Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, May 27, 2021

05/27 Links Pt1: UNRWA's director spoke truth that Israeli strikes were precise; UNHRC approves permanent probe into Israeli human rights abuses; Hamas chief Haniyeh's niece treated for cancer in Israeli hospital

From Ian:

JPost Editorial: UNRWA's director spoke truth that Israeli strikes were precise- editorial

When Matthias Schmale, director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in the Gaza Strip, told Channel 12 on Sunday that Israeli airstrikes during the recent conflagration were “precise” and “sophisticated,” he was simply stating the truth as he saw it.

In the interview with journalist Arad Nir, Schmale was asked about the IDF’s assertion that its military strikes against terrorist targets had been very precise. He responded, “I’m not a military expert, but I would not dispute that. I also have the impression that there is a huge sophistication in the way the Israeli military struck over the last 11 days, so that’s not my issue. I’ve had many colleagues describe to me that they feel that, in comparison with the 2014 war, this time the strikes felt much more vicious in terms of their impact. So yes, they didn’t hit – with some exceptions – civilian targets, but the viciousness, ferocity of the strikes was heavily felt.”

He noted that more than 60 children were killed in Gaza, including 19 who attended an UNRWA school.

“I think the precision was there, but there was unacceptable and unbearable loss of life on the civilian side,” Schmale stated.

It did not take long for Gazans to voice outrage over Schmale’s remarks, accusing him of exonerating Israel and calling for his reprimand and dismissal. In a joint statement, several Palestinian rights groups accused Schmale of “indirectly praising the precision and sophistication of the Israeli Army, when Israel is in fact constantly committing war crimes and crimes against humanity against the Palestinian people.”

Hamas tweeted that it was shocked by the statements, accusing the UNRWA official of pretending to be a “military analyst for the occupation army.”

Hamas chief Haniyeh's niece treated for cancer in Israeli hospital

A relative of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh is currently being treated at Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv, part of the Sourasky Medical Center, for over a month, N12 reported.

According to reports, the hospitalized family member is his seventeen-year-old niece, who has received a bone marrow transplant.

The report noted that she was hospitalized during Operation Guardian of the Walls.

According to Maariv, the hospital's spokesperson said that "during the war she was treated with dedication."

"Israel only knows how to give one type of humanitarian aid ,and it comes at the cost of [Israeli] civilians' lives," commented Yamina MK Idit Sliman.

Sliman decried the government's failure to return Israeli prisoners who are stuck in Gaza, adding that she will "contact Prime Minister [Benjamin Netanyahu] today to find out why humanitarian action during the Operation [Guardian of the Walls] was one sided."

The bodies of IDF soldiers Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin, who were who abducted by Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip in 2014, have not been returned as part of the ceasefire agreement.

UNHRC approves permanent probe into Israeli human rights abuses

The United Nations Human Rights Council has approved on Thursday a resolution to investigate Israel and Hamas for war crimes.

The resolution also called for an arms embargo against Israel.

If approved at Thursday "special session" the 47-member UNHRC the "commission of inquiry' would begin looking at incidents that occurred both before and after April 13, 2021. The decision to call for such a probe was sparked by the 11-day IDF-Hamas war and was submitted by the Palestinian Authority and Pakistan on behalf of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

It would mark the first time that the UNHRC created a permanent fact-finding mission with respect to any UN member state.

The UNHRC already calls annually for an arms embargo against Israel. Its insertion is in addition to that annual text.

This new text "urges all States to refrain from transferring arms when they assess, in accordance with applicable national procedures and international obligations and standards, that there is a clear risk that such arms might be used in the commission or facilitation of serious violations or abuses of international human rights law or serious violations of international humanitarian law."

The UNHRC's special session on Israel, is the 30th it has held since its inception in 2006. This is the ninth such session it has held on Israel.

BREAKING: U.N. Human Rights Council adopts PLO-drafted resolution ignoring Hamas rocket attacks & creating inquiry targeting Israel with unprecedented open-ended mandate that stretches indefinitely into past & future. Shame on 🇲🇽 Mexico for backing it.

📜 https://t.co/hAEcjUKMXi pic.twitter.com/XU4vIPH3JO
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) May 27, 2021

No, @KenRoth, the graphic is not "striking" at all. The inquiries on Libya, Venezuela, etc. were sponsored by democracies seeking to protect human rights. The inquiries on Israel were sponsored by murderous regimes like Iran and Syria seeking to protect Hamas terrorists. https://t.co/Gep5PQ0XOo
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) May 27, 2021

Ahmed Nafea, writing in Egyptian news site SadaMisr, proposes ethnically cleansing Jews from the Middle East.

As usual, no one blinks or condemns these kinds of articles.

Nafea just discovered Birobidzhan, the Soviet-era Jewish Autonomous Oblast set up as a counter to Zionism. It is in an isolated region bordering China in far-east Asia. The Soviets encouraged Jews to move there, and several thousand did, with the population reaching some 50,000 Jews most of whom came as refugees after the Holocaust.

They didn't stay in the isolated region. The experiment failed miserably and today Jews make up 1% of the population of whom nearly none practice Judaism.

Ahmed Nafea thinks this is the solution to that pesky Jewish problem, and says that Israel is hiding the existence of the entire oblast:

The original homeland of the Jews is the forgotten Jewish republic of Birobidzhan.

Yes, the first Jewish republic, Birobidzhan , is located in southeast Russia. The majority of the world is not aware of its existence because Israel is striving to conceal this fact and prevent the media from visiting it.

