Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, August 07, 2019

Akiva Fuld: “I’m Doing This For Me” (Judean Rose)

Akiva Fuld would like you to believe there’s nothing special about what he’s doing, and he’s right: we should all be asking each other “What can I do for you, today?” We should all care enough to ask that question.

What’s different about Akiva Fuld, to my mind, is the follow-through. And by that, I don’t mean answering a call for help with whatsoever assistance he is able to offer, though there’s that, but asking the question in the first place: “What can I do for you, today?”

Most of us would be terrified to ask that question, if it even occurred to us to ask it in the first place. We’d be afraid of getting involved with the messiness of other people’s lives, of being on the hook for more than we’d bargained. For Akiva Fuld, on the other hand, it’s a simple thing, no big deal, no daunting prospect, just a straightforward proposition. Three times a day, he just comes right out and asks the question, “How can I help you, today?”

That’s how it started, anyway, though now it’s morphed into something else: Akiva Fuld created a Facebook page called How can I try to help you today? The page is open to the public, anyone can join. Anyone can ask for Akiva Fuld’s help.

Now, Akiva may or may not be able to help you with your problem. But he’s going to try. And if you think about it, 45-year-old Akiva Fuld, married for 22 years, and a father of 7 (girl, boy, girl, boy, girl, boy, girl), is only doing what we all know we should be doing for each other: caring enough to offer our help and doing our best to follow through.

This is what it means to be a good person. And we should all be good people. I think we can learn something from Akiva Fuld’s example, so I reached out for an interview. Wanting to be helpful (!), Akiva agreed:

Varda Epstein: Tell us a bit about yourself: where are you from, how did you end up in Israel?

Akiva Fuld: I was born and raised in Queens, NY. I made Aliyah at age 23. I guess ending up in Israel mainly had to do with the kind of upbringing I wanted for my future children. I was hoping to save my children from a society that was highly influenced by envy.

Varda Epstein: You started a Facebook group: How can I try to help you today? Can you tell us about this group?

Akiva Fuld: A few months ago I started posting those words to my page, and I was getting all sorts of requests from all over the globe. When I first started noticing the requests begin to dwindle, I started posting 3 times a day. I began to see a rise in requests. When I saw them drop off again, I decided to post to groups that were quite big.

On the first day, many people posted and I helped as many as I could. The second day, again there were many requests, but this time many people started helping others. I guess I felt that I can't help with everything, so I might as well share the opportunity. The truth is that the group is for me to be able to help others. If other people want to help, that's great, if not, I get to keep the opportunities for myself.

Varda Epstein: What made you start the group?

Akiva Fuld: Well there really were three things that made me start the group. First, I haven’t always been a big fan of mankind. I'm very optimistic when it comes to Hashem, and yet quite pessimistic when it comes to mankind. Our ability to cause self-destruction is staggering. I felt that I needed a way to begin to better like mankind. What better way to grow to love someone, than to give to them?

Second, we don't charge usury in Judaism. Aside from the simple reason—Hashem told us not to—if we want a bit of a logical reason, it seems to me that the money doesn't really being to us, we are simply guardians. So if we need the money then we use it, if not then we should make sure someone else can. I feel that it should be the same with time.

And third, certain personal things happened in the past few years that made me want to work on being a better person.

Varda Epstein: What do you hope the group will achieve?

Akiva Fuld: I have no real expectations, and I have no idea where this is going to go. I really would like to see it be more international, and be able to help many other demographics.

Varda Epstein: How much of your time would you say is occupied with this endeavor?

Akiva Fuld: Good thing you are asking me and not my wife or children. I am spending as much time as I believe I need to, in order to make sure as many people as possible get the help they need. My wife and kids believe I am spending WAY too much time on this.

I guess in the end the actual time calculation comes out about the same—pretty much around the clock. I am trying to get it down to 2-3 hours in the morning, 2-3 hours in the afternoon, and 2-3 hours at night. I'm hoping as I bring in more moderators on the page, that I'll be able to get it down to those numbers.

Varda Epstein: What do you do for a living?

Akiva Fuld: I'm building up my company - https://fourpathsto.com/ - which is a new form of communication that I've created, based on recognizing which one of 4 personalities best describes your audience, and then being able to change the delivery of your message, not the message itself, to best fit your audience. This works with audiences from 1 all the way to millions.

Varda Epstein: Do you ever think about the success/fail component to your offer of help?

Akiva Fuld: Personally I don't like to fail, so I do put great effort into it, but it will happen from time to time that I'm not able to help someone. Sometimes it is because I don't have specific knowledge, and sometimes the person isn't open to creative solutions. Also, this is why I added the word 'try' to the name of the group. Does it matter whether or not you are able to help this person or that? Nope. As long as I try and give it my all. I imagine there are people who would like to know: how often is he successful. I don't know the answer to that. I'm not keeping track. I don't see any value in that.

Varda Epstein: What is it about an offer of help that is important?

Akiva Fuld: 1- Listening to what the person is and isn't saying. 2- Understanding what the person is asking for. 3- Being able to recognize, and clearly communicate the difference between the person's 'wants' and 'needs.’ 4- Being able to provide creative solutions when the situation requires it, and simple solutions, when that is what is needed. 5- Being able to recognize what the other person needs to hear and how it needs to be said.

