Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, December 14, 2020

12/14 Links Pt1: Plans being finalized for dramatic 1st visit by Netanyahu and Rivlin to Bahrain and UAE; Israel crosses grim threshold as COVID deaths top 3,000

From Ian:

Plans being finalized for dramatic 1st visit by Netanyahu and Rivlin to Bahrain and UAE

After a week of reporting from the United Arab Emirates, I am now in Bahrain, covering the rapidly warming relations between Israel and these Gulf countries since the signing of the Abraham Accords on Sept. 15.

Today, I can report that Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa spoke by telephone with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin.

Officially, Rivlin called to congratulate the Bahraini monarch ahead of “National Day,” marking the 49th year of the Gulf country’s independence from the British empire. Celebrations begin here on Wednesday and go through Thursday, with all national offices and most work places closed.

However, ALL ARAB NEWS can report that based on conversations with Israeli, U.S. and Gulf Arab sources, plans are being arranged for a dramatic first state visit by senior Israeli leaders to Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.

Rivlin has been invited to visit Bahrain, and has invited Bahraini leaders to visit Jerusalem. The same is true with the UAE.

Netanyahu has also been invited to visit both countries.

It is not yet clear whether both Rivlin and Netanyahu would travel together, or whether the trips will be separate.

ALL ARAB NEWS can report that Netanyahu has requested that none of his Cabinet ministers travel to either Gulf country prior to his own visit.

I would not rule out a December visit by at least Netanyahu or Rivlin, but January is also a possibility.

National Day in the UAE was Dec. 2.

Bahrain’s National Day commemorates the day that the first emir — King Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa — ascended to the throne in 1961. Independence was formally gained from the British on Aug. 15, 1961.

These holidays slowed down the planning somewhat.

It will be a huge story in the region for either or both Israeli leaders to make their first state visits to the Gulf states.

🇲🇦 Morocco
🇧🇭 Bahrain
🇯🇴 Jordan
🇪🇬 Egypt
🇸🇩 Sudan
🇦🇪 UAE
🇴🇲 Oman?
🇮🇩 Indonesia?

At this rate by 2021 there’ll only be Jeremy Corbyn and Rashida Tlaib left to make peace with Israel 😂🥰
— Israel Advocacy Movement (@israel_advocacy) December 13, 2020

JCPA: The Temple Mount in Jerusalem: From Religious Conflict to Religious Normalization

A first look at the new and different Muslim tourism expected to reach Israel following the peace treaties with the UAE and Bahrain.

The controversy that has been dividing the Muslim world for years around visits to “occupied” Jerusalem and how the normalization agreements re-shuffled the cards in this Muslim domestic debate.

What do rabbis think of Muslim tourism to what is also Jews’ holiest site?

Expectations and the potential – what did Muslim tourism look like before the peace accords, and what would it look like after them?

How should Israel prepare for the Muslim wave of tourism in order to create a success story and prevent the Palestinians from disrupting this unprecedented tourism?

US special envoy: UAE, Bahrain shine a light on world during Hanukkah

Jews are receiving a warm welcome in the United Arab Emirates, US Deputy Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism Ellie Cohanim said Monday. She recently spoke to members of the local community and Jews and Israelis who have come from all over the world to Dubai. “When you work on combating antisemitism you spend so much time fighting the darkness and this is all about shining the light and it is a model society for the region and the world,” she says.

“The amount of coexistence you see in the Emirates and the religious pluralism and tolerance you see walking the streets of the UAE is profound. The warm welcome Jews are receiving here is incredible and a historic moment for all of us to observe.” This is a sentiment many have echoed over the last two weeks as Jews and Israelis have been welcomed in the UAE in the wake of the Abraham Accords. Cohanim’s trip to the UAE was a long time coming during a difficult year with COVID travel restrictions. As part of the office led by Elan Carr, the Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating Antisemitism, Cohanim focuses on antisemitism in the Middle East, North Africa and Latin America.

She is well-placed for this work because her family was forced to flee Iran after the Islamic Revolution of 1979. She speaks with passion about the changes that are happening now in the region and which have led to a new opening and tolerance for Jews. She met with Rabbi Elie Abadie who recently moved to Dubai to serve as the community’s rabbi. Abadie, who was born in Beirut, is a scholar and expert who is an example of the international aspect of the Jewish community of the UAE.

In contrast to Bahrain where there has been an organized Jewish community since 1860, much of the Jewish life and embrace of Hanukkah celebrations in the UAE is new. She also met Ross Kriel of the Jewish Community of the Emirates and Rabbi Levi Duchman of the Jewish Community of the UAE, the leading heads of the Jewish communities there.

People aren't getting how huge the Solarwinds attack was. Russia now pwns the world.

