Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, December 25, 2019

Three simple questions that prove "pro-Palestinian activists" are simply anti-Israel

The next time you encounter someone who says they are pro-Palestinian and that their group supports peace, ask them to answer one of these questions:

1. Should Palestinians, if they want, become citizens of Arab countries they have been residing in? Or must they remain stateless until they have a "right of return" to Israel?

For seven decades, Arabs have been resisting implementing UN conventions against statelessness with the very poor excuse that Palestinians want to remain stateless until they "return." This is clearly not true because every time some have had the opportunity to become citizens - of Egypt, Lebanon or Jordan - they flocked to take advantage of it.

If you don't support Palestinians becoming citizens of the lands they were born in, you aren't pro-Palestinian. You simply want to use them as pawns to help destroy Israel.

2. What have you done to fight Palestinian laws that discriminate against women or gays, or that prohibit free speech?

There are many NGOs and activist groups that pretend to care about Palestinian rights, but when those rights are being withheld by the Palestinian leadership itself, suddenly Palestinian rights aren't so important. When have they held vigils against the significant human rights violations of Hamas or the Palestinian Authority? They never have - only against Israel.

3. Do you support peace between Israel and Arab states independent of the Palestinian issue?

Many of these groups have the word "peace" in their names. Israel has improved its relations with many Arab and Muslim-majority states in recent years. Is this something they celebrate or oppose?

Every time these people are cornered into exposing their hate, see how fast they try to fall back to "whataboutism."

Because they know they are hypocrites.

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12/25 Links Pt1: Jesus Was a Jew, Not a Palestinian; Terror-linked and boycott promoting NGOs behind potential ICC investigation; Australia rejects ICC Palestine probe

From Ian:

Honest Reporting: Jesus Was a Jew, Not a Palestinian

A variation of this claim, that Jesus was actually a Philistine, also features as a staple of anti-Israel propaganda, including the roundly debunked notion that Palestinians are actually Canaanites.

The idea that Palestinians are Philistines is equally false.

Unlike modern day Jews and Palestinians, the Philistines were an ancient, non-Semitic, sea-faring people, whose form of worship was unconnected to the Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

In other words, the Philistine ethnicity, culture and religion are all entirely different from that of modern day Palestinians.

The Philistine connection to the Israelites began when the former invaded and occupied a portion of the Kingdom of Israel in about 1000 BCE, but were later defeated by ancient Israel’s King David.

In roughly the seventh century CE, the Philistines were conquered by the Kingdom of Babylonia and subsequently wiped out as a distinct culture.

In other words, in addition to being culturally, ethnically and religiously unrelated to Jews or Palestinians, the Philistines no longer exist.

However you look at it, the truth is in no doubt: Jesus was a Jew.

According to this @nytopinion piece, there was an "Ottoman province of Palestine."

Only problem is, it never existed. Palestine was a term given to the land by Europeans. It was never used by the Ottomans. pic.twitter.com/T9ehwcba7w
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) December 25, 2019

JPost Editorial: A Christian crisis in Gaza and the West Bank

In the Gaza Strip, the Christian population has plummeted from about 3,000 a decade ago to an estimated 1,000 today, most of them Greek Orthodox.

On Sunday, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) reversed a decision made earlier this month, making the welcome announcement that in accordance with “security orders,” Gaza Christians would be allowed to travel to the holy cities of Jerusalem and Bethlehem, and elsewhere in Judea and Samaria, for Christmas.

The situation of Christians in Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus, has deteriorated dramatically in the last century, and especially since the PA took control of the city in 1995. In 1947, Christians comprised about 85% of the city’s population, but that figure had plunged to 16% by 2016, and is estimated since then.

Bethlehem’s mayor at the time said that, “Due to the stress – either physical or psychological – and the bad economic situation, many people are emigrating: either Christians or Muslims, but it is more apparent among Christians because they already are a minority.”

A study by the Pew Research Center found that the decline in the Arab Christian population was both a result of a lower birth rate among Christians compared to Muslims and the fact that Christians were more likely to emigrate than any other religious group. A statistical analysis of the Christian exodus cited a lack of economic and educational opportunities among a community known for its middle-class status and higher education.

