Sunday, May 09, 2021
- Sunday, May 09, 2021
- Elder of Ziyon
Europe's romance with the Palestinian terror network
Seventeen years ago, in 2004, a European Parliament visiting delegation to Israel asked me to brief them on EU funding for Palestinian and Israeli political NGOs under the banners of human rights, peace and other worthy causes. Although the budgets were small then ("only" a few million Euros), they were significant and did major damage. But before I could speak, an EU official tried to prevent my presentation, declaring that I was about to reveal state secrets. His face turned redder when I pulled out the numerous brochures from the NGO grantees with the EU logo.Israel’s Critics Are Right: ‘Sheikh Jarrah’ Exemplifies the Arab-Israeli Conflict, and Arab Jew-Hatred
But beyond the logos, the details of the deep and often personal European relationships with the leaders of influential Palestinian and Israeli NGOs were and remain closely guarded state secrets, on the level of nuclear weapons. This strange and fundamental departure from the transparency that is central to democratic norms explains why year after year, the members of an NGO network linked to a terror organization, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), are among the main recipients of European funding. Since 2011, the European governments have provided at least 200 million euros to these organizations, including 40 million from the European Union, and probably more from subcontracting that is not reported and from grants that remain hidden.
The arrest and indictment of a number of four individuals with high-level positions in the benignly named Health Workers Committee, who are charged with diverting NGO funds directly to terror groups, shines a bright spotlight on this core dimension of the NGO industry. After many years of hiding the details and denying the extensive evidence of links published in NGO Monitor research reports, it will now be harder for the European officials in charge of the funding to continue to claim "we did not know", "the evidence you provide is not absolute proof…", or "we do not need to examine the recipients because other countries and the UN are funding the same groups."
In official correspondence and awkward meetings with European ambassadors and other officials, they offered rehearsed justifications for funding for Palestinian and Israel NGOs leading anti-Israel "apartheid" demonization. Often reading uncomfortably from pre-cooked slogans, they have claimed (without credibility) that their governments only support projects and not organizations, that the NGO links to the PFLP are outdated and invalid, and even that the PFLP is a legitimate political organization. The long-standing relationships between PFLP officials and their European sponsors, including leaders of powerful church groups such as Pax Christi, are never acknowledged.
Recently, however, recognition of the damage done and the need for independent oversight regarding these NGO relationships has gradually increased. One year ago, Olivér Várhelyi, EU Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement (which has jurisdiction over some of the seven distinct EU funding mechanisms) ordered a comprehensive investigation of terror ties involving NGO grantees, and declared that such funding "will not be tolerated." That report is expected very soon.
This is how the current controversy and conflict surrounding the Shimon HaTzadik neighborhood is emblematic of the entire Arab-Israeli conflict.
Shimon HaTzadik is an area that holds deep historical and religious significance to the Jewish people. It is a place where the Jewish people developed — as Ben-Gurion said in Israel’s Declaration of Independence — their “spiritual, religious, and political identity.” It is a place where the Jewish people “first achieved independence and created a culture of national and universal significance.” It is land that was part of the only independent state that has ever existed west of the Jordan River over the last 2,000 years (that wasn’t part of some foreign colonizing empire). All of this, of course, also applies to every inch of the land of Israel.
Shimon HaTzadik is also where Jewish organizations purchased land and built homes during the Ottoman Empire and the British Empire’s control of the region. The Yemenite Jews who moved to the Shimon HaTzadik neighborhood in the 1880s came with the dream of living in Zion and re-establishing the Jewish homeland. This applies to every Jewish community established in the land of Israel between 1870 and 1947.
Shimon HaTzadik is a neighborhood where Jews and Arab could have lived side by side peacefully had Arabs — incited with antisemitic fervor by Nazi ally and collaborator Haj Amin al-Husseini and then by five of the most powerful armies of the entire Arab League — not tried to ethnically cleanse all of the Jews living there. This also applies to every Jewish community established in the land of Israel before 1947.
