Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, August 11, 2020

08/11 Links Pt2: Ignorance on Zionism leads to antisemitism; Spreading the truth about the Palestinian Arab death ethos; What about the 17 million slaves in the Islamic world?

From Ian:

The adoption of the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism and its implementation as a legal tool, are critical steps in the fight against anti-Semitism. While more and more governments, institutions and organizations have begun to adopt the IHRA definition globally, the definition also serves as an important and powerful educational tool for teaching about, and ultimately preventing the hatred of Jewish people.

Speaking on the merits of the IHRA definition, the Federal Republic of Germany’s Anti-Semitism Commissioner Felix Klein said, “In order to address the problem of anti-Semitism, it is very important to define it first, and this working definition can provide guidance on how anti-Semitism can manifest itself.”

The adoption of the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism is an important first step in defining, recognizing and ultimately combating anti-Semitism. Comprehensive adoption of the IHRA definition in local, national, international jurisdictions, as well as in public and private institutions and settings will enable the world to more effectively confront anti-Semitic behavior wherever it may be found. Ultimately, for the IHRA definition to succeed as a tool in combating anti-Semitism, the definition must be formally incorporated into policy initiatives and legislative proposals as a mechanism to prosecute against and deter future anti-Semitic acts.

A full list of entities that has adopted the IHRA definition can be found here.

Ignorance on Zionism leads to antisemitism

Campuses have long been a breeding ground for radical, even completely illogical, anti-Israel bigotry. But as an alumna of the University of Southern California (USC), I always took solace in the fact that my alma mater had my back as a Jewish student and as a leader in the pro-Israel activities on campus. Unlike the University of California schools, USC was a stalwart for Jewish students. Not so anymore. The dramatic change in campuses like USC that were previously beacons of hope for Jewish students demonstrates how severe the situation is with rise in antisemitism. The toxic campus culture has become so radical it is targeting even people who are fighting for equality and social justice.

Last week, Rose Ritch, the (former) vice president of the university’s undergraduate student government, resigned from her position in a poignant letter after enduring a months-long online bullying and harassment campaign against her to “impeach” her. Ritch’s crime was nothing more that being a Jew and a Zionist – two things that have apparently become unsafe to be on USC’s campus today.

At the core of this harassment campaign was none other than the campus hate group Students for Justice in Palestine, which demanded Ritch resign for being a Zionist. While it’s unsurprising the bigots in SJP made such absurd demands, it is appalling that others listened, and unacceptable that the administration did nothing during this smear campaign. Even during my time as USC, SJP was problematic, but the university had a zero tolerance approach to their harassment. I distinctly remember that when they protested our Independence Day celebration on campus, the head of student affairs left his office and demanded they leave the premises so as not to harass Jewish students with their hateful propaganda. Where is the accountability from the administration on this issue? Where is the education and promotion of tolerance for different ideas?

In Ritch’s letter, she explained, “I’ve been told that my support of Israel has made me complicit in racism and that, by association, I’m racist... Students launched an aggressive social media campaign to ‘impeach my Zionist a**...’ My Jewish and Zionist identity has helped shape every part of who I am, and they cannot be separated.” The targeted harassment of Ritch is nothing more than pure unadulterated antisemitism, and here is why: no other student would be canceled, harassed, bullied and pushed out of office for supporting any other country in the world. Even horrendous human rights abusing regimes like Syria, Iran, or China. There are no campus groups focused solely on combating human rights violations in Iran, on boycotting China or on holding Syria accountable. Only the Jewish state.

“Israel has a plot to destroy humanity”

I saw at least four Arabic news sites with the headline “Israel has a plot to destroy humanity” over the past few days.

The theme of the articles is that the Muslim Brotherhood was behind the birth of Israel.

Obviously, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood Hassan al Banna was Jewish. We’ve seen that accusation many times before. But the logic that comes afterwards is new.

You seem the Muslim Brotherhood – supposedly Jewish – started an antisemitic campaign in Egypt and other Arab countries to kick the Jews out – so they could move to Israel and build a state there!

Later on in the article we are told that further proof of Muslim Brotherhood love of Jews comes from Egypt’s MB leader Essam al-Arian, who said in 2012, “I call on the Egyptian Jews to return to their homeland, and they must refuse to continue living under a repressive and racist regime tainted with crimes against humanity.”

So when the Ikhwan kicks Jews out it is proof they love Jews, and when they invite them back it is also proof that they love Jews.

Interestingly, the articles are mostly illustrated with this photo, apparently of Israeli medical teams doing COVID-19 testing. One can only imagine how that illustrates “Israel has a plot to destroy humanity.”

The ADL has changed quite a bit over the years, but it has consistently called out antisemitism without regard to who it comes from. In recent decades it has become a more general civil rights organization, fighting racism and other forms of bigotry.

So naturally the people who want to define antisemitism as a purely right-wing phenomenon are putting the ADL in their crosshairs.

A new website, DropTheADL.org, attempts to gather a large group of antisemitic and anti-Israel groups together to target the ADL in the name of “progressivism.”

Even though the ADL is integrated into community work on a range of issues, it has a history and ongoing pattern of attacking social justice movements led by communities of color, queer people, immigrants, Muslims, Arabs, and other marginalized groups, while aligning itself with police, right-wing leaders, and perpetrators of state violence. More disturbing, it has often conducted those attacks under the banner of “civil rights.” This largely unpublicized history has come increasingly to light as activists work to make sense of the ADL’s role in condemning the Movement for Black Lives, Palestinian rights organizing, and Congressional Representative Ilhan Omar, among others.

