Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, December 17, 2019

Pallywood and the dishonesty of James Zogby

James Joseph Zogby (born 1945) is the founder and president of the Arab American Institute (AAI), a Washington, D.C.–based organization that serves as a political and policy research arm of the Arab-American community. He is Managing Director of Zogby Research Services, LLC, specializing in research and communications and undertaking polling across the Arab world. In September 2013 President Obama appointed Zogby to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. Zogby is a lecturer and scholar on Middle East issues and a Visiting Professor of Social Research and Public Policy at New York University Abu Dhabi. From 2001 to 2017 he was a member of the Executive Committee of the Democratic National Committee.

A prominent Arab leader, Democrat and pollster - one would expect a minimum level of honesty from such a person, and a backlash from his own party when he crosses a line, right?

He tweeted:

His photos include the one on the lower left, which is twice Photoshopped - it would be impossible for a soldier to maintain his balance like that.

What about the other photos of soldiers seemingly pointing their guns at innocent Palestinians?

Besides the optical illusion of a two dimensional photo making it impossible to see whether the guns are actually pointed at someone, there is another issue: this is how soldiers carry guns.

See this photo of a US soldier in Afghanistan:

And others from Afghanistan:

Given the right caption, any of these innocent photos can be twisted to look like US troops are terrorizing Afghan civilians, with guns pointed in the direction of children.

Pallywood isn't always the staged and Photoshopped photos Often it is the framing/captionng of an innocent event to make it appear as if it is malicious.

Another example from Twitter yesterday:

Israeli occupation forces humiliated and abused Palestinian civilians as they searched them at the military checkpoints installed around the Ibrahimi Mosque in the West Bank city of #Hebron. pic.twitter.com/JPyTG4VMgc
— Palestine Live (@pallive_en) December 16, 2019

The video shows no such thing, but the people who follow the account are primed to believe the lie because of how it was presented.

It was pointed out to Zogby that at least one of his photos were Photoshopped. He doesn't care; he didn't take down the tweet nor did he acknowledge it. He knows he is being dishonest in both the text and the photos, but he doesn't care - he is not about truth but to push anti-Israel propaganda.

The real question is why the Democratic Party he is so heavily involved with tolerates someone who is so obviously dishonest.

(h/t @kweansmom)

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The latest Human Rights Watch report is again a piece of theater. It believes wholeheartedly what Palestinians accuse Israel of, it doubts everything Israel says, and it pretends to understand human rights laws that it has no idea of.

The first 12 pages or so is a discussion of human rights laws under occupation. The report concentrates on the Right of Peaceful Assembly, Right to Freedom of Association and Right to Freedom of Expression, saying that all West Bank Palestinians do not have these rights. However, the 95% of Palestinians who live under Palestinian Authority rule can and do create mass anti-Israel rallies, complete with people dressing as terrorists with guns and masks.

A centerpiece of HRW's legal argument is this:

Article 43 of the Hague Regulations of 1907, recognized by the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg and the International Court of Justice as having the force of customary international law binding on all states, outlines the powers and responsibilities of an occupying power:

The authority of the legitimate power having in fact passed into the hands of the occupant, the latter shall take all the measures in his power to restore, and ensure, as far as possible, public order and safety, while respecting, unless absolutely prevented, the laws in force in the country.

This provision authorizes an occupying power to take restrictive measures that are militarily necessary to ensure its own safety, but also requires the occupier to restore and ensure public life for the benefit of the occupied population. Measures that are militarily necessary are those likely to “accomplish a legitimate purpose and are not otherwise prohibited by international humanitarian law.”

What HRW doesn't tell you is that the person who determines whether an action falls under the definition of "military necessity" is the field commander in charge, and he or she is given a great deal of latitude in that determination (obviously not to the point of violating any other humanitarian law rules.) It is not up to HRW or professors or other NGOs to look at a situation with the luxury of hindsight and determine whether something was a military necessity.

...In calling on occupiers to “ensure, as far as possible, public order and safety,” Article 43 requires an occupier to use all practical means at its disposal to minimize the impact of its actions on the local population. The logical corollary of this article is that the means available to an occupier increase with the duration of an occupation. A foreign army occupying a village for a month or a year may be limited in the sophistication of the security measures it adopts, for lack of time, resources, and familiarity with the location and population under occupation. A foreign army, though, occupying a territory for decades, has more time and opportunity to refine its responses to threats to the security of its forces in ways that minimize restrictions on rights and freedoms. The longer the occupation, the greater the ability and therefore the obligation to arrive at security measures that minimize impact on the local population.

This is HRW's major argument that Israel has not done all it can to provide for freedoms of the Palestinian population - because during a short occupation there may be very restrictive measures taken but over time it is the responsibility of the occupier to refine the methods to help the population have more public order and safety.

There is one major flaw in this argument: since 1987, every couple of years, a new wave of violence erupts that forces Israel to go back to a more restrictive rule. HRW simply doesn't admit the existence of the two intifadas,or the later car ramming and stabbing sprees, or the violent weekly riots, as a factor in what Israel is allowed to do to protect its soldiers and Israeli civilians.

Anyone who looks at the freedom of Palestinians under Israeli rule from 1967 to 1987 would see that they indeed gained more and more freedoms - until the first intifada.

This report does not even mention the word "intifada" once. It does not mention the word "riots." It doesn't mention "Molotov cocktails" or "firebombs." In other words, HRW strips Israeli security force actions and decisions of any context.

There is far more, of course.

