Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, December 10, 2018

12/10 Links Pt1: Pregnant woman critically injured, six others hurt in WB shooting; Netanyahu slams PA incitement after ‘monstrous’ Ofra attack

From Ian:

Pregnant woman critically injured, six others hurt in West Bank shooting

A pregnant woman was left in critical condition and six others suffered moderate or light injures in a terror attack Sunday evening, when shots were fired from a passing car at a crowd of people waiting at a bus stop outside the Israeli West Bank settlement of Ofra.

The woman, 21, suffered wounds to her upper body and was rushed to Shaare Zedek Medical Center, in the capital, the Magen David Adom paramedic service said. The woman, who was said to be in the 30th-week of her pregnancy, was undergoing surgery at the hospital late Sunday.

A man, 21, with moderate wounds, was taken to the same hospital as were two others who had light injuries. Army Radio said the woman’s husband was among those lightly injured.

Another person, 22, with moderate injuries, and two 16-year-old girls with light injuries, were taken to Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem in the north of the capital, MDA said.

In security camera video of the shooting, posted to social media, a white car is seen slowing down near the bus stop, after which bullets can be seen striking the crowd who scramble for cover. The car, which comes to a stop for a few moments while the shooting apparently continues, then speeds off down the road as IDF soldiers are seen running to bus stop.

The car from which the shots were fired was believed to have at least two occupants.

The IDF launched a manhunt for the terrorists.

Israeli soldiers escort thousands of Jewish worshippers to Hebron’s Tomb of the Patriarchs holy site on December 10, 2018

Father of wounded pregnant woman: She opened her eyes

The father of Shira Ish-Ran, who was critically wounded in the shooting attack in Ofra last night, staying at her bedside at Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem.

In a conversation with reporters, he spoke about the condition of his daughter, who is still in serious condition, and of the baby who was delivered following the attack.

"We thank the Almighty that our son-in-law Amichai is recovering and is in relatively good condition. A miracle happened that he was shot with three bullets but is still in good condition," said the father, Chaim Silverstein.

"Our daughter Shira is still in intensive care. Her condition is steadily improving but is still serious. We got to go into the ICU for a few minutes. She kept an eye and a half on all the tubes that were going in and out.

"She was cried with excitement when she saw us. We had to leave because her pulse had risen too high.

"Our situation is improving, we pray and thank all of the people of Israel, people from all over the world turned to us and said they were praying for Shira and Amichai and the baby.

Condition of baby, delivered after mother shot in terror attack, deteriorates

The condition of a baby delivered after his mother was critically wounded in a shooting attack outside the West Bank settlement of Ofra on Sunday night has deteriorated, the hospital said Monday.

A pregnant woman was seriously injured by gunfire from a passing car as she waited, among a crowd of people, at a bus stop outside the settlement of Ofra on Sunday evening. Six other people were injured in the attack and the manhunt for the terrorists, who fled the scene, was ongoing.

The baby boy was delivered on Sunday night by Cesarean section in the 30th week of pregnancy, and was immediately transferred to the ward for premature babies at Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center, the hospital said.

Initially said to be in “stable” condition, the hospital said Monday the baby’s condition worsened and he was now hooked up to a ventilator and undergoing treatment in the neonatal intensive care unit.

From JPost:

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, one of 435 members of the incoming US House of Representatives, said on Monday that members of her family were Sephardim who were forced to flee to Puerto Rico during the Spanish Inquisition.

Ocasio-Cortez was speaking at an event marking the eighth and final night of Hanukkah, at a gathering held with the Jews for Racial and Economic Justice. She thanked the organization on a social media account for assembling the festivities.

“So many of our destinies are tied beyond our understanding,” Ocasio-Cortez said regarding her family lineage.

“A very long time ago, generations and generations ago, my family consisted of Sephardi... Jews.”

Ocasio-Cortez told the audience of her family’s struggles as Sephardim, and how they were forced to flee into the mountains of Puerto Rico during the Spanish Inquisition and practice Catholicism as a front to escape antisemitic oppression.

