This was posted to Reddit by one of its moderators, DomitiusOfMassilia
It has come to my attention over the past month that multiple posts and links have been automatically removed without the consent of this sub's moderators or the users themselves. I was able to piece together that Reddit introduced a "Tier" system for removing posts. Due to the significant lack of transparency and guidelines on Reddit's part, I have been forced to construct a series of lists that include sites that fall afoul of Reddit's Tier system.
To the best of my ability the Tier system is supposed to operate as follows:
Tier 1 - Sites whose posts and links are not removed. Tier 2 - Sites whose posts and links are removed randomly, but are approvable by moderators Tier 3 - Sites whose posts and links are always removed, but are approvable by the moderators Tier 4 - Sites whose posts and links are always removed, but are unapprovable by moderators Tier 5 - Sites whose posts and links are always removed, are unapprovable by moderators, and will not even finish the submission process. ... Posts approvable, links approvable (Grey List - Tier 3)
Go Fund Me Pikabu.ru The Post Millennial Anime Right News ElderofZiyon.blogspot.com Mega.nz
The entire list of known banned or partially banned sites is small and bizarre. There does not seem to be any logic to it, but I have been told on other occasions that posts that link to me have been shadowbanned on Reddit.
Reddit is supposedly about free speech and giving voices to those who have no other means, and it even hosts kiddie porn sections. If someone made a decision to ban EoZ, it is purely for political purposes.
Reddit is ranked as the # 5 most visited website in U.S. and #13 in the world, Being banned from Reddit is a big deal.
If you use Reddit and post my stuff, check to see if it is really posted and complain to the appropriate moderator if not. Hopefully after enough complaints this can get fixed.
Thanks!
(h/t C.)
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Every month, the official PA news agency Wafa publishes a list of what it calls "incitement and racism in the Israeli media" as a way to counteract the work of organizations like MEMRI, Palestinian Media Watch and this blog which publicize the most hateful and insane things published in Arabic language media about Jews and Israel.
Apparently, they consider anything that accurately describes history as "incitement and racism."
19 years have passed since the Camp David Conference, where former Prime Minister Ehud Barak agreed to give up Judea and Samaria, Gaza and East Jerusalem, including the division of the Old City. It was supposed to be the culmination of the Oslo process: a promise of a permanent peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, and the solemn end of the mask of Arab claims and claims against Israel. Barak was eager to sign an agreement that would save his short and tumultuous career as prime minister, for the price of a swift liquidation sale to Israel's national and security assets.
The unprecedented concession soon led to the second intifada; A war of terror throughout the country that has cost the lives of more than a thousand people. Instead of accepting the generous offer, Palestinian Authority chairman Arafat embarked on the war; just like his predecessors in 1947, following a UN resolution on the establishment of two states, Arab and Jewish, in ridiculous proportions, and without Jerusalem. The leadership of the Yishuv then said "yes", because for them it was progress. The Arabs started the war then as well, to evade, as usual, a positive response.
Is accuracy "incitement?"We know that Arafat was involved in the second intifada - paying the Fatah Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades for terrorist activity, and being behind the Karine A weapons ship to smuggle in 50 tons of arms including rockets, for example. In an honor/shame culture, indeed it is - because the Palestinians know that they look bad for refusing peace and the reminders make them feel shame.
The strange thing is that Haetzni says far more inflammatory things later on, like a quote I've never heard before from early PLO leader Ahmed Shukairy, who was well known to have said the Arabs would throw the Jews into the sea, but Haetzni also quotes him as saying "The men to the sea, the women for us."
I cannot find any source for that quote. But the fact that the PA considers only the first two paragraphs to be incitement and not the blatantly offensive alleged quote from Shukairy tells you a lot about their own moral system.
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A confidential internal report from the UN's Palestinian refugee agency's ethics office has detailed alleged abuses of authority among the organisation's senior management team.
With input from dozens of current and former staff, the 10-page document cites "credible and corroborated reports" that members of an "inner circle" at the top of UNRWA have engaged in "abuses of authority for personal gain, to suppress legitimate dissent and to otherwise achieve their personal objectives".
Part of the report says that UNRWA chief Pierre Krahenbuhl took a "particular interest" in Maria Mohammedi, a former actress whom he quickly promoted to the role of his senior adviser and took on lots of paid vacations, in business class, pretending it was necessary for both of them to fly around the world for 28-29 days a month (expenses charged to UNRWA, of course.)
I found the one starring vehicle for Mohammedi, a 2013 "Made in Palestine" film called "Condom Lead." The plot for the 15 minute film is thin: a couple can't get intimate because of bombs outside their apartment. Every time their lovemaking is interrupted, the husband blows up a condom as a balloon.
Here it is:
While there is no dialogue, the "Made in Palestine" and the title which evokes the 2009 Operation Cast Lead makes it clear that this is an anti-Israel movie and not a generalized anti-war movie. The subtext is that Israelis are so evil that attractive Gaza couples can't even enjoy sex because of the Zionist bombs meant to disrupt all aspects of life.