HRW, when discussing the case of Nariman Tamimi, says

Officers interrogated Nariman three other times, each time returning to her "incitement." She said they also asked her about her Facebook posts, some dating as far back as seven years, of Palestinians who carried out attacks against Israelis or were killed by Israeli forces.

It puts "incitement" in scare quotes and trusts her to say what the IDF considered her incitement.

She didn't mention sharing this handy guide on how to stab someone effectively:

HRW may know about this (one of many offensive posts by Nariman) but they would never share it, because it undermines their lies.

Another innocent victim of Israeli capriciousness is "artist" Hafez Omar. HRW doesn't mention that his posters glorify violence as the only way to freedom:

This report was of course written by Omar Shakir, whose work permit was revoked by Israel. Ever since the, Shakir and HRW have embarked on a vindictive crusade against Israel - as always, at the expense of real human rights abuses happening within a couple of hundred miles of Israel's borders.

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The Jew. A poem.

This may be the best thing I ever tweeted. (I added a line.)

I am from an inferior race
who also controls the world
I am the evil brain behind
both Communism and Capitalism
I'm way too religious
and also a Godless atheist
I'm insular
yet I infiltrate
I kill and deceive
deities and prophets
And if you murder me
it is my fault
Because you can always find
a good reason

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12/16 Links Pt2: Lawsuit Exposes the Chain Linking U.S. “Charities,” BDS, and Terrorists in Gaza; Melanie Phillips: Don’t fall for bogus claims of 'Islamophobia'; NYT Misleads Over Antisemitism Definition

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: Don’t fall for bogus claims of 'Islamophobia'

At last Sunday’s rally against antisemitism in Westminster, more than 3,000 people listened to a range of speakers denounce anti-Jewish bigotry.

Beyond that rally, however, reaction among the general public to the hatred in the Labour party directed at Israel and the Jewish people does not seem to reflect its eye-watering scale and viciousness.

Leaked evidence collected by the Jewish Labour Movement exposed a virtual tsunami of crazed venom, with statements that Jews were “subhuman” and should “be grateful we don’t make them eat bacon for breakfast every day”, that they were connected to Isis or 9/11, or they were traitors and “bent-nosed manipulative liars”.

Despite all this, there’s still a failure to grasp the full dimensions of this horror. For there are two issues over which widespread moral confusion is hampering proper acknowledgment of this onslaught against the Jews.

The first is support for the Palestinian cause and the related belief that, while antisemitism is a loathsome prejudice against Jews as people, anti-Zionism and Israel-bashing are legitimate attacks on a political project. This distinction is bogus.

Anti-Zionism is the modern mutation of antisemitism with which it shares the same, unique characteristics of deranged and obsessive falsehoods, demonic conspiracy theory and double standards. It is furthermore an attack on Judaism itself, in which the land of Israel is an inseparable element.

Toxic mutation of an ancient hatred: Left-wing Antisemitism

When the postmodern left emerged in the 1950s and 1960s, its worldview absorbed much of this Soviet propaganda, with a key tenet remaining a commitment to anti-Zionism — the view that the State of Israel is illegitimate and should not exist. Added to the anti-Zionist denial of Israel’s claim to an ancestral homeland was “a contradictory claim that the Jews sought to maintain a ‘racial state’ in Israel.”[15]

In historical terms, anti-Zionism has been quite distinct from antisemitism. Whereas the racist prejudice of antisemitism was largely a phenomenon of the political right, anti-Zionism was based on what Australian scholar Philip Mendes has described as “a relatively objective assessment of the prospects for success for some Jews in Israel/Palestine.”[16] In recent decades, however, as anti-Zionism has developed into a rejection of the legitimacy of the State of Israel, anti-Zionism and antisemitism have converged.

The postmodern left’s anti-Zionism was certainly influenced by Soviet hostility to Israel. However, it is a phenomenon which owes even more to the determination among the post-World War II generation to oppose racism and colonialism. Israel, according to the postmodern left, is an illegitimate remnant of western colonialism in the Middle East — a view increasingly endorsed by the United Nations as it added newly decolonised states to its membership.

Postmodern left anti-Zionists invariably insist their target is neither Jews nor individual Israeli citizens going about their ordinary lives. Rather, their target is the State of Israel itself, which they hold to be a political regime promulgating illegal, coercive, and dehumanizing treatment of Palestinians. It is a line of argument that attempts to defend the distinction between anti-Jewish remarks and criticism of Israeli government policy.

Commentary Magazine Podcast: Yes, It’s OK to Ask About Bernie and Anti-Semitism

A piece we published on Friday by our own Noah Rothman kicked up a social-media dust storm over the weekend—the view of Noah’s critics being that it is illegitimate to question associations between Bernie Sanders, his campaign, and anti-Semites. We disagree. At length. Give a listen. (h/t IsaacStorm)

A Lawsuit Exposes the Chain Linking U.S. “Charities,” BDS, and Terrorists in Gaza

The Jewish National Fund (JNF)—which owns much of the land in Israel—together with a few Israeli families who live near the Gaza Strip, has filed suit in an American court against organizations that, they allege, support arson attacks on southwestern Israel, often accomplished by attaching makeshift incendiary devices to kites and balloons. In doing so, writes Nadav Shragai, the plaintiffs have an opportunity to shed light on the how Palestinian terrorist groups raise funds in the United States:

If the details of the suit are found to have a legal basis, it will be possible to point to three links in the money chain, the first of which are the Palestinian National and Islamic Forces (PNIF). The group was established by the former PLO leader Yasir Arafat during the second intifada [to] coordinate among the various organizations fighting against Israel. . . . It turns out that the PNIF was never dismantled and in fact helped establish the Supreme National Authority of the Return Marches and Lifting the Siege, [which coordinates attacks from Gaza and attempts to breach the border fence]

A total of twelve religious and nationalist Palestinian factions belong to the PNIF, including Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, [and] the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. . . . All of them are recognized as terrorist groups by Israel, the U.S., and Europe.

