Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Saturday, August 22, 2020

08/22 Links: Surgical precision - The story behind Israel's targeted killings; Entire leadership of Britain's biggest Muslim charity QUITS in antisemitism row

From Ian:

Surgical precision - The story behind Israel's targeted killings

THE TARGETED killing of al-Ata was not that different from the many others the IDF has carried out over the past decade. It was characterized by meticulous planning meant to reduce collateral damage, precise intelligence and the utilization of advanced technology, aircraft and munitions.

But it also shows the results of an amazing journey the State of Israel has taken over the past 20 years, going from dropping one-ton bombs on apartment buildings in the Gaza Strip to take out a single terrorist, to firing a missile with amazing precision onto a bed, killing just the target and his wife and not injuring their five children sleeping in the next room.

Around the world, a story like this would not make headlines. Instead, the focus would be on the damage caused to Gaza and the death toll. People would ask why al-Ata’s wife had to die with him. They wouldn’t focus on the length of the mission, how much detail and effort went into its planning and how precise it was in execution.

This journey, though, is unique to Israel. Other Western countries fighting terrorists around the world rarely invest even a fraction of the effort Israel does to minimize collateral damage. Issachar recalled a large international air drill he had participated in a few years ago where he met pilots from Italy, Turkey and other countries. Almost all the pilots he met, he recalled, asked why Israel waits so long and invests so much.

“They are shooting at you,” the foreign pilots said. “You need to respond.”

The success Israel has met is the result of three key components – intelligence, technology and the values that make up the backbone of the IDF.“This is a Jewish value,” explained former IAF chief Eliezer Shkedi. “This is who we are.”

How did the IDF become one of the most lethal and precise militaries in the world? This article is the first in a series that will look at this evolution and try to piece together how it happened.

Pompeo, Kushner to visit Israel and Arab states as US pushes more peace deals

The Trump administration will send two top officials to the Middle East this week in a bid to capitalize on momentum from the historic agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates to establish diplomatic relations.

Three diplomats say US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and US President Donald Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner plan to make separate, multiple-nation visits to the region in the coming days to push Arab-Israeli rapprochement in the aftermath of the Israel-UAE deal.

Pompeo is expected to depart on Sunday for Israel, Bahrain, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Sudan, according to the diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the itinerary has not yet been finalized or publicly announced.

Kushner plans to leave later in the week for Israel, Bahrain, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Morocco, the diplomats said.

Kushner will be accompanied by Avi Berkowitz, Trump’s peace envoy, the Walla news site reported. National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien and Brian Hook, the US pointman on Iran, are also expected to join the trip.

The group will meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Benny Gantz in Jerusalem, and with the de-facto ruler of the UAE, Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, in Abu Dhabi, the report said.

Pompeo is expected to meet with the three leaders during his trip, as well as with Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi.

Israeli officials said Pompeo’s visit will focus on Israel’s agreement with the UAE, and the White House’s push to reimpose UN sanctions on Iran, according to Axios.

Israel-UAE Normalization Deal Said to Be ‘Judo-Inspired’

The International Judo Federation (IJF) and three Israeli judokas agree that the sport played a role in the historic normalization agreement announced by the Jewish state and the UAE last week.

IJF published a story on its website that celebrated the accord, saying, “What if we also told you that it is a judo-inspired agreement? Many would not believe us, although they should.”

“When we address the topic of the pioneers, those who encouraged this rapprochement, those who inspired and promoted an agreement that, at that time, seemed if not impossible, at least extremely complicated, it is necessary to talk about judo,” the IJF added.

In 2015 and 2017, Israeli judokas competed in the Abu Dhabi Grand Slam but were not permitted to showcase any national identification on their uniforms, and they were told that Israel’s anthem and flag would not be presented.

Twelve Israeli judokas brought home five medals from the Abu Dhabi Grand Slam in 2017 and they were all forced to compete under the banner of the IJF. When Israeli judoka Tal Flicker was awarded a gold medal, the IJF flag was raised, and he quietly sang “Hatikvah” to himself as the IJF’s anthem played in the background.

The IJF subsequently suspended the Abu Dhabi Grand Slam tournament in an effort to take a “firm and constructive stance in the fight against discrimination in sport.”

Tournament organizers then agreed to abide by the IJF rules and the tournament was reinstated.

In its story last week, the IJF recalled the sporting breakthrough between Israel and the UAE in October 2018 at the Abu Dhabi Glam Slam when Israeli judokas Sagi Muki and Peter Paltchik individually won gold medals, which led to the raising of the Israeli flag and the playing of “Hatikvah” for the first time in the history of the competition.

08/21 Links Pt2: Melanie Phillips: Support for Black Lives Matter repeats a lethal error of history; EU spent €5m. promoting east Jerusalem as Palestine's capital in 2019

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: Support for Black Lives Matter repeats a lethal error of history

In the 20th century, thousands of progressively minded people supported Soviet communism. Believing this ideology was the key to a better world, they refused to acknowledge the horrific abuses under Stalin when millions were brainwashed, murdered or starved to death.

