Tuesday, March 10, 2020
Elder of Ziyon
Israel will require anyone arriving from overseas to self-quarantine for 14 days as a precaution against the spread of coronavirus, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday.
With 42 confirmed cases of the virus, Israel has already taken some tough counter-measures, forcing visitors from many countries in Asia and Europe into home isolation. The virus has hit travel and trade, with tourism in particular expected to suffer.
“Anyone who arrives in Israel from abroad will enter a 14-day isolation,” Netanyahu said in a video statement. He said the new measures would be in effect for two weeks initially.
“This is a difficult decision. But it is essential for safeguarding public health, and public health comes first.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chaired a series of discussions today on the #Coronavirus. Among the topics discussed were the policy regarding people entering Israel from overseas, economic preparations and scientific-technological issues, with the participation of experts. pic.twitter.com/w1ddnEMvVz
— PM of Israel (@IsraeliPM) March 9, 2020
Government officials said the order would come into force immediately for Israelis returning to the country. From Thursday, any non-Israelis seeking to enter the country will have to prove they have the means to self-quarantine, the officials said.
Israeli media said the latest measure would mean quarantine for some 300,000 citizens in a country of around 9 million.
Palestinians in the West Bank have also been hit by the virus, reporting 25 confirmed cases. The Palestinian Authority (PA) has turned foreigners away at checkpoints and ordered schools and national parks closed.
Passengers being notified on a flight leaving from Tel Aviv to Berlin that they will have to spend 14 days in quarantine upon their return. Some decide to abandon their trip on the spot. pic.twitter.com/XJp0NAiOqV
— Eye On Antisemitism (@AntisemitismEye) March 10, 2020
The decision to quarantine all arrivals is one that shouldn’t be taken lightly or have a hint of political considerations. Reports that the prime minister was holding back from enforcing the ban on US travelers in order to not damage ties with President Donald Trump were vigorously denied Sunday. Siman Tov told Channel 12 News that “no political element was part of our decision-making process… all the decisions go to the National Security Council and the prime minister in the end. It’s a professional discussion on protecting the public. No foreign interests are involved in the decision.”
Although it’s difficult, in this acrimonious post-election period, to remove politics from any issue on the domestic agenda, there’s an imperative that the government’s handling of the coronavirus crisis should rise above partisan considerations. Netanyahu seems to be meeting that criteria – so far.
Unlike in the US, where the handling of the virus has turned into a political football pitting the “downplaying” Republicans against the “take it seriously” Democrats, Israelis seem to be reacting to the crisis with one voice.
Netanyahu has, of course, made every effort to appear “presidential” and in charge of the situation. He spoke with US Vice President Mike Pence and on Sunday and then with European leaders on Monday about setting up airports to enable goods to be transported between countries so vital supplies don’t run out.
And whether that’s his intention or not, these moves could help Netanyahu as he fights for his political life.
As Jeremy Sharon wrote, “the more he looks like he’s taking care of business, the more urgent the problem, the more acute and dangerous it is, the more we won’t want to change the leadership and instead keep the status quo.”
What song leads the coronavirus quarantine playlist?
“My Sharona,” obviously, the 1979 hit by The Knacks, which is so easily replaced with the words “My Corona.”
Two sisters from Hod Hasharon, Inbar and Gilor Levi, who love nothing more than a good spoof, donned nurse and doctor scrubs and a pair of masks for their YouTube spoof of “My Corona.”
In fact, said Inbar Levi, the video has gone, well, viral.
“It just caught on, it was exactly at the right time,” said Levi, who had already published the song before Israel’s March 2 elections, but found that once the elections were over and coronavirus fears took over, the song took off.
The words came to them fairly easily, said Levi, although it took a little longer to get the filming done properly.
“It’s very fast, and there’s a lot of words,” she explained.
Tuesday, March 10, 2020Elder of Ziyon
Tuesday, March 10, 2020Elder of Ziyon |
| Manchester, 1914 |
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| Algeria, 1923 |
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| Italy, 1938 |
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| Czechoslovakia, around 1900 |
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| Haifa, 1958 |
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| Israel, 1967 |
Tuesday, March 10, 2020Elder of Ziyon
The Hagana’s truce terms stipulated that Arabs were expected to “carry on their work as equal and free citizens of Haifa.” In its Arabic-language broadcasts and communications, the Hagana consistently articulated the same message. On April 22, at the height of the fighting, it distributed a circular noting its ongoing campaign to clear the town of all “criminal foreign bands” so as to allow the restoration of “peace and security and good neighborly relations among all of the town’s inhabitants.” The following day, a Hagana broadcast asserted that “the Jews did and do still believe that it is in the real interests of Haifa for its citizens to go on with their work and to ensure that normal conditions are restored to the city.”The casual reader would not realize how incredible the bolded section is. Religious Jews are not allowed to own or even see leavened products on Passover; to have a rabbinical ruling that Jewish bakers must bake bread for Arabs on Passover itself is stunning.