“During the Spanish Inquisition... so many people were forced to convert on the exterior to Catholicism, but on the interior continued to practice their faith,” the newly elected New York congresswoman told the crowd.

At Hanukkah event with @JFREJNYC in an moving speech, @Ocasio2018 shares that her family were Sephardic Jews who fled to Puerto Rico. “So many of our destinies are tied beyond our understanding” pic.twitter.com/68bjuCFnDD
— Taly Krupkin (@TalyKrupkin) December 10, 2018

She is already trying to walk back this ridiculous assertion, which if true she would have revealed during her campaign:

Before everyone jumps one me - yes, culture isn’t DNA.

But to be Puerto Rican is to be the descendant of:
African Moors + slaves,
Taino Indians,
Spanish colonizers,
Jewish refugees,
and likely others.

We are all of these things and something else all at once - we are Boricua. https://t.co/IFC4mwAjor
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Ocasio2018) December 10, 2018

If anything, the stories of our ancestry give us windows of opportunity to lean into others, to seek them out, and see ourselves, our histories, and our futures, tightly knit with other communities in a way we perhaps never before thought possible.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Ocasio2018) December 10, 2018

Essentially, she's saying that since she is Puerto Rican, she must have some Jewish blood. But that doesn't jive with her story she said yesterday, saying as fact that her family specifically " were forced to flee into the mountains of Puerto Rico during the Spanish Inquisition and practice Catholicism as a front to escape antisemitic oppression."

That is like someone who is 1/1024th black claiming to be oppressed as a slave.

It is all appearances. Facts don't matter to those who attempt to be the winners in the Oppression Olympics.

While it is possible that she does have some Jewish blood, it is nothing but politics for her to identify at this point in her life for the first time as partially Jewish. If she never identified as such, she doesn't get "oppression points" for her suppose ancestors to have fled to the mountains of Puerto Rico.

UPDATE: I am told by an expert that Hispanics in the New World can often find that their DNA is between 10-20% Sephardic Jewish and many can trace their family lineage back to 1492. I still don't believe that this revelation gives Ocasio-Cortez the sudden right to identify as Jewish when her family apparently did not know this for generations.

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From the left and the right: Highlights of startling new European antisemitism study

A new report on European antisemitism shows that the problem is pervasive - and not in the least confined to being coming from the far right.

The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights surveyed 16,000 Jews throughout the continent and found:

The survey findings suggest that people face so much antisemitic abuse that some of the incidents they experience appear trivial to them. But any antisemitic incident is at its core an attack on a person’s dignity and cannot be brushed away as a mere inconvenience. Both the 2012 and 2018 surveys show that respondents report very few experienced incidents of antisemitism to the police or other institution. A comparison of the two surveys’ results shows that the categories of perpetrators of antisemitic harassment remain consistent, with certain categories of individuals consistently over-represented as perpetrators.

The most frequently mentioned categories of perpetrators of the most serious incident of antisemitic harassment experienced by the respondents include someone they did not know (31 %); someone with an extremist Muslim view (30 %); someone with a left-wing political view (21 %); a colleague from work or school/college (16 %); an acquaintance or friend (15 %); and someone with a right-wing political view (13 %).

That is only one of the troubling findings - European Jews are not feeling safe anywhere, because they can encounter antisemitism in all areas of their life - on the street, at work, at school, at social events, online.

Here are some other highlights of the report:

It is impossible to put a number on how corrosive such everyday realities can be. But a shocking statistic sends a clear message: in the past five years, across twelve EU Member States where Jews have been living for centuries, more than one third say that they consider emigrating because they no longer feel safe as Jews.

The survey findings suggest that antisemitism pervades the public sphere, reproducing and engraining negative stereotypes about Jews. Simply being Jewish increases people’s likelihood of being faced with a sustained stream of abuse expressed in different forms, wherever they go, whatever they read and with whomever they engage. A comparison of the 2012 and 2018 surveys shows that the perception among respondents that antisemitism is a worsening problem in the country where they live is growing.

