Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, May 26, 2021

US @StateDept starting to erase "Israel" from Jerusalem press releases again

In 2011, in response to an article in the Weekly Standard that noted that government press releases routinely referred to events in "Jerusalem, Israel" while the US was arguing that it had the right to say that a US citizen born in Jerusalem was not born in Israel, the White House scrubbed nearly all references to Jerusalem being in Israel on its website.

Later, in 2016, the White House issued a press release for Obama attending Shimon Peres' memorial service on Mount Herzl, Jerusalem. The release which originally said "Israel" but was then "corrected" to remove reference to Israel, literally crossing it out:

Anyone who thought that the Trump administration 2017 recognition of Jerusalem as being the capital of Israel would end this nonsense was optimistic.

During Secretary of State Blinken's visit to the Middle East now, three out of four State Department press releases refer only to "Jerusalem" with no country - contrary to standard practice - and only one mentions Israel.

Only when meeting embassy staff does it say Israel, perhaps because it is the US embassy in Israel and it would really be egregious to pretend that the US embassy isn't in the correct country.

This is no oversight - the same pattern is in Blinken's daily schedule, where the name of the country (or, in the case of the Palestinian Authority, the "West Bank") always follows the name of the city - except for Jerusalem, except for that one meeting with embassy staff:

Under the previous administration, events in Jerusalem routinely said "Israel."

It is a little too early to say - the State Department website still says (inaccurately) that the US was the first country to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital - that but it sure looks like the Biden administration is anxious to roll back all of Trump's accomplishments and go back to the absurd situation where the US considered all of Jerusalem - on both sides of the Green Line - to be a final status issue up for negotiations.

There are two groups that attend anti-Israel rallies.

One group styles themselves as being liberal, open-minded, very concerned about human rights, only wanting peace and so, so concerned over Palestinians who are killed during a war their side started. These people swear up and down that they are non-violent, against antisemitism and that they want Israel to go away quietly and peacefully as a result of world pressure and boycotts.

The other are young Arab men who grew up with pure Jew-hatred. They are intolerant of women, of gays, they don't care about the environment. They share none of the supposed principles of the kumbaya crowd, with the exception of wanting to see the Jewish state destroyed and of the role they take of eternal victims with no agency.

The latter group is behind the torrent of antisemitic attacks we see happening every day in the West. They are the ones who are driving around in gangs, looking for Jews to intimidate or attack. They are directly threatening Jews on social media thousands of times a day.

This is unprecedented.

For decades, Jews have been able to walk around safely in most major cities without fear, without even considering hiding their kippot or Star of David necklaces. Jews used to be most afraid of being attacked by Blacks, but over time that has become much less of an issue with the exception of the recent uptick of attacks in Brooklyn. Antisemitism has always been there but it definitely lessened. ADL statistics has seen it go down steadily since the 90s.

But this is different than even the '60s. Now Jews have to worry about gangs who are targeting them because they are Jews.

Why have these Arab gangs suddenly become so emboldened to form posses to attack Jews?

Because of the first group.

The fine distinctions that Leftist Israel haters try to make between anti-Zionism and antisemitism are completely invisible to Arabs. They hate Israel because, not despite the fact, it is filled with Jews. Antisemitism is the entire source of the conflict. Their parents and preachers don't teach them to hate Zionists but Jews. They look at their Jewish allies as tools and as dhimmis, not as role models.

The attackers find strength in numbers, they see that they have the Left on their side, they are riled up by thousands of lies about Israel by speaker after speaker and tweet after tweet, they get validation from members of Congress and other liars and bigots who say that Israel is guilty of genocide and apartheid and ethnic cleansing, they are primed to violence from lurid and often faked photos of dead kids, they are whipped up into a frenzy from the hypnotic anti-Israel and antisemitic chants.

And they are in large cities with lots of identifiable Jews all around, who must pay for these crimes.

It is a recipe for violence.

The Arab gangs are engaged in what they know best: terrorism. After all, the point of terrorism isn't the attacks themselves but the feat that the attacks create among the targets. These Arabs are importing terror from their Middle Eastern cousins, doing everything they can to frighten Jews. They feel, correctly, that they have reached a critical mass with fellow Arabs in their respective Western countries.

Crucially, they are being given cover by the secular Left, publishing articles that justify terror and the idea that Palestinians are justified in doing anything they want to Jews because all's fair in "resistance."

Arabs are sensitive to being shamed. They have not acted like this before in America because the idea of wanton violence against Jews was shameful. Now, and their Leftist allies give them intellectual cover - and they will never, ever shame them.

The Leftist anti-Zionists could shame them into stopping their attacks. They could make it clear that they want nothing to do with the antisemites. They could stand up and say that they will not be allies with Jew-haters and will not march with bigots. They could demand that mosques and Muslim leaders clearly denounce the attacks (they certainly will not do that on their own.) But these people who claim to speak truth to power will never, ever call out violence by Arabs They refuse to do that, because they are all about solidarity and allyship and, let's face it, they don't want to say anything negative about people of color who want to attack Jews.

The Leftist enablers also know that the Arabs would turn on them next if they say anything negative about their antisemitism.

Instead, the "progressives" issue weak statements against antisemitism and then return to their "From the river to the sea" chants to incite the next round of attacks.

The only solution is to shame the attackers. The only people who can do that are tacitly condoning the attacks.

This is a nearly perfect storm that is bringing up an entirely new class of Jew-hatred to America.

First the @NYTimes publishes an op-ed supporting terrorism. Then it publishes The Map That Lies.