On April 24, a Hagana radio broadcast declared: “Arabs, we do not wish to harm you. Like you, we only want to live in peace. . . . If the Jews and [the] Arabs cooperate, no power in the world will ever attack our country or ignore our rights.” Two days later, informing its Arab listeners that “Haifa has returned to normal,” the Hagana reported that “between 15,000 and 20,000 Arabs had expressed their willingness to remain in the city,” that “Arab employees had been appointed to key posts,” and that Arabs had been given “part of the corn, flour, and rice intended for the Jews in Haifa.” And on April 27, the Hagana distributed a leaflet urging the fleeing Arab populace to return home: “Peace and order reign supreme across the town and every resident can return to his free life and resume his regular work in peace and security.”
That these were not hollow words was evidenced by, inter alia, the special dispensation given to Jewish bakers by the Haifa rabbinate to bake bread during the Passover holiday for distribution among the Arabs, and by the April 23 decision of the joint Jewish-Arab Committee for the Restoration of Life to Normalcy to dispatch two of its members to inform women, children, and the elderly that they could return home. In a May 6 fact-finding report to the Jewish Agency executive (the effective government of Jewish Palestine), Golda Meir told her colleagues that while “we will not go to Acre or Nazareth to return the Arabs [to Haifa] . . . our behavior should be such that if it were to encourage them to return—they would be welcome; we should not mistreat the Arabs so as to deter them from returning.”
The sincerity of the Jewish position is attested as well by reports from the U.S. consulate in Haifa. Thus, on April 25, after the fighting was over, Vice Consul Aubrey Lippincott cabled Washington that the “Jews hope poverty will cause laborers [to] return [to] Haifa as many are already doing despite Arab attempts [to] persuade them [to] keep out.” On April 29, according to Lippincott, even Farid Saad of the National Committee was saying that Jewish leaders had “organized a large propaganda campaign to persuade [the] Arabs to return.” Similarly, the British district superintendent of police reported on April 26 that “every effort is being made by the Jews to persuade the Arab populace to stay and carry on with their normal lives, to get their shops and businesses open, and to be assured that their lives and interests will be safe.” Several more reports in the same vein were sent by British authorities in Palestine to their superiors in London.
Like many veteran attendees of the annual AIPAC conference, usually held at the sprawling Walter E. Washington Center in northwest D.C., I have learned to expect packs of anti-Israel demonstrators to gather every year during the event. They usually wave Palestinian flags, chant familiar slogans through bullhorns, and brandish signs and banners inscribed with various accusations about the supposed sins of the Jewish State.
The 2020 AIPAC conference was the sixth I’ve attended, but the first I attended as a member of the press. So on the first day of this year’s conference—Sunday, March 1—I decided that instead of ignoring the usual anti-Israel demonstrations, I would visit and observe the protests, talk with the protesters, and ask them to explain their ideas in their own words.
At their rally, I met and spoke with several of the group: young and old, male and female, Jewish, Christian, Muslim, and secular, and several who identified as Palestinian. My conversations with each of them were enlightening, but perhaps none more so than my exchange with two keffiyeh-clad American women, one of whom claimed Palestinian ancestry. They were both vehement and emotional in their replies to my questions, and insisted that Israel was to blame for the sorry state of Palestinian affairs. Neither seemed to notice when the other accused “Jews” of barbarism, but both seemed utterly convinced of their own moral superiority.
During our conversation, I mostly listened quietly, but eventually did ask them both what they believed must be done to bring about peace.
At that, one of them let it slip. Calling Israel an “illegal country in the first place“, she subsequently declared,
“the Jews should get on their knees and beg for forgiveness for what they’ve done to the Palestinians since 1948.”