Today’s progressives are behaving in similar fashion in response to another onslaught on civilized values, perpetrated in the name of an ideology with the same roots as Soviet communism. And just as in the last century, a dismaying number of its cheerleaders are Jews.

In both America and Britain, Jewish leaders and community groups overwhelmingly back Black Lives Matter. Since Jews have suffered from bigotry, discrimination and social alienation, they feel a duty to express solidarity with black people who they believe are experiencing similar difficulties.

But BLM, which took off after last May’s death of George Floyd under the knee of a police officer, is not about promoting fairness and tolerance.

It is instead a nihilistic, violent, revolutionary movement committed to defunding the police as an incorrigibly racist institution, closing the prisons, destroying the family and overthrowing white capitalist society. What’s more, many of its leaders are white.

There’s no doubt that black people experience bigotry, and that there are racist police officers.

But a significant number of police officers are themselves black; most people who are killed in police custody are white; and most black people who are murdered are killed by other black people.

Moreover, BLM’s denunciation of white society as racist is itself a racist act since it categorizes an entire ethnic group as bad. Yet progressive people have bought into this malign agenda.

Europe’s failed (and forgotten) Gaza monitors – opinion

The 15-year anniversary of Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza has been accompanied by a wave of painful personal and political memoirs, amid a difficult debate on the wisdom of Ariel Sharon’s sudden policy shift.

The latest round of “balloon terrorism” from Gaza that is torching the fields and trees of southern Israel, and the periodic rocket attacks, sending thousands of Israelis into shelters in the middle of the night, are reminders that the hoped-for quiet was an illusion.

Instead of using the withdrawal as an opportunity for economic development to lift the people of Gaza out of poverty, the Palestinian leaders have diverted international aid into cross-border attack tunnels and rocket brigades.

Largely forgotten in this historical reckoning is the European Union’s role in this process, and the failure of the EU to provide the guarantees they had pledged to fulfill in 2005.

After Israel’s withdrawal, the EUBAM (European Union Border Assistance Mission) was deployed at the Rafah crossing point between Gaza and Egypt. The mission consisted of some 60 police and customs officials “to help bring peace to the area,” ostensibly by monitoring traffic in order to deter smuggling of weapons into Gaza.

According to the agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, EUBAM would monitor the performance of the PA in operating the crossing and had the authority to order the re-examination of persons and goods that passed through the crossing if PA examinations proved unsatisfactory.

EU spent €5m. promoting east Jerusalem as Palestine's capital in 2019

The European Union spent close to €5.5million in 2019 on grants to NGOs dedicated to promoting Palestinian culture and preserving Palestinian identity in Jerusalem's Old City and surrounding areas, a report into EU spending in the region has revealed.

In late June, the Commission updated its financial transparency system, filing details of the grants handed to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in 2019. Analysis of that data by NGO-Monitor has revealed that out of 42 grants issued for projects in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, totaling €37.15 million in grant funds, seven of those, at a total value of €11.8 million were for projects focused on Jerusalem.

Among them was a grant of €1,184,538 handed jointly to PalVision, the Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs (PASSIA) and ACT For Alternative Dispute Resolution And Studies "To contribute to preserving the Palestinian character and cultural heritage of east Jerusalem (EJ) by strengthening the Palestinian identity and enhancing the sense of belonging among Palestinians."

The objectives listed under the project are: "To protect Islamic and Christian Waqf religious and cultural heritage properties against Israeli violations and threats" and "To enhance Palestinians ability to identify and value their cultural heritage and have a good understanding of what can be done to protect their cultural heritage.”

Similarly, €2,086,757 was handed jointly to the Society of St. Yves; Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center (JLAC); Land Research Center (LRC); Women's Centre for Legal Aid and Counseling (WCLAC); and Civic Coalition for Palestinian Rights in Jerusalem (CCPRJ) with the overall objective of supporting "the marginalized Palestinian communities of east Jerusalem, increase their resilience, prevent forcible transfer and reinforce the Palestinian identity of east Jerusalem."

60 years ago: Democratic candidate John F. Kennedy on Israel and Arab refugees

From the Bnai Brith Messenger, August 19, 1960:

Clear and straightforward.

LabourList reports:

Preston Tabois, a Haringey Labour councillor and Momentum-backed candidate for the London Assembly, has been suspended by the party over a complaint relating to alleged antisemitism.

Tabois was selected by party members in February this year, ahead of the London Assembly elections that will now take place in May 2021. He placed fourth on the London-wide list.

But it is understood that Labour has suspended him after Guido Fawkes alerted the party to social media posts, which appear to show the councillor sharing an article about antisemitism.

The news piece apparently posted by Tabois six years ago reports on a UKIP candidate claiming that “Jews murdered each other in the Holocaust in masterplan to create State of Israel”.

Underneath the shared article, Tabois appears to have commented on Facebook: “You’re not wrong brother P!”, according to the Guido screengrab.

The other post sent by Guido to Labour seems to show Tabois saying Zionist “conspiracy theories can be used as an educational tool to understand and relate to how governments are run [and] financed”.

