Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, August 02, 2019

08/02 Links Pt2: Lyn Julius: No place for blind spots on Muslim anti-Semitism; Richard Landes: How radical Islam taught the progressive left to blame the Jews; 120 years after trial, Alfred Dreyfus may be promoted to general

From Ian:

Lyn Julius: No place for blind spots on Muslim anti-Semitism

The failure to acknowledge Arab and Muslim anti-Semitism is a peculiarly leftist blind spot. Twentieth-century Arab and Muslim anti-Semitism resulted in the ethnic cleansing of almost a million Jews in a single generation, but its roots lie in an ancient system of exploitation of the wealth and talents of Jews and Christians known as dhimmitude, where other religious minorities have second-class status. This system, punctuated by the odd pogrom or forced conversion, cemented a concept of Muslim supremacy over non-Muslim peoples reminiscent of colonialism.

Underlying the Labour campaign against anti-Semitism is the assumption that Israel is to blame for ruining the pre-existing state of harmony and peaceful coexistence between Arabs and Jews. This, of course, is a myth. Jews in the Muslim world were always viewed as inferior and had few rights, their fate utterly dependent on the munificence of the ruler of the day to whom they had outsourced their right to self-defense.

This truth is a vindication of Zionism. Even if oriental Jews were not prominent in the modern Zionist movement, they remain eternally grateful that Israel—where they comprise half the population—has ended their historically weak, inferior and defenseless status. Israel is the envy of other indigenous non-Arab and non-Muslim groups, like the Kurds or the Assyrians, who would dearly love to throw off the yoke of Arab supremacy to achieve self-determination in a sovereign state of their own.
This is the contradiction at the heart of Corbyn’s Labour. It sees itself as the party of the downtrodden and the abused, when in truth, it champions the abusers.
It denies that non-Arabs and non-Muslims in the Middle East were ever victims of oppression. In its (at best) ambivalence to Zionism and (at worst) hostility towards Israel, it is effectively supporting the re-imposition of Arab and Muslim domination over a dhimmi people.

Spectator PodCast: How radical Islam taught the progressive left to blame the Jews

It's less than four years since Jeremy Corbyn's hard-left sect seized control of the Labour Party, and yet already its anti-Semitic views – so alien to Labour tradition – seem too deeply rooted to eradicate.

Today's 'Holy Smoke' podcast puts this sinister development in the broader context of the 'Red-Green' alliance – the love affair between the progressive Left and the Jew-haters of jihadist Islam.

On the face of it, this is an unlikely, even surreal, relationship. But as Damian's guest, the historian Richard Landes, argues, the two have something in common: millennialism, the belief that some sort of Heaven on Earth, is not only imminent but historically inevitable.

In theory, progressives believe that this transition to a new era will be peaceful; Jihadists, by definition, don't. But, as Landes explains, it's not as simple as that...

JCPA: American Liberal Jews: Strong Concern about Anti-Semitism, Strong Support of Israel but Less for under 60s – Part 1

For Americans and for American Jews in particular, the Israel-America relationship is thought of as something special. But that special relationship has come with periods of perceived stress and strain and tension, and that is something we see reflected in the media, often with some bold headlines and in some polls which show some softening of support among more liberal Americans, such as what we find among Democrats.

The conventional wisdom out there is that Democrats, as a mostly liberal group, have a political or ideological orientation that creates at least some of the tension with what is considered currently a right wing government in Israel. And since Jews are mostly democrats, that tension would extend to them as well.

Are these perceptions accurate? Are American liberal Jews becoming alienated or disconnected with Israel? Is it accurate to say, as some polls have suggested, that concerns about Israel are a very low priority for American liberal Jews?

So, we looked for evidence by both examining data already collected in previous studies and by collecting some data of our own.

Palestinian gays protest against anti-gay violence. In Israel. (update)

This was tweeted this morning by Harry Reis, Director, Policy and Strategy at the leftist New Israel Fund:

Wow (via friend who took part): Yesterday Palestinians staged first queer protest, demanding acknowledgement of pioneering role in reshaping/leading Pal society, offering a vision of a unified progressive, inclusive Palestinian society that is strong because of its diversity.
— harry reis (@harryreis) August 2, 2019

No, that is not what happened.

There was no protest in the Palestinian controlled territories. There was a protest by Arab Israelis, who call themselves Palestinians, in Haifa.

Israel.

The protest was against a 16 year old gay Arab from Tel Aviv being stabbed recently - by his brothers. (UPDATE: The Arab was transgender and was from the Israeli Arab town of Tamra.)

Even so, the Arab gays in Israel are using this as an example of how Israel does not protect gay Arabs despite hasbara about how gay Palestinians often flee to Israel to save their lives.

But how can Israel defend a gay 16 year old from his brothers, if he didn't seek protection from the police?

