Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, June 17, 2021

06/17 Links Pt2: Sometimes it takes a few pogroms; 200 Rabbis blast Pelosi's failure to strongly reprimand Ilhan Omar; Noa Tishby tackles Bella Hadid's latest anti-Israel rant

From Ian:

MEMRI: Shaheen Nassar Of The Council On American-Islamic Relations Los Angeles (CAIR-LA): The 'European Jewish Colonizers' In Palestine Converted To Judaism In The Middle Ages, Have No Connection To Ancient Israelites; Antisemitism Is A Way Of Persecuting A Group For Falsely Claiming To Descend From Historic Palestine

Director of policy and advocacy for the Los Angeles branch of The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR LA), Shaheen Nassar, said that antisemitism is a uniquely European phenomenon, and it was a way of persecuting a group of people for the "false historical accusation" that they are the descendants of the people of historic Palestine. He made his remarks during a lecture held at the Islamic Society of Orange County, which was posted on the IOSC Masjid YouTube channel on June 11, 2021. Nassar explained that Muslims and Arabs are Semites, and that "most historians recognize" that the vast majority of European Jews and the "European Jewish colonizers" in Palestine are Europeans who converted to Judaism in the Middle Ages, and it is in fact Palestinians who most likely to have the blood of the Israelites running through their veins. He added that it is ironic that while Zionism is a "supremacist ideology," Jews are also the target of antisemitism, which he conceded is a "real thing." He went on to explain that white supremacists hold Jewish, Muslim, and Palestinian lives in equal contempt.

Antisemitism "Was A Way Of Persecuting A Group Of People... For The False Historical Allegation That They Descended From Historic Palestine"

Shaheen Nassar: "Palestinians and Arabs are Semites themselves. Antisemitism is, throughout much of history, a uniquely European phenomena. It was essentially a way of saying... it was a way of persecuting a group of people for the false history accusation, this false historical allegation, that they had descended from historic Palestine. The reality of course, as most historians recognize, is much of European Jews and much of the European Jewish colonizers of Palestine are all descendants of medieval converts to Judaism, and that realistically the blood of the ancient Israelites most likely flows in the blood of Palestinians.

"Zionism Is A supremacist Ideology... There's No Direct Blood Relation Between The Ancient Israelites And The European Colonizers"

"If Zionism is a supremacist ideology, isn't it ironic that also Jews are the targets. And by the way this is legitimate, antisemitism is a real thing. I may not necessarily agree with its relevance to the issue of Palestine, but antisemitism is a very real thing, and there are white supremacists out there who hold Jewish lives and Muslim lives and Palestinian lives with equal contempt.

"A lot of the people that were massacring Palestinians, the people that I mentioned who would kill, in such horrific and gruesome ways, Palestinian children, committed acts of sexual violence... These death squads, the Irgun, the Hagana, the Black Hand, they would later evolve into the modern Israeli defense forces.

"There's no direct blood relation between the ancient Israelites and the European colonizers."

Shaheen Nassar of CAIR LA: Arabs Are Semites, While Most European Jews Converted in the Middle Ages; Antisemitism Is a Phenomenon of Persecuting a Group that Falsely Claims to Descent from Historic Palestine pic.twitter.com/f982v2zii7
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) June 17, 2021

Sometimes it takes a few pogroms

In my book, The Ideological Path to Submission... and what we can do about it (Mantua Books), I agree with the approach of Daniel Pipes of the Middle East Forum to distinguish between Muslims who can adjust to lives of freedom, responsibility, women’s rights, rights of other religions including Judaism and non-violence, and other Muslims, usually called Islamists who seek Jihad, conquest, a world-wide Caliphate, forced conversions, Sharia Law and violence. My book deals mainly with Islam in America, Canada and Europe, but I hold the same distinctions must apply to Islamic Israelis.

The only Muslims that should live in Israel are those non-Islamists who accept the virtue of the Jews, the Torah and that the Qur’an says that the land of Israel is for the Jews.