Yesterday, the New York Times published an op-ed by a resident of Gaza, Basma Ghalayini, who wanted to tell the world that it wasn't only Hamas that was fighting Israel, but all Palestinians. And they have every right to use terrorism:

[T]o focus on Hamas is to miss the point, and to reinforce the myth that the conflict is, in some fundamental manner, about the group. The conflict is about the Israeli occupation.

To focus on Hamas is also to sanitize the conflict, and in that way become complicit in it. It allows people to express sympathy for ordinary Palestinians while blaming a few people at the top of the Palestinian leadership. But the right to self-defense against Israel’s continued aggression belongs to all Palestinians; legitimate resistance cannot be a right only for those Palestinians who believe exclusively in nonviolent self-defense — not in the face of the violence we endure. We, Palestinians, are in this together.

She also said that Hamas' thousands of rockets were "rickety" and no threat to Israel, only an excuse for Israel to attack Gaza.

This is justification not only for shooting rockets at Israelis, but also to do literally anything. Using this logic, it could be "legitimate resistance" to rape Israeli women or to kidnap and butcher Israeli children (both of which have happened.)

Palestinians can and have done anything under the banner of "legitimate resistance" from bus bombs to car rammings to stabbing any Jews that can be found. The New York Times is agreeing that this is a legitimate viewpoint worthy of debate and consideration.

And anyone who thinks that there is no relationship between this vile mentality and the scenes we've seen of Palestinian youth attacking and targeting Jews in Western cities is a fool.

Today, the NYT published another anti-Israel op-ed, by Diana Buttu, that justifies the recent pogroms against Jews by Israeli Arabs as a natural reaction to being second-class citizens, and says that coexistence is a "myth." That point could be argued.

But the graphic for this article is thoroughly offensive - it is a version of "The Map That Lies," the graphic that misrepresents Jewish and Arab control of land since the 1940s, commissioned by the New York Times!

MSNBC apologized for displaying this fake map on the screen. McGraw-Hill apologized for publishing it in a textbook - and withdrew the book from circulation. But years after it has been thoroughly debunked by many, the New York Times not only publishes it - but makes its own custom version!

This is unconscionable. The New York Times op-ed page is a cesspool of lies and slander against Israel where facts are demeaned and perversions are celebrated.

05/25 Links Pt2: The Rise of Woke Anti-Semitism; The Cowardice of Chuck Schumer; Remembering the Farhud pogrom and its lessons for today

From Ian:

Bret Stephens: Anti-Zionism Isn’t Anti-Semitism? Someone Didn’t Get the Memo.

In this storm of hate, political leaders such as Mayor Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles, President Biden and Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain have issued appropriate statements of condemnation. On CNN, correspondent Bianna Golodryga called out the anti-Semitism of Pakistan’s foreign minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, when he cited “deep pockets” and “control [of] media” in terms of Israel’s influence on public opinion. Good for her.

But if there’s been a massive online campaign of progressive allyship with Jews, I’ve missed it. If corporate executives have sent out workplace memos expressing concern for the safety of Jewish employees, I’ve missed it. If academic associations have issued public letters denouncing the use of anti-Semitic tropes by pro-Palestinian activists, I’ve missed them.

It’s a curious silence. In the land of inclusiveness, Jews are denied inclusion.

One response to the attacks that I have seen coming from the left is that attacks on Jews are wrong because an American or British or German Jew should not be held responsible for the actions of the state of Israel. That’s true, and fine as far as it goes.

But it doesn’t go far enough. Would the assaults in Los Angeles and New York have been more justifiable if the victims had been Israeli citizens — even, say, Israeli diplomats? Is hatred of an entire country and threats or violence to its people acceptable as long as the hate is untainted by some older prejudice?

Just pure Jew hatred and antisemitism from @sarahleah1 here. https://t.co/tF8tOb97u7
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) May 25, 2021

Ayaan Hirsi Ali: How influencers have legitimised anti-Semitism

Indeed, Jewish communities across the world are already experiencing the fall-out from a new wave of anti-Semitism that has been legitimised by celebrity activists. This month, for example, has also seen the rise of a second frequently misunderstood slogan: a version of “Khaybar, Khaybar, oh Jews, the army of Mohammed will return”, which dates back to the massacre of the Jews by Muhammad and his army in Khaybar, northern Arabia, in the 7th century.

Today, it remains a battle-cry used by Muslims when attacking Jews or Israelis; in the past month alone, it has been used not only in Istanbul, Casablanca, Kuwait City, Doha and Karachi, but in western Europe, too: in Utrecht, Warsaw, Vienna, Rome, Munster, London, Brussels, Berlin and Amsterdam.

The resurgence of anti-Semitism Europe, in many ways, is unsurprising; it has been simmering under the surface for over a decade. Yet despite a number of terrible anti-Semitic attacks in recent years, America, by comparison, has felt relatively immune — immune, that is, until now. Indeed, I have friends who moved to the US from Europe a decade ago to escape anti-Semitism. This month, for the first time, they are now questioning whether it is safe to walk to synagogue or wear their kippahs.

And is it really so hard to see why? Last Saturday, a man was arrested for attacking Jewish diners outside a restaurant in Los Angeles “on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon”. Two days earlier, a Jewish man, Joseph Borgen, was attacked by a group of pro-Palestinian activists in New York City’s Times Square. They reportedly beat him with a crutch, sprayed him with mace, called him a “dirty Jew” and explained that “Hamas is going to kill all of you”. Remarkably, a photo of one of the men accused of assaulting Borgen, Waseem Awawdeh, recently appeared in a now-deleted Instagram photo posted by Bella Hadid from a pro-Palestinian protest.