The linked article accuses Israel of "pinkwashing." Moreover, the article claims that Israel only provides a curriculum of tolerance for sexual orientation for Jewish schools, not Arabic-speaking schools in Israel, and therefore it is responsible for Arab violence towards gays. I find this hard to believe - more likely the Arab schools refuse to teach tolerance.

The original tweet was knowingly deceptive as to where and for what purpose this protest was. He was trying to make Palestinian society look tolerant and progressive for suggesting that a pro-gay protest was allowed in the territories. Rather than showing Arab support of gays, as it pretends to, it highlights the intolerance of Arabs towards gays. In fact, this story proves that the only safe place for Arab gays to protest is in Israel.

Moreover, the only safe place for such a protest is in a Jewish-majority town in Israel - they didn't protest in an Arab community.

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08/02 Links Pt1: Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: When Concessions Are Impossible; Phillips: The incendiary balloon of international law; Holland and Belgium Freeze Funding to UNRWA

From Ian:

Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: When Concessions Are Impossible

One of the issues of consistent consensus in Israel is that the government should not concede on issues of its citizens' security. Therefore, it was no surprise that Israel acted to demolish structures illegally built in proximity to the security barrier, which has saved hundreds of lives since its construction, to prevent terrorist groups from compromising its efficacy.
Although the Palestinian Authority maintains a somewhat hostile position toward Israel, it is able to cooperate more closely on issues of security with the "Zionist regime" than with its Palestinian brethren in Hamas. A decision by PA President Mahmoud Abbas to end security cooperation with Israel would reduce his own capability to deal with threats from his Hamas rivals at a time when his administration is wildly unpopular.

As for the prospects for the U.S. peace deal, the long-term factors impeding an agreement between Israel and the Palestinians include the political, geographical, and ideological divide among Palestinians, and the inability of the Arab Quartet (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain and Egypt) to "deliver" the Palestinians.

As long as the West Bank and Gaza remain separate political entities under different leadership, any peace agreement would necessitate a prior Hamas-PA reconciliation agreement. There have been countless failed efforts over the last 12 years to broker such a deal.

While Israelis should root for the U.S.-led peace effort to succeed, a backup plan should include the following components: maintain security by rejecting any compromise of Israel's operational freedom to counter terrorism in the West Bank; promote capacity-building and economic development for Palestinians; and seek to revive bilateral negotiations with a credible Palestinian counterpart.

Ben-Dror Yemini: There might be something to 'deal of the century' after all

There is no Palestinian statehood in the "deal of the century," only autonomy, as U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, a silent member of the administration's Mideast peace team, has revealed.

Friedman warned the Palestinians that the Clinton, Olmert, Kerry and Obama proposals are no longer on the table.

This is a blow to Saeb Erakat's vision of Israeli-Palestinian peace as told to the Jordanian Ad-Dustour daily newspaper in 2009: "At Camp David (in 2000) we were offered 90% (of the West Bank) and Olmert offered 100% (in 2008)."

Now the architects of the peace plan are making clear that all those proposals are a thing of the past and there is no better deal on its way.

When Arab countries are disintegrating because of jihad on one hand and Iran on the other, no stable Arab government would see the formation of a new Arab state as a dream come true. A bold new peace plan should propose taking a completely different direction.

Given all of the above, there may be some logic to holding a summit at Camp David as a continuation of the Bahrain conference. And maybe, just maybe, some Arab states would be supportive of that.

Jordan will continue to release statements in support of a Palestinian state, but it is actually the last thing Abdullah's kingdom needs. Such an entity would be prone to expansion to its east as well as its west and could threaten Jordan.

Additionally, Hamas would try and most likely succeed in seizing control of such a state.

Netanyahu's plan to build 700 housing units for Palestinians in Area C can be seen as a gesture of good will, if a proposal of autonomy is considered.

Regardless of whatever left-wing or right-wing political views its population may hold, a proposed peace settlement that would ensure Israel's continued existence as a Jewish and democratic state - and prevent a bi-national state down the road - is the best option.

Melanie Phillips: The incendiary balloon of international law

For months now, Israel has been attacked by aerial incendiary weapons launched by Hamas during riots at the Gaza border fence.

These weapons – balloons or kites attached to flammable material – are driven by the winds off the sea towards southern Israel.

In just one week in June, they started nearly 100 fires in farmland and forests, in playgrounds and private yards. By last month, Hamas had burned more than 7,400 acres of Israeli land.

At the same time, Israeli communities near the border are also routinely attacked with rockets and mortars from terrorist groups stationed inside the Gaza Strip.

An American lawyer, Col. Matthew Aiesi, an associate professor at the Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School in Charlottesville, Va., was among a group of national security lawyers who recently witnessed these attacks for themselves.

As he has written, these are indisputably war crimes, violating numerous rules of warfare by deliberately targeting civilians and using indiscriminate weapons.