In Shimon HaTzadik, Jews are trying to move back into homes which were purchased peacefully and legally by their ancestors on land that is part of the Jewish people’s indigenous, historical, and religious homeland. They are trying to move back into homes on land that was conquered by a foreign Arab army and renamed to erase the historic Jewish connection and character of the area. This also applies to every inch of the land of Israel before 1948.
Shimon HaTzadik and Sheikh Jarrah: the Arab-Israeli conflict in a nutshell.
The truth about Sheikh Jarrah.
— Israel Advocacy Movement (@israel_advocacy) May 9, 2021
What the media isn't telling you.#SheikhJarrah #SaveSheikhJarrah #انقذوا_حي_الشيخ_جراح pic.twitter.com/RqWBOcHBlz
Supreme Court delays session on Sheikh Jarrah evictions amid Jerusalem violence
The Supreme Court, amid daily violent clashes in East Jerusalem, has canceled a hearing scheduled for Monday that could have determined whether four Palestinian families in the city’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood will be evicted.
After the families asked Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit to become a party to the case, Mandelblit’s office asked the Supreme Court for two weeks to consider the matter.
The court gave Mandelblit until June 8 to consider whether he will become a party to the case. The planned evictions — already approved by lower courts — will not go forward in the interim.
“A new date will be determined within the next 30 days. In the meantime, until further notice, I order a freeze on the decision by the appellate court, which does not imply any position regarding [that lower court’s decision],” Justice Yitzhak Amit wrote in the ruling.
In all, over 70 Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah are set to be evicted in the coming weeks, to be replaced by right-wing Jewish Israelis. The Palestinians live in houses built on land that courts have ruled were owned by Jewish religious associations before the establishment of Israel 1948.
The anticipated decision to evict the families came as Jerusalem lives through tense, violent days. The city has been on edge in recent weeks as Palestinians have clashed with Israeli police, with both sides blaming the other for igniting the confrontations.
What’s *really* happening at #SheikhJarrah?
— Emily Schrader - אמילי שריידר (@emilykschrader) May 8, 2021
The members of US Congress condemning #Israel over this are acting irresponsibly. As an American Israeli I’m asking them to STOP fanning the flames of antisemitism and incitement to violence. pic.twitter.com/AxtkaTICrJ
- Sunday, May 09, 2021
- Elder of Ziyon
This forced displacement is part of a broader, ongoing project by the Israeli military and government: forcing Palestinians out of their homes and burning their lands, all to make way for more Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, which are illegal under international law.
- Sunday, May 09, 2021
- Elder of Ziyon
In 1956, the 28 refugee families who lost their homes during the Nakba reached an agreement with the Jordanian Ministry of Construction and Development and the UN refugee agency UNRWA to provide housing for them in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.At that time, the West Bank was under Jordanian rule (1951-1967).According to the Civic Coalition for Palestinian Rights in Jerusalem (CCPRJ), the Jordanian government provided the land while UNRWA covered the cost for constructing 28 homes for these families.“A contract was concluded between the Ministry of Construction and Reconstruction and Palestinian families in 1956, with one of the main conditions stating that the residents pay a symbolic fee, provided that ownership is transferred to the residents after three years from the completion of construction,” the CCPRJ said in a statement.This, however, was interrupted by the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, including Jerusalem, in 1967 which prevented the registration of the houses under the names of families, the statement said.
Because of the housing shortage in most Jordanian towns shelter represents a heavy cost element in the budget of refugees who wish to become self-supporting. The provision of low-cost housing is therefore an urgent necessity. In addition to the Amman housing scheme, involving fifty houses for 253 ration recipient refugees, completed in 1952, UNRWA is now planning new low-cost urban housing for a total of 200 families in Amman, Jerusalem, Hebron and Aqaba. Refugees who will occupy the houses are those who are already partially self-supporting and who, with low rents, will become entirely self-supporting and thus removable from ration rolls. Designs are being drawn and negotiations are under way with the Government of Jordan for the selection of suitable sites. The houses will be financed by UNRWA, with the refugees paying nominal rents; the land will be obtained by the Government.
Building work at the second, at Sheikh Jarrah, near Jerusalem, has also been started. Housing for 28 families will be built at a cost of $55,636 made available by the Agency to the Government under an agreement signed on 16 November 1954.