Yet what I found most disturbing was how Awawdeh’s comments following the attack mirrored those of Mohammed Bouyeri’s after he killed Theo van Gogh. Just as Bouyeri refused to apologise, Awawdeh reportedly proclaimed from his jail cell: “If I could do it again, I would do it again.” A video has since been released, purporting to show Awawdeh leaving prison on bail; his friends welcome him outside, put him on their shoulders and proclaim that he was a “hero”.

And herein lies the problem: when such odious acts as Awawdeh’s can be represented as heroism, you suddenly see how easy it is for false narratives to turn into deadly fantasies.

WSJ: The Rise of Woke Anti-Semitism

There's something especially unsettling about the newest eruption of the oldest hatred - anti-Semitism. We live in an age of heightened awareness of ethnic and racial victimhood, but in the quarter-century the FBI has kept records, hate crimes against blacks have declined by more than a third between 1996 and 2019. By contrast, the number of anti-Semitic crimes - which are, proportionate to the share of Jews in the population, much more frequent than anti-black crime - has scarcely changed.

In the past, most of the anti-Semitic attacks in the U.S. have been the product of the usual depraved minds: white supremacists or sick individuals deciding to take out their pathologies on the group most often blamed for society's flaws. But mostly they haven't occurred as the kind of street-level response to geopolitical events that is too common among political activists in Europe. This latest outbreak, however, has come about in direct response to the recent conflict in Gaza.

The wider political and cultural environment is what makes this outbreak of anti-Semitism especially unsettling. The latest conflict in the Middle East has been made to fit the binary classification of the human race into oppressor and victim on the basis of identity. The wide penetration of this notion into the consciousness and discourse of prominent elected figures is new.

Chelsea football club condemns antisemitism. Arabs are very upset.

A tweet from Chelsea FC:

Naturally, this is very upsetting to antisemites.

05/25 Links Pt1: Arab States Are ‘Washing Their Hands’ of Palestinians; How the UN Stole Jewish Homes in Occupied Jerusalem and Set Off the Latest Conflict; UNRWA director says IDF strikes were 'precise', 'did not target civilians'

From Ian:

Analysts: Arab States Are ‘Washing Their Hands’ of Palestinians

By contrast, Gulf states seemed more interested in military alliances among themselves and with Israel to counter threats like Iran, said Soliman. “The idea of an Arab-Israeli NATO” goes back to President George W. Bush, and “we are getting there. It’s not a fancy idea anymore; however, it is going to take time.” Webinar moderator Joyce Karam, Washington correspondent for The National, noted that an “Arab NATO” was an “idea that was first started with Harry Truman” with initiatives that led to the failed 1955 Baghdad Pact.

Elgindy additionally cited the practical realities that facilitated Israel’s relations with Bahrain, Morocco, Sudan and the UAE. Unlike Egypt and Jordan, which made peace agreements with Israel in 1979 and 1994, respectively, this Arab quartet had never engaged in military hostilities with Israel. Correspondingly, several of these states have had “under-the-table relations with the Israelis anyway” and now merely “are consecrating an existing geopolitical order.”

Meanwhile, Arab states “will continue to pay lip service to two states because everyone needs some place to hang their hat” concerning a strategy for the Palestinians, observed Elgindy. Yet international actors are increasingly practicing “conflict management” and “risk aversion” towards the Palestinians, United States Institute of Peace Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Program, explained director Lucy Kurtzer-Ellenbogen. In tandem, she added, Israeli “trends are clear that the body politic has moved very much and largely to the right,” to the detriment of concessions to the Palestinians. This trend has only accelerated with the latest eruption of violence.

Yet even before Hamas’s latest jihad, Elgindy correctly faulted Palestinians for their plight, as the Palestinian Authority’s recent cancellation of long overdue elections—the first since 2006—further exposed the corruption of the P.A. dictatorship. The cancellation “is another sign of a, I don’t any other way to put it, but a bankrupt leadership, that has no strategic vision, that is incapable of even minimally doing what is required to put its own house in order.” “You can never really underestimate the Palestinian leadership’s dysfunction,” he added.

How the UN Stole Jewish Homes in Occupied Jerusalem and Set Off the Latest Conflict

The fundamental issue at stake in Shimon HaTzadik and Sheikh Jarrah are crystal clear. Unlike some parts of Israel where territory changed hands in more complex ways, we know exactly what happened and why it happened. And those simple facts tell a story of the UNRWA’s complicity in the ethnic cleansing of Jews, not just today when it serves as a storehouse for Hamas missiles and an employment agency for Hamas propagandists, but back in the 50s.

Jews were ethnically cleansed from Jerusalem after an invasion and occupation. The United Nations, through UNRWA, violated international law by taking part in population transfer by an occupying power which had expelled the indigenous population. This is the charge that the UN and the anti-Israel politicians and media have repeatedly lobbed at Israel.

And they’re the ones guilty of it.

Their Sheikh Jarrah argument is that ethnic cleansing and occupation are moral and legal when Arab Muslim armies do it. It’s that Arab Muslim squatters who moved into Jewish homes in 1956 had gained an immutable moral right to live in them by 1967 that outweighed those of the Jewish trusts which had owned them since the 19th century.

There’s no better way to show the hypocritical double standards of an anti-Israel movement that cries about occupation, ethnic cleansing, and apartheid while practicing those very things.

