Yet it is perhaps the second-most important moment in 1948, one that defined Israeli democracy forever.

Ben Shapiro: Tony Kushner’s West Side Story Problem

By the logic of the identity politics he claims to support, he can’t remake a play about Polish and Puerto Rican gangs.

The Left’s favorite playwright, Tony Kushner, is in a bind.

Kushner, you’ll recall, is the author of such politically radical travesties as Angels in America and Munich — and the author of far more mature works, such as Lincoln and Fences. Kushner is the type of fellow who says: “The founding of the State of Israel was for the Jewish people a historical, moral, political calamity. . . . I wish modern Israel hadn’t been born.” But he still likes to stand on his Jewish ethnicity as a crutch for his leftism. He’s an anti-capitalism radical who has earned millions of dollars and summers in a Provincetown vacation home.

And now, Kushner has a problem.

His problem: He’s a Jewish gay guy remaking West Side Story — a musical about Polish and Puerto Rican gangs, originally written by four Jews. This violates the core tenet of intersectionality, which maintains that it’s cultural appropriation when people of one culture write about another culture, and that it’s “white privilege” when too many members of “white America” (which now includes Jews) earn money on a particular endeavor. Kushner declares himself a “big believer in identity politics and political correctness.”

So how will he square this circle? He explains:
I mean, it’s a little tricky with West Side Story. . . . It’s also not exclusively about Puerto Ricans. It’s about white guys and Puerto Rican guys and white girls and Puerto Rican girls. So what does that mean, we should have two directors and two screenwriters?

Well, by his standards, yes. But he’s not going to give up that paycheck or that creative project:
Why shouldn’t we want to be politically correct, if by correct you mean not toeing the party line but toeing the line of history, being on the right side of history, being moral and ethical. . . . I’m aware of my privileged position, but do I believe I’m doing something wrong by writing West Side Story? I absolutely do not. I’m much more afraid of the musical theater queens.

Well, of course he doesn’t believe he’s doing something wrong. His ox would be gored if he abided by the idiotic intersectional principles he claims to support. Because Kushner is left-wing, the Los Angeles Times gives him a pass here, so long as he utters the buzzwords that the Left prefers. But there’s little doubt that he’s avoiding the consequences of his own ideology.

The Hamas-affiliated Palestine Information Center's reporting of Jews peacefully visiting their holiest site is always amusing.

Monday:

Scores of Israeli settlers on Monday morning broke into al-Aqsa Mosque via al-Maghareba Gate under heavy police protection.
Public relations official of the Jerusalem Islamic Awqaf Department Feras al-Dibs told the PIC that 244 settlers as well as two Israeli intelligence officers stormed al-Aqsa Mosque during the morning hours.
The PIC reporter said that a plane belonging to the Israeli police kept hovering at a low altitude over the Mosque during the raid.
Over 200 Israeli settlers stormed the holy site during Sunday's incursions and performed Talmudic rituals at the Dome of the Rock.

The drone is a new wrinkle.

It is rather impossible that the Jews even approached the Dome of the Rock, let alone prayed there, since that is off-limits to religious Jews according to practically everyone.

Today's story is juicier:

Approximately 260 Israeli settlers on Tuesday forced their way into al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem, marking the fourth day of Passover holiday.
Department of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs affirmed that the settlers stormed the holy shrine from the Israeli-controlled al-Magharibeh Gate and performed their Talmudic rituals under heavy police protection.
Over the past two days, more than 500 settlers broke into the Mosque in total provocation to Palestinian worshipers.

Yes, walking through a gate is "forcing themselves."

I'm always amazed how the Arabs know that the visitors are all "settlers."

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Palestinian Arab prisoner ends hunger strike because it was getting too hard

PIC reports:

The Palestinian prisoner in Israeli jails Omar al-Kiswani on Monday decided to suspend his hunger strike after his health condition has deteriorated as a result of the intensive interrogation he is being exposed to.

The Palestinian Prisoner Society said in a statement that al-Maskoubiya military court decided to extend al-Kiswani's detention for eight days under the pretext of completing the interrogation which has not stopped since the moment of his arrest on 7th March.

According to the statement, al-Kiswani informed his lawyer during the trial of his decision to suspend his strike because of the exhaustion he is suffering from.

I thought the entire point of a hunger strike was to be uncomfortable. But apparently, for Palestinian prisoners, if it gets to be harder than the Paleo diet then it is time to quit.

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04/03 Links Pt1: Gaza and the worthlessness of international opinion; UNESCO to pass ‘most extreme’ Jerusalem resolution next week

From Ian:

Gaza and the worthlessness of international opinion

It is by no means clear that the Palestinian border riots turned out to be the great propaganda triumph Israel's enemies were hoping for. Most of the Arab world is responding with the same perfunctory protest as they put forward after President Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

Egypt is not lifting the Gaza blockade. While European governments demand Israeli restraint, they won't be applying any real pressure on Israel to strengthen the terrorist regime in Gaza.