The pacing of the film is excruciatingly slow. You can use the YouTube controls to watch the film at double speed and you will not miss a moment, saving you a precious 7.5 minutes.
It is a great example of how Palestinian filmmakers use film festivals to spread anti-Israel propaganda in a subtle but unmistakable way.
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It’s not European. And it doesn’t divide into right and left, religious and secular. Matti Friedman, author of a new book about Mizrahi spies, on why Israel baffles and infuriates
Israel is in the Middle East.
That may sound like one of the more banal opening sentences to an article, but it’s a fact, argues Matti Friedman, that seems to continually elude many commentators and critics of Israel, many Diaspora Jews who pronounce themselves baffled by some of Israel’s actions and policies, and, indeed, many Israelis themselves.
Friedman, 41, is an acclaimed Canadian-born Israeli author (“The Aleppo Codex,” “Pumpkinflowers”) who recently published a most unusual book, “Spies of No Country,” about Israeli espionage at the time of the state’s founding — unusual in that its protagonists are Israelis born in the Arab world who ventured back there, into what was at once familiar and highly dangerous territory, in the service of the nascent state. Friedman chose to focus on the heroes of what was sometimes known as “the Black Section” of Israel’s bare-bones initial intelligence apparatus because, he told The Times of Israel in an interview last week, “I thought we needed stories that better reflect the real Israel — not just stories of secular Ashkenazi pioneers and survivors of Warsaw.”
That “real” Israel, Friedman argues, is the Middle Eastern Israel, Israel as “part of the continuum of Judaism in the Muslim world.” The more you understand and internalize that, he says, the better you understand this country — everything from its cuisine and its music to its behavior and, crucially, its politics.
Which is why it seemed like a good idea to interview Friedman just as Benjamin Netanyahu overtook David Ben-Gurion as Israel’s longest-serving prime minister — chiefly, says Friedman, because Netanyahu so well recognizes the cutthroat, merciless reality of Israel’s Middle East location — and as the combined forces of the center and left try, yet again, to alight on a formula to defeat him in the year’s second general election.
After two hours of brutal, sometimes argumentative, sometimes tear-filled back-and-forth, I felt it was time for some hard truths.
I looked him and the others in the eye and explained why it was important for me, a “settler,” to address this anti-occupation group.
“I hate J Street,” I started. “I’ve followed the organization since its inception and I disagree with its positions and philosophy.”
After letting that sink in, I continued, “But if you put [J-Street CEO] Jeremy Ben-Ami and me in a room together, and ask us to write down all of our thoughts on Israel on a legal pad, after hours of writing, 90 percent of both of our thoughts would be the same. We both want a safe Israel, we both want the best for the Arabs in Israel. My problem with J Street is that they always seem to focus on the 10 percent that divides the people concerned about Israel.”
While I only had two hours with them, the participants on the trip seemed to be caring, sensitive and brave people who genuinely cared about improving the lives of the people they met. As a whole, these were good people who will be great citizens. I finished off my thoughts with them, “I was concerned that on this trip all you’d hear about is the 10 percent that J Street uses to demonize Israel. I wanted to make sure you heard about the 90 percent that we can all be proud of.”
Israel on Tuesday lambasted a Canadian Federal Court ruling that wines produced in Israeli settlements can no longer be labeled as “Made in Israel,” saying the decision will embolden the pro-Palestinian Boycott Divestment and Sanctions movement.
“The Canadian court’s decision concerning labeling of Israeli products encourages and lends support to boycotts and the BDS movement. Israel objects to this,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Israeli embassy in Canada will continue to act against discriminatory treatment and the singling out of Israel in the matter of product labeling in Canada,” it said.
Challenging a previous decision by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Judge Anne L. Mactavish determined on Monday that labels describing wines made in the settlements as Israeli products are “false, misleading and deceptive.”
In her ruling, she did not take a position on how exactly such wines should be labeled, saying that was for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to decide.
Mactavish also noted that settlements are not considered part of the State of Israel, as Canada does not recognize Israeli sovereignty beyond the pre-1967 borders.
While the judge’s decision is legal and not political in nature, it could potentially strain otherwise strong ties between Jerusalem and Ottawa . (h/t IsaacStorm)
An article in Al-Omah, a pan-Arab Sunni news site, puts forward some interesting theories.
Apparently, the Iranians have been Zionist from the very beginning. The Ayatollah Khomeini initiated a deal to be fully loyal to the "Zionist project."
The way that Iran's mullahs fool the world is by saying they won't fight the Jews until the 13th Imam messianic figure arrives, and since that will never happen, they are allies forever.
We also learn that Jews were the real founders of Shi'a Islam. And that Jews are comparable to Satan and the Crusaders, although neither are as bad as the Shiites.
In this case the Jews are a prop to give the reader an idea of how super bad Shiites are, since every self respecting Sunni is already expected to be virulently antisemitic. The article wouldn't make sense otherwise.
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A court in Canada ruled on Monday that Israeli wine from settlements must be marked, saying that labelling such products as "made in Israel" is misleading to people who wish to boycott settlement products for political reasons.