She continued:
“They’ve ethnically cleansed villages. They massacred 700,000 people.“
Her compatriot (who had claimed Palestinian Arab ancestry) added,
“I think they feel bad. I think that’s why they’re so aggressive a lot of the time.“
It did not seem to occur to either of these women that they had both condemned “the Jews” rather than “the Zionists” or “the Israelis”. At no time did either of them amend the sentiment, though one of them later pointedly referred to “the Zionists” because “not all Jews are Zionists”. You can see a short excerpt of this exchange below.
The German Left Party, which opposed last year’s anti-BDS Bundestag resolution, held a conference last week in the city of Kassel in which calls to shoot wealthy Germans and impose forced labor on them were discussed.
A Left Party attendee named Sandra L. explained what needed to be done post-revolution after “we have shot the one percent of the richest.”
Party leader Bernd Riexinger responded that, “We don’t shoot them, we use them for useful work.” Forced labor was one of the extermination methods used by the Nazis and their collaborators to murder Jews during the Holocaust.
Columnist Harald Martenstein wrote in the Berlin daily Tagesspiegel on Saturday that “Almost at the same time as the shooting debate, eight left-wing politicians filed a criminal complaint against [Chancellor] Angela Merkel for “aiding and abetting the murder” of the Iranian terrorist general [Qassem] Soleimani and that Germany had supported the murder. At least Israel haters don’t have to be afraid of the Left.”
Riexinger chalked up his comment about forced labor to “irony.”
Alan Dershowitz — was the youngest full professor in Harvard Law history where he is now the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law, Emeritus, writer of numerous best-selling books including, "The Case Against Impeaching Trump," and his latest, "Guilt by Accusation: The Challenge of Proving Innocence in the Age of #MeToo" — joins Ben to discuss being a civil libertarian, Trump, Obama, Israel, #MeToo, O.J. Simpson, impeachment, going from loved to hated by the Left, and much more. (Israel at 39Min)
Monday, March 09, 2020Elder of Ziyon
Monday, March 09, 2020Elder of Ziyon
Vashti (Enters weeping, r. h.)-
And this to me? the queen! unprecedented shame!
I will resent the outrage !-or Vashti's not my name!
I, who brought up retired-strict Oriental fashion,
Now be made sacrifice to his unbounded passion,
For hollow pride and power. I? show myself? indeed !
(stamps her feet)
I will not go—no never-nor his vile bidding heed !
(Muses, walking to and fro—more composed.)
These men will always play our masters, and be they low or be they high,
Will rule and lord it over woman, at least they will imperious try.
Weak-minded, pliant and obedient, our sex most always does submit;
Aye! it were different had they only a little more of pride and wit.
For we by nature fair and lovely, the nobler part of human kind,
To men superlatively better, in soul and body, heart and mind;
We bear the burden of existence, serve from the cradle to the grave.
Yet could be free if we would never permit ourselves to be the slave.
I'd willingly become a beggar or instantly would rather die,
To be example to my sisters, while I my lord's command defy.
True! he has given me these baubles, a royal diadem and crown.
Like pretty puppets men adorn us, with gaudy gems and costly gown;
And then degrade us as their creatures. Now let one learn what woman can
If once aroused ; that she is stronger than most despotic, selfish man.
I know the time is near approaching when females will their rights assert.
The more advanced will be determined to act harmonious in concert.
They will no longer then permit it, that man shall rule the world alone;
And will no longer be the servants of kitchen, feasting-hall or throne.
We too can traffic. plead and labor, can sculpture, sing and play and paint;
Strong-minded women will hereafter take Vashti for their patron saint.
Ahasuerus, he will rage and bluster, that I his bidding disobey !
I scorn his wrath-defy his anger; the consequence be what it may.
Vashti as Hatach , the Scribe ( To king and queen .) —
I'll write this in my annals of Esther's reign and thine !
We'll call it the “ M 'gillah ; ” forever it shall shine
To rulers and to princes a plea for tolerance !
(Advances to front of stage ) And to the house of Israel a great inheritance !
And unto me (muses and sighs) I own it, the time for woman's right,
Among these barbarous Asians, it is not yet in sight.
But I have learned it lately , that ’mongst some Northern nation
In a far distant country has a new civilization
Arisen in its mighty power, and women there elated ,
Already to their hearts' content the men have well berated .
I hear they there are doctors, and learned in law and lore .
One does command a ship , and some preach where they God adore.
The men tend quite submissively to duties of the houses :
They mind the babes, they cook and wash as well as their good spouses.
The government will shortly too by woman's rule grow free !
They will fill all the offices ! That is the land for me!
