Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, January 02, 2020

The Elephants in the Room, 2020

I used to have a roughly annual feature called The Elephants in the Room, where I would list all of the inconvenient facts that show that peace is impossible.

I haven't done it since 2013, and the list is still very similar to what it was then. The real issues are swept under the rug, while everyone talks about "occupation" as if that is the main obstacle to peace.

It isn't.

So here is a slightly updated list of elephants that is still being ignored by nearly everyone:

Elephant 1: Hamas controls Gaza

Every peace plan includes Gaza in a Palestinian Arab state, and none of them has any provision on how to handle the fact that Gaza is a terrorist haven, in much worse shape since Israel uprooted the settlements there, controlled by a terrorist group that is consistently and wholeheartedly against Israel's existence. Peace is impossible with this elephant, so it is easier to pretend it isn't there.

Elephant 2: Palestinian Arabs elected a terror government

In the only fair, democratic elections in the territories, the Hamas terrorists were chosen by the people. Poll after poll shows that Palestinian Arabs support terror in Israel itself. (52% still support a violent intifada in 2019.) The elections proved that the conventional wisdom was wrong - and the conventional wisdom proceeded to ignore it.

Elephant 3: The current PA government was not elected

This corollary to Elephant 2 means that the people representing "Palestine" on TV and at the UN do not represent the people. Even if they sound moderate or compromising, they have no mandate. The current PA president is well past his term of office, and none of his prime ministers were ever elected Negotiating with the PA is, literally, meaningless.

Similarly, the unelected PLO is the real power behind the PA. The PA officially reports to the PLO, and all negotiations are done by the autocratic, Fatah-dominated PLO, not the PA.

Elephant 4: The current PA government has almost no power - and no respect

Outside of Ramallah, the Abbas government has little popular support and little power. Hamas is a very real threat to the PA in the West Bank and is quietly building its base, although the PA is pretty ruthless in attacking Hamas directly and indirectly through financial means. The attitudes that forced the PA to abandon Gaza - a lack of passion by people for its positions - could very well play out in the West Bank as well, especially if there are new elections.

Elephant 5: The PA is being kept alive by artificial methods

The PA budget is bloated from "payroll" of non-working workers, including terrorists who receive a salary for not working. The PA may also still be paying Gaza workers who were kicked out of their government jobs in 2006 by Hamas. The very basis of the organized Palestinian Arab workforce is a fiction being kept barely alive by ever-increasing infusions of cash with no real plan to fix the problem.

Elephant 6: Fatah remains a terrorist group paid by the PA

Despite the claims that the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades has dismantled, it is a joke meant to appease the wishful-thinkers. The PA might arrest Hamas members in the West Bank, but there still remains - today - terrorist groups that report to Fatah. Here's the webpage of one of them. There has been no serious move by the PA to dismantle their own terror groups, and they still appear in public with their guns.

Elephant 7: The PA's goal remains the destruction of Israel

Whether it is by "right of return" or not changing the Fatah charter or by printing map after map showing no Israel, even the most moderate Palestinian leader clings to the idea of destroying Israel, and looks upon a Palestinian Arab state as only one stage in the process. One only needs to look at the maps of "Palestine" in official PA documents and schoolbooks.

A 2011 poll that remains criminally under-reported proves that when Palestinian Arabs say they want a two-state solution, it is only a stage towards their real goal of destroying Israel.

And polls in 2019 confirm it.

Elephant 8: Jerusalem

Most Israelis want a unified Jerusalem under Israeli sovereignty. Most Palestinian Arabs refuse to accept anything less than all of ("east") Jerusalem as the capital of a Muslim state. The positions are not compatible and a compromise will not reduce the chances for violence - it will increase it.

Elephant 9: What happened to Gaza

Forgetting Hamas for now, the time period between Israel's dismantling settlements in Gaza and the Hamas takeover is instructive as to how Palestinian Arabs take advantage of territory they gain. They didn't build new houses or communities to reduce the "refugee camp" population, no schools or hospitals. They destroyed the greenhouses purchased for them by American Jews; they turned beautiful former settlements into training camps for terror - in other words, Israel's last major concession not only didn't help achieve peace, it ended up encouraging terror. Any claims that something similar wouldn't happen in the West Bank is the triumph of wishful thinking over experience.

Elephant 10: Palestinian Arab "unity"

Related to Elephant #1. No peace plan can work unless Hamas and the PA/Fatah reach some sort of unification agreement. This is not possible in the foreseeable future. Moreover, Hamas is powerful enough that any such agreement must include a hardening of PLO positions that would be completely incompatible with the basic minimum standards for peace - renunciation of terror, recognition of Israel and acceptance of previous agreements.

Elephant 11: The Palestinian Arab "diaspora" and Arab intransigence

Any final peace agreement would mean that Arab countries could no longer justify keeping Palestinian Arabs in "refugee camps" nor could they justify their continued refusal to discriminate against Palestinian Arabs from becoming citizens of their countries should they want to stay. The millions of PalArabs in the Middle East becoming citizens would not be accepted by many Arab countries as it would endanger their own tenuous holds on power.

Elephant 12: Economics

Some 25 years after Oslo, the economy in the territories is still close to non-existent and wholly dependent on foreign aid. Not only is there no free market, there is no incentive to build one as the very mentality of Palestinian Arabs and their leaders is one of welfare rather than responsibility. All the plans to create a Palestinian Arab state do not consider Day 2 and how such a state would be able to sustain itself. The expected influx of hundreds of thousands of people from "refugee camps" would make it even worse. It would take at least a generation to turn the poisonous attitude of entitlement around.

