Friday, October 02, 2020
Elder of Ziyon
The Left's denunciations of Trump as an anti-Semite have come at the same time that the Democrat Party's hostility towards Israel and its supporters in America has become more pronounced with each passing day. Leftist anti-Semites have captured the party's base and control the progressive grassroots. They have intimidated pro-Israel Democrats into near silence on Israel and have made hating Israel an electoral advantage in primary races.
The Left's rejection of Israel is now so overwhelming that last weekend, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez canceled her participation in a Peace Now memorial marking the 25th anniversary of former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's assassination. Her move demonstrated that even Jewish progressives and an Israeli Nobel Peace Prize laureate who was killed for his efforts to appease the PLO are beyond the Pale for progressives today. Only Jews who reject Israel's right to exist are acceptable among the smart set in the party.
The Left's embrace of anti-Semitism demonstrates that its hysterical claims that Trump loves Nazis is nothing more than projection. And this isn't surprising.
Since 2016, the Democrats have repeatedly projected all of their prejudices, malicious actions and plans onto Trump and the Republicans.
Consider the issue of collusion with Russia. During the debate, Biden accused Trump of being "Putin's poodle." But just hours before, Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe sent a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee revealing that in July 2016, American intelligence agencies "obtained insight" into analysis by Russian intelligence officers that claimed then Democrat presidential nominee Hillary Clinton "had approved a plan to stir up a scandal" against Trump which involved "tying [Trump] to Putin."
Clinton's campaign paid for the infamous Steele dossier alleging corrupt ties between Trump and the Kremlin. The smear file was compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele. Last week it came to light that Steele's primary source for his file was investigated by the FBI as a Russian spy.
In other words, the collusion that Clinton and later the FBI, CIA, the Democrat Party, the media and a special prosecutor accused Trump of carrying out with the Kremlin was actually conducted by Clinton and her campaign with active assistance from the CIA, FBI, the media and the Democrat Party against Trump. In accusing Trump, they were describing their own actions.
The projection of Democratic plans onto the Republicans continues still today. Indeed, their campaign is organized around a new one.
For example, in the chapter on the anti-Semitism controversy Jones is conscious of the tightrope he must walk — trying not to condone the open anti-Semites in Corbyn’s movement, but at the same time trying to defend his hero from the most serious accusations. Jones can only do this by re-writing or editing out parts of the story, including his own.
So while he is willing to address and condemn some of the more minor cases of anti-Semitism in the party he at no stage contends with the most serious accusations against Corbyn. There is, for instance, simply no mention of Corbyn’s campaign for and support of Samar Alami and Jawad Botmeh, two people imprisoned for bombing the offices of a number of Jewish charities in London. To raise such a thing would mean having to excuse it, condemn it or contend with it. Jones can bring himself to do none of these things.
It is the same with the wreath-laying at the graves of the Munich Olympic terrorists. Jones writes that in 2014 “Corbyn had taken part in a ceremony commemorating the innocent victims of a 1985 Israeli air strike, during which wreaths had been laid for the Palestinians accused of taking part in the terror atrocity at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich”. This is characteristically dishonest. First Jones drops in (and mis-portrays) an Israeli action; then he suggests that anybody might find themselves laying a wreath either at or near the graves of such terrorists; and finally there is that little sleight “accused of taking part”.
What Jones does not mention in his own role in this controversy. For in 2018, when the Tunisia wreath-laying photos broke, Jones was still the most prominent mainstream media defender of everything Corbyn did. While fighting to defend his hero Jones tried to minimise the incident, proclaiming on social media “No one has [presumably he meant ‘was’] killed by a wreath.”
Perhaps Jones the would-be historian is embarrassed by this statement — but in avoiding his own embarrassment he also avoids the job any honest writer would perform. For in precisely such moments lie the problem. In pursuit of their dream of getting a socialist into Downing Street people like Jones were consistently willing to degrade themselves, defame others and otherwise lose any moral sense they still possessed.
There is a rich seam of thought to explore here, but Jones is neither a good enough writer nor an honest enough thinker to perform the task. Perhaps he thinks that both he and the revolution have many more acts left in them — so we read pabulum like the idea that the anti-Semitism crisis could have been lessened if Corbyn had been more willing to “embrace people”.
