Thursday, June 10, 2021
- Thursday, June 10, 2021
- Elder of Ziyon
- Thursday, June 10, 2021
- Elder of Ziyon
Finding truth and holding the powerful to account are core principles of journalism.Yet for decades, our news industry has abandoned those values in coverage of Israel and Palestine. We have failed our audiences with a narrative that obscures the most fundamental aspects of the story: Israel’s military occupation and its system of apartheid.
For the sake of our readers and viewers — and the truth — we have a duty to change course immediately and end this decades-long journalistic malpractice.
Take, for example, the language used in the recent coverage of East Jerusalem neighborhood Sheikh Jarrah. Media outlets often refer to forced displacement of Palestinians living there — illegal under international law and potentially a war crime — as “evictions.”This term misleadingly implies a real estate “dispute” between tenant and landlord, an inaccurate depiction of the state of affairs. The United Nations considers East Jerusalem occupied Palestinian territory, meaning Israel’s territorial claims there are not recognized.
Let's pretend that part of Jerusalem is occupied. Does that mean that the legal owners of a property cannot demand rent? These so-called journalists pretend that the Sheikh Jarrah events are Israel trying to evict Arabs from their homes, but the government of Israel has nothing to do with it. It really is a real estate dispute - one where one side has shown, over decades, that it is the legitimate owner of the land, and the other side has failed to do so.
That's the truth that these journalists want to hide from you.
During the last few days of Ramadan, Israeli forces violently attacked worshippers at the Al Aqsa mosque compound with tear gas and rubber-tipped bullets. Journalists didn’t call this an “attack” or “assault” on Palestinians, but rather a “clash,” as if both sides shared equal culpability and agency in the escalation.
On 7 May, large numbers of police were deployed on the Temple Mount as around 70,000 worshippers attended the final Friday prayers of Ramadan at al-Aqsa. After the evening prayers, some Palestinian worshippers began throwing previously stockpiled rocks and other objects at Israeli police officers. Police officers fired stun grenades into the mosque compound.
When Israel attacked Gaza, media outlets framed it as a “conflict” between two equal entities, ignoring the total asymmetry in power. Under the guise of objectivity, rockets fired at Israel — which caused significantly less damage than Israeli airstrikes — were covered just as much as Israel attacking medical facilities and leveling entire residential buildings, clouding the nearly one-sided scale of violence and destruction.
The human toll caused by Israel’s bombardment is indisputable: Hundreds dead, more than 65 of them children. While statements made by Israeli officials and their defenders justifying the killing of civilians went unchallenged, Palestinian civilians had their humanity interrogated: Journalists asked whether they support violence or Hamas rockets.
Young women in Gaza tell me how it feels to live in an open air prison, that they too want to live in peace, and see the rockets as “self defence.” pic.twitter.com/SLHvkcTVx3
— Richard Engel (@RichardEngel) May 25, 2021
Troubling still, reporting wanes considerably when Israel halts its airstrikes. Palestinians are ignored in so-called times of “peace” despite attacks and other hostile aspects of life under occupation continuing after the ceasefire.
As journalists, we are entrusted with a profoundly important mission in a free and democratic society, the power to inform the people and guide the national conversation, from the family dinner table to Capitol Hill.We are calling on journalists to tell the full, contextualized truth without fear or favor, to recognize that obfuscating Israel’s oppression of Palestinians fails this industry’s own objectivity standards.We have an obligation — a sacred one — to get the story right. Every time we fail to report the truth, we fail our audiences, our purpose and, ultimately, the Palestinian people.
Wednesday, June 09, 2021
- Wednesday, June 09, 2021
- Elder of Ziyon
- Opinion, Vic Rosenthal
Weekly column by Vic Rosenthal
Unless something very unexpected happens, Israel will finally get a government this coming Sunday.
I’m conflicted. I voted for Naftali Bennett and I’m happy that he will be Prime Minister, albeit in rotation with Yair Lapid, of whom I am less fond. But many elements of the agreements that the eight parties that will be in the government have signed with each other are troubling. Although they have not been officially made public, a TV news program released what it said were the details.
One of the provisions is said to be that any PM who serves eight years will have to take a four year hiatus before running again; and during this period he can’t even run for the Knesset. I am in favor of limiting the term of the PM, but it can’t be done in a retroactive way – that makes it a “personal” law aimed at one specific individual. And we know who that is.
Another provision is that if the government falls as a result of a vote of no confidence, Naftali Bennett will not be permitted to be a minister in the succeeding government. Apparently this aims to prevent the scenario in which Netanyahu persuades some members of one of the ruling parties to vote against the government, bringing it down, and then Bennett jumps to join him in a right-wing government.
These provisions require changes to the Basic Laws that serve Israel for a constitution. One of the “interesting” things about Israel’s system is that they can be changed by a simple majority of the members present in the Knesset. It’s almost as if the Democrats in the US could amend the Constitution so that nobody whose initials were D. T. could run for President.
And of course I am irritated by the fact that the government will have 28 expensive ministers and 6 Deputy Ministers, far more than are needed to run the country.