The purpose of the march was not - as claimed by those who have accepted Hamas' propaganda - a march for "a better future." It was explicitly a march to demand a "right of return" for descendants of the 1948 Palestinian refugees into Israel.

As such, it is a call for war without end, since no Israeli government of any political stripe could ever concede this claim, which would effectively end the Jewish state.

The purpose of the protest was to produce Palestinian corpses, not to highlight any grievances. Given the numbers of those assaulting the border, the IDF showed its commitment to a limited use of force.

If you call for open borders for Gaza, you're not so much advancing a humanitarian cause as you are advocating the arming of an Islamist terror group.

PMW: Murderers of Israelis are "sacrificing heroes and torches of freedom that have lit the skies of Palestine," says PLO official

Mother of 5 terrorist sons, among them 2 murderers, raised "sacrificing heroes and torches of freedom that have lit the skies of Palestine"

Reporting on an event honoring Palestinian mothers "of Martyrs, prisoners, and wounded," the official Palestinian Authority daily mentioned in particular the mother of 5 terrorists, among them 2 murderers. Although the paper listed the number of life sentences each is serving, it failed to mention that they are imprisoned for murder of 8 people as well as numerous other terror attacks (see descriptions below):
"Um Yusuf is the mother of Martyr Abd Al-Mun'im, and the mother of four prisoners serving life sentences: Nasser, serving 7 life sentences and an additional 50 years; Nasr, serving 5 life sentences; Sharif, serving 4 life sentences; and Muhammad, serving 2 life sentences and an additional 30 years."
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, March 23, 2018]

This is not the first time the PA has honored this mother of 5 terrorists (also known as Um Hmeid) as a model for Palestinian mothers. In 2011, the PA chose her to launch the PA's statehood campaign with the UN.

At the recent event, a senior PLO official praised the mothers of the terrorists as "crowns on our heads" because they have educated their sons to carry out "heroic acts," and raised them to become "sacrificing heroes and torches of freedom that have lit the skies of Palestine":

UNESCO to pass ‘most extreme’ Jerusalem resolution next week

The United Nations Organization for Education, Science and Culture is expected next week to pass another resolution on Jerusalem that an Israeli official has denounced as “the most extreme and problematic text” ever proposed.

At first blush, the short text appears harmless from an Israeli perspective, devoid of any incendiary claims or designations. And yet, Jerusalem opposes it because it cites previous UN resolutions on Middle Eastern affairs, thus legitimizing more problematic formulations “through the back door,” Israel’s ambassador to UNESCO, Carmel Shama Hacohen, said.

The resolution, sponsored by Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Qatar and Sudan, consists of only four paragraphs. Two recall previous resolutions, one calls for their implementation and future discussion, and one reaffirms “the importance of Jerusalem for the three monotheistic religions.”

UNESCO has passed “less elegant” resolutions in the past, Shama Hacohen acknowledged, but nonetheless condemned next week’s draft as “the most extreme and problematic text we have ever seen.”

In a letter to fellow UNESCO envoys, a copy of which was obtained by The Times of Israel, he argued that the text’s brevity and lack of offensive language against Israel was misleading. Rather, he said, the resolution is “based on politicization and hateful propaganda against UNESCO’s core mandate and own sake, as well as against the Jewish People and the State of Israel.”

For one, the resolution is entitled “Occupied Palestine,” which the Israeli envoy argued is a “pure[ly] political title.”

Furthermore, the draft refers to the 1981 inscription of the Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls in UNESCO’s World Heritage List, and the subsequent decision to add the site to UNESCO’s list of World Heritage in Danger. Both requests were made by Jordan and “were, and are, political fictions,” Shama Hacohen wrote.

From Palestine Information Center:

Palestinian young men on Monday evening attacked Israeli buses carrying Jewish settlers on a main road in the north of al-Khalil city [Hebron] in the occupied West Bank.

Local sources told the Palestinian Information Center (PIC) that young men threw Molotov cocktails at buses boarded by settlers as they were traveling on the main road near al-Arroub refugee camp in northern al-Khalil.

They added that the buses sustained some material damage during the attack, while Israeli media sources claimed it caused no vehicular damage or human injury.

This is more prominently reported in Palestinian media than in Israeli media. Because they are proud of their youths trying to burn dozens of Jews alive.

The mainstream media doesn't deign this worthy of coverage at all, of course. They want their readers to see only the cute stone-throwers, not the firebombers.

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There has been a kerfuffle on social media about UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn's decision to attend a "seder" by the group called Jewdas, which is a radical left organization that claims to have some Jewish identity.