#OnThisDay 1982: one of Livingstone and the Labour Herald's more notorious moments of the 1980s. Writing about Israel under the headline 'Creature of Terror', Livingstone included a paragraph about the Holocaust that was basically a direct lift from the far right. pic.twitter.com/XjuRv48Dln
— James Vaughan (@EquusontheBuses) October 1, 2020
After 75 years of the existence of the UN, not many achievements can be attributed to the organization. From the eyes of an ordinary citizen in a remote country, one may ask, "What has this organization done for me?" Instead of global cooperation in the face of threatening challenges, we instead witness a club of government representatives throwing accusations at each other, emissaries of senior world leaders taking pot shots at the opposition and flamboyant expenses.The Tikvah Podcast: Dan Senor on the Start-Up Nation and COVID-19
I have previously met with senior representatives of the UN and UNESCO so I understand they operate according to a predetermined policy. Therefore, I know better than to expect UN politics to suddenly behave differently tomorrow morning. In our current situation they have no chance of success. They get clear ideological lines from their respective heads of state and behave according to script without deviating right or left. It is clear that they are distinctly politicians and nothing more.
Nevertheless, a call for the abolition of the UN is not an alternative. It is still an important diplomatic space to meet and talk instead of engaging in wars and struggles. For the UN to function beneficially for humanity, however, would require turning it from end to end to set a higher goal, streamline the organization, and improve and upgrade it. The face of the UN is the face of the international community which depicts the face and state of every country and person in the world. And since every person is selfish by nature, his tendency is to care for himself only. In other words, we cannot expect anything more than the same from an organization that resembles and reflects the state of the world.
The next step that humanity longs for from a global organization is to act as an arena and platform for unity instead of division. Instead of glossing over and blurring the crises facing humanity with beautiful sounding words, it is my hope that the UN will join hands with other international organizations to put the interests and good of all the world's citizens at the center of attention. The call to action for the UN should be bringing people together through a comprehensive education program for social connection as a condition for societies where everyone is closer to each other. At the end of the day, it is the unity of the peoples that make the nations truly united.
The Coronavirus pandemic has undermined years of economic growth and sent hundreds of thousands of Israelis onto the unemployment rolls. How can Israel—the legendary “start-up nation”—recover from this economic crisis?
Dan Senor, co-author with Saul Singer of the bestselling book Start-Up Nation: The Story of Israel’s Economic Miracle, is one of the world’s leading experts on Israel’s economy in general, and its tech sector in particular. He joins Mosaic’s editor, Jonathan Silver, for a discussion about how the Jewish state became a global technology juggernaut, the prospects for integrating the Arab and ultra-Orthodox sectors into the broader economy, and the outlook for an Israeli recovery after the devastation of COVID-19.
PLO Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has once again publicly repudiated the Trump Peace Plan, this time internationally, telling the United Nations (UN) in his annual address:
"The Palestinian people have placed their hope in the United Nations, the historical witness of their Nakba, to provide support to their legitimate struggle for freedom and independence. And we continue to await the UN to fulfill its responsibility to achieve a peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine in accordance with its resolutions.”
The PLO will have a long wait - as Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu told the UN in his annual address:
“I will be ready and I’d be willing to negotiate on the basis of the Trump plan to end our conflict with the Palestinians once and for all.”
In justifying the PLO‘s decision to jettison the Trump Plan - Abbas stated:
"The declaration we are adopting today reflects the belief of the State of Palestine that upholding international law is the guarantee for achieving justice, that the UN Charter remains the basis for a more just, peaceful and prosperous world and that international law is imprescriptible and its respect more pressing.”
The PLO long ago consigned itself to irrelevancy when it became the arbiter of what international law it was prepared to accept or fabricate and which to simply ignore - as exemplified by: - The “State of Palestine” not being a state under article 1 of the Montevideo Convention. - The PLO refusing to accept two foundational pillars of international law under article 18 of its 1964 Charter:
“The Balfour Declaration, the Mandate system and all that has been based upon them are considered fraud.” - Article 20 in the revised 1968 Charter seeing the PLO going even further:
“The Balfour Declaration, the Mandate for Palestine, and everything that has been based upon them, are deemed null and void.”
Jordan has reportedly expelled the husband of US-wanted terrorist Ahlam Tamimi.Joe Truzman: Hezbollah’s Precision Guided Missile project under renewed scrutiny
Nizar Tamimi, 46, arrived in Qatar after the Hashemite Kingdom refused to renew his residency and asked him to leave within 48 hours, reported the pan-Arab publication Al-Quds Al-Arabi on Thursday.