The second link is the BDS National Committee (BNC), a leading player in the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement that was founded in Ramallah. BNC sees itself as an umbrella organization that heads the international movement to boycott Israel.

The third link is the specific group named in the lawsuit: the American charity Education for Just Peace in the Middle East U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR). According to the lawsuit, at least as far back as 2017 the group has functioned as a pipeline to transfer donations to terrorist organizations, utilizing the BNC [for that purpose]. The funds USCPR transfers to the BNC are designated charitable donations, and are therefore tax-exempt. The lawsuit argues that starting in 2018, the USCPR has been involved in a conspiracy to support, promote, and encourage the marches of return, which are directed [and] led by a terrorist coalition. Therefore, the suit argues, the BNC receives tax-free donations and uses them to promote an agenda of hatred and the arson-balloon and kite attacks against Israel.

The Jerusalem Post got hold of the letter that Mike Pompeo wrote in response to a left-wing Democratic letter criticizing the US position that Israeli settlements are not illegal per se.

I converted the facsimile of the letter to text.

THE SECRETARY OF STATE
WASHINGTON

The Honorable
Andy Levin
House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Mr. Levin:

I am in receipt of your letter of November 21 in which you criticize the State Department's determination that the establishment of Israeli civilian settlements in the West Bank is not categorically inconsistent with international law - a decision which you contend reverses “decades of bipartisan US policy on Israeli settlements.” You further argue. in conclusory fashion, that this determination “blatantly disregards Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.”

While I appreciate your interest in this important issue, I could not disagree more with those two foolish positions. I will briefly respond to your principal points.

First, the State Department's determination did not reverse any policy with regard to Israeli settlements. Rather, the State Department reversed a legal determination by Secretary Kerry. made during the waning days of the Obama Administration, that the establishment of settlements was categorically inconsistent with international law. That determination was made in a failed attempt to justify the Obama Administration's betrayal of Israel in allowing UNSCR 2334 — whose foundation was the purported illegality of the settlements and which referred to them as “a flagrant violation” of international law — to pass the Security Council on December 23, 2016.

Second, Secretary Kerry's determination did not enjoy bipartisan consensus. Rather, it received bipartisan condemnation, including from leading Democrats in both chambers of Congress. Indeed, an overwhelming number of Senators and House Members, on both sides of the aisle, supported resolutions objecting to the passage of UNSCR 2334. Secretary Kerry's statement departed from decades of bipartisan consensus, reverting to an approach last advanced by the Administration of President Carter in 1978 whose position was reversed by the next succeeding president, Ronald Reagan.

While you are free to fixate on settlements as a barrier to peace. you are simply wrong in referring to that view as being subject to bipartisan agreement. No less a Democratic spokesman than the Senate Minority Leader publicly stated at his AIPAC address on March 5, 2018, that “it's sure not the settlements that are the blockage to peace.”

Third, you assert that we have “blatantly disregarded” the Fourth Geneva Convention. The Trump Administration has thoroughly reviewed and analyzed this issue and we respectfully disagree. Among the numerous sources and authorities supporting our view. I commend to you the writings of Eugene Rostow, who left his position as Dean of the Yale Law School to become Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs in the Johnson Administration. Dean Rostow represented the United States in the peace talks that followed the 1967 Six Day War and was responsible for the drafting of UNSCR 242, which even today remains the primary architecture for the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Dean Rostow stated in 1983 that “Israel has an unassailable legal right to establish settlements in the West Bank.”

Fourth. US policy with regard to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict largely has been consistent for decades and remains so: we support and seek to facilitate direct negotiations between the parties towards the goal of a just and lasting peace agreement. Regrettably. as many experts concur, UNSCR 2334 and the related self-justifying remarks by Secretary Kerry have saddled the Trump Administration with a significant handicap in advancing the cause of peace by erroneously injecting into the conflict an incorrect and largely irrelevant legal component. This in turn has led to the hardening of positions. especially on the Palestinian side. By way of example. the closing of the Office of the General Delegation of the Palestine Liberation Organization in Washington
D.C.. which you criticize, was mandated by Federal statute following President Abbas’ announcement before the United Nations General Assembly on September 20, 2017, that the Palestinian Authority “called on the International Criminal Court . . . to prosecute Israeli officials for their involvement in settlement activities . . . I doubt that President Abbas. with apparent animus towards Israel. would have taken such an inappropriate and unlawful position absent the cover mistakenly granted under UNSCR 2334 and Secretary Kerry's unfortunate speech.

The Trump Administration is committed to working tirelessly to advance the cause of peace between Israelis and Palestinians. We approach the issue pragmatically and diplomatically, but we eschew the erroneous positions of international law that have gained favor in the past decades. The Obama-Kerry departure from America’s historic support of Israel has done nothing to make peace more attainable. The State Department's recent determination that the establishment of Israeli civilian settlements in the West Bank is not per se illegal is an important step in the peace process and we are confident that it creates the right platform for further Progress.

We hope this information is helpful to you. Please let us know if we may be of further
assistance.

Sincerely.
Michael R. Pompeo
Secretary of State

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J-Street U's reasons against the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act prove those against the EO are throwing mud to see what sticks

In looking at the bogus arguments against the Executive Order on including Jews as a protected minority for Title VI purposes, I stumbled onto the J-Street U arguments used against the nearly identical Anti-Semitism Awareness Act of 2018.