This story is huge, and the media isn't getting how huge it is:

Hackers believed to be operating on behalf of a foreign government have breached software provider SolarWinds and then deployed a malware-laced update for its Orion software to infect the networks of multiple US companies and government networks, US security firm FireEye said today.

FireEye's report comes after Reuters, the Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday intrusions at the US Treasury Department and the US Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).

The SolarWinds supply chain attack is also how hackers gained access to FireEye's own network, which the company disclosed earlier this week.

The Washington Post cited sources claiming that multiple other government agencies were also impacted.

Solarwinds is used everywhere - some 80% of the Fortune 500 companies. And by the nature of the software, it can access the entire network of every company that uses it, even if it segments networks by sensitivity of the data on each one.

That means that for six entire months, the Russians (presumably) have had full, unfettered access to even the most sensitive networks and databases for most of the major corporations and many of the governments on the planet.

The FireEye breach that was acknowledged last week shows that the hack was operational way, way beyond the US government. If a major security company can get hacked this way, that means that everyone was hacked.

Russia now has copies of every database it wants from any network, even the most heavily guarded databases. It already stole all the information it wants.

But it is even worse than that.

Once they had access to the most sensitive data in every major company, they might have, and probably did, launch similar supply side attacks against every other major software company the way they hacked Solarwinds. They may have modified the source code and programs on hundreds or thousands of other products that get downloaded as patches or updates every day. This hack was only the entree to other similar hacks that will not be easily found and eliminated.

The amount of damage that is possible from this attack is stunning. Russia could use it to turn off or destroy critical infrastructure like the electric grid or nuclear power plants. They could have infiltrated weapons systems.

They were in for six months. The amount of backdoors and time bombs that could have been inserted in both government and private systems is unfathomable. Our networks aren't just compromised - they may be fatally compromised.

The cyberwar started long ago, but Russia might have just won it.

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Golden Gate Xpress has a long article about the pressures faced by Jewish and Palestinian students on campus at San Francisco State University.

One doesn't have to read between the lines much to realize that the reality is much worse than what is being described:

When Ben Lieberman first came to SF State, he wanted to bridge gaps between Jewish and Palestinian students.

He introduced himself to students in the General Union of Palestine Students. However, after becoming involved with SF Hillel for a Jewish community, he felt the students from GUPS perceived him in a more negative light.

“It’s been hard,” Lieberman said. “Certain Jewish students are like, ‘Ben what the fuck.’ But then some of the Palestinian students when they see me are like, ‘Oh, you’re with them, and they’re Zionist.’”

“It’s hard because I end up engaging more with the Jewish students who disagree with me, then I get to with the Palestinian students who maybe don’t realize I do agree with them — and I want to engage with them but it’s hard,” he said.

So a Jew who wants to show support for Palestinians is blocked because he also wants to be part of the Jewish community on campus through the only Jewish student organization, Hillel.

Does no one see a problem with this?

And it is not as if Hillel is unapologetically Zionist. At SFSU, it isn't - and the reason is because Jews are too afraid to deal with the haters:

Though not all Jewish students in SF Hillel identify as Zionists, those who do seek the Jewish community there often feel isolated from other student groups who are critical of Israel or oppose Zionism.

“If you’re a Jewish student, you’re kind of forced into this conversation whether you want to be a part of it or not,” SF Hillel President Ocean Noah said.

Noah said that while she doesn’t relate to Zionism the same way some students in SF Hillel do, as president she must account for their concerns.

She also said that pressure on campus to discuss or have a strong perspective about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict creates anxiety for her as a Jew of color.

“We have to think about other histories and colonization,” Noah said. “And I think that can be a very difficult conversation. Like, wow — what if my heritage is repeating some things that have been done to my other heritage? That’s very hard to think about, and I personally avoid that. It’s not fun for me.”

SF Hillel employees and students involved with SF Hillel have said that other student groups frame SF Hillel as opposing these organizations’ goals and values, as they see Zionism and social justice as incompatible.

Gabe Smallson, student representative of SF Hillel and president of the Jewish fraternity AEPI, said that despite knowing about the tension on campus, he has only felt directly targeted by other students for being part of SF Hillel twice.

“I was just walking,” Smallson said. “And this kid is skateboarding by and yells, ‘Get the fuck out of here you fucking colonizers.’”

He said SF Hillel and AEPI have had some of their lowest membership numbers this past year. He and others speculate it is because Jewish students without a strong Jewish background or opinion on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict may not want to be openly Jewish or a part of these Jewish organizations because of what he describes as an anti-Zionist campus climate.

This is a campus where openly identifying as Jewish is uncomfortable - unless you are clearly and publicly anti-Israel and even anti-Hillel.

Whether you want to admit this or not, this is pure antisemitism.