Canada tells Israel it has to stop trying to pass off wine made in its illegal settlements as if it is "Made in Israel." Consumers have a right to know the truth and then decide whether they want to purchase the wine. https://t.co/HTrMEd2e4Ipic.twitter.com/5Xm4KRpaAi
To be honest, I don't have much of a problem with the wine makers being very specific about their wines being produced in Judea and Samaria. I would suggest a label saying "Produced in the Judean Hills of Eretz Yisrael." Even the names of many of the wines show where they are from, for example Shiloh and Psagot and Gush Etzion and Beit El and Hevron Heights.
The number of people who would buy Israeli wines in general and want to boycott only the wines made in Judea and Samaria is very small, while the number of Zionists who would want to specifically support the brave Jews who are reclaiming Eretz Yisrael are higher.
In fact, according to KosherWines.com, there are at least 130 varieties of wine being marketed from that region. It has a special section just for people who want to buy wine from Judea and Samaria.
No BDSers will buy any Israeli wines anyway. The people who want to buy them should indeed know which region of Eretz Yisrael they are getting the wines from.
I think the proud labeling of wines from Judea and Samaria can boost their sales far higher than any theoretical damage from the very few J-Streeters who love Israel enough to buy Israeli wines but want to boycott "settlement" wines.
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Most observers ignore the UNRWA reality –of five million descendants who dwell in "temporary shelters" financed by a $1.2 billion of donations from 67 nations, with little transparency.
What can be done? The UNRWA mandate, debated by the UN General Assembly every five years since 1949, is now up for renewal.
The time has come for the donor nations of the world to defuse the toxic UNRWA powder keg: This can and should be accomplished in six steps.
1. Cancel the new UNRWA curriculum which incorporates principles of Jihad, martyrdom and an “right of return” by force of arms, in UN schools which are supposed to promote the UNRWA slogan of “Peace Starts Here.”
2. Cease paramilitary training in all UNRWA schools. UNRWA should demonstrate commitment to UN principles for “peace education”.
3. Insist that UNRWA dismiss employees who are affiliated with Hamas in accordance with laws on the books in Western nations, which forbid aid to any agency that employs members of a terrorist organization.
4. Insist that UNRWA cancel its contract with “youth ambassador” Mohammad Assaf to travel the world encouraging anti Israeli violence.
5. Insist on an independent audit of donor funds that flow to UNRWA This would address widespread documented reports of wasted resources, duplicity of services and the undesired flow of cash to Gaza-based terror groups, which gained control over UNRWA operations in Gaza during the past 18 years.
6. Introduce UNHCR standards to UNRWA to advance the resettlement of Arab "refugees." - the millions of descendants of the original "refugees", (today about 20,000 ) many of whom left due to promises made by Arab countries in 1948 that they would wipe out the Jews, whose homes could be taken over shortly.
Current UNRWA policy is that refugee resettlement would interfere with the “right of return” to Arab villages that existed before 1948. That means the destruction of Israel.
US President Donald Trump’s Mideast peace envoy Jason Greenblatt called for a full UN investigation into its agency for Palestinian refugees, after a report leaked Monday alleged widespread corruption and sexual misconduct.
The confidential internal ethics report claimed mismanagement and abuses of authority at the highest levels of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), even as the organization faced an unprecedented crisis after US funding cuts. The allegations are now being scrutinized by UN investigators.
“We’re extremely concerned about UNRWA allegations,” Greenblatt said in a tweet. “We urge a full & transparent investigation by the UN.”
He added: “UNRWA’s model is broken/unsustainable & based on an endless expanding # of beneficiaries. Palestinians residing in refugee camps deserve much better.”
Trump’s former UN envoy, Nikki Haley, took to Twitter to say, “this is exactly why we stopped their funding.”
The UN agency said it is cooperating fully with the investigation and that it cannot comment in detail because the probe is ongoing.
AFP has obtained a copy of the report, which describes “credible and corroborated” allegations of serious ethical abuses, including involving UNRWA’s top official, Commissioner-General Pierre Krahenbuhl.
We’re extremely concerned abt UNRWA allegations. We urge a full & transparent investigation by the UN. UNRWA's model is broken/unsustainable & based on an endless expanding # of beneficiaries. Palestinians residing in refugee camps deserve much better. https://t.co/6oQn8jstyj
— Jason D. Greenblatt (@jdgreenblatt45) July 29, 2019
Dr. Rosena Allin-Khan is a Labour MP for Tooting and a physician.
She recently traveled to Gaza and reported back on the issues she saw with Israel's permit system for patients to leave Gaza. She is obviously not a Zionist and some of the resulting articles have been called out for major inaccuracies. Nevertheless, she is someone who cares deeply about the people of Gaza.
What happened to her when she tried to help the children of Gaza shows that the purported "pro-Palestinian" crowd really don't give a shit about Palestinians.
From her Twitter thread which she titled, simply, Anti-Semitism:
I travelled to Israel and Palestine earlier this year, working as a doctor, with the aim of finding out what issues Palestinians (especially from Gaza) currently face with accessing hospital treatment.