Asked for comment, a Labour spokesperson said: “The Labour Party takes all complaints of antisemitism extremely seriously and they are fully investigated in line with our rules and procedures, and any appropriate disciplinary action is taken.”

It is nice to see UK Labour taking antisemitism seriously. But this shows that the problem has been around for a long time.

08/21 Links Pt1: Trump and Netanyahu Debunk the Failed Consensus; Caroline Glick: Is the Palestinian veto alive or dead?; IDF carries out three waves of airstrikes as 12 rockets launched from Gaza

From Ian:

Josh Hammer: Trump and Netanyahu Debunk the Failed Consensus

Nonetheless, this failed consensus persisted in the minds of Washington and Brussels simpletons. It reached an apex during the famously anti-Israel Obama administration, a coterie of quixotic liberal internationalists who preferred the hubris of trying to craft a Middle East anew — best embodied by 2015's harrowing nuclear accord with the Islamic Republic of Iran — over the prudence of addressing the Middle East as it actually is.

At long last, the U.S. has a president grounded in reality — who sees the world as it is, and not as academes and theorists would rather it be. The U.S. has a president who advances a hardened and realist foreign policy, grounded in a properly narrow conception of American nationalist interests, which properly rewards our allies as allies and punishes our enemies as enemies.

In the Middle East, this has translated into a famously pro-Israel, anti-Iran set of foreign policy initiatives. Trump has moved the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, defended Israel to the hilt at the United Nations, unveiled the most pro-Israel U.S. peace plan initiative ever, withdrew the U.S. from Obama's terrible nuclear deal and punished the Islamic Republic with crippling sanctions as part of a broader "maximum pressure" campaign. As Israel's relations, following the nuclear deal with Shiite Iran, began to clandestinely thaw with the region's Sunni Gulf states, those Sunni Arab countries saw a strong, militarily emboldened Israel that had unambiguous American support. They saw a nation unequivocally committed to opposing a nuclear Iran, which the Sunni Arab states also fear, by any means necessary. They saw an Israel, with the imprimatur of Trump's peace plan, confident that it would not be browbeaten by supercilious Western elites into yielding yet more land concessions for an illusory peace with an implacable Palestinian foe.

The Israel-UAE peace agreement is Israel's first with an Arab country since the 1994 accord with the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. But it is the single most transformative peace agreement of them all. Israel has not given up any land. Nor, for that matter, has Israel been weakened in any way whatsoever.

The race is now on to see who will next follow the UAE and make peace with Israel: Bahrain, Oman and Morocco appear to be the leading contenders. This is the legacy of the Trump-Netanyahu doctrine: the latest proof of the age-old truth that peace comes when a historical foe is not weak but strong, and the evisceration of the elites' consensus that claimed the contrary.

Caroline Glick: Is the Palestinian veto alive or dead?

Since Israel was established the Palestinian veto doomed all efforts to forge peace between the Arab world and the Jewish state.

The Palestinian veto rests on a toxic proposition that Israel's right to exist is contingent on its satisfaction of Palestinian claims against it. So long as the Palestinians say they are unappeased, Israel cannot expect the Arab world to either recognize or live in peace with it.

The very existence of the veto has ensured that the Palestinians will never be satisfied with any Israeli concession and will never agree to peaceful coexistence with the Jewish state. After all, their global and regional importance is a product of the veto. The Arabs and much of the rest of the world support the Palestinians because they wield the veto. As holders of the veto, the Palestinians are viewed as the key – or the key obstacle – to Middle East peace. If they give up or lose the veto, they will lose their position and power to enable or block peace and foment war and instability.

As for the Arab leaders, for generations, the Palestinian veto was the key to their own power and stability. It enabled them to deflect the attention of their peoples and of the governments of the world away from their corruption, extremism, and failure at home and abroad. It enabled them to scapegoat Israel and blame the Jewish state for the suffering and stagnation of their people.

Given its toxic power, abrogating the Palestinian veto has always been Israel's highest goal. And given its centrality for both the Palestinians and the wider Arab world, for most Israelis, it seemed like a dream so impossible that it wasn't even worth dreaming.

The peace treaties Israel signed with Egypt and Jordan were concluded while genuflecting to the Palestinian veto. Egyptian president Anwar Sadat signed Egypt's peace deal with Israel in 1979 only after he concluded a framework deal for Palestinian autonomy with then-Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin.

King Hussein of Jordan only agreed to sign a peace deal with the Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1994 after Rabin signed the Oslo peace deal with PLO chief Yasser Arafat on the White House lawn.

Since signing their peace treaties with Israel, Egypt and Jordan have continuously breached them by refusing to implement the clauses of their deals that require them to normalize their relations with Israel. Both use the Palestinian veto to justify their material breaches, which have reduced both "historic" treaties into little more than long-term ceasefires.

Arsen Ostrovsky: From Israel: Celebrating Peace With the UAE and Looking to the Future

Though there are many differences between us, I believe there is far more that unites us.