Ahlam Tamimi, 39, has been accused of being the mastermind behind the Sbarro Pizzeria bombing in Jerusalem on Aug. 9, 2001, that killed 15 people, including seven children, and wounded 130 others. Among those killed were two American citizens, 15-year-old Malki Roth and 31-year-old Judith Greenbaum, who was pregnant at the time. A third American, Chana Nachenberg, has remained in a permanent vegetative state ever since.
Nizar Tamimi was sentenced to life imprisonment for being involved in the 1993 murder and subsequent burning of Chaim Mizrahi.
Both Tamimis were released from prison in 2011 in an exchange between Israel and Hamas for captured Israel Defense Forces’ soldier Gilad Shalit. They married after their release.
Recent events in Lebanon have brought about renewed attention to Hezbollah’s Precision Guided Missile (PGM) project after an arms depot belonging to the Iranian-backed proxy exploded in Ayn al-Qana last week and Tuesday’s reveal by Prime Minister Netanyahu of Hezbollah ‘missile factories’ located in three Beirut neighborhoods.
On Sept. 22, a large explosion at a Hezbollah arms depot was reported in the southern Lebanese town of Ayn al-Qana. Shortly after the explosion Hezbollah commented to Al-Jazeera saying the cause of the explosion was a ‘technical error’.
“This explosion was at a house that stored weapons – result of technical error. No one was killed or injured. The building belonged to a Hezbollah affiliated de-mining association,” Hezbollah stated.
However, doubts about Hezbollah’s statement arose when the group announced a week later that one of their militants had recently been killed.
“The Islamic Resistance announces the martyred fighter Ali Najib Marwa, “Haji Abu Hassan Sajid” from the town of Zararia in southern Lebanon, who ascended while performing his jihad duty,” the statement said.
Although Hezbollah never specifically stated how the fighter died, a ‘security source’ stated to Lebanon’s Daily Star the militant had died from ‘wounds sustained in the Ayn al-Qana blast’.
Additionally, the explanation that weapons stored in Ayn al-Qana belonged to a ‘de-mining association’ is doubtful due to previous accusations of Hezbollah concealing its arsenal throughout the Beqaa valley and southern Lebanon.
Friday, October 02, 2020Elder of Ziyon
"pro-Palestinian", 2006, blame Israel, dictatorship, elections, media silence, Mike Pompeo, Munir al-Jaghoub, Palestinian Authority, PLO
Friday, October 02, 2020Elder of Ziyon
Friday, October 02, 2020Elder of Ziyon
Thursday, October 01, 2020IanLinkdump, Muhammad al-Durrah, Richard LandesYesterday was the 20th anniversary of one of the most disastrous events in the year 2000, an event that cast a long shadow over the unhappy early decades of a troubled new millennium. On September 30, 2000, a Palestinian cameraman clumsily filmed what he claimed was footage of a boy who came under fire and was killed by Israelis. A French-Israeli journalist then edited the brief fragments, cutting the last contradictory scene, and broadcast the accompanying narrative on France2.Jpost Editorial: Trump is no antisemite. Drawing comparisons with Hitler is just crass
The image of Muhammad al-Dura via the narrative that the IDF had targeted him became the global symbol of Palestinian suffering at the hand of Israeli cruelty. It rapidly became an “icon of hatred” that had a greater immediate and long-term effect on the new century than any other such vehicle of incitement.
A cry arose, for some of pain, for some of rage, but for all a clear sign that the Infidel, led by the twin Satans Israel and USA, were making war on Muslims. Indeed, no single event so far has done more to arouse the spirit of jihad against the West than this footage, which, as Bin Laden quickly pointed out in his recruiting video for global jihad, demanded vengeance against al Yahud and their allies. Vengeance justified suicide attacks on civilians (two previously “forbidden” practices).
The sentiment so resonated, that even “conservative” al Azhar had to yield before the sanctification of their combination martyrdom operations. While itself not apocalyptic, the Muhammad al-Dura icon fed an apocalyptic jihadi narrative: to #GenerationCaliphate Israel was the Dajjal (Antichrist).