I’m very bothered by Mansour Abbas (not related to Mahmoud Abbas of the PA). The so-called “change government” – “change” meaning “without Netanyahu” – couldn’t get 61 mandates without support from one or more of the Arab parties. Mansour Abbas represents Ra’am, an Arab Islamist party that shares the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood (as does Hamas). His coalition demands have been mostly pragmatic – that is, he wants money for Arab communities. That in itself is not bad, but part of the deal is that he will receive half a billion shekels (about $154 million) that he can direct to “special projects.” That’s called a slush fund, and will be used to build a patronage empire to make him the most powerful Arab politician in the country.
He also received promises that laws against illegal building in the Negev will be frozen, and fines levied on such construction will be canceled. In recent years, Bedouin tribes have been increasingly squatting on land that belongs to the state or to private Jewish owners. There has also been a sharp increase in agricultural theft (of crops and equipment) and other crimes – especially the theft of weapons from IDF Bases – committed by Bedouins. Reducing enforcement will encourage more violations, which some say rise to the level of challenging Israel’s sovereignty in the Negev.
This government will be the first one in Israel’s history that does not include a single explicitly religious party – except Ra’am! Historian Efraim Karsh, in a recent talk, noted that neither Jordan nor Egypt allows representatives of the Muslim Brotherhood, which wishes to overthrow their states, in their governments. Why should Israel?
Many promises have been made to the left-wing parties that are part of the coalition. One of them requires a special note: there will be a “Department of Jewish Renewal” within the Diaspora Affairs Ministry, whose function will be to aid the Reform Movement in Israel. The likely Diaspora Affairs Minister will be Gilad Kariv, who is a Reform rabbi. I don’t have a theological objection to non-Orthodox Judaism; my problem is political: the Reform Movement in Israel is controlled and subsidized by the movement in the US, which doesn’t hide its desire to remake Israel in the image of a leftist America. Israel is not well-served by an organization that pushes the fantastic and dangerous idea of a two-state agreement with the PLO, or that appears to believe that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is like the American civil rights movement. It’s also waste of resources – the Reform movement has never gained traction in Israel, and is unlikely to do so even with government help.
There is a lot of very heated rhetoric coming from the Right – that Bennett and Lapid are traitors who have sold out the country because of their overweening ambition. That is clearly not the case. I do think they have the best interests of the state in mind. It should be noted that Bennett in particular has burned his bridges. If this government does not succeed, he is dead in politics.
At the same time, I don’t trust Mansour Abbas, the extreme-left Meretz party, or the only slightly less extreme Labor party. There are already rumors that representatives of the left-leaning parties have been in contact with American officials about resuming the “peace process.” It’s impossible to forget the way Shimon Peres and his associates blindsided Yitzhak Rabin with the Oslo process.
If you look at the ideologies of the various parties that ran in the recent election, it is clear that the great majority of Israelis prefer a right-wing government. If it were not for the question of Netanyahu, we would have a solid right-wing coalition of 70 to 80 mandates. Instead, we are getting a “unity” government that includes Meretz and Ra’am.
Israel is facing some serious tests now: last month, Arabs gangs in cities with mixed Jewish/Arab populations, incited by Hamas supporters on social media, went on a rampage that can only be called a pogrom, burning synagogues, cars, Jewish businesses, and Jewish homes, and beating (and even murdering) Jews. This accompanied the Hamas rocket attacks on Israeli cities. While news outlets tend to describe these events as “Jewish-Arab clashes” the Jewish part consisted mostly of attempts at self-defense where the police were unable to respond, and a comparatively small number of violent incidents perpetrated by Jews against Arabs. There are a huge number of illegal weapons in the hands of Israeli Arabs, including criminals, terrorists, and even ordinary citizens. Will the government have the courage and persistence to collect them?
The Biden Administration is pressuring Israel to limit the right of Jews to live in eastern Jerusalem. Will the government have the spine to resist the pressure?
Hamas is demanding the release of more than 1,000 Palestinians imprisoned for terrorism in Israel in return for two captive civilians and the bodies of two soldiers killed in a Gaza operation in 2014. Will the government give in and release those with blood on their hands, as it did in the exchange for Gilad Shalit?
We’ll know soon enough.
For American Jews, the honeymoon is over
For the past few decades, America’s Jewish community has been on a honeymoon of sorts.Prof. Phyllis Chesler: Psychologist: Antisemitism may be an illness
Jews have been a part of the United States since the 1776 War of Independence when approximately 2,000 Jews lived in the country. Jewish emigration to America began in the early 1800s, primarily to the South, to cities such as Charleston and Savannah, expanding in the 19th century to New York and elsewhere around the nation. The first mass emigration to the United States, however, took place during the last two decades of the 19th century and the first quarter of the 20th. Almost 3 million European Jews came to America during this period.
There was discrimination aplenty, and the future of the Jews in this country was still unknown. Then came the establishment of the Jewish State of Israel in our ancestral homeland, followed by massive and miraculous military victories for the nascent Jewish state, which propelled Jewish pride and identity around the globe. Little by little, America’s Jewish community found its place. Some of it was the result of changes to the law, and some the result of the change to the sociological landscape. In a way, we’ve always been a part of the fabric of American life.
Unfortunately, we’ve also allowed this era to soften us as a people. We let our collective guard down. We began intellectualizing away our identity in an ill-fated attempt to fit in.