What Israel and the Western countries supporting it fear is promoting the idea of the return of the Jews to their first homeland in this republic and persuading the world of a safe return for the Jews residing in Palestine to the Republic of Birobidzhan, to live in safety and peace, enjoy the atmosphere of the prevailing Jewish culture in it and speak the Yiddish language, the language of European Jews, without any anti-Semitism as currently promoted by world Zionism.

Global Zionism deceived the whole world when they claimed during the Second World War that they are in dire need of the land of Palestine as their national home and that they are displaced and have no national home to house them, and thus they have shielded the displacement of the Palestinians and the seizure of their lands until now.

During the disintegration of the Soviet Union, this republic was eligible to declare independence from the Russian Federation, just like Chechnya, but Zionism prevented this from happening due to the sensitivity of the emergence of a Jewish republic in a place other than Palestine.

See? The solution is so easy!

This is the casual kind of antisemitism that pervades the Arab world. The fact that Jews don't want to live in Birobidzhan doesn't even enter his mind - they must be forced to move there and they'll be happy!

Terrorists continue to die from their wounds, including Fatah's main rocket engineer

The death toll from Gaza continues to rise, and most of the people dying are terrorists.

Today, Islamic Jihad announced the death of Ahmed Kamel Abdel Karim Ammar. They won't identify his position in the movement but his age (33) and the prominence of the announcement in Islamic Jihad media indicates that he was a major figure.

Fatah terrorist Mu`in Jamal Al-Amsi died on Sunday from his wounds. Fatah isn't as sensitive about saying the jobs of those who were "martyred," and al-Amsi was a member of the Nidal Brigades Military Council and commander of their Engineering and Manufacturing Unit.

Meaning, he was their rocket chief.

Fatah made an entire video showing his accomplishments at manufacturing hundreds of mortars and rockets.

Another Fatah terrorist died of his wounds on Sunday, Mahmoud Ammar Abu Jarad.

These died after the fighting, most of them at hospitals in Egypt.

In eleven days, Israel hit more than 1500 terror targets in a heavily populated area.

How many people would normally be killed in such an operation? 3000? 6000? A single bomb could easily kill scores of people.

But the numbers seem to indicate that roughly 300 were killed by Israel, of which 200 were terrorists.

Assuming those numbers hold up, this will be an unprecedented achievement in avoiding civilian casualties in a largely urban warfare environment.

Never in history has any war where the terrorists deliberately place their targets among civilians resulted in a lower civilian to fighter ratio of deaths. And as tragic as civilian deaths are, most of the civilians were killed because they were near high value legitimate targets.

Under Geneva, civilians do not shield legitimate targets, unless their loss is not proportionate. The rules on proportionality depend on the opinion of a "reasonable military commander" given his intel available at that moment.

So as regrettable as the death of civilians are, it is legal and part of war. If a Hamas commander is with his family, Israel has every right under international law to attack the house he is in, even if his family will undoubtedly get killed. This is what happened with Iyad Fathi Sharir, commander of the Hamas anti-tank missile unit, who was killed along with his wife, teenage and toddler daughters.

Israel is literally the model for avoiding unnecessary civilian deaths. It spends millions on ensuring that the strikes are as accurate as possible, in sizing weapons to be big enough to kill the target but small enough to minimize damage to surrounding families. It requires incredible intelligence and a deep knowledge of Gaza, of the targets, and of international law. For better or worse, Israel probably has the most experience in understanding and interpreting the laws of armed conflict of any nation.

Despite this, Israel is vilified as the worst human rights abuser in the world.

No matter that its critics cannot point to any time in history that an army did better at avoiding civilian casualties. That is all irrelevant. Even though this war caused fewer deaths than the 2014 war, the protests were much more numerous and the media coverage was much more negative.

In reality, those who are protesting so energetically against Israel would protest just as much if the death count was 999 Hamas terrorists and one civilian. They would say that Israel killed a thousand innocent people anyway.

Israel tries to minimize the number of people killed on both sides. The terrorists try to maximize the number of people killed on both sides. The supposed "peace" groups who hold up photos of dead Gazan kids agree with Hamas - they love dead Gaza kids. They make wonderful props.

Israel cares more about those kids than these hypocrites do.

Similarly, Israel's critics want to see more Jews killed. That is the only possible reason they keep a scorecard of how many were killed on each side - because they want to say that not enough Jews dying is unfair.

Dead civilians only help Hamas and people who support Hamas. Israel has no interest in killing kids. Israel certainly does not want to kill reporters, as "human rights" leaders accused. People accusing Israel of targeting civilians are Jew-hating liars. It is not easy to drop 1500 bombs and not to kill thousands of people.

And yet, the world media cannot ferret out simple facts.

How hard would it be to find a retired high ranking US or European military officer and ask them whether they think Israel acted inappropriately? How hard would it be to ask them how Israel could have avoided more casualties? Or, even to ask their opinion of the ludicrous notion, published in major media, that Israel should just allow thousands of rockets to be shot at Israeli citizens and pray that Iron Dome does its job?

Not one reporter bothers. Because they support the anti-Israel meme, not the truth.

It isn't paranoia when the world really is against you.

Israel will continue to act as morally as possible - securing the lives of both its citizens and the civilians of its enemies - no matter what others say and lie. It would be so easy to say that they will make up lies anyway, why bother working so hard to minimize casualties?

But Israel doesn't think that way. Instead, right now, Israeli military leaders are looking at the results, learning from any mistakes, and trying to reach the unreachable goal of only killing terrorists and no one else in the next, inevitable war.

And that's the way it will always be.

