Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, August 27, 2020

When did synagogues start placing the Israeli and American flags in front?

On Twitter, Ben Kurt asked me, “Why do American synagogues often have the Israeli flag next to the ark or on a pole? I've never seen it one single time in a European synagogue.”

It appears that the custom of (usually non-Orthodox) synagogues, as well as churches, to display any flag at the front of the sanctuary happened during World War I as they displayed American flags as a show of patriotism for the US war effort. Some synagogues decided to also add the Zionist flag on the other side of the ark, perhaps out of a sense of aesthetics as much as a declaration of support for Zionism.

On May 9, 1931, a writer at the Reform Advocate expressed unease at the idea of either flag in synagogue, especially the Zionist flag, worried that it would make it appear that Jews had dual loyalties – even before Israel was reborn!

Despite these misgivings by some Reform Jews, the Zionist flag became more and more popular in American synagogues (along with the American flag.) Flags would be presented to synagogues as gifts (this example from 1935):

The practice of American and Israeli flags in synagogue only accelerated during World War II.

However, after Israel was reborn some liberal congregations felt a little uncomfortable with the Israeli flag, for the same reason they were in the 1930s: they didn’t want to appear to have dual loyalties.

In 1950, Reform Rabbi Aryeh Lev suggested that instead of the Israeli flag, American congregations should adapt the flag used by Jewish chaplains during World War II as an American Jewish symbol.

Clearly the liberal congregations of every type did not show interest in Aryeh Lev’s proposal, and the Israeli flag remains at the front of many American synagogues today.

An article in JTA from a few months later describes a strong reaction against this idea by the Orthodox Union:

The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, representing all Orthodox synagogues in the United States and Canada, today announced its opposition to the adoption of a separate religious flag for American Jewry as proposed recently by Rabbi Aryeh Lev, director of the Division of Beligious Activities of the National Jewish Welfare Board.

Pointing out that traditional Judaism does not recognize the existence of an American Judaism separate from the “World Community of Israel,” the statement expressed opposition to the adoption of “concepts and symbols which will divide American Jewry from Klal Yisrael, whether they hide behind the Ten Commandments or any other emblem.”

Released by Rabbi Irwin Gordon, national director of community activities of the Union, the statement reviewed Jewry’s history of rarely displaying flags in synagogues. It related the change of this custom by Jewish religious groups which broke away from the Orthodox movement and by the display of the Zionist blue-and-white-flag and the American flag in synagogues during the war.

“With the establishment of the state of Israel and the adoption of the blue-and-white flag as its national ensign, some question has been raised concerning the propriety of further display of the Zionist flag in synagogues and centers,” the statement said. “Using the fear of ‘double loyalty’ as a jumping-off point, certain sectarian groups have asked for the adoption of a new religious flag for American Jewry.

“The spectre of “dual loyalty,” we are convinced, exists primarily in the minds of those who are not loyal to their own Jewish heritage,” it continued. “As observant Jews, we have never found and do not today find any contradiction between our loyalty to our faith, our devotion to our heritage and people and our political loyalty to the land of our birth.

“Traditional Judaism, unlike the sectarian movements, which have broken from it, does not recognize the existence of a separate and distinet ‘American’ Judaism. Surely, none of this is sufficient reason for the adoption of new-symbols which will separate American Jewry from Klal Yisrael, the world community of Israel, united by its common allegiance to its Torah,” the statement insisted.

It is interesting that the Orthodox Union, most of whom’s members would not have displayed any flag in their synagogues, felt they had to weigh in on this topic because of the perceived threat to the unity of the worldwide Jewish community which, then as now, overwhelmingly sees the flag of Israel as representing their own sense of pride of being Jewish.

Abdulrahman Thaher is a Palestinian actor and film director.

On August 14, he posted on Facebook a very mild and indirect criticism of the Palestinian Authority, saying that he didn't want to comment on the Israel/UAE agreement but that the PA had no right to criticize it since they have maintained recognition of Israel for decades.

He was then promptly arrested on charges of "defaming the Authority."

Last Wednesday his detention was extended and on Sunday the Palestinian court rejected an argument that what he did was not illegal under Palestinian law.

Thaher's wife said he looked "sick and confused" during his court date and added that he was hospitalized, but she wasn't allowed to visit him.

At the same time, another Palestinian critic of corruption in the Palestinian Authority, Nizar Banat, was also arrested for the same "crime "of "defaming the Authority."

Western media and human rights groups have not said a word about these two cases, days after the Palestinian Independent Commission on Human Rights criticized the arrests.

Many Palestinian media outlets steer clear of reporting such cases, but Hamas and some independent media have been reporting it, and there is lots of interest on social media. The arrests are no secret. Reuters even reported about it in its Arabic newsfeed.

The only reason the Western media is reluctant to report on such stories is because they want to maintain their anti-Israel bias. If the Palestinian Authority is revealed to be the corrupt dictatorship it is, then public opinion would swing more towards Israel which is far better in every single metric of adherence to the law and of morality. It would upset the false "narrative" of oppressive Israel and its Palestinian victims.

