Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, May 04, 2020

Gideon Levy builds an entire anti-Israel article in Haaretz around a fake quote

The execrable Gideon Levy, writing in Haaretz, proves yet again that he is not a journalist but an anti-Israel hack.

He wrote a loving obituary to Denis Goldberg, a long time fighter against South African apartheid. But the entire article is centered around a single quote, and the rest of the article is filler:

A Jewish hero died on Independence Day, with his death unmarked here. Denis Goldberg died in Cape Town, the city he was born in, at the age of 87. He was the epitome of struggle, sacrifice, courage and solidarity, all the qualities so lacking in Israel’s left. If he’d immigrated to Israel, he’d be considered a traitor and terrorist here. But Israel never had Jews such as him, willing to sacrifice everything in the struggle for the freedom of the Palestinians.
...
Like his partners to the struggle, he detested what was happening here. He told historian Tom Segev that Israel was the Middle East’s South Africa and that the solution in both places should be identical: one state with equal rights for all. His vision was realized in his own country and Goldberg returned there, crowned in glory.

The link that Levy gives towards the "he detested what was happening here" is from Middle East Monitor (MEMO), a well-known Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood mouthpiece. That quote, where he called Israel an apartheid state, cannot be confirmed by any other source. Perhaps he said it; but the source is quite suspect. In fact, Levy's fellow Haaretz columnist Anshel Pfeffer called MEMO a "conspiracy theory-peddling anti-Israel organisation."

In other words, perfect for Levy to quote.

Trusting a quote from MEMO is poor judgment, but that is not Levy's major crime here. His quote from Tom Segev is.

Here is what Goldberg himself wrote in his autobiography about that quote (italics his, bolded mine)

In all the time I have been out of prison, and it is now about thirty years, only one joumalist has deliberately misrepresented my political attitudes, and that was Tom Segev, an Israeli who was reputed to be the intellectual agenda setter in the Israeli media.

Segev, who wrote for a weekly magazine, Koteret Rashit, asked to interview me. He came, he said, because he wanted to know about the ethics of the armed struggle. And I gave him a long interview. After all, it is a very interesting topic for an intellectual discussion.

At the outset I explained, using the words off the record, that I would not speak about the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) during this interview because I was addressing an Israeli audience about South Africa and apartheid, and no one would give or a hearing if I spoke about the PLO. Those were the conditions of the interview. Now, off the record is off the record. He wrote an article of such blatant dishonesty in which he so blended quotations with his own opinions that his views appeared to be mine. His introduction read, "The ANC is the PLO of South Africa. Oliver Tambo is the Yasser Arafat of South Africa. Israel is the Apartheid nation of the Middle East." I had said none of these things.

Because the subject of the interview was the ethics of armed struggle, I had said as a condition of the interview that the examples I would give would be from South Africa and Southern Africa. For example, General Peter Walls of Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, flew in a civilian passenger plane so that he had civilians covering his military movements. At the last moment the general switched planes. When the plane he had been in was shot down, who was ethically responsible? The general who used unknowing civilians to shield him, or the people who shot the plane down? You can discuss until the cows come home, but the general is not innocent. Segev simply omitted my examples, which were relevant to my discussion, and took examples from the Middle East—Palestine, Lebanon, Israel, and so on —to poison the audience against what I was saying. But more than that, he translated every word related to liberation war, armed struggle, just war, anticolonial war, all such terms, as one Hebrew word, terrorism.

How can you discuss ethics if you don't distinguish categories? Worse still, by merging all these different ideas into one, he was saying there is no such thing as ethics. In the political sense he was saying, "The bullets and the bombs and the napalm, and the brutality that comes from the government of the day, are clean, and everything else is terrorism," whether you are talking about Israel, or apartheid South Africa, or any other conflict.

His article caused a media uproar. Many journalists who had been in support of Denis Goldberg of the ANC and of the struggle against apartheid now turned around to attack me in the media. I hoped that the controversy would die down, but k mounted day after day.

Peter Allen-Frost, the doyen of Middle East journalists, phoned me after some days. He said that serious journalists were embarrassed by Segev's artide because it was such a blatant misrepresentation of everything I would have said. He said that the editor of the magazine, Nahum Barnea, was embarrassed and indicated that if I asked for the right to reply, I would get it. I followed his advice. The editor offered me space for a letter to the editor. I insisted on an article with the same prominence as the original. I wanted a cover story, too. He agreed to an article bur not to a cover story. We agreed that I would write the article and that he, the editor, would personally translate it to ensure that it was accurate. He did publish it, and friends told me that it was accurately transcribed. . .

So Goldberg wrote a rebuttal article in the same magazine, strenuously denying Segev's quote, but Levy pretends that this never happened and quotes Segev's lies as truth.

There is no question that Goldberg criticized Israel's treatment of Palestinians. Based on what he wrote in his book, some of that criticism seems to be based on twisted information about Israel. But he denies telling Goldberg that Israel is the Middle East's South Africa and that Israel is the apartheid nation of the Middle East - and this book was published after the MEMO article, further casting doubt on whether he ever called Israel an apartheid state at all.

Levy once again proves that his zeal to smear Israel outweighs integrity and journalistic ethics.

Naturally, the Palestinian press is republishing Levy's piece. I wonder if Haaretz gives permission to them.

(h/t Lawrence)

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Yes, that's really him.

Syksy Räsänen is a board member of Amnesty Finland, and a veteran anti-Israel activist who has written a book about "Israeli apartheid."

Germany announced last Thursday that it was declaring all of Hezbollah a terrorist organization. Räsänen went on a rant about this on Sunday:

Germany's ban on Hezbollah is a perfect illustration of how terrorist lists are tools of power politics.

Hezbollah is banned because it "calls for the violent elimination of the State of Israel and questions the right of the State of Israel to exist".

Replace Israel->Palestine, and this describes most Israeli parties.
Admittedly, there is the difference that most Israeli parties have been implementing the elimination of Palestine, not just called for it.

Yet Likut, Yesh Atid, Shas, Labour etc. are valued partners for Germany and the EU, instead of being labeled terrorists.
Also Syrian islamist rebel groups, which not only called for but fought to bring down the Syrian government were not labeled terrorists by the EU.

Instead they were supported by European states, in line with official EU policy.

Räsänen used as source material a CNN report that the reason for the ban was Hezbollah's anti-Israel stance. But Hezbollah's terror activities are widely documented:

Hezbollah was behind a bombing in Istanbul in May 2011 that wounded eight Turkish civilians in an assassination attempt on the Israeli consul to Turkey, Moshe Kimchi.

In July 2012, a Lebanese man who admitted working for Hezbollah was detained by Cyprus police for planning attacks against Israeli tourists.

The 2012 Burgas bus bombing terrorist attack against Israeli citizens in Bulgaria, which killed six, was done by Hezbollah.