J-Street U wrote a letter to Congress opposing that act, which was originally pushed during the Obama administration. Most of their arguments are the specious ones we have already debunked, but they added one that tells us a lot more about the leftists who oppose fighting antisemitism than the act itself:

In addition to focusing narrowly and exclusively on anti-Semitism that is related to Israel and to Zionism, the bill alarmingly fails to take into account the pressing issue of anti-Semitic hatred in our country stemming from the white supremacist far-right, which has risen precipitously since the 2016 election. ...It would be a grave mistake for Congress to ignore this virulent strain of anti-Semitism that has lead to a rise in hate crimes and violence across the country.

J-Street U claimed that the Antisemitism Awareness Act didn't deal with right-wing antisemitism - and this is a laughable lie. It refers to the IHRA definition which includes all kinds of antisemitism, right and left. Its definition (without the examples) leaves no doubt:

Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.

By falsely and absurdly claiming that right-wing bigotry is not included, J-Street U - and by extension, all of the Leftist arguments against the EO - shows that their concern isn't for free speech or worries about chilling debate on campus. They simply want to shut down the very idea that there is any kind of antisemitism other than the neo-Nazi kind (and there are plenty of other flavors of antisemitism besides Right and Left) and therefore they want to be able to demonize the Jewish state in exactly the same way the far-Right demonizes Jews. Any argument is meant only for the real goal of defending most types of antisemitism on campus.

That's messed up.

What is especially sick about this antisemitism denial is that it tramples on the rights of thousands of Jews on campus, today, who are being disenfranchised and attacked because they don't subscribe to the religious philosophy of the Left, where victims are to be worshipped and white-passing people like Jews are the devil-oppressors.

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In our modern age, we tend to think of the outcome of warfare being decided primarily by technology and logistics, with armies able to deploy and utilize complex weapons systems in the land, sea and air being superior to those who cannot. Even when you look at asymmetrical warfare, which tends to utilize roadside bombs, terror tactics and propaganda instead of aircraft carriers and robot drones, success in this field requires mastery of technical and political skill, rather than fighting experience.

But if you look back throughout the thousands of years of history when war was conducted primarily with the same hardware (swords, spears, bows, shields, armor and the like), the factor marking the difference between a successful and unsuccessful army was the experience of the soldiery.

Troops loyal to Julius Caesar, for example, were not referred to as “Caesar’s Soldiers” or “Caesar’s Legions,” but “Caesar’s Veterans,” highlighting the fact that soldiers who spend decades fighting side-by-side provided the edge in battle even against far larger armies.

Even the strategic genius of a commander is frequently the result of a general himself being the veteran of numerous campaigns, providing him the chance to try different things at different times and experience both victory and defeat.

I bring this up since another strength BDS warriors bring to battle (along with Internet-enabled communication skill and complete indifference to the needs of others) is their experience waging their propaganda campaigns over many years and even decades. For most of us, the thought of engaging in a divestment debate in our student union or town hall is appalling not just because of the nature of the subject matter, but because few of us have experience engaging with (in this case) aggressive political warfare that is likely to create tension and conflict (the very things many of us spend our lives trying to avoid).

But years of experience battling against the boycotters eventually provides us the veteran’s perspective, helping turn what might have originally felt like distasteful conflict into a battle we eagerly anticipate for the thrill it provides (especially in victory – the familiar result for pro-Israel activists engaged in a BDS fight).

I can attest to this personally as someone addicted to the rush of watching a BDS go down to defeat. And my eagerness to mix it up with Israel haters/BDS propagandists derives from longing to engage in arguments I’ve been writing about for years.

But the veterans’ experience can also be seen in the wider Jewish community ready to fight back unapologetically against defamers of the Jewish state. As time goes on, more experience should drive more success and success will drive our desire to obtain more experience, creating new generations of vets capable of continuing to stare down the BDS threat, regardless of the ruthlessness of our adversaries.

As a final note, I’d like to pay a tribute to a veteran of many wars who lost out to the one enemy none of us can avoid forever eight years ago yesterday. Christopher Hitchens may have never been a great friend to the Jewish state. But he was a great friend to others who earned his sympathy (such as the people of Iraq) and Hitchens fought for their cause, regardless of what previous friends and allies had to say on the matter. While I am sad that this iconoclast of great wit and letters passed away without embracing the justice of Israel’s cause (or the Jewish world of which he was a part), I still miss him and his words, even (or especially) the ones with which I disagreed.

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12/16 Links Pt1: Boris Johnson to pass anti-BDS law; The Myth of the Nakba, and Its Consequences; Defund Lebanon. And Do It Yesterday.

From Ian:

Boris Johnson to pass anti-BDS law, official says

The new Conservative government in the UK will pass a law making it illegal for public bodies to engage with BDS, UK Special Envoy for post-Holocaust issues Eric Pickles said at the International Institute for Strategic Dialogue’s conference in Jerusalem on Sunday night.

"BDS is antisemitic and should be treated as such," Pickles said, explaining that the new law will not allow public bodies to work with those who boycott, divest from or sanction Israel in any way.

Queen Elizabeth will read the traditional "Queen's Speech" – prepared for her by the prime minister and his cabinet, which outlines the government's agenda for the next year – at the opening of the new parliament on Thursday. A UK news website called "i" reported that Johnson will write the anti-boycott law into the speech.

The Conservative Party’s platform in the UKs general election last week included a commitment to "ban public bodies from imposing their own direct or indirect boycotts, disinvestment or sanctions campaigns against foreign countries. These undermine community cohesion."