The West followed suit. Lethal journalists like Robert Fisk quickly affirmed the charge of deliberate murder. Where before such comparisons were considered ugly if not worse, now comparing Israel to the Nazis became common. A prominent French news anchor, speaking for many, declared that al-Dura “erased, replaced the image of the boy in the Warsaw Ghetto.” It was a new, post-modern “replacement narrative.”
Instead of Christians or Muslims replacing Israel as the true Chosen People, it was the former chosen people replacing the Nazis, and the poor Palestinian victim suffering the fate of the Jews. The progressive refrain, “Israel has lost the moral high ground.” Nobel Peace Prize winners, politicians, diplomats, award-winning playwrights and journalists, prominent academics, UN officials, Jews and non-Jews, all joined in the chorus, aligning with the jihadi apocalyptic narrative. Israel was the new Nazi secular Antichrist.
We do not believe – based on Trump’s very positive track record on Israel and steps his administration has taken to combat antisemitism in the US, as well as by the number of Jews in his immediate family and in his inner circle – that the US president is an antisemite.Left Fascism
Those opposed to Trump have enough ammunition to use against him, having to do both with his behavior and his policies, without having to stoop to saying that he is an antisemite or a neo-Nazi sympathizer, or drawing comparisons between him and Hitler.
Unfortunately, the Jewish Democratic Council of America released a political advertisement on Tuesday, even before the debate – that will run in swing states with large Jewish populations – drawing a direct comparison between Trump’s America and the rise of fascism in 1930s Germany, and hinting at comparisons between Trump and Hitler.
“History shows us what happens when leaders use hatred and nationalism to divide their people,” a narrator solemnly stated over pictures of German shops dabbed with the word “Jude,” and a US synagogue defaced with graffiti.
The ad juxtaposes film of Nazi parades in Germany with footage of neo-Nazis marching in Charlottesville. It places images of German masses giving the sieg heil salute on one side of the screen, with Trump speaking on the other.
“As antisemitism and white nationalism rise to dangerous levels in America, we are all less secure,” the narrator intoned. “It is time to show that we have learned from the darkest moments in history. Hate doesn’t stop itself: It must be stopped.”
The advertisement – likening Trump to Hitler and 1930s Germany to 2020 America – is over the top, out of line and a gross misappropriation of the absolutely darkest period of Jewish history for momentary political gain.
Disagree with Trump, even vehemently if you wish. Criticize his behavior and his policies. Jump all over him, deservedly so, for not being able to unreservedly condemn white supremacists in America. But don’t compare Trump to Hitler, or the situation facing America’s Jews to that which faced German Jewry in the 1930s. To do so is as much an over-exaggeration as it is wrong.
In the end, does the left-fascist shoe fit our current culture moment? Consider the list: programmatic silencing of dissenters, purging of editorial pages, growing fear of transgressing murky viewpoint prohibitions, while university leaders generally refuse (there are some exceptions) to offer a full-throated defense of academic freedom, but instead embrace the stereotypical language of the social justice movement in its opposition to “the system.” They sound more like Heidegger promoting the Nazi revolution in the universities in 1934 than Edward R. Murrow in 1954 pushing back against Joe McCarthy. A lot of that is just cowardice. Equally reminiscent of fascism is the de facto coordination between the crowds in the streets and the pronouncements from corporate boardrooms, as well as the monitoring of political opinion by powerful social media. This imposed conformism, this Gleichschaltung, is playing out against the backdrop of attacks on the rule of law and across-the-board denunciations of all law enforcement.
Yet in one respect, the diagnosis of “left fascism” does not go far enough. It misses a key element of the moment, alluded to in Trump’s Mount Rushmore speech: the obsessive effort to suppress history and erase memory. Not only Confederate statues have been toppled but anti-Confederate ones as well, and the Emancipation Memorial honoring Abraham Lincoln and paid for by freed slaves has come under attack. In San Francisco the Board of Supervisors voted to conceal a New Deal era mural that included a critical depiction of slavery. Any symbol of the past has become suspect, as we hurtle into a brave new world robbed of the orientation that historical self-awareness might provide. At root there is only a nihilistic refusal of any positive identification with the shared project to achieve a “land of the free.”