These are only the European attacks since 2010. Hezbollah has been involved in attacks and attempts in Singapore, Argentina and elsewhere. Denying that they are terrorists is the worst kind of pandering.

Oh, and Germany seems to have acted after the Mossad helpfully informed German authorities of the locations of warehouses in Germany where Hezbollah was storing explosives. But that's a minor detail to someone as big-brained as Syksy Räsänen.

But Räsänen, the human rights activist, has nothing bad to say about these attacks - because the intended target was Israeli civilians, and to him, Israelis are not human.

In fact, one does not need a PhD. in psychology to understand that the only reason Syksy Räsänen supports an Islamist terror group that is anti-woman, anti-gay and antisemitic is because Hezbollah is also anti-Israel, and therefore a partner.

And then he goes on to defend the Assad regime, of barrel bombs and poison gas - a truly strange position for a supposed human rights activist to take. But Assad is also anti-Israel so it all makes sense.

Isn't Amnesty the slightest bit embarrassed by their prominent members condoning terror and supporting groups that are against everything Amnesty pretends to stand for?

(h/t Tomer Ilan)

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Palestinian editorial cartoons REALLY hate "Umm Haroun" Ramadan miniseries

Here are some Palestinian editorial cartoons (mostly from Felesteen and Shehab News) about how much they hate the Umm Haroun miniseries that is sympathetic to Jews.

Here the TV is spouting out the Jewish equivalent of the coronavirus:

Here the miniseries is the hammer and the Palestinian is peacefully sitting on the anvil:

Yesterday Arabs wanted to fight Jews, today they want to promote pro-Jewish art:

"Drama of Arab normalization"

Here the Saudis, Abbas rival Dahlan and IDF spokesperson all coordinate to make the miniseries.

Arabs are letting the Israeli soldiers into their living rooms in the "Occupied Arab Drama." (h/t Aboud)

This one is only indirectly about the show - the Jewish screw is causing the rift between the holy sites in Jerusalem and Mecca. This may have been after a Saudi on TV said that there was nothing wrong with the Jews having the Temple Mount.

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05/03 Links: World Health Organization lies about Israel on coronavirus; The Palestinian Refugee Scam; Top Israeli judoka raises quarter million shekels to help fight virus

From Ian:

World Health Organization lies about Israel on coronavirus and other health issues

Trump recently suspended U.S. funding of the WHO. America is by far the largest donor to the agency and was scheduled to give it $894 million during the current two-year funding period.

The president said Thursday that “the World Health Organization should be ashamed of themselves because they’re like the public relations agency for China.” He could have also added that the WHO has operated like a PR and propaganda agency for the enemies of Israel – the only democracy in the Middle East.

A year ago, WHO member countries voted 96 to 11 – with the U.S. in opposition – for an annual resolution blaming Israel for “health conditions in the occupied Palestinian territory, including east Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syria Golan.”

While one might expect the WHO to be apolitical, it – like nearly every other U.N.-associated organ – is used by Israel’s enemies as a platform for viciously attacking the Jewish state. What may be even more disturbing is that democracies that should know better – including France, Belgium and Sweden – joined in the unjustified condemnation of Israel.

As U.N. Watch noted, out of 21 items on the WHO agenda, the only one focused on a specific country applied to Israel. This targeting of Israel has been going on since at least 2000.

U.N. Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer noted that “anyone who has ever walked into an Israeli hospital or clinic knows that they are providing world-class health care to thousands of Palestinian Arabs.”

It will not be surprising if this year the WHO adopts the usual Israel-bashing resolution and falsely accuses Israel of preventing Palestinians from getting treatment for COVID-19 – the disease caused by the coronavirus.

In fact, Israel is doing a great deal to help the Palestinians contain the coronavirus outbreak that first apparently arrived in the West Bank in Bethlehem.

NGO Monitor: BDS Group Makes a Mockery of Global Pandemic

On April 20, 2020, the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) published a “fact sheet” titled “Coronavirus under Israeli Apartheid.” The document promotes numerous allegations originating with Israeli and Palestinian non-governmental organizations (NGOs), which, since their original publication, have been removed, have been proven false, or are simply outdated. This failure to utilize factual and accurate information and make reasonable policy recommendations demonstrates that the purpose of this document is to demonize Israel and not to advocate for Palestinian health.

A core component of the “fact sheet” is the intersectional claim that Israeli policies “embody” something called “#CoronaRacism,” drawing false parallels between Palestinians and minority communities in the US and the UK. BNC also negates the responsibility of Palestinian actors for healthcare and ignores the diversion of resources by Hamas and other actors to weapons, tunnels, and terror, instead of public infrastructure in Gaza.

Distortions in the document include:
“Epidemics … are disproportionately violent to populations burdened by poverty, military occupation, discrimination and institutionalised oppression.” — Letter in The Lancet, March 26, 2020: The document opens by quoting a letter to The Lancet, which was, in fact, removed by the journal shortly after its publication. The letter was written by a group of anti-Israel activists, including repeat offender Mads Gilbert, and attacked “Israeli oppression and international complicity.” Ironically, the since-removed letter calls for Palestinians to “return” to Israel precisely when Israel was suffering from a much higher rate of infection than Gaza. The authors shamefully declare “no competing interests,” hiding their years of virulent anti-Israel advocacy behind a pledge of scientific objectivity.

Palestinian communities in Israel are “likely to become epicenters of the coronavirus outbreak” due to deficiencies in testing, information and health services: BNC links to an opinion article published on March 31, which provides no citations to back up its allegations, and is in any case, outdated. Reality over the ensuing month showed the prediction to be false: Jewish communities, in particular Ultra-Orthodox areas, were the epicenters in Israel, whereas Arab communities were relatively unaffected. Indeed, Haaretz now features an “update” in the article, linking to an April 2 piece titled “Israel ramps up coronavirus testing in Arab cities where infection rate relatively low.”

Corona doesn't stop the NIF from trying to harm Israel

People of Israel, fear not – while the world, including Israel, deals with corona virus, record level unemployment and what the “new normal” looks like, the radical, extremist New Israel Fund and their grantees continue to apply pressure on the Jewish State.

The goal of the New Israel Fund – an organization which continues to openly advocate a boycott of the Jewish State – is to create a “New” Israel, this, despite the fact that Israel is only a 72 year old country.

Take Hamoked, an organization which since 2008 has received upwards of $720,000 from The New Israel Fund, and claims to work “for the enforcement of standards and values of international human rights and humanitarian law,” and to date has focused on defending the families of terrorists. Just this month, Hamoked sent an urgent letter to demand the authorities "stop preventing Palestinian Arabs undergoing family unification procedures who live in Jerusalem.”

Do you get it? While all those who live in Israel were restricted for health reasons to not exceed 100 and then 500 meters from their home, Hamoked – in defiance of global distancing procedures – advocated for Palestinian Arabs to be able to move “freely and without delay.” And in Jerusalem, which has one of the highest ""rates of infection in the country.