Wardrobe malfunction! (Vic Rosenthal)

Weekly column by Vic Rosenthal

Recently, Jews in the West who thought themselves safe have found themselves facing the same form of antisemitism that is common in the Arab and wider Muslim world, much of it imported along with immigrants from the Middle East. In the US, Canada, Continental Europe, and Britain, Muslim Jew-hatred become cross-fertilized with the native brand, bringing along the extreme violence that characterized it at home. Ironically, traditional Islamic antisemitism itself became more radical with the injection of vicious eliminationism from Nazi Germany, starting before the war, continuing through the employment of Amin al-Husseini as propagandist for Hitler, and concluding with the arrival in Arab countries of fleeing Nazi war criminals afterwards. Now it is coming back to the post-Christian West.

Red lines are being crossed at a nauseating pace as the violence that was first directed at Jews in European countries where there was massive Muslim immigration moves westward. What American would have expected, even one year ago, that a gang of pogromists would invade a restaurant, ask who among the patrons were Jewish, and beat them? That is something that happened in Berlin in 1938 or Baghdad in 1941; but it ought to be unthinkable in Los Angeles today. And yet it happened.

For some time it has become dangerous for Orthodox Jews to walk the streets in their own neighborhoods in New York City. The perpetrators of this violence are young black and Hispanic males. The targets are often women and elderly people. All over the West, Jewish institutions, synagogues, schools, even graveyards, are targets for vandalism. Such attacks were rare in the US until recently, but they have become commonplace now. And interestingly, the vandalism often includes graffiti of slogans like “free Palestine.”

When anti-Israel demonstrators in London called for “Jewish blood” and the rape of Jewish women (in earshot of police, who did nothing), it somewhat diminished the strength of the arguments that “anti-Zionism isn’t antisemitism.” Anyone who honestly believes that today didn't get the message.

It’s often said that every time there is a flare-up of Israel’s long war to survive in the region, it is reflected in worldwide antisemitic violence. That supposedly explains the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Jews (and the theft of their property) by virtually every Arab country after 1948. This action was against the national interests of these countries, since Jews were among the educational, financial, medical, and technical elites (their loss was our gain, since most of the expelled Jews came to Israel). But anti-Jewish beliefs have always been irrational, extreme, and obsessive.

For the Jew-hater, everything bad, personal and political, can be explained with reference to the Jews. Facts and logical reasoning are irrelevant; indeed, the more unbelievable antisemitic beliefs may appear, the more this confirms their truth in the mind of the believer. Unsurprisingly, anti-Israelism, or misoziony, follows the same pattern: irrational, extreme, obsessive.

And this leads me to believe that the chain of causality is reversed in the traditional historical account. It makes more sense to see both the violent (but unsuccessful) attempt to dislodge the Jews from Palestine and the more successful effort of the Arab nations to rid themselves of their own Jews as stemming from the same kind of antisemitic impulse.

One of the interesting things about Jew-hatred is that it is a powerful motivator, especially of violent actions. In the past there was nothing shameful about it, so it could be used openly. Hitler and company found it a useful tool to focus public anger and create support for his party, which promised a solution. But in the case of Hitler himself, like the Arab nations after 1948, antisemitism became the motive rather than the tool, and his obsession may have lost Germany the war. After the war, the sheer horror of the Holocaust caused it to be discredited. So the KGB clothed the Jew-hating Palestinian movement with the up-to-date ideas of national liberation, anti-colonialism, and socialism. But the costume slipped from time to time, as when the Entebbe hijackers separated the Jews (Jews, not Israelis!) from the rest of the hostages. Something is exposed that should have been hidden; I call it a “wardrobe malfunction” like those that bedevil female celebrities.

More recently, Jew-hatred has adopted an even more up-to-date uniform as a movement for racial justice. And what success it has had! Colleges and universities in the West turn out dedicated pro-Palestinian activists by the tens of thousands every year. Organizations in support of racial minorities like Black Lives Matter routinely include the Palestinian Arabs as one of the oppressed groups they want to liberate. And the Palestinian cause is pursued obsessively, irrationally, and often with extremism.

That gives us a clue, especially when we consider that it’s rare to hear even the most fanatical “anti-racists” mention the fact that there is race-based slavery in some parts of the world. Not “microaggressions,” actual slavery. But of course we know what is behind their enthusiasm. These modern proponents of human rights (for some humans), the ones in the universities, the ones on the European Commission and in the New York Times, may say, or even believe, that they are motivated to be righteously angry at Israel because of her alleged denial of Palestinian rights, but we know where the emotional drive comes from. And like Hitler and the Arab nations, their obsession eats them up, and sometimes there is a wardrobe malfunction, like those folks in London promoting the rape of Jewish women. Because of Palestine, of course.

This is upsetting to some. Michelle Goldberg published a piece in the NY Times which was originally titled “Attacks on Jews Over Israel Are a Gift to the Right,” but after numerous observers noted its implication that violent attacks on Jews were bad primarily because of the political fallout, the NYT changed its headline to “The Crisis of Antisemitic Violence.” Max Blumenthal went all-out and argued that the explosion of antisemitism was “manufactured … to turn the media’s gaze away from dead children in Gaza” (no link, google it if you really want to swim in his sewer). Wardrobe malfunctions.

Unfortunately, while the IDF was moderately successful in its Gaza campaign (although it was cut short by a command from Washington), Israel has been decisively beaten in its information campaign.

The war was started by Hamas with heavy barrages of deadly rockets fired at Israeli towns and cities, from civilian areas, a double war crime. Some 4,350 rockets were launched by Hamas, of which 600-700 of them fell on their own people in Gaza. Israel’s response was very carefully targeted, using various techniques to warn civilians in areas where there were military targets. Final casualty figures are not available, but as of now the number of deaths in Gaza is reported as about 250. The IDF estimates that about half of these are civilians. Considering the number of shortfalls, it is likely that most of them were killed by Hamas’ own rockets. The IDF’s performance in destroying Hamas’ military infrastructure while sparing civilians is unmatched in the annals of urban warfare.