The move is meant to bloc local councils controlled by the Labour Party from using taxpayer funds to boycott foreign countries, including Israel.

UK election result ‘divinely inspired,’ says senior UK rabbi

“I believe that it was a divinely inspired result,” said Rabbi Joseph Dweck, senior rabbi of Britain’s Sephardi Jewish community, describing Thursday’s landslide defeat of Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party in the UK election.

A member of the Conference of European Rabbis, Dweck told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday that he was “grateful for the results. I believe that there is a renewed confidence that the Jewish community has both in Britain and the British people. We know now that we have a fast friend of the Jewish community at 10 Downing Street [Prime Minister Boris Johnson], who has, throughout his political career — especially during his time as mayor of London — proven his care, attention and protection of the Jews of Britain.”

Asked how Johnson should continue dealing with antisemitism in the UK, Dweck said he believes that “he should continue as he has: denouncing antisemitism, and to work with his government to eradicate any and all expressions of it in the country.”

Dweck said he is “deeply concerned” about rising antisemitism, but made it clear that he is as “concerned about it here in Europe as I am about it in America. We have seen a great upsurge of antisemitic crimes occurring in the States, and the antisemitic rhetoric that is rampant in many American universities is profoundly worrying. It will not be long at all until those students hold government office.”

Corbyn and the thrill of defeat

The Labour Party got a taste of wipe-out, and it could not have happened to a nicer bunch of antisemites, who are already busy, guess what, blaming the Jews.

From the “Well, that didn’t take long Department,” this Labour woman has already got it figured out. The Jews did it…yes, not the butler…the Jews.

The Jews, she says, won it for Boris and lost it for Corbyn, which is an amazing feat, when you consider the math.

The figure I’m getting is 270,000, so far as the (decreasing) number of Jews throughout the UK…from a total population of 67 million otherwise.

To which you can only scratch your head and say… what? How can so few have made all the difference, unless you are an anti-Semite and do math differently.

For some people, life is so simple. No matter who, what, where, when, it adds up to the Jews – even if there is only one left in town.

I mean, to be an anti-Semite you should need Jews, and in the UK, there are hardly any at all.

Some soccer stadiums draw bigger crowds.

Spectacularly, the British rejected that man Corbyn and his message, plus the leftist agenda altogether, and let’s hope the song of deliverance reaches America.

The Union of Reform Judaism Biennial just ended.

On Friday, three resolutions were passed, none of which have anything to do with Judaism in particular.

One of them called for study on how the US should provide reparations for slavery in the US today.

I'm wondering, would URJ consider asking Germany to pay reparations to the descendants of Holocaust survivors?

Any sober person can agree that Holocaust survivors went through much worse times than slaves in the US. If descendants of slaves deserve reparations, shouldn't descendants of Jews of Europe?

Thinking through the logic of why one group seems to deserve it and not the other can illuminate the logical problem. Holocaust survivors overcame much worse persecution, much more recently. Antisemitism in the US in the middle of the 20th century was no less than racism was.

It is almost like those who worked hard to overcome prejudice should be penalized.

And it also seems like Reform Jews put the lowest priority on their own people.

The URJ's resolutions show that the organization has little to do with actual Judaism and has embraced the very recent idea of "tikkun olam" as a substitute for Judaism. (Is there any difference between "tikkun olam" and "social justice"? If not, then there is nothing Jewish about "tikkun olam" except the Hebrew.)

These resolutions weren't the worst thing that happened at the Biennial.

Most disgustingly, the MC of the biennial on Friday had an "IfNotNow" pin, according to the INN Twitter account:

Today in Good For The Jews.

Rabbi Matt Green, the MC of the #URJBiennial happening this week, proudly wore an IfNotNow pin in front of 5,000 Reform Jews. He told the crowd that we need to work to end the occupation and for freedom & dignity for all.

There was raucous applause. pic.twitter.com/UeHUK0qG0d
— IfNotNow🔥 (@IfNotNowOrg) December 12, 2019

I noted that if IfNotNow has its way, the entire Old City of Jerusalem - which they consider "occupied" - would be given to Arabs who would then ban Jews as Jordan did from 1948 to 1967. Then they won't have to worry about an egalitarian space at the Kotel to pray - they couldn't get there anyway!

The Reform movement has little left to do with Judaism. While the attendees held a Havdalah ceremony Saturday evening, the rank and file who identify as Reform (and, increasingly, Conservative) actually do no Jewish rituals beyond a watered down Passover seder and maybe Chanukah candles. (It is actually laughable to think that more than 1% of Reform Jews do Havdalah at home.) Only 2% of Reform Jews can speak Hebrew. As Daniel Gordis - who has Conservative ordination - has written about non-Orthodox in America, "We now have a generation of Jews secularly successful and well-educated, but so Jewishly illiterate that nothing remains to bind them to their community or even to a sense that they hail from something worth preserving."

There are some exceptional Reform and Conservative Jews who love Judaism in all its aspects, not only the imposter "tikkun olam" concept. But they are a tiny minority. Most who identify with those movements have little or nothing to do with Judaism beyond bagels and bialys and Mrs. Maisel.

Those movements have to go back to basics - to study the Jewish texts. They don't have to agree with everything the Orthodox believe but they should be conversant in the Tanach and Talmud - at least reject Jewish tenets from a position of knowledge and not ignorance. Their kids know hypocrisy when they see it and this is what hurts Judaism more than anything else.

It may be too late, and if the URJ Biennial is any indication, it is.