From the comfort of our American-style homes, we spent the last few decades losing our connection to our roots, our Jewish history, our peoplehood, our religion, our land and our identity. Many have simply forgotten who we are. But for what it’s worth, you can always count on the anti-Semites to remind those of us who need to be reminded. While the anti-Semites say this with disdain, I say it with pride: No matter how successful, how connected, how Americanized you think you are, you are always a Jew.
This past decade, we’ve all seen anti-Semitism appear in places that we never expected. On college campuses, in houses of worship, state legislatures, city councils, Congress, at right-wing rallies, left-wing rallies, anti-Israel rallies, in Arab communities, black communities and white communities—anti-Semitism is back.
The task at hand is daunting because Israel and the Jews are trying to defend themselves from outrageous lies and slanders.Journalist and Author Bari Weiss Talks Antisemitism, ‘Sacrifices of Our Ancestors’ in Jewish History
Israel is accused of being a settler, colonial, imperialistic, Jewish supremacist aggressor; a Nazi apartheid state that perpetrates ethnic cleansing and that has erased the history of the only indigenous people of the region – the Palestinian Arabs. Demands to boycott Israeli products and Israeli academics and to shame, harass, and attack Jewish students and professors who refuse to sign on to such genocidal propaganda have been underway for nearly 20 years.
As Israel won war after war in self-defense, Jew haters funded a lethal propaganda campaign, one in which Israel would increasingly find itself totally surrounded by ill-deserved hatred, not only in the Sunni and Shi'a Muslim worlds but also at the United Nations,, among celebrity artists, academics, in the media, the internet, and among student social justice activists on campus in the West.
Like so many, I had assumed that the hatred and persecution of the Jews had ended, that Jewish history would never again repeat itself.
I was wrong.
In 1990, psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Theodore Isaac Rubin suggested that antisemitism is an illness – a madness – a virus, a plague, infectious, something evil that is not caused by Jews.
We must shed our illusions permanently as we search for the antidote.
Journalist and author Bari Weiss urged the public on Tuesday to have “moral courage” to act against the rising tide of antisemitism, and explained how looking back at Jewish history can provide the guidance needed to do so.
“Small groups of people, often from the fringes of Jewish society, have bent reality and changed the world,” said the former New York Times editor. “Oftentimes Jewish leadership, Jewish visionaries and Jewish moral courage does not come from people that have the name ‘president’ or ‘CEO’ by their name, it comes from people often at the fringes of Jewish life.”
Weiss, who penned the book “How to Fight Antisemitism,” was a featured guest at the 2021 AJC Virtual Global Forum and appeared alongside New York Times op-ed columnist Bret Stephens and AJC Europe Director Simone Rodan-Benzaquen in a session titled “The Mainstreaming of Antisemitism: How Should We Respond?”
She highlighted how Jewish history serves as a “lighthouse” and “a moral manual of how to live” because it puts “whatever sacrifices that are asked of us right now into unbelievable perspective.”
The Columbia University graduate spoke about resigning from The New York Times last year over of what she called “unlawful discrimination,” saying that her experiences pale in comparison to the challenges faced by others, such as human rights activist Nathan Sharansky and Hannah Senesh, a volunteer paratrooper with the British Army who joined a 1944 mission to rescue European Jews during the Holocaust.
Weiss said, “Every one of those people had to sacrifice so much so we could have the privilege, frankly,” to be the target of social media backlash. “Consider it a privilege and a badge of honor that that’s what’s being asked of us right now.”
- Wednesday, June 09, 2021
- Elder of Ziyon
- Wednesday, June 09, 2021
- Elder of Ziyon
Why Cutting off Aid to Hamas Is Insufficient
Hundreds of millions of dollars in humanitarian aid is pouring in from around the world to rebuild Gaza after the recent war between Israel and over a dozen Palestinian terrorist groups. But rebuilding a territory that is controlled by Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist group, is complicated. American laws place conditions on the flow of funds. But it’s not that simple. The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the UN agency tasked with aid distribution to the Palestinians, doesn’t consider Gaza’s violent extremist groups to be terrorist organizations. Not even Hamas.
Despite this, donor countries promise to prevent the aid from going to terrorists. It’s noteworthy that many of these donor countries—including the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, have also designated Hamas entities under their terrorism laws. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that the United States would “work with partners to ensure that Hamas does not benefit from these reconstruction efforts.” UNRWA is one of those partners. It is currently slated to receive $150 million of U.S. taxpayer funds this year. Unless the State Department makes funding to UNRWA contingent on the agency’s compliance with U.S. terrorist designations, U.S. taxpayer funds could flow to any one of the fifteen Palestinian terror groups that launched rockets indiscriminately into Israel during the course of the recent war.
Indeed, Hamas is not the only concern. At least three groups that the United States formally regards as terrorist entities participated in the Hamas-led campaign against Israel: Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), according to Joe Truzman of FDD’s Long War Journal.
UNRWA’s procurement contracts suggest that funds are already flowing to PFLP affiliates. As recently as March, UNRWA was funding the Union of Health Work Committees (UHWC), a Gaza-based entity with extensive links to the PFLP. Earlier this month, Israel charged several staff members from UHWC’s partner organization with funneling funds to the PFLP. Like Hamas, the PFLP receives financial backing from Iran. The PFLP’s “political and military wings” have been receiving financial and logistical support from Iran since at least 2013, according to a Gaza-based Palestinian journalist. Iran’s financial support for both Hamas and PFLP is well-documented in official Iranian government media.