And yet, media opinion in the West continues to overwhelmingly blame Israel for the war, as well as to accuse her of apartheid, ethnic cleansing, deliberately targeting civilians, and more. PM Netanyahu, a centrist who many Israelis believe to be too soft on terrorism, is called a “hardline right-wing extremist,” who has presided over “massive settlement expansion” although the area occupied by Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria has barely changed since the 1990s.

There is a reason for this, and it’s not just Israeli ineptness at hasbara. It is a consequence of the blossoming of the seeds of Jew-hatred that can lie dormant for years, waiting for the right stimulus to wake them up.

If you think I’m wrong, just pay attention. Sooner or later there will be a wardrobe malfunction.

05/26 Links Pt2: French, Canadian, Israeli, UN officials demand justice for Sarah Halimi; UNRWA’s False Façade of Neutrality; IAEA chief: Iran’s uranium enrichment now at levels of ‘countries making bombs’

From Ian:

French, Canadian, Israeli, UN officials demand justice for Sarah Halimi

Leaders and officials from France, Canada, Israel and the United Nations held a special digital rally demanding justice for Sarah Halimi, a French Jewish grandmother murdered by Kobili Traore.

Halimi was brutally beaten and thrown from her balcony window by Traore, who repeatedly shouted "Allahu Akbar" during the murder. The crime was widely condemned as being antisemitic. However, as Traore was under the influence of marijuana at the time, the French court ruled that he wouldn't stand trial.

This led to public outcry across the world as tens of thousands took to the streets and social medias to voice their outrage at the decision. “We should never, ever forget Sarah Halimi. This [court’s] decision hurts me, hurts us - citizens of the French Republic. It’s truly a judicial and moral catastrophe,” former French prime minister Manuel Valls said at the digital rally, which was organized by the watchdog NGO Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) and the French Jewish umbrella organization the Council of French Jewish Institutions (CRIF).

“Antisemitism has been ravaging… France for more than 12 decades. This antisemitism comes from the far right, from the far left, from our working-class districts, from the Arab-Muslim world under the guise of hatred for Israel and for Jews, or simply hatred. We must eradicate antisemitism from our society.”

The rally also comes as antisemitism has spiked across the Western world, which itself coincided with significant condemnations against Israel and those perceived as being Zionists amid Israel's latest round of fighting with the Gaza-based Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.

Pompeo Rekindles Debate About US Response to Iran's Hosting of Al-Qaida

Former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has made more detailed allegations about Iran's secretive relationship with al-Qaida, rekindling a debate about how the United States should respond to the decades-old cooperation between its Mideast rival and the anti-American terrorist network.

In an interview that aired Friday on VOA Persian's TV channel, the former top U.S. diplomat, who left office in January, said Iran's Islamist rulers have allowed al-Qaida's most senior operational leaders to stay in the country on two conditions.

"(First), you'll do what we tell you to do. And second, you won't conduct operations against Iranian assets or inside of Iran. I'm certain that's the case," said Pompeo, who also served as CIA director prior to leading the State Department under former President Donald Trump.

Pompeo said those two conditions give Iran "enormous control" over al-Qaida. As for what al-Qaida gets in exchange for abiding by Iran's rules, he said Tehran "provide(s) support and enable(s) these al-Qaida leaders to conduct their global operations campaign."

The remarks were an expansion on details shared by Pompeo about the Iran-al-Qaida relationship in a January 12 speech in Washington while he was still secretary of state, eight days before he stepped down on the day of President Joe Biden's inauguration.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called on U.S. allies Tuesday to help fight the new axis of terror, calling it a 'massive force for evil'

Relationship began in '90s
In the speech, Pompeo said Iran in recent years had decided to allow al-Qaida to establish "a new operational headquarters" in the country on condition that it abides by rules that he did not specify. That cooperation, according to U.S. intelligence assessments and declassified al-Qaida documents, began in the early 1990s, when Iran's Shiite Islamist ruling clerics hosted operatives of the Sunni Islamist terror group for training exercises.

Missile Defense, Mocked as ‘Fantasy,’ Is Big Winner of Israel-Gaza War

The concept of missile defense, long mocked by mainstream journalists, was a big winner in the recent combat between Israel and the Hamas terrorist group.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu underscored that in remarks Tuesday morning May 25 with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Jerusalem, Israel, thanking Blinken for “replenishments of Iron Dome interceptors that saved civilian lives.”

Blinken replied, “we had a detailed discussion about Israel’s security needs, including replenishing Iron Dome.”

US President Joe Biden made a similar point Thursday evening from the White House. “The Prime Minister also shared with me his appreciation for the Iron Dome system, which our nations developed together and which has saved the lives of countless Israeli citizens, both Arab and Jew,” Biden said. “I assured him of my full support to replenish Israel’s Iron Dome system to ensure its defenses and security in the future.”

The Israeli Air Force said that during the recent hostilities about 4,340 rockets had been fired from the Gaza Strip at Israel. About 640 of those were failed launches that wound up falling in Gaza. The Iron Dome defense had an “an intercept rate of approximately 90%,” the Israeli Air Force said, meaning thousands of incoming rockets were destroyed in midair, before they had a chance to damage Israeli targets.

Republican Senators Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Tom Cotton and Bill Hagerty have introduced the Emergency Resupply for Iron Dome Act of 2021, which their press release describes as “a bill to authorize the Executive Branch to redirect US foreign assistance to help Israel replenish its highly-effective missile defense interceptors.”