The Guardian reports:

Jeremy Corbyn has been criticised for attending a Passover event with a leftwing Jewish group highly critical of mainstream Jewish communal bodies, and which has described the protests against the Labour leader as “faux outrage greased with hypocrisy and opportunism”.

Corbyn attended a Passover seder, the traditional meal of the Jewish festival, in his Islington constituency that was organised by Jewdas, which last week accused the Jewish Board of Deputies, Jewish Leadership Council and Jewish Labour Movement of “playing a dangerous game with people’s lives”.

The group – which runs alternative Jewish parties, events and a satirical website – said in a statement last week over the Enough Is Enough protests that much of the furore over antisemitism in Labour was “the work of cynical manipulations by people whose express loyalty is to the Conservative party and the right wing of the Labour party”.

A spokesman for Corbyn said he attended the event in a personal capacity and not in his official role as Labour leader, after his attendance was revealed by the Guido Fawkes blog. “He wrote to the Board of Deputies and Jewish Leadership Council last week to ask for an urgent formal meeting to discuss tackling antisemitism in the Labour party and in society,” the spokesman said.

Jewdas, a collective that describes itself as “radical voices for the alternative diaspora”, says its members are “synagogue-going Jews, most with either paid or voluntary positions within our communities”. The group has been highly critical of the Israeli government, but has also published pamphlets for pro-Palestinian demonstrations advising activists how to avoid antisemitism in campaigning.

In a piece for the pro-Labour website Labour List, Charlotte Nicols, one of the attendees of the Jewdas seder, said Corbyn had stayed for four hours and was an active participant in the rituals.

Let's look at those "rituals" as seen in the Jewdas "Haggadah" from last year. (h/t On The Dark Side)

Most seders involve four cups of wine. Ours involves one quantity of wine and one only: as much as it fucking takes. For our purposes, the FIRST four cups we drink will represent the normal seder shit. The reason it normally involves four is because Judaism is obsessed with fucking four. Four represents “the four seasons of the year”, “the four douchebag ancient empires that fucked with Israel”, and “the four corners of the universe”. But the universe isn’t square. YOU ARE.
Tonight, the four cups are the four types of freedom. Just fucking go with it.

Now that we see how much Jewdas respects Judaism, we can go on:

Usually, left wing seders love talking about how Jews spill some wine in talking about the plagues to say that Egyptian suffering shouldn't be celebrated. Not this one:

SECOND BUCKET OF WINE
Legend has it that when the Egyptians were being sucked down
into the Red Sea, hallucinogenic angels wanted to chant a cover of
Jeff Buckley’s Hallelujah in victory. This peeved Lorde. Lorde
rebuked: “Fucking angels! How you gonna do me like that? Those
are MY little bastards drowning down there! I know they were doing
bad shit, but fucking show some compassion!”
In a “normal” seder, we’d fill our second bucket of wine only halfway
to show that it’s sad to see any human suffering, even those
asswipes. In this seder, we fill two buckets of wine per person
because...yeah. Fuck those fascists.

Finally, we get to the point of "anti-Israel" part. And it isn't just anti-Israel, which, lets face it, no one would complain about. And it isn't just antisemitic, either.

Corbyn's buddies don't like the Queen either. Or Parliament.

“Prayer against the State of Israel” by Geoffry Cohen

Please God, smash the State of Israel. Smash it in the abundance of your
love. Send forth your light and truth to those who lead. And JUDGE it - on Yom
Kippur try to pay special attention to those who hold elective office. Establish
in them, through some sort of magic God thing, wise counsel, that they might
stop being so fucking racist. We're sure you've been trying but srsly, you need
to give this some more thought.
Strengthen the hands of those who seek to liberate our holy land that isn't
actually ours at all but everyone's. Let them inherit salvation and life. And give
peace to the land, and perpetual joy to all its inhabitants. Stop referring to the
“house of Israel”, that's gone, it's been hundreds of years, get over it, get a flat.
Plant in our hearts a love of everywhere. Destroy all borders, tear down all
walls, quick, before Banksy comes and draws something on it.
And for all our people everywhere, may God be with them, and may they have
the opportunity to go wherever they want to go, and help them to live in peace
with their neighbours. Cause your spirit’s influence to emanate upon the
dwellers of Stamford Hill and/or Golders Green.

Meaning...Jews. Because mainstream Jews are evil and need to be set right.

And fuck the queen and ESPECIALLY FUCK PRINCE PHILIP. Burn down
parliament. Full communism. Amen.

The British might tolerate the pure antisemitism and the desire for Israel to be destroyed in this "seder" - but they don't like when you mess with the Queen.

And Corbyn was an "active participant."