Aiesi says the United Nations or countries like Egypt working towards peace in the region should seek the surrender of those committing these war crimes to stand trial before a fair and competent jurisdiction.

Yet beyond Israel, these attacks are scarcely reported at all. And virtually no one is even stating that they are self-evidently war crimes.

This week there was a conference in Jordan sponsored by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) on the topic of “Green Technology Transfer, Adaptation and Investment Required for Implementing SDG 12: Sustainable Consumption and Production.”

ESCWA is perhaps the most antisemitic commission of the UN. All of its members are Arab states, despite its name. It specifically excludes Israel from its Arab-only "Western Asia" agenda - while it includes African Arab states.

It has written insanely anti-Israel reports, and routinely refers to Israel as an "apartheid state" using criteria that would mean that nearly every member of ESCWA is also an apartheid state.

In 2014, ESCWA posted 181 "facts" on Twitter and Facebook for the International Year of the Palestinian People, many of which were simply untrue. (They have since taken them down.)

ESCWA's hate for Israel is not a question.

Just imagine, though, that the UN wasn't so insanely hateful. Imagine is ESCWA actually wanted to work for peace instead of war with Israel. Imagine if ESCWA adhered to the actual principles of the UN.

Specifically, imagine if ESCWA had invited Israel to this conference on green technology in the Middle East, a topic that no one is more familiar with than Israel.

Would the Arab members have walked out? Probably Syria, maybe Libya and Lebanon. But if ESCWA had any actual interest in peace, it would be censuring the members that can't abide Israel's existence rather than allowing them to set the anti-Israel agenda for the entire Commission.

The entire purpose of the UN is to help keep world peace. ESCWA could do that by inviting Israel to relevant meetings.

But of course Middle East peace is not a priority of UN ESCWA. Quite the opposite.

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Agricultural exports from Gaza going up, not that you would know that from the news

The UN's Food and Agricultural Organization puts out statistics each week on Gaza's exports of fruit, vegetables and fish to the rest of the world.

Here's where the exports this year have gone so far:

Jordan's imports of Gaza goods have gone down sharply, but Israel's and especially the GCC's imports have risen a great deal.

It appears that Israel and the Gulf are putting their money where their mouth is as far as helping the Gaza economy, although these are token amounts. The vast majority of Gaza exports go to the West Bank.

To the best of my knowledge, unless something has changed since I last spoke to Israeli officials about this, there are no restrictions on Gaza exports outside the number of willing buyers.

In the past, and perhaps now as well, the IDF's COGAT unit would provide seeds and expertise to Gaza and West Bank farmers to grow new crops and improve their quality.

Another new thing is that Gaza now exports fish. From reading the news one gets the impression that Gaza fishermen can't even provide enough fish for local consumption, but in fact they are sending hundreds of metric tons of fish to the West Bank.

Something else that the news media won't bother to report.

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Every day there are stories in Arabic media about Jews "storming" the "Al Aqsa Mosque," meaning Jews visiting the perimeter of the Temple Mount. So, naturally, the writers need to find some new angle to make the stories appear more interesting.

They are mostly press releases from the antisemitic Muslim authorities on the Temple Mount, the Waqf.

Today's variant, as headlined in Arab48 news, was that Jewish children visited the Mount.

According to the story, an organization called Women for the Temple has now organized tours of the most sacred place in Judaism specifically for children, where they are taught about the history of the site. (Or as the hateful Arab media puts it, "they carried out provocative tours of the Haram al Sharif and received explanations about the alleged 'Temple.'")

This is perhaps more frightening to Muslims than the daily screaming headlines of Jews "breaking in" to the site. Children, after all, are the next generation, and if they consider visiting the Temple Mount to be normal, then it will be that much harder to stop them from visiting when they are adults and want to bring their own kids.

Meanwhile, the Jordanian Waqf issued a statement that "stressed that the sanctity of all parts of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, equivalent to the sanctity of the Sacred House in Mecca, and that any infringement on part of it is an attack on every Muslim on earth."

Just some more every day incitement against Jews.

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Jordan closes Aaron's burial place because Jews performed "rituals" there (UPDATE)

Tonight is the traditional anniversary of the death of the Biblical Aaron.

Jordanian media is filled with stories of a group of Jews who visited the "shrine of the Prophet Aaron," as the Muslims characterize it. There they performed "religious services."

The video showing the supposed services is only 8 seconds long, and it looks like they are singing but not praying, from what I can tell.

Jews have gone there before, as in this video from last year shows:

As a result of Jews actually treating a holy place as a holy place, the Minister of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs in Jordan, Dr. Nasser Abu Al-Basal, decided to close the building and not to allow any visitor to enter the shrine without obtaining the ministry's approval.

The ministry also said that it will open an investigation into how Jews managed to enter and chant without knowledge of the locals.