Question of the day from @SenatorHagerty to @SecBlinken on Iran's funding of Hamas. pic.twitter.com/fypvLs5cKZ
— Len Khodorkovsky (@MessageFromLen) June 8, 2021
EU study finds incitement in Palestinian textbooks, kept from public
Palestinian Authority textbooks encourage violence against Israelis and include antisemitic messages, according to an unpublished report commissioned by the European Union in 2019 and obtained by The Jerusalem Post.PMW: Jerusalem Arab activist’s role model is terrorist murderer of 37
The European Commission kept the report under wraps after receiving it from the Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research earlier this year. Brussels directly funds the salaries of teachers and the publication of textbooks, which, the report indicates, encourage and glorify violence against Israelis and Jews.
The report, which is almost 200 pages long, examines 156 textbooks and 16 teachers’ guides. The texts are mostly from 2017-2019 but 18 are from 2020. Excerpts from the report were published in German newspaper Bild earlier this week.
The report’s executive summary glosses over the many examples of antisemitism and incitement in the textbooks, claiming that they “adhere to UNESCO standards” though they “express a narrative of resistance within the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and they display an antagonism towards Israel.”
However, the report includes dozens of examples of encouragement of violence and demonization of Israel and of Jews.
The report says the textbooks present “ambivalent – sometimes hostile – attitudes towards Jews and the characteristics they attribute to the Jewish people.... Frequent use of negative attributions in relation to the Jewish people... suggest a conscious perpetuation of anti-Jewish prejudice, especially when embedded in the current political context.”
Abbas’ Fatah party promotes a terrorist who led the murder of 37, 12 of them children, as a “role model” for young adults.
Fatah highlighted a picture of “rebel Muna Al-Kurd” holding her cell phone adorned with an image of Dalal Mughrabi, a terrorist murderer who led the most lethal terror attack in Israel’s history, known as the Coastal Road massacre, in 1978. She and other Fatah terrorists hijacked a bus on Israel's Coastal Highway and murdered 37 of the civilian passengers, 12 of them children, while wounding over 70.
Fatah wished Al-Kurd a life in “defense” of Jerusalem “like your role model Dalal Mughrabi”:
Posted text: “The occupation forces arrested rebel Muna Al-Kurd at her home in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood [of Jerusalem].
May you live as a rebel defending our Jerusalem, like your role model Dalal Mughrabi.”
[Official Fatah Facebook page, June 6, 2021]
Al-Kurd is an Arab activist and resident of the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, which since mid-April has been the center of Arab protests against the eviction of Palestinian families living illegally in properties owned by Jews (see further details below).
For decades, the PA and Fatah have promoted murderer Mughrabi as a role model especially to youth, as exposed by Palestinian Media Watch. Be it by naming schools, streets, sports tournaments, and summer camps after her, celebrating her birthday, or glorifying her in school books, the PA has brainwashed Palestinians to see this terrorist murderer as the epitome of Palestinian pride and achievement.
As the cover adorning Al-Kurd’s cell phone clearly shows, the PA’s brainwashing has succeeded in turning a child murderer into a Palestinian role model.
- Wednesday, June 09, 2021
- Elder of Ziyon
In a memorial service on Tuesday night, Munir El-Kassem, imam of the Islamic Centre of Southwest Ontario, outrageously blamed Israel for the attack, saying that the deaths are linked to "whatever is happening in Jerusalem and Gaza."
- Wednesday, June 09, 2021
- Elder of Ziyon
Seward City Council member Sharyl Seese issued a public statement of apology on Tuesday for comments she made during a council work session in which she referred to negotiating a price down as “Jew them down.”The comments were made at the end of an almost two-hour work session during which the council discussed with city administration how to best spend $1 million given to the city by Norwegian Cruise Lines.City administration and the council agreed to reconvene with further details about using $500,000 for developer reimbursement and $500,000 to expand child care options in the city at a later date. It was to those figures that Seese said the city could continue to negotiate.“Maybe they can get other stuff to pay the difference to get the building and maybe we can Jew them down,” Seese said.“You mean negotiate them down? Is that what you meant to say?” Seward Mayor Christy Terry asked.The comments were met with awkward laughter by some council members, while Seward Vice Mayor Tony Baclaan put his head in his hands. The work session was almost immediately adjourned after the comment was made.In the statement of apology issued Tuesday, Seese said she was “embarrassed” and “very sorry” for the comments.“Please accept my sincere apology for what I said last night during my comments at the work session,” Seese wrote. “I would never want to hurt or offend anyone, and my mouth got the best of me. I had a sleepless night worrying about hurting people.”