Varda Epstein: What should others take away from your perspective on extending help?

Akiva Fuld: 1- Sometimes people simply need an ear, and sometimes they need more than that. And 2- it is only on one to try.

Varda Epstein: What is your ultimate goal for you and for your people?

Akiva Fuld: For me it is to keep on helping until people don't need to ask anymore. Also it might be nice SOMEDAY (NOT NOW) to have a discretionary fund to help out some of the people who need financial assistance. But I am in no rush. I honestly don't know what the other group members hope to achieve. I'm doing this for me.

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08/07 Links Pt1: Palestinian who saved Jewish kids after terror attack gets Israeli residency; Swastika Flag on Gaza Border Reveals Hamas’ True Intention — the Annihilation of the Jewish State

From Ian:

Palestinian who saved Jewish kids after terror attack gets Israeli residency

Interior Minister Aryeh Deri on Tuesday awarded Israeli residency to a Palestinian man who saved the children of a West Bank rabbi in the aftermath of the deadly terror attack in which the father was killed.

Rabbi Miki Mark was murdered in a July 1, 2016, shooting. His wife, Chava, was seriously injured, and their two teenage children were also hurt. The Palestinian rescuer and his wife, residents of the Hebron area, helped the surviving members of the Mark family escape their overturned vehicle and administered first aid until first responders arrived at the scene.

The Palestinian man, who has not been named, received a temporary visa to live and work in Israel after receiving death threats in his hometown near the West Bank city of Hebron.

However, the visa was not renewed in August 2018 and for the last year he was unable to work, becoming homeless and living in limbo in Israel.

After his plight was revealed recently in a Channel 12 report, and following a campaign by several Israelis, including settler leaders, he was awarded Israeli residency on Tuesday, along with his wife and son.

While presenting him his identity documents, Deri praised him for his “selfless, noble” actions and said he would now be able to begin a new life in Israel.

Israel: Swastika Flag on Gaza Border Reveals Hamas’ True Intention — the Annihilation of the Jewish State

Israel continued on Tuesday to call out Hamas for the placing last Friday on the Gaza border fence of a Nazi swastika flag by Palestinian demonstrators.

“When #Hamas-led rioters in #Gaza raise the #Nazi flag, they expose their true intention — to annihilate the Jewish State. But Hamas will never have its way,” the Israeli Foreign Ministry tweeted.

On Monday, it was reported that Hamas had instructed rioters to not use the swastika “so that the Israeli occupation cannot take advantage of it.”

Elad Strohmayer — spokesperson for the Israeli Embassy in Washington, DC — tweeted on Tuesday, “Hey #Hamas, I get your concern about your PR but banning Nazi symbols just won’t do it. As long as you call for the destruction of the Jewish State, using swastikas is simply you being honest. It’s not the swastika that makes us think you want to kill all Jews, it’s your charter.”

David Singer: Jordan Jew-hatred Risks Trump, Israel and United Nations Ire

Jordanian Awqaf and Islamic Affairs Minister Abdul Nasser Abu al-Basl – who oversees holy sites in Jordan and Jerusalem – reportedly accused Israelis of illegally entering Aaron’s Tomb and decided that Jordan would close it to all tourists with the exception of those who receive prior government approval.

Abu Basl also told Al Mamlaka TV, a state-funded channel, that he decided to close the tomb following “Israeli violations” at the site and “the performance of rituals without the knowledge of the ministry.”

Jews and Arabs – Moslem and Christian – need to respect each other’s religious places of pilgrimage and not claim exclusivity of any site they may each have a religious connection with.

Jordan’s reprehensible action threatens the release of Trump’s deal of the century and Jordan’s possible participation in negotiations with Israel to successfully bring it to fruition. Trump’s displeasure could see financial and security consequences for Jordan. Possible retaliatory action by Israel on Jordan’s Islamic-sites custodianship in Jerusalem could also follow.

Cooling the situation by allowing Jews to freely access Mount Hor is urgently required.
Jordan should hang its head in shame.

Just asking.

It seems there are various former members of J Street, some who served in leadership positions, who are now involved in If Not Now -- and some of them are apparently founding members.

For example:

Max Berger

o He is identified as a co-founder of If Not Now in his 'bio' on Haaretz
o A JTA article notes that before If Not Now, Max Berger worked for J Street as a new media assistant

Yonah Lieberman

o Yonah Lieberman has a twitter account that identifies him as a co-founder of If Not Now
o Lieberman was very heavily involved in J Street. According to his LinkedIn page, from January 2010 on he was a member of the National Student Board, the Midwest Regional Co-Chair, and Campus Chapter Chair.

Carinne Luck

o Times of Israel identifies Carinne Luck as a co-founder of If Not Now.
o Luck's website notes she was a founding staff member and Vice President for Field and Campaigns at J Street.

Simone Zimmerman

o Simone Zimmerman identifies herself as a co-founder of If Not Now on her Twitter page.
o In an article for The Forward, Josh Nathan-Kazis writes that Simone Zimmerman was the national president of J Street U’s student board in the 2012-2013 school year

Kara Segal

o Kara Segal's LinkedIn account lists her as an If Not Now co-founder.
o She appears in this YouTube video at a 2009 J Street conference.