We are deeply concerned that the ADL’s credibility in some social justice movements and communities is precisely what allows it to undermine the rights of marginalized communities, shielding it from criticism and accountability while boosting its legitimacy and resources. Even when it may seem that our work is benefiting from access to some resources or participation from the ADL, given the destructive role that it too often plays in undermining struggles for justice, we believe that we cannot collaborate with the ADL without betraying our movements.

In English, this means that these groups want to be able to be blatantly antisemitic or to demonize Israel without a civil rights group calling them out for it.

The signatories are a Who’s Who of rabidly anti-Zionist groups:

American Friends Service Committee

American Muslims for Palestine

Arab Resource & Organizing Center

Asian American Advocacy Fund

Black Alliance for Just Immigration

Black and Pink, Inc.

Causa Justa: Just Cause

Center for Constitutional Rights

Center for Political Education

Christian Peacemaker Teams

Coalición de Derechos Humanos

Council on American-Islamic Relations

Critical Resistance

Democratic Socialists of America

Detention Watch Network

Dream Defenders

DRUM – Desis Rising Up & Moving

Ella Baker Center for Human Rights

Highlander Research and Education Center

International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network

Jewish Voice for Peace

Jews Against Anti-Muslim Racism

Jews for Racial & Economic Justice

MADRE

MediaJustice

Methodist Federation for Social Action

Mijente

Movement for Black Lives

Movement Law Lab

Muslim American Society

National Alliance Against Racist & Political Repression

National Lawyers Guild

New York Collective of Radical Educators

No Dakota Access Pipeline Global Solidarity Campaign

Palestine Legal

Palestinian Youth Movement

Project South

Queers Against Israeli Apartheid

Rising Tide North America

School of the Americas Watch

South Asian Americans Leading Together

Southerners on New Ground

Stop LAPD Spying Coalition

Teachers 4 Social Justice

The Red Nation

United We Dream

US Campaign for Palestinian Rights

US Palestinian Community Network

Veterans for Peace

War Resisters League

Adalah Justice Project

Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition

allgo, a queer people of color organization

All-African People’s Revolutionary Party (GC)

Alliance for Global Justice

American Association of University Professors (NYU Chapter)

Arab American Action Network

Arab Jewish Partnership for Peace and Justice

Arizona Palestine Solidarity Alliance

Berkeley Copwatch

Catalyst Project

CODEPINK

Committee for a Just Peace in Israel and Palestine

Episcopal Peace Fellowship-Palestine Israel Network

Equality for Flatbush

Faculty & Staff for Justice in Palestine at UMass Boston

Freedom to Thrive

Friends of Sabeel – North America

Grassroots International

Interfaith Action Group for Peace and Justice in Israel and Palestine

International Action Center

Islamic Circle of North America Council for Social Justice

Islamophobia Studies Center

Israel/Palestine Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church (USA)

Jewish Voice for Peace Rabbinical Council

Jews Say No!

Labor for Palestine

LAGAI – Queer Insurrection

Los Angeles Muslim Professionals

Middle East Children’s Alliance

Muslim Justice League

National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild

National Students for Justice in Palestine

Nevadans for Palestinian Human Rights

O’odham Anti Border Collective

Pan-African Roots

Participatory Action Research Center

Peace Action

Progressive Jews of St. Louis

QUIT! Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism

Researching the American-Israeli Alliance

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network

San Francisco Rising

Southsiders For Peace

St Louis Palestine Solidarity Committee

Trans Liberation Collective

United Church of Christ Palestine Israel Network

US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel

Vigilant Love

Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom US

Women Watch Afrika, Inc.

This has nothing to do wit “justice” and everything to do with Israel and supporting Leftist, Arab and Black antisemitism.

08/11 Links Pt1: Jonathan Tobin: Lebanon proves President Trump right on the Middle East; Inside the Struggle Between Israel and Hezbollah; The Palestinian War on History

From Ian:

Jonathan S. Tobin: Lebanon proves President Trump right on the Middle East

Lebanese demonstrators are now calling for throwing out all of their leaders. But there is no formula for governing this country that would satisfy any of these warring tribes.

The world wants to help the Lebanese recover from the port disaster. But the question we should be asking is whether there is anything the West can do to change these countries. The answer is no.

Over the last few decades, both the United States and Israel have been dragged into Lebanon’s civil wars in ways that didn’t benefit anyone. The same is true in Syria, where Washington has fought ISIS and Jerusalem seeks to fend off incursions by Iran and Hezbollah.

Some outsiders might be tempted to try to “fix” Lebanon by helping impose a state modeled on modern and democratic norms, rather than its current tribal and sectarian format. As the United States proved in Iraq, anyone who takes on such a task is ignoring history and common sense and will pay for the hubris in blood and treasure.

Also unfortunately, Lebanon, like Syria and Iraq, is a breeding ground for terrorism. We will have to deter those baddies by other means, never again by entangling ourselves in these nations’ broken political lives. We can wish young, aspirational democrats well as they try to fix their countries — but they should do it on their own.

Anyone who criticizes Trump’s refusal, backed by most Americans, to contemplate more military involvement isn’t being realistic.

Pure isolationism isn’t the answer, of course. The United States should support Israel’s efforts to ensure that violence in Lebanon and Syria doesn’t spread. And the West should, as Trump has done, continue sanctioning and isolating Iran, to prevent it from creating more mischief. Sensible people should also worry about creating a Palestinian state that would be just as much of a disaster as Lebanon or Syria.

Americans have long labored under the delusion that we can heal the Middle East. But the internecine slaughter in Syria and Iraq and the catastrophe that is Lebanon should remind us that the only sensible approach is to stop letting ourselves get dragged into the region’s bloodstained sands.