This constellation of riots, lawlessness and social amnesia recalls another moment in American oratory with another American president. When the young Abraham Lincoln spoke at the Lyceum in Springfield, Illinois, in 1838, he was responding to mob violence, attacks on African Americans and on abolitionists, when “bands of hundreds and thousands ... burn churches, ravage and rob provision stores, throw printing-presses into rivers, shoot editors and hang and burn obnoxious persons at pleasure and with impunity.” Lincoln saw this “mobocratic spirit” leading to a general alienation from the government, a loosening of the bonds of affection for the republic, as the direct memory of the struggle for independence waned. It was that loss of a historical awareness of the origins and rationale for the United States which, in Lincoln’s view, threatened political stability. The “scenes of the revolution” were disappearing into forgetfulness, as the “silent artillery of time” erased the national past with every passing generation. Lincoln’s alternative: “General intelligence, sound morality, and, in particular, a reverence for the constitution and the law.”
One-hundred-eighty years after the Lyceum Address, we find ourselves even further away from the founding. In today’s America, even Habermas’ notion of a “constitutional patriotism,” safely removed from the dangerous temptations of nationalism, is under assault, let alone any deeper love of country. National history has all but disappeared from our curricula, and when it is still taught, it is poisoned with adversarial revisionism, an education for ressentiment and guilt. The failings alone matter: We are always only at 1619 and never at 1865 or 1945 or 1989, a distorted perspective that leads to tearing down, never building up, and embarrassing public rituals of pledging disallegiance. Describing these events as “left fascism,” Trump names the constellation of verbal progressivism mixed with a moralistic vitriol to harass dissenters and indulge in irrational violence, but the worst of our crisis is the contemptuous ignorance of the accomplishments of the nation. It is time to reclaim the history.
Thursday, October 01, 2020Elder of Ziyonhumor, Preoccupied
New York, October 1 - Educational and communal institutions continue to struggle to reach and attract young people, but one such organization has hit on a novel way to engage the youth in the liturgical aspects of Jewish tradition: a prayer book that contains concise the visual imagery of online chat media to convey what the ancient, sometimes abstruse, text means.
The Modern Online Jewish Institute (MOJI) introduced its Emoji Siddur today, aimed at late Millennials and "Generation-Z" youth whose twenty-first-century upbringing has rendered them more comfortable in the language of online communication than of the traditional printed variety. The book contains the liturgical text on one page, while the facing page features the same text rendered in emoji so that today's youth will find it more accessible and meaningful, a MOJI spokesman asserted in an interview.
"Each generation's needs are different," explained Rabbi Mendel Now. "Vernacular English was good enough for the last few editions of Jewish texts in America, but that's not the case anymore. Today's young Jews are more fluent in smileys, memes, and gifs than in the stodgy verbiage of the Birnbaum, Artscroll, Koren, or even Sim Shalom siddurim. With no disrespect to the august personages behind those volumes, we sensed the need to adapt our ancient prayers to a language more suitable for the emerging Jewish polity."
The Emoji Siddur is available in both hard copies and downloadable as an app; the hard copy opens from top to bottom in the manner of a traditional checkbook or notepad, instead of the typical right-to-left orientation of a siddur. This configuration allows the user to "scroll" with his or her finger to the next page, in the manner that one does on a device. Rabbi Now called the innovation one of a series of "enhancements" the product offers.
"Obviously the hard copy edition can't include animated gifs or emoji," he noted. "Still, the app even includes visual instructions, such as a smiley covering its eyes right before the recitation of Sh'ma, and a figure taking three steps back, then forward, before the Amidah, as is customary. One of the advantages of the emoji format is that a single image can convey a set of complex ideas, whereas even in a concise language such as Hebrew the same idea might take several words or sentences to communicate."
Rabbi Now also remarked that the emoji translation represents as much an advance as a return to the roots of human written communication, hieroglyphics.