In First Two Days of Conflict, Over 70% of Gaza Casualties Caused by Israeli Strikes Were Combatants: Analysis

A study of the first two days of the recent clashes between Israel and Hamas showed that more than 70% of the casualties caused by Israeli airstrikes were militant operatives, and that 21% of the total deaths on those days were caused by errant Hamas rockets.

The preliminary study, released on Friday by the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center (ITIC), analyzed the names and identities of 74 Palestinians killed in the Gaza Strip between May 10 and May 12, based on death notices by various Palestinian sources, including Hamas.

The group’s breakdown of the casualties showed that 16 died as a result of errant rockets that were fired by Hamas but which landed in Gaza. Those deaths included two Fatah operatives, seven people with unknown civilian-combatant status, and seven minors.

Out of the remaining 58 deaths, which were caused by Israeli strikes, 42 were identified as terrorist activists; among the operatives were 30 Hamas militants, 8 Fatah operatives and 3 Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) operatives. The other 16 deaths included six people listed with unknown civilian-combatant status; nine women or minors; and one 67-year-old male civilian.

The findings show that “out of those killed in Gaza on the first two days of the conflict as a result of Israeli attacks, about two thirds were terrorists and that many of the civilians who lost their lives in Gaza on those two days were hit by Palestinian fire. The full research is still ongoing,” Brig. Gen. (Res.) Yossi Kuperwasser, director of the ITIC, told The Algemeiner.

What Does Hamas Really Want (and why don’t American Jews know or care)? (Judean Rose)

What prompted Hamas, with the help of Iran, to shoot more than 4,360 rockets into civilian Israel? Was it the “occupation?” The anticipated eviction of Arab tenants from Sheikh Jarrah? The defilement of the Al-Aqsa mosque by Jewish settler feet? The mistreatment of poor brown people by white Jews?

The answer: none of the above.

It was only ever about currying favor with the people, about wresting power from the PA and ousting Mahmoud Abbas, to install itself as sole authority of all of the Arab people in the region. And Hamas had only to whisper one word to make it all happen: “Jerusalem.”

Because in our region, it’s not about the reality, so much as the perception. It’s about spinning a yarn, setting little Ahmad on your lap and saying, “Once upon a time, Hamas rained thousands of rockets down on Israel in order to defend Jerusalem.”

Paternalistic? Yes. But that’s how it is. Hamas needed to be seen as the defender of Jerusalem, and so it spun a yarn, using current events as a pretext for attacking Jews, and telling the people that Hamas defends Jerusalem while Abbas—Abbas!!—remains ineffectual. And certainly, shooting more than 4,360 rockets at Jews in heavily populated urban centers looks impressive. Not to mention the Israeli response!

Yup. A lot of attention for Hamas. Which is great for Hamas and unifying for the people. No more of this Hamas in Gaza, and PA in the “West Bank” stuff. Instead there will be only Hamas, and more Hamas—with the help, of course, of Iran.

But don’t misunderstand. It’s not about unifying a split between those loyal to one faction or the other. It’s bigger than that. It’s always been bigger than that.

Hamas is a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. The Muslim Brotherhood aims to create an Islamic Caliphate by ridding the world of Western influences and “colonization.” The part that Hamas plays in this, according to Article 6 of the Hamas charter, is “To raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine.”

It’s simple: Hamas has Gaza, now it wants the rest. It wants “every inch of Palestine.” And that would include PA territory. Were Hamas to be successful in this coup, there would be no more peace negotiations between the PA and Israel, because the PA would be no more. There would be only Hamas, designated as a terrorist organization by the US State Department since 1997. And Hamas is definitely gaining favor among the Arab people, on the ground.

During the 11-day conflagration, we all knew it was only a matter of time until the current store of Iranian-funded rockets would run out and ceasefire negotiations begin. Against that backdrop, political analyst Khaled Abu Toameh laid it out for us in plain English in Why does Hamas insist Israel-Gaza ceasefire include Jerusalem?:

Hamas’s insistence on including the issue of Jerusalem in any ceasefire deal with Israel is the main reason why efforts to end the fighting have thus far been unsuccessful.

Hamas started the fighting because of Jerusalem and cannot afford to end it without an agreement that includes the city. . . .

Hamas wants to appear as the “defender” of Jerusalem and its Palestinian residents and holy sites. That’s why Hamas last week initiated the rocket attacks on Jerusalem . . .

Including Jerusalem in any ceasefire deal will also allow Hamas to show that its actions and policies are not restricted to what happens in the Gaza Strip and that it can impact events in Jerusalem. Hamas wants to be a major player not only in the Gaza Strip, but also in Jerusalem, the West Bank and even among Israel’s Arab citizens.

Events that followed suggest that Abu Toameh was correct. The following Friday, Muslim worshipers expelled the Mufti of Jerusalem, Sheikh Mohammed Hussein, from the al-Aqsa Mosque, during his sermon. The Mufti is affiliated with the Palestinian Authority:

In an unprecedented move, Muslim worshipers on Friday expelled Palestinian Mufti of Jerusalem Sheikh Mohammed Hussein from al-Aqsa Mosque and prevented him from completing his sermon.

The protesters shouted slogans in support of Hamas and denounced Hussein for his affiliation with the Palestinian Authority.

Hussein is considered the most senior representative of the PA at al-Aqsa Mosque compound. A resident of east Jerusalem who holds an Israeli-issued ID card, Hussein often appears next to PA President Mahmoud Abbas at public events.

The protesters accused Hussein of “ignoring” Hamas and the Gaza Strip and forced him to stop his sermon.

“We are the men of Mohammed Deif,” hundreds of angry worshipers shouted as bodyguards whisked the mufti away from the mosque.