Sometimes it takes a few pogroms to drive home the problem and the solution alike.

The Russian and Ukrainian pogroms in the early 19th century were the determining factor for Russian Jews to depart Russia and the Ukraine for America. A lot of Jews paid with their lives so that others would understand that the time had come to leave.

My father’s cousin, upon liberation from Auschwitz, decided to go back home to Lodz Poland. He and others were met with a violent pogrom from the Poles who did not want the Jews back. After a few years, he and his new wife made Aliyah.

Pogroms against Jews in contemporary Europe and the danger that riots in America might turn into pogroms will induce Diaspora Jews to make Aliyah. But they must see an Israel that understands that Arab Israelis must not only be cleansed of guns and other weapons, but must clearly support reformist Islam and not Islamism. At a time when Muslims up 20% of Israel’s population, it is essential to adopt this paradigm about Muslim neighbours and co-workers.

The mini-pogroms that started a couple of weeks ago must make it clear to both antisemites and Jews everywhere that the best thing for all concerned is a division between modernist more liberal Islam and the Islamists, and only the former should populate Israel, and perhaps the rest of the West. Those who follow radical hegemonic Islamism might stay in one of the numerous Islamic theocracies.

Sometimes it takes a few pogroms.

How antisemitism links various world conflicts

The pro-Armenian lobby, meanwhile, has a chronic antisemitism problem that is exposed through its social media activity. In tweets promoting the theme of "Christian Artsakh" during March 2020, the ANCA described Nagorno-Karabakh as "an ancient #Christian land, modern democratic republic, and home to 1st Century holy sites – under attack by #Azerbaijan's oil-rich #Aliyev dictatorship." The ANCA repeatedly used the same language to target supporters of Azerbaijan such as Jewish lawmaker Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.). In addition to weaponizing Christianity for political purposes, the ANCA promoted anti-Semitic tropes – including by tweeting a painting of the arrest of Jesus, invoking the myth that Jews killed Jesus, and a photo of silver coins, conjuring the antisemitic conspiracy theory of Jewish control over financial markets and governments.

This activity is not surprising when considering that, according to an Anti-Defamation League study, Armenians believe a variety of antisemitic stereotypes are "probably true" – and that they agree with those tropes at an even higher rate (58%) than Iranians (56%).

Armenian antisemitism is also apparent in the country's history of glorifying Nazi collaborators such as Garegin Nzhdeh, commander of the Armenian Legion, a unit that rounded up Jews and resistance fighters and marched them to concentration camps. Nzhdeh is honored through statues, streets, or memorials in nearly 20 Armenian municipalities.

A third parallel between the Israeli-Palestinian and Armenia-Azerbaijan conflicts pertains to the violent nature of protests taking place abroad. Much like Jews were physically attacked by pro-Palestinian protesters in major US cities last month, Armenian protesters attacked a group of two-dozen Azerbaijanis in Los Angeles in July 2020, causing injuries that required urgent medical care and prompting a hate-crime investigation into the incident.

For Israel, which maintains deep ties with Azerbaijan but at times projects a neutral or silent stance toward the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict, the takeaway for the new government should be clear: stand with Azerbaijan, a crucial Muslim-majority ally, and stand against Armenian antisemitism. US Jews should arrive at the same conclusion, understanding that antisemitism coming from pro-Palestinian activists and pro-Armenian activists are branches of the same tree.

Secret WWII Jewish British Military Commandos Finally Come Out of the Shadows

X Troop is the fiercest British World War II commando force you have likely never heard of.

Formally known as “No. 10 (Inter-Allied) Commando, 3 Troop,” its 87 members were mainly Jewish refugees from Germany and Austria who were hell-bent on exacting revenge on the Nazis who had destroyed their families and home communities. Some commandos were themselves survivors of incarceration in Nazi concentration camps.