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

PCHR, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, reports an incident of the Palestinian Authority torturing a 17-year old:

A Palestinian force of the Preventive Security Service (PSS) arrested a 17-year-old boy, from Ethna village in Hebron, without showing a warrant from the Public Prosecution, assaulted him physically, and shackled him subjecting him to degrading treatment. According to his statement:

“An officer grabbed me from my shirt and took me into the head office and ordered me to carry a heavy metal chair on my head while lifting one of my legs off the ground. When I refused to do so, the officer slapped me in the face and kicked me with his leg. I did what the officer ordered me for 5 minutes. After that, an officer grabbed me from my shirt again and hit me on my head repeatedly until we reached the investigation room. Officers ordered me to strip naked and face the wall and lift one hand and one foot up. I was kicked every time I tried to put my leg down. An inspector drew a fan on the wall and ordered me to turn it on while another inspector drew a ladder and ordered me to climb it. After that, another offer came and ordered me to crawl on the ground naked and officers proceeded to step on my body and head with their shoes on. I learnt later that I was arrested to pressure my father to turn himself in, as I was released after he was arrested.”

PCHR is not always the most reliable reporter of human rights abuses. One thing is clear, though: accusations of torture by Israel receive screaming world headlines, while accusations of torture by the Palestinian Authority or Hamas get muted.

This story is from Monday yet it has been completely ignored in English.

It was published in two obscure Palestinian news sites in Arabic but no site that has an actual audience.

Of course, neither Human Rights Watch nor Amnesty tweeted about this.

Arabs abusing other Arabs, including children, are simply accepted and condoned by the “progressive” crowd, because admitting that Arabs act worse than Israel does muddies their antisemitic message of “Jews bad, Arabs good.”

Israel’s PM and Government Should Resign Today (Vic Rosenthal)

Vic Rosenthal's weekly column

I’m not looking forward to writing this, or to reading the responses that I will surely get from various quarters. But here it is.

The Breslov Hasidim venerate Rabbi Nachman of Breslov (1772-1810), a kabbalist, scholar, and founder of a movement that stresses joy and the personal closeness of a Jew to Hashem. Israelis are familiar with the Breslov trucks that drive around playing loud, rousing music, sometimes stopping for the passengers to get out and dance in the street with passers-by. Some see their approach as a welcome infusion of life and spirituality into what can be a dry and forbidding faith; others see their attitude toward Rabbi Nachman as avoda zara (worship of something or someone other than Hashem).

The Breslov Hasidim have developed a tradition in recent decades of visiting Uman (in Ukraine) where he died and where his grave is located, on Rosh Hashana. This pilgrimage has included tens of thousands of Israelis and others over the years. While for most of the pilgrims the goal of the trip is increased spirituality, there is also an element that treats it like the American college students’ Spring break, lubricated by alcohol and spiced up by prostitution.

The advent of the Coronavirus pandemic has (maybe) put a damper on the phenomenon. Israel’s numbers of serious cases and daily deaths from Corona are about as high as they have ever been, and its total number of cases per million population is 19^th in the world (out of 213). Ukraine is also suffering an increasing number of new cases, although it ranks only 87^th in cases per million. Last month, Ukraine decided to bar Israelis from the pilgrimage after the EU placed Israel on its “red list” of countries unsafe to visit.

Since then, pressure has been applied to authorities in Israel and Ukraine, both for and against the event. As one can imagine, tens of thousands of visitors mean a huge amount of income for the relatively small town of Uman. On the other hand, the danger of spreading Covid-19 at this kind of happening, where there will be large crowds and little social distancing, is very great. As Prof. Roni Gamzu, the Corona coordinator of Israel’s Health Ministry, recently pointed out, travelers to Uman will have to be placed in quarantine when they return home. A few thousand could be placed in hotels, but there is no way to quarantine and keep track of tens of thousands. Gamzu wants the government to forbid Israelis from flying to Uman. He also communicated his feelings to Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

In response, former Health Minister and present Housing and Construction Minister Ya’akov Litzman, himself a member of a (different) Hasidic sect, was infuriated and called for Gamzu’s resignation. The most recent development has the Ukranian President announcing that the pilgrimage would be “significantly restrict[ed]” although no precise details were given. Zelensky said that he was responding to a request made by PM Binyamin Netanyahu, but the PM’s office denied that he had made such a request, and said only that travelers should follow health instructions (proving yet again that at least in the case of Bibi, physical courage in youth doesn’t necessarily translate into moral courage in maturity).

I don’t know what will come out of this for Gamzu, who recently implied that he would resign if “not given the tools to bring down morbidity.” Gamzu, who has been properly trying to balance the medical demands of the epidemic with the need to protect the economy, has been stymied at almost every turn by politicians.

Why is an advanced, small country like Israel doing so poorly in managing the epidemic? There are several reasons. One is the fact that government decisions are being made on the basis of political interests, and not from medical or economic considerations. The pilgrimage to Uman is only one example. Another is that the Haredi and Arab sectors, where the virus has spread the most, institutionally resist authority, and ignore the rules. And finally, last but definitely not least, is the lack of leadership from the one person that should pull everything together, the Prime Minister, Binyamin Netanyahu.