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For the first time, Palestinians going on pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia from Ben Gurion airport

A Russia Today reporter tweeted this:

لأول مرة في مطار بن غوريون، تل أبيب... معتمرون بملابس الاحرام حيث تم سفرهم الى السعودية عن طريق طائرة ترانزيت الى مطار عمان الاردن ومنها الى ارض الحرمين الشريفين لاداء العمرة . pic.twitter.com/GZ8LJUhhwK
— Dalia Nammari (@Dalianamari_rt) April 2, 2018

For the first time at Ben-Gurion Airport, Tel Aviv, [Palestinian pilgrims) were traveling to Saudi Arabia via a transit plane to Jordan Amman Airport and from there to the land of the Two Holy Mosques for the performance of Umrah.

When someone challenged her that this has happened in the past, she said that previously Israeli Arabs had taken a bus to Amman and from there taken a flight to Mecca. In this case the plane leaves from Israel, stops briefly in Amman and then goes on to Saudi Arabia, presumably so that the flight doesn't go directly from Israel to the kingdom.

This development was reported last year, although it seems that this is the first time it actually happened:

For thousands of Palestinian pilgrims, the journey to Mecca is about to become much less time-consuming.
The United States is in talks with the Palestinian Authority, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, to allow special flights transporting pilgrims to take off from Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv to Saudi Arabia, reported Roya Arabic.
According to the same source, the designated planes won’t be Saudi or Israeli-owned.
In addition, the aircrafts are planned to make a brief stop in Jordan before continuing to their final destination.

I guess no one wants to report that the administration of Donald Trump may have done something to help Israeli Arabs and Palestinians get to Saudi Arabia.

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04/02 Links Pt2: Col. Kemp: The bravest and the best; Collier: The Jewish community and Jeremy Corbyn are incompatible; How Terrorists Are Using Twitter to Incite Violence Against Israelis;

From Ian:

Col. Richard Kemp: The bravest and the best

Are we no longer allowed heroes? The 2017 film "Churchill" is nothing less than a character assassination of the man who led Britain to victory in World War II. The movie "7 Days in Entebbe," released last week in Israel, gives similar treatment to the hero of the dramatic rescue, Lt. Col. Yoni Netanyahu. The film is based on a book about the raid by the distinguished British historian Professor Saul David.

Incredibly, in an interview last week, David seemed to suggest that the German terrorists at Entebbe played a greater role than Netanyahu in saving the hostages' lives. He claims they had second thoughts, deliberately sparing the hostages when they could have killed them.

Why? Because they had developed empathy for their captives and "it wouldn't have looked good for Germans to kill Jews again, after the Holocaust." Look good to whom? It doesn't add up. They had seized Jewish hostages at gunpoint, conducted a "selection" chillingly reminiscent of Auschwitz and were members of a rabidly anti-Semitic terror group, the Revolutionary Cells.

Meanwhile, David dismisses Netanyahu, claiming his research shows he "was not a central figure in the planning of the operation." Yet Netanyahu's Sayeret Matkal comrades who were there describe him as "the father of the operation," confirming that he did in fact plan the rescue in meticulous detail after being given orders by Brig. Gen. Dan Shomron,
the overall commander, to take over the airport terminal and release the hostages.

The Rome of Josephus

In the midst of the Judean Revolt of 66-70 CE, the Jewish rebel officer Josephus, his unit defeated, defected to the Roman forces; eventually the emperor Vespasian and his son and successor Titus became Josephus’ patrons, and he went on to have an illustrious career writing about Jewish history and defending Jews and Judaism against their slanderers. He came to the city of Rome in 71 CE, and most likely lived there until his death around the year 100. David Laskin reports on traveling through Rome with the works of Josephus as his guide. Here he imagines the imperial parade—memorialized in the Arch of Titus—during which the emperor celebrated the Jews’ defeat and the destruction of their Temple:

I tried to erase from my mind [today’s] T-shirts and selfie sticks and resurrect the fallen columns. Vespasian and Titus, riding chariots, would have been two dabs of purple surging up the ramparts of the Capitoline [hill] through a sea of white togas. In their train, thousands of Jewish slaves shuffled with bowed heads while the heaps of plundered gold and silver bobbed above them, winking in the sun. “Last of all the spoils,” writes Josephus, “was carried a copy of the Jewish Law”—the Torah.

Josephus reveals exactly where these spoils ended up. Vespasian had a new temple—the Templum Pacis (Temple of Peace)—built adjacent to the Forum where “he laid up the vessels of gold from the temple of the Jews, on which he prided himself; but their Law and the purple hangings of the sanctuary he ordered to be deposited and kept in the palace.” The palace, in ancient Rome, meant the Palatine (the word palace derives from the hill’s name). . . .

Josephus notes that the Templum Pacis, built “very speedily in a style surpassing all human conception,” housed not only the spoils of Jerusalem but also “ancient masterpieces of painting and sculpture, . . . objects for the sight of which men had once wandered over the whole world.” . . .