Richard Goldberg: How the Middle East Can Hedge Against a Biden Presidency

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are in for a rude awakening if former Vice President Joe Biden defeats President Donald Trump in November and Democrats take control of the U.S. Senate in addition to the House. The only thing that might save them: normalizing relations with Israel.

For now, Riyadh and Abu Dhabi seem preoccupied with whether Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will declare sovereignty over roughly 30 percent of the West Bank, consistent with the Trump peace plan proposal. The UAE ambassador to Washington, Yousef al Otaiba, even penned a column for a leading Israeli newspaper warning that a sovereignty declaration would be a setback for Israeli-Gulf ties. Somehow, while President Trump's decisions to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, move the American embassy there and defund the UN agency for Palestinian refugees merited little more than pro forma foreign ministry press releases, the Emiratis are waging a full (royal) court press to stop Israel from asserting sovereignty over a slice of the West Bank.

With only a few months left until the November presidential election, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) and Emirati Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed (MBZ) might need to readjust their priorities. Without peace treaties with Israel, their support in Washington could soon collapse. Wasting time and energy fighting an Israeli sovereignty declaration in the West Bank—which may not even happen—will not insulate them from a Democratic takeover next January.

A Biden administration will be tempted to re-enter the Iran nuclear deal, returning to the Obama-era strategy of seeking a balance of power between the Islamic Republic and its Sunni Arab neighbors. The revival of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (i.e., Iran nuclear deal) would be compounded by congressional efforts to cut off arms sales to the Gulf—or condition them on Saudi Arabia and the UAE ending all operations in Yemen and ending their embargo on Qatar. A renewed push for sanctions on Saudi leaders in response to the killing of Jamal Khashoggi is also likely. Biden and his advisors would face enormous political pressure to acquiesce from the more radically pro-Iran, anti-Gulf faction of the Democratic Party.

Meanwhile, with Iran once again flush with cash from U.S. sanctions relief and importing advanced conventional arms from Russia and China, MBS and MBZ will have only one true ally in the Middle East: the State of Israel. Sovereignty questions in a strip of land more than 1,000 miles away will seem irrelevant when compared to an existential struggle for survival in a region where the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism seeks hegemony.

The Palestinian War on History

"Every person, irrespective of whether or not they are disabled, should have the opportunity to visit the tomb, which is an important Jewish heritage site... The tomb belongs to us after Abraham bought it with his own money 3,800 years ago." — Former Israeli Defense Minister Naftali Bennett.

These Palestinian leaders continue to deny any Jewish connection to the holy site on the pretext that it belongs exclusively to Muslims. Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riad Malki has condemned the elevator plan as an Israeli "war crime" and a "violation of international law."

The winners? The Iran-backed Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, who dream of extending their control from the Gaza Strip to the West Bank. This dream, thanks to the lawless and lethal regime of the Palestinian Authority -- funded by the West -- appears closer than ever.

“Visit Palestine” erases Jews from Jerusalem

The Visitpalestine.ps website is a tourist site for people who want to pretend Israel doesn’t exist. That’s fine – they can emphasize whatever they want on their tours.

But when they create a map of the Old City of Jerusalem and erase virtually all evidence of Jews from Jerusalem, that is a different matter.

Detail:

Their map has a key to supposedly find synagogues, but the only synagogue in the entire Old City is at the Kotel according to them. The only tourist sites in the Jewish Quarter are – two mosques.

Of course, there are many major synagogues in the Old City, and not only in the Jewish Quarter.

Not acknowledging Israel’s existence is one thing, but pretending that there is no Jewish presence in Jerusalem beyond the “Al Buraq Wailing Wall” shows yet again that their supposed anti-Zionism is something much more ancient.

(h/t YMedad)

Porochista Khakpour is an award-winning Iranian-American writer and novelist. No one can consider her a Zionist or a supporter of Israel.

When she recently pointed out Leftist antisemitism, her being a woman of color was no defense from the vitriol she experienced.

Last month she tweeted:

can i ask that we normalize hating on nations rather than people more accurately these days?

“fuck israel” is not ok with me. “fuck the israeli gov” fine. when i went to israel no israeli i met was into the occupation—it is jusf pure anti-semitism to be lazy with this expression. i would murder you if you said “fuck iran”

It was mostly ignored until this week, but then suddenly the “woke” Left discovered her quite reasonable comment and decided to attack her for being against stereotyping and bigotry.

Hey could you not call me antisemitic? I’m jewish and “fuck Israel”

"I went to South Africa in 1985 and all the White people there were really nice to me. I don't know what all the fuss is about."

This is insulting and gross.

Insisting hostility toward Israel is anti-semitism is itself anti-semitism.

She sounds like she is saying somethin' very philosophically sophisticated but all she is says is that she's pro colonialism..

Khakpour energetically defended herself:

And people who are mad at this tweet can absolutely fuck themselves. i love my Israeli & Palestinian brothers and sisters, every part of my heritage that is Jewish and Muslim! so comical this offends some very basic ass people. It’s literally the most grotesque white capitalist propaganda that creates these divisions but you all just don’t want to face you get played all the time! also you hate Iranians which is a whole other story! More than ever Muslims need to stand strong with our Jewish friends and fam. We are very much the same in too many ways. Some of you are flirting with anti-Semitism way too much on this site & I have seem wayyyy too many Jewish friends destroyed by this. It is ugly & dumb af.

And then:

I don’t give a fuck if you are of an oppressed group—i am too. Clearly some of my truth hurt you but i only responded. Still I have never received more violent, bigoted, incredibly disgusting DMs for asking we do not conflate Israelis with the awful Israeli gov.