I saw some truly horrific cases inc. of Palestinian babies being born prematurely, but because of permit issues mothers were sent back to Gaza shortly after birth, with some babies dying alone in hospital.
I spoke at length with many news outlets, the Guardian and the Today Prog did good pieces on this. Kids undergoing chemotherapy can’t travel with parents because they’re deemed a security risk. But the issue has many sides to the story and is not simple.
This caused a stir. I was called a liar, some people tried to discredit what I was saying. I held firm, I have proof of these horrific cases - it’s a fact that many Palestinians are not treated with dignity.
So, in my quest to improve the permit system, I had a very lively radio discussion with the Deputy Israeli Ambassador - something which continued in the green room at the BBC. Weeks later, she invited me to meet with her to discuss it further.
So last week, I went to the Israeli Embassy to discuss it, in the hope to get some traction, to improve the permit system - which will benefit thousands of Palestinians waiting for hospital treatment.
Instead of supporting my work, those purporting to support the Palestinian cause have spouted horrible anti-Semitic abuse. See some examples here - it’s disgusting, these views are abhorrent - but also misguided and ill-informed.
This behaviour does nothing to help the Palestinian cause. I have been there, called out what I’ve seen and spoken in the press. Am I now not meant to work to improve this dreadful situation?
I’ve worked with Palestinians across the Middle East for 10 years - but these racists think they can sit behind a keyboard here in the U.K and troll someone genuinely trying to help. It’s revolting - it’s wrong.
People claim that Zionists call all critics of Israel "antisemites." It was never true; legitimate criticism of Israel is not antisemitic in the least.
Dr. Allin-Khan's criticisms are clearly legitimate.
Her story shows that Israeli officials have no interest in hurting Palestinians. Their main concern, as with any country, is the security of their citizens. But there is no desire to hurt Palestinians, and if solutions can be found to help even the children of their enemies without endangering Israelis, the Israeli government not only wants to find them but has implemented hundreds of such ideas, big and small, every year.
The BDS crowd doesn't care about Palestinians. As these tweets show, including from some prominent BDS leaders, they are all about hate for Israel, not support for Palestinians. They are hypocritical. And, as even Dr. Allin-Khan notes, their hate is based on antisemitism.
BDSers assume that all Israeli Jews are murderers and racists and therefore must never even be treated as human beings. People who care about Palestinians know that Israelis must be their partners in helping mitigate the dire humanitarian conditions in Gaza. (They also know that Hamas and Fatah are responsible to a large extent on the problems in Gaza.)
Honestly, I respect Qatar more than the BDS crowd. Qatar, even with its support for Hamas, actually works with Israel to bring aid to Gaza - thereby violating the "BDS call" that so many idiots treat as sacred.
This episode is just one more that proves that BDS is nothing more than a hate group. And while they claim they are supporting Palestinians, when it comes down to it the only thing they love about Palestinians is to see them suffer - Palestinians are only useful when they can be used as PR weapons against Israel.
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A play by award-winning Palestinian playwright Ahmed Masoud named "Obliterated" was scheduled to be performed on August 9th at Amnesty International. The main actress Maxine Peake is famous in England.
The entire event was a scam, a publicity stunt that was never meant to happen.
Over 2500 people who registered for the play, and who entered their personal information into Eventbrite, received this email from Masoud:
Oblitereated [sic] is cancelled. There was never a play or a show, I didn’t write it and Maxine never rehearsed it.
I am not sure whether I will be able to write or do theatre again.
They took our theatre, and with it our play.
Not even a year ago, on 09 August 2018, Gaza's only theatre the Saeed Almishal Cultural Centre was bombed by Israeli warplanes and ripped to the ground in seconds....
I want to ask questions. Why is art so threatening? Who would find a theatre a danger enough for missiles? What's going to become of the creatives, actors, writers, directors and audiences now?
I cannot write, but I still want to protest, to make my voice heard, to highlight what happens when art and theatre are stolen away. Maxine and I want to invite you, the audience, the 2529 people who booked, to be part of this experience, to be angry at this injustice.
As a writer and theatre practitioner, I wanted to see how it feels to deny people access to this freedom.
I approached Maxine Peake, and together we created Obliterated to express our rage and for us all to participate in this experience of cultural theft.
...I am not sure whether I will ever do theatre again. I am not sure if I have been beaten down too far by cruelty. Maybe on a far-off day, this play will be born again. But for now, I would like to thank Maxine Peake and Amnesty International UK for supporting this creative response. And I want to thank you for being part of this protest, for getting my voice heard.
The cultural center that Israel destroyed was part of an office building that also housed Hamas Interior Security offices. It was in response to hundreds of Hamas rockets to Israel in the days before.
Masoud and Amnesty don't mention that.
Amnesty put out a press release saying the play was canceled out of protest for the cultural center destruction but didn't mention that the play was never written to begin with.
The actor Maxine Peake has cancelled a play due to have been performed in London next week as a protest to highlight the plight of Palestinian playwrights and other artists targeted by the Israeli authorities.