Netanyahu is more concerned with keeping the support of Litzman’s Haredi faction to keep him in power and out of jail, than with the threat of a major outbreak of the virus and concomitant economic disaster. Netanyahu has systematically kept his rival Naftali Bennett on the political margins. Bennett is one of the few politicians who has demonstrated real creativity in dealing with the present crisis, but he was forced out of the Likud by Bibi, reportedly because Mrs. Netanyahu dislikes him.

Recently the government managed to avoid falling and precipitating yet another election when it negotiated an internal compromise to delay voting on a budget. This is the best thing this pitiful government is capable of accomplishing: saving itself by not doing something essential.
Thanks to the irresponsibility of our politicians, people are dying of the virus. And the ones who don’t die are out of work.

After three elections in one year, Israelis have no appetite (or half a billion shekels) for another one. But the people have had it. We are sick of the endless crises of their own making, while the country misses opportunities like the application of sovereignty to the Jordan Valley, while the southern part of the country absorbs blow after blow from Hamas (yesterday their incendiary balloons started 30 fires), and while the number of seriously ill increase daily as the politicians dither.

Recently the entire government of Lebanon resigned, after an ongoing economic meltdown was followed by a massive explosion that destroyed large chunk of their capital. I don’t envy the Lebanese their economy or their explosion, but our government should follow their example.

08/26 Links Pt2: Whither the BDS Movement?; Only 4% of American Jews consider Israel most important voting issue; Tel Aviv synagogues get go-ahead to hold High Holiday services in public spaces

From Ian:

Only 4% of American Jews consider Israel most important voting issue

Ahead of the US 2020 presidential election, most American Jews remain pro-Israel but do not define Israel as their most important voting issue, according to a new study by the Ruderman Foundation.

Only 4% of Jewish voters identify Israel as their first or second-most important election issue. Some 43% prioritize health care, 28% prioritize gun violence and 21% prioritize Social Security and Medicare.

The paper, entitled “The Jewish Vote 2020: More Empowered than Powerful,” states that analysis of Jewish American voting patterns “tells us more about why they vote than about what their vote achieves,” and examines voting patterns to draw conclusions on shifts in American Jewish identity and values.

The failure to vote primarily on the topic of Israel is not due to a shift away from pro-Israel sentiments but rather a reflection of Jewish liberal identities, according to the study.

One of the finding in the paper is that “in the voting booth, most American Jews are actually more pro-choice and anti-Trump than pro-Israel.”

The three part position paper examines defining issues of what it calls a “watershed seemingly dividing pro-Trump Israeli Jews from anti-Trump American Jews,” and was co-authored by the Ruderman Family Foundation and Prof. Gil Troy.

Should Jews be angry about Pompeo’s speech from Jerusalem?

Republicans did their best last week to highlight the presence of a pair of anti-Israel figures at the Democratic National Convention. But in a stroke of irony, this week the Democrats are, among other things, complaining about the way the Republicans are trying to highlight their pro-Israel credentials.

There’s no real symmetry between the dustups over the Democrats’ flip-flops over their relations with radical BDS activist and prominent anti-Semite Linda Sarsour, and the GOP’s decision to have U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speak to his party’s convention in an address taped in Jerusalem. Nor should either be compared with the fact that, to their credit, the Republicans bounced a scheduled speaker from their program who had been found to have tweeted out anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. The contrast between these kerfuffles is interesting because it raises the question of whether and how concerns about Israel and anti-Semitism should impact the decisions of voters.

Sarsour’s presence, as well as that of an Islamist imam, at a DNC daytime forum was outrageous. The real problem, however, was that Joe Biden’s campaign tried to have it both ways—first condemning and disassociating the candidate from her and then apologizing to her supporters for being “insensitive” to their feelings.

Nevertheless, Pompeo’s speech raises legitimate questions about a sitting cabinet member engaging in political activity and doing so while using an allied country as a backdrop.

The Hatch Act broadly prohibits government employees from playing politics while on duty. That law has often been observed in the breach by previous administrations with, for example, members of President Barack Obama’s cabinet appearing at the 2012 Democratic Convention.

The New York Times claimed that it had been at least 75 years since a secretary of state spoke at a national party convention, but since I haven’t found any record of Cordell Hull—President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s secretary of state appearing at either the 1940 or 1944 Democratic conventions—Pompeo’s speech might be a first.

Democrats are arguing that posts like secretary of state ought to be above politics, and to some extent, that’s true. It’s equally true that these posts are usually filled by politicians who often use their exalted platform for purposes that advance their political interests, such as the way Hillary Clinton helped the Clinton Family Foundation, a billion-dollar slush fund masquerading as a charity that existed mainly to promote her interests and future presidential candidacy while doing little in the way of philanthropy.