Then, a group of New Israel Fund grantees led by Hamoked petitioned the High Court of Justice “… to demand that inmates classified as security inmates, and particularly those among them who are minors, be allowed to maintain family contact with their families at this time via the telephone.” In its April 1 response to the petition, the state announced its decision to allow “juvenile security prisoners and detainees who are not held in Damun prison [where a telephone-contact pilot test is being run] to have one telephone call with a first degree relative during the next two weeks…”.

Is that what American Jewish supporters of the New Israel Fund want from the State of Israel, for Palestinian Arabs (or anyone?) to move freely while corona is endangering the world?

Surviving COVID-19: Special Interview with Eli Beer of United Hatzalah

In the first episode of Together with Rabbi Yonah we speak with the incredible and inspiring Eli Beer about his experience surviving COVID19. Eli is the President of United Hatzalah in Israel, the volunteer paramedic organization.

In this video you will hear his incredible saga of how a person dedicated to saving lives was himself saved miraculously by doctors in Miami.

This moving and powerful story of survival and his message are potent medicine during this difficult time. Eli heard the doctors in the ICU unit deciding his fate. Then he prayed to God for healing.

Eli also shares a heartwarming story about a Hatzalah volunteer helping a Holocaust survivor and much more.

Simply put, Eli’s amazing recovery is teaches us that when God hasn’t decided on bringing someone back home, that our actions, prayers and good deeds can and do make a difference.

Quds Day is the Iranian holiday created by the late Ayatollah Khomeini on the last Friday of Ramadan to incite against and attack Israel.

It is not only celebrated in Iran but by Iranian proxies around the world from Toronto to London.

This year, the Iranian rallies are canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. Head of the "Intifada and Quds Center" at Iran’s Islamic Propagation Coordination Council, General Ramezan Sharif, said this year’s Quds Day rallies won’t be held.

Instead, they will try to move it all online. "Supreme Leader" Ayatollah Khamenei will deliver a speech on May 22, and organizers are hoping that Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh "or another major figure of resistance" will come to Tehran to attend.

What a shame.

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A week and a half after I first reported on the controversy in the Arab world over a Ramadan mini-series that was sympathetic to Jews, the New York Times finally caught up:

In a mud-walled village in the Persian Gulf, a Christian woman sheds tears of love for a Muslim merchant. But he is stuck in a miserable marriage to a woman who longs for another Muslim man. But she can’t have him, because he is crazy about the local rabbi’s daughter.

These tangles of interreligious intrigue unspool in a new blockbuster television series that has set off heated debates across the Arab world about the region’s historical relationships with Jewish communities and the shifting stances of some of its current leaders toward Israel.

Fans laud the program, set in the 1940s and 1950s, for highlighting an often overlooked aspect of the region’s past — Jewish communities in the Persian Gulf — while providing a much-needed example of coexistence among different faiths.

But critics have blasted it as a blatant effort to reshape Arab views of Israel to pave the way for formal relations, or what many in the Arab world call “normalization.”

Throughout the entire article, the idea of "normalization" was discussed dispassionately, without ever mentioning that people hating a TV series that is about Jews, not Israel, are by definition antisemites.

The NYT article investigates whether Saudi Arabia might have pushed the series concept as a way to get the Arab world to accept Israel. And perhaps they did. But the critics of the show are hating the Jewish characters, not any Zionist characters.

Arab antisemitism remains one of the things that cannot be mentioned in mainstream media, even when that is the topic of the article. The show itself tackles Arab antisemitism - but the New York Times cannot. It holds onto the fiction that Arabs only hate Zionists, not Jews.

The reporter was perhaps unfamiliar with the reaction of the show by Juliet Awad, a Jordanian Palestinian actress, who criticized Umm Haroun for its "normalization" - and then said it was financed by the Jews who run Hollywood. "The Jews use their money to serve their cause. There are millions pumped into financing music, films and theater to improve the image of the occupation in the eyes of the world," she said. And when asked why such a film about antisemitism shouldn't be shown, she said that antisemitism was a myth.

Jordanian singer Youssef Kiwan (who does not seem to be very popular) also railed against the show, saying, "Artistic normalization is the most dangerous type of normalization ever, because it is associated with lasting and immortal works."

He went on, “The artist who sells his conscience and betrays trust, and spreads poisoned thought after penetrating our homes without permission through his artwork, is much more dangerous than others.”

He called on Arab governments to censor such ideas, and for performing artist unions to blacklist anyone who dares act in such a work as Umm Haroun.

You don't see too many artists who support censorship and blacklisting - but when the film is sympathetic to Jews, then these become not only acceptable but mandatory.

Another prominent artist also came out against the miniseries - Egyptian Mohamed Sobhi, who produced and starred in the "Knight Without a Horse" miniseries based on the Protocols of the Elders of Zion!

Make no mistake: those who rail against "normalization" with Israel are antisemites, period. Their loathing for Umm Haroun betrays their true feelings. They couch their hate of Jews into political language that doesn't fool anyone.

Except, perhaps, The New York Times.

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Tens of thousands of Palestinians return to work in Israel today. Somehow this will be spun as racism.

Arab media are reporting that between 30-40,000 Palestinians are returning to work in Israel today after over a month of closure due to the coronavirus.

Since Israel has much higher rates of infection than the territories, the risk is more for the Palestinians than for the Israelis.

According to Palestinian union sources, Israel agreed to provide sterilization equipment, masks and other protective gear to the returning workers, as well as decent overnight accommodations.

There are usually over 100,000 Palestinian workers in Israel every day, and Israel is gradually allowing them in. According to B'Tslelem, those over 50 are not yet allowed - an obvious move to minimize risk of infection and death, that B'Tselem frames as somehow racist.

Probably because of that policy, this morning Ahed Ratib Judeh, 52, sneaked into Israel through a hole in the fence to reach his job.

Before he arrived at his job site he suffered a massive heart attack and died.

Which means that tomorrow, B'Tselem will blame Israel for his death as well.

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05/02 Links: Coronavirus death toll rises to 229 as new daily infections dip below 100; Danon calls UNRWA Gaza schools 'terror storage facilities'; Parents of murdered US journalist Daniel Pearl appeal acquittals

From Ian:

Coronavirus death toll rises to 229 as new daily infections dip below 100

Two more coronavirus deaths brought the national death toll to 229 Saturday evening, totaling four fatalities over the past 24 hours.

The rate of new infections dipped below 100 for the first time since March 21, with 84 confirmed cases in the past 24 hours.

The total number of virus cases in the country was at 16,185, but with a majority of those having recovered from the illness, the currently diagnosed sick was at 6,363.