The article doesn't deal much with unapologetically Zionist Jews. It does, however, have plenty of quotes from Jews who have learned to hate Israel - often on campus itself. And that takes them away from asserting their Jewishness as well:

An SF State student interviewed on the condition of anonymity said that after learning about the tensions on campus, they first became more involved in SF Hillel and aligned organizations such as the David Project. They wished to show that not all Jewish students on campus are pro-Israel, but they cut ties once they realized that SF Hillel was at its core a pro-Israel organization. This led them to ultimately disconnect from Jewish student life and hide their Jewish identity at SF State.

“I definitely never felt comfortable wearing anything openly that was Jewish,” the student said. “I never wanted to have my Jewish star open when I wore one. I never felt like it was something that I would openly want to be expressing for some reason. If the topic came up, ‘Oh you’re Jewish,’ Israel would follow, and I didn’t — I don’t — have a firm stance on it ’cause it’s a complicated issue, and so I didn’t like being constantly put on the defensive for that.”

“Generally with Jewish pride comes the assumption of Israeli pride. It’s like, ‘No, actually.’ So that I remember is the main thing, always needing to have an opinion on Israel, and it always being the wrong one depending on who you were talking to.”

It is the experiences of the Jews who are ambivalent about, or who hate, Israel that prove the antisemitism on the campus of San Francisco State University.

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There have been a series of antisemitic attacks against the University of Kentucky Chabad for years

On Saturday night, during the University of Kentucky Chabad's candle lighting ceremony for the third night of Chanukah, a man in a car started shouting antisemitic abuse, grabbed the arm of a participant in the ceremony who tried to intervene, dragged him down the block while driving and ran over his leg before speeding off.

As shocking as this is, it appears that the UK Chabad is attacked by antisemites all the time.

Only last month, the sign at the Chabad and its menorah were damaged - and the Chabad's director says that this was the fourth such attack in five years.

Rabbi Shlomo Litvin says that he gets verbally attacked weekly.

In August, an antisemitic flyer was distributed throughout campus, saying "Jews will not replace us."

The response from the community to these attacks has been appropriate outrage, with meetings and showings of support for Chabad and the Jewish community, and the governor tweeting his condemnations.

It hasn't slowed down the hate.

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Chanukah Music Videos night 4: 8 Days of Hanukkah (Hadestown) plus Spin Dreidel (Pella Singers) and Itzik Eshel

The Broadway cast of Hadestown offers this jazzy, original song.

Bonus: Pella Singers - Spin Dreidel - Dance Monkey Hanukkah Parody

And a medley from Itzik Eshel:

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12/13 Links: There is no room for Israel in the lies of the Nakba narrative; A Nobel Peace Prize for President Trump and His Majesty King Mohammed VI?

From Ian:

David Collier: There is no room for Israel in the lies of the Nakba narrative

Questions for the Rabbi and Jewish News I ask the Rabbi and Jewish News a simple question: Can you point me to the Nakba narrative that you consider to be true? If Hotovely cannot call it a lie, what is it specifically that she cannot question?

Is it the Nakba narrative of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign? The Nakba narrative of the BDS Central Committee? Or the one promoted by Fatah or the PFLP? Is it perhaps the Nakba narrative of Hamas? Ilan Pappe’s conspiracy theory? I’ve read the books and have seen the story told to students on campus. It is an antisemitic pack of lies. Is it this narrative you want us to believe?

Which one? Don’t just tell us we cannot question it – point specifically to the one you categorically believe to be true. Until you can do this – and I won’t hold my breath, nobody has a right to tell us not to call it out for what it is – a pack of lies. The Nakba narrative and Holocaust equation

The Nakba narrative was designed to equate itself to the Holocaust. You can visibly see the Holocaust denying discourse surrounding those who question the historicity of the Nakba narrative events. See these two images:

Nakba narrative denial There is nothing accidental about this equation. The Nakba is as bad as the Holocaust which makes it an untouchable historical event and Zionists are therefore as bad as the Nazis. Na’amod who won’t tell us what the Nakba even is, ethically compare questioning the event to Holocaust denial. The paper above it was the online TRT outlet – a Turkish state-owned channel. The false narrative is designed to self-protect and we are told that if we question their lies, then we are as bad as Holocaust deniers. This strategy is dangerous and sickening.

Anti Board of Deputies punchbag and the survival of the diaspora Some of this is the Jewish hard-left picking up anything to throw at the BOD. Hotovely provides a convenient punchbag and they can and will attack any community body that platforms her. It is something we will see frequently during her time of service in the UK. Hotovely is the Israeli Ambassador. Her role is to represent Israel. It is absolutely vital that the lies of the Nakba are confronted. As certain left wing groups are spreading such a false narrative within the Jewish community, it was right and proper for Hotovely to use the platform of the Board of Deputies to address this.