These people want to use the name of their people to justify hate. They argue no, it’s not the Israeli gov, it’s the people too. So that, my friends, is the anti-Semitism I am talking about. Deciding that whole people are part of a murderous apartheid scheme.

You will absolutely not break me—I am a proud Iranian from people who ages of brutal conquests and rape and war and torture did not take down. The comments you are hurling at me are so fucking gross and disturbing that I wish we had hate laws but hey America calls hate freedom

The “Jewish Voice for Peace” actually defended the antisemitic position of saying that every Israeli (Jew, of course) is responsible for the actions of the government:

Conflating Israelis with their government is not anti-Semitism. You defer to Palestinian and anti-Zionist Jewish voices rather than wield accusations of anti-Semitism against Palestinians who rightly have vitriol for the people who vote enthusiastically for right-wing leadership.

Which means that by their logic, every member of Jewish Voice for Peace is a Trump supporter who should be spit on when they visit Europe!

Khakpour then demolished JVP and exposed their own white privileged hypocrisy as that group blocked her:

I am not anti-Palestinian, you disgusting toxic bigots. But I guess you enjoyed your nice ceremonial dinner with our evil Iranian anti-Semite old leader Ahmadinejad. You guys are a pretty fun Google, lots of skeletons in this closet under this pretty name!

Unreal, with friends like these who needs enemies!

One of my big issues & what I did not love about this group Jewish Voices For Peace (a hilarious name considering what they were doing) is that there are a ton of white orgs and white people even who benefit from Black and Brown people being angry & terrified all the time.

This is extremely unhealthy & it’s a way for them to play savior while keeping us in our place: the broken. They don’t actually love us. They don’t actually see us.

She then expanded it into a damning indictment of the entire woke Left:

the left has truly become a bunch of sad bloodthirsty cannibals dying to eat their own. so sad to realize the right is often so right about us. it’s a parody.

the funniest part is the most self-righteous fools come in & claim you have been problematic but just with 5 min of research you can see TONS of their very problematic views & associations. anyone, literally anyone, can get a good cancelling if you are up for it

in your heads you think you are so cool for fighting your little fights here but you end up the most miserable, loneliest people on earth. you are addicted to misery. bullying is the sport for the saddest losers, we all learn that in grade school.

So many of you love to harm woc, esp if they are smart and outspoken and fight back. You will do anything to harm us & break us to pieces. It’s sickening. You will work so hard to intentionally misunderstand us & twist us into your nightmares. It is so gross.

Porochista Khakpour gets it exactly right. I disagree strongly with her political opinions but she doesn’t cross the line into bigotry – and that is exactly what nearly all anti-Israel groups and tweeters do. Their reactions to a woman of color not toeing their line shows how their position is based on smug moral superiority, not facts, and their self-perception of being moral paragons is threatened by a non-white woman exposing their hate, eagerness to stereotype and antisemitism.

So they turn on her.

One of the dirtiest words in both Arab and BDS media is “normalization” – anything that treats Israel and Israeli Jews as anything but disgusting entities.

In 2011, +972 Magazine once published a BDS group’s explanation of what is so horrible about normalization, and some of it sounds like parody:

A key principle that underlines the term normalization is that it is entirely based on political, rather than racial, considerations and is therefore in perfect harmony with the BDS movement’s rejection of all forms of racism and racial discrimination. Countering normalization is a means to resist oppression, its mechanisms and structures. As such, it is categorically unrelated to or conditioned upon the identity of the oppressor.

Oh really? Because later on in that same document Israeli Arabs are described as victims of coercion:

Palestinian citizens of Israel ….may be confronted with two forms of normalization. The first, which we may call coercive everyday relations, are those relations that a colonized people, and those living under apartheid, are forced to take part in if they are to survive, conduct their everyday lives and make a living within the established oppressive structures. For the Palestinian citizens of Israel, as taxpayers, such coercive everyday relations include daily employment in Israeli places of work and the use of public services and institutions such as schools, universities and hospitals.

Can you believe it? Israeli Arabs are being coerced into working and using public services – exactly like their oppressors!

Equality is the new apartheid.

But if the BDSers consider Israeli Arabs to be victims of coercion, then who are the oppressors? Why, they are Israeli non-Arabs, pretty much all of who happen to be Jews!

What more proof do you need that the BDS movement is antisemitic?

When Arabs use the term, they are no less antisemitic. An example this weeks comes from Palestinian newspaper Al Quds News, which is upset over Dubai’s publicly acknowledging a synagogue in the Emirates.

At a time when the Arab arena was preoccupied with the tragedy that struck Lebanonm when popular and Arab and international media is preoccupied with the results of the disaster that spread in most parts of the Lebanese capital, the UAE authorities inaugurated the Dubai Synagogue, and set up on the eighth of August, the first public "Jewish" Sabbath prayer in Arabia ...

While Beirut collects the remains of the dead from the catastrophic explosion, and the citizens are working to remove the effects of the destruction that extended over an area estimated at 15 square kilometers, the Zionist occupation authorities and their media circles celebrated the establishment and opening of the "Dubai Synagogue".

This step constitutes further emphasis on strengthening the rush towards "normalization" between the Emirates and the Zionist enemy entity, and the rapprochement between them, including enabling the international community in Dubai and Abu Dhabi to practice overt activities, and bring it out from secrecy to overt .

What exactly does the Dubai synagogue, set up by Jewish businessmen who work in the UAE, have to do with Israel? I don’t see any Israeli flags in this video of the small prayer space:

The newspaper sees a synagogue and says it is a terrible thing, because to them it represents normalization with Israel. Anything that makes Jews look human or that gives them rights in an Arab country is automatically demonized as Zionist, and therefore unacceptable.