Sworn to secrecy about their true identities for their own safety, these brave young men assumed English noms de guerre. Only one person, a secretary at MI5, who worked in the casualty division, had access to the list of the men’s original names and places of origin.

After a year and a half of intensive training in Wales and Scotland, the X Troopers were assigned to the spearhead of Allied forces that invaded Europe and fought into the heart of the Third Reich. Utilizing advanced combat and counterintelligence techniques, and their native German language abilities, they undertook dangerous missions to infiltrate behind enemy lines. In battle, they captured and immediately interrogated the enemy, providing invaluable information to the advancing Allied armies.

The X Troopers never fought as a joint force. They were seconded individually or in small groups to various Allied troops and divisions. Over half of them were killed, wounded or went missing in action.

“Nothing was going to stop them,” said Leah Garrett, author of a new book about this highly selective and motivated unit, whose exploits have largely been lost to history due to their clandestine nature.

The Tikvah Podcast: David Rozenson on How His Family Escaped the Soviet Union and Why He Chose To Return

The Soviet Union was deeply against religion, and in particular was deeply against Judaism, so that the full embrace of Jewish religious observance, or the study of Hebrew, or the slightest approval of Zionism were often seen as criminal offenses against the state. Some Jews, like Natan Sharansky, resisted—brave refuseniks who wouldn’t give in to enforced secularization and who organized underground networks of Jewish life. Eventually, through American and international pressure, the Soviets allowed those desperate Jews to leave. But what of the Jews who didn’t flee, who remained in Russia even after the demise of the Soviet Union? What’s their story?

David Rozenson, the executive director of Beit Avi Chai, a Jewish cultural center in Jerusalem, was born in the Soviet Union before his family escaped to the United States. Years later, as an adult, he returned to Russia and stayed there for years. On this week’s podcast, in conversation with Mosaic editor Jonathan Silver, he tells his family story, and explains why, despite his family risking so much to leave, he chose to go back and serve the Jews of the former Soviet Union.

Rabbi: Boys Nursing From Women 'Immodest' - Men Must Nurse Them (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Check out their Facebook page.

child hiding eyes Jerusalem, June 20 - The leader of a religious community in this holy city has identified a glaring breach of modesty and dignity in everyday child-rearing behavior, in the form of male babies coming into close physical contact with females who suckle them, and has issued a p'sak halokhoh forbidding women from breastfeeding boys. Instead, men must take on the task of generating breastmilk and providing it to the infants.

Rabbi Noteh LeHumra of Congregation Minhag Schtuss gave his ruling Sunday following complaints by several community activists that despite decades of increasing stringency in their practice of Jewish laws governing male-female dynamics, Jewish men still have a yeizter hora, rachmonoh litzlon, that causes them to stumble, not like our pious ancestors who never even had the slightest hirhur aveiroh, but we could never reach that exalted level and need extra protective measures lest we succumb to taivoh. The congregants identified nursing in particular as an unaddressed hazard, and Rabbi LeHumra developed guidelines accordingly.

"B'nois Yisroel," his ruling, appearing on large, adhesive posters on every available public surface, began. "Because of the unrelenting machinations of the yeitzer, it becomes incumbent upon us to adopt extra levels of taharoh and distance from sin. Therefore, be it known that women may only perform 'breastfeeding' or 'nursing' if the baby is a girl. But because we fear that exposure to, and contact with, women, especially certain uncovered parts thereof, lies at the root of our failure so far to vanquish the yeitzer, b'avoinoiseinu horabbim, from now on only men may nurse boys. Perhaps this way, b'siyatoh dishmayoh, our holy sons will remain pure of mind, never having seen or felt anything inappropriate while eating as a baby."

"Our lore contains multiple instances of men becoming able to nurse," continued the notice. "Mordechai nursed the orphan Esther - but that was ok because she became his wife; or the man in the Gemoro Shabbos who experienced the same miracle so he could provide for his children. Through our dedication to our sacred duty, we, too, may be zoikheh to such phenomena."