Deif is the supreme commander of Hamas’s military wing, Izzadin al-Qassam Brigades.

Other worshipers shouted: “Go away, go away, we don’t want to see the dogs of the Palestinian Authority.”

It is clear that the Hamas gambit was successful. The people are more and more with Hamas. Which is a problem for the United States, if only Biden and his man Blinken, could see it. Here too, Abu Toameh has the story (The Palestinian Voices Blinken Won't Hear):

On the eve of his first official visit to the Middle East, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken reaffirmed support for a two-state solution as the only way to provide hope to Israelis and Palestinians that they can live "with equal measures of security, of peace, and dignity."

During his visit to Israel and the West Bank, Blinken is expected to meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who has been urging the Biden administration to work toward "achieving a just and lasting peace that would ensure the Palestinian people's right to freedom and independence" and the establishment of a Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital.

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 expulsion of the mufti is a sign of the declining popularity and influence of Abbas among Palestinians. It is also a sign of the growing popularity of Hamas, which states in its charter that "Allah is its goal, the Prophet (Mohammed) its model, the Quran its Constitution, Jihad (holy war) its path and death for the cause of Allah its most sublime belief."

From a distance, those of us in Israel watch as Biden enables this jockeying for power in our country by promising renewed and expanded aid to an Abbas the “Palestinian” people would like disappeared. America erupts with the most violent displays of antisemitism that country has ever seen. While these things are happening, we watch American Jews throw Israel under the bus, talking about how they understand the Palestinians, how the Palestinians have the right to their own Jew-free state on Jewish land, at the same time as they tell the world that rockets are a legitimate protest since they rarely hurt anyone anyway.

We watch appalled, as Jewish Americans tell us that Israel’s response is disproportionate, and that there is an “imbalance of power.” This though I am quite sure that when my late father in-law was bombing the crap out of Hamburg, he never gave a second thought to “indiscriminately” targeting German civilians. Nope. Irwin Epstein was not trying to match up death for death like a tennis match. He was trying to win one for the good guys.

American Jews seem not to have not even a basic understanding of the dynamic in play. They don’t seem to know that Israel is a democracy, that the IDF is the most moral army in the world. They have no idea what Hamas represents, and know nothing at all about its intended aims.

Have they even read the Hamas charter? You know, the part that says, “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.”

Have they read Article 11 of the Hamas charter: “The land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf [Holy Possession] consecrated for future Muslim generations until Judgment Day. No one can renounce it or any part, or abandon it or any part of it.”

How about Article 13 of the Hamas charter? Have they read this: “Palestine is an Islamic land… Since this is the case, the Liberation of Palestine is an individual duty for every Muslim wherever he may be.”

If these people have read the Hamas charter, how do they excuse 4,360 rockets as an issue of an oppressed mistreated people—the “Palestinians” as David—going up against the Israeli Goliath?

And if they haven’t read the Hamas charter, why haven’t they?

They have no clue what this whole thing is about even as they think they know better than us what this is all about, even as synagogues are defaced and Jews are beaten up in cities all over America. As they issue their smug little platitudes they have no clue that Hamas is shooting rockets at Israel to get rid of Abbas in order to get rid of all the Jews and take their land for the Muslim Brotherhood. The Jews of America still really think this is about evictions, occupation, and Palestinian rights.

And if you tell them otherwise, they look at you as if you’re a simpleton, a fool, and think they are the wise ones.

It’s mindboggling.

How do you get them to listen? How do you get them to read?

They are completely lost.

Meanwhile, it’s only a matter of time until the rockets are restocked and it begins all over again, this internecine rivalry, funded by the US and Iran, as my grandchildren cower in a shelter, crying and trembling, unable to understand why anyone wants to kill them. And why their cousins in America don’t want us to make it stop.

Heaven Forbid That Jewish Survival Should Depend On IfNotNow! (Daled Amos)

By Daled Amos

Last August, there were protests after a white police officer shot Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old black man. The protests turned angry, and the words “Free Palestine” were spray‐painted on the driveway of the Beth Hillel Temple.

On August 27, 2020, IfNotNow condemned this as antisemitism:

They even followed up that tweet, making it very clear that the left also has to be held accountable for antisemitism:

One day later, after the far-left let IfNotNow know they had gone too far in standing up for Jews, the group weaseled out of their condemnation of antisemitism:

Of course, IfNotNow's mistake was not that the "phrasing" fell short -- their condemnation enraged their left allies because it went too far. And worse, they think their condemnation of the defacing of a synagogue was a "distraction" by focusing on an attack on Jews and away from police violence and Black Lives Matter.

But INN was not finished yet.

Just as IfNotNow refuses to take any kind of stand on Israel ("We do not take a unified stance on BDS, Zionism or the question of statehood."), they avoid actually spelling out just what was wrong with their condemnation, to begin with.

Instead, they retweet others, under the guise of "uplifting" other viewpoints.

By backtracking, IfNotNow gave legitimacy to the idea that a synagogue showing an Israeli flag with a Star of David warrants a response, like defacing the synagogue with "Free Palestine".

Which raises some questions about what Jews should be allowed to do, and what protesters should be allowed to do in response:

o Is burning down a synagogue also OK? ("America's synagogues are burning: A turning point for U.S. Jews").
o  Are Jews allowed to wear a Star of David? ("New York Jewish man assaulted for wearing Star of David necklace" "What is that around your neck? Does that make you a f**king Zionist?" the attacker reportedly shouted before punching the victim in the face)
o  Are Jews allowed to wear a kippah out of doors? ("Some American Jews are taking off their kippahs and Stars of David amid a wave of antisemitic incidents")
o  Are Jews allowed to keep kosher? (Pig's Head Among Kosher Food in South African anti-Israel Protest)
o  Are Jews allowed to speak in Hebrew, the national, indigenous language of Israel? (Israeli student in Paris says he was beaten unconscious for speaking Hebrew)

Just how far does IfNotNow feel they have to go to make excuses for their far-left allies?