At the Sheikh Jarrah quarter, near Jerusalem, the twenty-eight housing units were completed and the selection of families is being finalized.
In August 1950, the Jordanian General Administrative Governor of the West Bank issued A Proclamation Aiming to Prevent the Crossing of Borders between the Arab Areas and Jewish Areas in Palestine, and Prohibition of Trading and Dealing with the Enemy No. (55) of 1950. This Proclamation provided that residents of the State of Israel (including its Arab citizens) would be considered enemies in relation to the laws regarding trading with the enemy. Relying on the Trading with the Enemy Ordinance, 1939 and on the Proclamation, the Jordanian Minister of Interior appointed the Custodian of Enemy Property and vested in him, through a multitude of specific and general vesting orders, the property of Israelis in the West Bank.The Custodian held and administered Jewish-owned in the West Bank until 1967 according to the Trading with the Enemy Ordinance (as opposed to administering the land like absentee property according to the powers and rules of IHL). Some of these assets were used by the Custodian for public purposes, such as the establishment of refugee camps, the rehabilitation of refugees, and the setting up of army camps and marketplaces. In other cases, the property was leased to private individuals, who used the land for agricultural, commercial or residential purposes, depending on its characteristics.
- Sunday, May 09, 2021
- Elder of Ziyon
- 1943, antisemitism, Arab antisemitism, conspiracy theories, Jews control the world, Mufti of Jerusalem, Muslim antisemitism, PEZ
The Arabs and Moslems will not be deceived by Britain once again because not only have they known its true intentions but they have also known those of Britain’s allies—America—and I want to draw the attention of the Arab emigrants in America to this fact, reminding them of their glorious past when they supported the National movement. I would also like to remind them that their efforts will be wasted if, God forbid, America and her Allies may be victorious in this War because at such a time the Arabs will never rise again. I therefore know that those Arab emigrants in America will refrain from helping Roosevelt or taking part in a war which he brought on to his country.If those Allies win this war the Jewish influence will be the arbiter in the world resources and one can thus imagine the future of the Arabs and Moslems, and the dangers which they are exposed to in their fatherlands and beliefs if the Jews and their Allies dominate them and spread the latent hatred on to them.Then the world will become Hell—God forbid:
But Allah is too just and merciful to grant such murderous violators any victory. We are sure that victory will be ours and that of our friends. We have not the slightest doubt about that, we shall not slacken our struggle nor will we be deterred or quietened. Do not be deceived by the allegations of your enemies, because you know full well about their intrigues, and be sure that the nation which fights, sacrifices and awaits will be the victorious one in the end.
Saturday, May 08, 2021
For Jerusalem Day, the humble memorials to those who died unifying the city
The 28th day of the Hebrew month of Iyar, which this year falls out on the evening of May 9 and the day of May 10, is the anniversary of the day that Israeli paratroopers captured Jerusalem’s Old City in the Six Day War.
Almost immediately following the Old City’s liberation, the soldiers who had participated in the battle piled some rocks together along Jericho Road outside the Lions’ Gate and planted a flag in the ground.
It was their way of honoring the memory of their fallen comrades, killed on that very same road, when soldiers made a fatal navigational mistake. Israeli troops had conquered the Jordanian outpost at the Rockefeller Museum, but two large obstacles remained: the Old City, and the well-fortified Augusta Victoria complex on the Mount of Olives, which offered a clear view of the Temple Mount down below.
Soldiers heading for the Mount of Olives missed the turn onto the ascent and instead descended along Jericho Road. Unfortunately, from their position on the road, the Israeli forces couldn’t see the Jordanian troops standing at the ready atop the Old City walls. Thus, the soldiers were hit hard when they reached the curve in the road which serves as a bridge above the Kidron Valley. A savage battle raged on the bridge, and other Israeli troops were called in to extract their comrades.
Years later, the impromptu monument, an extremely emotional sight, was moved from the location of the battle to its permanent home across from the ascent to Lions’ Gate. Replacing the rocks is a sculpted eagle with one wing reaching to the sky. A second shattered wing tilts sadly towards the earth.