"Lest the scoffers argue that we do not rely on miracles, look for yourself at the everyday miracles we have come to expect," it went on. "So few of us work, yet miraculously, money keeps flowing into our institutions and yeshivois; so few of us learn a trade or study anything secular, yet somehow, despite choosing a lifestyle of crushing poverty and food insecurity, Hakodoish Borukh Hu keeps finding ways to keep us from malnutrition. He has many emissaries, not just Bituach Leumi, although that has been a mainstay of His largesse in recent decades."

"A final point," the message concluded. "No one may permit himself to voice the thought that since previous generations saw no need to adopt these stringencies, they were careless or, chas v'sholoim, sinful. They were like the very angels compared to us! They had no need for these measures because they were so elevated, they barely had any yeitzer at all! And that's why we've been exiled and persecuted and haven't been redeemed for thousands of years, because [insert rationalization to help explain why such angelic people couldn't bring the Final Redemption, whereas we unworthy shadows of their greatness definitely will]."

06/17 Links Pt1: Sen. Risch Won’t Lift Hold on Palestinian Aid Without Guarantee Taxpayer Money Is Kept From Terrorists; Will every Israeli airstrike now be front page news?

From Ian:

Sen. Risch Won’t Lift Hold on Palestinian Aid Without Guarantee Taxpayer Money Is Kept From Terrorists

Sen. Jim Risch (R., Idaho), ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, says he will not cave to demands from Democrats that he lift a congressional hold on a tranche of Palestinian aid money until he is provided with guarantees that the taxpayer funds will not enrich terrorist groups, including Iran-backed Hamas.

House Democrats led by Rep. Jamie Raskin (D., Md.) have been pressuring Risch to lift a hold on some $75 million in aid money in the wake of Hamas’s war last month with Israel. Raskin and 145 other Democrats pressed Risch on the matter in a letter sent earlier this month. They claim the money is needed for humanitarian reconstruction projects in the Gaza Strip, which came under intense fire from Israel as it struck scores of Hamas positions. Risch, who did recently lift his hold on a portion of these funds, maintains the outstanding allocation will aid Palestinian terror groups.

Risch rejected the Democratic pressure campaign on Wednesday in a response letter to the Democrats declaring that he will not release the funds until the Biden administration provides assurances the money will not be diverted to Hamas or be used by the Palestinian government to pay terrorists and their families, according to a copy obtained exclusively by the Washington Free Beacon.

Risch’s hardline stance is certain to rankle Democratic lawmakers who claim the money will be spent to address humanitarian needs in the Gaza Strip. As Democrats have broadly supported the Biden administration’s decision to unfreeze U.S. aid to the Palestinian government, potentially in violation of the law, they have also called for U.S. security assistance to Israel to be frozen. The growing divide between the parties on aid to Israel and the Palestinian government has emerged as a flashpoint in the weeks since Israel defended itself against an onslaught of more than 4,000 missiles fired by Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups.

"There are multiple holds on the longer-term projects, as they are under review for compliance with the law," Risch wrote. "I hope you and your colleagues are not suggesting we should turn a blind eye to the potential of U.S. funds being used to support terrorism."

Seth Frantzman: Will every Israeli airstrike now be front page news? - analysis

This appears to be a new pattern. The launching of arson balloons is not new, it has been going on for years. Israeli airstrikes in retaliation for these kinds of attacks and others, is also not new. Over the last several years Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad have perpetrated many attacks, including firing rockets, using masses of people to attack the security fence around Gaza and launching incendiary balloons. This is in addition to the major attacks that began on May 10 and involved more than 4,000 rockets fired at Israel.

In general Israeli retaliatory strikes did not get major attention. That all changed with the recent conflict. A variety of factors have played into that, not the least of which is an agenda by some groups to try to increase coverage of the Israel-Palestinian conflict. This has resulted in attacks on Israel accusing the country of practicing “apartheid” and also the circulation of a letter around media outlets calling for more pro-Palestinian coverage.