IsraellyCool: How Terrorists Are Using Twitter to Incite Violence Against Israelis

So how does Hamas incite violence? Increasingly they’re using social media. In fact, the call for a “day of rage” prior to the two recent attacks came via the official Hamas Twitter accounts.

Most are shocked to learn that Hamas is allowed to use Twitter to advance their deadly agenda. After all, Hamas is a recognized terrorist entity in many jurisdictions, including Canada, the United States, the European Union, and Israel. And, quite rightly, other terrorist organizations, including Al Qaeda and ISIS, have been booted off the fourth-largest social media platform in the world.

But, when it comes to Hamas, Twitter has refused to act. This is somewhat confusing, considering the company’s own rules were updated in December to explicitly reference promotion of terrorism as unwelcome on the platform.

If Hamas’ status as a terrorist entity isn’t enough to be banned, surely their use of the platform to incite violence should be. But, despite more than two million impressions of the #GetHamasOffTwitter hashtag, Twitter has remained silent.

So, what’s to be done about this deadly problem? Well, experience has taught us that Twitter responds to public pressure. They’re quick to shut down hate speech when it goes viral – because they know it reflects poorly on them: following intervention from concerned citizens, the company stepped up to purge more than 300,000 accounts that supported the Islamic State.

We must keep up the pressure. You can join thousands of concerned members of the Jewish and pro-Israel community and do two things right now:
1. Add your name to a letter to Twitter at cija.ca/HamasTwitter
2. Tweet using the #GetHamasOffTwitter hashtag.

It’s only natural that we humans make sense of the world by placing things into categories. Action movies vs. comedies. The “Fruits and Vegetables food group vs. “Breads and Cereals.” Conservative vs. liberal.

Mental shortcuts that help us streamline our thinking are called “heuristics,” and while they can be an asset when trying to figure out the new and unexpected, they can also be a source of vulnerability, creating openings for those who understand heuristics to manipulate us.

Often such manipulation is innocent. For example, the “Four Food Groups” of my youth referenced in the first paragraph has been replaced by different structures over time, such as the “Food Pyramid” or “My Plate.” All of these were designed to accomplish a public good (getting Americans to eat a healthy, balanced diet) by tapping into the general human desire to make complex information simple through easy-to-grasp categorization.

More sinister manipulation takes place when communication, particularly political communication, takes advantage of heuristics-driven vulnerabilities in our mental makeup.

For example, the common practice of defining your opponent in a political campaign (by endlessly repeating he or she is a plutocrat or elitist – regardless of the subject allegedly being discussed) is an effort to get the public to make the quick and permanent association between the opposing candidate and the adjective chosen to define them (plutocrat, elitist, etc.). For once such an association is in place, appeals to understand the defined candidate as a complex human being become nearly impossible.

Similarly, an accusation that aligns with intuition (ideally delivered via a catchy slogan) is an easy way to get people to believe a crisis or problem exists, without having to do any research (or thinking) on their own. What is the scope and nature of America’s current problems vis-à-vis immigration, race relations and sexual harassment, for example? No need to think about the details if we simply embrace the #MAGA, #BlackLivesMatter or #MeToo hashtags thoughtfully provided to us by people we have never met.

In the realm of BDS, the most well-known example of manipulative, heuristics-based politics is the “Apartheid” slur which anti-Israel activists pepper spray at audiences, regardless of what topic is being debated. Some have even gone so far as to replace “Israel” (already in scare quotes) with “Apartheid Israel” in written communication. The point of such efforts is clear: to cement the idea that Israel is the successor to Apartheid South Africa in people’s minds to the point where no amount of factual information can shake that notion loose.

While there is always a certain contempt for the audience built into political activism based on simplification and manipulation, the communication accompanying last weekend’s clashes at the Gaza border raises this contempt to the level of a dare.

There has always been a certain amount of objective reality Israel-haters insist their allies reject, from the Jenin “massacre” that never was, to the notion that Israel deliberately targets civilians whenever Hamas or Hezbollah decide to heat up a border. But the storyline that poured forth from Hamas’ news sources, amplified by that organization’s Amen Corner in the West (that the clash was a peaceful protest fired upon indiscriminately by brutal Israeli soldiers), is so divorced from the information and images before our eyes that it can only be seen as testimony to the contempt Hamas has for not just the public, but for their own supporters.

For example, what would make an organization scream that everyone killed at the border was an innocent civilian, while also proudly announcing the death of martyrs associated with terrorist groups (along with photos of those martyrs clad in camo)?

To a certain extent, such behavior assumes propaganda storylines developed during previous clashes (ones featuring Israeli brutality visited exclusively upon Palestinian innocents) will take hold immediately once new violence breaks out. But it also assumes the public to be made up of unbelievably ignorant suckers, as well as assuming full ownership over the minds of friends and allies who are being asked to scream at the top of their lungs that 2 + 2 = 5.