Other tweets by INN are also problematic.

IfNotNow is just as desperate to make excuses for the "Palestinian freedom movement" as it is to stifle its own criticism of the far-left:

It's an odd tweet: the Palestinian Arabs are no threat to Jews -- but the only way Jews will be safe is for the Palestinian Arabs to get equal rights, i.e. dismantle Israel. Thanks, but those guys attacking Jews on the street beat you to that message.

Just how clueless is IfNotNow?

Even when the far-left gives INN permission to sympathize with the Jews, they still are deaf to what is being done and are unable to identify with their fellow Jews:

Put aside their apparent ignorance of the Hamas Charter (or IfNotNow's dishonest attempt to avoid the hadith the charter quotes about killing Jews). IfNotNow deliberately understates the danger facing Jews from those 'freedom-living' Palestinian Arabs and their allies as being merely "isolated."

This did not go unnoticed.

There is a thread on Twitter, from May 20, that lists multiple recent attacks on Jews, with video.
Just to summarize:

o London: Palestinian activists use a bullhorn to tell people the rape the daughters of Jews
o  Russia: a man walks up to a Jew who is minding his own business and casually kicks him just for being Jewish...like assaulting a Jew is no big deal.
o Winnipeg: a man walks up to some jews, spits on their flag, wipes his feet on it, and then proceeds to push and threaten them when they try to get him to stop.
o  Toronto: an "anti-zionism" protest turns violent and a Jew is beaten with sticks...in broad daylight...in Canada
o Los Angeles: Jews getting attacked
o  More Jews being attacked in Los Angeles, where outdoor dining is totally safe unless you are a Jew
o  If the beatings don't make the point, a caravan of verbal abuse will make sure to make the point.
o  Germany: Rioters surround a synagogue and break the windows with rocks while chanting "shitty Jews" in German\
o  New York City: Jews are attacked and have things thrown at them, in the middle of the city, in broad daylight.
o  Jews get chased by cars trying to run them over
o  a Jew are taunted and verbally abused by "anti-zionists" while a Jew lays unconscious on the sidewalk
o Toronto: a Jewish catering service has its windows smashed
o  Jews are attacked with some kind of small explosive projectile (maybe a firework), in a busy city in broad daylight.
o  Dearborn, Michigan: yelling “intifada, intifada” - a call for rioting, violence and death against Jews.
o  London: they chant in battle cry in Arabic that translates as “Jews, remember Khaybar, the army of Muhammad is returning.” It refers to the Muslim massacre of Jews of the town in the 7th century.
o  Model Bella Hadid chanting "from the river to the sea Palestine will be free" a slogan Hamas uses to call for Genocide.

No, these attacks are not isolated, and they are still going on.

All of which makes IfNotNow's deliberate attempt to cover up the danger that Jews around the world are facing from the far left all the more appalling:

IfNotNow just doesn't get it.

It is one thing for them to pursue their agenda.

But to pursue it at the expense of the Jewish community, to deliberately play down the increasing danger facing Jews around the world and in the US and to turn their backs on Jews while claiming that other issues are more urgent?

Yes, Hillel did say "If not now, when?

But he also said "Do not separate from the community."

05/26 Links Pt1: Why western mobs are now sticking it to the Jews; Hamas Does Not Build Bomb Shelters Because It Needs Dead Children To Keep Its Cause Alive

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: Why western mobs are now sticking it to the Jews

It is not the case, as head teacher Roper suggested, that some antisemites have hijacked the Palestinian cause for their own ends. Palestinianism is in itself innately and inescapably anti-Jew. Writing the Jews out of their own history and denying them the right to self-determination in their own historic land — a presence within that land that is intrinsic to Judaism — is profoundly anti-Judaism and anti-Jew. The Palestinians’ insignia and maps which excise the whole of Israel and replace it by “Palestine” are profoundly anti-Judaism and anti-Jew. Their educational materials which teach their children to hate Jews and steal Israel from them, their hysterical incitement against Jews as a conspiracy against the world and their Nazi-style antisemitic blood libels which pour out of their preachers and media are profoundly anti-Judaism and anti-Jew.

Which is why anyone who supports Palestinianism is supporting a cause that is profoundly anti-Judaism and anti-Jew.

Those of us who point out such things are routinely called “Islamophobes” or “racists” and dismissed. Instead the falsehoods, distortions and libels of Palestinianism are accepted as axiomatically true. So anyone who makes any criticism of the Palestinians — or who even merely vouchsafe, like the hapless Roper, that some people abuse that cause for other ends altogether — are damned as racist, Islamophobic, Nazi and so on.

This closely parallels the Black Lives Matter movement. Its odious mantra of “white privilege,” that white society is innately racist and colonialist, is nothing other than racial bigotry against white people. But to point this out, or indeed to question any part of that racially bigoted narrative, is to find yourself labelled as a racist instead.

It’s no surprise that Black Lives Matter activists and other anti-white bigots are now busily equating BLM with Palestinianism. This is intersectionality in action — the presentation of racial and even murderous bigotry and falsehoods as axiomatically and undeniably true, and the damning of those who call out this vileness for what it is or even dare question any part of it as racists and colonialists.