As far as I can tell, there is no mosque on the site (yet.) So Jordan's objections to Jews praying there isn't because it is desecrating a mosque, but because they simply don't want to extend any basic rights to Jews.

UPDATE: The Jewish Press has more, and more video. (h/t Irene)

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08/01 Links Pt2: Seth Mandel: Al Sharpton is not a lifelong fighter for justice; 30 Years Ago, Activists And Intellectuals Told The Left To Hate Israel. They Are Still Obeying.

From Ian:

Seth Mandel: Al Sharpton is not a lifelong fighter for justice

And that’s the most galling part of the mainstreaming of Al Sharpton. He never sought absolution. He simply got away with it.

So at Wednesday night’s Democratic presidential debate, no one asked Warren about Sharpton’s record or the message she might be sending with such fulsome praise. Nor was South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg — who has struck up a very public alliance with Sharpton in an attempt to burnish his standing with black voters — prodded about the hypocrisy on display. Republicans, Buttigieg lectured, “are supporting naked racism in the White House, or at best silent about it. And if you are watching this at home and you are a Republican member of Congress, consider the fact that, when the sun sets on your career and they are writing your story, of all the good and bad things you did in your life, the thing you will be remembered for is whether, in this moment, with this president, you found the courage to stand up to him or you continued to put party over country.”

What would Buttigieg say about his own support of a public figure with a long history of bigotry? We don’t know, because no one thought to ask him at the debate. (I have repeatedly asked his campaign for comment, to no avail.)

We are routinely told that harsh criticism of minority members of Congress amounts to incitement to violence. What of Sharpton, who initially made his career out of explicit incitement to violence? This is no idle concern. “The increase in the number of physical assaults against Orthodox Jews in New York City is a matter of empirical fact,” reports Armin Rosen at Tablet. “Anti-Semitic hate crimes against persons, which describes nearly everything involving physical contact, jumped from 17 in 2017 to 33 in 2018, with the number for the first half of 2019 standing at 19, according to the NYPD’s hate crime unit. … And yet, many believe the attacks are even more widespread than has been reported.” De Blasio claims anti-Semitism is a right-wing phenomenon, but in New York, Rosen writes, “the perpetrators who have been recorded on CCTV cameras are overwhelmingly black and Hispanic.”

You can believe that Jewish lives matter, or you can pepper your public career with slavish fan fiction about Al Sharpton. When the sun sets on the careers of this crop of Democrats and their stories are written, what will the record show about the choice they made?

Forward: 30 Years Ago, Activists And Intellectuals Told The Left To Hate Israel. They Are Still Obeying.

Five years ago, I was sitting in my office trying to figure out options for a desperate Palestinian woman. Her family had found her and her boyfriend together in his apartment in Queens, and they were threatening both of them with physical harm. I had been told that the young couple feared for their lives.

To help them, I reached out to an organization that was working to train the New York City police force about the difference between honor killings and murder (the former is often perpetrated by a close family member who would not be a suspect in a murder). While I was speaking to the liaison about the couple, I happened to notice an email update from a former classmate at Barnard with some news: A Columbia student organization formed to support victims of sexual assault, called “No Red Tape,” was aligning itself with Students for Justice in Palestine, a virulently anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian group.

The irony of the moment was powerful. Here I was, a Zionist Jewish woman trying to protect a Palestinian woman from violence, while a campus group that is supposed to be devoted to protecting women had attached itself to a group known for hateful tactics that target Jewish students, rhetoric that veers into anti-Semitism and a total refusal to engage with Zionist groups.

It’s not just ironic; it’s mysterious. How did social justice warriors, committed to liberal values, find themselves using hate speech, intolerant boycotts, and demonizing tactics towards a fellow minority group?

The answer they would no doubt give themselves — that it is Israel’s occupation of the Palestinians that drives their actions — can’t possibly account for things like the a-historical nature of their critiques, the tolerance and excuses for violent resistance against civilians, and the sheer vitriol unleashed on Jewish students. For this reason, the mystery of the social justice movement’s embrace of radical pro-Palestinian groups and their corresponding rejection of Israel is usually explained as nothing more complicated than anti-Semitism, albeit cloaked in the new language of anti-Zionism.

Camera: “Hamas Appreciation Month” at NY Times

In May 2019, the New York Times and its Jerusalem bureau chief David Halbfinger excused deadly Hamas rocket attacks as an expression of “impatience” with Israeli bad behavior, suggested the group mistakenly hits Israeli civilians with “stray” rockets, and described Hamas gunmen killed while shooting Israelis as mere “demonstrators.”

Why does the newspaper conceal the ugly truth about the internationally designated terror organization and its war crimes?

Poster: Look how progressive Palestine is!