Overall, nine in 10 (89 %) respondents in the 2018 survey feel that antisemitism increased in their country in the five years before the survey; more than eight in 10 (85 %) consider it to be a serious problem. Respondents tend to rate antisemitism as the biggest social or political problem where they live. They assess antisemitism as being most problematic on the internet and on social media (89 %), followed by public spaces (73 %), media (71 %) and in political life (70 %). The most common antisemitic statements they come across – and on a regular basis – include that “Israelis behave like Nazis toward Palestinians” (51 %), that “Jews have too much power” (43 %) and that “Jews exploit Holocaust victimhood for their own purposes” (35 %). Respondents most commonly come across such statements online (80 %), followed by media other than the internet (56 %) and at political events (48 %).

..Findings from the 2018 survey show that hundreds of respondents personally experienced an antisemitic physical attack in the 12 months preceding the survey. More than one in four (28 %) of all respondents experienced antisemitic harassment at least once during that period. Those who wear, carry or display items in public that could identify them as Jewish are subject to more antisemitic harassment (37 %) than those who do not (21 %).

One in five (20 %) respondents know family members or other people close to them who were verbally insulted, harassed or physically attacked. Nearly half of the respondents worried about being subjected to antisemitic verbal insults or harassment (47 %), and four in 10 worried about an antisemitic physical attack (40 %). One in three (34 %) respondents avoid visiting Jewish events or sites because they do not feel safe as Jews when there or on their way there. More than one third considered emigrating (38 %) in the five years preceding the survey because they did not feel safe as Jews in the country where they live.

More than half of the respondents (54 %) positively assess their national governments’ efforts to ensure the security needs of the Jewish communities. But seven in 10 (70 %) believe that the government in their country does not combat antisemitism effectively.

Sustained encounters with antisemitism severely limit people’s enjoyment of their fundamental rights, including the protection of their human dignity, the right to respect for their private and family life, or their freedom of thought, conscience and religion. It is encouraging that many Jews believe that their government does enough to meet the protection needs of their communities. However, the very fact that special security measures – for example, around synagogues, Jewish community centres and schools – are required on a more or less permanent basis to ensure the safety of Jewish communities points to a persisting and deeper societal malaise. Member States need to be steadfast in their commitment to meet the protection needs of Jewish communities.

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BDS is so moral! (ElderToons)

From Times of Israel:

A Pink Floyd cover band has canceled scheduled appearances in Israel amid a storm of harassment and mounting pressure from boycott activists that followed a call from the original band’s co-founder Roger Waters for the musicians to refrain from performing in a “racist” country.

The UK Pink Floyd Experience had been slated to play in Tel Aviv, Haifa and Beersheba at the beginning of January. But in an announcement on their Facebook page Saturday the band said it was canceling the performances.

The shows’ organizers, EGOeast Productions, said in a statement that the band had pulled out after a wave of boycott Israel activism “which reached a high with the publication of the band members phone numbers, who began to be harassed until they were forced to cancel the service of their devices.”

My comment:

Many if not most of the artists who announce plans to play in Israel and then withdraw do so because of harassment of the type mentioned here, including death threats and "doxxing."

If BDS was so confident of the morality of its cause, it wouldn't need to use such tactics. But whether the threats are organized by the BDS movement or are done by overzealous supporters, the BDS Movement has to the best of my knowledge never discouraged people from sending death threats and harassment campaigns to artists who want to play in Israel.

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Turkish Muslims concerned over Jewish symbols in popular TV series

A Turkish TV series is raising eyebrows in the Muslim world because of the incidental placement of Jewish symbols in the series, unexplained.

A mezuzah and a depiction of a menorah are causing concern:

Judaism has nothing to do with the series, and the eagle eyed Muslims noted that no one kissed the mezuzah. It is possible, they believe, that the producers simply borrowed a Jewish owned house for the filming.

But the fact that the menorah was shown during Chanukah - coupled with the fact that Tayyip Erdogan wished Turkish Jews a happy Chanukah - is creating conspiracy theories.

"As representatives of a culture that derives its richness from its diversity, we congratulate ourselves and all the Jews, especially the Jews of Turkey, on the occasion of the Hanukkah Festival, based on our desire to continue the climate of love and mutual respect in the future," Erdogan said on Twitter.