The airstrike coverage is disproportionate because similar airstrikes by Turkey on Iraq or even by the US-led Coalition partners against ISIS, receive no coverage. It’s not a comparison, of some coverage compared to less coverage. There is in fact no coverage of Turkey’s widespread airstrikes on northern Iraq’s Kurdish region, which result in casualties and depopulation. The US-led coalition openly tweets about recent operations against ISIS, which get no coverage. Huge bombings and attacks by terrorist groups in Afghanistan and pitched battles with government forces get little to no coverage.

This speaks to a new kind of coverage of Israeli airstrikes and Gaza tensions. It is not clear if this is only the result of the recent war, or if this push for increased coverage will continue. For now, it is clear, that a new paradigm exists focusing on Israeli airstrikes, even if there are no casualties in the strikes. Over the last several years most Israeli strikes on Gaza, and claims of strikes in Syria by foreign reports, received relatively minor attention. Now that spotlight has shifted. It comes with a new Israeli government in office and may affect calculations regarding these strikes.

The Joshua and Caleb Network: Photos of Gaza That You Have NEVER Seen in the Media

If you are familiar with the Gaza Strip, you probably only think of war and carnage. A simple google search however, will show you a drastically different story. On today’s show, Joshua & Luke unpack photos of Gaza that will blow you away.

Are the people of Gaza oppressed? Yes, but the people who are responsible just might shock you.

Also, a quick history lesson on the Gaza Strip beginning in the early 1900s and real facts about the area that might make you rethink your perspective on the middle east.

Hebrew watermelons, then and now

Ninety years ago, Jewish owned farms in Palestine were struggling, and they wanted to make sure that at least Jews would purchase produce from them. So they created an advertising campaign for "Hebrew melons" and told people to look for a distinctive logo before buying:

Now, the Palestinian Authority is trying to ban melons from Israel - "Hebrew melons" are to be boycotted!

On Wednesday, Palestinian customs police - operating at a Palestinian checkpoint that no one ever hears about - seized a truck with 10 tons of watermelons smuggled from Israel.

The Palestinian Ministry of Agriculture released this photo of the seizure.

Keep in mind that the 1930s campaign was to encourage buying produce from Jewish farms, but not to boycott Arab produce. The Palestinian Authority bans produce from Jews - because it knows that it cannot rely on patriotism to encourage Palestinians to only buy from Arab farmers.

Hamas freely admits it uses summer camps to recruit child soldiers

Here are the posters that Hamas has published for its summer camps. If this isn't recruitment for child soldiers, I don't know what is:

"How can I liberate my land and take my rights?"

"From generation to generation"

"Heroes are made for the day of the fighting."

"Today at the training sites...and tomorrow at the gates of Jerusalem"

Palestinian polls are interesting.

Consistently over the years, when asked a general question of whether they support armed resistance (terror) or negotiations with Israel, the results would be roughly half and half, seesawing between supporters and opponents of terror.

But when there is a specific terror attack, Palestinians overwhelmingly support that attack.

The most egregious example was in the wake of the 2008 attack on students at the Mercaz Harav yeshiva - 84% of Palestinians supported that massacre.

75% supported the Maxim restaurant suicide bombing in Haifa in 2003 that killed 20 Israelis.

77% supported a double bus suicide bombing that killed 16 in Beersheva in 2004.

Now, after the mini-war last month, Palestinians are overwhelmingly supportive of Hamas shooting rockets towards Israeli civilans.

They support Hamas shooting rockets to Jerusalem. 72% think that Hamas’ decision to launch rockets at Israeli cities came "in defense of Jerusalem and al Aqsa Mosque."

If an Israeli court would rule that the Arab squatters at Sheikh Jarrah must evacuate, 68% support Hamas shooting thousands more rockets into Israeli cities. Only 18% support non-violent resistance as a result.

Not surprisingly, Hamas' popularity has soared since the fighting. If the postponed/canceled elections would be held today, Hamas beats Fatah 36% to 19%.