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Palestinian university closes because students insist on openly supporting terrorism on campus. Where's the coverage?

For the past week, Bir Zeit University has been closed by the school administration twice because of student demonstrations against a new rule against using the campus for "manifestations of militarization."

The rule prohibits “any national celebrations by any of the student blocs of a military character, such as models of missiles and other weapons, and the presence of masked students in them."

Bir Zeit, and other Palestinian universities, routinely host pro-terrorist demonstrations:

The university closed its campus last Wednesday in response to students rioting and destroying its western entrance in response to this new rule. After more unrest on Thursday the university again decided to close the campus today for the safety of the students.

Ghassan Al-Khatib, Vice President of Birzeit University for Development and Communication, has been calling for dialogue with the pro-terror groups in order to find a compromise. They have not been interested.

The head of the student movement, Abd al-Rahman Alawi, says "Bir Zeit University, "which graduated the martyr engineer Yahya Ayyash and the prisoner Marwan Barghouti and dozens of martyrs and prisoners who had a clear imprint in the history of the Palestinian resistance, should be a source of uprisings and a political platform as it is now."

University officials say there are two reasons for the new rule, which had been discussed internally for years. One is the obvious - that pro-terror activity on campus is disruptive and against the values of the university. The other is that those activities give Israel an excuse to say that the university tolerates pro-terror activity.

Indeed, last week Israel arrested the president of the Student Council Conference at Birzeit University in Ramallah, Shatha Majid Hassan, at her home on December 5, along with a number of Hamas students that the IDF accused of gathering intelligence and preparing bombs for sabotage last Friday.

University officials insist that this anti-militarization rule has nothing to do with the arrests. In fact, the university forced all student blocs to sign a pledge not to engage in military-type demonstrations before the last student elections.

The other aspect of this story is that up until now, it has not been reported in any English-language media.

Yes, a major university closes its doors right before final exams, students are rioting, and there is complete silence on the story.

Bir Zeit University has some 14,000 students shut out from campus twice in a week and there is a near-total news blackout!

Most major Palestinian Arabic media has been ignoring the story or only publishing bits and pieces about the university closing without discussing why. It has been covered more by the pan-Arab press than Palestinian media.

This shows yet again:

- Palestinian media is not free to report on things that make Palestinian institutions look bad.

- NGOs and international media are not interested in doing any work to expose internal Palestinian rifts and conflict.

- Narratives of Israeli evil and Palestinian innocence are more important than reporting the news honestly.

- The world gets a highly skewed idea of how things are in the most-reported part of the worldd.

- Most reporters on the ground in the Middle East are lazy and have no interest in reporting actual news on their own, or their editors kill any stories that don't fit the "narrative."

Professional news organizations in Israel and the territories should be ashamed at their lack of commitment to their jobs. An unpaid blogger from thousands of miles away should not be getting so many scoops while people paid full salaries to report the news spend their time in Tel Aviv coffee shops, reading Ha'aretz to decide what story they want to cover.

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Here is an excerpt from the Congressional Record, June 27, 1956, part of a very lengthy testimony about the Arab boycott of Israel and of Jews.

What is especially interesting here is that the section on Arab anti-Jewish propaganda shows that there was a transition period between direct anti-Jewish statements and seeming "anti-Zionist" statements, for all intents and purposes identical. The testimony says that the change was prompted by American public relations firms retained by Arab countries.

This is an early blueprint of today's anti-Zionist propaganda, just today it is slightly better disguised.

ARAB ANTI-JEWISH PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES IN THE UNITED STATES

Perhaps the most vicious offense committed by Arab governments against Jewish citizens in the United States is their deliberate fomenting of domestic anti-Semitism in this country and their collaboration with and sponsorship of elements in the American hate movement.

Collaboration with American hatemongers

In carrying out its anti-Jewish campaign, the Arab Information Center has determined upon a course of intimate cooperation with professional anti-Semites in this country.

A policy statement sent by [Kameel Abdul] Rahim on October 25, 1954, from Cairo before his departure for the United States to head the center. to Dr. Omar Haliq. Arab League representative tn New York (Jewish Telegraphic Agency dispatch of March 17, 1955) declared that the Arab Information Center henceforth would welcome the cooperation and assistance of professional anti-Semites in all fields and ways. Rahim emphasized that such activities were to be handled discreetly so as not to expose the center to charges of anti-Semitism or compromise its character as a cultural exchange. Rahim indicated that he intended to deal with this facet of the center's activities personally.
....
Distribution of anti-Semitic literature

The increasing voluminous literature published directly by Arab official propaganda agencies bears a comparable stamp of anti-Jewishness although, significantly, it does not usually bear any imprint identifying its source. Mort of the anti-Jewish items now being freely distributed across the country, often elaborately and handsomely printed, are published by the embassies of the Arab states and distributed by the Arab Information Center.

Generally, Arab officials obey the advice given them by American consultants to avoid heavy-handed anti-Jewish themes in their propaganda. On the other hand, the Arabs understand that the term “Zionist” and “Jew” are so closely identified in the United States by the general public that the theme of anti-Zionism can be handled adroitly to produce anti-Jewish implications, thus the continually repeated refrain concerning “the influence of the American Zionists in Washington.”

Occasionally, however, the Arab line is directed into an unmistakable excursion into overt anti-Jewish incitement. This is especially true in two pamphlets now widely in circulation, Story of Zionist Espionage in Egypt and Jewish Atrocities in the Holy Land..... These pamphlets clearly seek not only to inspire antipathy toward Israel but, in addition, to invoke a feeling of anti-Jewish prejudice and bias generally. And as a matter of fact, domestic anti-Semites in the United States already have distributed and exploited these documents for their own purposes.