Emily Mayer

o Emily Mayer identifies herself as an If Not Now organizer on her Twitter page
o Daniel Greenfield notes that Emily Mayer was with J Street U at Haverford

Sarah Beth Alcabes

Canary Mission lists Sarah Beth Alcabes as leading an INN disruption, in partnership with Taher Herzallah of American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), and also being an activist with J Street U at the University of California, Berkeley (Berkeley) from 2012-2014.

Times of Israel mentions Elianna Fishman, who was "heavily involved with J Street U Dartmouth" and who confirms "I interned for J Street, and helped set up a chapter on campus” before graduating and joining IfNotNow -- to which the article adds

In fact, many of IfNotNow’s leaders are alumni of J Street U.

An article in Haaretz echoes this when it says:

[If Not Now] remains small, attracting several dozen participants, some of whom are leaders of J Street U, the group’s student-organizing arm.

But the question remains: why have these, and other members of J Street, made the switch?

It sure appears as if J-Street is a gateway drug for Jewish students to learn to hate Israel and to be comfortable to criticize Israel "as a Jew." But it might be more than that.

According to a Haaretz article from 2014, Gaza War Pushes Some to the Left of J Street. The logic, according to Haaretz, is that over time, J Street, even back in 2014, was becoming larger and more moderate, with the result that there were the beginnings of a limited exodus that benefited smaller more radical groups. One of those groups was If Not Now, described in the article as "an ad hoc group."

Of course, what the Haaretz article claims is a sign of J Street's moderation can also be seen as the failure in the eyes of some of its members, to become increasingly radical.

A similar theme to Haaretz is taken by Nathan-Kazis in the Forward also in an article from 2014, that in contrast to the more "moderate" tone taken by J Street, some members felt J Street was not doing enough:

Former high-ranking J Street staff members were among the organizers of a July 28 protest in New York City against Israel’s invasion of Gaza. They acted under the name #ifnotnow and made no mention of their former J Street affiliations.

He writes about another protest just a few days earlier, launched by 4 activists that included high-ranking members Carinne Luck who had left J Street in 2012 and Daniel May, director of J Street U from 2010 to 2013 as well as Max Berger.

Other participants in one or both of those #ifnotnow protests included Isaac Luria, J Street’s vice president of communications and new media from 2008 until 2011 and Tamara Shapiro.

Some of that former J Street staff said they were not opposed to J Street’s long-term strategy -- but felt limited by its tactics. Others, like Luck, said they did not share J Street's "patience" with the "Jewish institutional community."

That is the narrative. Daniel Greenfield of FrontPageMag.org isn't buying it.

He is cynical of claims that If Not Now was simply born of a break with J Street. In If Not Now, J Street's Latest Anti-Israel Front Group, he writes:

The official narrative is that If Not Now parted ways with J Street because the group was insufficiently opposed to the Jewish State and insufficiently supportive of Hamas. As a practical matter though this is how radical groups have always operated, with a front group that makes efforts to appear moderate while incubating radical organizations within itself that "split off" but still pursue the same agenda.

Despite claims of a split, If Not Now is just pursuing the exact same agenda as J Street U, protesting Jewish charities for supporting Israel, while claiming to be the voice of a new generation.

It's the same scam with a new brand and slightly less of a paper trail.

If Not Now is J Street...

...New organizations are constantly being created and destroyed. But they all share one agenda. The destruction of the Jewish State.

If there is indeed an element of dramatic effect at work here, then this alleged break would be no more authentic than the recent break of Jesse Steshenko, who claimed to have been "a very ardent Zionist" who as a result of his recent J Street trip to Israel became "disgusted" with Israel.

Elder of Ziyon revealed that in fact as recently as 2016 as a member of Junior States of America, a mock Congress, he introduced a resolution calling Israel an apartheid state and demanding the recognition of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza as defined by the 1949 Armistice -- effectively depriving Israel of the Western Wall and the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem.

Actually, J Street itself has a history of being less than straightforward.

o It is a group that claims that it is pro-Israel, yet only supports Democrats, going so far as to support candidates it claims support Israel such as Representative Mark Pocan, who anonymously reserved official Capitol Hill space for an anti-Israel forum organized by organizations that support boycotts

o  J Street was perfectly willing to support Rashida Tlaib, until it withdrew it only because she backed out of support of a 2-state solution

o  Despite denials, J Street not only supported the Goldstone Report - it actively facilitated Goldstone's attempt to defend it

o  Despite their repeated denials to the contrary, in 2008 and 2009 J Street received funding from George Soros.

o  J Street's co-founder Daniel Levy called the creation of Israel ‘an act that was wrong’

Carinne Luck's involvement in If Not Now is another reason for apprehension.

Here is a 2012 video of Luck explaining J Street's job:

The main takeaway from what Luck says:

o A sizable percentage of J Street is not Jewish
o J Street responds to the wishes "the Hill, the (Obama) Administration" which wants J Street to "move Jews"
o The bulk of J Street resources are dedicated to this
o There is an uneasiness about those in J Street leadership who are not Jewish who may present themselves as Jews

This idea of misrepresentation that Carinne Luck shares with the group -- without condemning -- is an issue that arises again with If Not Now, both in terms of questions about its connections with J Street but also in terms of its own claims to represent today's young American Jews.