When I talk about the Nakba in this fashion – some in the community feel real discomfort – but there is no denial here that the Arabs suffered loss. This conflation is part of a politically correct cultural conditioning and we have to break through these walls. These ahistorical lies MUST be opposed. Zionism cannot exist within the Nakba narrative. It is a simple equation. If secular diaspora Jewry swallows the false narrative of our enemie , then secular diaspora is burning the only ship holding itself afloat. This ahistorical hard-left poison must not be allowed to filter into the mainstream.

Seth Frantzman: Will UAE be safer and more tolerant for Jews than most of Europe?

Hanukkah celebrations in Dubai last week and the national efforts to support tolerance and coexistence in the United Arab Emirates have created a reality in which Jews are more welcomed and safe in the UAE than in Europe.

Many friends and contacts I have spoken to say they were surprised by the feeling walking around the Emirates’ most populous city over the last week wearing a kippah, something they would be hesitant to do in many places in Europe.

This is a testament to the reality of most Western democracies: It’s dangerous to be a Jew in Europe. Jewish schools are attacked and Jews with a kippah are assaulted. It happens almost every day throughout Western Europe and the US, where in some places half of all religious hate crimes target Jews.

Today, Jews are safer in the UAE than in most European countries and most American states. We measure antisemitism in most Western countries by how many thousands of attacks there are – that’s the reality. In most European countries, intolerance towards Jews is widespread, and growing.

A Nobel Peace Prize for President Trump and His Majesty King Mohammed VI?

Salmi Gailani, who was born in 1991, the year of the ceasefire, "blames the U.N. for the fact that for 30 years, Western Sahara has been a frozen conflict.... '30 years is long enough to place ballot boxes,' he said." — Euronews, November 17, 2020.

The international community has been trying to broker a peace for the Western Sahara for 30 years. Some observers, however, suggest that "if the Polisario Front were to have sovereignty over the Western Sahara, it would mean that Algeria was effectively surrounding Morocco."

Along with last week's the triumph for President Trump and King Mohammed VI, there have also been charges that Morocco could have joined the Abraham Accords without the US recognizing Morocco's sovereignty over the Western Sahara. So far, however, no one has quite said how.

Cartoons of the Day: Desert Island Progressives

Continuing my series of re-captioning single-panel cartoons:

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Morocco to teach Jewish history in schools - Palestinians report it as "Zionist" history

AFP reported:

Jewish history and culture in Morocco will soon be part of the school curriculum — a “first” in the region and in the North African country, where Islam is the state religion.

The decision “has the impact of a tsunami,” said Serge Berdugo, secretary-general of the Council of Jewish Communities of Morocco.

It “is a first in the Arab world,” he told AFP from Casablanca.

The decision to add Jewish history and culture to lessons was discreetly launched before the diplomatic deal was announced.

Part of an ongoing revamp of Morocco’s school curriculum since 2014, the lessons will be included from next term for children in their final year of primary school, aged 11, the education ministry said.

The move aims to “highlight Morocco’s diverse identity,” according to Fouad Chafiqi, head of academic programs at the ministry.

Yet when this story was reported in Palestinian Arabic media, there was a crucial change:

In a first precedent in the Arab world, Zionist history will be part of the curriculum in Morocco.

For decades, Arabs have pretended that they have no problems with Jews, only Zionists. Yet here, the Palestinians at least show that they don't distinguish between the two.

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The PLO is more careful now about condemning the latest Arab state to normalize relations with Israel

When the UAE announced its desire to normalize its relations with Israel, senior PLO and PA officials, including Mahmoud Abbas, Nabil Rudineh and Saeb Erekat, were quick to condemn and denounce it.

The level of officials to issue statements has gone down with each subsequent announcement.

For Bahrain, it was Ahmad Majdalani, social affairs minister in the Palestinian Authority.

For Sudan, it was Wasel Abu Youssef, a senior member of the PLO.

Popular Struggle Front logo

For Morocco, it was Tayseer Khaled, a member of the Executive Committee of the PLO, plus a couple of statements from minor factions of the PLO that no one ever hears from, the Popular Struggle Front and the Palestinian Democratic Union.

After the disaster of realizing that the Arab League would rather support the UAE than the Palestinians, the Palestinian leadership has decided that public condemnations of fellow Arab states from their highest levels actually hurts them.

They still issue the condemnations, but the language is more muted and the spokespeople are less and less prominent.

I'm looking forward to seeing who condemns Bhutan.

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12/12 Links: Israel normalizes ties with Bhutan; How the Trump administration banished the ghosts blocking the path to peace; Washington Wizards launch new Israeli Twitter account

Israel normalizes ties with Bhutan

Israel established full diplomatic relations with Bhutan for the first time on Saturday night.