Elephant 13: Gaza demographics

Gazans have no room to expand as their numbers continue to grow at among the fastest rates in the world. Theoretically they could move to the West Bank but only a small percentage would. This is another Day 2 powder keg that is being ignored in the interests of a "solution" of a "Palestinian state."

Elephant 14: Palestinian Arab leaders never showed interest in independence

The West assumes that the goal is an independent Palestinian Arab state where Arabs no longer have to live under "occupation." But the actions and words of Palestinian Arab leaders have never borne that goal out; they have not worked towards building the institutions and infrastructure that would be necessary in an independent state. Their insistence on "right of return" and "Jerusalem" as issues that must be resolved before independence betray their thought processes - inconsistent with independence (neither of which require those two issues to be resolved) and consistent with a desire to destroy Israel in stages.

Elephant 15: A unilateral Palestinian Arab state would be militarized

There is no way that a new Palestinian Arab state would remain demilitarized for any length of time. The Palestinian government could invite a friendly Muslim nation to position anti-aircraft weapons within its territory; to shoot missiles at El Al planes landing a few miles from the Green Line, or to get a few thousand tanks poised to cut Israel in half.

Iran already effectively controls Lebanon and Syria and is working to ensure Gaza comes back under its orbit. They would use the nascent state of Palestine to position themselves on the West Bank as well. Just like the PA ran away from Gaza at the first sign of trouble, so would they abandon their state to Iranian proxies and Islamic terrorists.

The PLO's will to defend themselves is not nearly as strong as their will to destroy Israel, a desire that has been inculcated in them for generations. Palestinian Arab nationalism is a fundamentally weak and externally-imposed construct. Iran is poised and anxious to take advantage of the chaos that would follow a unilaterally declared state, even if at the moment they are distracted.

But the West is ready to risk Israel for that elephant as well.

Elephant 16: The so-called "right to return"

The PA is showing no interest in integrating the Palestinian Arabs outside of the territories into their state. On the contrary; the "refugee camps" in PA controlled territory continue to grow, rather than shrink. Clearly, the PA expects the bulk of the "diaspora" to go to Israel, not a Palestinian Arab state, and decades of incitement both within and without the territories have brainwashed generations of Arabs to not accept anything less than a "return" to a land that most of them have never stepped foot in. (UNRWA has been a major promulgator of this lie.)

Elephant 17: Corruption and human rights abuses are still endemic in the PA

Despite the publicized successes, the PA remains mired in corruption, hardly a model for an independent state. The 2008 Global Integrity Report rated the West Bank as close to the bottom in its corruption ratings and more recently Palestinians rated local corruption among the worst in the Arab world. Women are discriminated against by law. Press freedom remains low; the justice system is opaque, and whistle-blowers are forced to go to the Israeli press to expose corruption. The success that the PA has had in weakening Hamas in the West Bank has come at the expense of massive human rights violations, including torture.

Elephant 18: Palestine would be Judenrein

Statements by PA leaders make it clear that their state of Palestine would not have any Jewish citizens allowed within. Jews whose ancestors have lived in Judea and Samaria, whether for decades or for millennia, will be legally barred from living in Palestine - an extraordinary display of state antisemitism that is completely at odds with the Western standards that the nascent state of "Palestine" is attempting to live up to.

Elephant 19: The Muslim world's antipathy towards Israel

Although this is weakening, the Arab world and the Muslim world remains implacably against the idea of a Jewish state in the midst of supposedly Muslim lands. Iran remains in de facto control of southern Lebanon and Gaza; ordinary Jordanians and Egyptians remain among the worst anti-semites in the Arab world. The best "peace" would be bitter cold; it will not include any real normalization, and the threat from radical Islam remains potent in Arab and Muslim states. The best peace plan would result in Israel being exactly where it is today - surrounded by enemies, with less of a land buffer, and Israel relying on US money to prompt Arab neighbors to keep radicals in check.

That is not peace, and that is not security.

Elephant 20: The Arab Spring

We now see how tenuous is the hold of Arab leaders on their nations. The chances of a similar upheaval in the Palestinian Arab-controlled areas is not small. What would happen to the "peace agreement" then?

Abbas has no successor. Polls show that if elections were held today, the new president of the PA would be a convicted terrorist now in Israeli prison. Even if Abbas would sign a peace agreement today, that paper would be next to worthless after he is gone.

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.

The apartheid against Palestinians in Lebanon is getting worse - but since Israel isn't involved, no one bothers to pretend to be in solidarity with them.

Yasser Ali, a member of the General Secretariat of the Popular Conference for Palestinians Abroad, warned of "the specter of famine" in Palestinian camps in Lebanon.

He stated that the unemployment rate in the camps that Palestinians are forced to live in worsened from 56% to 65% in 2019 and the poverty rate worsened from 65% to 80%.

Palestinians in Lebanon are barred from some 73 categories of jobs in Lebanon, which is why their unemployment and poverty rates are so high.

In addition, Ali said, Lebanese banks does not allow Palestinians to withdraw funds or even to have funds transferred from abroad.

A large number of refugees mainly depend on their children's remittances from abroad, estimated at about one hundred million dollars per year. Most UNRWA "registered refugees" in Lebanon have left Lebanon long ago; as of a couple of years ago there were only 174,000 actually in Lebanon out of some 470,000 listed. Now, the numbers are probably lower as young Palestinians in Lebanon have literally no future.

In addition, there are some 20,000 Syrian Palestinian refugees who are still in Lebanon, who are also forced to live in the same overcrowded camps as the other Palestinians.

Palestinians in Lebanon held massive demonstrations to allow them to hold more kinds of jobs this year, according to Ali. But when the larger demonstrations against the government began, the Palestinians decided that they should stop their own protests, because their situation is so precarious and they didn't want to look like they were taking sides. After all, most Lebanese despise their Palestinian "guests" and the poor Palestinians don't want to make things even worse for themselves and their families.