We have seen there is a failure of J Street to live up to what it claims it does.
Should we be surprised that there are doubts about what If Not Now claims as well?

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Egypt's 12th annual National Theater Festival will feature a blatantly antisemitic play called "Christ Crucified in Palestine."

The play is the official entry from the Egyptian Orthodox Church for the youth competition within the festival.

The play is a mock trial between Pontius Pilate, the Roman ruler of Jerusalem in Jesus' time, and Caiaphas, the Jewish leader who is cast as a villain and stand-in for the evils of Jews throughout history, from "killing the prophets" through killing Jesus and on through Israel's crime of existence.

Jesus is characterized in the play as having called to destroy the idea of Jews as the "chosen people" while the Jews continue to act in this arrogant manner.

The play was originally written as a response to the 'Nostra Aetate' of the Second Vatican Council and the subsequent Six Day War. The 'Nostra Aetate' is characterized as being written "to absolve the Jews of the crimes committed against the prophets and unarmed Palestinian people." Egypt's president Gamal Abdel Nasser stood next to the Egyptian National Church and denounced the document in 1965, which is as good a proof as any of the antisemitism in the Arab world.

The performance has been updated with new "crimes" of the Jews, up to and including the US embassy opening in Jerusalem and the "Judaization of Palestine."

"Christ Crucified in Palestine" was staged last year in a number of Coptic venues, and its popularity prompted it to be revived for this year's festival.

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Palestinian diplomats are engaged in a full court press to convince European and Arab countries to continue UNRWA's mandate - a mandate that ensures a parallel infrastructure for education, healthcare and housing in areas under Palestinian control.

They are also trying to convince Latin American countries to vote to extend UNRWA's mandate.

The agency's mandate has been rubber stamped to be extended every three years for decades, but in light of the recent corruption scandal at UNRWA's highest levels and the US opposition to the group, this year the extension will be a little more visible. The chances that it will not be extended are still very small.

But under the leadership of Mahmoud Abbas and is foreign ministry, the PLO's diplomats worldwide and at the UN are initiating contacts with every country they can find to ensure that the vote remains overwhelmingly towards continuing the agency's operations.

UNRWA's model of providing free education, healthcare and housing to an ever-increasing number of descendants of refugees for ever is not sustainable. No one even pretends it is. But instead of having the agency curtail operations in areas where the local government can and should take over the role as any normal nation would, the "pro-UNRWA" crowd is not willing to even consider a change in its responsibilities to keep it financially viable.

In Jordan, the vast majority of those who receive benefits are full citizens, not "refugees" in any sense, and there is no reason the world must finance the schools and clinics of full Jordanian citizens.

For the Palestinians, insisting on maintaining UNRWA proves that they have no real desire for independence. After all, the "refugees" on Palestinian soil are not refugees by any definition either. The Palestinian Authority, if it truly wants independence, would actively want to take over UNRWA's functions in areas under its control to move more towards independence. If it truly wanted to be a state, it would ask to integrate UNRWA's operations into its own government and take the UNRWA budget during a transitional period.

It never even considers that. The PLO is not only willing but insisting on outsourcing a large part of its governmental responsibilities to the UN, forever.

That is not how nations striving for independence would act.

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08/06 Links Pt2: Did PayPal shut BDS South Africa account after PFLP terrorist meeting?; UN Workers Under Investigation For Allegedly Stealing Humanitarian Aid

From Ian:

Did PayPal shut BDS South Africa account after PFLP terrorist meeting?

Muhammed Desai, the director of one the world’s leading Boycott, Divest and Sanctions organizations, has found his group embroiled in a new Palestinian terrorism scandal after BDS South Africa last week tweeted a picture of Desai shaking hands with member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

The US and the EU have both classified the PFLP a terrorist entity.

At the same time, The Jerusalem Post learned on Monday that BDS South Africa’s PayPal account is now not accepting donations. It is unclear if the online payment service PayPal closed the account due to BDS South Africa’s support and financing of a terrorist organization.

When the Post clicked on the electronic donation section of BDS South Africa, the entry by PayPal stated: “Things don’t appear to be working at the moment. Please try again later.” Post media queries to PayPal on Monday were not returned.

The now-deleted BDS South Africa tweet read: “A representative of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) with BDS South Africa’s Muhammed Desai. The PFLP works closely with BDS SA in the global campaign against Apartheid Israel.”

The Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor retained a screenshot of the tweet.

#Deleted!!! @BDSsouthafrica boasted of working with #PFLP 🔫💣 #terror group designated by 🇪🇺EU, 🇨🇦CA, 🇺🇸US, 🇮🇱IL, etc. Their post seems to be missing, but luckily we have a copy. #ICYMI: #BDS = #hate pic.twitter.com/2EOyraVeVf
— NGO Monitor (@NGOmonitor) August 1, 2019

UN Workers Under Investigation For Allegedly Lining Their Own Pockets With Humanitarian Aid

More than a dozen United Nations workers in Yemen are under investigation for allegedly embezzling millions of dollars of humanitarian aid in the war-torn nation, according to a Monday Associated Press report.