- Wednesday, June 09, 2021
- Elder of Ziyon
Reporter: "This is the first time that the Al-Qassam Brigades releases such images of tunnels following the recent war. These are rooms, communication devices, and maps that are used by the Al-Qassam Brigades to conduct the battles and operations against the Israeli army."Jihad, Al-Qassam Brigades fighter: "Now we are walking inside a network of tunnels that spans the entire Gaza Strip. It was used during the recent war to conduct combat operations. This is one of the command and control centers that were used during the war, and it is still being used after the war. As you can see, it is ready with all the equipment and the devices in order to command the operations and organize the troops."Reporter: "Long and extended passages, ammunition depots, and rocket launch pads, are all part of this underground military and operational complex, as claimed by the Al-Qassam Brigades. The Israeli army said that this complex was one of its main targets in the recent war against the Gaza Strip, and that most of it was destroyed, rendering these tunnels nonoperational. However, Al-Qassam Brigades is talking only about parital damage."Musa, Al-Qassam Brigades fighter: "We incurred only limited damage. Thanks to Allah, immediately after the war ended, we have renovated this area and restored its readiness."[…]Reporter: "Al-Qassam has been building and developing its tunnels for decades, and used them in many combat missions and operations, of which the most prominent was the capturing of Israeli soldiers. Al-Qassam Brigades considers these tunnels to be a strategic weapon in Gaza, and believes that they will remain the main battlefield in any future war against Israel. Hisham Zaqqut, Al-Jazeera, reporting from Gaza, Palestine."
Tuesday, June 08, 2021
No Justice, No Republic
The French used to be extremely proud of their public administration—arguably one of the most comprehensive, efficient, and honest in the world—as well as of their police force and their judiciary. But over the past four decades, they have perceived a steep decline in these institutions. The decline is the result of various factors, including the transfer of governmental jurisdictions to either poorly organized local powers or to the European Union; the advent of the euro and its corollary, budget cuts; mass immigration; the decay of public education; and the descent into a post-industrial, two-tiered society.Jackie Mason: The 3 Constants in Life: Death, Taxes and Anti-Semitism
The breakdown of public safety, as witnessed in Paris’s 11th arrondissement and in many other places, or more recently by a returning wave of jihadist-inspired assassinations, has been more deeply resented than anything else. However, the French people do not blame the police, who on the whole bravely stick to older standards, but rather a politicized judiciary. The extent to which the French magistracy has succumbed to woke ideologies was disclosed in 2013, when a French TV journalist found a “Wall of Bums” displayed at the main judiciary union’s headquarters. This was a list of “bums,” or citizens demanding justice for themselves or their relatives in cases that the union deemed to be “politically incorrect.” As a matter of fact, many of the offenders or criminals now arrested by the police are released by the prosecutors or the courts on such pretexts as age, inconclusive evidence, or “ethical” leniency.
Political correctness may have been no less crucial in the Sarah Halimi case. As noted earlier, the murder took place in between the presidential election’s two ballots. While Macron stood well ahead of his only challenger, the far-right leader Marine Le Pen, in every opinion poll, some people, unbeknownst to Macron, may have been afraid that the brutal assassination of an elderly Jewish lady by a young African Muslim would vindicate Le Pen's anti-immigration platform. Hence, perhaps, a move to sweep the news under the carpet, at least until the second ballot.
This media manipulation may have subsequently comforted the judiciary in their wokeish prejudice and inspired them to shelter Traore from the full consequences of his act. Then, by an all-too-natural process, the more that public opinion—or the head of state, for that matter—insisted on justice, the more the judiciary fought back. Until justice was entirely denied.
The due process of justice means that innocents should be protected against arbitrary charges and that everything should be done to avert judicial errors or unfair sentences. However, it means also that criminals should be eventually punished. Short of that, growing numbers of citizens may be induced to think that there is no Republic and no government anymore. Shortly after the Cour de Cassation issued its highly contested final decision on the Sarah Halimi case, a number of retired generals published a petition asking the president and the government to restore order, law, and patriotic values. According to a Harris Interactive/LCI poll, it was approved by 58 percent of the French.
All this anti-Israel rhetoric from American politicians has tremendous ancillary effects, giving license to bigots worldwide to unleash themselves, spewing invective and vitriol that will undoubtedly have collateral damage.‘Free Gaza’ Warsaw Ghetto vandaliser ‘supporting’ union antisemitism sessions
It’s ironic that this is the same exact kind of criticism that was levelled against Trump. It’s clear that all the rhetoric coming from left circles are beginning to have real world consequences.
This canard that anti-Zionism is not antisemitism is a heaping pile of smoking BS, served on the finest silver platter. You know, it’s like those people who say, but some of my best friends are Jews. Yes, some of my best friends who I speak badly about behind their back.
The Jews who I have been hearing from overseas have been telling me things that I hoped I would never hear, although I knew deep down that it was inevitable. Jews of whatever level of observance or identity sitting pretty here in the United States have no understanding of what’s going on.
My friends, worldwide Jewry is under siege. We are under siege. Like I told you in my earlier articles, I didn’t know what was going to happen with Biden’s presidency. I was hoping for the best when it came to Israel, but I was expecting the worst.
Biden just doesn’t have the spine to stand up to all the anti-Semites that have co-opted the once sane Democrat Party.
Unfortunately, my worst fears have come true. I’m not saying that I’m a prophet or anything, but it seems like you just have to have eyeballs that work to see what’s going on. All the radical activists screaming about Israel, who sound like they are on a religious mission from I don’t know what God, don’t know the first thing about what’s really going on in Israel.