Lebanon is the worst place in the world for Palestinians by any measure. Discrimination against them is the law in Lebanon. They are not allowed to buy land or even to expand their houses. They are hated by the population. They would love to live in the West Bank or even Gaza.

Yet how often do you see any articles about Palestinians in Lebanon? How many NGOs that pretend to care about Palestinians even mention the situation in Lebanon? When was the last time Human Rights Watch tweeted about Palestinians in Lebanon?

The sad fact is that when Jews aren't involved, no one gives a damn about Palestinians. 5000 were killed in Syria - the media is silent. Corruption is endemic in the West Bank - no one cares. Christians have virtually all left Gaza because of Muslim persecution - but the only mention of them in the media is when Israel limits their travel on Christmas.

Virtually every person and group that says they are pro-Palestinian are proven by this story and others to be nothing of the sort. They are simply anti-Israel, and the only reason anyone would care more about Israel's treatment of Palestinians more than the far worse treatment they receive in Lebanon is good, old fashioned antisemitism.

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.

Lessons from the Pale of Settlement (Vic Rosenthal)

Vic Rosenthal's Weekly Column

If I go to shul on a Friday evening, I might encounter a group of young black men in their upper teens and early twenties on the street. Instead of worrying whether they will attack me, I tell them Shabbat shalom, because they are Jews, and given their ages, probably soldiers in the IDF. Today it’s better to live in Israel than in Brooklyn, where I was born.

Antisemitic violence by blacks (and a few Hispanics) against Orthodox Jews in New York City, including a vicious machete attack in nearby Monsey, following several murderous assaults by white racists on synagogues elsewhere in America, has gotten major media attention.

The immediate response was that the NYPD should do a better job. Given the constraints placed on them by the justice system, which seems to be unable to hold anyone less murderous than the Monsey attacker for more than a few hours, they are probably doing the best they can. A massive increase in manpower could reduce the incidence of violence in particular areas temporarily, but is unaffordable in the long run.

And now we are seeing the inevitable backlash from the “progressive” community. In response to Mayor De Blasio’s statement that the police presence in affected areas will be beefed up, A group called “Jews for racial and economic justice” tweeted,

This is what dividing vulnerable communities looks like. Instead of investing in restorative solutions that prioritize the safety of all communities, @NYCMayor is implementing a plan that treats abuse of Black and Brown communities as the answer to antisemitic violence. It isn’t.

Police, they think, aren’t the solution – they are the problem, at least for the “Black and Brown communities.” The position of these “woke” Jews is that non-Jewish minorities are “vulnerable” and need to be protected (from police), while Jews need to adopt “strategies” like “interfaith collaboration and crisis de-escalation, as well as long-term interventions such as creating alternative safety teams, rapid response networks, and broader cultural education around antisemitism and white supremacy.” But no police, and of course no guns. For these Jews, the safety of other Jews is the lowest priority.

For total chutzpah or maybe just stupidity, though, nothing beats the group called “A Jewish Voice for Peace” (JVP). Usually JVP contents itself with bashing Israel, supporting BDS and working to help Palestinian terror organizations and Iran in their attempt to destroy the Jewish state. Now they seem to have turned to domestic concerns. Here is what they tweeted after eight days of Hanukkah in which New York City saw at least one violently antisemitic incident every night:

We know we have to address rising white nationalist violence – against Jews, Muslims, Black people and all people of color – while not relying on the very forces detaining and locking up and killing our friends, family & neighbors.

It is impossible that they haven’t noticed the color of the attackers in Crown Heights and other Jewish neighborhoods of New York. What seems to be going on is that they believe that “people of color” (POC) are incapable of bigotry (this is an article of faith of intersectional wokeness) and Jew-hatred is a form of bigotry. So it must somehow be that white nationalism, inspired of course by Donald Trump, is poisoning the minds of these POC and causing them to act out violently (please don’t ask me to find a coherent argument here). But whatever you do, don’t try to stop them by force.

As someone who has read a few books about Jewish history, I don’t find any of this surprising. We have a minority of Jews living among a larger low-income gentile population. The blacks of Brooklyn have problems and frustrations, and the reasons for them and the possible solutions are not always obvious. The local prince and nobles (the Mayor and city officials) talk a good game, but little changes. The Jews are nearby, easily identifiable, and there are plenty of antisemitic ideas in circulation, fed by black nationalist groups like the Nation of Islam, and increasingly by the white woke Left. Black teenagers who grew up on the street express themselves violently. Of course they pick on the Jews. And as in the days of the Tsar, antisemites can always find Jews to take their side.

The local population is generally antisemitic. Whether their complaints against the Jews are fair or not, they believe them. If they wouldn’t say that they approve of the assaults on the streets, they would say they understand them. The Jews deserve it.

The Jews, on the other hand, grew up coddled by their families and communities. It is hard for them to understand why non-Jews dislike them, since everyone they are close to loves them. Few of them engage in sports or hard physical work, and even fewer are familiar with violence in any form. They are the softest of soft targets. Things have not changed much for the Jews on the ground since my grandfather’s time in the Russian shtetl.

History can be useful. There are lessons to be learned from the Pale of Settlement that can be applied to Crown Heights, Williamsburg, and Boro Park. And here is one of the most important and most relevant:

Jews can’t depend on the goyim to defend them.

The police in New York are not the police of the Tsar. They don’t participate in or even approve of attacks on Jews. But they cannot be everywhere, and there is even opposition to their temporarily increased deployment.

Here is another lesson:

Antisemites can’t be educated by Jews.