The World Health Organization (WHO) conducted an internal investigation, drawing attention to unqualified people being paid excessively, the use of personal bank accounts for donated funds, suspicious contracts and the disappearance of essentials like food and medicine. UNICEF, another U.N. organization, is alleging one of their own may have protected a rebel leader, according to the AP report citing information from eight anonymous aid workers.

Houthi rebels from northern Yemen allegedly seized laptops and evidence from U.N. officials in 2018 as they were about to depart the country from an airport, according to six former and current aid officials.

Yemen is currently the poorest nation in the Middle East with one of the worst humanitarian conflicts in the world, a World Bank report details.

Chief of the U.N.’s Sanaa Office, Italian Nevio Zagaria, was alleged to have misappropriated U.N. finances, jumpstarting a reported probe in November. Six U.N. current and former employees. who requested anonymity, affirmed his tenure was “riddled with corruption and nepotism,” according to AP.

Zagaria reportedly brought in junior staffers and promoted them to extremely lucrative roles for which they were not qualified. It’s also alleged that two highly paid senior staffers were tasked with the sole responsibility of taking care of Zagaria’s dog.

Video of Israeli "Tracks for Regional Peace" plan - railway from Haifa to Jordan and Saudi Arabia

The only people who could hate this idea are the people who hate Israel no matter what.

It benefits Israel, the Palestinians, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states.

Egypt would be the main loser because this plan competes with the Suez Canal.

(h/t Irene)

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Palestinian finance minister Shukri Bishara was to have met with Israeli Finance Ministry officials on Tuesday to discuss several issues.

In Jerusalem, Bishara will meet with the director general of the Israeli Finance Ministry and discuss with him the deduction of Palestinian tax revenues and the deduction of IEC's debts from tax revenues .

This meeting is despite the announcement of President Mahmoud Abbas to stop all agreements signed with the Israeli occupation .

But Abbas got in the headlines for his latest lie, and that's all that really matters.

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08/06 Links Pt1: An Israeli Victory Is Necessary if Peace Is to Be Achieved; Shin Bet busts Hamas cell planning Jerusalem bombing attack; Indonesia's Growing Engagement With The Afghan Taliban

From Ian:

An Israeli Victory Is Necessary if Peace Is to Be Achieved

A major component of US strategy to help Israel gain the victory necessary for peace should be a campaign of “assertive truth-telling.” Such truth-telling by Israel, the US, and eventually the European democracies can be the key to an ultimate Israeli victory because Palestinian policy is based, both internally and externally, on demonstrable falsehoods.

Usually, a country has to commit troops or get the support of other countries, or at least spend a large amount of money, if it is to achieve victory. But the US can help Israel achieve victory without any of these. A major part of Israel’s problem is that most of the diplomatic world accepts key falsehoods about Israel and its conflict with the Palestinians and the Arab world. By simply and boldly stating the truth, the US can end the reign of the now-dominant falsehoods and advance an Israeli victory. And the US has a unique ability to bring diplomatic attention to the error of these falsehoods.

The US can sharply strengthen Israel’s position in the world by explaining three facts so insistently that their truth can no longer be ignored:
1. There has never been any “Palestinian territory” anywhere. That being the case, there cannot now be “occupied Palestinian territory.” Nor can Israel have stolen “Palestinian land.”
2. There were Jewish kingdoms in much of what is referred to as “Palestine” for hundreds of years before the birth of Islam. The Palestinian belief that the Jewish people are European colonialists invading the area with no historic claim or right is entirely false.
3. There are not millions of Palestinian “refugees.” A just peace in the area does not require that Israel take in so many Palestinians that it cannot continue to exist as a democratic Jewish state.

Instead, peace requires that the Arab world let the descendants of refugees from the Israeli War of Independence be settled and live normal lives, rather than continue to treat them as stateless refugees in order to preserve their status as a threat to Israel.

While Israel has expressed these truths frequently, its diplomatic policy has been to put more emphasis on trying to appease the consensus by showing a willingness to negotiate, limiting settlement in the West Bank, and limiting criticism of the Palestinians and assertions of Israeli rights — as if those were useful ways to advance negotiations. It is time for Israel to challenge the international diplomatic assumptions more vigorously by assertive truth-telling.

Arabs Say One Thing in Public and Another Behind Closed Doors

According to Jonathan Spyer, director of the Middle East Center for Reporting and Analysis, "It's very important for Western policymakers to be aware that leaderships and elites throughout the Arab world today find a great deal of common ground with Israel on the issues of the Iranian and Sunni Islamist threats."

"To an increasing extent, they are also weary of Palestinian intransigence and see Israel as a model for successful development. Much of that, however, cannot be said openly by these leaders because this does not reflect the views of parts of the societies of the leaders in question, where Islamist and/or Arab nationalist sentiments continue to hold sway."

Despite some public lip service to the Palestinian cause, the Sunni Arab world knows that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is at most a "side issue."

An Israeli military intelligence expert who had just returned from private meetings in Europe with Arab and EU officials told me that, behind closed doors, their analysis of the Middle East, including Iran, is often light years away from the public rhetoric offered by European and Arab Sunni government officials to their citizens.