The one-person piece, Obliterated, by the acclaimed UK-based Palestinian playwright Ahmed Masoud, was due to have been performed at Amnesty International UK’s east London headquarters on the evening of 9 August, and was set to star the Dinnerladies and Shameless actor.
The scheduled performance - which is fully booked - would have marked exactly one year since the destruction by an Israeli airstrike of the Mishal Cultural Centre last year, the only working theatre in Gaza which housed numerous arts projects in the beleaguered Palestinian territory.
The play was never written. The actress never intended to perform. There was never meant to be a Q&A afterwards with Israel hater Ben White.
The cancellation was the show, to get people to be upset - and to direct their anger not at Amnesty or Masoud but at Israel.
Amnesty willingly participated in this anti-Israel scam.
Is it appropriate for a human rights organization to actively deceive thousands of people, to lie in order to make people hate Israel?
When you think about it, this is what Amnesty does all the time anyway. Their "Gaza Platform" remains on its site with hundreds of examples of "civilians" killed by Israel who were actually terrorists, even according to the UN and B'Tselem. Their reports are filled with anti-Israel lies that they never correct - they know they are lying to manipulate people to hate Israel.
So putting on a fake play fits in exactly with Amnesty's playbook of making up lies to incite people against Israel.
To thinking people, however, it shows that Amnesty is not a sober and objective reporter of human rights abuses but an active propaganda outlet to incite hatred against the Jewish state.
(h/t Tomer Ilan)
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A couple of weeks ago, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced a major find of an entire city from 9,000 years ago near Jerusalem.
Since the city pre-dates Biblical times, it is obvious that this was not a dig that discovered any Jewish objects.
I made a humorous tweet about how Israel, which according to academic and professional Israel-hater Nadia Abu el-Haj uses archaeology to only pretend to discover ancient Judean and Israelite finds and which ignores all other archaeology, must have made a mistake by publicizing this find.
But...I was told that the Israel Antiquities Authority didn't bother exposing any archaeology that wasn't Jewish! There have been entire books written with that thesis! pic.twitter.com/zWi8c5kbBH
Now an Arab site has turned this story around, claiming that Israeli archaeologists are super embarrassed by these findings, which show that people lived in the region before the Jews.
This isn't exactly a revelation to those with a passing knowledge of the Bible.
Archaeologist Abeer Ziad of Al Jazeera looked at the site and - wow - discovered that it was quite old, and she is claiming that the Neolithic people who lived there were, of course, "Palestinians!"
The article says:
She considered this to be evidence that Palestinians had inhabited the area for thousands of years, which refuted Zionist claims that the Jewish people were indigenous.
She explained that there are remnants in Palestine "dating back to a hundred thousand years ago, and this new discovery is evidence of the existence of civilizations and cultures and successive people who preceded the Jewish presence - if proven - by a long time."
Unfortunately for Ziad, those civilizations all disappeared, and the oldest remaining people is indeed the Jews. Which is exactly why Palestinians claim to simultaneously be Arabs and Canaanites or Jebusites when the topic is Jerusalem (not Girgashites or Hittites, for some reason.)
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A top official at the prominent NGO Human Rights Watch proved unable to explicitly say Israel has the right to exist as a Jewish state in a recent interview with an Israeli media outlet.
In conversation with Israel’s Kan broadcaster, Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth was asked, “Do you support Israel’s self-determination as a Jewish state?”
“Nobody’s ever questioned the right of Israel to exist,” Roth replied. “I mean, every state has a right to exist, but every state also has a duty to apply international human rights principles.”
“As a Jewish state?” the interviewer prodded.
“As a democracy,” Roth said. “In other words …”
“Not as a Jewish state?” the interviewer pressed again.
“Well, I mean, Israel can define itself any way it wants,” Roth said. “I mean, lots of governments define themselves in nationalist terms, but that’s not an excuse …”
“Why do you have difficulty to define Israel as a Jewish state?” the interviewer asked.
“Well, because there are many Palestinians who live in Israel too who are citizens and deserve full rights,” Roth said, seeming to imply that the presence of Arab citizens negates a Jewish right to self-determination. (h/t IsaacStorm)
Human Rights watch Executive Director @KenRoth shares his views on Israel's self determination as a Jewish state. Supports determination as a "democratic state" and refers to Israel's Jewish definition as 'nationalistic'. @kann_news@hrwhttps://t.co/3WYPL5RfqMpic.twitter.com/3R8Zv61ZQf
A particularly disturbing sentiment has been percolating: only those who are Jewish can speak on behalf of Jewish interests, and only those who are black can speak on behalf of black interests, and so on.
Even defining interests based on particular religious or ethnic groups is a murky endeavor. There isn’t political consensus among Jews, just as there isn’t political consensus among African Americans, and with good reason. Intellectual diversity is a hallmark of humanity.
Talia Lavin recently published an article in GQ, however, arguing that the right has been using Jews for politically expedient purposes. She suggests those on the right who have been condemning the left’s rising anti-Semitism are only doing so because it is politically advantageous.