Thursday, October 01, 2020Elder of ZiyonOver the course of a single summer in 2020, Jewish graves in Worms, Germany, were vandalised, an Austrian Jew was attacked in the street and a calendar published in the Czech Republic that glorified Nazi leaders. It came in a year during which Europe and the world marked 75 years since the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz.Meanwhile, Belgium, Denmark and Poland have either proposed bans or actually banned ritual slaughter, the method by which millions of Jews and Muslims in Europe require their meat to be killed. In Iceland, Denmark and Norway, a furore has erupted over circumcision, with critics arguing that the practice is inhumane and should be banned for those under the age of 18.“It is very frustrating, there is no question,” Rabbi Menachem Margolin, president of the European Jewish Association, told Euronews from his office in Brussels.“You just think, [...] why do we have to [do this] again [...]. Three weeks ago it was the circumcision issue in Belgium [...]. Two weeks ago it was circumcision in Denmark, this week it is ritual slaughter in Poland, I mean what is next?”Poland’s ban on kosher meat was pushed through by the governing Law and Justice Party (PiS) earlier in September against the objections of its two minority coalition partners, potentially bringing down the Polish government and paving the way for new elections.The ban on kosher meat was part of a wide-ranging law on animal welfare, which will similarly outlaw Muslim halal slaughter and the production of fur. It is currently in a 14-day review period, but the fact that the PiS was willing to let its coalition collapse to pass it suggests it could stand.Speaking to Euronews last week when the law was passed, Margolin told Euronews that the campaign for the animal welfare law had distinct antisemitic overtones, presenting the supporters of the law as "good Polish citizens" and its opponents, among them the Jewish community, as bad. But there will also be a practical impact on Europe’s Jewish community.“Limiting the export of kosher meat from Poland will immediately impact Jewish people from all over Europe because many Jewish people from Europe consume kosher meat coming from Poland,” he said.
In my capacity as a minister in various Israeli cabinets, I dealt extensively with the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement. I have come to know firsthand the bias and decades-long anti-Israel sentiment in the United Nations.Merkel’s government is ‘undermining solidarity with Israel’
But despite this, I decided to begin my U.N. ambassadorship with a clear determination to fight for Israel’s reputation, to get rid of the hatred toward Israel there and to make sure that an automatic majority against it is no longer a preordained fate. I believe that now, with Arab countries embracing peace with Israel as a boon and Iranian brutality being exposed on a daily basis, there is a fighting chance at achieving this goal.
As soon as I arrived in New York, I began working alongside our friends in the Trump administration to restore the U.N. sanctions on Iran that had been lifted following the 2015 nuclear deal. Tehran’s windfall due to the sanctions relief has armed its terrorist tentacles in Iran, Syria, Yemen, Libya, Gaza and of course in Lebanon.
One would think that the United Nations, as an institution that has championed peace and security, would join the struggle against the largest terrorist regime in the world, which has continued to openly call for the annihilation of Israel. Unfortunately, the Security Council has chosen excuses over actions.
While Iran executes protesters, including wrestler Navid Afkari, a majority of Security Council members have shamefully refused to join the U.S.-led effort against Tehran, effectively choosing to reward such murderous action. There is no better proof for the disconnect between the theoretical ideas expressed by the U.N. Charter and their failed implementation in reality.
Germany has an anti-Israel bias at the United Nations, according to Uwe Becker, the commissioner to combat antisemitism in the German state of Hesse.
Following Germany’s abstention last week at the UN on an anti-Israel resolution, he told The Jerusalem Post: “Even in times of rapprochement between Israel and the Arab states, interested countries continue their smear theater at the United Nations and once again pillory the Jewish state. Now there must be an end to the ducking away. Germany’s abstention only strengthens Israel’s enemies at the UN and weakens the efforts for peace in the region.”
“I am very disappointed about Germany’s vote after a new resolution on the alleged violations of women’s rights by Israel,” said Becker, who is also president of the Germany-Israel Friendship Association.
“Germany is undermining solidarity with Israel if it does not finally take a clear and unequivocal stand at the United Nations against the politically staged permanent condemnation of Israel,” he added. “Neutrality is inappropriate when the moral verdict of guilt is passed on Israel.”
Becker is widely considered the most forceful German political advocate for the security of the State of Israel.
“Attitude and backbone are required, not passivity and diplomatic kowtowing,” he said. “If, at the end of a vote, Israel is the only country in the world accused of violating women’s rights, and countries decide to do so where women have virtually no rights, then the German side should finally wake up.”
Members of Belgium’s Jewish community this week expressed great concern at their country’s incoming government, saying some of its members are known for being extremely critical of Israel.
Even before the final cabinet lineup was set to be announced on Wednesday evening, friends of Israel familiar with the Belgian political scene predicted increased tensions with Jerusalem and the local Jewish community, pointing to what they said were several harsh Israel critics likely to be appointed to key positions in the government.
“Israel will find that this government will try to shut down all little dialogue left between both countries,” said Brussels-based Jenny Aharon, who advises Israeli officials and Jewish organizations on matters related to EU-Israel relations.