AOC, Sanders, Warren, the UN, the Quarter, the EU, and the Biden administration are demanding that the Arab Muslim occupation of Jerusalem continue. They are ordering a free country to overturn the legal ruling of a court in case that goes back to the 1970s because they believe that Arab Muslim occupiers have a right to live in Jerusalem… and Jews don’t.

That’s what this was about in 1948. That’s still what it’s about in 2021.

The occupiers cry about the “occupation” and the ethnic cleansers cry about “ethnic cleansing” as they fight to bring back the state of apartheid that drove the Jews out of Jerusalem.

Much of the narrative around the Sheik Jarrah property dispute is based on the myth that the law discriminates against Palestinians. Prof. Avi Bell's detailed legal @KoheletForum explainer demolishes that claim https://t.co/HUzaqHjvI6
— Eugene Kontorovich (@EVKontorovich) May 24, 2021

Refuting 15 Anti-Israel Lies

As Hamas fired deadly missiles at Israel for 11 straight days, Israel’s critics fired one verbal salvo after another.

Unable or unwilling to distinguish between a terrorist organization seeking Israel’s destruction — Hamas — and a democratic country trying to deny the group’s wish, the anti-Zionists and antisemites went for the jugular.

Here are 15 of the most memorably outrageous accusations:
Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, discussing Israel’s actions in Gaza on CNN, stated, “They’re losing the media war despite their connections…” CNN anchor Bianna Golodryga laudably pushed back, “What are their connections?” The minister laughed and said, “Deep pockets.” The anchor followed up: “What does that mean?” The minister replied, “Well, they’re very influential people, they control media.” (May 20)

This is classical antisemitism — the spurious notion of Jews “controlling” the media (see AJC’s Translate Hate Glossary). By the way, if Jews did control the media, we’re doing a pretty lousy job, judging by the daily fare we’ve witnessed from the BBC, The Guardian, The New York Times, MSNBC, etc

Chinese Communist Party-affiliated Chinese TV Host Zheng Junfeng: “Some people believe that US pro-Israeli policy is traceable to the influence of wealthy Jews in the US and the Jewish lobby on US foreign policy.” (May 16)

Another egregious example of classical antisemitism, alleging that “wealthy Jews” wield inordinate influence on the policies of a government. This simply echoes the notorious Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which attributed demonic powers to a Jewish “cabal.” Incidentally, Jews are two percent of the US population, hold a multiplicity of views, and, like fellow Americans, are active on many sides of many causes. And please take note: Unlike the case in some other notable countries, the American Constitution invites citizens to “petition the government.”

Member of Irish Parliament Richard Boyd Barrett: “We must demand the dismantling of the Israeli state.” (May 15)

There are 193 member states of the United Nations. Mr. Barrett is proposing the dismantling of Israel. Are there any other UN member states he is proposing to dismantle? If not, which appears to be the case, could it possibly have something to do with the fact that Israel is the lone Jewish-majority nation on Earth?

PCHR has lots of fake civilians in Gaza

As we've seen in previous wars, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights happily spouts lies about the civilian status of the people killed in wars with Israel, accusing Israel of targeting civilians when it simply isn't true.

Here's a sad story PCHR made up:

At approximately 23:50 (May 14), Israeli warplanes launched at least 15 missiles at ‘Abed al-Razeq Qlaibo Mosque and its surrounding near Qlaibo Hill in Beit Lahia. As a result, the mosque was completely destroyed. Five minutes later, the residents of the area thought that the targeted house belonged to Hatem al-Mansi, which is to the southern side of the mosque, so they ran to evacuate al-Mansi family members. When the residents arrived at al-Mansi’s house and entered it, an Israeli drone fired a missile at the house garden. As a result, 3 civilians, including 2 brothers, were killed while 5 others, including a woman, were injured. One of those injured sustained serious wounds. Those killed were identified as: Ahmed (34) and Yousef (22) Hatem Mahmoud al-Mansi (34) and Ahmed Mohammed ‘Abed al-‘Aziz Sabbah (28). Moreover, 4 houses near the targeted mosque from the western side, other nearby houses and electricity and communication networks sustained severe damage

Ahmed Hatem Al Mansi:

Ahmed Mohammed Sabah:

Chances are that Al Mansi's brother Yousef was a terrorist too, but Hamas has only released a small percentage of its martyr photos. At any rate, these two were obviously not civilian.

PCHR wrote:

(On May 13). the Israeli artillery fired 2 shells at a group of farmers in their land near the American Hospital near Beit Hanoun Crossing, north of the Gaza Strip. As a result, one of the farmers namely Suhaib ‘Abed al-Raheem ‘Awad Ghanem (25) was killed while another namely Yehia Mansour Ghaben (24) was seriously injured, both are from Beit Lahia.

Here's one of the "farmers," Yahya Mansour Ghaben:

You know how NGOs love to say that Israel's blockade is responsible for Gaza's water crisis?

You hardly ever hear them blame the actual rulers of Gaza.

Here is a music video from Hamas' Al Qassam Brigades showing them manufacturing weapons - from existing water pipes that they dig up from the ground.

Terror groups have been bragging about this lately:

In the conflict's final days, Islamic Jihad leader Ziad Al-Nakhala boasted about his group's ability to improvise weapons from everyday materials.

"The silent world should know that our weapons, by which we face the most advanced arsenal produced by American industry, are water pipes that engineers of the resistance turned into the rockets that you see," he said.

They were taught by Iran how to convert the pipes into missiles.