The Story of Zionist Espionage In Egypt is openly anti-Jewish as well as anti-Israel...[It describes Zionism and communism this way:]

“Zionism and communism are two distinctive forces with one political objective— world domination. Both powers cooperate secretly and in public without friction since the power in the end will eventually go to Zionism.

"They will not achieve supremacy until they destroy the Islamic and Christian countries all over the world. Therefore communism helps Zionism and each in its own way completes the other: only thus will they reach their aim—Zionlist world supremacy.”

Jewish Atrocities In the Holy Land includes:

“Now we have once more to hear the horrible tale of sadistic cruelties and wanton brutalities perpetrated against an innocent population, mainly composed of women, children and old men. But this time the aggressors are those very Jews who were lately so loud tn their outcry against the Nazis.

"When reading of these atrocious acts, one unconsciously thinks of their perpetrators as being untaught savages, or barbarians of the remote past. Yet these same Jews have for centuries, by virtue of their money-amassing activities, gathered to themselves the cream of culture, and refinement of whatever country they have settled in. The wealthy, educated Jew surrounded by all the culture and art that his riches can command has long been a familiar figure in civilized society.”

An even more outrageous document, published by the World Truth League of POB 44, Jerusalem, Jordan-Arab side, is distributed widely in the United States through embassy offices of the Arab delegations to the U.N. as well as by the Arab Information Center. The sheet, composed in a sensational format, contains touched-up photographs of alleged Israeli massacres of Arab children, old men, and women. It quotes liberally from the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion to the effect that the Jews believe the gentiles are a flock of sheep and we are the wolves and you know what happens when the wolves get hold of the flock. This Jordanian leaflet maintains that Jews. not Israelis, are the unconscionable exploiters of the gentile world and they have very well proved it once again by their recent Judaic barbarities against innocent Arab shepherds. It declares that the basic material in all Jewish propaganda is composed of lies and distortion of facts as is known by now all over the world.

...
It is apparent that crude and vicious canards of this kind are not intended to be limited merely to incitement of hostility against Israel. They are designed for the larger purpose of promoting hatred toward Jews of every national allegiance throughout the world.

For those who insist that anti-Zionism has nothing to do with antisemitism, this history shows that they were identical in the 1950s and everyone knew it. The accusations against Israel today mirror those in the Arab antisemitic literature of 60 years ago. Given that the accusation of antisemitism was considered toxic, the Arab world slowly replaced "Jew" with "Zionist" but the intent was the same - to foment Jew-hatred worldwide.

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Kuwaiti man considers himself a religious Zionist Jew

In August, someone who calls himself Naftali Benya offered his first tweet. He wrote in Hebrew, "Good morning to all."

בוקר טוב לכולם
— Naftali (@naftali_benya) August 25, 2019

This was followed by a tweet in September which was much more interesting:

כן אני יהודי
אני לא מתבייש
ולא מפחד
יש לי רק יראת אלוהים
אני יהודי ואני גאה
ואם אתם חושבים שזה מטורף
אתם תתביישו
— Naftali (@naftali_benya) September 24, 2019

Yes I am Jewish
I am not ashamed
and not afraid
I have only fear of God
I am Jewish and I am proud
and if you think it is crazy
you should be ashamed

It turns out that Naftali is Youssef Al-Mebhanna from Kuwait. He grew up a Muslim but when he was twenty, after speaking with a friend from Qatar who asked him for proof Israelis are murderers, he realized that he was being told lies all his life. He became interested in Judaism and Zionism, and even though he never had a formal conversion he puts on a talit and tefillin every day, and he learned Hebrew from watching Israeli comedies.

Here is his interview and story, in Hebrew:

Last week he tweeted, in English:

Last week in Kuwait I was about to get arrested by the authorities for my support to the Jewish right in the land of Israel. I quickly booked a flight to London where I am right now. Baruch HaShem I am in London right now and I'm safe and sound. I will keep you guys updated.
— Naftali (@naftali_benya) December 5, 2019

Naftali is now in England where he hopes to convert to Judaism and then make aliyah to Israel.

He sounds like a remarkable young man.

(h/t Yoel)

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Beirut removes sculpture that looked like a Star of David from a certain angle

A sculpture in the Beirut of three squares intersecting was removed by the governor of the city - because if viewed from one angle, it looked like a Star of David.

The sculpture had been there for over a year. Apparently someone noticed the optical illusion only recently, complained, and the dysfunctional Beirut government swung into action to remove the suddenly highly offensive object.

Nah, they aren't antisemitic!

I once made a poster that used that same illusion to create a 3-D Israeli flag.

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12/15 Links: When Jewish WWII vets pulverized postwar UK fascists to tamp down rising racism; Living La Vida Orwell: Calling Trump an antisemite; Mossad helps Denmark bust 20 terrorists

From Ian:

When Jewish WWII vets pulverized postwar UK fascists to tamp down rising racism

Daniel Sonabend’s book ‘We Fight Fascists’ charts the rise of the 43 Group, which fought Oswald Mosley and others with fisticuffs, showing Jews would not accept post-WWII bigotry - Hairdresser Vidal Sassoon was known to fight with scissors

Six months after the end of World War II, Britain’s fascist leader, Sir Oswald Mosley, attended a Christmas party. He was given a rapturous reception by 1,000 stalwart supporters — complete with raised-arm salutes. Despite the defeat of the Third Reich which he had so admired, Mosley remained convinced that Britain’s fascist moment was still to come.