Lavin’s claim is riddled with several false assumptions. The first is based upon the notion that those on the right can’t possibly be truly alarmed by the anti-Semitism allowed to simmer on the left, or disgusted with comments made by the infamous Democrat “squad.” The second is that the right cannot possibly represent Jewish interests. These assumptions are both incorrect.
As a Jewish woman, I am grateful for individuals like Rep. Liz Cheney and Meghan McCain, women Lavin snidely refers to as “blonde Christian Loraxes.” Lavin presents this point as if somehow the religion and physical characteristics of these two women make them “unfit” to call out the left’s alarming anti-Semitism. What jumbled nonsense.
The Times article appears under the online headline “Is B.D.S. Anti-Semitic? A Closer Look at the Boycott Israel Campaign.” In print, the headline is the more innocuous, “A Look at the International Drive to Boycott Israel.”
It’s often a bad sign when an article fails to answer the question in the headline. The Times waffles. In a section headed, “Is B.D.S. anti-Semitic?” the article reports, “Leaders of B.D.S. insist that it is not anti-Semitic… But many Israelis and American Jews say it is.” That’s not particularly helpful. In a different section, the Times article does eventually concede, “There is some overlap between support for B.D.S. and anti-Semitism.” What a coincidence!
Another unsatisfactorily answered question in the Times article is, “Is there a link between the resurgence of anti-Semitism in Europe and B.D.S.?” The Times reports, Anti-Semitism has increased in Europe because of numerous factors, including globalization, populism, loss of national identity and the perceived oppression of Palestinians by Israel. A growing Muslim minority, mostly from North Africa, has viewed Israeli policies toward the Palestinians as anti-Muslim, leading many to support B.D.S.
This is actually so confused it approaches being funny — the Times blaming “loss of national identity” for anti-Semitism. In America, the Times blames nationalism for antisemitism, so it’s a bit jarring, or at least confusing, for the Times to blame “loss of national identity” and “globalization” rather than “resurgent nationalism” for antisemitism. Should one oppose globalization on the grounds that it would reduce antisemitism? The Times has previously told us that using “globalist” as code for Jews is a sign of antisemitism, yet here the paper is earnestly explaining that globalization contributes to antisemitism. In addition, plenty of Europeans and Muslims had antisemitic attitudes well before any “Israeli policies,” leading many Jews, including myself, to conclude that the antisemitism has nothing to do with “Israeli policies.” The whole Times take on this question veers perilously close to blaming the Jews, rather than the antisemites, for the antisemitism.
For an effort that seems designed to explain the issue to Times readers, the whole project amounts to a disappointment, offering lots of questions but few answers. When it comes to the underlying issues, it confuses more than clarifies. It does serve to clarify, though, that the Times is an unreliable guide on these topics.
The goals and objectives of the Rachel Corrie Palestinian Center for Human Rights and the Pursuit of International Justice are that the values of dignity and freedom, the rule of international law and justice can be pursued and the realization of the right of the Palestinians and the establishment of international law as the guardian of the rights of the occupied peoples. ...We are required to build the future on sound foundations to be a state of law and to have human rights organizations capable of prosecuting the Israeli occupation against the international courts.
This center was founded by a Dr. Abdul Hakim Wadi. Its webpage is mostly just reprints of news articles.
Written in 2015, during a spate of murders of Jews in Europe by Muslims, it starts this way:
Anyone who attacks the Jews in Europe is a traitor and serves Zionism at the present time. What was appropriate in the 1970s is not appropriate now, for several reasons:
1. All these terrorist attacks do not serve the Palestinian cause. 2. Israel exploits these attacks in Europe to displace Jews towards Israel. 3. The migration of the Jews of the world to Palestine will support Israel humanely, materially and politically. 4. The immigration of European Jews due to terrorism will increase the number of settlements in the West Bank and Jerusalem
It goes on like this for 17 reasons, and by the end he spins a conspiracy theory saying that the attacks are all orchestrated by the Mossad anyway.
But notice that this "human rights" NGO does not find Jewish civilians in Europe to be deserving of human rights protections. The reasons not to attack are tactical; back in the 1970s it made sense to kill Jews worldwide but, alas, no longer.
I don't see any connection between this organization and the Rachel Corrie Foundation of Peace and Justice. I don't know if the Corrie family is aware of this NGO and if they disapprove or approve of its positions.
But the fact that a Palestinian "human rights" organization has literally no moral objection to the slaughter of Jews around the world shows that the words "human rights" means something completely different to Palestinians than the rest of the world.
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The Israeli military has installed the face scanners as part a multi-million dollar upgrade of the Qalandiya crossing that now allows Palestinians from the West Bank with work permits to zip through with relative ease.
But while the high-tech upgrades may have eased entry for Palestinians going to Israel for work, critics say they are a sign of the ossification of Israel’s 52-year occupation of the West Bank and slam the military’s use of facial recognition technology as problematic.
Israel’s Defense Ministry poured over $85 million into upgrading Qalandiya and several other major checkpoints between Israel and the West Bank in recent years — part of a strategy it says is meant to maintain calm by improving conditions for Palestinians.
Thanks to the upgrades, crossing through Qalandiya takes roughly 10 minutes, even during the early morning rush hour, and has the feel of an airport terminal.