"We attach absolute importance to the freedom of religion and belief and to the peaceful coexistence of our citizens in this country and the exercise of their culture, religious rituals and customs without discrimination on the basis of race or religion. As representatives of a culture that derives its richness from its diversity, we congratulate all the Jews, especially the Jews of Turkey, on the occasion of the Hanukkah Festival, based on our desire to continue the climate of love and mutual respect in the future," Erdogan said on Twitter.

The article in Zaman admits that anti-Jewish sentiments are the usual fare in Turkish media, and between Erdogan's message and the incidental view of Jewish symbols in the series, people are wondering if Turkey really is starting to love Jews.

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Chanukah video night 8: TeamMate "Best Chanukah Ever" (Official Lyric Video)

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12/09 Links: Fatah "sends love" to Martyr bomb maker; Phillips: The fraud of American Jews' 'Tikkun Olam'; Father of Murdered Arab Who Sold Land to Jews Also Killed for Same ‘Crime’

From Ian:

PMW: Fatah "sends love" to Martyr bomb maker

Shadia Abu Ghazaleh was active in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terror organization, building bombs and participating in terror attacks against Israel. While she was preparing a bomb for an attack in Tel Aviv in 1968, it accidentally detonated and killed her.

Abbas' Fatah Movement sent Abu Ghazaleh the movement's "love" and called her a "heroine." Marking the 50th anniversary of her death, Fatah stated that she is among those who "guide our path," and honored her for being an "uncompromising and merciful young woman, who sacrificed herself for her great family":

Fatah's posted text: "Shadia took part in a bombing operation of an Israeli bus, and also took part in and even led a number of military operations. However, fate desired that when our heroine was at her home preparing a bomb to detonate on the occupation in Tal Al-Rabia (i.e., Tel Aviv, see note below) it blew up in her hands and she died as a Martyr (Shahida)...
Today we send all of our love to Shadia - who would repeat: 'If I fall, take my place, my comrade in the struggle' ... She and those like her guide our path... who sacrificed herself for her great family at the expense of the childhood dreams that were within her, in order to tell us: 'Continue.'" [Official Fatah Facebook page, Nov. 29, 2018]

In honoring the terrorist bomb maker, Fatah is following the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Education, who thinks so highly of Abu Ghazaleh that it has named 2 schools after her.

Palestinian Media Watch has documented that young girls who studied in one of the schools named after Abu Ghazaleh viewed her as their role model:

Today rioting in France amid larger protests led to worst violence since 1968, in 4th weekend of clashes:
35 wounded
974 in custody
1385 taken in for questioning@UNHumanRights reaction:
0 resolutions
0 press releases
0 condemnations
0 emergency sessions
0 commissions of inquiry
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) December 9, 2018

.@SaadHariri, cancelled his visit to Paris because of the #YellowVest riots & calls the security situation in Paris dangerous. What about the security situation in Lebanon where the terrorist organization Hezbollah digs attack tunnels into Israel? #CondemnTheTunnels https://t.co/6C7Z4Bwfwm
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) December 9, 2018

Bonus Chanukah video: New York Boys Choir - "Spin That Dreidel" (feat. Avremi G.)

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Hamas 31st anniversary rally underwhelming, with more kids than adults attending

The Hamas-oriented Palestine Times website has a photo essay on the rally in celebration of the 31dt anniversary of Hamas.

The photos show a very small rally - but with lots of children.

In the past, Hamas rallies would attract thousands. Not sure if this was misrepresented here or if it shows a real lessening of Hamas influence in Gaza.

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This piece of Palestinian street theater is being shared on social media as if it is really a video of IDF soldiers running in fear of a flag.

IDF soldiers, of course, don't look like this (look at their footwear, for example)

This is reminiscent of a photo that went viral in 2012 supposedly showing an IDF soldier stepping on a Palestinian girl. In reality it was also street theater, done in Bahrain,

The idea of the cowardly Jew is one of the more consistent pieces of antisemitism in Arabic media.