Since supporting "Palestine" is considered a pre-requisite for being progressive and woke, here's a short list of what these "progressive" people are supporting and protecting:

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Discreet Ear Buds A Real Boon To People Who Hate When Others Talk In Shul (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

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Discreet Ear Buds A Real Boon To People Who Hate When Others Talk In Shul

Giv'at Sh'muel, Aug 1 - Technological innovation has come to the synagogue in the form of wireless, hard-to-see, in-ear speakers that users can wear to block out the age-old nuisance of other worshipers disrupting the service with idle chatter.

Adopters of the technology praised its developers for their attentiveness to shul-goer needs and their willingness to tackle what sources indicate represent an ancient problem: people who deem their conversations more important than the integrity and flow of the synagogue service, when a human must view himself as standing before the Creator, or at least preparing to do so.

Spiritual leaders used to devote more energy to discouraging chatter during services, with one towering seventeenth-century authority blaming the phenomenon for the Chmielnicki massacres in which tens of thousands of Jews were killed by Cossack marauders. Through the years, however, as Rabbinic positions became subject to synagogue boards, Rabbis became less willing to call out congregants for sinful behavior, out of fear for their livelihood lest they displease members with influence. Software developments saw an opportunity for shul-goers to maintain adherence to proper standards while avoiding the tension and unpleasantness inherent in rebuking others for problematic behavior that has come to be viewed as unremarkable.

Kol D'mamah Dakkah - "the sound of silence" - as the first such app is known, uses a smartphone's camera to track the movement of the shatz's - the prayer leader - lips to identify where in the liturgy the congregation has reached, and adjusts its pre-recorded sound files to match the shatz's speed, while canceling out other ambient noise. Thus, say the developers, a davener can remain focused on his "service of the heart" and not get distracted as anyone around him taking the proceedings less seriously than they should.

"No one knows how to give rebuke properly anymore," explained chief app creator Elazar Azariah. "My colleagues and I saw a need to forestall the tension and enmity that would come of improper attempts to correct sinful behavior - so we did the next best thing and found a technological solution that makes the user unaware of any such behavior. As far as the user is concerned, the other guy is also davening or saying T'hillim. Not only does Kol D'mamah Dakkah reduce tension, it promotes fulfillment of the commandment to give fellow Jews the benefit of the doubt, to judge them favorably."

Kol D'mamah Dakkah currently exists in Nusach S'farad, Edoth HaMizrach, and Nusach HaAri of Chabad-Lubavitch, but Mr. Azariah revealed that focus groups has determined little interest among Nusach Ashkenaz adherents, who found the app got in the way of following the latest sports, stock, and real estate developments.

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08/01 Links Pt1: NYPost: Corruption on top of failure at the UN’s Palestine agency; Reasons Why Peaceful Resolutions for the Arab-Israeli Conflict Always Fail

From Ian:

NYPost Editorial: Corruption on top of failure at the UN’s Palestine agency

President Trump cut off US funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees last September because UNRWA is “irredeemably flawed.” In fact, it’s worse than he thought.

An internal ethics report leaked to the press this week exposed a corrupt UNRWA “inner circle.”

Hah! Other nations, mostly in Europe, had been stepping up to replace the $360 million hole that Trump blew in UNRWA’s $1.2 billion budget. Switzerland was the first to announce it would suspend future payments until the scandal’s resolved.

All this, on top of the larger issues that prompted Trump’s move: UNRWA workers have been caught with bomb-making materials and even throwing firebombs at an Israeli bus; its buildings have stored Hamas weapons.

It’s really no surprise to find that so politicized an agency is also thoroughly corrupt. As Trump’s former UN ambassador, Nikki Haley, put it: “This is exactly why we stopped their funding.”

Why is the UN so biased against Israel?

Last week, the United Nations against singled out Israel for condemnation and accusations of human rights violations, while regimes with lengthy histories of abuse and well-documented violations of human rights – like Iran – were ignored.

The UN's Economic and Social Council voted last week to condemn Israel – and Israel alone – as the only country in the world that violates women’s rights. The resolution passed with 40 out of 54 member-countries backing the move, including Saudi Arabia, Iran and Pakistan, the most notorious violators of women’s rights.

Nothing was said about the fact that millions of Arab women endure corporal and even punishment for the way they dress or behave; genital mutilation, honor murder, even in European countries.

By contrast, Arab women in Israel enjoy access to education, jobs, and political freedoms like any woman in any developed liberal democracy has come to expect.

Not many people around the world are aware of this, because the media conceals it from them, pushing the anti-Israel line instead.

The fact that this UN resolution is anti-Semitic goes without saying, but it is also an assault against oppressed women in Arab countries who continue to suffer away from the world's attention because everyone in the civilized world is busy condemning Israel.

MYTH – Palestine was heavily populated with Arabs before the Zionists arrived.