We are both a proud people, with rich history and traditions. The fact that this agreement is called the "Abraham Accord" is a testament to this, because it also underscores our inextricable bond to the Prophet Abraham.

We are both forward-looking, understanding that the future belongs to those who innovate and look ahead—not those held back by past dogmas. Indeed, the UAE recently launched the Arab world's first mission to Mars, while Israel is universally acknowledged as the "start-up nation" for our technological prowess.

We are also both committed to advancing the cause of peace, both with our Palestinian neighbors and with the region more broadly. I believe the UAE and broader Gulf community can play a leading role in fostering this.

We both also have a shared strategic interest in the global fight against terror and extremism—most notably against the dark forces of Iran, Hezbollah and ISIS.

And finally, in a COVID-19-infused world, we have already started working together to find a cure.

Unlike Israel's peace agreements with Egypt and Jordan, I believe what singles out the proposal with the UAE is that it is all-encompassing and, crucially, builds on a bottom-up, people-to-people framework—not a "cold" approach imposed by political leadership.

This agreement is already paving the path for an endless array of new opportunities, ready to be seized, from direct travel and phone calls to trade in tech and collaboration in research and culture.

Peace is not made overnight. It requires effort, courage and mutual commitment.

It is my sincere hope that other countries in the Arab and Gulf world will follow the brave and principled leadership of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed to embrace relations with the Jewish state and build the foundation for a better future for all the people of the Middle East.

In the Jewish tradition, it is common to end our High Holiday prayers with the saying, "next year in Jerusalem." May indeed it be "next year in Jerusalem" for the people of the UAE and the Gulf, as we look forward to welcoming them as cherished friends and welcome guests in our country!

Arabs keep accusing the people they hate of being Jews

This is the 51st anniversary of Denis Michael Rohan burning the Al Aqsa mosque, and as usual, most Arabs and specifically Palestinians are falsely saying that Rohan was Jewish.

Why? Because as surveys show, most Arabs hate Jews. Not Zionists, Jews.

It is something that many, especially progressives, want to ignore or deny. But it remains there despite peace agreements with Israel and despite Arab insistence that they have no problem with Jews.

They do.

Today there is a story in an Egyptian site saying that a newspaper editor has accused Al Jazeera of being run by Jews, and implying that the entire nation of Qatar is also run by Jewish puppetmasters, although he doesn’t say that the rulers themselves are Jews.

We often see accusations that the Muslim Brotherhood is a Jewish front.

It cannot be denied – the worst insult an Arab can give another is that they are secretly Jewish, and that is all the proof you need of Arab antisemitism.

As with everything else in the Arab world, in order to understand the events of the past week one needs to view them through the prism of the Arab honor/shame mindset.

Since at least the 1940s, there has been a strong myth of Arab unity. It is nonsense but its falsehood has had no impact on its importance, with virtually every Arab constitution emphasizing how each country is part of the greater Arab nation. While there have been no shortage of intra-Arab disagreements and even wars, only rarely has the Arab world publicly split.

It has become a point of honor to present to the non-Arab world the myth of Arab unity.

No one has benefitted more from this myth that the Palestinian leadership, because the only issue that the entire Arab world could agree on was its hate for Israel. The zenith of the success of the myth was during the 1970s, when Palestinian airplane hijackings combined with the Arab oil embargo prompted Europe and much of the world to give in to terror and to elevate the Palestinian cause, especially at the UN.

The Egyptian peace treaty with Israel was a major blow to this unity, but eventually the Arab world learned to live with it, knowing that Egypt – a hugely antisemitic country – was not going to normalize relations, and it will keep a cold peace for its own reasons. After some turmoil the Egyptians were welcomed back as full members of a seemingly unified Arab collective.

The cracks in Arab unity about Israel began with the Oslo process and the PLO refusal to accept a state. It accelerated during the Arab Spring. Individual Arab nations had major internal issues to deal with, and the Gulf nations became upset at Palestinian demands for more and more money. The PLO was refusing to even speak to Israel, the Arab leaders had to guard against revolutions and all the while oil prices were plummeting.

Then the Obama administration decision to get closer to Iran and throw the Gulf states under the bus made them realize not only that Palestinians were a liability, but that Israel could be a friend.

Honor is important, but it is not more important than self-preservation.

The Palestinian leadership didn’t get the memo. They were the poster children of Arab unity and they believed that this will never change. Their media even today emphasizes the tiniest pro-Palestinian demonstrations or statements from mediocre columnists, and reacts angrily at any criticism, always emphasizing the Arab world’s unity in support for their cause and how shameful it is for anyone to disagree.

In fact, Palestinians are referring to the UAE/Israel deal as the “shame deal” in a naked attempt to appeal to the Arab sense of shame – mainly to discourage other Arab nations to follow the UAE.

Notably, the Palestinians cut off coordination with Israel in order to pressure Israel to stop the “annexation” plan. That plan is off the table for the foreseeable future – but the Palestinians are making no move to resume coordination with Israel, even at the expense of the well being of their own people. The only reason is because it would be shameful to even appear to do something that would benefit Israel, even though it hurts them much more.