Ambassador to India Ron Malka and his Bhutanese counterpart Vetsop Namgyel signed the final agreement normalizing ties on Saturday night. The countries’ foreign ministries held secret talks over the past year towards the goal of forging official ties, which included delegations between the two capitals Jerusalem and Thimphu.

The effort to make relations between the two countries was not connected to the Abraham Accords, in which four Arab countries – United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco – normalized ties with Israel in as many months, with American mediation. In fact, Bhutan does not even have official diplomatic relations with the US.

Bhutan is a Buddhist kingdom in the Himalayas, bordering on India and the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. It has gone to great lengths to keep itself isolated from the rest of the world in order to avoid outside influences and to preserve its culture and natural resources. The country limits tourism, especially from outside South Asia.

The landlocked country has formal diplomatic relations with only 53 other countries – a list that does not include the US, UK, France or Russia – and has embassies in only seven of them.

Neither does the country have ties with China, having closed its border to the country on its north after China’s 1959 invasion of Tibet.

August 2019: Kingdom of Bhutan: Israel’s new friend in the Himalayas?

At first glance, the State of Israel and the Kingdom of Bhutan — two small Asian countries separated by nearly 5,300 kilometers of bone-dry deserts and snow-capped mountains — appear to have little in common besides the fact they occupy the same continent.

Highly urbanized Israel, no bigger than New Jersey, is one of the most wired countries on Earth. Of its nine million inhabitants; 88% have smartphones and 75% are Jews. Immensely popular with tourists, Israel will receive 4.7 million foreigners of all religions this year.

Isolated Bhutan, by contrast, is nearly twice Israel’s size but has barely 800,000 people, all of them Buddhists. Fewer than 200,000 tourists annually visit this Himalayan Shangri-La, which as late as 1980 had just 1,200 phone lines in service. Television came to Bhutan only in 1999.

Despite mutual feelings of admiration, the two countries don’t have diplomatic relations … not yet. But the day that happens, Yeshey Tshogyal — who prefers to see similarities instead of differences — would make an ideal choice as the Forbidden Kingdom’s first ambassador to Israel.

“The people here are very warm and welcoming. They’re also open-minded, at least the ones I’ve met,” the 22-year-old told me in Tel Aviv just before her flight back to New York, where she’s pursuing a double major in psychology and intercultural communications at Baruch College.

Last week, Yeshey wrapped up a two-month internship at the Israel-Asia Center, a nonprofit organization based in Jerusalem.

Seth Mandel: How the Trump administration banished the ghosts blocking the path to peace

In July 2009, President Barack Obama met with Jewish leaders at the White House. America, he told them, had been mistaken in trying to adhere to its goal of “no daylight” with Israel. During the previous eight years of the George W. Bush administration, Obama told Jewish leaders, “There was no space between us and Israel, and what did we get from that? When there is no daylight, Israel just sits on the sidelines, and that erodes our credibility with the Arab states.” Obama wanted to put some space between the U.S. and Israel, and proceeded to do exactly that. His experiment was a flop: He was the least successful president regarding the Arab-Israeli conflict since the end of the Cold War.

Trump sought to correct this. He recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moved the U.S. Embassy there. Trump also had the U.S. recognize Israeli sovereignty over its Golan Heights in the north. When Friedman was announced as the pick for ambassador to Israel, liberal figures insisted he was too pro-Israel and too supportive of what they viewed as the Israeli Right. But success followed.

Kushner, thus, began his push for peace with the wind at his back: Pundits and so-called “experts” had all promised there would be bloodshed from Trump’s Jerusalem moves, but none had materialized because they fundamentally misunderstood the region’s politics. The Palestinians rejected Kushner’s “economic peace” model out of hand, just as they have rejected every peace plan before it. But it turned out he had some surprising takers.

The Palestinians’ legitimate drive for statehood and self-determination had taken on an outsize role in the region’s affairs. Ramallah effectively was given a veto over Arab normalization with Israel. But when Trump called their bluff over Jerusalem, it shattered the myth that you had to go through the Palestinians if you wanted public cooperation and reconciliation with Israel. Trump’s decision to leave the Iran nuclear deal also showed America’s Sunni Gulf allies that he could be trusted to restore the bonds broken by Obama’s attempts to favor Iran over traditional allies.

Much like the ancient ghosts of ethnic conflict that haunt the Balkans, the Middle East was a place where the Palestinians didn’t hold the only veto; history had one too. But the Trump administration approached it with an unsentimental proposal: Don’t be ruled by inherited rivalries and the trauma of the past; if you have the chance to make your lives better right now, take it. The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain did, striking recognition deals that include trade and civil aviation plus joint efforts to combat anti-Semitism. Sudan joined the party, agreeing to normalize relations with Israel and having the U.S. remove it from a list of terror-sponsoring states. On Dec. 10, Morocco entered the normalization-with-Israel parade in return for the U.S.’s recognition of its sovereignty over Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony.