Some people, like the aforementioned “Jews for Economic and Racial Justice” think that we can talk to, negotiate with, and educate the local community to stop hating us. We can’t. Louis Farrakhan Is more credible for them than we are. And that will always be the case.

That leaves only two options: defend oneself or leave. Many people, including myself, have called for Jews to learn Krav Maga or similar martial arts. While this would be healthy, most Orthodox Jews – especially the Haredi (“ultra-Orthodox”) ones – have spent most of their lives in books and not struggling to survive in the street. They do not have the aggressive personalities or physical fitness that are needed to go with the technical knowledge to defend themselves successfully.

Perhaps it would be possible for Jewish communities to expand self-defense organizations, such as Shomrim. Such volunteer patrols cannot legally carry weapons, although they can make citizen’s arrests. But there can be serious problems resulting from legal restrictions and the complicated relations with the police. While the Shomrim have helped the police capture some of the assailants in recent weeks, the justice system apparently does not treat them in a way that deters them from continuing to commit offenses of the same kind, over and over. And of course the Shomrim are not capable of stopping more serious crimes, especially by armed criminals.

So, what about leaving? Nobody wants to abandon their home, even to go to a safer place. But as Jews – including my grandparents – learned, sometimes there is no other solution. There is one place that any Jew can go to if he wants to enough, and that is the State of Israel. This is a problem for some Haredi Jews, in particular the Satmar Hasidim of Monsey and Brooklyn, who strongly oppose the Jewish state.

It would be a problem for Israel, too, which surely doesn’t need any more residents, Jews or Arabs, who oppose the existence of the state that protects them and makes it possible for them to thrive. But saving Jews is part of the reason for being of the Jewish state, whether or not they are grateful. That is what this country does. They should keep that in mind.

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.

01/01 Links Pt2: BDS or BS?; Netflix Doco on Murder of Argentine AMIA Bombing Prosecutor; Gertrude Himmelfarb, 1922-2019; Corner of God’s Altar in Shiloh’ takes 2nd place in 2019 top discoveries

From Ian:

BDS or BS?

Another feature of BDS is that it often condemns both an action and its opposite. If the Israeli government were to restrict gay rights, it would be homophobic – if it extends them, it is pinkwashing. If the local Israeli embassy pays the airfare for a director to come to discuss what is more than likely a pro-Palestinian film, then the festival is accepting blood money and should be boycotted. But if the Embassy didn’t make the payment, it would be accused of running a North Korean type hasbara propaganda machine, supporting only films supporting the government’s line. UK films are universally supported by the government through generous tax credits, of course, but you don’t see screaming mobs outside showings of Hugh Grant films, despite some of our questionable actions in Iraq and Afghanistan, and our complex relationship with the Saudis.

The government is right to propose an anti-BDS bill (and let us not kid ourselves that any council would apply a boycott to Malaysia, despite its open discrimination against its Chinese population, or the Iranians for persecuting almost everyone, dare we even bother mentioning the prospect of a boycott of China, currently operating concentration camps?), because those who are at the sharp end will otherwise have an impossible job. Can you allow council premises to be used for an Israeli/Palestinian dialogue group (normalization), or host a singer who has recently performed in Israel? Could a university host a Jewish Society that serves Israeli kiddush wine, or allow a speaker who has been in the Israel Defence Force? Could a library order Amos Oz books or host a church group organising a trip to Jerusalem and Bethlehem? Could the mayor welcome a group of disabled IDF veterans? No-one really knows the answers, but the hope of BDS activists is that people will take the safest route by simply not asking, so achieving the movement’s goals by default.

Given that your average declared anti-Zionist would struggle to find the West Bank on a map, the chance of a council worker or university administrator being able to make a reasoned decision on BDS is close to negligible. And the legal and administrative costs of getting it wrong will be borne by the benighted taxpayers and ratepayers, very few of whom have the slightest interest in the Middle East conflict. Meanwhile, a generation of otherwise engaged Jews would grow up fearful that their local authority considers them to be second-class citizens, and their Israeli relatives to be uniquely and irredeemably evil.

BDS activists can of course try to boycott Israel, Zionists, or anything they like when doing their shopping, but should leave their personal prejudices at the door when it comes to local or national government.

Stand With Us: A New Middle East?

In the past decade, Israel has developed closer ties to Arab states in the region. From sporting events to official diplomatic delegations and regional infrastructure plans we are seeing a positive shift in the Middle East. Peace is possible!

Prof. Phyllis Chesler: I saw the writing in the sky

For years, organized American and European Jewry have refused to take a courageous stand about Jew hatred. Please note that I am not calling this “antisemitism.” I have been using the phrase “Jew hatred” for many years now, sometimes the regrettably ungraceful term: “Judeophobia”. Scholar Shulamit Magnus has a very good piece about this. In short: Jews are not a “race,” we are a people, and we exist in all the colors of the rainbow. Arab Muslims and Arab Christians are also Semites and the term “antisemitism” applies to them as well.

Most big-monied American-Jewish groups have tended to universalize antisemitism as “racism” or “prejudice,” perhaps in the hope that Jew haters who oppose anti-black, anti-brown, and anti-immigrant racism would therefore magically realize that nearly half of all Jews, at least in Israel, are black, brown, or olive in skin color and that even white-skinned Ashkenazi Jews are human beings who are currently being verbally and physically menaced, shot down, stabbed, punched, and blown up in Israel and in the West.

I started writing about this almost full-time in the fall of 2000. I saw the writing on the sky. I’d seen it before in the early 1970s and 1980s, but never so clearly, never so alarmingly. Others did too. Some had been our shomrim for a long time. They were barely and only rarely heeded and were defamed as conservatives.