(h/t Petra)

________________________

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12/08 Links: UNIFIL and the Hezbollah Tunnels; Bethany Mandel: Trump’s Hanukkah Party Reminded Me Why America Is Great For Jews; NYTs columnist defends anti-Zionism

From Ian:

Elliott Abrams: UNIFIL and the Hezbollah Tunnels

UNIFIL is not supposed to be merely a means of communication, or the Security Council would have bought cell phones instead of paying for a military force. Moreover, there are no "appropriate authorities" in Lebanon or Hezbollah would never have been able to dig its tunnels.

The tunnels are hardly the only brazen Hezbollah violation of the Security Council resolutions undertaken right under UNIFIL's nose. Consider this: Hezbollah is blocking roads in southern Lebanon to smooth the path of missile it is moving into the area, according to a report in the newspaper Israel Hayom. Then there is the village of Gila, just north of the Israeli border, where there is a Hezbollah headquarters and according to the Israelis about 20 warehouses with weapons, combat positions, lookout positions, dozens of underground positions. All this was built in an area supposedly patrolled by UNIFIL.

What is to be done? As I wrote in a previous post about UNIFIL and its new commander,
Del Col should test the limits. That will make Hezbollah angry, but if Hezbollah isn’t vexed by UNIFIL's presence then we are all wasting a lot of money--$500 million a year is the UNIFIL budget—and effort supporting that organization and making believe that it is enforcing resolution 1701.

This is a test of UNIFIL and its new commander. "Communicating" to "appropriate authorities" is a euphemism for doing nothing at all. Hezbollah is preparing for war. UNIFIL is supposed to get in its way. If it cannot hinder Hezbollah's war preparations in any way and is even ignorant of them, UNIFIL is a waste of time and money.

In rain and mud, IDF exposes another tunnel from Lebanon into Israel

The Israeli military on Saturday located an additional cross-border attack tunnel from southern Lebanon into Israeli territory that it says was dug into the Hezbollah attack tunnel — the second it has fully exposed and the third it has identified since the start of its operation to find and destroy such underground passages.

This fresh tunnel, whose location has been kept secret for security reasons, has been fitted with explosives in order to ensure that it cannot be used by the Iran-backed terror group Hezbollah, army spokesperson Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus told reporters.

According to the spokesman, excavation of the tunnel was being conducted until recently.

“It’s a fresh tunnel,” he said.

The military did not offer additional details regarding the size of the tunnel.

Conricus said Saturday’s tunnel, as with the others identified by Israel until now, was “not yet operational and does not yet pose an imminent threat to the surrounding Israeli communities.”

IDF fires toward 3 suspected Hezbollah fighters who approach border

Israeli soldiers on Saturday opened fire at three suspected Hezbollah fighters on the Israeli-Lebanese border, the army said.

A military spokeswoman said the incident took place close to Yiftah, south of Metula, a town near which a tunnel from Lebanon was found.

The military said the three men attempted to approach an “area of technological work” in an enclave north of the security fence, as the IDF continues Operation Northern Shield to destroy Hezbollah attack tunnels dug under the border.

The army said it believed the three attempted to use the cover of stormy weather to approach the Israeli forces. Troops fired towards the three “in accordance with the standard operating procedures” and they fled the scene. “Work in the area continues as usual,” it said.

Lebanon’s official NNA news agency said Israeli forces fired shots in the air east of the village of Mays Al-Jabal after they were surprised because of heavy fog by a routine Lebanese army patrol.

Israel using ‘passive seismic’ technology to expose Hezbollah’s attack tunnels

The Israeli army on Friday revealed that it has been using “passive seismic” technology to locate the attack tunnels Hezbollah has been digging under the border into Israel.

The IDF this week launched an ongoing operation to locate and destroy the tunnels, and has so far announced that two have been identified. On Tuesday, it released footage from inside the first of the two, with alleged Hezbollah members still inside, and on Thursday asked UNIFIL, the UN force in Lebanon, to deal with the second.

The IDF’s Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot announced Tuesday that Israel has “in its possession” Hezbollah’s tunnel plans. Military sources have said Israel believes several other cross-border tunnels have yet to be exposed.