Christianity is the world’s largest religion, with an estimated 2.4 billion adherents (almost a third of the world’s 7.8 billion people). While it may seem ironic that the only place in the Middle East where Christians are thriving is the Jewish state, it is also a cause for concern. We wish our Christian readers a happy Christmas – and pray along with them for those undergoing persecution for practicing their faith.

No Sign of Christmas in Gaza

Out of 3,000 Christians who lived in Gaza in 2007 when Hamas seized power, no more than 700-800 remain, among 1.8 million Muslims. Gazan Christian Khalil Sayegh told me, "The Christians are suffering from the current situation in Hamas-controlled Gaza....They cannot hold government jobs. But, in addition...Christians in Gaza have to tolerate being harassed in the streets just for being Christians."

"While Hamas claims to protect Christians, its presence in Gaza has empowered Islamist radicals who harass Christians and even physically attack them....There have been several attempts to bomb Gazan churches."

I asked Khalil if there are any Christmas decorations in Gaza. He explained that a YMCA facility is decorated, but only inside the building. Otherwise there's no sign of holiday festivity in the streets. The authorities "reject any indication of Christian celebration." The writer is an adjunct fellow at Hudson Institute's Center for Religious Freedom.

Dubai Police Deputy Commander Lieutenant General Dahi Khalfan is a clown. We used to follow his antics when he had daily press conferences about the apparent Mossad assassination of a senior Hamas official in Dubai.

Even though he is a publicity hound, recent tweets of his are newsworthy, because he has 2.8 million followers and many Arabs, for some reason, trust him.

In a series of tweets of his predictions for 2020, Khalfan wrote:

2020 (will witness) the melting away of the Palestinian leadership from the perspective of the Arab world and from a global perspective.
2020 will witness overt Arab-Israeli ties, with a number of (Arab) countries that have not announced this (yet.)

He also predicted that Iran's popular revolution will be successful and that Iran's Foreign Minister Muhammad Javad Zarif will seek asylum in a foreign country.

Khalfan is predicting what his UAE rulers are hoping for, which indicates that the Gulf states are not slowing down in their embrace of Israel.

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

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Former @UNRWA flack @ChrisGunness crawls out from under his rock, praising Hamas for killing "collaborators"

Chris Gunness was the highly unprofessional spokesperson for UNRWA for years, justifying Hamas war crimes and using his position to mercilessly attack Israel while always pretending to adhere to UN standards of objectivity.

This is the guy widely known to have a gay lover in Tel Aviv when he was working for UNRWA but never saying a word about the persecution of gays by the Palestinians. So woke!

He left UNRWA a while back, ostensibly to be a classical music podcaster. But apparently he missed the days when he could tweet out whatever stupidity he wanted about Israel and get hundreds of retweets.

In the past couple of days he tweeted some Christmas song parodies against Israel that prove (yet again) that his hate for Israel is what animates him, not his love of Palestinians.

Gunness is so full of himself that he thinks this last one is witty enough for people to want to record - and asking people to retweet his pathetic request!

But that's not the worst one.

This next one seems to actually support Hamas hanging "collaborators" with Israel!

This is not negative towards Hamas at all - it is praising them for murdering people without a trial!

Yes, this disgusting excuse for a man is the type of person UNRWA wants in front of the cameras.

Anyway, since Gunness is into writing song parodies, we would be remiss if we didn't add to the fun:

The world supports an UNRWA

Under the UN charter

With billions in donations

It taught kids to be martyrs

Oh UNRWA UNRWA UNRWA

You love to see Jews bleed

UNRWA UNRWA UNRWA

Teach kids to be shahids.

It tries to stay in business

Defining "refugees"

As descendants of Arabs

Who lived there for two years.

Oh UNRWA UNRWA UNRWA

We all see through your game

UNRWA UNRWA UNRWA

Gets money just the same.

The leader of corruption

Flew his aide around the world

Instead of UNRWA business

He shtupped his well paid girl.

Oh UNRWA UNRWA UNRWA

Has been taking us for fools

Crying about Israel

With rockets in their schools.