Of those infected, 105 were in serious condition, of whom 82 were on ventilators. Sixty-two people were in moderate condition, while the rest were experiencing mild symptoms.

On Wednesday, the number of Israelis who have recovered from COVID-19 surpassed those who are sick for the first time since the start of the pandemic, a trend that continues.

In recent days, Israel’s infection rate has dropped off significantly, with the number of new cases over 24-hour periods consistently falling below 200 since Sunday evening.

Danon calls UNRWA Gaza schools 'terror storage facilities'

Israel’s ambassador to the UN Danny Danon has charged that UNRWA schools in Gaza are “terror storage facilities” and has called on the UN to condemn the organization, which is the main provider of services to Palestinian refugees in the Middle East.

He sent a letter to UN senior officials on the matter, after the United Nations Relief and Works Agency reported a few weeks ago that a grenade and a military vest had been found in one of its Gaza facilities.

UNRWA schools, he wrote, “are UN-funded terrorist storage facilities. This is not the first time UNRWA and other schools have been used for military purposes by Palestinian terrorist groups. Indeed, there have been several incidents of such grave violations of international law and Security Council resolutions.”

Danon called on the Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, Virginia Gamba, to condemn such incidents and to cite it in the UN Secretary-General’s Special Report on “Children and armed conflict.”

In a statement to the media, Danon’s office explained that this was not an isolated incident and that weapons and terror tunnels had been found in UNRWA schools in the past.

BBC World Service radio’s UNRWA puffery highlights nine-month silence )

Failing to take that opportunity to provide listeners with any information which would help them understand those “reputational challenges” and why UNRWA’s “relevancy” is questioned, Coomarasamy refocused audience attentions on the two-year old story of US defunding.

Coomarasamy: “How do you get over that? How do you rebuild bridges for example with the Trump administration?”
Lazzarini: “Listen, I have to rebuild the trust. There have been a huge political support at the time of the renewal of the UNRWA mandate last December and my task will be to translate this political support into matching resources. And I want to also to portray UNRWA in the future as being part of the solution in the region and definitely not as part of the problem.”
Coomarasamy: “Well how do you go about changing an impression in both Israel and the United States that UNRWA has been essentially an anti-Israeli organisation?”
Lazzarini: “You have to focus on the mandate. You have to focus on delivering education for all, to focus on health and in a certain extent, bringing UNRWA mandate into the broader agenda – the famous Agenda 2030 – saying we have to leave no-one behind, we are building the future generation of this region and investing in UNRWA you invest in peace and security.”

Listeners heard no challenge to those talking points and nothing whatsoever about relevant issues such as UNRWA’s links to extremism and its perpetuation and inflation of the Palestinian refugee issue.

Coomarasamy: “…And how positive, how optimistic are you? You say that the world, the UN, backed UNRWA with this new mandate but we’ve also talked about some of the big challenges you face. What would you consider a success?”
Lazzarini: “I think the first success will for the organisation to be able to maintain all its activities here in the region.”
Coomarasamy: “And can you keep those without getting back the American money?”
Lazzarini: “I mean so far all the services have been maintained. There have been other countries having shown solidarity and step in at the time of the US defunding. But I do not [unintelligible] that sooner or later additional funding, additional support be provided to the organisation. I took up this challenge in believing we can address it.”

While a prime focus of this soft-ball interview was resurrection of the two year-old topic (more than generously covered by the BBC at the time) of US withdrawal of funding from UNRWA, its main purpose was obviously to provide Lazzarini with a comfortable platform for unchallenged amplification for his organisation’s talking points. For years the BBC has refrained from holding UNRWA to account or reporting accurately and impartially about the controversial agency. Apparently the scandal that prompted the resignation of Lazzarini’s predecessor – which the BBC managed to completely ignore for nine whole months – has not affected that editorial policy.

05/01 Links Pt2: 1920: The end of innocence; David Collier: Gaza’s secret electronic army – exposed; Dexter Van Zile: What Jews (and non-Jews) Need to Know About BDS

From Ian:

The end of innocence

April 19, 1920, on a train on his way to the San Remo Conference, Chaim Weizmann wrote to his wife, Vera, who was living in London: "My dear, the most terrible, awful thing has happened to us: A pogrom in Jerusalem, with all the accompanying signs of a pogrom… I am tired and shattered and exhausted and nauseated by it all. If the bayonets of the English had not stopped us, we would have overcome the Arabs on the first day, but the English dismantled the weapon of our self-defense and imprisoned our people, including Vladimir Yevgenyvich (Jabotinsky)."

Two weeks earlier, on the first day of the week of Passover, 1920, the riots broke out in Jerusalem and its environs. Today, they would be considered not much more than midsize terrorist attacks. "Only" seven people were killed and 200 injured. Still, it was the start of a new era; the opening shot of the Israeli-Arab conflict, and the first major non-criminal incident of an ethnoreligious nature.

A month earlier, Yosef Trumpeldor and five of his comrades had been killed at Tel Hai, but that battle had more to do with the Arabs' desire to fight against how Britain and France were splitting up the region and less to do with Jewish-Arab relations.

It's not that budding nationalism and fears of Zionism and aliyah hadn't been simmering among the Arabs already, but in 1920 they came into focus and took on clear political and religious angles. That same year saw the foundations for the religious aspect of the national conflict, especially on the Arab side under the leadership of the Grand Mufti Hajj Amin al-Husseini.

Husseini elevated the status of the mosques on the Temple Mount, using them for his political purposes and inventing the blood libel "Al-Aqsa is in danger," which even then falsely accused the Jews of intending to demolish the mosques on the Mount. The riots and the libel spurred the growth of the Palestinian national movement. In 1920 the seeds of the modern-day Palestinian outlook, which does not recognize Israel as the national state of the Jewish people, were sown. This worldview is willing to accept Judaism only as a dhimmi, a protected subservient religion, and not as a sovereign entity in an independent state.

David Collier: ihbid194 – Gaza’s secret electronic army – exposed

The attack on the Israel Advocacy Movement
A couple of weeks ago as Ihbid194 were spamming a thread with posts about Palestinian prisoners, a pro-Israeli activist countered a comment and linked to a video produced by the Israel Advocacy movement. IAM’s video pointed out many prisoners are terrorists – explicitly naming some problematic figures. It obviously caught the eye of someone at ihbid194 – because that IAM video became their next target.

This was the response:

Heroes? The people mention in Joseph’s video were those such as Adnan Jabar, who murdered six people as they returned home from Friday night prayers. Once again, the pro-terrorist leaning of this group exposes itself.

I witnessed the attack on IAM in real time. There were over 1000 responses in an hour – but this did not mean that 1000 people were responding. For example, Adman M Al-sahri, one of the leaders of ihbid194, posted over 30 messages on the video. The images that he posted were for the most part of terrorists – not political prisoners. Other accounts also posted multiple messages. Most of the accounts did use one of the seventeen formulated messages provided for them on the Ihbid194 page. It was a coordinated spam attack.