The conflicts of the Middle East are primarily tribal and religious in nature, and the primary allegiance is not to modern states artificially constructed by the West 100 years ago. Insiders know that if there were no Israel, the Shiites would still hate the Sunnis, Iran would still aspire to hegemony, Turkey would still be an unreliable NATO ally, and Libya and Yemen would still be chaotic.

Some European officials, who vociferously defend the Iran nuclear agreement publicly, privately acknowledge the dangers of the Iranian revolutionary theocracy that acts against their values.

Khaled Abu Toameh: Hamas, Islamic Jihad: "The Circle of Fire is Expanding"

It seems, then, that for Islamic Jihad and Hamas, the ceasefire understandings, reached under the auspices of Egypt and the UN, are meant to give the Gaza-based groups a chance to continue building their military capabilities without having to worry about Israeli retaliatory measures.

Iranian media quoted Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as expressing satisfaction over the "progress" the Palestinians have made in the past few years. The "progress" Khamenei is talking about is not related to the building of a new hospital or school or a medical breakthrough in the Gaza Strip. Instead, the "progress" the Palestinians have achieved -- according to Iran's Supreme Leader -- is that "while the Palestinians used to fight [Israel] with rocks, today they possess precise rockets."

The Egyptian and UN mediators, in failing to call out the leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad for their deception and conflicting messages, are permitting the two groups to deploy the ceasefire with Israel as a cover to prepare for the next war.

The leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad and their patrons in Tehran... are dead-set on inflicting as much damage on Israel as possible. As per standard operating procedure, the biggest losers of all in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip will be the Palestinians.

J Street doesn't love Israel. (Zvi)

From Zvi:

______________________________________

J Street doesn't love Israel. Neither does Jeremy.

It is important to understand the difference between the ends and the means.

J Street's tag line is, "the political home of pro-Israel, pro-peace Americans". In other words, J Street is intended to be a political magnet for a certain category of Americans: those who are "pro Israel pro peace". (The whole "pro Israel pro peace" thing is nonsense anyway. Nobody who supports Israel opposes peace; what they oppose is buying short-term peace by agreeing to commit suicide. The term "pro Israel pro peace" implies that pro-Israel Jews who don't support J Street are war-mongers, which is a blood libel of sorts. But let's skip that for now.)

For J Street, the highest priority is most definitely NOT a safe, strong Israel; strong, flourishing Jewish communities; or safe, flourishing Jews. None of J Street's words or activities encourage or support any of these goals.

For J Street, the highest priority is to support "progressive" Democratic Party candidates in the US. The MEANS by which they achieve this end involve appealing to "progressive" American Jews by referencing their hot-button issue of Israel in ways that J Street thinks will harness their support for "progressive" Democrats.

Unfortunately, J Street views Israel's politics as an extension of US politics. It views events in Israel exclusively through the lens of "progressive" American politics, forgetting that Israel is a distinct country with distinct dangers, a distinct culture, a distinct history, a distinct political system and a distinct future.

On Israel, J Street is the political home of people who are mentally trapped in the early 1990s, people who view the Ashkenazi Israeli left – which has been eviscerated by its own naïve failure to predict or address the murderous backstabbing of Arafat and his successors – as a kind of extension of the Democratic Party in the US. These are people who don't see any differences between the situation of African Americans in US culture and Ethiopian Jews in Israeli culture. They are people who don't see why Israelis should be allowed to have needs that are different from their own.

J Street and its supporters do not understand Israelis, their culture or their concerns. They do not bother to try to understand these things, because what Israelis want, what Israelis have learned through personal experience, and what Israelis find dubious or ridiculous are simply not important to J Street and its supporters. It's all very patronizing.

J Street has treated successive Israeli governments and politicians like political opponents rather than legitimate friends and allies of world Jewry and of the United States. J Street views all non-leftist Israeli parties – and thus much of the Israeli mainstream – as "far-right" extensions of the US's Republican Party. J Street is not interested in listening to the majority of Israelis because it is not interested in listening to its political opponents. It views them as foils that it can attack in order to rally the troops at home to its real cause, which is the election of "progressive" candidates.

J Street has become so trapped by this mindset that it aligns itself with people who oppose Israel's right to exist and harbor deeply antisemitic sentiments; it continues to oppose efforts to fight BDS effectively, or to prevent other attacks on Israel and on Jews around the world.

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The Al-Quds and Al-Aqsa Committee of the Palestinian Legislative Council issued a statement about Jews who plan to visit the Temple Mount on Tisha B'Av Sunday, the fast day that commemorates the destruction of the Temples that were built on the site now dominated by several huge mosques meant to erase Jewish history.

In a time when Americans are upset over the terminology "invaders" referring to illegal immigrants, this official PLO committee refers to Jews who want to visit their holiest site as "Zionist rapists."

They wrote three bullet points:

First: This Zionist obsession, and disregard for the feelings of millions of Muslims in the world, stems from the state of humiliation and shameful normalization led by some corrupt Arab regimes.

Secondly: We call on our people in the West Bank, Jerusalem and inside the occupied territories to travel to the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the first day of Eid, and to consider it as a remarkable day in the days of Allah.

Third: We call on the Palestinian resistance to establish a new equation (i.e. balance of power vis-a-vis Israel) that will protect the holy places, and cut off any hand that is stretched out towards (the holy places) with evil (intentions)."