(h/t Rena)

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Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas said Tuesday evening that Israel does not want Palestinian elections to be held in Jerusalem.

In the past Israel has allowed absentee ballots to be filed in Jerusalem post offices.

But Abbas seems to want more.

He said, "We say that elections must be held for the people of Jerusalem in Jerusalem itself, and if this happens (approval) we will issue a decree to hold legislative elections first and then presidential elections. For us it is important for the restoration of our democracy, we cannot remain all this time without elections and without democracy. We believe in democracy and believe in the liberation of Palestine soon, God willing."

As I have been pointing out since October, Abbas has no desire for elections - but he wants to use this Jerusalem issue to request the world community to pressure Israel to allow campaigning and full voting in Jerusalem, in order to claim sovereignty.

The idea that he cares about democracy is truly funny if you have followed his career since becoming prime minister.

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Chanukah music video night 3: Maccabeats, Pan Fry (Bad Guy and Old Town Road parody)

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12/24 Links Pt2: Jesus Was Not a Palestinian, He Was a Mizrahi Jew; Netanyahu thanks Christians for standing up for Israel in Christmas video

From Ian:

The Lesson Of Chanukah Is Deeply Relevant In 2019. Here’s Why

There have been three murderous anti-Semitic shootings in America in barely over the past year, and anti-Semitism around the liberalized world is increasingly on the rise like nothing we have seen in decades. Anti-Semitic incidents on the American university campus have risen tremendously. One of America’s two major political parties now has prominent elected officials who traffick not merely in rote “anti-Zionism,” but in the type of outright conspiratorial Jew-hatred that has been the bane of our people for millennia. The man who was on the precipice of becoming prime minister of the erstwhile leader of the free world is an unapologetic, Jew-hating bigot whose would-be reign was passionately warned against by his nation’s own chief rabbi. At this point, mass vandalism of Jewish cemeteries dotting the European landscape barely raises any media attention at all.

Against this backdrop, there are two options for American Jews: (1) Be a Maccabee and defiantly tell the world that, against all the odds, we are still here and that our nationhood will never be extinguished; or (2) be a Hellenized Jew and a fifth column that forsakes the uniqueness of Jewish identity at the sacrificial altar of pseudo-“inclusive” progressive secularism.

The lesson of Chanukah — the tale of Judah the Maccabee’s great military triumph — provides a resounding answer to that question. Against any would-be foe, both “foreign” and “domestic,” always remain proud of both the Jewish people and the Jewish state of Israel. As the light of the menorah provides a light unto the neighborhood, so must you help us all provide a “light unto the nations.” But that light can only shine if we remain proud Jews and Zionists.

Abraham Lincoln, a biblically intimate statesman who viewed Americans as an “almost chosen people,” said the following about America during his famous Lyceum Address of 1838: “At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher.”

The destruction of the Jewish people would similarly never come from “abroad,” but only from within. And such a destruction could only transpire if the Maccabees relent to the tyranny of the Hellenizers.

Always be a Maccabee.

Happy Chanukah to all.

Yisrael Medad: Sanders in our eyes

Of Bernie Sanders, it has been said that he is "the most popular Jew in Gaza since Moses."

One reason is probably his thinking on the two-state solution of which he believes that "Israel and the Palestinians can, and should, peacefully coexist, and that the Palestinians should have a country of their own." That "solution" must include:

"Compromises from both sides to achieve a fair and lasting peace in the region. The Palestinians must fulfill their responsibilities to end terrorism against Israel and recognize Israel’s right to exist. In return, the Israelis must end their policy of targeted killings, prevent further Israeli settlements on Palestinian land, and prevent the destruction of Palestinian homes, businesses and infrastructure."

Of course, right there, he falls into the trap that "solution" promotes: "compromises."

The Arabs-termed-Palestinians were offered a state in 1937 and 1947, but refused because in accepting that offer – once by British and once by the United Nations – the Jewish people would also gain a state, and that could not be tolerated.