So now, Hamas is eager to get an international "reconstruction conference" together to help rebuild its arsenal with new pipes and cement.

And the world will continue to blame Israel for Hamas redirecting humanitarian aid to weapons and tunnels.

From Jordanian news site Sawaleif:

No one in the world, whether individual, group or state, dares to harm or annoy the evil Jews, despite their crimes, massacres, and fires that they ignite in various parts of the world.

There is an exception to this rule: Muslims are the only nation that God blessed and Almighty has entrusted with punishing Jews for their crimes against God Almighty first, then against the prophets, peace be upon them, and then for the rights of people, especially the Palestinian people.

And because Muslims are not able to reach this evil gang that is scattered in various parts of the world, God has brought them today to live in Palestine in order to make it easier for Muslims to subdue them by crawling towards them from every direction in order to punish them and take revenge on them and eliminate them completely, to rid the world of their evils.

The exercises or maneuvering with live ammunition that are now taking place between armed Zionist terrorists and unarmed peaceful Palestinians who were displaced by the evil and armed Jewish gang from their homes to the Gaza Strip are rather preparatory exercises for the holy march of the return of Palestinians from all refugee camps in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Gaza to their homes, their land and their homeland, to eliminate this armed Jewish division supported by the United States, and to implement the true Holocaust against these evil people in a well-deserved way.

Many indications indicate that the hour of the divine promise to implement this Holocaust is approaching.

Sawaleif has a history of crazed Jew-hating articles, but this may be the worst one.

The author's previous article says that the only way that the world can ever have peace is by getting rid of all the Jews from Israel.

05/24 Links Pt2: Matti Friedman: The Americanization of the Israeli-Palestinian Debate; How to halt the criminalization of Israel; Street Violence as a Political Tool

From Ian:

Matti Friedman: The Americanization of the Israeli-Palestinian Debate

The story of the Jewish minority in Europe and in the Islamic world, which is the story of Israel, has nothing to do with race in America. My grandmother’s parents and siblings were shot outside their village in Poland by people the same color as them. If you stand on a street in the modern state of Israel and look at passersby, you often can’t tell who’s Jewish and who’s Arab. Many Israelis are from Arab countries, and for the 6 million Jews living in the heart of the Arab world (300 million people) and in the broader Islamic world (1.5 billion people), the question of who’s the minority is obviously a tricky one. Most Black people here are Jews with roots in Ethiopia. The occupation of the West Bank is supported by many Israelis mainly because they have rational fears of rockets and suicide bombings, tactics that weren’t quite the ones endorsed by the American civil-rights movement. All of this is to say that although Israel, like America, is deeply messed up, it’s messed up in completely different ways.

Nonetheless, the belief in a fundamental similarity has caught on. While following the protests in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014, which to me seemed just and necessary, I saw a sign that read From Ferguson to Palestine. This was puzzling: American soldiers still occupied Iraq and Afghanistan, and American aid money was flowing to repressive regimes throughout the Middle East and beyond. If activists were seeking foreign inspiration for a domestic movement, they had hundreds of ongoing ethnic conflicts to choose from. But something about Palestine struck Americans as relevant to their own experience.

That sentiment has moved into elite opinion. In 2019, The New York Times published an op-ed by the respected scholar Michelle Alexander, the author of an important book on incarceration, that described Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians as “one of the great moral challenges of our time,” the scene of “practices reminiscent of apartheid in South Africa and Jim Crow segregation in the United States.” The essay didn’t explain why this conflict constitutes one of the great moral challenges or offer any indication that the author had ever visited Israel. Last year the Times ran an essay by the author Viet Thanh Nguyen, a Pulitzer Prize winner and a college professor in Los Angeles, that ridiculed “white writers” for their “white privilege,” identified the American dream as “settler colonialism,” and then segued into an attack on Israelis as settler colonialists.

For these Americans, distant Jews have become an embodiment of the American evil, racial oppression. People have always projected fantasies onto other places and groups, but this particular type of projection, in which Jews are displayed as the prime symbol of whatever’s wrong, has a long history. When it surfaces, it usually heralds an impatience with logical analysis and normal politics, and a move toward magical thinking.

Think the woke are not antisemitic? Think again.
Watch me raise money for Hamas to kill Jews from students in Portland! pic.twitter.com/osIVUKNk80
— Ami Horowitz (@AmiHorowitz) May 24, 2021

Straight up incitement from the NY Times. An entire article claiming that the problem is Jews moving from one city to another city in the Jewish state.

Jewish lives are considered themselves a provocation. This is some mid-20th-century-Poland horsecaca https://t.co/lehEoedYuS
— Seth Mandel (@SethAMandel) May 24, 2021

Noah Rothman: The Radicalization of the University of California Press

On May 21, a prestigious activist organization expressed its “solidarity and support for Palestinians in their fight for liberation.” In accordance with the radicalism of this organization, it pointedly did not refer to Israel by name, placing the Jewish state instead within “historic Palestine.” This activist organization encouraged us to donate to “local organizations,” like the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), presently celebrating what it takes to be a “courageous victory” over the Zionist regime and its “Zionist settlers” across “all of Palestine.”

The activist organization in question is the University of California Press, the “nonprofit publishing arm of the University of California system.” Because it is associated with a university system, it dutifully notes in its solidarity statement that it will “prioritize pedagogies that reflect intersectional, anti-colonial, anti-racist action.”