Labour and Jeremy Corbyn
The date is 25 September 2019. The Labour Party conference has just ended and it is clear we are heading for a general election. The Labour Party post a call on Facebook for people to register to vote. This is pure internal UK politics. Ihbid194 jumped into action – sending positive messages onto the Labour Party post.

labour partyThere were a total of 1000 comments on the post. This is a UK election post and over half of the comments were incredibly supportive and were placed onto the page under the instruction of an online army in Gaza. This isn’t the first time Gaza has mobilised for Jeremy Corbyn. Last year I discovered a Hamas propaganda group also posting pro-Corbyn messages. How many of the pro- Labour Party comments were organised Palestinian interference? They also ran other campaigns to place positive messages directly onto posts by Jeremy Corbyn.

MEMRI: Al-Jazeera Network: MBC TV's Ramadan Programming Promotes Normalization Of Relations With Israel, 'Demonizes The Palestinians And Turn The Jews Into Angels'

On April 28, 2020, Al-Jazeera Network (Qatar) aired a report by one of its journalists, Lebanese national Fatima Triki, criticizing MBC TV, a Saudi channel that broadcasts from the UAE. The report was posted on YouTube under the title "After Its Desecration of the Values... MBC Demonizes the Palestinians and Turns the Jews into Angels." It claimed that recent Ramadan MBC series "Makhraj 7" and "Umm Haroun" promote normalization of Arab relations with Israel. Triki's report focuses on a segment in "Makhraj 7", in which characters are shown describing the Palestinians as shameless and ungrateful for the support they receive from other countries. The report also criticized another show, "Umm Haroun", which describes the Jews who lived in the Arab world favorably. Triki then compared these shows to "Dirilis: Ertugrul," a Turkish series about the father of the founder of the Ottoman state. She elaborated that "Dirilis: Ertugrul" was dubbed into Urdu and that Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan instructed Pakistani state TV to broadcast the show during Ramadan in order to teach about Islamic history and identity and in order to espouse the values he said are being destroyed by Hollywood and Bollywood. The report was posted on YouTube accompanied by the following text: "After MBC TV has made it its practice to desecrate the Arab and Islamic ethics and values, it has chosen for this year's month of Ramadan to malign the history and memory of the Arabs by turning the Palestinian Cause into an ominous catastrophe and presenting the Palestinians as ungrateful, while the Jews are presented as angels."

"A Lively Banquet Of Normalization... In Order To Lure The Arabs... Away From Their Core Values And Their History"

Presenter 1: "And now, unfortunately, for drama with a flavor of normalization. This is what followers of TV series from the Gulf have called them. These series enjoy wide publicity and are aired during the month of Ramadan, focusing on accepting the Israelis as fait accompli and polishing the image of the Jews, while distorting the image of the Palestinians."

Presenter 2: "According to the followers, this continues the campaign against the Palestinian people and against the just nature of their cause. This raises questions. Who is pushing the Gulf dramas in that direction?"

Narrator: "Ramadan brings us together."

Fatima Triki: "These are things that are bought and sold in a lively banquet of normalization under the pretext of Ramadan, in order to lure the Arabs - who are quarantined in their homes - away from their core values and their history. This could have passed as a normal thing, if that Gulf-funded TV channel [MCB TV] would have stuck to what it does best. But it has chosen to plunge into thorny religious and political matters, in the form of a drama series of disputed quality, which served as an 'exit' for defeated minds. [MBC TV] has produced something that is called 'Makhraj 7.'"

"This Is How The Campaign To Demonize The Palestinians Was Born"

Man 1: "An enemy is someone who does not value your support of him and who curses you day and night - more than the Israelis."

Man 2: "What do you mean?"

Man 1: " I am referring to the lack of shame among the Palestinians. We entered wars for the sake of the Palestinian people. We declared an oil boycott for the sake of Palestine. Ever since they had their [Palestinian] Authority, we have been paying for its expenses and its salaries."
[...]
Man 2: "There are Palestinians who sold their lands to the Jews, and there are Palestinians who faces the Israeli tanks with their bare chests during the Intifada."

Gazans are sure not boycotting Israeli products

Here are some items for sale at the Taj Mall supermarket in Gaza City for Ramadan:

These aren't exactly essentials like flour and oil. They have other brands of similar goods. They choose to sell the Israeli products anyway - because there is demand for them in Gaza.

Plus, they are kosher!

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05/01 Links Pt1: Ruthie Blum: Israel is a country, not a concept; Caroline Glick: The final days of the Iran nuclear deal; Israel's Covid-19 Stats Are Stunning

From Ian:

Ruthie Blum: Israel is a country, not a concept - opinion

WHICH BRINGS us to one peculiar side effect of the COVID-19 pandemic: a spike in the desire of Israelis living abroad to return home, and an increase in the interest of Diaspora Jews to make aliyah.

According to Jewish Agency Chairman Isaac Herzog, the government should prepare for a “major wave of immigration to Israel when the coronavirus crisis ends.”

In a recent interview, Herzog referred to the fact that Jewish communities around the world have been hit hard both by the virus and by the antisemitism that it has evoked. He said that the Jewish Agency has been receiving thousands of inquiries from Israelis, and hundreds from British, French and American Jews.

Two families who arrived this month – a couple from France and the Israeli parents of American-born children returning after a 14-year stint in New York – told Channel 12 on Wednesday that a major factor in the timing of their move was Israel’s handling of the pandemic. Both said they felt far safer in Israel, from a health standpoint, than in the US and Europe. The now former New Yorkers pointed to all the people in Brooklyn “who are dying like flies.”

The French wife stated that Israel, unlike her country of origin, does not have a shortage of surgical masks.

Two young Israeli men studying in Italy who came rushing back when the crisis struck expressed the same sentiment. One told Channel 12 that he used to take Israel for granted, but when he witnessed Italian hospital staff refusing to provide ventilators to any patient over the age of 60, he had an awakening.

“Even if Israel ran out of equipment, it would find a way to acquire the machines before letting anyone die,” he said.

It’s a great lesson for all the Israelis who have been whining and winging about the country’s “disastrous” healthcare system in general and the Health Ministry’s “poor” management of the COVID-19 crisis in particular. Sadly, it’s a message most of us won’t hear, especially not now, when the decreasing number of patients on ventilators has enabled us to focus the brunt of our anxiety on the decimated economy.

Caroline Glick: The final days of the Iran nuclear deal

First and foremost, the US will benefit if the administration invokes the snapback sanctions articles because it is the right thing to do. As the IAEA reported and Salehi acknowledged, the Iranians are comprehensively breaching all of their commitments under the JCPOA. There is no substantive justification for maintaining the fiction that the deal is still salvageable. There is clearly no substantive justification for selling Iran conventional weapons.