Shame works two ways, though. It is perhaps not a coincidence that the UAE timed this announcement only a month after the Palestinians very publicly rejected planeloads of COVID-19 aid from the Emirates, ostensibly because the plane landed in Tel Aviv. This was a huge insult to the UAE.

The flip side to Arab shame is evident in other ways. Now that the UAE has publicly come out in favor of normalizing relations with Israel, other Arab nations are reluctant to criticize the Emiratis – because of the same interest in maintaining the illusion of unity! And given a choice of publicly supporting a non-state entity of “Palestine” and a very real United Arab Emirates, nearly all of them would rather stay on the UAE’s good side.

This is why the Arab League is not meeting to denounce the UAE, as the Palestinian leadership has been demanding. In the past, they could get the League to hold “emergency sessions” at the drop of a hat, but that organization also needs the myth of Arab unity and it will not embrace the division that the PLO is now insisting on.

That would be a source of shame.

Israel and the US need to always keep the honor/shame mentality in mind when dealing with the Arab world. Israel in particular needs to remain strong both militarily and economically, because just like the Arab world has long ago realized the benefits of aligning with the powerful Christian world, they can swallow their antisemitism to ally with the Jewish state when it is in their own interests.

Saudi intellectual Dr. Turki Al-Hamad is a prominent American educated writer and former university professor. He is an unapologetic liberal in the very conservative kingdom.

His tweet about the idea of Saudi Arabia normalizing relations with Israel has been ruffling some feathers:

If I was in Saudi Arabia's place, I would normalize (relations with Israel) today. (Saudia would be) censured either way, "like barley, eaten, yet denigrated" (Arabic proverb about something or someone good and useful, that is denigrated despite being good and useful).

Your Highness, Crown Prince Muhammad (Bin Salman), normalize (relations with Israel), since all the Arab anger is just a storm in a teacup. Jerusalem was Judaized, and what did they [the Arabs] do? Nothing. They don't want to solve the (Palestinian) issue. They want to let the injustice go on (this might be sarcastic) and weep about the (supposed plot to rebuild the Jewish) Temple. Believe me, they and the Shiite Hizbullah do not deserve respect.

Simply put, Palestine is not my cause/issue.

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

08/20 Links Pt2: Jews Without Israel; The End of Jewish Yemen is Imminent; The Palestinian People Cannot Expect Their Arab Allies to Suspend Their Needs Forever

From Ian:

Einat Wilf and Oren Gross: Jews Without Israel

America is a country where anyone arriving on its shores could become fully and completely American. This idea of the universal America is as inspiring as it is exceptional. The U.S. is the only country that was purposefully built on universal ideals.

The rest of the world's countries are not universal nations, and almost none of them aspire or even pretend to be so. Ever since the 20th-century collapse of empires, the Earth is divided between nation-states - almost all based on a single dominant national, ethnic, linguistic, or religious group, often with some other national, ethnic, linguistic, or religious minorities.

Israel, as the nation-state of the Jewish people, with an Arab national, ethnic, linguistic minority, is well within the global norm.
When Israel is measured by the EU guidelines on how nation-states should treat their national, ethnic, and linguistic minorities - for example, in providing schooling, government services, and road signs in the minority's language and providing the ability to celebrate holidays - Israel emerges with strong marks.

This achievement is especially impressive since Israel operates in the rare situation that its minority belongs to the dominant national, ethnic, linguistic majority in the region - most of which is still officially at war with it, and continues to deny the right of the Jewish people to self-determination in any borders. In fact, the status of the Arab minority in Israel during wartime is better than that of minorities in many countries which are at peace.

Most Jews in America still believe that Zionism is deeply entwined both with their Jewish and American identities, and that Zionism incorporates both the particular and the universal. Jews in Israel will continue to celebrate the fact that they finally live in the sovereign nation-state of the Jewish people and can therefore walk this Earth knowing that someone has their back.

The End of Jewish Yemen is Imminent

A precarious existence for country’s last 100 Jews

Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels have ordered at least some of the country’s remaining Jews to leave, according to sources in the Amran Governorate, north of the capital Sanaa, who spoke recently with The Media Line.

According to Ali Qudair, a tribal chief in the governorate, soldiers surrounded a village in mid-July to question members of at least one Jewish family living there about its contacts with people abroad.

“A group of military vehicles arrived in the area, taking up positions at the entrances to the village and establishing checkpoints,” Qudair told The Media Line.

“The soldiers entered the house of a Jewish family in the village and questioned members about their correspondence with the State of Israel, their property in the village and other areas, and whether or not they were in contact with relatives residing in other countries.

Qudair added that some of those questioned were taken to an unknown location and held for 48 hours.

“During the past few years,” he said, “the Jews have been denied many of their rights. They no longer can travel except with prior permission from the Houthi-appointed area supervisor.”

Qudair’s version of events was corroborated by Saeed Ahmad (not his real name), a resident of the nearby town of Kharef who says he enjoys strong friendships with many Jews in the area.