For many centuries, Palestine was a sparsely populated, poorly cultivated, and widely neglected expanse of eroded hills, sandy deserts, and malarial marshes. This was Mark Twain’s description when he visited in 1867:

A desolate country whose soil is rich enough, but is given over wholly to weeds—a silent mournful expanse.

A desolation is here that not even imagination can grace with the pomp of life and action.

We never saw a human being on the whole route.

There was hardly a tree or a shrub anywhere. Even the olive and the cactus, those fast friends of the worthless soil, had almost deserted the country (Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad (London, 1881).

As late as 1880, the American consul in Jerusalem reported the area was continuing its historic decline. “The population and wealth of Palestine has not increased during the last forty years,” he said (Melvin Urofsky, American Zionism from Herzl to the Holocaust (Bison Books: 1995 p. 29).

Take a look at some of the photos from the late 19th and early 20th century to see the desolation Twain talked about.

Palestinians blame Israel for @UNRWA corruption expose

Member of the Executive Committee of the PLO and Head of the PLO's Department of Refugee Affairs Ahmed Abu Houli accused Israel of being behind the recent leak of an expose showing corruption in the highest levels on UNRWA.

Next month, the UN is going to vote to extend UNRWA's mandate for three more years, and Abu Houli sees a conspiracy.

"The leaking of the UN investigation report before reaching the final decision is an open attempt to weaken UNRWA and keep donors from supporting and influencing the voting process for renewal," Abu Houli said in a radio interview.

Abu Houli added, "The US and Israeli campaign targeting UNRWA and the leaking of the report facilitates the efforts of the United States and Israel to end UNRWA, and the United States is pressing countries to withdraw funding."

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine warned of attempts to use the United States and "the Zionist entity" to liquidate UNRWA and "eliminate a historical and legal witness to the plight of the Palestinian people."

Dr. Bassem Naim of Hamas said that no Palestinian can accept corruption in UNRWA but agreed that the timing was suspicious.

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"Justice" is a left-wing anti-Israel dogwhistle. It has nothing to do with real justice.

Yesterday, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted:

“True peace is not the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice.”

Thankful for the wide, intergenerational coalition of communities coming together - Israeli & Palestinian, Jewish & Muslim, American & around the world - seeking to advance that peace and justice. https://t.co/xs9hPp0Jv3
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) July 31, 2019

Her quote, from Martin Luther King Jr., is just another example of how the word "justice" has been weaponized as a dogwhistle to destroy Israel as a Jewish state.

I've noted the false use of the word "justice" before. When anti-Israel activists use the word, they don't mean real justice. They mean that Palestinians get to be the judge and jury, and only they can decide when justice is served - meaning that things won't be solved until Israel is replaced with another Arab state.

In any dispute, there are two sides, each of which has its own ideas of what justice would mean. When the Left uses the word against Israel, they aren't interested in what Israelis feel is just. They don't want to allow Jews to freely live in and visit their holy cities of Hebron and Bethlehem and Shechem (Nablus) and Jericho. They don't want Jewish claims against Arab countries that ethnically cleansed them to be part of the conversation. They don't want Jews to have their own state equal to other states of the world. Although all of those things are just, they do not fall under the false definition of "justice" used by anti-Israel activists.

By misusing the word, they are brainwashing casual observers. Who doesn't support justice? Who could be against it? No one - unless the "justice" being mentioned is inherently unjust.

Judaism has long noted the tension between peace and justice. Justice is unforgiving. One side wins, the other side loses. If God ruled the world with justice untempered with mercy, there would be no world.

Real peace means that both sides compromise. Both sides recognize the humanity of their opponents and are willing to give things up in the greater interests of peace.

Compromise is not compatible with justice in the strict sense of the word. Neither side believes that true justice has been served. Israel has always held that peace is more important than strict justice, which is why it has given up so much for peace.

But peace is not more important than "justice" to the anti-Israel crowd and to most Palestinians.

The anti-Israel activists no longer even pretend they want a two state solution any more- to them, Israel is inherently unjust and therefore illegitimate. That's what many of them mean when they say "justice." (J-Street has a different definition of justice, but, again, who is the judge? The UN? The ICJ? Or the Palestinians who greet every concession as a reason to demand more?)

The Palestinian leaders have bragged on many occasions about how they have not changed their positions since 1988 - no budging throughout Oslo, through Camp David, through Taba, through the peace plans of the 2000s and early 2010s. Their intransigence is all based on their warped idea of "justice", which fits in nicely with the anti-Israel crowd's misuse of the word.

Israel has proven time and time again that it yearns for peace, but not a peace that compromises Israel's security. The anti-Israel crowd is not willing to compromise to keep Israelis secure and at peace. The separation barrier, checkpoints, Iron Dome - literally everything Israel does to keep its citizens safe are denounced by the people who claim to want "peace."