However, she added, the newly formed government, which will be sworn in by King Philippe on Thursday morning, “does not represent a Flemish majority. Therefore it would be inaccurate to consider its adopted anti-Israel policies as a sentiment shared by the Belgian people as a whole.”
Belgium is considered among Israel’s toughest critics in Europe, with Jerusalem and Brussels at odds over the Palestinian question.
In February, the Belgian ambassador in Tel Aviv was summoned to the Foreign Ministry for a dressing down over what Israeli officials called “a systematic campaign to demonize the Jewish state” after the country’s embassy to the United Nations invited a pro-Palestinian activist to address the Security Council.
Thursday, October 01, 2020Elder of Ziyon"pro-Palestinian", 2014, Abu Mazen, gaza, Mahmoud Abbas, media bias, media silence, NGO silence, Operation Protective Edge, reconstruction, UN, United Nations
Thursday, October 01, 2020Elder of Ziyon
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri reportedly will announce the framework agreement representing the basis for the launch of indirect negotiations with Israel on demarcating the land and maritime borders, under the auspices of the United Nations and American mediation, al-Akhbar daily reported Thursday.A high-ranking American delegation led by David Schenker will arrive in Beirut in mid October to start negotiations, it said.
phillipoDirect, indirect, what difference does it make. In the end some agreement on the sea borders will be reached and signatures of Lebanese and Israeli officials will appear on the same document.So why can't this happen on a land border agreement?thepatriotIt is about time. The world is moving forward, our neighbors are moving forward, and we keep moving backwards, and towards darkness...I pray that we demarcate those borders, and end up Ebola's [Hezbollah - EoZ] pathetic excuse of a "Resistance"..
Thursday, October 01, 2020Elder of ZiyonAshrawi
Israel is still taking land, Ashrawi reported, and she cannot even travel from her hometown of Ramallah to Jerusalem.[1] She further insists that Israel expects to get its own way without any words spoken between the two entities, while most of the rest of the world’s nations want a negotiated settlement.[2] Ashrawi reminds us, in any case, that “negotiations are just a means to an end.” The United Nations must be the place where peace is made, she suggested since that’s where international law prevails.[3]
1. The decision of not being able to travel from Ramallah to Jerusalem is from an agreement that the PLO signed. Before the first Intifada, under "occupation," Jews and Palestinians both traveled freely throughout the Land of Israel. Restrictions only started with Palestinian violence. Imagine that.
2. Israel had sought a negotiated settlement since 1993. The Palestinians refused to negotiate and tried to push the entire issue to the anti-Israel UN to avoid any compromise for peace.
3. She here seems to admit that she doesn't want negotiations, and that the situation should be unilaterally decided by the UN. She contradicted herself and no one even cares.
Thursday, October 01, 2020Elder of ZiyonOpinion, Vic Rosenthal
This antisemitism was once, perhaps, an annoyance that could be swept under the rug with claims of academic freedom and diversity. It can’t be anymore. It has become pervasive, institutionalized, and systemic. And it is enforced by brutal means — both physical and psychological. The violence is bold and public, as it is intended to be, and could not possibly be sustained without the open collaboration of students, faculty, and administration. It has become something like a pogrom in slow motion — an intellectual pogrom, perhaps, but a pogrom nonetheless.
Jews have reacted to this in ways that are hardly unprecedented: surrender, apathy or defiance. In other words, they internalize the institutional antisemitism and become activists on its behalf, as have groups like Jewish Voice for Peace. Or they keep their heads down and try to go on with their lives. Or they become activists on behalf of the Jewish people and Zionism, despite the high cost of doing so.
I do not want to demean any one of these groups. We should admire, encourage and support the defiant ones, and reach out to the apathetic ones, but we should not demonize those who surrender. Most of them are young, impressionable, unsure of themselves and their identity, and most importantly vastly outnumbered by forces far more powerful than they are. And those forces are happy to engage in the most debased and sadistic exploitation of that power.
In many ways, the fault is our own. For decades, the Jewish community and Jewish leadership allowed the poison to fester, accepted the excuses of academic freedom and diversity, and left Jewish students to their own devices, which were very few. Until recently, when several organizations have thankfully emerged to address the problem, little attention was being paid to the horrors committed by the “Long Marchers” or the suffering of their Jewish victims. It was we who abandoned those Jews, and it is we who must make amends for it. They were left to face the beast alone, and they can hardly be blamed for sometimes choosing to feed it rather than fight it.