The cause of Vashti lives triumphant, when I shall be no more,
Farewell, home of my birth ! I'll go to that far distant shore,
And though my fate to history be lost fore'er and aye
Our sex will build me monuments ! I'm off, my friends ! good -bye !
Monday, March 09, 2020Elder of Ziyon
analysis, Daled Amos
He is a far-right leader of a country whose Jewish citizens say they face less harassment than Jews in any other part of Europe. Mr. Orban and his party, Fidesz, have used anti-Semitic tropes to promote his vision of Hungarian nationalism, and have been accused of trying to understate Hungarian complicity in the Holocaust — even as he has bankrolled many Jewish institutions and causes.Meanwhile, Poland is still trying to play down its role during the Holocaust.
o In 2017, when the UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to reject the US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, Hungary abstained.And then there is Bernie Sanders, cynically creating alliances with antisemites -- who are not merely critical of Israel, but also demonize it, accuse it of being supremacist and accuse those who support it of having dual loyalty.
o Hungary joined the Czech Republic and Romania in blocking a European Union statement that criticized the US Israeli embassy moving to Jerusalem.
o In November 2019, the EU failed to get all 28 member states behind a joint statement condemning the US decision to no longer consider Israeli settlements as illegal. It was blocked by Hungary, which meant that instead of a joint statement, the EU was reduced to a statement by then-EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini
o In January, the EU again failed to get a consensus, when it tried to unanimously condemn Trump's peace plan
o Hungary and the Czech Republic are also among the countries that will file an amicus brief with the ICC in response to ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda's statement in December that there was enough evidence to investigate alleged war crimes by Israel.
o When he praised the Soviet Union, but never stood up for the persecuted Soviet Jews
o He has never attended pro-Israel rallies
o He has never attended an AIPAC conference - this last time trying to justify his absence by attacking AIPAC as racist
Monday, March 09, 2020Elder of Ziyon[A]strophysicist Suleiman Baraka's life's work — along with that of his students and mentees — illustrates the promise and challenges of astronomy in Gaza.Really? Any examples of how Western scientists were stymied in traveling through the West Bank? No, just a commonly accepted "fact."
Baraka studies space plasma, the electrically-charged soup of ions and electrons that constitutes the vast majority of space. And he creates kinetic models that simulate how these charged particles in solar wind interact with the magnetosphere of the Earth. He holds a part-time appointment at the National Institute of Aerospace in Virginia, and he also has a teaching position in Gaza, at al-Aqsa University. Colleagues around the world have praised his efforts to bring astronomy to Gaza.
Baraka graduated in 1987 from al-Quds University in East Jerusalem with an undergraduate thesis on the formation of black holes and an offer to study astrophysics at the Australian National University in Canberra. ....
He never made it to Australia, though this isn't unusual. Scientists in Gaza are "essentially isolated," says Robert Williams, an astronomer and former president of the International Astronomical Union. In 2010, Williams attempted to enter the Gaza Strip to attend an astronomy event, but was denied entry. And even within the West Bank — the Palestinian territory not under blockade by Israel — it is difficult for scientists to travel from one place to another, due to checkpoints and travel restrictions.
In 2008, almost four decades after first seeing Neil Armstrong walk on the moon, Baraka started his fellowship as a post-doctoral researcher for the National Institute of Aerospace — the closest a foreigner can ever get to working with NASA.Why might Israel have targeted this house?
But three months into that appointment, a rocket tore into his house in Gaza, destroying his father's books and critically injuring his 11-year old son, Ibrahim. The boy was transported to an Egyptian hospital, where doctors tended to shrapnel wounds in the left side of his brain. Baraka says he flew from Virginia to Egypt and sat by his son's bed for four days until his son's body was sent back to Gaza in a coffin.
Recently, Suleiman gave a speech at a Palestinian TED event and received loud applause from the Gazan audience as he recounted his life-story in the Arab world. .... "But in the end, like my brother Nour, I belong to the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades," he said.Yes, a Palestinian who has reached the heights of fame for his scientific work also identifies as a member of Hamas' "military wing" that is responsible for the deaths of thousands, and no one wants to mention that.