That third point sure sounds like incitement to terror.

The Mufti of Jerusalem added to the incitement, making up a lie that Jews have demanded to enter the doors of the actual Al Aqsa Mosque - a complete fiction.

The Mufti, Mohammed Hussein, said "our people will not stand idly by" as Jews visit the site.

Supreme Islamic Commission Sheikh Ekrema Sabri called on Muslims to go en masse to the site on Sunday and effectively called on them to fight any Jews who ascend there, saying "Whoever plays with fire will be burned by fire."

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

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Hey, Amnesty hasn't come out with a new video demonizing Israel for at least three weeks, so of course they are overdue.

Off the top of my head, here are only some of the lies and misrepresentations in the video:

1. Israel doesn't "transfer" people to the territories. People move there voluntarily. This is not a violation of the Geneva Conventions routinely invoked to target Israel that says "The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies."

2. Israel haters knew that invoking Geneva wasn't nearly as clear cut as they pretended, so the Arab states specifically wrote the Rome statute to mention "indirect" transfer - a law written only for Israel. European powers went along with this hijacking of international law to target a single state. This makes the Rome Statute a travesty of international law.

3. Even that travesty doesn't extend to travel companies working wherever they want to. That is Amnesty's own obsession. There is nothing illegal there, and in fact to demand that travel companies discriminate against Jews is far more immoral. (Israeli Arabs who live across the Green Line aren't considered "settlers" and there are thousands of them.)

4. Amnesty implies that Jewish settlements displace Arabs. Outside of Hebron, every settlement is in areas Arabs never lived. In Hebron, every single house that Jews live in was purchased legally.

Any displacement of Arabs because of them building houses illegally is done with permission of Israel's Supreme Court. I've never seen Amnesty (or anyone, for that matter) seriously counter the legal arguments that are in Supreme Court decisions.

5. Jews live under fear as well. Ever hear of suicide bombers? Amnesty never spent nearly as much time on Palestinian terror as on Jews building houses.

6. Gaza, and Area A, are not under military occupation in any legal sense. Occupation requires "boots on the ground" in every legal definition before people started making up new rules for Israel and Israel alone. Even Amnesty has admitted that the definition of occupation is only "as long as the occupying forces are still present in that territory and exercise final control over the acts of the local authorities." This does not at all apply to Gaza or Area A, which have their own local authorities who do not answer to Israeli military officials.

7. Amnesty's obsession with Israel means fewer resources on real human rights issues worldwide. It does not have unlimited resources, which means that Amnesty makes the conscious decision every day to divert money and time from the millions of people worldwide who actually have their lived threatened every day towards demonizing Israel. In short, Amnesty's obsession with Israel endangers untold numbers of other people worldwide who need the political support from a major human rights organization.

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Israel's Arabic Facebook page says:

Saudi journalist Sukina al-Hasayhas said in an interview with the Israeli Kan channel that there is no enmity between Israel and Saudi Arabia: "We do not have a political problem with Israel. Israel didn't even shoot a single bullet at us."

Hasayhas added that there is a very clear match between the positions of Israel and the Gulf states regarding the "Iranian threat, Iran's support of Hezbollah and the Houthis that threaten the Middle East completely".

About a potential future visit of Israel,she said, "My colleagues who visited Israel have benefited by seeing Israel from within, and I am prepared to visit Israel in the future, surely".

The Saudi writer added: "The chance to bring peace with Israel is an opportunity. Peace is important for stability, development, prosperity, and many positive repercussions. We are at a historic stage in which the demand for peace is rising, and in my view, peace with Israel is not a loss but a gain for all. I think this opportunity will be very close by Allah willing. "

This story is now all over Arabic media.

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08/05 Links Pt2: David Collier: Obsessive, radicalised, antisemitic – Corbyn’s Labour Party; Why Western leftists adore right-wing religious extremists abroad

From Ian:

David Collier: Obsessive, radicalised, antisemitic – Corbyn’s Labour Party

The accusation made here is that the election of Jeremy Corbyn created a toxic environment that has radicalised members of the party and this led to a growth of antisemitism in the UK. There is no need to overthink this. We know that Corbyn comes from a faction that has existed for decades on the fringes of the party. There is ample evidence that *some* of the new membership that joined to support him was antisemitic and extremist. These people were not ‘outsiders’ who ‘infiltrated’, but elements of the leaders own faction who joined to support the new leader.

The new leadership sought to protect its own support base. New media was set up to shield the Corbyn project. Facebook groups proudly shouted out his name. An online environment was created that evicted the dissenters. ‘Zionism’ is Corbyn’s enemy – so ‘Zionists’ were swiftly expelled. Jewish people complained and key Corbyn allies all screamed ‘smear’.

How is a loyal Labour voter to react – especially those who joined Labour because they truly believed in Corbyn as a force for change? As the Labour Party came under attack, ‘Corbynism’ retreated into an ever-shrinking virtual bubble. With a near total rejection of ‘Zionist’ mainstream media, they were reduced to feeding from the scraps of the Canary, RT Today, Press TV or some racist conspiracy junk site from the United States.

Does anyone really believe the average supporter had the working knowledge of Judaism, Zionism and Israeli history necessary to withstand the ideological onslaught?