However, most American Jewish organizations, including the ADL, insisted that the greatest danger to Jews was coming from white Christian conservative men. They refused to name Islamic Jew hatred or black American, black Caribbean, or black African Jew hatred. The media happily kept quoting such views. Oddly, the ADL’s own stats, which they’ve released over many years, tells us another story.

Jews are not lemmings, Mr. Gandhi

“They should have thrown themselves into the sea from cliffs.”- Mahatma Gandhi, suggesting that mass suicide should have been the preferred Jewish response to the Holocaust, as opposed to fighting back or seeking refuge elsewhere.

Throughout the West various leftists and pacifists still worship the passive resistance legacy of Gandhi. This worship or virtue-signalling, however, does not impress me, especially because my father was a slave labourer in Auschwitz and his parents and then 8 year old sister were murdered in the gas chambers there.

We should also examine myths surrounding lemmings jumping off cliffs, as Gandhi seems to infer that is moral, as quoted above.

Non-violence is a fair tactic when dealing with the British or Indian authorities, but we contend that it is a very stupid and immoral practice when dealing with Hitler and the Nazis (and more recently with Islamist supporters of terrorism and oppression of their own people and their neighbours all over the world).

First let us think about Gandhi’s preference for jumping into the sea when confronted with enemies seeking your death.

Non-violence is a fair tactic when dealing with the British or Indian authorities, but is a very stupid and immoral practice when dealing with Hitler and the Nazis (and more recently with Islamist supporters of terrorism and oppression of their own people and their neighbours all over the world).
The notion of jumping into the sea reminds us of the supposed conduct of Norwegian lemmings. According to a good Wikipedia article about them, it is accepted that these lemmings do periodically jump off cliffs. However it argues that they have become “the subject of a widely popular misconception that they are driven to commit mass suicide when they migrate by jumping off cliffs. It is not a deliberate mass suicide where the animal voluntarily chooses to die, but rather a result of their migratory behavior. Driven by strong biological urges, some species of lemmings may migrate in large groups when population density becomes too great.

Tiffany Harris

After every antisemitic attack on Jews, the talking heads tell us what we "must” do to combat antisemitism. These all-knowing oracles run the gamut of political and religious beliefs and this should be comforting. All these people, irrespective of their beliefs, know just what we “must” do to end the killing, the attacks, the fear and hate.

It’s kind of hard, however, to take any of them seriously in a world in which antisemitic attacker Tiffany Harris is not only released without posting bail on her own recognition, but awarded a metro ticket, two debit cards, and a burner phone. For all we know it was the fare, free money, and phone that inspired Harris to do it again: to assault an innocent victim. But what we know for a fact is that Tiffany Harris was back on the streets in less time than you can say “bail reform,” only to be arrested and re-released, 24 hours later (with another metro ticket, two debit cards, and a burner phone), for punching a woman in the eye.

Tiffany's most recent victim of assault (as of this writing), subsequent to her slapping three Orthodox Jewish women while yelling, "F-U Jews," was not believed to be Jewish. It matters little. Tiffany Harris committed several violent, criminal offenses prior to the recent antisemitic attack which makes her a danger to society, and she does, in fact hate Jews. Violent and antisemitic? Not a good combination.

Tiffany Harris isn't and won't be the only violent antisemite to be affected by bail reform. And antisemitism existed before the new legislation. Still, it's a bad time to be implementing these reforms, given the current spate of attacks. What it all means, bail reform legislation, is that come January 1, a whole lot of criminal offenses will no longer qualify for bail, though law enforcement officials are already complying with the spirit of the law. According to WTEN, (emphasis added):

On January 1, a number of criminal offenses will no longer qualify for bail. It’s something police and prosecutors are not happy about when it comes to public safety. The long list, courtesy of The District Attorneys Association of the State of New York, includes:

· Assault in the third degree

· Aggravated vehicular assault

· Aggravated assault upon a person less than eleven years old

· Criminally negligent homicide

· Aggravated vehicular homicide

· Manslaughter in the second degree

· Unlawful imprisonment in the first degree

· Coercion in the first degree

· Arson in the third and fourth degree

· Grand larceny in the first degree

· Criminal possession of a weapon on school grounds or criminal possession of a firearm

· Criminal possession of a controlled substance in the first and second degree

· Criminal sale of a controlled substance in the first and second degree

· Criminal sale of a controlled substance in or near school grounds

· Specified felony drug offenses involving the use of children, including the use of a child to commit a controlled substance offense and criminal sale of a controlled substance to a child

· Criminal solicitation in the first degree and criminal facilitation in the first degree

· Money laundering in support of terrorism in the third and fourth degree

· Making a terroristic threat

· Patronizing a person for prostitution in a school zone

· Promoting an obscene sexual performance by a child

· Possessing an obscene sexual performance by a child

· Promoting a sexual performance by a child

· Failure to register as a sex offender

· Obstructing governmental administration in the first and second degree

· Obstructing governmental administration by means of a self-defense spray device

· Bribery in the first degree

· Bribe giving for public office

· Bribe receiving in the first degree

· Promoting prison contraband in the first and second degree

· Resisting arrest

· Hindering prosecution

· Tampering with a juror and tampering with physical evidence

· Aggravated harassment in the first degree

· Directing a laser at an aircraft in the first degree

· Criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree

· Criminal sale of a firearm to a minor

· Enterprise corruption and money laundering in the first degree

· Aggravated cruelty to animals, overdriving, torturing and injuring animals

· Failure to provide proper sustenance

· Animal fighting

When you read this lengthy list of crimes, you begin to see how an antisemitic attacker might be released without bail, even multiple times. Meanwhile, we had a total of 8 antisemitic attacks in New York City over Chanukah. That’s one for every day of the festival. And then there was the Monsey attack, which overshadowed all the other attacks, involving, as it did, a machete in the close quarters of a rabbi’s home, during a holiday celebration.