Too many American Jews are turning a blind eye to Antisemitism

Chutzpah layered on top of chutzpah. Morton Klein the President of the National ZOA had the audacity to answer those very questions, pointing out in tweets what should have been obvious to all: “BlackLivesMatter is an anti-Semitic, Israel hating, Soros funded, racist, Israelophobic hate group.” He followed up with: “I urge the SPLC (Southern Poverty Law Center) to immediately put BlackLivesMatter on their list of hate groups. BLM is a Jew hating, White hating, Israel hating, conservative Black hating, violence promoting, dangerous Soros funded extremist group of haters.”

For expressing what only the willfully blind could deny, Klein was subjected to his sworn enemies giving voice to an anguished outcry of hate Vociferously, he was denounced as a “racist,” “bigot,” and xenophobe.

If you think the recriminations were coming from BLM, you’re sadly mistaken. Sixteen of the fifty one member organizations of the Conference of Presidents issued a separate letter on June 12th condemning Klein’s comments, and called for the removal of the ZOA from the Council of Presidents.

Unsurprisingly, not one word about the antisemitic riots just days earlier was mentioned by any of Klein’s sixteen disparaging groups. It’s not surprising because with the exception of the ZOA no other Jewish organization in the United States has the intestinal fortitude to publicly confront and maintain pressure on egregious acts of antisemitism.

This past December, a black man named Grafton Thomas crashed a Hannukah party at the house of Rabbi Chaim Rottenberg in Monsey, New York. Brandishing a butcher knife, he immediately began stabbing five people, one of whom, Rabbi Josef Newmann, succumbed to his injuries. Investigators found handwritten journals expressing antisemitic views, including material about Adolf Hitler, "Nazi culture", and drawings of a Star of David and of a swastika among Thomas's possessions.

With so much evidence of it being a hate crime and over a hundred guests at the party recognizing him as the assailant, you would think it was a slam dunk case. Guess again. This past April 20th, a federal judge ruled Grafton was incompetent to stand trial and ordered him to be hospitalized in a mental facility. He certainly was competent enough to research Nazi culture, cross state lines, seek out the Rabbi’s address, and commit murder, but not enough to stand trial. This dastardly event came on the heels of a 30 year old Hassidic kollel student was stabbed multiple times on his way to Synagogue in Ramapo, New York, two months earlier.

There isn’t a person on the planet that hasn’t heard of George Floyd, so why aren’t the names of Rabbi Newmann and that kollel student equally familiar? I think all unbiased, serious minded people know the answer to this question.

BDS response to UAE is pretty funny

I love this headline from the BDS movement in response to the announcement of the UAE normalizing relations with Israel.

bds uae2

“Dictatorship,” “despotic,” “police state.” It really sounds like the BDSers care about repression, doesn’t it?

Three years ago, the BDS movement attempted to start an anti-normalization initiative – in the Gulf.

They chose that human rights paradigm, Kuwait, to host.

For some reason, the BDSers didn’t have any moral qualms with dealing with the representatives from Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and – yes – the UAE in 2017.

They have nothing bad to say about any dictatorial, repressive Muslim states today as long as they share BDSers’ insane Jew-hate disguised as “anti-Zionism.”

But as soon as a Muslim state talks to Israel – suddenly, it turns into a terrible violator of human rights.

It’s almost like the BDSers only pretend to care about human rights and they are really just using that topic as a means to attack the one state in the region that actually gives a damn about human rights.

08/26 Links Pt1: Israeli Shai Ohayon stabbed to death in terror attack; UAE-Israel deal exposes true face of Palestinian Authority; Israeli aircraft strike Hezbollah posts after shots fired at troops

From Ian:

Israeli Shai Ohayon stabbed to death by Palestinian in suspected terror attack

A Palestinian man stabbed an Israeli man to death outside the Tel Aviv suburb of Petah Tikva in a suspected terror attack on Wednesday afternoon, police said.

Police said the suspect was arrested near the scene shortly after the attack at the Segula Junction.

“The results of the investigation raise the suspicion of a nationalistic motive,” police said.

The victim, who suffered multiple stab wounds, was identified as Rabbi Shai Ohayon, a father of four and, according to Ultra-Orthodox news outlet, a member of Petah Tikva’s Haredi community, who studied full time at a religious institution known as a kollel in the nearby town of Kfar Saba. Police said he was 39 years old.

The suspect — identified by Israeli authorities as Khalil Abd al-Khaliq Dweikat, 46, from the northern West Bank — was in Israel with a legal work permit, according to the Shin Bet security service.

Dweikat, a father of six from the Nablus area, had no history of terrorist activities, the Shin Bet said.

Upon his arrest, officers searched the suspect and found a blood-stained knife that was apparently used in the attack, police said.

The police handed over Dweikat to the Shin Bet for interrogation. The security service said it was looking into the possibility that he had a history of mental illness, but that it was “too soon to tell” if that could explain the attack.

The victim sustained multiple, fatal stab wounds to his upper body, doctors said.

Netanyahu vows to raze Palestinian suspect’s home after fatal attack

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Wednesday evening to demolish the home of a Palestinian who stabbed an Israeli man to death earlier in the day in an apparent terror attack.

The prime minister also sent condolences to the family of Rabbi Shai Ohayon, who was killed in the stabbing attack in the Tel Aviv suburb of Petah Tikva.