“On July 12, the Houthis arrested seven individuals from the Jewish community after questioning them and searching some of their homes,” he told The Media Line.

Ahmad adds that the Shi’ite Houthis, who have taken over most of Yemen’s main population centers, ordered these Jews to leave the country, imposing certain conditions on them regarding their property, most notably that they could sell it only to residents of the area or to the state – meaning to the Houthis themselves.

Ahmad said Houthi authorities were now arranging for their exit from Yemen, giving them a specific mechanism for traveling, communicating and conducting business.

Yemen’s Jewish community is estimated to have reached about 200,000 before members began leaving early in the last century, the exodus reaching a pinnacle in 1949 and 1950 with Operation Magic Carpet, a mission of the Israeli government, which brought some 50,000 people from Yemen to the Jewish state. Scores more were flown to Israel, reportedly in 2013 and 2016, in two flights that were kept secret for fear of disrupting sensitive channels of movement. (h/t Zvi)

The mystery of the persecuted Yemenite Jews unravelled

Saeed al-Nati, his disabled mother and three daughters lived in Amram in northern Yemen. The Houthis, who had invaded the area in 2004, began to harass Saaed in order to make him leave.

He was jailed in May for one month, but was released after committing to sell his home. He and his family left for the capital Sana'a, where 33 Jews live in a compound, and then on to Aden, where he hoped to catch a flight out of the country.

Saaed was told that there were no flights out of the country because of the coronavirus crisis. In any case, he was told that the only country that would take him would be Israel, as Yemeni passport holders could not obtain a visa for any other Arab country.

Enter Abu Dhabi to the rescue. Photos clearly show the disabled mother in a wheelchair and Saeed's sons, wives and grandchildren from London embracing their sisters. Mindful of the impending announcing of the UAE peace deal with Israel, Abu Dhabi must have seen a golden photo-op to advertise the emirate's tolerance and pluralism.

According to the Sparabia report, the departure of the al-Nati family leaves just five Jews - aold woman, her crazed brother and three others - in Amram province, where the market was once dominated by Jews. Together with the 33 Jews still in San'a that makes a total of 38 Jews in Yemen altogether.

Violence in Amran made the remaining Jews leave in waves. In 2016, 17 members of one family arrived in Israel in a blaze of publicity carrying a Torah scroll which they claimed was a family heirloom.

The Houthis arrested two Jews and two Muslims for facilitating the smuggling of a 'national' treasure. One Jew was released after three months, but they kept the other, Levi Salem Musa Marhabi, in jail.

A court of first instance acquitted Levi Marhabi and the Muslims, but eighteen months later, Levi Marhabi is still in jail.

Marbahi suffered a stroke that caused paralysis in half his body. His deteriorating health prompted Elan Carr, US antisemitism tsar, to appeal for his release.

Nevertheless, the Houthi-run prosecution has refused to accept all the guarantees provided to them for his release until such time as the case is heard by the Court of Appeal.

Excusing antisemitism (poster)

I made this poster after seeing yet another socialist Jew on Twitter recommend the website “HowToFightAntisemitism.com” – a website that only talks about right-wing antisemitism, both real and alleged.

To them, five out of these six examples are not antisemitism, or they must be swept under the rug. They want to use antisemitism as a political tool – and have zero interest in actually fighting it. (Some people on the Right do the same.)

We Will Recognize Israel In Exchange For Destroying Israel by Javad Zarif (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Check out their Facebook page.

We Will Recognize Israel In Exchange For Destroying Israel

by Javad Zarif, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Islamic Republic of Iran

Javad Zarif Tehran, August 21 - Diplomacy and politics are all about compromise. Both arts require flexibility, creative thinking, and efforts to craft win-win situations in which all parties to the issue can walk away with a compelling argument that they gain from the outcome. Iran therefore proposes the following: the Islamic Republic will depart from its long-held position that Israel has no right to exist, and will grant full recognition of the Jewish State, and in return, that Jewish State will concede to our eliminating it by violent means.

The Zionist entity has persisted despite the best efforts of the Arab and Islamic worlds over the last century to thwart such imperialist ambitions, often dealing us setbacks once thought impossible for dhimmi people to achieve. They had help, of course, in the form of the Great Satan, as well as a knack for exploiting divisions among the Muslim states and parties, each of whom sometimes saw the conflict not as a jihad to liberate Dar al-Islam from infidel colonist usurpers, but as yet another arena in which to jockey for regional influence. Regardless of the mechanics of the phenomenon, the fait accompli of a Zionist state has worn down even some of its staunchest opponents, several of whom now maintain diplomatic and commercial ties with the entity. Iran recognizes certain historical inevitabilities.

At the same time, the Islamic Republic cannot abide the continued and deepening occupation of Islamic Waqf lands, an affront to the Islamic Umma and to Allah. Since the Umma - and of course Iran has always played a decisive leadership role in Islam; take that, House of Saud - will not countenance the ongoing violation of Palestine, but that Occupation stubbornly refuses to disappear, and in fact entrenches itself further as the years pass, even conducting successful pursuit of recognition from its erstwhile existential foes, only one way forward can break the dynamic of mutual exclusivity: Iran will grant the legitimacy and recognition that the Zionist entity craves, and we, in exchange, will eliminate that entity. Win-win.