None of this is to say this tack will always work — it won’t. But in several fraught regions weighed down by the bloodshed of history, it offered a path out of the desert. Future administrations, very much including the incoming Biden White House, should study these lessons carefully, adding one more tool to America’s diplomatic arsenal.

“The Arab countries have made clear that they will not make peace with Israel without resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. That’s not where their loyalties lie. That’s not where their politics are.” - @JohnKerry 12/28/2016 https://t.co/LUQzsQpasq pic.twitter.com/nCz68u2cJd
— David Shor (@DYShor) December 11, 2020

Chanukah music videos night 3: Maccabeats Candlelight 2020 plus Hanukkah Rap "Get Excited" (Josh Raderman)

Here is the annual Maccabeats Chanukah music video, this year a song parody of BTS.

Bonus:

This has a distinctly Denver vibe...

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12/11 Links Pt2: Caroline Glick: The new Greeks; David Collier: Glasgow University publishes antisemitic conspiracy theory; Idan Raichel joins Andrea Bocelli in Dubai

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: The new Greeks

While many American Jews were scared that Netanyahu's courageous challenge of Obama's central foreign policy would provoke anti-Semitism, in fact, it empowered many Americans to oppose the deal. Republicans rallied against it. Every Republican presidential candidate in 2016 pledged to abandon the deal, and President Donald Trump kept his promise.

By being a leader, Netanyahu also empowered the American Jewish community to defy Obama, even as he and his advisors channeled anti-Semitism by demonizing the deal's opponents as being in the pockets of nefarious donors and foreign interests.

AIPAC launched a major campaign to oppose the nuclear deal in Congress and tens of thousands of otherwise uninvolved American Jews attended demonstrations across the US to voice their opposition to the deal that paved the way for Iran to become a nuclear power.

Netanyahu explained that in dealing with leaders like Obama, with whom he had profound disagreements, "You seek compromise where you can, but you have to avoid compromise where you can't and you have to distinguish between the two and that's what I tried to do."

This lesson in leadership is perhaps the key message of our time. Like the Greeks of yesteryear, the progressive elites today insist that, to be accepted in polite society, Jews have to give up an essential part of their identity – and their civil rights. The Greeks demanded that the Jews give up the Torah. The progressives demand they give up their Jewish peoplehood. These are things that cannot be compromised, only fought, even when those demanding their forfeiture are Jews themselves.

Commentary Magazine Podcast [Israel bit starts 16min]: Will Biden Screw Up the Middle East?

Dan Senor, co-author of Start-Up Nation and host of the new “Post Corona” podcast, joins us today to talk about the electoral college and who intimidated whom (answer: Democrats sought to intimidate Trump electors in 2016) and how the transformative Abraham Accords might be derailed by a Biden administration just as Bibi Netanyahu finds himself in existential trouble as his trial is getting ready to begin. Give a listen.

David Collier: Glasgow University publishes antisemitic conspiracy theory

Glasgow University is ranked as a top UK university. The University is a member of the Russell Group. It runs a platform called esharp which is an ‘international online journal for postgraduate research.’ The University is very proud of the outlet. It states that all the paper are ‘double blind peer reviewed’. The university claims that the ‘rigorous and constructive process is designed to enhance the worth of postgraduate and postdoctoral work.’

A paper on the ‘Israel lobby’ appeared in issue 25 volume 1 (June 2017). It was written by Jane Jackman, an academic product of the universities of Durham and Exeter. There isn’t much to be found about Jackman online. She spoke at events in Exeter and SOAS and was an active member of the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies (BRISMES). In 2017 Jackman was being supervised by Willaim Gallois at Exeter. Unsurprisingly, the conspiracy theorist and ‘liar’ Ilan Pappe was a co-supervisor.

There is almost no sign of public activity from Jackman on social media. There is an inactive Twitter account in her name, which only follows accounts linked to Israeli advocacy or the fight against antisemitism. Given her academic focus on the ‘Israel lobby’, it is a safe bet to assume it is hers. She did spend some considerable time commenting on blogs and articles, including mine.

Jackman’s paper was titled ‘Advocating Occupation: Outsourcing Zionist Propaganda in the UK‘. The key thrust of the argument is that people like myself (I feature prominently) have been recruited by Israel to spread disinformation. I have studied the entire article. My key questions would be –

How did Glasgow University ever permit this to appear in their journal? How is it possible that this was peer reviewed?