All the journalists who have been covering this tiny sector of the world have been telling the same narrative, the same lie, for so long that any 18-year-old on any American campus thinks that Israel is the antichrist, devil and Charles Manson all wrapped in one.
Stay strong, be sensible, and God help us all.
An activist who sparked outrage after she sprayed “Free Gaza and Palestine” on the walls of the Warsaw Ghetto is helping to organise “Understanding Antisemitism” workshops for Britain’s biggest education union.
Ewa Jasiewicz was condemned in 2010 after she daubed slogans on a wall at the site of the former ghetto in Poland where thousands of Jews were imprisoned and starved to their deaths under the Nazis.
Attempting to justify the vandalism – which included the wording “liberate all ghettos” – Jasiewicz said Israel had “co-opted” the Holocaust to serve “agendas of colonisation and repression”.
Jewish News can reveal that in her role as an organiser with the NEU North West Region, National Team, the 43 year-old has been behind three recent sessions called “Understanding Antisemitism”, held for members of the National Education Union (NEU).
Two Jewish NEU members said they were “absolutely sickened” by the decision of the union to allow a controversial figure such as Jasiewicz to organise antisemitism training sessions for members.
One told Jewish News: “This says everything about the NEU’s attitude towards its Jewish members.
“It’s no wonder hundreds of teachers and teaching staff have decided to quit the NEU in recent months.
- Tuesday, June 08, 2021
- Varda Meyers Epstein (Judean Rose)
- Judean Rose, Opinion, Varda
Left, Jerusalem Day, Damascus Gate, 1968 ( משה מילנר/לע"מ). Right, Rikudgalim, 2018 (Kobby Dagan/shutterstock) |
The cancellation
of the Jerusalem flag march was, instead, a reenactment of David versus
Goliath. But this time, Little David, Israel, was not winning. It was Goliath,
the Arabs, who had the upper hand. This in spite of the blood we shed in 1967,
and despite the fact that the Jews are, 54 years on, still sovereign over
Jerusalem.
Jerusalem Day is that day on which we celebrate the miracles
that made the Jewish people once more sovereign over the Holy City. As is the
case with any people celebrating the liberation of the places they hold dear,
anywhere in the world, a parade is in order, complete with flags. We call our
Jerusalem flag march, the Rikudgalim,
a contraction of “dance” and “flags” and it is the one time of year when Jews
can dance, sing, and mingle freely in Jerusalem neighborhoods populated in the
main by Arabs. But this year the flag march never happened.
Not because the miracle of little David beating the giant
Goliath was any less appreciated than in former years, but because Hamas used
the pretext of the proposed Sheikh Jarrah evictions to make war on the Jews.
Not because Hamas thought it could win, but because the terror organization wanted
to be seen as the supposed defenders
of Jerusalem by the Arabs who live under the Palestinian Authority. To this
end, Hamas provoked riots on the Temple Mount, damaging the Al-Aqsa mosque and setting
trees on fire. They also attempted to lynch Jewish drivers in Jerusalem; torched
cars, shops, and synagogues in mixed Arab-Jewish cities; and shot 4,360 rockets
into Israel’s most densely populated urban centers.
This is how Hamas does it: puts on a show of might for the
people, hoping for the ultimate one-state solution—as per their charter—in which both
Abbas and the Jews (God forbid) are rendered moot. The Hamas show of 2021 was definitely
a show, not completely dissimilar from the sovereignty show we Jews put on during
our annual flag march in neighborhoods we normally are too afraid to visit, and
at a time when we are not free to pray at our holiest site—the Temple Mount—in
our holiest city.
And still, even a show can be quite effective. The proof is
in the pudding for Hamas. The Mufti
of Jerusalem, seen as a puppet of the Abbas-led Palestinian Authority, was
thrown out of the Al-Aqsa mosque during his Friday sermon, because he wouldn’t
congratulate Hamas.
The proof is also in the pudding for the Jews. Call it provocative,
but that yearly Jerusalem flag march, the Rikudgalim,
gives us the courage, one year at a time, to hope that one day, Jews will walk,
heads held high and free of fear, anywhere at all in Jerusalem. The Rikudgalim reminds us that one day; we,
the indigenous people of Israel will indeed be sovereign over Jerusalem in
every sense, and that no one will ever be able to question that fact again—that
one day every Jew will feel free to pray aloud from permitted areas on Har Habayit, the site of our holy Temple
Mount, where the Jordanian Islamic Waqf reigns
supreme.
In 1968, we held a wondrous Jerusalem flag march with thousands of Israeli Jews thronging the streets. Since that time, the parade has become a more modest event, in which mainly National Religious youth take part. Others have been vocal in agitating for the parade to be canceled for good, saying that it is cruel to the Arabs who live in the Old City. “It is like rubbing our Jewish victories in their faces,” say the left, comprised in the main of left-wing secular Israeli Jews. “At least,” say they, “let us give them the dignity to suffer their shame in private.”
IDF parade in front of Damascus Gate, 1968 (photo credit: Moshe Milner) |
Even some religious Jews on the right have come to feel this
way. “We have no need for a parade,” they say. “We know to whom the spoils
fell, to whom Jerusalem truly belongs. Why do we need this display of
braggadocio that is so hurtful to our Arab population that is also under the
protection of our Democratic state?”