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From The Toronto Sun:

All Munk School of global affairs graduate student Ari Blaff wanted to do last December was to meet a few professors over coffee to discuss pursuing a PhD with a focus on Middle Eastern studies.

The 24-year-old says he e-mailed a variety of University of Toronto (U of T) professors that specialize in that area and got receptive responses — except for the one from Jens Hanssen.

Hanssen, an associate professor of Middle Eastern and Mediterranean History in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, replied almost immediately with a scathing e-mail accusing Blaff of being an agent of the Israeli government.

He claimed that Blaff, a former Hasbara fellow, was sent to the U of T campus by the new Israeli ministry of Strategic Affairs and Public Diplomacy to indoctrinate students, professors and administrators into thinking anti-Israel activities are a bad thing.

“It was a little out there,” Blaff said of Hanssen’s response. “I never had accusations on paper like that.”

I wish I could say this was all a bad joke.

Jens Hanssen

However in Hanssen’s e-mail response to Blaff, he contends that Hasbara fellows are “Israeli advocacy activists” working on behalf of the ministry on a “new offensive against Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) activists” on campus.

BDS is a worldwide movement — which has found a home on many university campuses — that tries to delegitimize the Jewish state by pressuring artists not to perform in Israel and forcing boycotts of Israeli products, such as has been done with Ahava and SodaStream products here in Toronto.

As Robert Walker, Canadian Director of Hasbara Fellowships (a pro-Israel campus advocacy organization) notes, the “real danger” of the BDS movement is its attempt to demonize Israel and “anyone connected with Israel” — while having no interest in improving the lives of Palestinians.

“Our mandate is to empower pro-Israel students so they may tell the truth about Israel on campus and combat the senseless misinformation peddled by BDS activists,” Walker added.

The UofT professor, who has had a long history with the BDS and Israel apartheid movements on campus and off, even contended that a special “Hasbara handbook” has directed Blaff and other fellows on how to approach people on campus and “convince them that legitimate, non-violent criticism of the state of Israel amounts to discrimination against Jews everywhere.”

“You (sic) instructed to conflate Judaism and Zionism and are encouraged to give the impression that such criticism constitutes anti-Semitism,” he wrote.

Hanssen closed off his e-mail by adamantly refusing to meet the young man on “ethical and academic grounds.”

“I was shocked,” Blaff said. “If you were a first-year (pro-Israel or Jewish) university student speaking in his class or writing an essay I don’t think you’d get fair treatment … so this has broader implications.”

After being encouraged by friends, he filed a formal complaint with the Office of the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

I tried over several days to reach Hanssen for comment by e-mail and by phone. He did not respond to my numerous requests.

Hanssen teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on settler colonialism in Palestine; International Relations, counter-insurgency and decolonization in the Middle East; and urban colonialism in the modern Mediterranean.

I'm more troubled that "settler colonialism in Palestine" is considered a topic for college courses. The entire title is anti-Israel propaganda, not scholarship.

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04/02 Links Pt1: Myths and Facts: Gaza’s Deadly “Protests”; Fatah: "My rifle's fire is the death of the enemies and music to my ears"; US SC throws out $655m. terrorism ruling against PA

From Ian:

Honest Reporting: Myths and Facts: Gaza’s Deadly “Protests”

During the Passover weekend, some 30,000 Palestinians in Gaza approached the border with Israel and carried out a variety of violent activities in what they call the “Land Day Protests” or the “March of Return.”

We’ve seen quite a bit of mishandled coverage, so here are the main myths and facts so you can better understand the situation and also speak up when you see inaccurate or biased media.

Myth: This is a non-violent “protest” or a “march.”
Fact: It is none of the above.

Despite its official name, which has been widely repeated by the media, this is not a “protest” nor a “march” by any commonsense or dictionary understanding of the words.

Picturing something like a picket parade on Capitol Hill? Think again. From the beginning we saw significant violence which would not be tolerated by any country.

According to the IDF and multiple videos, the violence began with burning tires, slinging rocks, throwing molotov cocktails and other varieties of firebombs. The correct word for this type of activity is a “riot.”

The violence quickly escalated to live gunfire on the IDF. Firing on a country’s army is typically called an “act of war.”

Under the cover of live fire and the smokescreen from burning tires, armed terror organizations were attempting to breach the border and cross into Israel with weapons. That is called an “attempted infiltration.”

For proper context, it is tremendously important to imagine how the United States or any European state might respond to such violence on its borders, or direct gunfire on its army.

Terminology matters, and journalists should call these events what they are. The all too common headline, “Israeli forces kill 16 Palestinians in border protests,” communicates a very different understanding than the more accurate, “…killed in attempted infiltration of Israel,” or “…in confrontation with Israeli army.”