This statement is not exactly a departure for the press, which includes a commitment to “drive progressive change” in its mission statement. On the Israel front, it published Sunaina Maira’s Boycott, which risibly asserts that there is a virtual ban on “pro-Palestinian” speech in the academy. The assertion is risible because her book is part of a UC Press American Studies series, co-edited by scholars prominent in the successful effort to win the American Studies Association over to boycotting Israel. If there was any doubt that they had a home in one of the biggest university presses in the country, the Press has now invited them to leave a toothbrush and offered them a drawer.

In recent months, defenders of academic freedom have worried about the ham-fisted and, in some cases, unconstitutional, GOP-led legislative efforts to combat left-liberal “social justice” ideology on state university campuses. State legislators hold the purse strings and are a formidable threat to academic freedom. Perhaps that threat is more deserving of our attention than student op-ed writers. But the defense of academic freedom rests in no small part on the university’s claim to be a center of “the free search for truth and its free exposition.” When the publishing arm of a state university system decides that it is also the publishing arm of anti-Zionism, it undermines that defense.

Is the problem in Israel rooted in 1967 or 1948?
?@DanielGordis? joins our podcast from Jerusalem — as the ceasefire is being negotiated — to take us through a longer view of the recent crisis. https://t.co/J7m18YsZ7y pic.twitter.com/qBmkm15uIh
— Dan Senor (@dansenor) May 21, 2021

In the past, the weeks following these ceasefires with Hamas terrorists have sometimes produced a shakeout of facts and information previously denied by Hamas.

Here are some examples:

May 2018: Hamas official: 50 of the 62 Gazans killed in border violence were our members
Salah Bardawil’s confirmation means number of acknowledged members of terror groups who died on Monday and Tuesday is now 53

August 2014: Hamas Admits To Kidnapping And Killing Israeli Teens
A senior Hamas leader has said the group carried out the kidnapping and killing of three Israeli teens in the West Bank in June — the first time anyone from the Islamic militant group has said it was behind an attack that helped spark the current war in the Gaza Strip.

September 2014: Hamas Quietly Admits It Fired Rockets from Civilian Areas
The Gaza terrorist group offers that "mistakes were made" in its summer conflict with Israel.

November 2010: Hamas Admits 600-700 of Its Men Were Killed in Cast Lead
The military group had previously claimed only 49 militants died during Gaza war, though Israel put the figure at 709.

The ceasefire last week may have already produced an admission from Hamas.

Raf Sanchez, foreign correspondent for NBC News, tweeted last Friday:

It's not at all clear what basis the IDF has for making this claim.

But then again, this is not the first time that Hamas has openly admitted to misjudging Israel's reaction.

Haaretz reports that in 2011, Hamas fired a barrage of mortars into the Negev:

Yesterday's mortar barrage on the western Negev is the most extensive operation by Hamas since Operation Cast Lead ended in January 2009. The group has been involved in a few incidents with the Israel Defense Forces since then, but usually on a smaller scale, and it has rarely claimed responsibility.

Yesterday, Hamas publicly announced that its people were behind the latest incident. They said the reason was the Israel Air Force's attack Wednesday on the Hamas training camp in the ruins of the settlement of Netzarim in which two people were killed. That attack had been precipitated by a Qassam strike a few hours earlier near Sderot.

So, in case you were not keeping score:

A Qassam strike on Sderot started things off.

Israel responded with an attack on a Hamas training camp.

Hamas responded to that with a barrage aimed at the Negev.

But Hamas says it has an excuse: Israel broke the rules.

Not the rules of the Geneva Convention.

Not the rules of International Humanitarian Law

Not the rules written by the ICRC or of the UN.

These were unwritten rules

Hamas whined that:

Israel had exceeded the unwritten rules of the game. The Qassam had been fired by a marginal Palestinian group, and the accepted response would have been a bombing of empty Hamas offices or an escape tunnel without casualties.

Hamas did not expect Israel to hit back hard.

Apparently, they expected a proportionate response.

Hamas's surprise is reminiscent of a BBC report of Nasrallah's apology for ordering the kidnapping of 2 Israeli soldiers, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev -- leading to the 2006 Lebanon War:

"Had we known that the kidnapping of the soldiers would have led to this, we would definitely not have done it," he said in an interview on Lebanese TV.

It is not clear what Lebanon thought of the apology.

Apparently, there are times when even terrorists, like Hamas and Hezbollah, find a need to apologize to the citizens they hold hostage.

I fear that what could happen is if Congress were to overturn [the Iran Deal], our friends in Israel could actually wind up being more isolated and more blamed.
John "No, no, no and no" Kerry (2015)

Israel's Operation Guardian of the Walls has come to a close, assuming that the ceasefire with Hamas terrorists in Gaza holds.

For over a week, Israel fought to defend itself against 4,300 rockets fired against unarmed Israeli civilians, who were then forced to run with their children to the nearest bunker...So as usual, it was Israel that faced condemnation.

But in one place this is becoming more difficult.

Last week, the EU’s foreign policy head, Josep Borrell, convened a special videoconference of ministers in a demonstration of EU unity. The idea was for the EU to both ask Hamas to stop firing rockets at Israeli civilians and to urge Israel to be "proportionate" in its response and avoid civilian casualties -- thus equating Hamas terrorists committing war crimes with a democracy defending itself once again against the attacks.

At least that was the plan.

But EU countries have long been ferociously divided over the Israel-Palestine question, as was clear on Sunday when the EU ambassador to the United Nations, Olof Skoog, delivered a statement to the Security Council condemning the violence but was prevented from speaking “on behalf of its member states.” Hungary, an ally of Israel, blocked the statement.