Lest cynics argue that if Iran had the capacity to destroy the Zionist entity it would have done so already, it must be noted that the Islamic Republic has already demonstrated its ability to destroy other countries: Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, and to some extent, Iraq, which will never function independently from Tehran if we have anything to say about it.

The ball is now in the Zionists' court, but they will refuse, as they have always opposed resolution of the conflict.

08/20 Links Pt1: Ben Shapiro: The Remaking of the Middle East; Douglas Murray: The Foreign Office has lost the plot in the Middle East

From Ian:

Ben Shapiro: The Remaking of the Middle East

All are angry for the same reason: The central myth of American Middle Eastern policy, formulated over the course of decades, has been thoroughly exposed. That myth suggested that in order for any peace to bloom in the Middle East, the West would have to apply pressure on the Israeli government to make concessions to the Palestinians -- that Israel would have to abandon claims to East Jerusalem, to the Golan Heights, to areas of Judea and Samaria.

That myth had been repeatedly tarnished by events of the last several years. When America moved her embassy to Jerusalem, foreign policy "experts" assured the public that the so-called Arab street would be set aflame. Instead, nothing happened. When America recognized Israel's formal annexation of the Golan Heights, foreign policy "experts" said that the Middle East would become a tinderbox. Nothing happened.

Now Arab nations are openly forming alliances with the Jewish state, fully acknowledging that Israeli-Palestinian issues remain bilateral in nature. Relations between Jordan and Israel, between the UAE and Israel, between Sudan and Israel, between Egypt and Israel -- none now hide behind the fig leaf of Palestinian demands to avoid peace. They have realized that other interests, both economic and security-related, are a top priority. And they have tacitly recognized that Palestinian intransigence is not worthy of their support.

Hilariously, former Vice President Joe Biden tried to take credit for the Israel-UAE deal, suggesting that his own communications with the UAE had paved the way for the agreement. That's laughable on its face: In 2014, Biden had to issue a formal apology to the UAE government after suggesting that the UAE supported militants in Syria. Biden's chief contribution to the diplomatic breakthrough was actually the Obama administration's sycophantic embrace of the Iranian regime: By making clear that the United States could not be relied upon to protect Sunni nations from Iranian predations, the Obama administration convinced Arab nations that their interests lie in security alliance with Israel.

And so, the region has changed for the better. In more honest times, Trump administration officials who brokered this breakthrough would be up for the Nobel Peace Prize; instead, the news has been largely downplayed in favor of the scandal du jour from Trump's Twitter account. But we should be clear: The first important breakthrough in the Middle East in three decades just took place. And it took place because reality finally set in for Israel's heretofore enemies: Israel isn't going anywhere. Perhaps Palestinians will eventually learn the same lesson and peace will truly be possible.

Douglas Murray: The Foreign Office has lost the plot in the Middle East

Last Friday the UN Security Council rejected any extension of the arms embargo on Iran. That embargo — imposed in 2007 — began to get phased out after the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. But a ‘snapback’ provision was put in place intended to allow the return of åall such sanctions should Iran violate the terms of the deal. Iran has been violating those terms for some time, but on Friday, when the United States hoped that its allies would join it in deploring this fact, only the Dominican Republic voted with it. The UK, like France and Germany, chose to abstain. On the question of whether Russia and China should once again start selling arms to Iran, this country apparently takes no view.

It would be nice to be able to say that this was peculiar. But it isn’t. In the same week that Britain abstained at the Security Council the US brokered an historic deal elsewhere in the Middle East. Under its supervision, the United Arab Emirates and Israel signed an agreement to normalise relations. The Israeli President, Reuven Rivlin, has now invited Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed to visit Jerusalem. As the economic and diplomatic benefits of normalisation become clear, other countries in the Middle East are expected to follow suit. Deals like the UAE-Israel agreement are part of a larger attempt to find unity among states wishing to avoid Iranian dominance. Hence President Rouhani’s threatening condemnation of the UAE for its ‘treacherous’ actions. There are rumours of Bahrain and even Saudi Arabia at some point joining the UAE’s acceptance of reality.

In the British Foreign Office, meanwhile, such reality appears to be a world away. Responding to the US-led initiative the Foreign Office (FCO) released a statement which made precisely two curt points. The first welcomed the normalisation. The second consisted of the FCO’s perennial claim: ‘Ultimately, there is no substitute for direct talks between the Palestinians and Israel, which is the only way to a [sic] reach a two-state solution and a lasting peace.’

Defenders of the FCO like to present it as a first-class vessel, cruising along on the deep wisdom accrued from decades of masterly global circumnavigation. Recent events suggest otherwise. Just take last week’s statement. The Foreign Office was insisting that the only way to peace in the Middle East is for ‘direct talks between the Palestinians and Israel’. Yet it was doing so in response to an agreement that demonstrated precisely how unnecessary any such ‘direct talks’ actually are.