They lost a chance for statehood when they were occupied by the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in 1948 and annexed in 1950, although to be fair, their national will was expressed on July 20, 1951 when the mufti-inspired assassination of King Abdullah I occurred on the Temple Mount. A start toward a state was the Menachem Begin Autonomy Plan of 1977, though that, too, was rejected.

By the way, Mehdi Hasan has termed that as "cling[ing] to the fantasy of a two-state solution, which has been dead and buried for years."

What, then, is driving presidential candidate Bernie Sanders?

Over 30,000 sign a petition protesting conduct of Sarah Halimi case

Now that a French appeal court has confirmed that the murderer of Sarah Halimi will not stand trial owing to his being under the influence of cannabis, over 30,000 people and counting have signed a petition addressed to the French Minister of Justice.

"Many questions remain unanswered, and this is not acceptable.

When justice is not done, or when it is willfully unjust, we must not do nothing. Justice is everyone's business.

These are our questions to Madame Beloubet, Minister of Justice, among others:
- the time it took the BRA (Counter-terrorism Brigade) to get to the scene (it took nearly four hours for the police to arrive, and the BRA was alerted soon after) but there was no road traffic. Can we have an explanation?
- If the assassin was capable of climbing across two windows on the front of the building, one cannot say that he was "unbalanced"! How do psychiatric experts explain this?
- Why did the police stay in the building for more than forty minutes (26 policemen behind Madame Halimi's door) without trying to intervene?
- Who are the psychiatric experts?
- The author's flagrant anti-Semitism is the root cause of his act. What do you think, Madame Beloubet?
- Are you aware that the Jews of France feel humiliated?

Some fun pro-Israel, anti-BDS 3-D graphics and animations

Some stuff I was messing around with this morning.

What would it look like if EVERYONE subverted Jewish symbols for political messages? #BDS @jvplive @IfNotNowOrg pic.twitter.com/39nlYVKZU8
— Elder Of Ziyon ҉ (@elderofziyon) December 24, 2019

Once I'm on a roll....#BDS @jvplive @IfNotNowOrg @alissashira @RVilkomerson pic.twitter.com/Q884KUGhcO
— Elder Of Ziyon ҉ (@elderofziyon) December 24, 2019

Now a major motion picture:#BDS #BDSSUCKS pic.twitter.com/gxYKxa2ElW
— Elder Of Ziyon ҉ (@elderofziyon) December 24, 2019

Forever. pic.twitter.com/cYBUgI5skW
— Elder Of Ziyon ҉ (@elderofziyon) December 24, 2019

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Last week I reported that the Supreme Fatwa Council, which is part of the Palestinian government, issued a statement opposing the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) as a violation of Islamic Sharia law.

The PLO acceded to CEDAW without any reservations in 2014 when they were in a frenzy to sign every UN convention they could find to pretend to be a real state. As I reported, they never actually enacted any laws to provide for equal treatment of women. Their signing CEDAW and the other conventions was a complete sham.

After the Fatwa Council issued its statement against equal rights for women, do you think there was a backlash by Palestinian feminists? Of course not. On the contrary!

A group of tribes, under the umbrella of the Supreme Commission for Tribal Affairs for the southern governorates, affirmed that any agreement that contradicts what Allah has prescribed will not be accepted by Palestinian society. (The photo of the meeting does not show any women.)

"The Islamic Sharia is above the law, and above any political commitment, or any commitment to international laws or treaties," the commission said in a statement.

The statement said that there are articles in CEDAW related to inheritance, adultery, homosexuals, and Muslim women who marry non-Muslims. "These provisions contradict the Palestinian national identity, our Islamic religion, customs and traditions, and we are not obligated to apply them in our society."

I have not seen any articles against the Fatwa Council's view of CEDAW nor from this group of tribes. Miftah, which styles itself as a feminist NGO, has not yet said a word as far as I can see.

The Left that supports Palestinian nationhood is supporting a misogynist, anti-gay, bigoted society. And it is not like any of these organizations are actually working to fix it. They are completely silent on these issues.

Groups that claim that they care about Palestinian rights don't seem to give a damn about actual rights for real Palestinian women, or gays, or Christians, or any other oppressed group within Palestinian society and under Palestinian rule.