Borrell, similarly, is often forced to issue statements on the Israel-Palestine conflict without the unanimous endorsement of the 27 member countries, effectively leaving him to speak for himself. Without national capitals on board, the EU is impotent on foreign policy.

This is a theme I have touched upon before -- that far from being isolated, Israel has many allies and has formed alliances that have helped to prevent one-sided condemnation of Israel from the European Union.

o Hungary, which abstained when the United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to reject the US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, joined the Czech Republic and Romania in blocking a European Union statement criticizing Washington’s decision to move its Israeli embassy to Jerusalem.

o Hungary blocked the EU effort to issue a joint statement condemning the US decision to no longer consider Israeli settlements as illegal

o Last year, the EU failed to get a consensus when it tried to unanimously condemn Trump's peace plan

o In response to the ICC announcement that it would investigate Israel for war crimes, Australia, Brazil, Hungary, Austria, Germany, and the Czech Republic asked the court to let them file "amicus brief" opinions on Israel's behalf.

After decades of watching the Arab countries in the UN create alliances with third-world countries to pass all kinds of anti-Israel resolutions, this is a welcome change of pace.

And what these European states are doing in Israel's defense is not some kind of attempt to win the Jewish vote in their respective countries. According to the Pew Research Center, the total Jewish population of Europe is only a little over 1 million, which is far, far less than the growing Muslim population:

Nevertheless, there are critics of Netanyahu's policy of creating alliances with the right-wing, and possibly antisemitic, leaders of East European countries. Efraim Zuroff, Israeli historian and Nazi Hunter, is critical of Netanyahu's friendship with Viktor Orban, the Prime Minister of Hungary.

This realpolitik of Netanyahu is reminiscent of Theodor Herzl's own brand of practical diplomacy, when he negotiated for the creation of a Jewish state with some decidedly antisemitic leaders.

Alex Ryvchin, the author of Zionism: The Concise History, explained in an interview how Herzl deliberately tried to win over antisemitic leaders to the idea that creating a Jewish state would be to their benefit:

Herzl dealt with a lot of ardent antisemites like the Kaiser and the Russian Foreign Minister. He felt a cold synergy between the interests of Zionism and these rabid antisemites. Herzl thought that for the Jews to achieve the return to their ancestral land, these antisemites who are so keen to purge their countries of Jews would be accommodating. And indeed, many of them saw a benefit in a movement that could absorb a large number of Jews.

In any political campaign such as Zionism, there has to be a dose of realpolitik--to think not only about the idealism, but also how to practically achieve your goal. That means creating alliances with those you find unsavory.

The danger, Ryvchin says, is to see such temporary alliances as good faith, long-term alliances.

In order to gauge whether Herzl had any success, here is a letter he received from the antisemitic Kaiser in 1898, describing how he considered the possibility of supporting a Jewish protectorate in Palestine. It is quoted from Yoram Hazony's The Jewish State: The Struggle for Israel's Soul. In his letter, the Kaiser describes

the energy, creative power and productivity of the tribe of Shem...addicted to social democracy and busy inciting the opposition will move off to the East, where more rewarding work awaits him...Now I realize that nine-tenths of Germans will be horrified and shun me if they find out at some later date that I am in sympathy with the Zionists and might even place them under my protection if they call upon me to do so [the Kaiser then rambles on how Jews don't deserve further punishment for killing Jesus]...And from the viewpoint of secular realpolitik we cannot ignore the fact that, given the enormous and dangerous power represented by international Jewish capital, it would surely be a tremendous achievement for Germany if the world of the Hebrews would look up to our country with gratitude. [p.131-132]

Meeting with the Kaiser, Herzl had no illusions about converting him into a lover of Jews, but did get a commitment of support for a Jewish state.

Similarly, here is a letter from Wjatscheslaw Plehwe, the Russian czar's interior minister -- and the man believed responsible for the Kishinev massacre in which 49 Jews were murdered, Jewish women were raped and 1,500 Jewish homes were damaged. Plehwe describes the degree to which the Russian government would support Zionism:

I had the occasion of explaining to you the point of view of the Russian government regarding the implementation of Zionism...The government of Russia will look upon you with favor so long as Zionism consists of the desire to create an independent state in Palestine, and organizing the emigration from Russia of a certain number of its Jewish subjects. However, the government of Russia will not agree that Zionism be transformed into propaganda for Jewish nationalism in Russia. Zionism of this type will only result in the establishment of a separate national group which will endanger the integrity of the country. [Hazony, p. 136]

It was the possibility of saving Russian Jews, who lived with the perpetual threat of pogroms, that drove Hertzl to look into potential territories other than then-Palestine, in the short term.

Eventually, Herzl realized that he was not making the necessary progress with leaders who were fundamentally hostile to Jews, and changed the focus of his efforts to Great Britain, where he found allies who were driven by Christian ideals and had a genuine passion for Jews returning to their ancestral land.