But if you ask them how Israel can get justice for the thousands killed in terror attacks, they will change the subject. Their "justice" is not justice at all, but a dogwhistle.

At least they haven't hijacked the word "peace" yet. But they are trying.

_______________
While we are on the subject of justice, many of the Jewish anti-Israel activists love to quote the Torah, Deuteronomy 16:20, where it says, "Justice, justice you shall pursue."

Actually, the word "tzedek" is probably more properly translated as "righteousness." The proper Hebrew words for strict justice would be "mishpat" and "din." Rabbi Jonathan Sacks says:

Tzedek/tzedakah is almost impossible to translate, because of its many shadings of meaning: justice, charity, righteousness, integrity, equity, fairness and innocence. It certainly means more than strictly legal justice, for which the Bible uses words like mishpat and din.

The anti-Israel crowd ignores the real meaning of "tzedek," and they ignore that it is used in this verse in the context of appointing judges of high moral character.

But they especially ignore the rest of the verse: "so that you may thrive and occupy the land that the Lord your God has given you."

This verse is as Zionist as any in the Torah, and the anti-Israel crowd hijacking that verse is ironic but expected. To them, the Torah itself must be weaponized against Israel just as the word "justice" must be.

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I had high hopes for The Red Sea Diving Club when I saw the trailer:

I already read some of the negative reviews of Netflix film before watching it last night, and they are on target: A great story was ruined by a screenwriter who evidently felt it would do better as a series of Hollywood cliches.

The often shirtless secret agent played by Chris Evans who goes against the rules. Who recruits his own group of misfit friends for an operation. Who recklessly endangers many lives because of his deep moral convictions. Who decides on the fly to turn the resort into a real hotel without any staff to speak of. Who ends up asking America to help with one last mission (where the US ambassador inexplicably ends up on the final trip to Israel.)

But beyond that, the movie shows a startlingly incompetent Mossad. Ben Kingsley's head of the organization has no control over his agents. Evans's Ari character was already fired twice from the agency, we are told, yet he is given free reign to come up with the unlikely plan of using an abandoned Red Sea resort as a cover for Israeli agents to smuggle Ethiopian refugees out via Sudan - and to present this plan himself to the Defense Minister, the only Israeli character in the movie who even attempts an Israeli accent.

Ari is told by his boss that there is no exfiltration plan to help him and his crew in case things go south. Really?

In his very first attempt to get 179 Beta Israel out of the country, Ari chooses to run through a roadblock - and to stop all communication with his Israeli counterparts and boss waiting on a ship at sea and in Israel, giving no valid excuse but they don't investigate what he does.

He's a rogue agent who knows better than his bosses. Yet he endangers the entire Ethiopian Jewish community with his reckless decisions at every turn.

The real story is actually much better than this contrived attempt to cash in on it. It had plenty of drama, but the Mossad is the real hero, not the roadblock for Chris Evans to play another kind of superhero. Everything was planned meticulously, although there was real danger with each operation. The real life story of how the agents managed to secretly bring planes into Sudan is more impressive than the smuggling of people by boat shown in the movie, a method that was scrapped early on because it was too dangerous.

The worst and best part is the final credits.

The movie does not end with the audience being informed of how many Jews were saved from Ethiopia in this and other operations. It does not end with the William Safire quote, “For the first time in history, thousands of black people are brought into the country not in chains but as citizens.” No, the only takeaway is the generic "There are 65 million refugees in the world."

However, during the actual closing credits, photos of the actual saving of Ethiopian refugees and the real Mossad agents at the Arous on the Red Sea hotel (the real name of the resort) are shown.

There is a great movie in the story of the operation to save Jews from Ethiopia. Unfortunately, it isn't The Red Sea Diving Club.

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The long war against Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel has been going on since before the founding of the state. The identity of our enemies varies depending on their ability to fight at any given time and other factors, but – with one important exception that I will discuss later – they are drawn from the Arab and Muslim nations in our region. Our most dangerous enemy in the past may have been Egypt; today it is Iran, and possibly tomorrow it will be Egypt again. But thanks to Islamic doctrine, it will never end.

The struggle for our independence includes physical, or kinetic, warfare, which has taken the form of pogroms, large-scale regional wars, intifadas, and various manifestations of terrorism. But there are also diplomatic, legal, covert, and psychological or cognitive battles going on at the same time.

The best way to picture our position in the cognitive struggle is that of a nation besieged. Our objective is to relieve the pressure so that we can continue with our normal lives. We are not interested in conquering and holding “enemy territory,” but we do want to destroy our enemies’ stock of cognitive weapons and crush their will to fight. Note that although the objective is to defend ourselves, our strategies to do that may call for aggressive offensive tactics. In the cognitive theater of war, our Muslim enemies are joined by some of the post-Christian nations of Western Europe, who are often even more bitterly hostile than the Muslims.