What we learnt yesterday:
— David Collier (@mishtal) May 8, 2021
That the @guardian regrets supporting the creation of Israel
They literally regret that the Jews have a place to defend themselves.
They want Jews to be weak, homeless and defenceless.
There is no forgiving this.
To be fair, it did lead to national, religious and capitalist success, so lamenting it seems on brand. https://t.co/LyOQ5M7sB1
— David Wolpe (@RabbiWolpe) May 7, 2021
- Saturday, May 08, 2021
- Elder of Ziyon
Incredible, inspiring images of Palestinian resistance coming out of Jerusalem tonight.
— IfNotNow🔥 (@IfNotNowOrg) May 8, 2021
American Jews are with you ✊ https://t.co/TCPYR0McE2
Friday, May 07, 2021
Canadian Court Overturns Barring ‘Product of Israel’ Labels on Judea, Samaria Wine
A Canadian federal appeals court reversed a lower court’s decision that barred “Product of Israel” labels for wines produced in Judea and Samaria.
In July of 2020, the Federal Court of Canada had ruled that it was “false, misleading or deceptive” for wines produced by Israeli vintners east of the Green Line to be labeled “Product of Israel.” Parts of the decision had also lent support to boycotts of Jewish communities, suggesting that the “Product of Israel” obstructed consumers’ right to boycott these communities.
However, the Federal Court of Appeal reversed this decision, ruling that the lower court judge had gone too far in its decision and that the federal agency, Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), that initially reviewed the labels should be allowed to try again, with all options remaining open.
“We welcome the decision, which puts this matter back on track to being resolved fairly and correctly,” said Michael Mostyn, CEO of B’nai Brith Canada. “B’nai Brith has engaged with decision-makers on this issue since the very beginning and will continue to do so as this matter progresses. We say proudly that Jews returning to producing wine in their indigenous homeland is something to be celebrated, not stigmatized.”
Shimon Koffler Fogel, president and CEO of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, said he is not surprised by the appeals court ruling.
“CIJA believes that current labeling practices are fully consistent with the Canada-Israel Free Trade Agreement, as well as Canadian and international law,” he said.
British Jews Blast Guardian Article Listing Its 1917 Support for Creation of Israel Among ‘Worst Errors of Judgment’ in Paper’s History
Leading Jewish groups and Israeli officials were outraged on Friday at the The Guardian listing its past editorial support for the 1917 Balfour declaration — which announced the British government’s support for the establishment of a Jewish state — as one of the paper’s “worst errors in judgement over 200 years” in a bicentennial feature article.
“A daily newspaper cannot publish for 200 years without getting some things wrong. This one has made its share of mistakes,” the article began, in an ongoing series marking the publication’s 1821 founding. After regrets including its editorial column’s past support for limiting suffrage to male taxpayers and its animosity towards Abraham Lincoln, the Guardian listed its support of the 1917 decision by Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour to back a national home for the Jewish people in then-Palestine.
Balfour’s “words changed the world,” the article continued. “The Guardian of 1917 supported, celebrated and could even be said to have helped facilitate the Balfour declaration. [Former chief editor CP] Scott was a supporter of Zionism and this blinded him to Palestinian rights. In 1917 he wrote a leader on the day the Balfour declaration was announced, in which he dismissed any other claim to the Holy Land, saying: ‘The existing Arab population of Palestine is small and at a low stage of civilization.’ Whatever else can be said, Israel today is not the country the Guardian foresaw or would have wanted.”
The Board of Deputies of British Jews President Marie van der Zyl called the article “breathtakingly ill considered” in a statement Friday.
“In its eagerness to disassociate itself in any way from its early support for Zionism, the Guardian chooses not to focus on the simple fact that had such a national homeland existed even a decade earlier than 1948, many millions of Jews — our close relatives — murdered in the Holocaust might still be alive,” she wrote.
“Alongside a safe and secure Jewish State, the Board of Deputies supports the creation of a Palestinian State, something the Balfour declaration does not negate. The Guardian would be best advised to advocate for this as well rather than its current position, which seems to be to do everything it can to undermine the legitimacy of the world’s only Jewish state,” van der Zyl continued.