“My wife Sara and I embrace the family, the wife and four children who were left today without a father. We will work to demolish the home of the terrorist and seek the most severe punishment,” Netanyahu tweeted.

Ohayon, according to Ultra-Orthodox news outlets, was a member of Petah Tikva’s Haredi community and studied full time at a religious institution known as a kollel in the nearby town of Kfar Saba. Police said he was 39 years old.

Moments before the attack, Netanyahu had tweeted an article celebrating the first time in 56 years that no Israelis had been killed in a terror attack in over 365 days.

“First and foremost, I’m here to protect your lives. We will continue to bring security and from it also bring peace,” the prime minister, who has regularly pushed to demolish the homes of the perpetrators of terror attacks, wrote in his tweet.

Israeli Man Stabbed to Death by Palestinian in Central Israel

Iranians aren’t nearly as fundamentalist as they are portrayed in the West, according to a new survey:

According to a new poll, four decades after the establishment of the Islamic regime, only 32% of the population consider themselves Shia Muslims.

The new poll by the Group for Analyzing and Measuring Attitudes in Iran (GAMAAN), a non-profit institute in the Netherlands, asked Iranians about their “attitude toward religion”.

90 percent of the 50,000 Iranian participants in the survey reside in Iran. GAMAAN claims the results of the survey to be 95% accurate and generalizable to the entire Iranian society.

According to the results, 78% of Iranians believe in God, but only 26% of them believe in "the coming of the Messiah (Imam Mahdi)", which is one of the main beliefs of the Twelver Shiites.

While only 32% of Iranians consider themselves Shia Muslims, 9% have claimed to be atheists and 22% do not align with any religion. Half of the population used to believe but does not anymore and 6% have converted to a new religion.

Out of 61% of the people born into religious families, 60% do not say their daily prayers. 68% of the participants believe that religion must not be the basis of legislation, 71% believe that religious institutions must be self-funded, and 42% believe that promoting any kind of religion must be banned from the public sphere.

The results also indicate that 73% of the population disagree with the compulsory hijab while 58% do not believe in hijab.

37% of Iranian drink alcohol regularly or occasionally, despite its prohibition after the revolution. Prohibition and price have deterred only 8% of Iranians from consuming alcohol.

This is very encouraging. It indicates that the majority of Iranians do not agree with living in a theocracy, meaning the regime is far less stable than it portrays.

(h/t Yoel)

Not just fires: Hamas sending floating bombs to Israel

Yesterday, Anna Ahronheim of the Jerusalem Post tweeted, “An explosive balloon landed on a basketball court in the southern #Israeli city of Netivot earlier tonight and exploded near children. There were no injuries but damage to the court.”

The photos are chilling.

The bomb caused a crater on the concrete, and as you can see if you expand the photo, when it exploded it shot out at least a hundred potentially lethal projectiles over at a ten foot radius that also were powerful enough to penetrate the court.

Incendiary balloons are bad enough – forest and brush fires can kill and have destroyed thousands of acres of land. But these are bombs, deliberately sent by Hamas and Islamic Jihad to kill Israeli civilians. The damage looks to be not much less than what a mortar would do.

No nation would tolerate being attacked from the air with bombs that could land anywhere – schools, homes, playgrounds. And Israeli residents don’t have sirens to protect them from these explosives.

UPDATE: Footage of the explosion.

Sometimes Iran’s propaganda gets positively humorous.

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Monday that the United Arab Emirates cannot become more secure through buying security from Israel, according to a Press TV report.

…“Undoubtedly, the agreement will result in fortification of the resistance axis in the region,” the ministry said in a statement.

So Iran will get stronger. Isn’t that what Iran wants?

“History will reveal how this strategic mistake by the Zionist regime and this act of backstabbing by the Emirates against the Palestinians and, by extension, the entire Muslim community, will conversely result in fortifying the resistance axis,” the ministry added.

Shouldn’t he be celebrating Israel’s strategic mistake?

And isn’t it nice of him to care enough about Israel to warn her that it is making such a mistake? I mean, Israel would have to be stupid not to take his friendly advice, am I right?

08/25 Links Pt2: We need to talk about the ethnic cleansing of Middle Eastern Jews; The Mind-Bendingly Insane, Completely Craven, Utterly Unconscionable Redemption of Al Sharpton

From Ian:

We need to talk about the ethnic cleansing of Middle Eastern Jews

One million Jewish refugees were driven from nine Arab countries and Iran during the 20th Century. The governments and peoples which pushed them out did not just aim to destroy their lives. They aimed to destroy the brilliant history of Jews in the region. Jews had lived in Iraq ever since Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylonians exiled them from their homeland in the 6th Century BCE. There, the Farhud, a bloody Nazi-influenced pogrom in 1941, was an early episode in an ever-mounting persecution. The Farhud slew nearly 300 Jews and injured more than 2000. Sporadic violence made it impossible for Iraqi Jews to stay and initiated their flight to Israel.