The success that Herzl was ultimately able to achieve diplomaticall rivals Chaim Weizmann's own success which culminated in the Balfour Declaration. The British offered Herzl a Jewish settlement in East Africa (erroneously referred to as Uganda), leading to the following letter from Lord Lansdowne, the British foreign secretary:

If a site can be found which the Trust and His Majesty’s Commissioner consider suitable and which commends itself to His Majesty’s Government, Lord Lansdowne will be prepared to entertain favorably proposals for the establishment of a Jewish colony or settlement on conditions which will enable the members to observe their National customs. For this purpose he would be prepared to discuss...the details of a scheme comprising as its main features: the grant of a considerable area of land, the appointment of a Jewish Official as chief of the local administration, and permission to the Colony to have a free hand in regard to municipal legislation and as to the management of religious and purely domestic matters, such Local Autonomy being conditional upon the right of His Majesty’s Government to exercise a general control. [emphasis added]

Hazony explains that the Landsdowne Letter surpasses the Balfour Declaration because the letter expressed Great Britain's willingness to agree on Herzl's own terms that the land would be chartered with the understanding that it would be governed as a Jewish territory, by the Jews themselves. [p.135]

The alliances Israel has formed with some right-wing leaders are not in the same category as the leaders of Russia and Germany that Herzl had to deal with. Still, some do question their motives. But such alliances, as we have seen, have helped Israel.

Ryvchin makes the point:

Today, Israel has formed alliances with some nations that might really see a short-term alignment of interests, but don’t harbor any great feeling of warmth towards the Jewish people. That is dangerous, but it is also the world that we live in. And as long as the Netanyahu government and the successive governments go into this with their eyes open, I think it is something that can and needs to be done.

Ryvchin is referring to countries like Hungary.
The same could apply to Russia, with whom Netanyahu has an understanding (so far) that allows it to fly into Syrian airspace to challenge Iran.

We hope that the same reason for caution does not apply to the UAE and other Arab parties to the Abraham Accords as well.

After the events of the last 2 weeks, we may soon find out.

05/24 Links Pt1: The Palestinian Voices Blinken Won't Hear; Hamas co-founder to UK TV: Israel has no right to exist; The IDF’s Spectacular Precision

From Ian:

Khaled Abu Toameh: The Palestinian Voices Blinken Won't Hear

The renewed talk about a "two-state solution" comes amid a significant increase in the popularity of Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group whose charter openly calls for replacing Israel with an Islamic state. It also comes at a time when Abbas's popularity is at its lowest ebb.

The Palestinians are telling Blinken that he is wasting his time if he thinks that they would accept "so-called peaceful solutions" or "renounce any part of Palestine." They are also sending a warning to Abbas that recognition of Israel's right to exist and acceptance of the "two-state solution" is tantamount to treason, a crime punishable by death.

Abbas is afraid that Hamas will try to stage a coup against the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.... Abbas, however, does not feel comfortable talking about the Palestinians' two rival entities, Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and prefers to continue pretending that the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel is still a realistic option.

As long as Israel maintains overall security control over the West Bank, Abbas can feel safe sitting in his office or at home in Ramallah. It is only Israel's presence in the West Bank that is keeping him in power and preventing Hamas from extending its control beyond the Gaza Strip.

A recent public opinion poll showed that 57% of the Palestinians are opposed to the two-state solution. Another 57% said they support the "armed struggle" and "popular resistance" against Israel. According to the poll, 68% of the Palestinians want Abbas to resign.

Blinken needs to go out and talk to ordinary Palestinians. There, he will get a good grasp of the Palestinians' profound anti-Israel sentiments and their deep support for Iran's proxies and others who wish to wipe Israel off the map.

Blinken trip to Israel aimed at preventing aid to Gaza from reaching Hamas

The official was also asked what can be done to ensure that aid money won’t be diverted to Hamas.

“We are going to work in partnership with the UN and the PA to channel aid in a manner that does its best to go to the people of Gaza,” the official said.

“We are going to do anything we can so that this assistance will reach the people who need it the most,” the official added. “We are focused primarily on making sure that the ceasefire sticks,” the official said.

“We, and other donors, are trying to structure things in a way that diminishes Hamas’s abilities, strengthens the people of Gaza, begins a process of hopefully reintroducing and reintegrating the Palestinian Authority into Gaza and is in partnership with the United Nations,” the official said.

“The United States remains committed to the two-state solution, that remains the vision of the United States,” the official noted.

“We are not wavering from that in any way.” They went on to say that “it’s probably premature at this time to invite the parties to Washington or anywhere else. This will be the secretary’s first trip to the region. He’ll be engaging with the parties and listening to them,” the official said.

Where Does Hamas’ Money Go?

Sec. Blinken Won't Say Whether He Believes Iran Is Funding Hamas Even After The Terror Group Admitted It

After a mere hours following the Friday announcement of ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, a senior leader in Hamas thanked “the Islamic Republic of Iran; who did not hold back with money, weapons and technical support,” according to Jerusalem Post.

“The president reiterated strong support for Israel on Friday, but he’s coming under increased pressure from progressives,” George Stephanopoulos, the show’s anchor, said, referring to pro-Palestinian statements and resolutions by Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Mark Pocan and Sen. Bernie Sanders.

“What’s your response to that?” Stephanopoulos asked Blinken.

The secretary of state said that he prefers focusing on the policies and leaves the politics to others. He then proceeded to tout President Joe Biden’s “relentless focus on diplomacy” which he said has produced the ceasefire between Israel and Gaza.

Blinken also spoke in favor of the arms sale, arguing that Israel has the right to defend itself from “indiscriminate rocket attacks against civilians.”

“We’re committed to Israel’s defense,” he added.

Watch the Blinken interview below. If you find his logic tortured, if it looks to you like he’s uncomfortable, & if you ask, “What the hell is he thinking?” — if all of that goes through your mind, then @AcrossTheBay & I wrote the article just for you: https://t.co/BkvyTmR3cI https://t.co/lyLVwrcKPS
— Mike (@Doranimated) May 24, 2021