This brings us to the second reason, and to Iran's defenders – particularly the EU and the Democrats:
If the US triggers the snapback sanctions, the move will critically harm the European Union which, under German leadership has consistently advanced a harshly anti-American foreign policy. If the EU responds to a US move to trigger the snapback sanctions by insisting the US has no authority to act, the position will boomerang.

Even before the appearance of the coronavirus pandemic, many EU member nations were rejecting the EU's authority to dictate a unified anti-American, pro-Iranian foreign policy.

In February 2019, Poland co-hosted a summit on Iran in Warsaw with the US. Then EU Foreign Policy Commissioner Federica Mogherini refused to participate in the conference that bought more than a dozen key EU states along with Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE together to discuss the threat Iran poses to global security.

The EU's utter failure to manage the coronavirus pandemic has struck a massive blow to the EU. Its incompetence has convinced millions of Europeans who had previously supported the EU that they have nothing to gain from it. Their national governments are the only instruments to protect their lives and liberty.

The EU's weakened was apparent earlier this month when several EU member states angrily rejected an attempt by current EU foreign policy commissioner Josep Borrell to pass a resolution condemning the Trump Middle East peace plan and Israel's intention to apply its law to parts of Judea and Samaria in the framework of the Trump plan.

If the EU subverts a US effort to restore UN sanctions on Iran, its action is liable to destroy whatever is left of Brussel's power to dictate a unified EU foreign policy.

Dr. Martin Sherman: Haaretz – One outrage too far?

For Miriam Peretz, there is one goal in life: Sanctification of death—Rogel Alpher, Haaretz, April 28, 2020, (from the Hebrew).

From the Al-Qassam Brigades to the Zionist soldiers: The Al-Qassam Brigades love death more than you love life.—Hamas’s Al-Aqsa TV,Nov. 18, 2012.

Explode, onward, explode, and let your soul be liberated.…How beautiful the [explosive] belt is on your waist; anyone who faces you as an enemy will be humiliated. Water your land with blood, when your weapon speaks. Smile on the day of your death as a Martyr…Onward to Paradise, and Allah is the one who will remain for your children—Hamas’s Al-Aqsa TV, Nov. 12, 2019.

Of course, Haaretz, an allegedly “Israeli” daily, has every right to print whatever depraved drivel and reprehensible rubbish it wishes. It must, however, be prepared to bear the commercial consequences thereof.

For decades, under the ludicrous—indeed, almost lewd—pretext of being the “paper for thoughtful readers”, it has given a platform for the grotesque garbage, noxious nonsense and preposterous poppycock of the likes of Gideon Levy and Amira Hass, who regularly condone—or at least, express sympathetic understanding for—Palestinian-Arab terror attacks against Israel/Israelis—while demeaning, de-legitimizing and demonizing Israeli punitive and preemptive countermeasures against them.

But this week (April 28)—on National Memorial Day, when Israel remembers its fallen warriors, it might just have carried its caustic crusade against the Jewish state one outrage too far. On what is arguably the most hallowed date on the national calendar, Haaretz chose to publish a toxic tirade by its arrogant and pompous TV critic, one Rogal Alpher, against Miriam Peretz, arguably one of Israel’s most noble public figures. A twice bereaved mother, Peretz lost two of her sons, Uriel and Eliraz, both IDF officers, killed in action, and her husband, Eliezer, who died at the age of 56, shortly after the death of Uriel, his eldest son—reportedly from an illness brought on by the grief over his loss.

For many, Peretz has become a symbol of the ability to rise above personal sorrow and tragedy and to rally the strength to contribute to others and to Israeli society at large, devoting her life to educating youth and young IDF soldiers on Jewish and Zionist values.

Today, UNRWA is celebrating its 70th anniversary.

The question is, why? What is there to celebrate?

UNRWA was originally meant to be a temporary refugee agency for those displaced from the 1948 war - Arabs and Jews - until a permanent solution could be found for them.

Originally UNRWA tried to find permanent housing and jobs for Palestinian refugees in Arab countries. It tried to ensure that non-refugees couldn't get free services. It tried to act like a responsible agency.

But over its first few years, it lost that focus. It changed into a permanent welfare agency. It adopted the Palestinian narrative that there is no solution without "return" to destroy the Jewish state demographically. It made a mockery of the Refugee Convention by creating its own definition of refugee that would ensure that it would become a permanent bureaucracy with an ever-growing set of clients. According to UNRWA, even American families of multi-millionaires are considered "refugees."

Now it is a joke. It teaches children to hate. Its teachers are often rabid antisemites. It meekly accepts demands from terror groups like Hamas, for example not to teach the Holocaust. It claims not to be political but it is completely political and partisan, even bringing kids to anti-Israel rallies. It keeps the "refugee" problem festering by keeping camps open even under PA rule, even when the residents are citizens of Jordan and not refugees by any definition.

There is nothing to celebrate. UNRWA needs to be dismantled.

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A person named Gazi Kodzo is a radical black socialist who heads an organization called Black Hammer. He may be the only member but he does have tens of thousands of followers.

Kodzo put this rant on Twitter and Facebook yesterday:

🖕🏾 Anne Frank! As a Black Child in america all through school I was propagandized to mourn a BECKY. I wasn’t told about the COUNTLESS Black girls america GENOCIDED! Indigenous girls america GENOCIDED! Palestinian girls that israel is killing through GENOCIDE right now!
‬
How fucking played I feel! KNOWING I was crying in a class room over some KAREN in EUROPE while sitting in a school that’s resting on land that is filled with the BLOOD & BONES of NAMELESS African and Indigenous GIRLS!
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‪Genocide wasn’t even a WORD until it happened until the WHITE ON WHITE CRIME of the holocaust! In 1949! THOUSANDS of African and Colonized tribes WIPED OUT OF EXISTENCE! MILLIONS OF MY PEOPLE KILED due to EUROPEAN Colonialism for 500 years with NO WORD to define it UNTIL it happened to Anne!‬
There is a REASON america pushes Anne Frank into our heads and not COLONIZED GIRLS who have and are dying due to colonial genocide! Colonizer Jews went through GENOCIDE for a couple years IM A COLONIZED AFRICAN Im in Genocide RIGHT NOW! AND HAVE BEEN IN GENOCIDE FOR 600 YEARS! 🖕🏾 Anne Frank!
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If you are a colonized person and this makes you feel uncomfortable or Immoral for thinking this. BITCH you’re brainwashed to measure your humanity off of how much you cry over the paper cuts of your oppressor while your own people’s heads are being chopped off.‬

‪If you’re a colonizer and this makes you feel uncomfortable and upset. GOOD! You have NO IDEA how many comforts I want to TAKE from you. lol‬

"Becky" and "Karen" are derogatory terms for white girls.