These people are missing the point. Yes, there are the youth
who take part in the Rikudgalim
precisely to show the Arabs “what’s what,” rather than strictly to celebrate
the restoration of our treasure, Jerusalem, after thousands of years. But most
of the marchers are just celebrating Jerusalem, and happy—thanks to the massive
security presence surrounding this event—to see a part of the city they usually
are unable to visit. And make no mistake: every part of Jerusalem is precious
to us, even when others are living there. We feel it is a mitzvah to walk in
every part of our city and country. So of course, it is a very special day and
event.
With all that was happening with the failed Hamas war on the
Jews/attempted PA takeover, the parade was of course, postponed. Once the Hamas
hostilities died down, some brave souls did attempt to reschedule the Rikudgalim, the Jerusalem flag march,
for Thursday of this week. But it was a foregone conclusion that our Israeli
leaders would nix the event, based on the proposed parade route which part
Damascus Gate. How could the Rikudgalim
not include Damascus Gate, gate to
the Arab Quarter of Jerusalem? It is the one time of year we get to see this
part of the city—revel in every inch of Jerusalem—the jewel in the God-given crown
of the Jewish people, Israel.
What is it that prevents the Jewish people from celebrating
the liberation of their city with flags? Is it institutional laziness? Yes. The
police and city officials don’t necessarily want to deal with the fuss and
expense of renewed violence.
Is it the fear that violence will break out countrywide?
Yes. And it was under this pretext that Defense Minister Benny Gantz put the
pressure on the police to cancel the parade. Something every right wing adult
in Israel knew he would do. Because he is on the side of the left. The people
who placate and appease.
Would the Rikudgalim
have been likely to cause violence to break out at this juncture? Very
possibly, as any reasonable person might conclude. The Arabs do indeed see Jews
bearing flags while marching and singing in the streets of Jerusalem as a reason
to shoot and stab and maim and kill. And currently, after so many years of
literally getting away with murder, they have the courage of their convictions.
But in the years following 1967, as I for one recall, they were cowed.
They were subservient. They’d been licked, embarrassingly so, by a military
midget: Israel. The Arabs were shamed and silenced for more than a decade, and
with few exceptions, they behaved like a people who’d had their comeuppance and should just be grateful to be allowed to live unmolested wherever they choose
to pay rent (and in the case of Sheikh Jarrah, even where they don’t). Violence
was way, way down.
Over time, however, the left and the international community
emboldened the Arabs, made them forget how bad they lost, and encouraged them
to think they could take Jerusalem back, or at least pretend to do so and cause
a lot of death and property damage in the process. This is precisely why the
parade, the Rikudgalim, is so
important.
The Arabs are emboldened. And their hutzpah grows greater with every passing year. Their pockets filled with EU gold, they are welcomed in the inner chambers of the ICC, and even Iran comes to line Hamas pockets with cash and weapons. The US, meanwhile, seeks to strengthen the Palestinian Authority, setting the stage for internecine war, while at the same time, to paraphrase Tom Lehrer, “Everybody hates the Jews.”
There’s a reason people the world over, take one day in the
year to march in their cities with flags. Parades and marches are a statement:
This is our march, our statement. We made it ours, and so it shall always be.
But when the march doesn’t take place, this too, is a
statement. And it’s definitely the wrong message to send:
“The march is important as an expression of our sovereignty
over Jerusalem and if the march was cancelled, due to pressures from the Arab
enemy, this shows that maybe in theory we have sovereignty in Jerusalem but not
in practice,” said Nadia
Matar, co-chairman of both Women in Green and the Sovereignty Movement
(Ribonut). “This policy of fear and surrender to Arab threats and terror will lead
to the re-division of Jerusalem, G-d forbid!”
If parades and marches are important everywhere else in the
world as an expression of patriotism, I’d venture to say they are even more
important, perhaps existentially so, in Jerusalem. Patriotism is an outer
expression of what is in our hearts, part love, part pride, and yes, even part braggadocio,
a display. The Rikudgalim is a critical
expression of Israeli patriotism, an annual event that does not distinguish
between bits and parts of the city. The Rikudgalim
declares that ALL of Jerusalem, is ours.
So yes. Is the Rikudgalim
ostentatious, a show? Yes, it’s a display, for crying out loud. And
displays are in your face. And in OURS.
A display? Sure. The very best kind. One that means no harm
to anyone. On the contrary: every citizen of Israel, no matter their religion,
has equal rights and opportunities. The Rikudgalim
reinforces the notion that the good guys are in charge, the terrorists
vanquished. Law and order shall reside among the people, all of the people, of
Israel. Because the Jews sit in government in Jerusalem as the capital of the
Jewish State of Israel.
This is distinct from the false show of Hamas pretending to
defend Jerusalem by showering rockets on Ashkelon in order to woo voters away
from Abbas. We actually DID successfully defend Jerusalem. And now it is ours. Our
flag march says that to Hamas, to the PA, to all the antisemites of the world,
but most of all, to us. And we desperately need that reminder—that we are the
rightful inhabitants of Jerusalem and its rightful sovereign.
Some things you just don’t share. And with the most
important things, you don’t let people play with it or borrow it. You don’t let
it out of your sight.