Bail reform, coming precisely at this time, is helping to unleash this wild spate of antisemitic crime, for there are no longer any serious consequences to attacking Jews. At least in New York. There, the Jews may be attacked with impunity.

The light at the end of this very dark tunnel is that leaders from every quarter were confident they knew just what we “must” do about all this hate and xenophobia, which they say is the cause of the attacks. (Rather than, for example, state-sanctioned mayhem with our perennial favorite target, the Jews). On the left, for example, we have Rabbi Michael Adam Latz and Carin Mrotz, toting their peerless, far-left JStreet social justice warrior creds in NBCNews, to tell us that in order to fight antisemitism, we must fight all sorts of other ugly things. Because, we are meant to understand, antisemitism is not unique or distinct from other hatreds.

“We must continue our work to end racism and poverty, sexism and transphobia. We must grapple with the truth that the very mechanisms we seek out to shore up our own safety might put others at risk and push us further apart.”

That last little bit was a nice touch. Translated, it means that if we don’t implement bail reform, we might save a few Jews, but we would be putting others at risk. Those “others” are not named and it’s all very vague, but perhaps the authors mean people like Tiffany Harris, who, as a black woman, is from a population considered “underserved.”

As Jews, from the perspective of the authors, we are supposed to sacrifice our own safety for that of Tiffany Harris. This is because she is black and underserved which makes her oppressed, all of which makes her vulnerable. In order to keep Tiffany safe, it seems, we have to let this violent criminal back on the streets, but only, of course after making sure she has what she needs to get a fresh start: a metro card, two debit cards, and a burner phone, all on the house. Each time she does it: hits someone.

If Tiffany Harris has learned that crime pays, embattled Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has learned a different lesson. You will remember how Pelosi caved in to The Squad on the antisemitism bill, allowing it to be watered down to include every other kind of bigotry and hate. Pelosi’s tweet after Monsey was all-inclusive, hence skewed far left, like the bill:

"We must condemn and confront anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry and hate wherever & whenever we see them.”

Heartbroken and deeply disturbed by the stabbing in Monsey and the many recent anti-Semitic attacks in the NY metro area, especially during this holiday season. We must condemn and confront anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry and hate wherever & whenever we see them.
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) December 29, 2019

The tweet itself, as you can see, stands as Nancy’s “condemnation” of antisemitism by way of making a statement. “Confrontation” comes in the form of spinning antisemitism as nothing special, no different from any other hate. This is the mantra we are expected to absorb and repeat about antisemitism. The truth has nothing to do with it.

Unlike Latz, Mrotz, and Pelosi, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations comes close to speaking about antisemitism as a singular phenomenon, by mentioning the lack of serious consequences for attackers. The problem is the failure of the Conference of Presidents to name the reason for this deficiency. That would be the new bail reform legislation. Instead, they go at the problem backwards, by describing what is needed as what the new legislation has taken away: the rule of law.

“There must be real measures by law enforcement, governmental leaders, and judicial authorities at the city, state, and federal levels. … There must be serious consequences for perpetrators.”

We‘re outraged at the latest attack at a synagogue celebration in Monsey, NY that reportedly left 5 wounded, several very seriously. There have been many attacks in the past week. There must be real measures by law enforcement, governmental leaders and judicial authorities at 1/3
— Conf Of Presidents (@Conf_of_Pres) December 29, 2019

As experts in antisemitism, the more narrowly-focused Rabbi Marvin Hier and Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, are better. Hier and Cooper understand the nature of antisemitism. They know that antisemitism needs to be dealt with as a unique phenomenon, lest you neutralize its impact by diluting the field with all manner of unrelated things. They see the problem as a bigger picture thing: national rather than specific to New York. Their solution for antisemitism, therefore, seems to be to delegate the problem to a different body: the FBI.

“Enough is enough! Jews should not have to fear for their lives in America to go to their houses of worship. The FBI must step up and take the lead in all recent violent hate crimes targeting religious Jews.”

A Fox op-ed, “Rabbi Abraham Cooper: Hanukkah stabbings show anti-Semitism thriving in US – Here’s what we must do,” is more expansive. Here, thankfully, the bail reform issue is mentioned, along with BDS and college campus antisemitism, as different facets of a larger problem. We are told that the fight against antisemitism must be bipartisan, and that African American leaders need to get involved. This is certainly true. And there’s even a reference to social media: “We must demand that the social media giants do much more to cripple the online recruitment and marketing of bigots and terrorists.”

The last feels like a dig at Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, who has been expanding on his views on the subject.

At any rate, when it comes to what the FBI must do about antisemitism, Rabbi Cooper is short on details, saying only that “We need a more robust FBI-led response to the violent targeting of Jews.”

Everyone, it seems, knows what we must do about antisemitic attacks. But no one seems to be able to identify exactly what that is. At the very least, Mayor Deblasio was able to tell us what we will NOT do, which seems to involve not becoming complaisant (but perhaps instead to stand by and feel really, really bad as Jews are attacked--or at least to say so):

“We will NOT allow this to become the new normal. We’ll use every tool we have to stop these attacks once and for all. The NYPD has deployed a visible and growing presence around Jewish houses of worship on the streets in communities like Williamsburg, Crown Heights and Boro Park.”