Ironically, however, because of the very emotional and physical violence the “Long Marchers” have used, the mere fact that some Jews have surrendered to antisemitism and anti-Zionism says absolutely nothing about the Jews or Zionism. This is because we do not and cannot know what these Jews really think, or what they would think if they were not subjected to the Long Marchers’ oppression and violence. What a person says under torture cannot be trusted, and what a person thinks while being abused is equally malleable. Should we succeed in rolling back the “Long March” and providing young Jews the freedom to make up their own minds without psychological coercion or physical violence, we would likely be pleasantly surprised. The truth is, we shouldn’t be worrying about the alienation of young Jews. We should be worrying about how to help them fight for that freedom they so desperately need.
AOC initially accepted the group’s invitation to help honor Rabin. However, once that became known, she received an avalanche of criticism from her allies on the intersectional left and immediately backed down. She later claimed that her hosts had misrepresented the nature of the event and withdrew from it.Indy piece on AOC backing out of Rabin event doesn't even feign fairness
To the party’s activist base, anything associated with Israel—even a program dedicated to the memory of a man who was assassinated by a right-wing extremist because of his efforts to make peace—is beyond the pale.
BDS supporters smear Rabin, who received a Nobel Peace Prize for signing the Oslo Accords in 1993, as a war criminal because of his service during Israel’s 1948 War of Independence and as Minister of Defense during the First Intifada, when he is supposed to have urged the troops under his command to “break the bones” of those Palestinians committing violence.
Arguments about Rabin’s record are beside the point. Those who, like “The Squad” and their fellow travelers on the left, believe in intersectional canards about the Palestinian war on the Jewish state being morally equivalent to the struggle for civil rights in the United States see all Israelis as alike. If they think the one Jewish state on the planet has a right to exist or defend itself, in the eyes of the BDS movement, they are evil oppressors exercising “white privilege” over “indigenous people,” even if they are persons of color who are indigenous to the land of Israel.
AOC is someone who, as we have repeatedly seen these last two years, doesn’t blink an eye about defying House Speaker Nancy Pelosi or Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. That she thought it necessary to acquiesce to the demands of a Twitter mob—led in this instance by an anti-Zionist writer for the far-left Jewish Currents publication—speaks volumes not only about her ideology, but about the disciplined nature of the intersectional left when it comes to policing its adherents with respect to Israel. Her overt snub of liberal Jews sends a loud message that there is no place for them in the party base if they are not willing to renounce support for Israel’s right to exist.
This is yet another wake-up call for Jewish Democrats who may think Biden’s defeat of AOC ally Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), ensured that their party is going to remain solidly in the pro-Israel camp. AOC and her allies can no longer be dismissed as noisy non-entities. Unless and until they are explicitly repudiated by Biden, rather than appeased and coddled, they can be forgiven for thinking the future of the Democratic Party belongs to them.
The Independent recently reported on the decision by US Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) to back out of an Americans for Peace Now event commemorating Yitzhak Rabin following criticism by anti-Israel activists. The article (“AOC pulls out of memorial event for ex-Israeli leader Yitzhak Rabin”, Sept. 27), by Matt Mathers, was notable in that, whilst quoting propagandists like Ali Abunimah agreeing with AOC’s decision, it failed to devote any space to the many voices critical of the New York congresswoman.Ilhan Omar Alleged Voter Fraud Funded by Anti-Israel Arab Businessman
The article noted that AOC’s about-face seemed influenced by a tweet by pro-Palestinian voices, such as a contributor to the anti-Zionist Jewish Currents Magazine, who said that, for Palestinians, Rabin is “remembered [for] his brutal rule suppressing Palestinian protest during the First Intifada, [and] someone who reportedly ordered the breaking of Palestinian bones”.
The Indy failed to note, however, the prominent left-wing pro-peace voices who were highly critical of AOC, including officials from Peace Now Israel, the head of J Street, and Rabin’s granddaughter Noa Rothman.
Indeed, the demonisation of Rabin is especially inexplicable to the Israeli left given that the prime minister was murdered by a far-right extremist opposed to his peace efforts, and in fact is one of the few Israeli political figures lionized by those generally critical of the state. Those vilifying Rabin are in effect saying that all Israeli leaders are beyond the moral pale – suggesting that their problem isn’t with any particular Israeli policy or government, but with the country’s very essence.
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