People who are against “normalization” are against treating most Jews as human beings.

08/10 Links Pt2: Anti-Zionism is Antisemitism; Judea Pearl: A Lesson for Seth Rogen (and All Jews) on Early Zionists and Arabs; The NAACP’s Failure to Deal With Rodney Muhammad’s Antisemitism

From Ian:

Anti-Zionism is Antisemitism

This past Thursday, I saw a disturbing email in my inbox from the President of USC, Carol Folt. In her message to the USC community, Ms. Folt addressed the resignation of Vice President of Undergraduate Student Government, Rose Ritch, from her position in student government. Ms. Ritch, who is Jewish, was subjected to months of antisemitic attacks and cyber-bullying due to her support for Israel’s existence and her identification as a Zionist. Impeachment proceedings were initiated against Ms. Ritch by students who felt “unsafe” on campus by the idea that a Zionist Jew would head their student government. Never mind that Ms. Ritch is a strong advocate for social justice.

In a July 7, 2020 letter to the USC administration, The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law gave heart wrenching examples of the abuse, harassment and pure hatred Ms. Ritch had been subjected to. In asking the administration to stop the impeachment proceedings because they clearly violate Ms. Ritch’s Civil Rights, the Brandeis Center pointed out that the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance Working Definition of Antisemitism provides “guidance for understanding when anti-Israel and anti-Zionist expression becomes targeted, intentional, discriminatory harassment and intimidation of Jewish students.”

In other words, the USC administration was reminded that it is not enough to pay lip service to the evils of of Antisemitism so long as you are not killing Jews and taking their property, while giving tacit and sometimes overt support to Jew hatred in the form of anti-Zionism.

In her resignation letter, Ms. Ritch called out USC for not doing enough to protect her from scathing attacks for identifying as a Zionist. “I am grateful that the University administration suspended my impeachment proceedings, but am disappointed that the university has not recognized the need to publicly protect Jewish students from the type of antisemitic harassment I endured.”

I am proud of Ms. Ritch for her courage in publicly outing anti-Semites who hide behind the cloak of anti-Zionism. Ms. Ritch is highlighting an issue that unfortunately is not unique. “The sad reality is that my story is not uncommon on college campuses. Across the country, Zionist students are being asked to disavow their identities or beliefs to enter many spaces on their campuses.”

Bari Weiss, Rose Ritch resign after harassed over their Jewish identities

THE ATTACKS on Ritch are part of the broader corrosive influence of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement that has permeated the mainstream of progressive consciousness. By suggesting that Ritch’s support for a Jewish homeland would somehow render her “unfit for office or justify her impeachment” in effect resurrects the oldest of Dreyfus Affair level antisemitic tropes that call into question the primary loyalties of Jews who hold public office and “holding Jews responsible for the actions of the Israeli government.”

Political disagreements have always fueled the fabric of intellectual debate and especially on a college campus. Yet in Ritch’s case, labeling her Zionism as racism effectively silenced her voice in the debate and rendered her fair game to be canceled under the guise of political correctness, which bends far toward the side of the anti-Israel narrative.

What we are witnessing is a collective silencing of those who do not hold these toxic antisemitic views by those who do, ironically similar to the voices of moderate Islam squelched by the voices of extremism. Throughout modern history, intellectual curiosity and a sense of civic responsibility to repair what was broken in society were pursuits identified with both the college campus (think Berkeley of the ‘60’) and the printing press (thing Enlightenment). Yet, what we are seeing on college campuses and in the press is a narrowing of the acceptable definition
of “woke” consciousness, where membership is qualified by an asterisk that Jews need not apply.

Our nation is at a crossroads with an upending of long-held beliefs, practices and even social institutions being questioned and redefined to fit the zeitgeist of the current political climate. We are not exempt from these vital conversations, nor should we shirk from necessary inward introspection as we strive to repair a world so broken by racism, elitism and discrimination.

However, it is incumbent upon us to root out the misguided and misinformed ideology that has led to the resignation of these two powerful and important voices, and to decry all antisemitic rhetoric at every occurrence with a zero-tolerance policy. After all, “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? But if I am only for myself, who am I? If not now, when?” (Ethics of the Fathers, 1:14)

Israel’s finger-prick blood test startup Sight nabs $71 million to expand scope

Israel’s Sight Diagnostics, the startup that has received a US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) nod for its finger-prick blood test device, said it has raised $71 million in funding from investors to expand global operations and detect a greater array of diseases, including COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus.

Investors in the Series D funding include Koch Disruptive Technologies, the venture arm of US multinational Koch Industries, Inc; Longliv Ventures, an arm of the Hong Kong based CK Hutchison Holdings and Israeli VC fund OurCrowd, the company said in a statement last week.

The new round brings Sight’s total funding to more than $124 million, the company said.

The company’s Sight OLO blood analyzer device uses machine vision to analyze blood and to provide results for a complete blood count test (CBC) from just a drop of blood in minutes, the company says. A complete blood count test — which counts red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets in a patient’s sample — is one of the most basic, informative tests a doctor can conduct.

To use Sight’s product, the physician or nurse pricks the patient’s finger or draws blood through the vein, and places a drop of blood into a disposable plastic cartridge that is inserted into the OLO, which looks like a small home printer. The machine, equipped with a camera, takes thousands of images of the millions of cells within the sample and measures 19 different blood parameters in minutes. Software developed by the firm based on the machine learning algorithms analyzes the images and provides lab-grade results in a printout or via email.