We will NOT allow this to become the new normal. We’ll use every tool we have to stop these attacks once and for all. The NYPD has deployed a visible and growing presence around Jewish houses of worship on the streets in communities like Williamsburg, Crown Heights and Boro Park.
— Mayor Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) December 29, 2019

We cannot and will not let attacks on our Jewish community become the new normal. That means not only responding to attacks but preventing them.
— Mayor Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) December 29, 2019

No community should have to live in fear of the next act of violence or terror. We won't let that become the new normal for our Jewish neighbors — or ANY New Yorker. pic.twitter.com/Zs01IZaZRO
— Mayor Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) December 30, 2019

“The menorah symbolizes the positive, the light, the hope. Everyone should remember that hope and act to build it."
- @NYCMayor pic.twitter.com/tLlVCO3pnq
— NYC Mayor's Office (@NYCMayorsOffice) December 30, 2019

de Blasio speaks of using “every tool we have to stop these attacks." But when "every tool" includes letting a Tiffany Harris back on the street times two—each time with a metro card, two debit cards, and a burner phone in her hot little hands, New York has got no tools. None at all.

Except, perhaps, for de Blasio.

The Tehran Times, official English language media of the "Islamic Revolution" in Iran, has an article attacking Hamas for sitting out the last escalation in Gaza between Israel and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ.)

Hamas silence over the November aggression of Zionism during which the leaders of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip and Damascus were killed, suggests certain thoughts about the conformism and apathy of the ruling party in the Gaza Strip.

This is not about secret agreements between the invaders and Hamas, but rather about a secret alliance against the leading Palestinian forces seeking to fight the colonialists. Otherwise, how to explain a number of facts, such as the non-interference of the military wing of Hamas - the Al-Qassam Brigade in the fight against the Zionists, on the side of the Al-Quds Brigade (military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad)? ....For its part, Hamas is gradually losing credibility in Gaza due to a move away from direct resistance to the enemy, has moved away from Iran amid crises in Syria, Iraq and Yemen to the camp of enemies of the Islamic Republic....

There seems to be trouble in paradise between Hamas and Iran. Iranian media wouldn't directly attack Hamas unless this was a serious rift.

This section is interesting:

PIJ plays one of the key roles in Tehran’s foreign policy, the Palestinian resistance movement is ideologically connected with the Islamic Republic of Iran and in many vectors of its policy coordinates with the IRGC.

None of this is new information, but the European powers (and US Democratic candidates) that still seek to cooperate with Iran should be forced to answer why they want to work together with a nation that openly brags about its ties to terrorist organizations.

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01/01 Links Pt1: Monsey stabbing victim suffered permanent brain damage; Pittsburgh rabbi warns of ‘open hunting season on Jews’; Trump warns Iran of ‘BIG PRICE’ for attacks, sends 750 more troops to Mideast

From Ian:

After Monsey attack, Pittsburgh rabbi warns of ‘open hunting season on Jews’

For Rabbi Jeffrey Myers, the attack in Monsey had an eerie feeling.

“For me it was an ‘oh no, not again’ sort of moment,” he told CNN’s John Berman on Monday morning.

Myers was at the pulpit of the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh in October 2018 when a gunman opened fire inside, killing 11 worshipers.

On Saturday night in Monsey, an intruder injured five people with a machete at a Hanukkah party held at the home of a rabbi.

“It made me sort of wonder, I don’t recall them selling licenses to have open hunting season on Jews, but it sure can make Jews feel that way,” Myers said. He also said we “cannot allow terror to win.”

The rabbi said he cannot point to one “root cause” for the rise in hate and anti-Semitism, but singled out hate speech spewed by unnamed elected leaders and on social media as contributing to “this illness.”

“It sure makes you pause and wonder what’s going on in our society that people feel they have a god-given right to attack any human being for whatever reason they choose to,” he said.

In a statement released Sunday on behalf of Tree of Life, Myers wrote, “We call upon all good people to work together to remove this evil from existence. We must eliminate H* (which stands for hate speech) in its simplest form by getting to know our neighbors and fellow human beings.”

Labour’s defeat has not ended anti-Semitism

Progressives who talk of little else suddenly do not want to talk about race. That is because these attacks are, in the main, not being carried out by dead-eyed youths with ‘14 Words’ tattoos. The New Jersey killers, the alleged would-be killer in Monsey, and many of the spitters, punchers and verbal aggressors on the streets of Brooklyn and in the Subway cars beneath the city are black or other ethnic minority. We should bear in mind that some of these individuals will be mentally ill, though that standard should apply in all race-based incidents or none. Black anti-Semitism — the very locution unsettles liberal stomachs — is nothing new but now the fanatic pronouncements of some Black Hebrew Israelites and conspiracy theories of Jewish culpability for slavery vie with woke mutterings about ‘gentrification’ and the postmodern mindjunk of intersectionality, a worldview that is anti-Semitic in effect if not by design.

New York mayor Bill de Blasio has previously blamed the upsurge in anti-Semitism on ‘the forces of white supremacy’ and ‘the right-wing movement’. When progressives see a white man beat a black man, their instinct is to condemn. When they see a black man beat a Jewish man, their instinct is to look away. Just as British socialists struggle to comprehend anti-Semitism from their comrades, the American left needs all racism to flow from Donald Trump and be a product of ‘white privilege’. For it to emanate from elsewhere, for non-whites to be culpable, requires a doctrine-debunking revision of the demonology. Identity politics makes it more important that the bad guys be the right guys than that bad guys stop doing bad things.

This is what allows progressives to overlook Women’s March anti-Semitism, Jew-baiting from Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, and Bernie Sanders’ use of Linda Sarsour as a media surrogate. It is the breezy hipster upgrade to liberal forbearance of Al Sharpton (‘If the Jews want to get it on, tell them to pin their yarmulkes back and come over to my house’), Jesse Jackson (‘That’s all Hymie wants to talk about is Israel; every time you go to Hymietown, that’s all they want to talk about’) and, for some, even Louis Farrakhan (‘I’m here to separate the good Jews from the Satanic Jews’). There’s no end of racism you can get away with if you get yourself called a ‘civil rights leader’.