An officer in the IDF’s Engineering Corps, Col. Ziv Nimni, told Israel’s Hadashot TV news Friday that the IDF, aware for years of Hezbollah’s tunnel ambitions, utilizes “passive seismic technology” throughout the northern border area in order to locate the tunnels.

The technology enables the IDF to identify where tunnel drilling is taking place — not only in limited, specific areas, but throughout the Israel-Lebanon border area, he said.

The sensors in the ground relay information to sensors at the border fence, as well as to receptors in patrol vehicles along the border, Nimni added.

He said locating and dealing with the tunnels “could take weeks or longer,” but that the IDF was operating as quickly as possible.

Chanukah video night 7: Sruli & Netanel - Chanukah Pop Medley

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12/07 Link Pt2: The ‘Hyper-Whitening’ of the Jews; Video Appears to Show Marc Lamont Hill Accusing Israel of Poisoning Palestinian Water; The BDS Movement, Where the Anti-Semites Find Room to Flourish

From Ian:

The ‘Hyper-Whitening’ of the Jews

At the Forward, Ari Feldman reflects on whether or not recent attacks against Jews in Brooklyn are the result of anti-Semitism. The article is gaining a bit of attention because of its nonsensical premise and because of a few choice quotes. He cites a local salesman as saying, “It’s less of an anti-Semitic thing than they needed a target to respond to this word: gentrification.” And he quotes someone named Mark Winston Griffith from the Black Movement Center, who says that may be the result black people’s seeing Judaism as “a form of almost hyper-whiteness.”

To reject these explanations as preposterous and offensive is, of course, righteous. But to do that alone is to miss something critical. Considering these claims at face value is important. Not because they have merit, but because they show precisely how anti-Semitism works and what it is.

The Jew is hated as whatever the anti-Semite holds responsible for his own misfortune. If you’re a capitalist, the Jew is a Communist; if you’re a Communist, the Jew is a capitalist. If you’re a pacifist, the Jew is a warmonger. If you’re a warrior, the Jew is a coward. Depending on your circumstance, the Jew can be grimy or snobbish, rootless or nationalist, invader or separatist. And if 100 years ago, American bigots saw Jews as Asiatic cross-breeds, today bigots see them as “hyper-white.” If you want to know what a culture considers most problematic, look at its brand of anti-Semitism. When you have headlines about “white privilege” and “evil white men,” Jews become the epitome of whiteness—except, of course, for neo-Nazis, who see Jews as hyper-integrationists.

No one explained it better than Ruth Wisse in the 2010 issue of COMMENTARY:
Anti-Semitism works through the strategy of the pointing finger. Through political prestidigitation, the accuser draws attention away from his own sins—in the case of Arab leaders, the systematic oppression and immiseration of their own people—by pointing to the Jews, whose demonically inflated image and luridly portrayed wickedness make them a plausible explanation for whatever ails his regime. The pointing finger keeps negative attention focused on the Jews—or Israelis—and the latter, as often as not, obligingly fall into the trap by accepting responsibility for a situation they cannot control. In politics as before the law, whoever points the finger is the plaintiff, and whoever stands in the dock is the defendant. Unless they were to file a countersuit, simply answering to the charge of which they stood accused placed the Jews under the constant obligation of defending their innocence.

America’s Jewish left endorses anti-Jewish discrimination

In the view of these five groups, every inch of Judea and Samaria is “Palestinian land,” and any Jew who lives there is an “usurper” who deserves to be boycotted, treated as a pariah, and eventually driven out.

Obviously if Jewish leftwing groups choose to support anti-Jewish discrimination—by boycotting only Jewish settlements and not Arab ones—that is their right according the U.S. Constitution. And if these groups want to advocate that every inch of Judea and Samaria is “usurped Palestinian land,” that, too, is their right.

But that does not mean the organized American Jewish community has to treat such racist positions as legitimate.

The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organization overwhelmingly rejected J Street’s application for membership several years ago. That was a wise move. Jewish umbrella groups that have relationships with the New Israel Fund and the other members of the Gang of Five should reconsider whether they want to maintain those relationships.