All our enemies have two kinds of objectives: to target us directly in order to create confusion, dissent, and defeatism at home, and to target the rest of the world in order to make it less likely that our allies will support us in time of kinetic war. That can mean making it more difficult for us to obtain supplies and weapons, or to use air space or land bases. It can mean preparing the ground so that other nations will vote against us in the UN Security Council, or so that public opinion in democratic countries will favor our enemies. It can mean damaging us economically by persuading nations, companies, and individuals to avoid doing business with our firms.

The cognitive attacks that target the nations of the world are intended to delegitimize Israel, to present her as a usurper that has no moral or legal right to exist; or to demonize her, to suggest that her behavior is so despicable, so evil, that she has forfeited her right to be treated like a normal nation of normal people, and deserves to be destroyed.

An example of delegitimization is the narrative that describes the birth of the state as the colonization – by “white” European Jews supported by the great powers – of indigenous “Palestinian” people of color, rather than the return of the Jewish people to its aboriginal land against the racist opposition of the entire Arab world to that return.

Demonization includes traditional military atrocity stories, especially the accusation that the IDF deliberately targets children – the reverse of the actual situation – claims of “apartheid,” and even, for less sophisticated audiences, the retelling of traditional anti-Jewish blood libels.

Cognitive warfare supports and functions in tandem with ordinary kinetic warfare and terrorism (which is both kinetic and cognitive). We shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that the ultimate goal of our enemies is to destroy our state, and kill or disperse the Jewish people. When an Iranian mullah leads a chant of “death to Israel,” he means death to Israel (America, too). When a European government sends money to the Israeli NGO B’Tselem, they are paying for the demonization of Israel in international forums, interference with IDF security activities, and lawfare against the Israeli government and IDF in Israeli and foreign courts. And when an Israeli newspaper columnist with Jewish parents writes an article in which he accuses Israeli Air Force pilots of murder, he too is pulling the trigger of a cognitive weapon aimed at our hearts. If his checks aren’t signed in Teheran, they should be. In all cases, the final objective is the same.

Israel responds to these attacks in a purely defensive way, to try to parry their thrusts. No, we say (after months of research), we did not shoot young Mohammed al-Durah in 2000; either he was shot by Hamas terrorists or he was not shot at all. No, our treatment of our Arab citizens and Arabs living under the Palestinian Authority is nothing at all like apartheid. No, we didn’t cut down those olive trees; Arab farmers pruned them.

As I wrote in my series about fighting BDS (here and here), the reactive approach has two serious defects: first, by restating the accusations, it gives them renewed currency and makes even absurd accusations acceptable subjects of discussion. Second, the mechanism of researching and responding to exaggerated or made-up claims can easily be overwhelmed by their sheer volume (just like Iron Dome can!)

A better strategy would be to go on the offensive and take the war to the enemy. The Palestinian narrative is flimsy and easily refuted. There is a continual flow of academic papers about the “settler-colonial” paradigm attributed to Israel, but where are the papers about the Arab migrations into the land of Israel in the 19^th and 20^th centuries? Where are the pro-Zionist academic conferences and grants given to scholars who present our side of the story, which has the advantage of being true?

And not only do we rarely attack the Arab historical narrative – indeed, many Israelis are in the forefront of those who promulgate it – we don’t sufficiently stress the moral depravity and culpability of Palestinian leaders, past and present. Imagine if we could obtain wide distribution of the story that Mahmoud Abbas raised the funds for the Munich Olympics massacre of 1972.

There is a reason that the pro-Israel point of view has such a tough time in academia and in free, Western media. And that is that while Israel has been busy fighting wars and defending herself against terrorism, our enemies have been using their petrodollars to subvert Western universities and media. Did you know that in addition to the millions it spends on lobbying American lawmakers, Hamas-supporting Qatar has given literally billions of dollars to universities and other academic projects (like the Brookings Institution) in the US? They specialize in universities like Georgetown and Northwestern, where there are schools for foreign service officers and journalists, but haven’t stinted on their gifts to Harvard, Berkeley, the University of Michigan, and numerous others. And of course, Saudi Arabia has been doing the same for years, even subsidizing public-school textbooks in the US and Europe! Qatar also operates one of the most influential media outlets in the world (especially the Arabic-speaking world), Al-Jazeera.

Israel doesn’t have the billions of petrodollars that Qatar does, but with her technical abilities, she could do a great deal more. Unfortunately, perhaps because of inappropriate feelings of guilt over having won the wars of 1948 and 1967, fear of angering the Palestinian Authority or even Arab Israelis, and the pervasive influence of the Left in our media and academia, Israel is transfixed by the blows she has received on the cognitive battlefield, and is unable to take the initiative.

What will it take to win the cognitive struggle? Probably a wholesale change in our national consciousness. I’m not optimistic.

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