And the more we walk in the streets of Jerusalem, in EVERY
street of Jerusalem, the more they’ll know it’s ours. And the consequences be
damned. She’s worth it, Jerusalem. She’s just that good.
Nadia Matar can tell you about the importance of walking the streets of
Jerusalem, and what it means. “Twenty-seven years ago we started our annual walk
around the walls of the Old City on Tisha B’Av. In 1994 we asked for a police
permit and were denied. We went to the Supreme Court with the help of Attorney
Aviad Hacohen, who claimed that if Jerusalem is united—then there is no reason
Jews should not walk anywhere in Jerusalem. We won and the
rest is history—we have been walking there for the past 27 years,” says Matar, “But
after the latest capitulations by the authorities—who knows what will be with
our walk?”
Matar is absolutely right. The cancellation of the parade
would set a precedent. Not just for next year’s Rikudgalim, but for other Jerusalem events as well, eventually
spreading to yet other events in other parts of the country. That is how it
happens. How they slice away bits and pieces of our country, our city, our
flesh.
Maybe that’s why there are still rumors
the parade could yet happen. But they are only rumors, and vague rumors at
that. There is little hope.
That’s a pity, for not a small number of holy Jews died that we might dance, sing, and mingle freely in all of the streets of Jerusalem.
They would want us to celebrate: a celebration is definitely in order. So we'll do the most we can do this year. But next year?
Next year and every year, in Jerusalem.
UPDATE: One minute before this published, Bibi threw this hot football into Bennett's lap--and of course, the caveat is that the march will probably still not be allowed anywhere near Damascus Gate. From the Government Press Office:
(Communicated by the Prime Minister's Media Adviser)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ascribed great importance to reaching a broad agreement on the holding of the march; therefore, he called a recess in the Security Cabinet meeting and turned to Defense Minister Benny Gantz in order to reach an agreement. The Prime Minister and the Defense Minister submitted the following decision, which was approved by the Cabinet: The march will be held on Tuesday, 15 June 2021, in a format to be agreed upon by the police and the organizers of the march.
- Tuesday, June 08, 2021
- Elder of Ziyon
During Operation "Guardians of the Walls" the IDF struck the al-Jalaa building on May 15th, 2021. The site was used by the Hamas terror organization for intelligence R&D and to carry out SIGINT (signals intelligence), ELINT (electronic signals intelligence), and EW (electronic warfare) operations, targeting both IDF operational activity and civilian systems in Israel.One of the main goals of these efforts was to develop a system that would disrupt the Iron Dome aerial defense system.The purpose of the IDF strike was to curtail these enemy capabilities, including destroying special equipment, and preventing their use during the operation. According to IDF assessments, the equipment was in the building at the time of the strike. The strike was designed to collapse the building in order to ensure the destruction of the special means.The target was of high military value to Hamas and was vetted according to rigorous procedures within the IDF, and in accordance with international law.In light of the nature of the target, prior to the strike, the IDF provided civilians in the building advance warning. Significant efforts were made to enable civilians to evacuate the building. The evacuation process was meticulous, and as a result, no civilians were harmed.This event should be put into context - Hamas intentionally operates within the civilian population of Gaza and does so in order to hamper the IDF’s operational activity.The IDF will continue to maintain the security of Israeli citizens, while doing its best to prevent any possible harm to non-combatants.
This is by any measure appropriate under international law. An electronic warfare site is as valuable as any command and control center.
The only possible objection would be if the IDF could have achieved the same aim by only shooting missiles into the floors of the building that housed these offices. It seems unlikely, since a lot of equipment was also on the roof, and if (as has been reported) Hamas controlled three lower floors of the building, then taking them out would have very possibly collapsed the entire building in a way that could have caused many casualties - if it toppled rather than imploded.
This operation does not violate the principle of distinction, since it is a military target. It does not violate the principle of proportionality, because all civilians were warned and not one was injured. THe value of Al Jazeera's and AP's equipment is hardly proportional in value to that of taking down a major Hamas electronic warfare site during wartime.
Ken Roth of Human Rights Watch has tweeted many times that there was no evidence of Hamas presence in the building, and even if they were there, that taking the entire building down was not proportionate.
No one has been able to verify the Israeli military's claim that Hamas was inside the building housing AP and Al Jazeera. (AP denies it.) Even if it was, how does the definite military advantage of the attack justify the enormous civilian (media) cost? https://t.co/zXrGnyMm7R pic.twitter.com/LpUA9pkhlv
— Kenneth Roth (@KenRoth) May 24, 2021
Refuting Israel's claim: "AP’s bureau has been in this building for 15 years. We have had no indication Hamas was in the building....This is something we actively check to the best of our ability. We would never knowingly put our journalists at risk." https://t.co/bfjrpz2la0 pic.twitter.com/bO5lXrYNXm
— Kenneth Roth (@KenRoth) May 16, 2021
The 12-story building in Gaza that an Israeli airstrike destroyed not only housed major media organizations but also offered a "vantage point for the world" as @AP cameras on the roof captured Israeli bombardments and Palestinian militants’ rocket attacks. https://t.co/7Xvg9G6VV1 pic.twitter.com/2Ur1lDNO7h
— Kenneth Roth (@KenRoth) May 16, 2021