Which means that they don't really give a damn about Palestinians or their rights.

They are hypocrites, and the only thing that animates them is the antisemitism of opposing the Jewish state rather than lifting a finger to help Palestinians.

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12/24 Links Pt1: Caroline Glick: A 5-step plan to fight the ICC; Fatou Bensouda: From dictator's legal adviser to ICC chief prosecutor; 1,500 people said killed by Iranian security forces in protests

From Ian:

Caroline B. Glick: A 5-step plan to fight the ICC

Last year, then MK Tzipi Livni convened senior officials from the Justice Ministry and Military Advocate General’s international affairs departments at the Knesset for a conference. The purpose of the conclave was to provide the officials with the opportunity to justify their interference with security decisions that by law are the exclusive purview of the IDF’s field commanders and Israel’s elected leaders.

As is their wont, the officials used the opportunity to proclaim, “the legal system is the IDF's legal Iron Dome against accusations of war crimes in foreign and international forums.”

Following International Criminal Court Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda’s decision over the weekend to prosecute Israel – including its armed forces and elected leaders – on phony war crimes allegations, we see that their conceit was a lie. The idea that Israel’s legal fraternity is Israel’s protection against the likes of Bensouda and the lawfare gang she runs with was first concocted in the 1990s by then Chief Justice Aharon Barak. The purpose of this fantasy was and remains to justify interference by the various components of the legal fraternity – the High Court, the Justice Ministry, the Attorney General and the Military Advocate General and others – in the decisions of IDF commanders and elected officials.

As Prof. Avi Bell of Bar Ilan University Law School explained in Israel Hayom earlier this week, Bensouda’s decision exposed the colossal failure of the legal fraternity’s strategy for protecting the country from the lawfare gang. Bensouda’s decision is a horrible, strategic blow for Israel. It endangers the very lives of IDF soldiers, commanders and elected officials.

Members of the legal fraternity asserted their competence to direct Israel’s responses by presenting the ICC as a legal body. But as the Rome Statute of 1998, which founded the ICC made clear, the institution’s political nature was evident from the outset, as was its inherent hostility to Israel. Now that Bensouda’s biased ruling has exposed this state of affairs, Israel must replace the lawyers’ failed legal strategy with a political one.

Israel intends to fight back against war-crimes probe by International Criminal Court

The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, announced last week that at the request of the Palestinian Authority, she is opening a probe into alleged war crimes committed by Israel in the 2014 Gaza war, as well as crimes in the disputed territories of the West Bank.

Alan Baker, director of the international law program at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, told JNS: "There is no legal basis to such requests since only sovereign states may appeal to the court, and there exists no sovereign Palestinian state with sovereign territory over which the court could extend its jurisdiction. If the court accepts the Palestinian requests and opens a formal investigation, it will damage its own juridical credibility and become politicized like other UN bodies."

Eugene Kontorovich, a professor at the George Mason University Law School, told JNS that the ICC "ignores international law by inventing a Palestinian state that does not exist and creates a crime that no one in international law has ever been charged with before: the crime of people living in places. To say it is a war crime for a Jew to live in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City [of Jerusalem] is absurd. It is quite clear that the crime of people living somewhere is a crime for which one must be Jewish to be eligible."

Kontorovich noted that Bensouda "pretended, in the interest of evenhandedness, to investigate 150,000 Russians being moved into Crimea and concluded without any fanfare that is not a war crime." He noted her refusal to investigate Turkish settlers in Cyprus.

ICC to Probe 'Israeli War Crimes' in West Bank, Gaza

The chief International Criminal Court prosecutor announced Friday a probe into suspected war crimes on Palestinian territories. 'I am satisfied that there is a reasonable basis to proceed with an investigation into the situation in Palestine,' prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said without specifying who was committing the alleged crimes as the Court wrapped up its preliminary assessment of the situation.

You know who else likes to use Chanukah symbols for anti-Israel purposes?

Groups like IfNotNow and Jewish Voice for Peace are hijacking Chanukah to attack Israel. We are seeing "BDS Dreidels,"BDS Latkes" and pathetic people pretending to be candles in public places.