Palestinians support terrorist attacks and they support terror groups. Western media consistently downplays these results, but they are consistent.

On Wednesday morning, Palestinian Preventive Security Services arrested 16-year old Amir Taha Muhammad Abu Sharar of Hebron for a Facebook post.

The police forced the child to close his Facebook account.

The Facebook post that offended the Palestinians was published during the conflict in May.

Abu Sharar, who suffers from diabetes, was held in custody for hours before he and his mother made a pledge to close his account and that he would stay away from posting on social media.

According to the Euro Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, this is only the latest in a wave of similar arrests for things people have posted on social media. Anything that offends the Palestinian government can be prosecuted under their overly broad "Cybercrime Law."

At least 60 people have been arrested or detained in the past month, and there are reports that some of those arrested were subject to torture and abuse in Jericho Prison.

I could not find a single story in the media about any of these arrests. As of this writing, the Euro-Med Monitor only published this in Arabic.

This isn't only a story about an egregious arrest of a child. It is not only a story about how the Palestinian Authority spits on freedom of speech.

This is a story about how the world media simply ignores Palestinian crimes.

60 arrests for social media posts in a month? How can this have not been reported anywhere??

Part of the reason is because Palestinian media itself doesn't report it - there is an unwritten rule that the media is not going to say anything bad about their own leaders. But there is no doubt that this information was known - Euro-Med found out about these.

The sad fact is that the world media does not want to find out anything negative about Palestinians. There are probably more reporters in the region per square kilometer than anywhere else in the world but all the reporters are only interested in demonizing Israel.

Human rights violations by the Palestinian Authority is simply not on the reporters' radar. There is no digging, no investigative journalism. Reporters are jostling to make Israel look as bad as possible but there are no similar stories about the Palestinian leadership - even though every single reporter knows that the corruption on the Palestinian side dwarf anything that Israel has done.

The real story is that this isn't a story in any media. And that is because the entire world media is effectively colluding to make public opinion hate the Jewish state and be sympathetic to the criminally corrupt Palestinian Authority.

It is a scandal. But it is not a scandal that the media will ever report.

06/16 Links Pt2: The Un-Jews - The Jewish attempt to cancel Israel and Jewish peoplehood; Baseless Israel Bashing Permeates Science, Medicine, and Education Unions

From Ian:

Natan Sharansky and Gil Troy: The Un-Jews - The Jewish attempt to cancel Israel and Jewish peoplehood

The clash between zealots for progress—or what some decided was progress—and Jewish traditionalism reaches back to the time of the ancients, too.

There were many Jews during Greek and Roman times who wanted to advance these appealing civilizations, which seemed to be giving birth to a brighter future. The Roman pantheon of gods seemed so much more majestic, more worldly, than the Jews’ one jealous God. These rebels would be happy to keep Jerusalem and other Jewish sites as relics as they marched along the road to a better tomorrow—backed by the imperial power of the Roman legions.

One of the Roman generals who helped raze Jerusalem and destroy the Second Temple may have been the first un-Jew. Tiberius Julius Alexander, the nephew of the leading Jewish philosopher Philo, “did not remain in his ancestral customs,” in the words of the ancient historian Josephus, a Jewish general who himself joined the Roman cause. Then, as now, those annoying Jews insisted on keeping their ghetto, their ethnonationalist state, if you will, and rejected the symbols of Rome’s more worldly multicultural empire.

Historians ultimately don’t know that much about Tiberius. What we do know is that despite his Jewish roots, he was anxious to help the world become civilized like Rome—and he unleashed the Roman legions against Alexandria’s Jews when he was prefect of Egypt from 66 to 69 CE. All this was warming up for his greatest crime against his people, serving as Titus’ second in command in 70 CE when the siege of Jerusalem plunged his own people into exile for nearly 2,000 years.