Myth: Israel is shooting innocent civilians.

Fact: Of the estimated 30,000 people present, as of this time of writing, 17 have been confirmed dead. Of those, at least 10 are confirmed as active fighters of Hamas, Global Jihad, or the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, all designated as terror organizations by the United States, the European Union, and others. (All 17 have been confirmed as young men of military age).

PMW: Fatah: "My rifle's fire is the death of the enemies and music to my ears"

Abbas to the UN: "We have been committed to fostering a culture of peace, rejection of violence"

Contradicting PA Chairman Abbas' assurances to international audiences that Palestinians want peace, his Fatah Movement continues to promote violence and terror as Palestinian ideals.

Fatah's Bethlehem branch posted the image above of two men wearing Arab headdresses shooting a machine gun as two Israeli aircraft explode in mid-air, with accompanying text rejoicing over "the death of the enemies":

Posted text: "Fatah was here"
Text on image: "O Fatah, this is my rifle in my hand hugging my ribs, and its fire is the death of the enemies and music to my ears"
[Facebook page of the Fatah Movement - Bethlehem Branch, March 22, 2018]

The violent essence of this post, like others Palestinian Media Watch has exposed, contradicts Abbas' recent assurances to the UN:
"Our conviction is deep and our position is clear regarding the use of arms of any kind. We... are also opposed to conventional weapons, which have caused such vast destruction of States in our region and around the world. We have thus been committed to fostering a culture of peace, rejection of violence..."
[PA Chairman Abbas' speech at the UN Security Council, Feb. 20, 2018, Times of Israel, Feb. 21. 2018]

Commenting on Abbas' speech, Palestinian political analyst Hani Abu Zaid recently stated on official PA TV that he believes Abbas' Fatah Movement will return to "armed struggle" - the PA's euphemism for violence and terror - unless the international peace conference Abbas called for is held:

Trump and the Fading Ghost of an Illusion

They believe they have three trump cards to play.

The first is that Iran has a demographic reserve of some 20 million people of "fighting age" and is thus capable of sustaining levels of casualties unthinkable for Americans. The second is that Iran is already the missile superpower of the Middle East and could target all of Washington's allies in the region.

Iran's third trump card is its nuclear program. Without it, the other two cards will not have the desired effect, especially if the US unleashes its new generation of low-grade nuclear weapons designed for battlefield use.

The real issue, as far as US and its allies are concerned, is that the regime in Iran has been, is and most likely will remain, a threat with or without nuclear weapons.

Iran did not seize the US diplomats as hostages with nuclear weapons; nor did it massacre 241 US Marines in Beirut with an atomic bomb. The mischief that Iran is making in Syria, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen and Bahrain is not backed by nuclear power either.

So the real question is: How to deal with a maverick power that has built its strategy on fomenting discord and instability not only in the Middle East but anywhere else it gets a chance?

Washington hawks, among them Bolton perhaps, believe that the only realistic policy towards Iran is one of regime change before the Khomeinists build their nuclear arsenal. They believe that could be achieved with a mixture of military and diplomatic pressure, combined with moral and material support for a pro-democracy movement in Iran.

The Europeans, however, fear that any attempt even at soft regime-change may push the Khomeinists on the offensive in Afghanistan, the Persian Gulf, Iraq, the Caucasus, Lebanon, and the Palestinian territories.

Could a realistic policy be developed through a sober assessment of both positions? If yes, that would requires far more sophistication than the "to waiver or not to waiver" debate over what is; in fact; the fading ghost of an accord wrought from dangerous illusions.

From Times of Israel:

A new British organization has created an incredible tool that should fascinate anyone remotely interested in European Jewish culture: an interactive map of all of the Continent’s 3,318 remaining synagogues.

The map catalogs the European synagogue buildings that are still standing — but less than a quarter of those are actually used as synagogues today.

For instance, one synagogue on the map in Poznan, Poland, today houses a swimming pool. Another in Krakow, Poland, is a bar.

But the map includes filters that allow readers to see which are still used as synagogues and which have been converted into a range of other things. A “present usage” drop down menu contains nearly three dozen different categories, ranging from “Bakery” to “Mosque” to “Sikh Gurdwara.”

Readers can also filter the synagogues by country. For example, they can isolate all of the historical synagogue buildings in Germany, then hit a filter and see which of those are actually being used as synagogues by German Jews.

That gap between then and now is particularly revealing in a country like Spain, which expelled all of its Jews during the Inquisition in the 15th century.

Readers can click on each individual synagogue and learn about the characteristics of each building, from the year it was built to its construction material.

The map was created by the Foundation for Jewish Heritage, which was registered in the United Kingdom in 2015 and aims to help preserve and restore endangered European synagogues. The organization commissioned the Center for Jewish Art at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem to carry out the project ahead of the foundation’s launch. It took a year and a half to complete.