The Telegraph just ran an piece on this report. The Labour Party responded with a meaningless regurgitated mess that didn’t address the report at all. A wise man would ask how an anti-racist party could dismiss a report on racism that it hadn’t even read properly? But that is not the territory in which this argument is taking place. This message of ’empty smear’ is the one they are deliberately sending to the membership and to the support base beyond. Like a drumbeat – their supporters have been repetitively listening to the ‘Jews are smearing us’ excuse now for over four years.

How we got here: The normalization of antisemitism

WHEN WE allow for the election of an antisemite we tell the radicals exiled to their houses that their Jew-hatred isn’t to be ashamed of, but rather grounds to have you elected to the mother of parliaments. The actions and lack of action by Corbyn’s Labour Party with regard to antisemitism have acted as a catalyst for racists to seep out of their holes and regain platforms to further incite their hatred.

The consequences go far and wide, and the normalization of antisemitism has spread to our campuses. From Nottingham to Bristol and countless places in between, student union officers have been found to be antisemitic by their universities’ investigations yet no action has been taken. After telling a Jewish student to “be like Israel and cease to exist,” Omar Chowdhury’s apology that came as a recommendation of the investigation was accepted as sufficient for Chowdhury to continue in his role as the University of Bristol Students’ Union’s Black and Minority Ethnic officer. Ridiculous right? But this is just one example. There are hundreds of incidents taking place on campus that get no coverage whatsoever because antisemitism is expected, and universities are reluctant to act. And why should they take it seriously when our own electorate and political leaders do not?

Only when we start taking a genuine zero-tolerance approach to antisemitism not just in name, but with substance, will we be able to start undoing all the damage that Corbyn’s Labour Party has instigated. That means not accepting every apology for antisemitism, it means removing antisemites from any position where they can further their agenda, and it means restoring our political discourse to that of civility and fact-based dialogue as we have had with the once proud Labour Party.

For our campuses, there is some hope. Universities Minister Chris Skidmore wrote to vice-chancellors stating that universities must do more to stamp out antisemitism on campus and adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism. This is a necessary step in combating the atmosphere of antisemitism swamping our institutions, but this will ultimately depend on the innate nature of vice-chancellors and whether they choose to listen to such calls.

My own experience tells me that just like the cases at Bristol and Nottingham, our entrusted intellectual leaders will be reluctant to act and will hope for cases to blow over, mirroring the same action taken against the highest profile cases of antisemitism. Jeremy Corbyn’s platform to incite has made British society more hostile to Jews than at any other point in the modern era.

UK Labour anti-Semitism ‘fueled by a flow of anti-Semitic tweets,’ says watchdog

A small number of online social media accounts have driven the discourse on anti-Semitism in the British Labour party, a new study by a prominent Jewish watchdog group said.

According to the report, released on Sunday by the London-based Community Security Trust, which monitors anti-Semitism and provides security services for UK Jews, “the problem of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party over the past three years has been fueled by a flow of anti-Semitic tweets and posts on social media, done in the name of the Labour Party and its leader, Jeremy Corbyn.”

The report, entitled “Engine of Hate,” was conducted in conjunction with data science firm Signify.

The report identified what it said were 36 key pro-Corbyn Twitter accounts, which it collectively nicknamed the “engine room.” Each, it said, have “their own, overlapping, online networks that drive social media conversations about anti-Semitism” and “are responsible for encouraging the widespread belief that allegations of anti-Semitism are a smear against Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party.”

Those accounts frequently use content from a network of alternative media sites that “consistently claim that anti-Semitism is being weaponized as a smear” and “provide the fuel for an atmosphere in which allegations of anti-Semitism are denied, while leading and encouraging attacks against anyone who criticizes the Labour leadership for their record on the issue.”

Corbyn's Jewish Liaison's Toxic Record on Anti-Semitism

Jeremy Corbyn didn’t exactly fill the UK’s Jewish community with confidence when he appointed a Momentum activist and vocal Chris Williamson and Pete Willsman defender to his newly-created role of “Jewish Community Liaison Officer”. Heather Mendick claimed that anti-Semitism was being “weaponised against the Left” and joined the disgraced Chris Williamson for multiple events on his “democracy roadshow” – his campaign to deselect sitting Labour MPs. She also celebrated the notorious Pete Willsman’s re-election to Labour’s NEC, saying that the membership “aren’t buying the smears”…

So it wasn’t exactly a surprise when the CST’s latest report on the online networks behind Labour’s anti-Semitism crisis found that Mendick’s Twitter account was one of the 36 ‘Engine Room’ accounts most associated with online Labour anti-Semitism. Mendick has now deleted her account…

Guido has taken a closer look at some more of Mendick’s online history:

She also describes herself as a “paid up member of Jewish Voice for Labour” – the highly controversial Corbynista fringe group. Says it all that Corbyn thinks she’s the best person to build bridges with the Jewish community…

The "spontaneous" Friday riots, where we are told that ordinary Gazans just go on their own to protest (usually) Israeli policies, are being cancelled this week.

The reason given by the National Authority for Return and Breaking the Siege, which was published in Hamas newspapers, is because it is the day before Eid al Adha and they wanted their rioters to have a chance to prepare for the holiday.

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