Disgusting: @Guardian expresses regret for having supported Israel's creation, listing it as one of the paper's "worst errors of judgment over 200 years."
— Avi Mayer (@AviMayer) May 7, 2021
If a Jewish state had been born then, in 1917, there may never have been a Holocaust.
Would they have regretted that too? pic.twitter.com/Y3EJgiNXf6
Israel Advocacy Movement: Palestinian propagandists caught lying… again - Am Yisrael Live with David Collier
- Friday, May 07, 2021
- Elder of Ziyon
- cartoon of the day, humor
Caroline Glick: A powder keg, courtesy of Washington
Since the Democrats took control of the White House and both Houses of Congress a hundred days ago, the Middle East has become a powder keg. But Israel's ruling class sees nothing.The Caroline Glick Show: Ep4 - The stakes in Israel's political bazar
In Afghanistan and Iraq, violent attacks against US forces are rising steeply. From January through April, attacks on US forces increased 40%. President Joe Biden's announcement that the US will withdraw its forces from the country by September 11, the 20th anniversary of the jihadist attacks on the US worsened the situation by communicating a message of profound American weakness and defeatism. The Taliban, al-Qaida and Iran clearly believe they are now free to humiliate and bleed the US as they take control of the country.
In Iraq, Iranian-controlled Shiite militias launched three missile strikes against US bases in the past week. Hoping to avoid confrontation with Iran as its emissaries appease it in Vienna, the Biden administration is assiduously avoiding acknowledging that Iran is behind the attacks, and so it guarantees that more attack will soon follow. As in Afghanistan, Iran reads US behavior as an invitation to strike with immunity.
In Syria, Iran's Syrian proxy President Bashar Assad and Iran's Lebanese proxy Hezbollah continue to wage a war of extermination against Syrians who oppose them. In southern Syria last weekend, after opposition forces from the village of Am Batana, six kilometers (3.7 miles) from the border with Israel attacked a joint Syrian military and Hezbollah base nearby, the military ordered the entire village to evacuate by 2 p.m. last Saturday, or else. Most of the villagers reportedly fled their homes.
While turning a blind eye to Syria, the Biden administration continues to empower the Lebanese armed forces and government – both wholly controlled by Iran through Hezbollah. Last month, the administration transferred armored trucks valued at $14 million to the Hezbollah-controlled Lebanese military and asked that Congress provide financial assistance to the government. Hezbollah for its part has launched a charm campaign on the public. Having caused the government to go bankrupt and forced the people of a once prosperous land into destitution, Hezbollah is now carrying out a well-publicized food drive, handing out Iranian basic foodstuffs to starving Lebanese along with Hezbollah membership cards.
Just months ago, hope abounded that Saudi Arabia would join the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan in the Abraham peace accords with Israel. But the picture is now reversed. Recognizing the US has changed sides, the Saudis no longer believe that with Israel they can contain Iran. So now they are hoping to cut a deal with the ayatollahs.
In Episode 4 of the Caroline Glick Mideast News Hour, Caroline and co-host Gadi Taub discuss the nature and likely outcomes of Israel's prolonged political crisis and the pros and cons and likelihood of various ways of resolving it, either through the formation of a right-wing minority government supported by an Islamist party, the formation of a left-dominant government formally led by a breakaway ideologically right-wing party led by Naftali Bennett, and various permutations in between. Caroline also discusses her experience running for Knesset with Bennett in the April 2019 election and what she learned about his character from that experience. Caroline and Gadi also analyzed the implications of Israel's political instability and the likelihood that it will soon be led by inexperienced leaders presiding over either a weak or radical government for prospects of regional war.
An open letter to Israel's Muslim Terrorists
Dear Muslim Terrorist,INVESTIGATION REVEALS: PFLP terror group diverts humanitarian funds REVEALED: Millions of euros in European government funds, meant for humanitarian purposes, supported terrorism by the PFLP, a Palestinian terror organization responsible for the murder of dozens. European taxpayers' money must not end up supporting terrorism.