How many articles have we seen over the years about how terrible Qalandiya is? And now that Israel has spent tens of millions to fix it, how inevitable is it that people will complain anyway?
There are two supposed issues mentioned. One is that this entrenches the "occupation." This is too silly to mention - if by some miracle there is a peace, then either it will stay as a new border crossing or it will be dismantled to be replaced by another. No one is going to say, oh, sorry, we won't accept peace because it will be too expensive to replace Qalandiya.
The other comes from B'Tselem:
B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights group, said it was unacceptable that the Palestinian laborers have no ability to object to the use of facial recognition technology. Roy Yellin, a spokesman for the group, called the company’s development of its product through “unwilling subjects” immoral.
By any measure, this is a victory for Palestinian human rights. It saves tens of thousands of man hours every single day. But Israeli "human rights groups" like B'Tselem aren't interested in human rights, but in bashing Israel on whatever flimsy pretext they choose.
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An internal ethics report has alleged mismanagement and abuses of authority at the highest levels of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees even as the organization faced an unprecedented crisis after US funding cuts.
The allegations included in the confidential report by the agency’s ethics department are now being scrutinized by UN investigators.
The agency — the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) — said it is cooperating fully with the investigation and that it cannot comment in detail because the probe is ongoing.
AFP has obtained a copy of the report, which describes “credible and corroborated” allegations of serious ethical abuses, including involving UNRWA’s top official, Commissioner-General Pierre Krahenbuhl.
It says the allegations include senior management engaging in “sexual misconduct, nepotism, retaliation, discrimination and other abuses of authority, for personal gain, to suppress legitimate dissent, and to otherwise achieve their personal objectives.”
One senior official named in the report has left the organization due to “inappropriate behavior” linked to the investigation, UNRWA said, while another has resigned for what the agency called “personal reasons.”
Jason Greenblatt, the president's point man on peace in the Middle East, told Fox News in an interview: "We want tremendous lives for the Palestinians. We want lives that mirror the lives of Israelis as long as we can keep everybody secure. We are not going to get there with slogans."
The administration sponsored a "Peace to Prosperity" workshop in Bahrain on June 25 to bolster the Palestinian economy. "Not only did the Palestinian Authority boycott the conference themselves, they tried to undermine the conference by asking others not to go. What a tremendous opportunity that they missed."
"Nobody is here to force something on them that doesn't work, but we are also...direct enough to say what you've been promised is probably not achievable."
"Nobody can force a deal on either side but, similarly, the deal that you want is just not there, so the only way you are going to get better lives is by sitting down directly with the Israelis."
"None of us can get the Palestinians and the Israelis to agree on a deal if they don't want to do that deal. It's not for America, it's not for the European Union, it's not for anyone who is interested in this conflict to make decisions for the Israelis or the Palestinians."
"We don't live there, we don't suffer there, we don't fight there, we don't die there. It's really up to the two sides to do [a deal]."
Last month, Paraguay extradited Nader Mohamad Farhat—who runs a major currency exchange in the Tri-Border Area, where Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay touch—to the U.S. on charges of money laundering. Farhat is a Hizballah sympathizer, and likely involved with the terrorist group’s illicit dealings in the region. By using legal means to go after people like Farhat, argues Emanuele Ottolenghi, Washington can make important strides in the war on terror:
In 2015, British authorities caught Hizballah-linked operatives stockpiling more than 6,000 pounds of explosives on the outskirts of London, new reports revealed last month. The British deserve praise for unearthing the London bomb factory. But they did not destroy the underlying commercial or financial structures that allowed the group to buy and stockpile such materials.
For too long, counterterrorism operations have focused narrowly on disrupting attacks. Without aggressive prosecution of those who carry out the groups’ financial transactions, the illicit networks that provide financial and logistical support for Hizballah are likely to remain intact. . . .
By focusing on illicit networks and trade-based money laundering, the United States and its allies can move from disrupting planned attacks to depriving terrorists of the means to carry them out. The benefits of this approach would extend into other domains as well. It would protect consumers and manufacturers alike by stamping out the counterfeit goods so prevalent in trade-based money laundering schemes. It would weaken the cartels and criminal gangs that are undermining law and order throughout the Western Hemisphere, a key cause of clandestine immigration. It would punish corrupt politicians, sending a signal of hope to countries seeking to climb out of kleptocracy. In short, it is a more sustainable—and more effective—way to fight terrorism and corruption.
Even BDSers admit that they choose their targets of boycott for maximum leverage and publicity, even as they use Israeli products themselves. The boycotts are indeed a sideshow to their real aim - to have average people associate Israel with racism and apartheid.
By repeating the lies that Zionism is racism, Israel is an apartheid state, Israel must be boycotted for human rights abuses, and so on - over and over again - it makes an impression on college students and people who don't follow Israel closely.
When an artist boycotts Israel, it makes a huge impression on people who want to identify as supporting social justice.
When an academic group calls to boycott Israel, it puts an aura of respectability on hating Israel.