But the former head of the British Union of Fascists would also face a group of equally committed opponents — mainly Jewish ex-servicemen who fought, spied upon and, ultimately, helped to defeat, Mosley’s much hoped-for return to the political stage.

As Daniel Sonabend brilliantly captures in his new book, “We Fight Fascists: The 43 Group and Their Forgotten Battle for Post-war Britain,” this was a tale of often bloody, and occasionally terrifying “organized chaos.”

In the aftermath of the Allied victory, Mosley initially ordered most of his supporters to keep their heads down. In a bid for respectability, and to help maintain and grow fascist networks, he urged them to form local book clubs and cultural societies. On no account were they to mention the Jews.

Many, though, were unable to contain their enthusiasm for their lost cause. With the lifting of various wartime regulations, a plethora of fascist organizations — deeply antagonistic towards one another but united in their hatred of Jews — began to spring up.

A Cable Street Moment

When the exit poll figures were released at exactly 22:00 Jews across the United Kingdom were jumping for joy & relief that the threat posed to them by the prospect of a hard left, antisemitic Prime Minister had been averted.

There is no anti-British, anti-Western cause Corbyn hasn’t adopted. Throughout his career he has expressed support for the IRA, Colonel Gaddafi, Yassir Arafat, Hamas, Hizbollah, the USSR, a plethora of antisemitic individuals ranging from the self hating Paul Eisen to blood libel invoking Raed Salah. There is no podium too extreme for him to stand on, there is no person too odious for him to call his friend.

The rise of Corbyn heralded a rise in Jew hatred in Labour. Jewish members, regardless of their seniority, were hounded out.

That didn’t mean they sat in silence impotent to control their own fate. On the contrary.

From at least three submissions to the European Human Rights Commission on the institutional nature of Labour’s antisemitism to an unprecedented expression of concern by the Chief Rabbi & a demonstration in Parliament Sq the Jewish people fought the injustices perpetrated against them on the streets, in social media, in the corridors of power.

The Jews of Britain fought antisemites wherever they found them.

On the last night of the election campaign Jews went to East London, to the site of the Labour Party’s final campaign event, to make sure their most hardcore activists were confronted by the people who refused to become victims of a Labour government.

David Collier: The BBC can only find Christmas trees in ‘Palestine’

On 5th December, BBC Newsround published a page titled ‘Christmas trees from around the world.’ If the BBC take it down, the page is archived. It was published on their Newsround pages and is explicitly targeted at children. The item is intended to raise the Christmas spirit and brings images of impressive Christmas trees across the world. So far, so good.

Until you look at the page. I have a radar for anti-Israel activism and propaganda. To analyse articles and work out which ones are subtly twisted by a journalist who wants to weave their personal dislike of the Jewish state into the words on the page. On many occasions that bias is subtle and can even be expertly hidden. Rarely are these people caught with their trousers so firmly down around their ankles as with this particular BBC page. Outside of the world of a petty anti-Israel activist deliberately writing a piece of Palestinian propaganda fit for a Hamas PR unit – this BBC article makes absolutely no sense.

How many impressive Christmas trees are there in the world? The BBC webpage published 10 days ago managed to find seven. Just seven. The page hasn’t been updated since and there are still seven trees. The BBC found impressive trees in Vilnius, New York, Gaza, Prague, California, Ramallah, and Bethlehem.

BBC Christmas treesThree trees in PA/Hamas areas. Three. This is not education – this is blatant propaganda. Even the Arab outlet ‘Gulf News’ wouldn’t publish such a piece. They found other images from Dortmund, Strasbourg and the Vatican – cities with Christmas trees that for whatever reason – the BBC just couldn’t find.

BBC’s ‘Newsround’ breaches BBC Academy style guide

On December 5th the BBC’s ‘Newsround’ website – which is aimed at children aged 6 to 12 – published a photo feature titled “Christmas trees from around the world”:
“It’s December so that means it’s almost Christmas! And of course it also means festive firs are being put up all over the world. Here are some of the best ones from 2019 so far.”

The item features seven captioned photographs taken in various locations: Lithuania, New York, Gaza, Prague, Ramallah, California and Bethlehem. In other words, three out of the seven images (42.8%) portray Christmas trees in areas ruled by either the Palestinian Authority or Hamas.

Moreover, the caption to the fifth image reads:
“Another great display in Palestine! Fireworks lit up the sky as Ramallah switched on the lights for their giant Christmas tree.”

That wording obviously suggests to readers that both Gaza (referring to a previous photo) and Ramallah are located in a country called Palestine.

The Israel in Arabic social media continues to upset Arab media, as it once again has shown a short clip made by an Israeli visiting Kuwait (probably under a different passport) showing his kippah and tefillin bag used for prayer in the hotel and then panning to the iconic Kuwait Towers.

قام احد الاسرائيليين بزيارة الكويت ونشر هذا الفيديو، مصطحبا معه عدد من أدواته الدينية اللازمة للصلاة pic.twitter.com/uRALUIJrmX
— إسرائيل بالعربية (@IsraelArabic) December 13, 2019

This has appeared in a number of Arabic media sites.

Erem News says Kuwaiti security authorities began an investigation, some saying that the Israeli "may have entered the country with a foreign passport."

Israel in Arabic is doing an amazing job in normalizing the idea of Jews and Israelis in Arab countries. Not only does it have a large number of Arab followers, but every time it publishes a video like this is gains huge coverage in mainstream Arab media - and eventually the idea of Jews in Arab countries will not be considered such a big deal because of that very coverage.

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