How techies used Bluetooth’s most annoying trait to build Israel’s new COVID app

Ronen and Pinkas told The Times of Israel they developed a system for Bluetooth messages to be sent between users’ phones, which can be used to generate quarantine alerts if relevant — but without the government getting anyone’s personal data.

At the crux of the design is the biggest complaint of people who use Bluetooth headphones, namely that the signal fades when you are more than a few steps away from your device.

Pinkas said that if people are close enough to a carrier for their phones to exchange Bluetooth signals of the highest quality, they are within proximity that epidemiologists want them to know about, while if the distance is greater, epidemiologists don’t care.

He said that relying on Bluetooth, rather than the tracking methods that the Shin Bet uses, can keep many people out of unnecessary quarantine.

“The problem with tracking currently done by Shin Bet is that it uses cellphone signal data that isn’t precise in terms of location and doesn’t know what floor you’re on in a building, so if there’s a carrier in a mall, it can lead to many people who were nowhere near him or her being quarantined,” he said.

With their app, every user sends out a special Bluetooth signal every five minutes that is logged by any other HaMagen users who are within two meters. The phone keeps a record of these messages — without any information to identify the user who transmitted them.

If an Israeli citizen tests positive for coronavirus, they have no legal requirement to reveal that they use the app. But if they choose, they can ask the Health Ministry for a code that will upload all the Bluetooth messages they transmitted — without information to identify them — to the ministry server.

Why do they lie about IHRA? Because they WANT to treat Israel differently than any other state.

From PR Newswire:

On Friday, August 7, 2020, a coalition of more than 120 NGOs submitted a letter to Facebook, urging the social media company to implement a comprehensive hate speech policy on anti-Semitism that incorporates the full International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism.

The objections to using the IHRA definition are all the same: critics say it would stop legitimate criticism of Israel. As Lara Friedman tweets, the IHRA definition is “a means to deplatform/quash criticism of Israel.”

It is a lie and they know it.

IHRA is explicit:

“Criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic. “

The exact opposite of their oft-repeated claim.

And when you call them on it, they run away and say the same lies again some other day.

There is only one explanation that makes sense: they want to criticize Israel in ways that no other nation is ever criticized. They need to. it is the basis of their activism.It is their

raison d'être. Because by any sane measure, Israel is no worse and much better than the vast majority of nations in any metric of ethics or morality you can come up with, given Israel’s situation of being surrounded by people who hate Jews and the Jewish state since way before “occupation” or even before Israel was reborn.

And the only possible reason for such a desire to paint Israel as uniquely evil – as a Nazi, racist, apartheid, baby-killing state – is old fashioned antisemitism.

These modern antisemites pretend to be against all forms of bigotry, giving them the moral high ground to accuse Israeli Jews of being racists.

So of course they don’t accept the truth, that their crazed hate and obsession with Israel is a form of antisemitism. They want to accuse others of bigotry, not look at their own pure selves. They use their self-righteousness to blind themselves from their own hate. And they really hate being shown what hypocrites they are.

Which is why every time a smug socialist says that the IHRA definition quashes legitimate criticism, insist that they explain exactly how. They will spout absurdities like “being pro-Palestinian is a violation of IHRA” – which it doesn’t.

In the end, they want the right to call Israeli Jews Nazis. And that is why they hate IHRA.

Israel is criticized for allowing Palestinians to go to the beach. Then it is criticized for NOT allowing Palestinians to go to the beach.

From Haaretz:

Anyone coming to the beach over the weekend couldn’t miss the Palestinian families, especially in Jaffa but in Herzliya, Haifa and other beaches as well.

The average Israeli wouldn’t be able to tell whether an Arab family came from Nablus or Tul Karm in the West Bank or Umm al-Fahm or Kafr Qasem in Israel, but a sharp eye could tell that the Palestinians were different, people for whom going to the beach is a rare treat and getting there involved some difficulty. “We came to Kafr Biddu and we crossed the barrier at an opening – not at a checkpoint or anything, just an opening in the [separation] fence like many others,” said Inas, a mother of three who came to Jaffa. “On the Israeli side there was a bus waiting for us – I paid 30 shekels (nearly $9) and we went to Jaffa. There was nothing threatening. I was surprised when I saw the Jews [soldiers] looking at us without bothering us at all.

…The PA did not come out against these visits but some saw it as Israel poking a finger in the PA’s eye. “They want to prove to us that with or without coordination, they are letting in civilians, even at the risk of a coronavirus outbreak, even though they knew in advance that the Palestinians wouldn’t mix with the Israelis,” a senior Palestinian official said. “What’s more, instead of Palestinians taking their leisure in the West Bank and spending their money there, they preferred having the money to spend in Israel and not the West Bank, even if we aren’t talking about large sums.”

The army allowing Palestinians to go to the beach is just proof of how evil Israel is.

And you know what else is? Blocking Palestinians from going to the beach.

Israeli policy may be inconsistent, but one thing that is always consistent is the hate that people have for Israel, no matter what it does.

08/10 Links Pt1: Dismantle UNRWA and there may be a chance for peace; The UN “Blacklist” of Israeli Companies: Should It Be Taken Seriously?; Entire Lebanese government to step down amid growing anger over Beirut blast

From Ian:

Dismantle UNRWA and there may be a chance for peace

UNRWA has instituted two policies which, when considered together, acts as a formidable obstacle to resolving the conflict. Unlike all other refugee assistance programs, UNRWA grants refugee status to the descendants of any registered Palestinian Arab. This essentially means that even if the great grandchild of a registered refugee is born and raised in New York, they will still be deemed a "refugee". As expected, the number of registered refugees has skyrocketed - from 726,000 in 1949, to over 5,000,000 today.