When, in 1948, Iraq went to war with the new State of Israel, Zionism was criminalized, leading to further state-sponsored persecution. Yet more Jews fled to Israel in great numbers, until, in 1952, Iraq banned emigration. In 1969, nine men were hanged as an alleged “spy ring”. Today, there are fewer than ten Jews in Iraq. That is the story of just one community. Similar stories unfolded in communities across the region, ruining lives and desecrating a unique culture. These were stories of thorough dispossession, usually sponsored and promoted by antisemitic states, hellbent on ridding themselves of the Jews.

This is the story of Yemen too, a story of a once vibrant Jewish community, smashed to pieces in the 20th Century. For millennia, perhaps as early as the time of King Solomon, Jews flourished in Yemen, despite prejudice and oppression. They developed a rich culture of their own. The 17th Century’s Rabbi Shalom Shabazi, for example, wrote a celebrated canon of 850 poems. He was revered by Jew and non-Jew alike.

As early as 1922, the flames of hatred were being fanned in Yemen: an old law was invoked, forcing all Jewish orphans under 12 to be converted to Islam. When the UN partition plan for a Jewish and Arab state in the British Mandate of Palestine was announced in 1947, a pogrom swept through the port of Aden. It killed an estimated 82 Jews, destroyed nearly all the Jewish shops and four synagogues.

From 1949-50, Israel airlifted the vast majority of the Yemeni community to safety. There, the Yemeni community remain a cultural powerhouse. Now, in the 21st Century, the minuscule remaining fragment of Yemen’s Jews is being crushed, using the same excuses as seventy years ago. Yet again, the same “anti-Zionist” antisemitism is fulfilling its evil role.

Yet again, Jews are being put to flight by hateful zealots and murderers in one of the cradles of Jewish civilization and history.

There is a vile irony to the Houthis’ actions, and those of their predecessors in the 40s and 50s: the same hatred which says that a Jew cannot be a loyal citizen in the countries of the Diaspora, and does not deserve to be an equal citizen, also claims that Jews have no place in Israel, the land of our indigenous roots and the birthplace of our nation. The handful of Jews who, if these terrifying reports are to be believed, are being hounded out of Yemen, are the latest victims of this murderous catch-22. They are the victims of the pernicious hatred which says that there can be no refuge, no rest, no human kindness for a Jew.

When the brothers and sisters of these Yemeni Jews were being expelled all those decades ago, the world did not care. This time, as the latest chapter in the persecution of Mizrahim is written in plain sight, it is time to end the erasure which says that Jewish suffering began and ended in Europe and forgets the Jews of the Middle East.

The Mind-Bendingly Insane, Completely Craven, Utterly Unconscionable Redemption of Al Sharpton

This past weekend, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, an umbrella group uniting 125 local Jewish communities and 17 national Jewish organizations, sent an email to its followers proudly announcing that it has signed on as a partner in the Virtual March on Washington this week, an event organized by Al Sharpton.

Because last week also marked the 29th anniversary of the Crown Heights riots, it’s worth it to stop and recall that among his many distinctions—MSNBC pundit, and an adviser who reportedly regularly speaks to Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, collector of innumerable sateen suits—Al Sharpton is also currently America’s only living pogrom leader.

After a car driven by a Hasidic Jew accidentally swerved and struck a young African American boy, killing him, hundreds of the neighborhood’s Black residents rioted in the streets, chanting “death to the Jews!” as well as looting stores, attacking anyone who was visibly Jewish, and ripping mezuzot off of door posts. Sharpton was quick to arrive on the scene, leading a march in which participants burned an Israeli flag and called to kill all Jews. At the young boy’s funeral a few days later, Sharpton delivered a eulogy that borrowed heavily from The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, saying that the Jewish residents of the neighborhood practiced “apartheid” and were there only to further the Jewish global grip on money and power. He ended by ominously shouting: “pay for your deeds.”

At least one Jew had already paid the ultimate price for Sharpton’s incitement: A few days earlier, 20 Black men surrounded Yankel Rosenbaum, a 29-year-old student, stabbing him in the back and beating him so badly they smashed in his skull. Rosenbaum succumbed to his wounds later that night. Sharpton showed up on the scene soon after, ensuring that the rioting continued for days.

As the years went by, Sharpton was given ample opportunity to apologize for his prominent role in this modern day anti-Semitic bloodletting. He never did.

Why, then, is this unrepentant hater being supported by a major Jewish organization? Why, barely a year after a spree in which visibly observant Jews were violently attacked in record numbers, are Jewish organizations sidling up to kiss Sharpton's ring?

What is Europe funding?

According to a report by the research institute NGO Monitor, the EU and other European governments gave the Refugee Council, and through it to the local organizations, more than $20 million between 2016-2020. An official document of the British government claims that between 2013-2016 the British have transferred £1.4 million "directly for legal cases against house demolitions or evacuations. 2,541 evacuations or demolitions were delayed as a result."