But that isn't new at all.

Because the Arabs whose side they are on have done this for years.

The Arab cartoonists tend to be a bit more obviously antisemitic, but the re-purposing of Jewish symbols to attack Israel is fundamentally the same.

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The Palestinian "ministry of foreign affairs and expatriates" has issued one of the most bizarre statements ever.

It condemned the statements of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on a radio program recently, where he reiterated: "It took us a bit to work our way through it, but ultimately after studying all sides of debate, we agree with President Reagan that the establishment of Israeli civilian settlements in the West Bank are not per se inconsistent with international law."

The Palestinian ministry responded:

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates consider these statements to be anti-Semitic, denying the existence and right of the Palestinians on this land is itself anti-Semitism and a denial of the truth that has been established for thousands of years. Not to mention the racist and fascist aspect, which was reflected in these declarations encapsulated by a biblical, missionary vision that forfeits the right of the other, regardless of whether this right is fixed, firm, clear and standing.

They don't explain how exactly giving Jews the right to live in their ancestral homeland is antisemitic. Chances are that they are using the old, idiotic argument that Palestinians are Semites and anything they don't like is antisemitic - a "1984" style definition whose existence is meant to eliminate the very idea of anti-Jewish bigotry as a concept.

Because they know that they are the antisemitic bigots and want to subvert the term itself for their own propaganda.

It will be interesting if they bother to translate this stupidity in the English section of their website, or if they will try to avoid being a laughingstock.

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Jewish Voice for Peace NYC videoed some 30 members singing a Chanukah song with new lyrics that are hard to understand, but they seem to include stuff about Trump's Executive Order and how it attacks Palestinians, somehow.

What kind of a person attends an event like this?

They are overwhelmingly female. Of all ages. Only a couple of them seem to be really into it, enthusiastically doing the hand motions that were supposed to be synchronized.

And if we are honest, most of the demonstrations by Palestinians and their Western dhimmis are attended by people who aren't the brightest bulbs in the pack. The kind of people who are happy to repeat back the chants done by a person with a microphone are not the type that think too independently. They aren't knowledgeable enough to maintain an argument with someone who knows their stuff.

But still...something attracts these not-too-bright people to an off-key singing session. It isn't ideology that attracts these people.

It is that they are lonely. They live in New York City but cannot make real connections with people. Being mostly female, they need to find spaces where they can meet people and be safe. JVP provides that for them.

Look at them. Except for a couple of the middle aged women, they aren't having fun. There are very few smiles. Why on Earth would anyone voluntarily join such a joyless event? It is because they are desperate for companionship, and this is the best option they are aware of.

This is important - because it means that Zionist groups are not fulfilling the need that these (mostly) women have. Most Chanukah parties are fun. This one certainly isn't.

Jewish Zionist groups in New York and elsewhere should be doing some outreach to find the unaffiliated and the lonely - and create fun events that can attract the Jews who are lost.

Like these people.

(No sing-alongs please unless they are ironic, and if you are going to play dreidel, make the stakes more interesting than chocolate gelt.)

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

Chanukah music video night 2: Ari Goldwag - Chanukah: For The Light

Nice, original song.

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

12/23 Links Pt2: Phyllis Chesler: Is it too late to clear the antisemitism swamp?; Boris uses Chanukah message to tell Jews “you have every decent person in this country fighting by your side”

From Ian:

Prof. Phyllis Chesler: Is it too late to clear the antisemitism swamp?

There is no end to what must be done, beginning with funding, distributing, and doing whatever it takes to compose new textbooks on racism that include Jew hatred and that make them mandatory reading; new courses in anti-Semitism and Israel, new courses in the history of Islam and then doing whatever it takes to make sure that they, too, are mandatory; forging anti-indoctrination curriculums that will take 50-100 years before they can begin to exert some influence over the media, human rights organizations, government leaders, leftists, and the Muslim world, etc.

This is trench warfare. This is clearing the swamps, inch by inch. There is no one quick fix.