BDS is a tactic, it is not a movement whose goal is to remake Israel as the previous boycott movement was capable of forcing change on the level it did with South Africa.
And the strategy behind that tactic is publicity.
Now more than ever, especially in the age of social media, it is possible to reach people without having to engage the mainstream media, who in the past were the gatekeepers who could to a larger degree control who got access to the public audience.
When small groups like If Not Now want attention, they stand outside and say Kaddish for Hamas terrorists -- not Jews who were murdered by terrorists -- because that is what gets attention, and it is that attention that is the crucial oxygen to breathe life into the membership and create the attention that such movements need.
Recently on Twitter, it was pointed out that both Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar -- vocal supporters for boycotting Israel -- used Israeli technology, Wix, for their website:
But the fact that Tlaib uses Wix for her website was already pointed out back in February. This fact made the rounds back then, and to a lesser degree it has been pointed out now. But the fact that Tlaib has not bothered to redo the website means that other than perhaps metaphorically tweaking her nose, this apparent hypocrisy means nothing to her.
By combining the power of many around the world, boycotts shine a harsh light on Israeli settler-colonialism. Whereas Israel wishes these networks to remain inconspicuous, the BDS campaign uses the power of an organized consumer boycott to expose them, forcing the recognition of our different forms of connection with oppression and the oppressed. When we participate in an organized boycott of Israeli consumer goods, such as Sabra and Tribe hummus (whose owners financially support Israeli institutions of occupation and dispossession) or SodaStream kitchen appliances (made in illegal settlements under conditions of hyperexploitation), we choose to make visible the connections between Palestinians living directly under Israeli occupation and people living elsewhere. With these organized boycotts, this global economic structure, a largely hidden network of financial pipes and tunnels, acts as unwitting accomplice to members of Palestinian civil society in their call for self-determination. Boycotts therefore form a limited but necessary component of the BDS campaign. For supporters of the Palestinian call for BDS, boycotts serve as a tactic within a wider strategy to pressure Israel to change its policies and end its oppression. [emphasis added]
The reference to SodaStream reminds us that this same logic that allows the BDS movement to use Israeli products while boycotting them -- also allows them to put Palestinians out of work for 'the cause' as well.
Putting Palestinians into financial distress through BDS boycotts is only for their own good.
How widespread is this use of Israeli products by members of BDS? Consider Omar Barghouti, one of the BDS leaders.
He has a degree from Tel Aviv University, a blatant and rather public contradiction for someone supposedly embodying the BDS movement. He has been confronted with this on a number of occasions, and while Barghouti has offered a variety of excuses, he never quit the university -- or burned his degree in public.
But the BDS movement has given Barghouti lots of publicity, and any occasional questions about his hypocrisy have not slowed him down.
He falsely claims that he could not have gotten a degree any other way.
Tlaib could have used any number of other products to make her website.
Neither has confronted the contradiction head-on as the SJP students in Denver - and while that article in Times of Israel reports the students' use of Wix in November 2015, the group's explanation is dated November 2013.
Still, it is not hard to figure out that Wix is an Israeli product.
And it is not as if there are not lots of other products that could make a website just as well.
These days, that SJP site uses WordPress.
Maybe that hypocrisy finally caught up with them.
When push comes to shove, its activists prefer that others do the boycotting and make the sacrifices. Thus Caterpillar and in the past the security company G4s have been popular targets because, after all, how many ordinary people are going to ever be buying a earthmover or employ a security guard? It’s likewise painless to ask a university’s trustees or a big pension fund to divest Israeli shares from their portfolios because that’s someone else’s money.
The requirement to fight the good fight against Israeli oppression is supposed to be borne by others whether they are big, anonymous institutions or useful idiots who take the boycott call seriously. Meanwhile, a boycott campaign is being managed using Israeli website building tools. In the words of SJP Cornell, “BDS is not abstention, nor an absolute moral principle … it is a tactic.”
And again, it is not just that the fight is borne by others, the effects have been borne by the actual people the BDS movement claims to be helping -- as in the case of the Palestinian employees of SodaStream.
These boycotts are not limited to big companies either. Boycotts of performers going to Israel are always guaranteed to draw attention -- and are sometimes successful.
A franchisee has delayed the scheduled opening of his Burgerim restaurant in Dearborn amid backlash from the Arab-American community over the popular burger company’s Israeli roots.
Sam Zahr, a Lebanese-American who lives in Dearborn, said he was too worried to open the restaurant on Greenfield Road after his kids were bullied and he received threatening messages from those opposed to the burger chain founded in Israel.
...A Burgerim location in Royal Oak also owned by Zahr has not experienced as much opposition, he said.
It's not clear if the issue is only boycotting or maybe also a desire to squelch any hint of normalization.
Based on Zahr's success in Royal Oak, maybe an Arab-Israeli business can make it in the US.
BDS can go ahead and make their claim to success.
Israel is opening up new battlefields.
Those SJP students say that BDS is more than a tactic; it sheds a light and sends a message.
Burgerim, an Israeli company, is sending a message too:
Burger Dill pickle Soda
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Elder of Ziyon