Partners for Progressive Israel (PPI), for example, is a member of the American Zionist Movement. It’s fair to ask whether PPI’s support for discrimination against Israeli Jews is consistent with the AZM’s declared mission is “ to strengthen the connection of American Jews with Israel; develop their appreciation of the centrality of Israel to Jewish life worldwide; deepen their understanding of Israeli society and the challenges it faces; encourage travel, long-term visits and Aliyah to Israel; and to facilitate dialogue, debate and collective action to further Zionism in the United States and abroad.”

Is advocating discrimination against Jews in Judea-Samaria consistent with the AZM’s mission statement?

Gerald Steinberg: Human Rights Day nothing to celebrate

International Human Rights Day – commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Genocide Conventions on December 10, 1948 – is marked every year in the United Nations and by other organizations claiming to carry out its noble principles. But in stark contrast to the self-congratulation and high-sounding rhetoric that characterize these events, the reality makes a particularly desolate picture.

If anything, this day is a timely reminder of the failures of the institutions that were created after the horrors of the Nazi Holocaust to protect and defend human rights. Indeed, 2018 was another dismal year, and there is little to celebrate. The massive government bureaucracies and millions provided to groups such as Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International did nothing to prevent the carnage in Syria that destroyed millions of lives. And the triumph of the Assad-Russia-Iran-Hezbollah coalition offers no hope for the future. In Venezuela, the tyranny of oppression and repression continues, and hopes that after the death of Hugo Chavez the situation would improve have been dashed.

Ignoring most of the victims around the world, the agenda of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva continues to be controlled by some of the worst violators, including Cuba, Russia, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia (a major offender long before the murder of Jamal Khashoggi), Egypt and China. The member-states and UN officials they appoint routinely exploit the rhetoric of international law to deflect attention from their own behavior, and obsessively target Israel. Syrian and Iranian diplomats take the floor to make poisonous accusations against Israel, while their governments make genocidal threats that turn the 1948 declaration into a mockery.

This year, the council voted to again conduct a pseudo-investigation of Israel, this time over the claims of excessive force and war crimes during the Hamas-orchestrated violent “Grand Return March” incidents along the Gaza border with Israel. Like the infamous (and eventually discredited) Goldstone Report published in 2009, the one-sided results of this version were decided before the commission members were named. For these reasons and more, US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley declared “the Human Rights Council is the United Nations’ greatest failure.” After all efforts to enact reforms were rejected, the US suspended its membership, further diminishing the council’s legitimacy.

Chanukah video night 6: Y-Studs - Don't Stop Me Now: A Queen Hanukkah

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12/07 Link Pt1: The joke of Palestinian ‘democracy’; Nikki Haley: Does the UN Accept Terrorism Directed at Israel?; Europeans Are Realizing Trump Was Right About Iran

From Ian:

U.S. Fears Iran Planning ‘Massive Regional War’ in Middle East

The Trump administration disclosed that Iran is behind the construction of several underground tunnels leading into Israel that Hezbollah militants and other terror forces have been using to conduct attacks, according to multiple U.S. officials who spoke to the Washington Free Beacon and communicated fears that Tehran is preparing to lead a "massive regional war."

The public identification of Iran isn't likely to surprise international observers, but signals aggressive moves by the Trump administration to tie Iran to the rise of terrorism not just in Israel, but across the Middle East, where Iranian-backed militants continue to strike U.S. interests and allies.

The Obama administration, in contrast to Trump, was careful to avoid singling out Iran as the chief force for terrorism against Israel and U.S. allies in the region in hopes of appeasing the hardline regime as it sought to ink the landmark nuclear pact that Trump abandoned earlier this year.

Senior U.S. officials familiar with Israel's discovery of these new tunnels—a tactic long used by Hezbollah and Hamas to conduct cross-border raids against Israeli civilians and military personnel—say they mark a massive escalation by Iran's terror proxies.

The Israeli military conducted operations to destroy the tunnels earlier this week, shortly after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo held a one-on-one meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the sidelines of a NATO meeting in Brussels.