First, I want to recognize your 100 years of mayhem against the Jews of Israel. Oh, I know that you have been terrorizing and killing Jews for much longer than that, but your 1921 Jaffa pogrom when you murdered 47 and injured 146 innocents was really when you got your party started. Your dedication to the destruction of Israel's Jews warms the heart of today's European and American anti-Semites who continue to fund and applaud your work.
Your daily attempts to poison, bomb, stab, rape, burn, threaten, intimidate, beat, and slaughter Jews appears to provide you with your life's meaning and purpose. It seems that no amount of Jewish goodwill and offers of friendship can stop your homicidal fantasies and your compulsion to act on them. That is dedication. That is focus. It is exactly those things that make you and your "people" uniquely unfit, unqualified and undeserving of the state you insist to the world that you deserve.
This last week in Israel, you continued your serial torment of the Jews. My heart cries for each Jew you humiliate, injure or G-d forbid, kill.
Keep this in mind, dear terrorist:, although the Israeli police are too scared to stop you, and corrupt left-wing judges release you as soon as you are arrested, and Israel's political leaders haven't found a way to punish you - Israel's Jews are thriving.
One hundred years ago, there were 60,000 Jews in the Land of Israel. Today, there are 6.7 million and soon, God willing, there will be unlimited millions of Jews living in Israel. That must set off a hot Roman candle in your head. In 1921, the Jewish state was a dream. There was no Israeli Army, Air force, Navy, Special Forces, Mossad, Iron Dome, sky scrapers, high tech, agriculture, hospitals, industry, powerful economy, and material abundance. Synagogues and Institutes of Jewish learning are flourishing. The Israel of 1921 was a backwater part of the British Empire with people dying of starvation on the streets. Now Israel ranks in the top 20 countries in the world in GDP per capita, above Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. In the last 100 years, we Jews in Israel have seen a miracle that no one could have imagined in their wildest fantasies.
Meet the PFLP terror group responsible for killing dozens Meet the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP): a terror group responsible for the murder of dozens around the world. For years, European funds donated to Palestinian civil society organizations ended up supporting Palestinian terrorism. This has to stop.
- Friday, May 07, 2021
- Elder of Ziyon
- Friday, May 07, 2021
- Elder of Ziyon
- Friday, May 07, 2021
- Elder of Ziyon
- antisemitism, iran
Thursday, May 06, 2021
Amb. Dore Gold: “Why Is a Meeting in San Remo 101 Years Ago So Important?”
On April 29, 2021, Dr. Dore Gold, President of the Jerusalem Center, was interviewed by Professor Ugo Volli of Turin University in Shalom Magazine, published in Italy. Below is the translation of excerpts from “Siamo Ancora un Popolo Che Dimora Da Solo” – Intervista a Dore Gold
What is the 101-year-old San Remo Conference, and why is it important today?
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, states were born through great international conferences. For example, the Congress of Berlin took former Ottoman territories in 1878 and granted them independence, creating Romania, Serbia, and Montenegro. Bulgaria also emerged from this division of Ottoman territories. After the First World War, international conferences of the victorious allied powers led to a division of formerly Ottoman territories as well. It was in San Remo, Italy, that the powers decided on the emergence of a national home for the Jewish People that established the State of Israel. The Balfour Declaration of 1917 was a statement of British policy; the San Remo Resolution of 1920 was a formal international treaty that was legally binding.
In the years between 1919 and 1922, many states were established. Why, after one century, is the right of the State of Israel to exist still disputed?
Israel is the only state whose legal foundation was rooted in acts of the League of Nations and the United Nations. Its legitimacy was backed by both bodies. But Israel is a state that is not protected by coalitions of countries. If a group of states wants to challenge the existence of Belgium, they will confront the collective power of the European Union. If Singapore’s existence is called into question, then the ASEAN states will “circle the wagons.” The American veto in the UN Security Council has provided Israel with protection from one-sided attacks on Israel. But that is not applicable in the General Assembly with its 193 members. Israel is still what the Bible (Numbers 23:9) describes as “a people that shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations.”
Yet, after the Balfour Declaration, San Remo and the League of Nations, a large non-government organization, Human Rights Watch, can criticize the existence of the state of the Jewish People as “racist.” Is it a political issue, or is it anti-Semitism?