Secondly, UNRWA strongly supports the Palestinian Arab demand to have a "right of return" to the entire land of Israel. With an estimated population of 9,000,000 Israeli citizens, consisting of less than 7,000,000 Jews, if Israel were to ever agree to this demand the Jewish State would cease to exist. This demand for a "right of return", combined with the skyrocketing number of "refugees", has been a major roadblock on the pathway to establishing peace.

Finally, while UNRWA publicly declares itself to be dedicated to improving the lives of the Palestinian "refugees", it privately maintains close ties to Hamas, a known terrorist organization. Both Suhail al-Hindi, a one-time leader of UNRWA, and Muhammad al-Jamassi, an UNRWA staffer, have been elected to leadership positions within this terror group.

According to UN Watch, a leading watchdog group, terror tunnels were discovered below UNRWA schools, and, in Gaza, schools have a representative designated to recruiting students into Hamas. Furthermore, terror groups have used these buildings to store rockets, thereby forcing each child to act as a human shield and to live in perpetual danger. Rather than acting for the betterment of the Palestinian Arabs under its aegis, UNRWA has allowed terrorist organizations to manipulate innocent children in an endless war against the State of Israel.

UNRWA continues to receive funding, even while actively working to prevent any form of peace. After almost seventy years in existence, it is time that we do our part in bringing an end to this conflict.

UNRWA must be dismantled for the sake of preventing the loss of any more innocent lives and to protect Palestinian Arab children from receiving a hate filled, anti-Semitic education. Without the continuous interference of UNRWA, all Israelis and Palestinians will have a greater chance of one day living side by side, in peace.

JCPA: The UN “Blacklist” of Israeli Commercial Enterprises: Should It Be Taken Seriously?

The UN blacklist of commercial enterprises involved in business activities in the West Bank territories of Judea and Samaria emanates from the highly politicized and discredited UN Human Rights Council as an overtly and politically hostile attempt to harm such enterprises, and through them, to harm Israel.

The blacklist is nothing more than a recommendatory measure. It is specifically not legally binding on states or companies.

In publishing the blacklist, the UN Human Rights Council has, in fact, undermined the authority of the UN Security Council, which, pursuant to Chapter VII, article 41 of the UN Charter, is the only international body authorized to impose commercial sanctions on states. This provision has no authority regarding commercial enterprises.

The publication of the blacklist runs against prevailing legal viewpoints and jurisprudence that sees nothing illegal in the involvement of private commercial enterprises in business activities in occupied or administered territories. International law cannot be activated vis-à-vis private commercial enterprises.

By publishing the blacklist, the UN Human Rights Council is interfering in the commitments set out in the Middle East peace negotiation process, and specifically, provisions of the internationally endorsed Oslo Accords regarding economic development and cooperation between the parties.

Moreover, the approval and publication of the blacklist, and any attempt to implement it, undermine the status of both the United Nations and the European Union, both signatories as witnesses to the Oslo Accords, and as such, prejudices the integrity and credibility of both organizations.

Prof. Daniel Pipes: Islamism and Syria Update

Mohammad Hassan Goodarzi of Iran's International Quran News Agency solicited this written interview only to have it rejected by his editors because they "disagreed" with it. So, I make it available here, precisely as prepared on July 9, 2020.

What is the main cause of Islamism in the Middle East?
Frustration: Islamic self-image and Muslim historical experience both lead Muslims to believe they should be the richest, most educated, and most powerful of peoples. But reality since at least 1800 has found Muslims the poorest, least educated, and weakest of peoples. Islamism promises to repair that problem.

Do Western countries promote Islamism?
In general, no, with two important exceptions. (1) Internationally, Westerners at times have seen Islamists as a lesser enemy and have tactically supported them, for example, in Afghanistan against the Soviet Union or in Gaza against the PLO. (2) Domestically, non-violent Islamists are seen as a better alternative to jihadism.

How is Islamism in the Middle East best fought?
Negatively and positively. Negatively by battling it on every front, from the military to the ideological. Positively by offering an alternative, namely reform Islam, an Islam compatible with modern life, especially with regard to non-Muslims, women, and jihad.

How do you evaluate the argument that the Syrian civil war that began in March 2011 seems to be ending?
The Assad government controls about 60 percent of the country's territory, with Turkish- and American-allied forces controlling the rest. That suggests to me that Syria's civil wars are far from over.

The U.S. Government recently passed sanctions (the Caesar Act), against the Syrian regime. What effect will it have?
The goal is to pressure the Assad regime to stop making war on its own people. Even before coming into effect on June 17, the act already contributed to the collapse of the Syrian currency. Looking ahead, it appears the most direct impact will be on the oil and gas industry and on reconstruction efforts.

The Caesar Act, named after a pseudonymous military photographer who fled Syria in 2013 with 55,000 images from the country's jails, targets both Asma and Bashar al-Assad.

What is Zaytuna College trying to hide?

Zaytuna College is a Sunni Muslim institution in Berkeley, California. It is accredited for a degree program in Islamic Law and Theology, which appears to be the only major student can choose.

As an Islamic college, some of its rules seem strange to Western eyes. Horseback riding and archery are requirements. Students cannot date each other or anyone else on or off campus. Young men and women are not allowed to study together one on one, and anyone who witnesses that must report the violation. Drinking and gambling are prohibited. Baseball caps or clothing with corporate logos are forbidden. Students may not go to bears or casinos even off campus. Student’s mothers cannot visit the men’s dorms and their fathers cannot visit the women’s dorms. Teacher’s judgments may not be questioned.

I have no problem with their draconian rules for students – it is a private college and can make up whatever rules it wants.