The paper isn’t just laden with conspiracy, antisemitism and errors – much of the time the reference material does not even support what the article is suggesting. The work is beyond shoddy. Jackman makes unsupportable outlandish statements, that are far more fitting for gutter press journalism such as the Independent than an academic journal. The paper frequently contradicts its own logic. This is in no way an academic piece of work. It should be hung on the walls at Glasgow university as a reminder of the shame that they ever allowed this to be published. The only justification for ‘peer reviewers’ to have accepted this piece is that they agreed with its content and wanted it published. The entire process is rife with heavy antisemitism. Who were the editors that sat around a table and accepted this submission?

Cary Nelson: Who Is Harming Palestinian Academic Freedom?

Not in Kansas Anymore: Academic Freedom in Palestinian Universities, by Cary Nelson (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2020)

It is fundamental and axiomatic on the international left, an unexamined article of faith, that the State of Israel suppresses the academic freedom of Palestinian students and faculty. Not in Kansas Anymore: Academic Freedom in Palestinian Universities, a new 180-page book by Cary Nelson sets out for the first time to ask what evidence supports this claim and determine whether or not it is true. The evidence gathered here shows that Palestinian students and faculty in fact do not have the protections they need to exercise freedom of speech; indeed they are coerced and threatened to conform. But it is not Israelis who do so.

An excerpt from the book is below: From 1978 to 1991, Professor Sari Nusseibeh taught philosophy at Birzeit University on the West Bank. He had studied at Oxford and received a doctorate in Islamic Philosophy from Harvard. In September 1987, at the end of a lecture on John Locke, he learned that a group of masked students armed with clubs were outside his classroom seeking “a traitor” — whom he shortly learned was himself. Keeping his colleagues at bay with knives, they beat him “with fists, clubs, a broken bottle, and penknives.” Thanks to adrenaline, he was able to escape his attackers, though “my heart was pounding hard enough to pop my eardrums.” His colleagues, now free to help, drove him to the hospital where his forehead wound was stitched up and his broken arm set. The reaction of the university and the public was essentially non-existent. He had been identified as a traitor for participating in discussions of Israeli-Palestinian possibilities for peace.

Nusseibeh’s narrative is far from unique. When higher education institutions worldwide carry the name “college” or “university,” we often assume that these institutions are roughly similar everywhere. It’s true that an accounting or engineering course in one country will resemble courses in the same subject elsewhere. But a Religion course in a theocracy that imposes a state religion on its people will be different from a course of that same name in countries where religious and democratic freedoms prevail. Similarly, a course on Government or Politics in a dictatorship will not resemble comparably named courses elsewhere.

Chanukah music videos night 2: Stevie Wonder Chanukah mash-up (Shir Soul) plus bonus: Azi Schwartz medley

Continuing our tradition of bringing you brand new Chanukah music videos each night of the holiday....

Plus, here is Azi Schwartz singing a number of Chanukah songs to different popular tunes.

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12/11 Links Pt1: A rich Jewish past, and present: Why Israel’s deal with Morocco is so resonant; Abbas’ Fatah threatens Arabs selling land to Jews in Jerusalem

From Ian:

Raphael Ahren: A rich Jewish past, and present: Why Israel’s deal with Morocco is so resonant

Thursday’s surprise announcement about Morocco agreeing to establish diplomatic relations with Israel was not a Hannukah miracle, as many Israeli politicians gushed when they lit their holiday candles, though the timing was indeed brightly appropriate. Rather, it had been a long time coming, as the North African kingdom has deep cultural and religious ties with the Jewish state, and had long been expected to join the current wave of Arab countries normalizing ties with Israel.

As opposed to Egypt and Jordan, which signed peace treaties with Israel decades ago, and in contrast to the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan, three Arab nations that normalized relations with Israel this year, Morocco and Israel have a profound and ancient Jewish connection, and the Moroccan Jewish community, though small, still thrives today.

Moroccan Jewry’s origins date back 2,000 years, to the destruction of the Second Temple and exile. In the modern era, the community reached a high of some 250,000 in the early 1940s, when Sultan Mohammed V resisted Nazi pressure for their deportation. Numbers dwindled with the establishment of Israel, and today only some 2,000-3,000 Jews remain, but hundreds of thousands of Israelis are proud of their Moroccan origins. US President Donald Trump’s senior envoy Jared Kushner on Thursday put that number at “over a million.”

The mimouna party, which the community traditionally celebrates right after Passover ends, has become a fixture on the Israeli cultural calendar, with countless people barbequing in parks and politicians rushing to as many mimouna celebrations as possible, eating mufletot and other Jewish-Moroccan delicacies.

While Israeli tourists have begun discovering the Gulf only very recently, they have been flocking to Rabat, Marrakech, Casablanca, Tangiers and Fez via third countries for many years. Once the two countries establish diplomatic relations and open direct air-links, that number can be expected to increase dramatically.