The timing of Israel's military operations signal a deep coordination with the Trump administration, which told the Free Beacon the United States will stand side-by-side with the Jewish state as it works to thwart Iran's terror enterprise.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) said the tunnels show Iran used money from sanctions lifted under the Obama administration for military purposes.

"Senator Cruz has been tracking the Israeli campaign against these attack tunnels closely, and every day brings new disturbing revelations," said a spokesperson for Cruz. "It's now clear that Iran used its windfall from the Obama Iran nuclear deal to arm Hezbollah for an all-out war against Israel, and that the United States must do more to undo the damage of that deal. Sen. Cruz has also been unequivocal that our Israeli allies have an absolute right to defend themselves, especially against threats and violations of their sovereignty like these attack tunnels."

The joke of Palestinian ‘democracy’

In a recent Conflict Zone interview, acclaimed journalist Tim Sebastian grilled veteran Palestinian Authority negotiator Saeb Erekat. While Erekat may not remember the interview as his finest hour, it could—and should have—been much worse had Sebastian pointed out a number of ludicrous statements that Erekat made.

During the interview, Erekat argued that the Palestinian Authority is “a true democracy,” that Mahmoud Abbas “won 62 percent of the vote” in the 2005 elections for head of the P.A., and that “Hamas carried out a coup d’état in Gaza” in 2007.

Closer examination of these claims shows their inherent contradictions.

While Abbas did indeed win 62 percent of the 2005 vote to be elected head of the P.A. (i.e., the Palestinian President), Erekat “forgot” that according to P.A. law, the chairman of the P.A. is elected to a four-year term. Since Abbas is about to start his 14th year of that four-year term, it is irrelevant to point to the level of Abbas’s support in order to substantiate the claim that the P.A. is a “true democracy.”

When examining Erekat’s claim about the Hamas “coup d’état” in the Gaza Strip, Erekat again “forgot” that Hamas won 74 seats of the 132 seat Palestinian Legislative Council in the last P.A. general elections held 13 years ago. Hamas therefore formed the legitimate P.A. government. As a result of immense international pressure threatening to cut off a vast amount of aid to the P.A., it was Abbas who deposed the democratically elected Hamas terrorist organization.

Accordingly, when Hamas violently seized control of the Gaza Strip from Abbas’s so-called “technocrat government” in the summer of 2007, Hamas was simply reasserting the mandate that it had been granted by the Palestinian population in democratic elections—control which had temporarily been usurped by Abbas.

Exclusive: My year in the Palestinian Authority territories

“My first book appeared in 2000 and discussed Israel’s internal conflicts regarding the state’s identity. The Dutch title translates into English as 'A People that Dwells Alone.' I published my next book in 2007 which deals with the divisions between Christians in Israel. The title translates as 'Holy Quarrels'.”

Els van Diggele was born in 1967 in the Dutch village of Warmond. After her history studies at Leiden University she followed a postdoctoral journalism course at Rotterdam’s Erasmus University.

“I wanted to complete a trilogy by writing about the Palestinian Arabs. I resided in the Palestinian Authority region, carefully looking for people who would dare to tell the truth. Otherwise I would only hear: ‘Everything is fine. The Israeli occupation is the problem.’

“My first insight occurred when a Palestinian Arab asked me: ‘Do you write about our occupation? We are occupied by our leaders. The Palestinian occupation starts in our family with our father and uncles. Afterwards we are occupied by our boss and our leaders. The individual does not exist.’ He added: ‘That is our greatest real problem and explains our society’s stagnation.’

“I lived for a year in the Palestinian Authority territories. I did not register as a journalist with the authorities. I was not hindered by the authorities in any way, though there have been people who suspected me of being a spy.

“In Gaza I also did not encounter any hindrance. Interviewing there was even easier than in the 'West Bank.' In Gaza people are also fearful and society is very hierarchical. Yet the people were more open, perhaps because they are poorer and more desperate. It became clear to me that there is no historical unity between the 'West Bank' and the Gaza Strip. It is as if living in different worlds.