European intervention is not limited to the funding of legal procedures. Official documents of various countries show an attempt to change Israeli policy and create facts on the ground in strategic areas, using the legal system. The program's goals include "litigation of cases that are of public interest and challenge Israeli policy, through Israeli courts and international bodies"; "change of policy and practices", and "a lobby in the EU and UN." The program is executed in coordination and tight cooperation with the Palestinian Authority, which directs the cases of illegal building to the organization and its partners.

The discussions in the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on the European-funded battle for land in Area C are the first and important attempt to deal with the issue, but it's only one example of many. Europe has for years funded radical groups disguised as humanitarian NGOs, involved in campaigns against Israel such as BDS and the campaign against it at the Hague.

The Europeans even fund organizations that are connected to the Popular Front terror group. Just recently it was revealed that a few senior officials from Palestinian "human rights" groups funded by Europe were charged with the murder of Rina Shnerb. The person accused of her murder and his commander in the terror cell acted as financial managers in the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC), which is largely funded by Europe, under the title of humanitarian aid, to execute agricultural takeovers in Area C.

No country in the world would be willing to accept the fact that against any diplomatic norms, friendly governments would transfer millions of dollars to organizations trying to hurt it under the guise of aid and humanitarian groups. It's time the government and lawmakers act directly against these funding governments and parliaments, in order to bring a fundamental change in the policy of how groups are funded by European governments.

Who’s afraid of Christian Zionism? Only the anti-Zionists.

The Jewish socialist Left has been spending time today tweeting against Mike Pompeo ahead of his RNC speech from Jerusalem. They point out that he is a Christian Zionist, or as they say an “extremist zealot,” and they claim that all Christian Zionists want to see the Rapture and the Jews are only pawns in this plan where they supposedly want to see more Middle East wars.

It is very amusing that people who are dead-set against Israel making peace with Arab countries pretend to care so much about peace.

But beyond that, their complaints about the Christian Zionists are based on an anti-Christian and antisemitic assumption: that fundamentalist Christians want to see widespread war and destruction to bring the Second Coming – and that militant, warmongering Israel shares their supposed desire to nuke the entire Middle East.

In reality, Israel decides what is best for Israel. No evangelist is going to convince Israel’s leadership to start a war that is not in Israel’s own interests. The Christian Zionists aren’t telling Israel what to do – they are trusting Israel to be smart enough to know what is best for its own people and its own future. And they support whatever Israeli leaders decide.

Which is how it should be. Only people who hate Israel – like these socialists – think that Israel shouldn’t do what is in its own self interest.

The real reason that these “woke” people hate Christian Zionists is because they are Zionists. The secondary reason is because they are religious and these socialists hate religion. The third reason is because they are Christians and they want to smear all religious Christians as antisemites, which is slanderous and absurd.

The fourth reason is because Christian Zionists vote.

Pakistan newspaper has two articles saying the UAE has every right to open relations with Israel

Pakistan’s English language The News International has two sepratae op-eds that say that the UAE has every right to establish diplomatic relations with whomever it wants, including Israel.

Saleem Safi writes:

Though very painful for Muslims, it is a glaring reality that 162 countries of the world, including the US, China, France, Germany and Russia, have recognized Israel and have established close diplomatic relations with her. The US – the world superpower – has become Israel’s patron-in-chief. However, Muslim countries like Pakistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Cambridge, Djibouti, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, Yemen, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Brunei, Iran, Malaysia, Indonesia, Mali, Niger do not accept Israel as a legitimate state and thus do not recognize it. Three non-Muslim countries – Bhutan, Cuba and North Korea – also do not recognize Israel.

…Besides Turkey and Iran, Egypt, an Arab country, established diplomatic relations with Israel in 1980 after the Camp David Accords. Though Oman – a member of the Arab League – has no formal diplomatic relations with Israel, close cooperation and trade links have been established between the two. Moreover, the Central Asian Muslim states such as Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan have also established friendly diplomatic relations with Israel. With the mediation of President Bill Clinton, Jordon signed an agreement with Israel in 1994, paving the way to close trade ties and opening of several crossing points at border for tourists.

…

It is also a reality that national interests are the guiding force of every state’s foreign policy, relations and engagement. So one could question why some, especially some religious parties, in Pakistan are putting the country in an unenviable position of being seen as hostile by the UAE, by blasting the latter country’s decision to establish diplomatic relations with Israel?

Pakistan itself should never give up its principal stance on Palestine and should never recognize Israel as per the wishes of most Pakistanis. That is our sovereign decision and right. But what is the justification of our anger at the independent decision of other sovereign states? Will we also protest against Turkey and China tomorrow because these two countries also have diplomatic relations with Israel? Will we now also protest against Iran for its close relations with India?

Dr. Naazir Mahmood:

Turkey has termed the deal as a betrayal to the Palestinian cause. Here, we may raise a question or two about Turkey’s trade relations with Israel which apparently do now sound a ‘betrayal’. Moreover, every year over half a million Israeli tourists travel to Turkey and visit cities and historical places. Does this also not fall into the category of ‘betrayal’ with the Palestinian cause? All this shows a blatant duplicity that the president of Turkey, Erdogan, has been displaying over the years. There is also annual trade of over two billion dollars between Israel and Turkey.