Although his accounts were suspended from Twitter, that wasn't before this gathered at least 1600 Likes.

Many on the Left denounced this antisemitic rant, although Kodzo reveled in the publicity he was getting and bragged about gaining lots of new followers even as he blocked his critics. Earlier today he posted support from someone who says he is a black Jew that agrees with Kodzo, although he admits he never heard of Anne Frank before yesterday.

We've spoken about black antisemitism before - a topic that the media intentionally downplays for fear of being labeled racist - but this is a brand of antisemitism that embraces socialism as well. And while most on the left did not agree with Kodzo, there were some who agreed on the leftist politically incorrect message boards and Twitter:

Hitler was wrong to genocide the Jews and start a world war but he wasn't wrong about Jews being problematic. Not because they're jews but because they're a cabal of religious zealots like anyother.

Fuck off mossad! Try to not to headshot and pregnant Palestinian mothers today.

He’s right tho. Why is Anne Frank so shilled when there has been millions of other victims of genocide both wypipo and PoC?

Fuck, there’s shilling for the German jews but people forget the brutal genocide of the slavic peoples and Chinese civilians during that same war

You never learn about Palestinian kids cause it’s more pertinent to our current times. Jews are perpetuating the same atrocities that their ancestors faced. Their grandparents/great grandparents would be ashamed of Israel.

He's right though. Teaching the Anne Frank bullshit is idpol in the first place. It's better to learn your own countrie's idpol. The Anne Frank diary shit is probably one of the worst historical accounts you can read. You can't learn history from it. Just about little girls and their menstrual cycle's and the boy's they have a crush on.

If any of you foreigners wonder why American education is so bad and American don't know any geography or history, just remember, 1 out of every 5 history lessons is a holocaust lesson for American school children.

And browsing through other parts of the /leftypol/ one sees other antisemitism that has nothing to do with blacks and everything to do with socialism:

Why is nazism so similar to judaism? Anonymous 04/27/2020 (Mon) 22:57:35
When reading a lot of nazi literature i feel like a lot of existing tenets of judaism were incorporated in christian catholic culture that underpinned nazism. The whole aryan race thing feels like a rehash of the chosen people. I guess in a way judaism is similar because it is an ethnosupremacist religion unlike the other abrahamic religions which are much more expansionist and seek to dominate via assimilation rather than direct competition. It's no surprise today that israel funds ukranian nazis and the like. They are strikingly similar. Nazim in a way was a means to address the failings of catholicism in regards to judaism when it came to resource competition.

Exactly. The answer to Judaism is outlawing circumcision and anti-gentile bigotry and surveilling synagogues like the CCP surveills mosques and throw religious bigots in re-education camps.

i think judaism has more unique features that nazism tried to incorporate, see in jewish culture the ritualistic murder of gentiles is not only condoned but encouraged. The IDF for example exists to serve such purpose. Allowing each jew to prove his jewishness to others by killing non jews.

the IDF is a useless army, they couldn't even liberate a small town from hezbollah in 2006. It only exists as rite of passage of jews. And as a mechanism to allow them to exert there vileness on gentiles without facing the same consequences in europe.

Some of the worst antisemitism is removed - but it exists in the leftist spaces. This is denied by the more mainstream Left but it is out there for anyone to see if they look.

Anyone who claims that antisemitism is only a far-Right problem is willfully blind. It is a disease that affects all parts of society. And it cannot be fought by people who cannot admit that their own political allies are sometimes infected with it as well.

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What is Bibi's strategy for extending sovereignty on parts of Judea and Samaria?

Here is my guess as to what Binyamin Netanyahu's plans are for extending sovereignty over parts of Judea and Samaria.

I think it is the first stage of a disengagement plan.

There are a few facts that need to be understood to begin with:

1. The status quo has been remarkably good tactically, but is a disaster strategically. Israel has managed to minimize terror attacks through some brilliant tactical moves but they cannot last long term. It has a corrosive effect on the soldiers who have to serve in the territories. No one is happy ruling another people. But abandoning Judea and Samaria would be bad for security and would give up lands that Jews feel a strong psychic attachment to. Keeping it all means ruling over a growing hostile population. Is the status quo sustainable over 100 years? The answer is no, and Bibi is one of the few politicians who thinks how to best position Israel for the next century.

2. Israel has no peace partner, and won't have one for the foreseeable future. A peace agreement with the Palestinians is simply inconceivable. Whatever Israel does for the long term must be unilateral and strategic.

3. Trump might lose in November. If Israel is going to do any dramatic moves to shake things up and enhance its strategic and geo-political position for the future, now is the only time to do it, while the US can deflect the outrage. The muted international response to the Golan announcement and the Jerusalem embassy move by the Trump administration shows how important it is to have the US on your side.

4. There has been a consensus in Israel for decades that the Jordan Valley must remain under Israeli control for the security of the country. Yitzhak Rabin was not willing to give it to a Palestinian entity.

5. Netanyahu is on the record of supporting extending sovereignty to parts of Judea and Samaria - but he is also on the record against having Israel rule over a hostile Arab Palestinian population. If you look at his Jordan Valley map, Jericho is excluded (even as it is surrounded.)

6. Netanyahu gets votes and political power based on his hawkish statements, but he is far more attuned to Arab human rights than he is given credit for. Just almost no one reports it.

7. Bibi was almost certainly involved in the specifics of the Deal of the Century, which gives clues as to his thinking on how the future might look. But he has to do it in such a way that the Palestinians don't have any veto power. More importantly, he has to do it in a way that can keep the Right in his coalition.

My guess is that Bibi is intending to draw a line, even if it is a very jagged line, of what would eventually be the permanent borders of Israel - and quietly withdraw from the Arab parts.

Because of the US election, he cannot consider doing this gradually. This is the one chance to redraw the map, so it must be taken advantage of.

The implication, however, is that everything outside the line is no longer in play, and no longer claimed by Israel.

That's the part no one wants to talk about. But it may be the key to the whole thing.

If Israel says it formally has no interest in sovereignty over areas not slated to be included, which would include nearly all of the areas that Palestinians live, the demographic problem that everyone warns about is no longer an issue. It isn't that Israel will recognize Palestine on the remaining lands - Israel will probably just ignore them as long as their leadership acts like speaking to Israel is toxic.

Let the Palestinians declare a state there. Let the world recognize it. It is no longer a big deal. Israel is washing its hands of control of problematic areas.

If I'm right, expect a major redeployment of IDF soldiers and border police away from weekly riot areas. Expect them to stop doing useless things like taking down Palestinian flags. This will reduce unnecessary friction. Even though Bibi has denied it, I think that Israel will offer citizenship to the relatively small numbers of Arabs that end up on the Israeli side of the line and who want it.

I would also guess that more bridges and tunnels will be built to keep the Palestinian territories contiguous, similar to the "Deal of the Century" plan.