This is pure anti-Semitism. Why do French people have a right to France, but the Jewish people have no right to a state of their own? Double standards are one of the indicators that anti-Semitism is present. And the apartheid charge is yet another form of anti-Semitism that ignores the reality of modern Israel.
In apartheid South Africa, there were separate hospitals for blacks and whites. Anyone who visits an Israeli hospital, like Hadassah in Jerusalem, will see in the Emergency Room and all wards Arab and Jewish doctors working together taking care of Arab and Jewish patients. In the 1980s, Israel sent its air force into Africa to bring out Ethiopian Jews. Is that an apartheid state?
Israeli President Pays Homage to David Raziel, First Commander of the Etzel Pre-State Militia, on 80th Anniversary of His Death
Israeli President Reuven Rivlin on Wednesday paid tribute to David Raziel — the co-founder and first commander of the Irgun Zvai Leumi (Etzel), the pre-state right-wing Zionist militia — on the 80th anniversary of his death.Jonathan Tobin: New York courts prove that woke politics endangers Jews
Speaking at the memorial ceremony for Raziel, Rivlin called him a “great leader on behalf of the people and the country.”
The Etzel grew out of the right-wing Revisionist Zionism movement led by Ze’ev Jabotinsky, who personally appointed Raziel to lead the militia in 1938.
Rejecting the mainstream Labor Zionism policy of restraint in response to Arab violence, the Etzel under Raziel undertook a series of retaliatory attacks against Arab targets that aroused considerable controversy in the Zionist movement.
During World War II, however, the Etzel put aside its opposition to British power over Palestine in favor of collaborating in the fight against Nazism. Despite having been imprisoned by the British in 1939, Raziel chose to support the war effort upon his release. Sent to Iraq by British intelligence to fight an attempted pro-Nazi coup, Raziel was killed in action by a German air attack in 1941.
Building on the framework that Raziel established, Menachem Begin eventually took command of the Etzel and led it through a guerrilla war against the British power in Palestine.
The Etzel’s revolt was eventually credited with helping to push the British out of Palestine, paving the way for the establishment of the State of Israel.
The problem is that those who have taken the lead in promoting measures like bail reform in the name of social justice not only drew no conclusions from the dismal results of this legislation with respect to the rest of society, they are also unmoved by the way it endangered Jews.
In the days after Burnette’s release, the Anti-Defamation League, which continues to pose as the defender of the Jewish community against anti-Semitism, said nothing about the case. Since his release, both the group and its CEO, Jonathan Greenblatt, found time to publicly advocate for Facebook to continue its ban on posts from former President Donald Trump and to claim that American police were engaging in “systemic racism” against African-Americans. Although they raise massive funds from liberal donors by seeking to depict Jews as under siege from hate crimes, they were mum about the way those who committed such crimes have benefited from bail reform.
The reason for this is that Jordan Burnette is not the kind of anti-Semite that interests the ADL.
We know that had he been a right-wing extremist, the attacks on synagogues in Riverdale would have been considered a threat to all Jews. Whether or not there was evidence for it, they would have linked it to Trump and Greenblatt fodder for more lectures about white supremacists in which he would have analogized the shattered glass of Riverdale synagogues to Kristallnacht. But since Burnette didn’t fit into that scenario, the ADL has remained silent about a Jewish community being terrorized and then having to endure the sight of their assailant sent back out onto the street.
The shame here goes deeper than the way the ADL has betrayed its mandate. That is merely a symptom of a broader problem in which liberals have sacrificed Jewish security on the altar of woke politics and maintaining alliances with allies like race-baiter Al Sharpton. Doing so doesn’t merely tie them to radical causes that undermine law enforcement and falsely label America as an irredeemably racist nation. It also leads them to treat attacks on Jews by those who can’t be tied to their partisan opponents as something to be minimized or ignored so as to avoid having to confront the consequences of their ideological choices. “Bail reform” hasn’t just hurt New Yorkers. It exposed the Jewish left’s willingness to treat Jewish security as an afterthought.