The historic nature of the UAE--Israel deal is not just the normalisation itself, but that it demonstrates how states in the region can make peace with Israel without needing to go through the corrupt and rejectionist Palestinian Authority. For decades the wisdom of the FCO (trotted out whichever party is in government) has been that an Israeli-Palestinian ‘two-state solution’ will ‘unlock’ and otherwise solve all the wider problems of the Middle East. It is to this failed venture that British diplomacy remains principally wedded. But if the UAE can reconcile itself to making peace without needing to go through the Palestinian cartel, then why can’t the British Foreign Office?

Amb. Dore Gold: Israel Has Been Making Common Cause with the Victims of Regional Aggression for Decades

Israel has been making common cause with the victims of regional aggression since the early 1960s, when it found itself in a coalition of states, including Saudi Arabia and Jordan, opposed to Egypt's military intervention in Yemen's civil war. When Jordan faced an armed invasion from Syrian tanks in 1970, Israel understood that it was in its interest to safeguard its neighbor's territorial integrity.

Until 1971, the UAE was still a British protectorate. The UK announced it would withdraw from all of its positions "east of Suez" by 1972. The UAE thus gained independence at a time when it was clear that Britain would no longer provide security; the new state had to protect itself. After the rise of revolutionary Iran in 1979, the Iranian regime aspired to recover the lands its predecessors once controlled during the era of the Safavid empire.

Israel is not the regional policeman, nor should it attempt to take on such a role. But it must make its contribution to upholding the regional order along with its Arab allies.

From The People's Advocate and New South Wales Vindicator (Sydney), 23 September 1854, a description of a speech given by Sir Charles Nicholson at a meeting to raise funds for impoverished Jews in the Holy Land.

[The Jews of Palestine’s] position was one which must excite the strongest interest in all civilized countries. For the last 2000 years it had been the constant and almost sole object of these people to revisit Palestine, and re-establish their nationality. It was the land of their fathers, the land of promise consecrated by so many historical reminiscences of a character to impress us with the purest and holiest sentiments, the land of many heroic achievements, the land oi science and of art.

To this land the Jews in all ages and under all circumstances have manifested a strong disposition to return.

Whether trampled down by the Roman, the Syrian, the Greek, or the Mahomedan, the same desire, the same firm resolution, to visit the land of their fathers, had always actuated this peculiar and interesting people. Although subjected to the greatest contumely, and the most intense afflictions and sufferings in all ages and countries, they had never lost sight of the grand object of their existence.

He is describing Jews. He is describing Zionism. Throughout history, they were one and the same.

This video, in Hebrew, was published today by the Al Etihad newspaper in the UAE, describing how excited they are for peace with Israel and how tolerant the UAE is.

The Palestinian leaders are trying to embarrass the UAE by calling the agreement “the shame deal.” This video indicates that if anything the UAE is proud of it.

It is crazy enough to see Arabs speaking Hebrew to give a message of peace to Israel. But the Hava Nagila background music really drives home how much things have changed in such a short time.

The FBI’s “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” file

Yesterday, the FBI tweeted – without context –a link to their file on the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

Protocols of Learned Elders of Zion: https://t.co/BpI5Tc8oKc
— FBI Records Vault (@FBIRecordsVault) August 19, 2020

There is no problem, of course, with the FBI having a file on the famous antisemitic Russian forgery, nor in their making those files public.

There is a serious problem with them tweeting out these copies without any context.

It included a number of different copies of the book, all of which had been sent to the FBI by either informants or US citizens who either wanted the FBI to know about the secret plot of Jews to control the world, or who were asking whether the book was true.

Here is part of a 1949 letter by a Clarence Fausett, typed up for the FBI from a handwritten original, where he wanted to make sure that FBI director J. Edgar Hoover was aware of this Jewish/Communist conspiracy.

The FBI replied in Hoover’s name:

As with all of the copies of the letters that the FBI sent, at the bottom are notes about whether the FBI has any information on the correspondent.

The FBI continued to receive similar letters from the 1940s through the 1970s, not only about the Protocols only but also with copies of other antisemitic tracts, covered in this file.

The responses, by not mentioning that the book was a lie, can be construed as a tacit support for their contents.

Here’s a 1968 letter where the correspondent is pretty convinced that Jews are controlling the government already, and he hopes that J. Edgar Hoover can clean things up.

This portion of a 1964 letter to the head of the Senate Judiciary Committee was copied to the FBI. It was written by a woman who wanted to know if the Talmud says the horrible things that the antisemites claim it says.

On one occasion, a special agent sent a copy of the Protocols to FBI headquarters asking about it, and they responded with a reference to a book that discredits the work.

The file is an interesting slice of history of American antisemitism as seen through the letters of concerned, often anti-communist citizens. It is reasonable to ask whether the FBI should have answered the letters of those who honestly wanted to know whether the antisemitic works were legitimate – it would require the FBI to become a fact-checking organization for the entire country which is not its purpose, but its refusal to answer the questions may have contributed to antisemitism itself.