Beyond providing researchers a first-time continental overview, it also aims to serve as a reference point for philanthropists, said the foundation’s chief executive, Michael Mail. The foundation identified some 160 synagogues in imminent risk of being ruined beyond the point of restoration.

“It allows for restoration efforts to become strategic,” Mail told JTA. “Donors can see where they are most needed.”

On the eve of World War II, Europe had some 17,000 synagogues. According to the foundation’s database, fewer than 850 remain throughout the continent and in Russia, which is included in the map.

“We are quite simply losing our history,” said Mail, who is also a novelist.

You can spend hours browsing the site and searching by criteria like which traditions the synagogues used for prayer. There is a decrepit abandoned synagogue in Azerbaijan that was built for converts to Judaism!

(h/t Yerushalimey)

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Photos of some of the "innocent civilians" in Gaza

Here are photos of some of the "civilians" killed in Gaza on Friday, as their deaths were condemned by the EU and France.

Musab al-Saloul (Hamas)

Jihad Ahmed Farina, Hamas field commander

Ahmed Ibrahim Abu Odeh (Hamas)

Sari Abu Walid Oudeh (Hamas)

Mohammed Abu Naeem Amr (Hamas)

Jihad Zuhair Abu Jamous Najjar (Al Aqsa Brigades)

Islamic Jihad's Al Quds Brigades Fares al Raqab

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Who is the human shield for whom? Pallywood strikes again

From the Palestine Info Center:

Forming a human shield, young Palestinian protesters protect young girl against Israeli snipers targeting peaceful protesters in besieged Gaza.

#GreatReturnMarch

Here's an example where the caption is Pallywood.

Given that every fatality during the violent riots at the Gaza border was a military-age male, the idea that these men are protecting the woman is quite far fetched. On the contrary - if anything, they are using the woman to shield themselves!

The other photos in the series show that there is no danger anyway, as the group passes by other people having what appears to be a picnic who have no fear of Israeli snipers whatsoever.

(h/t Andrew Pessin)

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04/01 Links: At least 10 of the 15 killed at Gaza border were terrorists; Netanyahu Fires Back: 'Who is Turkey calling an occupier?'

From Ian:

As IDF Thwarts Gun Attack on Gaza Border, Israel Warns That Palestinian ‘Return’ Protests Are ‘Cover for Terror’

The IDF warned on Friday that the Islamist terrorist organization Hamas was attempting to manipulate violent protests by Palestinians along Gaza’s border with Israel as a cover for terrorist attacks.

A spokesperson for the IDF said that earlier on Friday — as Israelis prepared for the Passover holiday — Israeli troops thwarted a gun attack by a terrorist cell in the northern Gaza Strip.

“During the attack, two terrorists approached the security fence and fired towards IDF troops,” the spokesperson said.

“In response, IDF troops immediately fired according to the rules of engagement, targeting the terrorists as well as three nearby terror sites belonging to the Hamas terrorist organization with tank fire and IAF fighter jets. No injuries were reported and no damage was caused,” the IDF spokesperson continued.

The attempted terrorist attack came at the close of a day of violent clashes between Palestinians — many of whom were carrying improvised weapons — and the IDF. Twelve Palestinians were killed in the exchanges.

Friday’s “March of Return” protest was held to coincide with “Land Day” — an annual protest advocating the “right of return” for the descendants of the Arab refugees of the 1948 War of Independence. Approximately 750,000 Arabs were displaced in that war, following the Arab League’s rejection of a UN proposal to divide British Mandatory Palestine into Arab and Jewish states.

According to Gaza officials, tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered at five locations along the 65-kilometer (40-mile) border with Israel on Friday. The Israeli military estimate was 30,000.

IDF: At least 10 of the 15 killed at Gaza border were members of terror groups

The Israeli military on Saturday night identified 10 of the 15 people reported killed during violent protests along the Gaza security fence as members of Palestinian terrorist groups, and published a list of their names and positions in the organizations.

On Friday, some 30,000 Palestinians took part in demonstrations along the Gaza border, during which rioters threw rocks and firebombs at Israeli troops on the other side of the fence, burned tires and scrap wood, sought to breach and damage the security fence, and in one case opened fire at Israeli soldiers.

The army said that its sharpshooters targeted only those taking explicit violent action against Israeli troops or trying to break through or damage the security fence. Video footage showed that in one case a rioter, whom the army included in its list of Hamas members, appeared to be shot while running away from the border. The army in response accused Hamas of editing and/or fabricating its videos.

According to the Israel Defense Forces (Arabic link), eight of the men killed were members of Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip. One served in the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, and another was affiliated with “global jihad,” it said, apparently referring to one of the Salafist groups in Gaza.

Earlier on Saturday, Hamas publicly acknowledged that five members of its military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, were among the fatalities.