Turkey keeps its embassy In Israel, which shouldn’t be a problem as in the modern world we must keep all diplomatic channels open for negotiations, despite having myriad differences. India and Pakistan do not enjoy good relations but have diplomatic ties, which is how it should be.

After the unilateral announcement of annexation of Kashmir into India, had Pakistan snapped diplomatic ties with India, it would have been a wrong move. Similarly, if Pakistan can maintain such relations at the diplomatic level, all Arab and other Muslim countries do have a right to establish diplomatic relations with Israel. They may keep chattering about the rights of Palestine as Pakistan does about the Kashmiris.

I can’t say I’ve been following Pakistan’s media closely but this seems surprising, although it fits in well with Pakistan’s mild reaction to the news of the agreement.

08/25 Links Pt1: Nikki Haley: Obama, Biden led UN to denounce our friend Israel; United Nations not thrilled about Middle Eastern nations uniting

From Ian:

Nikki Haley: Obama, Biden led UN to denounce our friend Israel

Former US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley spoke of President Donald Trump's foreign policy accomplishments during his tenure thus far on the first night of the Republican National Convention on Monday, including mentioning the president's policies regarding the Middle East and Israel.

During the virtual convention, Haley first quoted the late Jeane Kirkpatrick, an ardent supporter of Israel in the administration of former US president Ronald Reagan, saying in an overt criticism of Democratic Party foreign policies that they "always blame America first."

Noting her role as the former US ambassador, Haley remarked on the nature of the UN and international human rights, saying "it was an honor of a lifetime to serve as the United States ambassador to the United Nations. Now, the UN is not for the faint of heart. It's a place where dictators, murderers & thieves denounce America... and then put their hands out and demand that we pay their bills."

Similarly, Haley harshly criticized former US president Barack Obama's foreign policy in relation to US-Israel ties and votes in the UN on apparently anti-Israel resolutions, in addition to talking about the decision to transfer the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

"Obama and Biden led the United Nations to denounce our friend and ally, Israel. President Trump moved our embassy to Jerusalem... and when the UN tried to condemn us, I was proud to cast the American veto."

New Israel-UAE Pact Shatters Peace Myths

For decades, international decision makers and opinion shapers have theorized that Israel will not be accepted in the region until it makes peace with the Palestinians, and that all wars and conflicts in the Middle East are somehow connected to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Former President Jimmy Carter once stated that “without doubt, the path to peace in the Middle East goes through Jerusalem.” Another enthusiast of what has become known as “linkage” is the late US National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, who said, “The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the single most combustible and galvanizing issue in the Arab world.”

The Israel-United Arab Emirates (UAE) peace agreement, or “Abraham Accord” — in addition to credible talk of other Arab nations joining — has exploded the belief that the Jewish state is isolated in the region. It also sent a clear signal that the Palestinians, following their decades of rejectionism, can no longer place a veto on Arab nations making peace and establishing official relations with Israel.

But of course, the idea that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was the focal point of the region’s unrest and the most challenging to solve has never been consistent with the facts or statistics.

Many conflicts have been far more deadly and are far more entrenched, based on grievances stretching back hundreds of years. The Sunni-Shiite conflict, for example, predates the modern era, and the internal wars that have devastated Middle East nations like Syria, Libya, Lebanon, and Iraq are a result of historical and even ancient disputes. If one looks at the number of Muslim fatalities from armed conflicts since the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, well over 12 million have been killed in conflicts around the wider region in wars such as the Syrian and Lebanese civil wars and the Iran-Iraq conflict.

Fewer than 100,000 Arabs have died in the Israeli-Arab or Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the majority of those died in Israel’s defensive wars against its neighbors. That means fewer than one percent of all deaths in conflicts in the region were in the context of the Israeli-Arab/Palestinian conflict. This statistic alone demonstrates that the conflict with Israel is one of the least bloody or central in the region.

The warm peace between Israel and the UAE is a victory for us all

Many prominent people in the UAE have praised and congratulated this agreement and greatly appreciate this strategic change. We must let the past be the past and look forward to the opportunities of tomorrow, full of sincere cooperation and synergy.

Peace is born in people’s hearts and minds. Real and lasting victories are the victories of peace, not the victories of war.

The atmosphere in support of peace and the interaction we are witnessing through social media platforms in the UAE and Israel, and increasingly in more Arab countries, give us a great sense of hope that such lasting peace is indeed possible.

Although we also have empathy for the Palestinian people, it is regrettable that instead of grasping this opportunity to advance their own situation, their leadership has yet again dismissed an outstretched hand for real and meaningful change.

The peace agreement between Israel and the UAE is intended to put an end to conflicts in the region and to spread the values of peace among the peoples.

This historic step will contribute to the strengthening of stability, justice and peace in the world, based on universal human values that everyone believes in, such dialogue, coexistence and tolerance between different religions and cultures.

After the historic peace agreement last week, we feel a real mutual sense of excitement and hope for a better future. It is our dream that others, especially in the Arab world, will see it also and join us!

The writer is a senior executive specializing in digital transformation at the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, and an activist for peace and regional reconciliation.