This way, many of the real arguments against "occupation" become muted. No checkpoints, no soldiers, no tear gas, no demographic threat.

And, if I am right, this would make Israel's Gulf Arab allies happier as well, because it starts ending the conflict instead of perpetuating it, which is what every peace plan ended up doing. I can even imagine the Gulf countries becoming Israel's liaisons with the Palestinians, with some carrot and stick approaches - when the borders are quiet, offering things like help with buying Palestinian exports, or facilitating Israel allowing 5G internet to boost the Palestinian economy.

Of course the governments of the world won't recognize what they would call annexation. Israel is used to that - it has dealt with the world insisting the "occupation" is illegal for 53 years and not recognizing the Golan's annexation. The additional pressure will subside, especially if the US supports it. And those who have the ability to look beyond the cult of Oslo will see that this plan does not preclude peace - in fact, it might even wake up the Palestinians to start negotiating before they become completely irrelevant.

For over 50 years, Israel and her friends have not had a good answer to critics complaining about "occupation." This is because Israel has remained ambiguous about its own position on the territories. Extending sovereignty will end that ambiguity and strengthen Israel's political and legal position.

This could address the legitimate problems of Israel today being in places it is not wanted, while ensuring security for her people.

There will always be people screaming about supposed Israeli crimes, but those people will never go away. They won't be happy until Israel is destroyed, so their opinions mean nothing. Israel has the opportunity to act now in a way that can become a permanent solution without closing the doors to the tiny chance for a change in Palestinian leadership that can be a partner.

It is even possible that this idea is the unofficial contingency plan of the "Deal of the Century" - what happens after the Palestinians reject their last chance for peace. Even with what I am describing, they can become a state. This fits in with Bibi's mindset and, largely, with the Kushner/Greenblatt plan.

Of course it is easy to poke holes in this plan and show why it is doomed. I could come up with dozens of things Palestinians and Europeans and UN and even far-right Israeli Jews would do to try to sabotage it. But the question is, given the constraints, what is better?

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04/30 Links Pt2: 3 more virus deaths bring toll to 222; Pres. Trump Praises ‘Spirit and Resiliency’ of Jews, at Start of Jewish American Heritage Month

From Ian:

3 more virus deaths bring toll to 222, as daily infections continue to drop off

The Health Ministry on Thursday evening said the country’s death toll from the novel coronavirus has climbed to 222 — three additional fatalities since the morning.

The overall number of cases rose to 15,946, up just 112 in 24 hours as the downturn in infections persisted.

Meanwhile, the gap between the number of recovered patients and active cases continued to grow, with the number of recovered patients rising to 8,561 — an increase of 328 over the previous 24 hours.

According to the health data, 105 people are currently in serious condition with COVID-19, 82 of them on ventilators. Another 79 are in moderate condition, while the vast majority (6,979) of the active cases are displaying mild symptoms.

There was no immediate information available on the latest three deaths.

In recent days, Israel’s infection rate has dropped off significantly, with only dozens of new cases being reported every 12 hours, and the government has announced steps to ease restrictions on businesses and travel.

How the Chimera of a “Palestinian Right of Return” Makes Peace Impossible

A review of The War of Return by Adi Schwartz and Einat Wilf, All Points Books (April 2020) 304 pages

In a story that may be apocryphal, the late Christopher Hitchens claimed that he had once seen legendary Israeli diplomat Abba Eban comment that the most striking aspect of the Israeli-Arab conflict is how easily it can be solved: It is simply a matter of dividing the land of Israel into a Jewish state and an Arab state. The only thing standing in the way of this solution is the intense religious or nationalist attachment of both sides to the idea of an undivided nation between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea. Indeed, this assumption that partition alone can bring peace has been the foundation of all of the international community’s peace efforts since the 1967 Six Day War. The only difficulty, it is believed, is persuading the two sides to agree to it.

Not so, argue former Israeli Knesset Member Einat Wilf and journalist Adi Schwartz in their new book The War of Return. What actually lies at the heart of the conflict, they say, is the Palestinian assertion of a “right of return.” Hundreds of thousands of Arabs fled or were expelled from what became the State of Israel after its War of Independence, and the persistent demand that they and their descendants be allowed to return constitutes a refusal to accept a Jewish state on any part of the former mandate. For decades, the Palestinian national movement has insisted on the return of the Arab refugees, and for just as long, Israel has seen this demand as an existential threat that would immediately turn Israel into an Arab state by sheer weight of demographics. And it is this, Wilf and Schwartz say, that has rendered all peace initiatives futile. As Henry Kissinger once said, the minimum concessions that the Arabs demand are greater than the maximum Israel is willing to concede.

“Our research revealed that the Palestinian refugee issue is not just one more issue in the conflict; it is probably the issue,” Wilf and Schwartz assert. “The Palestinian conception of themselves as ‘refugees from Palestine,’ and their demand to exercise a so-called right of return, reflect the Palestinians’ most profound beliefs about their relationship with the land and their willingness or lack thereof to share any part of it with Jews.” As such, they say, the refugee issue has become “a nearly insurmountable obstacle to peace.”

In The War of Return, Wilf and Schwartz trace the convoluted history of the refugee issue and its centrality to Palestinian nationalist ideology, from its origins in 1948 through decades of war and peace efforts to the current stalemate between the two parties to the conflict. Along the way, they reveal much that has been misrepresented, deliberately concealed, and often consciously distorted throughout the long struggle over this tiny piece of emotionally fraught real estate. Presented with such evidence, and despite some innovative suggestions as to a solution, their conclusions, while often revelatory and convincing, are regrettably more than a little depressing.

The Tikvah Podcast: Matti Friedman: The End of the Israeli Left?

Have you ever seen the old murals that decorate the walls of Israel’s historic kibbutzim? They often feature young, brawny Jewish men and women working and plowing the land. They evoke the pioneering spirit of early Zionism: glorifying the mixing of sweat and soil, focused on what Hebrew labor could achieve through cooperation and collective action, and strikingly statist, even socialist. These murals are, in fact, a stark reminder that the Jewish state was founded in large part by Labor Zionists, and that the Israeli Left once dominated the country’s politics. Things have changed a great deal over the past 72 years. Israel is now a nation with a strong conservative consensus. The Labor Party of David Ben-Gurion and Golda Meir—the political organization that erected the governing structures of the country—has been reduced to a mere three seats in the 23rd Knesset. And a poll conducted earlier this month shows that if elections were to be held right now, the party that dominated Israeli politics for decades would not win a single seat in the next Knesset.

What happened? And what does Labor’s decline tell us about contemporary Israel? Earlier this week, the journalist and author Matti Friedman wrote a piece in the New York Times examining “The Last Remnants of the Israeli Left.” In this podcast, he joins host Jonathan Silver to discuss the history and precipitous decline of socialist politics in Israel.