Jews have civil rights, too, and they are under attack almost daily in New York City and around the world. Whether that is from white nationalists or black separatists, Christian bigots or Islamist hate-mongers, anti-Zionist radicals or Bibi-loving Euro-populists hardly matters to the victims. Jew-hatred is Jew-hatred. Your terribly original rationale never is. Institutions whose anti-Semitism has thus far evaded scrutiny — higher education, mainline Protestant churches, the democratic right — should bear this in mind.

Nita Lowey and David Harris (NYT): Why Is Anti-Semitism Making a Comeback?

Why, when American Jews have felt unmatched levels of inclusion and equality, is anti-Semitism making a comeback? Anti-Semitism dates back millenniums. Its ability to reinvent itself should never be underestimated. Even here in the U.S., it never entirely vanished.

The resurgence of anti-Semitism could be a result, in part, of the vanishing legacy of the Holocaust. Recent surveys reveal abysmal levels of knowledge among young people about what happened to the Jewish people in the Second World War.

Social media may also be playing a role. In the past, anti-Semites lived in small ideological circles with limited reach. Now the Internet amplifies the voices and influence of these otherwise marginal groups.

We need to recognize the problem for what it is: an epidemic. We are no longer talking about isolated, occasional actions but a regular phenomenon. There are multiple ideological sources feeding this hate; it is not a result of a single political outlook. There is no one-size-fits-all profile for the perpetrators of these attacks.

We cannot allow this situation to become the "new normal," as if attacks on Americans because of their religious or ethnic identities are now an expected part of our everyday lives. These attacks violate everything that Americans should hold dear. An attack on any American group is a threat to the pluralistic fabric of our nation.

In a survey of American Jews by the American Jewish Committee, released in October, 31% said that they had taken steps to hide their Jewish identity in public, while 25% said they now avoided Jewish sites. This is unacceptable. It is not our America.

According to the Jordanian Waqf, about 29,610 "extremist settlers" had "stormed" the Temple Mount in 2019, "with the protection of thousands of Israeli police and occupation forces."

If we trust their statistics, this is a slight decrease from 2018, when they counted 29,800 "extremists" who visited the holiest site in Judaism.

The General Director of the Waqf Azzam Al-Khatib warned about the dangers of allowing Jews to respectfully visit the Mount because of the "effects of millions of Muslims around the world." Yet somehow 60,000 visits over two years didn't provoke Muslims worldwide to mass riots that people like Al Khatib warn are inevitable.

(Mrs. Elder and I were two of the "settlers" who visited this year, where we were privileged to actually pray on the site, something that has become a daily occurrence there.)

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From Joe Truzman:

Fatah gunmen in the streets of Ramallah today celebrating the 55th anniversary of Fatah’s first attack against #Israel. #WestBank pic.twitter.com/0WCBpxPDrf
— Joe Truzman (@Jtruzmah) January 1, 2020

Nothing says "peace on Earth, goodwill to all men" like shooting automatic weapons in the air towards a Christmas tree.

It has now been 12 years since Mahmoud Abbas has claimed that he dismantled all Fatah armed groups - and here they still are, wearing masks, in Ramallah, shooting guns in the air.

It is almost as if Abbas wasn't telling the truth.

And although the PA pretends to be a normal state, what state would encourage shooting guns in the air during a national celebration? Bullets tend to come down, after all.

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I had missed this insane piece in The Guardian this week:

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio’s decision to up the police presence in multi-ethnic neighborhoods to combat a rise in antisemitic hate crimes has received pushback from liberal Jewish groups that say the measures will further divide communities.

“This is what dividing vulnerable communities looks like,” said Jews for Racial & Economic Justice in a tweet. “Instead of investing in restorative solutions that prioritize the safety of all communities, [De Blasio] is implementing a plan that treats abuse of black and brown communities as the answer to antisemitic violence. It isn’t.”

Jewish Voice for Peace said “the rise of antisemitic violence this past week highlights the urgent need to organize as Jews with our allies who share an expansive idea of equality and freedom” but that “calls for more police and paid security” were not a solution.

The group continued: “We know we have to address rising white nationalist violence – against Jews, Muslims, Black people and all people of color – while not relying on the very forces detaining and locking up and killing our friends, family & neighbors.”

David Klion, an editor of Jewish Currents, said: “Flooding ‘POC’ neighborhoods with cops is going to carry real costs, potentially even fatal ones, for tens of thousands of people who have no complicity in these attacks. I’m also deeply uncomfortable with the optics of cops functioning as security for Jews against POC.”

Black antisemites are only targeting religious Jews - and these groups represent none of those. So these non-religious, leftist Jews are telling religious Jews that their lives are not important because of the "optics" of having police protecting a group of people - the actual job of the police.

Has there ever been an innocent person of color hurt or killed by police protecting Jews? If the answer is "no," and I suspect it is, then these people are saying that protecting Jews is less important than a theoretical and unproven theory. Which means that they really don't give a damn about Jewish lives.

In addition, this is a slander against police altogether. To assume that all or most police are violent, insensitive thugs is disgusting. Let these people who pretend to care about Jewish lives except when protecting Jewish lives is in conflict with their hatred of police campaign to eliminate the police departments in their own communities first, not in religious Jewish communities.

There is a further issue with the reporting itself. These groups are far left fringe groups. As far as I can tell, no one who represents an actual Jewish community signed the JFREJ "pledge" to forego police protection. The Guardian is mistaking fringe Twitter accounts for actual Jewish opinion. The vast majority of Jews of course support more police protection for Jews, but they aren't tweeting the obvious.

UPDATE: Here's a video of some of the attacks against Jews in New York that these moral midgets think "solidarity" will solve.

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