Palestinianism and Black Lives Matter have not been hijacked by anti-Jewish and anti-white bigots. They are intrinsically anti-Jew and anti-white movements. Until and unless this is acknowledged, the horrendous madness through which we are now living will continue to worsen.

NRO Editors: Time for Democrats to Address Their Anti-Semitism Problem

There is little political upside for Democrats to call out the Squad. Polls show a party that has lurched leftward and become increasingly antagonistic towards the Jewish State. As Ayaan Hirsi Ali recently noted, the Israeli–Palestinian conflict feeds into many of the progressive left’s ideological biases: “the narrative of the oppressor versus the oppressed, of the coloniser versus the colonised, of the genocide perpetrator and system of supremacy.”

Those few Democrats who unapologetically defend Israel, such as Ritchie Torres, a freshman congressman representing New York’s 15th district, find themselves ostracized. “The moment I sent out a statement denouncing the terrorism of Hamas, I was swiftly demonized by extremists as a white supremacist, as a supporter of apartheid, ethnic cleansing, genocide,” Torres told an audience at a recent United Jewish Appeal–sponsored event.

Surely, condemning those who instigate anti-Jewish violence should not undermine the cause of Palestinian statehood. And if it does, then there is something wrong with that cause.

After Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene recently made an ignorant and intellectually lazy historical analogy, comparing the campaign for vaccination passports to the Nazis’ forcing of Jews to wear gold stars, reporters began chasing down Republicans to get their reactions. Minority leader Kevin McCarthy and other members of the House leadership eventually issued statements condemning the Georgia congresswoman.

When it comes to Ilhan Omar and Co., where is Nancy Pelosi? Where is Chuck Schumer or Dick Durbin? To this point, nowhere to be found. It is, of course, true that neither Left nor Right has a monopoly on anti-Semitism. These days, however, one party is increasingly under the sway of a noxious, all-encompassing hostility to the Jewish State.

Remembering George Washington’s Letter To The Hebrew Congregation Of Newport As Jews Find Themselves Surrounded By Those Who Want To Make Them Afraid

It was doubtlessly intentional of Washington to reference Hebrew scripture while speaking with a Jewish congregation on the subject of religious freedom from persecution and discrimination. The unprecedented embrace of Jewish religious freedom at a time when Jews were widely despised across the world simply cannot be missed or under-appreciated.

While those words were unbelievably meaningful when they were first written, their significance grows as the Left aims to destroy the very foundation of the country. After all, it is no mistake that while the Left attempts to redefine every element of American life, they are simultaneously erasing those whose unmatched moral genius built the unparalleled system of freedom we enjoy today.

Jews — both secular and religious — have thrived in the United States because of the ideology promoted by the Founding Fathers. Washington’s desire — that Jews live free and unafraid — became a reality solely because of this ideology. However, because others have forgotten their words, this reality is under threat.

This is why it is not enough for Jews alone to value and protect the sentiment expressed in Washington’s letter. Non-Jews who also respect and love the United States must acknowledge and understand that if Washington were to witness the violence being committed against Jews in the streets of today’s America, he would correctly conclude that Jews cannot sit safely beneath their own vines or fig trees, and there are those who stand to make them afraid, and that this represents a pivotal change in the nation’s moral trajectory.

We simply cannot allow Washington’s words to be erased by the hungry claws of a radical Left in their bid to redefine what it means to be an American. The very notion of true religious freedom exemplified by the words, “Everyone will sit under their own vine and under their own fig tree, and no one will make them afraid” is at stake, and God forbid we ever discover what will befall Jewish Americans if we fail.

Hamas members putting their families at risk - with fatal results

As with the last war, a large number of the women and children who were relatives of the intended target. Even though Hamas members know that they are often targeted in their homes, they remain with their families during war - with often tragic results.

PCHR reported the airstrike this way:

At approximately 20:20, Israeli warplanes launched a missile at a 3-storey house belonging to Yousif Ibrahim al-Rantisi (‘Azarah) and his brothers in al-Juneinah neighborhood. As a result, the mother, her grandson, her son and his wife were killed. Those killed were identified as Siham Yousif Mohammed al-Rantisi (66); her 2-year-old grandson Ibrahim Mohammed Ibrahim al-Rantisi; her son Ra’ed Ibrahim Khamis al-Rantisi (29) and his wife Shaimaa’ Diab Mohammed al-Rantisi (21.) Moreover, 15 others were wounded variously, including 7 children and 3 women. All of them were taken to Abu Yousif al-Najjar Hospital to receive treatment.

Whenever PCHR lists an entire family killed, look for any males of military age - in this case, Ra'ed Ibrahim Khamis al-Rantisi.

Sure enough, he is Hamas.

Clearly, he was the target. Otherwise, the IDF would have warned the family to leave the building, as it did many other times during the operation.

I do not have the information as to how important Rantisi was within Hamas. His age. 29, indicates that he had at least ten years experience and was probably a fairly senior terrorist. Only Israel knows what specific intelligence they had on him at the time the decision was made to kill him - probably knowing that there were children and elderly in the same apartment. The military commander must make that decision as to whether the killing of family members would be proportionate to the value of the target.

Israel knew in this case who the target was and who else would probably die. People may disagree, but one thing is certain: Ra'ed Rantisi chose to put his family in danger.

He isn't the only one. We already looked at Iyad Fathi Sharir, who most definitely was a high value target as the commander of the Hamas anti-tank missile unit, who was killed along with his wife, teenage and toddler daughters.

When the smoke clears, it will be seen that the IDF engaged in the most pinpoint campaign in the history of warfare. The number of civilians can never be zero, and from initial indications it looks like they are less than one third of the total casualties. That is unprecedented in any war in urban areas where the terrorists embed themselves with civilians.