What about our Jewish leadership? Where have they been? Most have spent the last twenty years focused on white, right-wing Nazi Jew haters, have been too politically correct, and overly sensitive to the sorrows of recent immigrants, to note from whence the danger cometh. How do we re-educate our leaders? Failing that, how do we replace them, and in time to make a difference? How do we insure that this time round, we do not give up our religious brethren or our Israeli brethren? And that we do not surrender ourselves?

Finally—finally, even some left-wing American Jews are a bit frightened, on edge, and are asking the kinds of questions that we all should have been asking fifteen or twenty years ago—maybe seventy years ago if we hadn’t been living in such a “goldene medina” at such a golden time in history.

Now, a few more of us can hear the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse at full gallop.

This just in from a very liberal friend who was born in hiding in Europe and grew up in a DP camp. “Now I’m really getting frightened. My kids and grandkids all look very Jewish. Black hats. Payes. Sheitels. The works.”

This, from another non-religious friend. “This is wild. How can we stop this?”

This, from a former shul mate: “How did you know this would be happening? Are you some kind of psychic, a prophet, maybe a witch?”

Ah, you don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing...

Hannukah Sameach—our holiday which celebrates both military might and divine intervention. We need both.

America’s Failed Jewish Leadership Must Resign

On Tuesday, December 10, 2019, in a premeditated attack, two shooters opened fire inside a kosher deli in Jersey City, New Jersey and murdered four people. The killers included a former member of a notoriously antisemitic group and, reportedly, a follower of Louis Farrakhan.

It’s becoming obvious to most Jews that we are living in a state of siege. Practically every Jewish institution in America now needs significant security. College campuses have become hostile territory for Jewish students. Jews are murdered in Pittsburgh, San Diego, and Jersey City, beaten on the streets of Brooklyn, bullied and harassed in the universities, defamed by The New York Times and CNN, and now maligned in the US Congress.

There are many reasons for the current situation. Many are not within our control, but one thing truly ought to be: Jewish leadership.

The abolitionist leader Fredrick Douglass understood the consequences of failed leadership. He wrote: “Find out what any people will quietly submit to and you have the exact … measure of the injustice and wrong … which will be imposed upon them.”

It’s hard to ignore the simple fact that Jewish leaders have failed to stop or even slow down the accelerating epidemic of Jew-hatred in America. Good intentions and doing their “best” is not good enough. It’s irrational to continue with the current policies and leaders and expect different results.

Part of the reason for their failure is that many mainstream Jewish leaders, with a few exceptions, most significantly Morton Klein of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), have failed to fully understand the new threats we face. Like failed generals fighting the last war, they focused on Nazis and the political right — and ignored the changed battlefield for as long as they could. They deliberately, out of political consideration, minimized the assaults coming from “progressives” and Islamists.

French justice protects criminals

The Paris Court of Appeal declared that the young man's discernment - 27 years old at the time and under the influence of illicit substances - was abolished at the time of the facts and that he is therefore criminally irresponsible. The civil parties have five days to decide whether they can appeal to the Court of Cassation.

"The issue here was neither the fight against this scourge which is anti-Semitism nor the desirable criminal policy against cannabis, but only the question of the discernment of Kobili Traore at the material time. However, it was clearly abolished," said the suspect's lawyer, Mr. Thomas Bidnic, who said he was "satisfied" and "relieved. "

Mr. Francis Szpiner, Lawyer for the three children of the victim, denounced the outcome as "an outrageous decision".
Speaking to the press, Mr. Francis Szpiner, lawyer for the three children of the victim, denounced the outcome as "an outrageous decision".

"A man whose experts said that he had had a delusional puff as a result of a deliberate intake of drugs was therefore granted impunity," he added. "We have just created in our country a Sarah Halimi jurisprudence, that is to say that any person who will suffer from a delirious drug addiction because he will have taken an illicit substance that is dangerous for health will be exempt from criminal responsibility ."

This inadmissible and incomprehensible decision shows the dilapidated state of French "justice", incapable of punishing the criminals.

Laws and justice are the foundation of any decent society, in fact for every decent life.

France has lost this moral foundation