Monday, March 09, 2020Elder of Ziyon
Ethiopia announced on Friday its rejection to the Arab League’s Wednesday resolution that showed solidarity with Egypt in protecting its historical rights to the Nile River water and refused any unilateral measures that might be taken by Addis Ababa regarding the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the Blue Nile.Afterwards, the war of words heated up some more. On Saturday evening the Egyptian Foreign Ministry issued a heated statement that said, in part, "Ethiopia’s posture and position during these negotiations, which has been criticized by the Arab League, evinces its intent to exercise hydro-hegemony and to anoint itself as the unchallenged and sole beneficiary over the Nile. This is especially apparent in its insistence on filling the GERD unilaterally in July 2020 without reaching an agreement with downstream states, and while holding negotiations on the GERD hostage to domestic political considerations. This constitutes a material breach of the DoP and demonstrates, beyond any doubt, Ethiopia’s bad faith and its lack of political will to reach a fair and balanced agreement on the GERD."
Tensions between Cairo and Addis Ababa have been escalating recently after Ethiopia missed the last US-sponsored ministerial meeting with Egypt and Sudan in Washington to conclude a deal over the rules of filling and operating the GERD.
Egypt accused Ethiopia of not attending the last round of talks in Washington “to deliberately hinder negotiations.”
Ethiopia has justified its absence that it needs more time to consider the matter, and that it would commence filling the dam’s reservoir in parallel with its construction.
While Ethiopia, an upstream country, puts a huge development strategy based on GERD, Egypt is concerned it might affect its 55.5bn cubic meter annual share of Nile water, if the filling of the dam’s reservoir was executed in less than 7-year period which would cause low flooding seasons.
Sunday, March 08, 2020Elder of Ziyon
This exclusive account demonstrates that SOAS has been the venue for a hate-infested political group set up explicitly to attack mainstream British Jewry. The official minutes from this group’s meetings demonstrate-
- That it was set up by academic(s) at SOAS. The university hosts the group’s strategy meetings
- Calls itself Jewish even though it is driven by non-Jewish antisemites
- The Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) – the radical Islamist group behind the pro-Hezbollah Al Quds demonstrations -gives them directives to act against the Jewish community
- A volunteer from Interpal and the Campaign Manager for the PSC have also been part of the ‘Jewish’ steering group
- At its first public outing -two of the three official attendees were non-Jews who share antisemitic conspiracy theories
- They do not have a connection to a single Rabbi and struggled to find somebody who could fill the role
- They prepared a ‘lecture series’ to tour on UK campuses which will create hostility towards Jewish people in the UK and destabilise the Jewish community
There is no justification for SOAS continually being permitted to get away with so much flagrant antisemitic activity. It isn’t just about the poor Jewish students who study there – SOAS is incubating groups that align with Hezbollah, Iran, Islamist movements – and that are created with the purpose of helping to tear the world of British Jewry apart. And if you complain – they will shield antisemitic political activity as being under the umbrella of ‘academic freedom’. How toxic is that!
Though they claim to stand for inclusion and universality, progressives these days are managing to denounce more groups than they include. Anyone who does not share their politics is, at best, persona non grata; at worst, they are downright demonized. Progressives condemn hate, unless it’s toward an individual or group they’ve deemed worthy of hating. The most glaring and pernicious example today is the obsessive delegitimization of Israel, the very embodiment of Jewish people hood.
The first prong of attack is the Left’s gross mischaracterization of Jews as predominantly “white,” and therefore powerful, in contrast to Muslims, who are perceived as “brown,” and therefore oppressed. In fact, global Jewry is dominantly brown-skinned, and millions of Muslims are actually white. But it is a small lie to tell for the sake of one’s sacred political theory.
Such a fallacious mode of thinking about group oppression begs the question: Who gets to determine the “universal” hierarchy of victimhood? Muslims may be an oppressed group in China, but in the Arab world, Muslims are doing the oppressing. Palestinians may be a persecuted minority in Lebanon, but in Gaza and the West Bank, their leadership is persecuting Christians and practicing gender apartheid against women.
The anti-Israel activist group IfNotNow has gone so far as to blame an Israeli victim of a terrorist attack for his own murder, decrying the teenager’s participation in a government they deem a colonialist regime. At the same time, they never disclose that the very term “Palestine” was an imperialist invention of the Roman Empire.
What we know so far:
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) March 8, 2020
1. Ken Roth solicited gift from Saudi billionaire promising NOT to defend #LGBT rights
2. HRW had reported on this donor's enslavement of workers
3. Roth's HRW had $223 million net assets & didn't need the money
4. HRW is now questioning Roth's leadership https://t.co/TsEobzcKEF
Sunday, March 08, 2020Elder of Ziyon
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PROTOCOLS: EXPOSING MODERN ANTISEMITISM
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