Following the 1995 Oslo Accords, Morocco and Israel opened mutual “liaison offices,” but they were closed a few years later after the Palestinian Second Intifada broke out in 2000.

Both Moroccan King Mohammed VI and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cited the long and deep ties binding Morocco and Israel in their statements on the historic agreement.

Seth Frantzman: Are Morocco-Israel relations a surprise, or natural next step? - analysis

US PRESIDENT Donald Trump is gambling here because President-elect Joe Biden is supposed to take office in a bit over a month. It’s one thing for the US to push peace, because peace is always good, but recognizing Western Sahara will likely anger Team Biden, which is for preserving some of these international multilateral status quo issues.

The general feeling in the UAE and other states in the region, which have been watching peace deals closely, was that when Trump lost the election, many states would wait on peace. The theory was that had Trump won, then Oman, Qatar, Morocco and other states could follow suit. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu raised eyebrows when he went to Saudi Arabia in November and Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi spoke via video at the Manama Dialogue Conference this year.

However, comments by Saudi Arabia’s Turki al-Faisal, a key figure in the kingdom, were critical of Israel at the Manama conference. Was that due to daylight with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman or due to a perceived slight by Ashkenazi? The crown prince of Saudi Arabia has appeared keen on warmer relations with Israel for years but has wanted something in return – and is cognizant of Riyadh’s role in the region, the Saudi initiative, the Iranian threat, the changes in the US and also the position of his father, King Salman. These are complex webs of relations and realities that mean one change can lead to a domino effect that leads to peace with countries like Morocco.

These deals can be tenuous. Israel is supposed to send an agriculture delegation to Sudan, but it wonders if Israel and the US are serious. Abu Dhabi also wants Israel to take the Palestinian issue seriously. Morocco will still want more from Israel on the Palestinian issue and its civil society will pressure the government on this issue.

Nevertheless many things are happening in the region. US B-52s have flown to the region as part of a show of force to Iran. Tehran is building tunnels at its Natanz nuclear facility to hide centrifuges. The US is withdrawing from Somalia and the Senate has not blocked the F-35 sale to the UAE.

It’s almost natural that breaking news from Morocco could mean one more deal before the US administration changes.

Moroccan Jews laud peace deal as 'Hanukkah miracle'

President Donald Trump's announcement that Israel and Morocco have agreed to normalize relations may have astounded the world, but the news comes as no surprise to the Jewish community in the north-African country.

"There was a lot of talk about this subject last year," says Kobi Yifrach, an Israeli who has lived in Morocco for the past five years and runs a local museum in Marrakesh.

"There used to be an Israeli Embassy here between 1995 and 2000, and even after that, the relationship between Israel and Morocco remained friendly. Time has finally come to build the relationship [between the two countries]. Until now, it was behind the scenes, and now it's time to bring it to the forefront, with pride and love.

"My Muslims friends have been calling me for hours to congratulate the Jewish community on the announcement," says Jacky Kadosh, leader of the Moroccan Jewish community. "We heard the news immediately after lighting the first Hanukkah candle. It's a Hanukkah miracle."

Ilan Hatuel, an Israeli businessman in Morocco who is close to André Azoulay, senior adviser to King Mohammed VI of Morocco, added that the news was accepted in Morocco with "great excitement."

"The royalty has preserved Jewish history in Morocco for over 500 years. We have worked very hard to reach this moment. From now on, there will be direct flights from Marrakesh to Casablanca and Rabat. The Jewish community is in the seventh heaven, and the Moroccans are very excited too," Hatuel said.

Orin Avraham, a local yeshiva student, also spoke of the joyful celebrations that followed the announcement. "The decision will lead to the strengthening of the Jewish community in Morocco." He added that there is no anti-Semitism in the country, saying that "everyone [in Morocco] says 'hello' to the Jews and loves them.

We have previously discussed the Moroccan Observatory Against Normalization with Israel, which has been active for years if not very effective. But it would be featured in Palestinian newspapers as if it was a mainstream group.

As you might expect, they (and similar groups) are a bit unhappy today.

Members of the Moroccan National Working Group to Support the Palestinian People’s Struggle hurried to hold an emergency meeting, immediately after the Royal Court announced the decision to resume official contacts and diplomatic relations with Israel,

The head of the Moroccan Observatory against Normalization, Ahmed Wehman, declared that the National Action Group "categorically rejects any form of normalization with the usurping Zionist entity, which is plotting against Morocco's territorial integrity and social cohesion and is working to break it up on ethnic grounds into 6 entities."

That's a new one!

A 2018 poll showed that 41% of Moroccans favored normalization with Israel - third among Arab countries with no relations at the time, behind Iraq with 43% and the UAE with 42%. Tunisia ranked fourth with 32%, Saudi Arabia behind it with 23% and Algeria with 21%.

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