But this policy rankles:

Media and Public Relations Policy

All Zaytuna College communications with representatives of the media should be coordinated and approved by the Director of Publications. With rare exceptions, the College prohibits media representatives from interviewing, photographing, or filming on campus.

If they are proud of their school, why don’t they allow the media to check out the campus?

Keep in mind that one of the co-founders of the school is Hatem Bazian, who has engaged in antisemitism for quite a while now, as Canary Mission and others document, including retweeting this:

He once led a protest at UC Berkeley and said, “Look at the Jewish names on the school buildings…Take a look at the type of names on the buildings around campus — Haas, Zellerbach — and decide who controls this university."

Perhaps reporters who visit the campus would find lots of examples of antisemitism that its cofounder pushes to students. Perhaps this is one reason why Zaytuna College wants to tightly control its public image.

(h/t Irene)

Will Lebanese aid be diverted to Hezbollah terror? Do Democratic members of Congress care?

Last week, three Democratic members of Congress who hope to replace Rep. Eliot Engel as chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee all said that they would condition aid to Israel to ensure that it doesn’t go towards “annexation.”

All three of the Democratic congressmen running to chair the powerful House Foreign Affairs Committee support either restricting or leveraging American aid to Israel as a form of opposing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to annex parts of the West Bank.

In separate statements to The Times of Israel this week, California Rep. Brad Sherman, Texas Rep. Joaquín Castro, and New York Rep. Gregory Meeks each indicated that US military aid should not be used on Israeli annexation moves.

This is all political posturing. As I have shown, all aid to Israel is audited and none of it is spent in the territories – it is all earmarked for specific projects.

To even imply that some of the US aid to Israel is being diverted for purposes other than what is intended is slanderous and anti-Israel, no matter how much these members of Congress or J-Street pretend that they support Israel.

But American political leaders are interested in sending lots of aid to Israel’s northern neighbor, Lebanon. That country is known to be thoroughly corrupt and it is known to be literally controlled by a terror group, Hezbollah.

The international aid conference held Sunday and chaired by France’s President Emmanuel Macron said that "Assistance should be timely, sufficient and consistent with the needs of the Lebanese people," adding that help must be "directly delivered to the Lebanese population, with utmost efficiency and transparency".

But not a word about Hezbollah.

We’ve seen how Hamas has stolen aid meant for Gazans. We know that Iran and Hezbollah are cash strapped and will want a piece of the billions that could flow into Lebanon to rebuild. the time to address these issues is now, not after an aid mechanism is already set up.

The Israeli think tank Alma has documented 28 Hezbollah weapons cache or launch sites in Beirut. These sites are powder kegs that exist, today, right next to schools and apartments. what good is rebuilding Beirut when it has more highly explosive materials right in the middle of the city?

(Also troubling was that the American Jewish Committee tweeted that aid to Lebanon should be conditioned on adherence to UN resolutions to disarm Hezbollah, but it took that tweet down without explanation.)

The world should send medical equipment, shelters, blankets, doctors and other aid to the people of Beirut. But when it comes to cash, strict controls must be put in place because the Lebanese people know better than anyone how corrupt their leaders are and how tempting it is for them to steal the funds meant to help. And they know how Hezbollah has hijacked their country.

Why wouldn’t every Western and Sunni Arab state insist on strict conditions for aid?

And why are we not hearing from these candidates for the House Foreign Affairs Committee on whether they insist that aid to Lebanon should have the oversight that aid to Israel already has?

University of Manchester tries to placate BDS–and will pay dearly

The University of Manchester has made the classic mistake of how to deal with BDS – and it will regret this.

Last year, students crashed a UM board meeting, demanding that they divest from Caterpillar. The board members tried to be polite during the invasion and the self-righteous speech where the activists threaten that they will continue to harass the board members, “year after year after year, and it will get more intense.”

Apparently, the university decided to accede to some of the BDS demands to make them go away. Electronic Intifada reports that they have sold nearly $5 million of shares in Caterpillar and Booking.com.

But when activists bragged about their victory, the university released a statement saying that “The decisions taken on our specific equity holdings are made by our investment managers with the aim of delivering our overall investment goals” and had nothing to do with BDS. They are naively hoping that by addressing some of BDS concerns, they will make them go away and stop harassing UM leaders, while at the same time pretending that they are not willing to be bullied.

It never works. The Israel haters now smell blood, and this makes them redouble their efforts against the institutions that show the tiniest bit of wavering in their position.

In a statement on Monday activists from Apartheid off Campus, a new student network, said that “The divestment victory at Manchester, the largest university in Europe, is expected to be a watershed moment for the BDS movement on campuses in the UK.”

But activists said they would continue to target Manchester university for BDS campaigns.

According to Apartheid off Campus the university “still has many ties with Israel’s apartheid regime, including its exchange program with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem which sends students to study on occupied and stolen Palestinian land.”

(Hebrew University is on Mount Scopus, which was considered part of Israel since 1948, showing that the BDS movement is not at all about “occupation” and all about destroying Israel. )

As Asher Fredman documents in his recently released book on BDS, this was predictable – BDS concentrates on institutions that waver and that take them seriously and it gives up on those that ignore it. Their demands are never ending on the unfortunate companies, universities and groups that try to accommodate them, and even the groups that capitulate completely to BDS demands are then told they must pay “reparations” for their “crimes.”

The University of Manchester thought they can make BDS go away. Instead, they have ensured that the harassment will increase “year after year after year.”

Emily Schrader on EoZTV

Emily Schrader is a social media expert and has been fighting online antisemitism for much of her adult life. We discuss online antisemitism, her questions to Twitter and Facebook at the Knesset (and Twitter’s shocking answer,) and more.

Check it out!