Today’s un-Jews remain as engaged with parts of their Jewish heritage, as appalled by other parts, and as anxious for acceptance, as their predecessors. Their undoing project doesn’t involve conquering the Temple in the name of civilization or converting the Jews to Christianity. Instead, they are divorcing the democratic State of Israel in the name of democracy and social justice. Today’s social justice warriors make war on Israel the same way that the Soviet communists made war on Jewish peoplehood and its institutions.

This assault goes far beyond “hugging and wrestling” or “daring to ask hard questions” or giving Israel “tough love.” Our objections to these new attacks are not attempts to dodge the difficult dilemmas we do need to debate regarding peace and war, proportionality and morality, Jewish and democratic values—or occupation, clashing rights, and defensible borders. We intimately know the many efforts that Israel’s political establishment and military take to maintain their moral compass. We wish there were more forums—such as a Global Jewish Parliament—where Israelis could discuss these and other dilemmas with world Jewry.

But we can only have those debates if we have empathy for one another and are willing to look out for one another. Ultimately, a broad, welcoming dialogue is important. But those who are set on denying the essence of Jewish peoplehood are rarely interested in the kind of respectful, mutual exchange that builds us all up. Rather, they are bent on destroying the most powerful force that has kept us together as a people through the ages—and without which they, too, will paradoxically wither away.

Phyllis Chesler: Baseless Israel Bashing Permeates Science, Medicine, and Education Unions

Until recently, the hard sciences proved impregnable to political propaganda and to Soviet-style boycotts and censorship. Not anymore.

From college campuses to medical and mental health professionals, people whose careers are rooted in inquiry and fact are falling over each other to condemn Israel for last month’s defensive war against Hamas — and in dreadfully uniform language.

I don’t know how to stop the lies about Israeli “massacres” when that lie has now been amplified by professors at so many universities, by the media, by students, and by countless authors in medical and scientific journals.

Physicians, both clinicians and scientific researchers, have also become politicized. According to a surgeon-friend: “I had to quit my women physician Facebook group because of rabid antisemitism in the guise of pro-Palestinian humanism. We formed a separate group called ‘physicians against antisemitism’ that quickly got 1,500 members.”

As it stands, we are currently undergoing a profound degradation of both experts and of expertise.

For example, in 2010, The Lancet, once a premier journal of medicine, blamed Israel for the alleged increase of “wife beating” in Gaza.

Senate passes resolution condemning antisemitism

The US Senate on Monday passed a resolution condemning the recent rise in global antisemitism fueled by Israel's 11-day conflict with Hamas last month.

The bipartisan resolution, which passed by voice vote, was introduced by Senators Jackie Rosen (D-NV) and James Lankford (R-OK), co-founders and co-chairs of the Senate Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Antisemitism.

In addition to Rosen and Lankford, a total of 72 senators, 36 Democrats and 36 Republicans, co-sponsored the resolution "unequivocally condemning the recent rise in antisemitic violence and harassment targeting Jewish Americans, and standing in solidarity with those affected by antisemitism, and for other purposes."

The resolution cites specific examples of recent antisemitic incidents related to the Israel-Gaza conflict, including a pro-Palestinian convoy in London calling to rape Jewish women, an attack on Jewish diners in Los Angeles and fireworks thrown at a group of pro-Israel demonstrators in New York City.

"As antisemitism surges in the United States and around the world, we must do all that we can to put a stop to these hateful actions," Rosen said in a statement.

The resolution also calls on US President Joe Biden to nominate a State Department Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism.

Proud that my bipartisan resolution w/ @SenatorLankford condemning the surge in antisemitic incidents & calling for action, cosponsored by 74 Senators, just passed the Senate by voice vote. Watch me speak on the Senate floor on why we must stand united against antisemitic hate: pic.twitter.com/VVFwIPJyK8
— Senator Jacky Rosen (@SenJackyRosen) June 15, 2021

Naftali Bennett is the new prime minister of Israel, an honor to be sure. But many of us are devastated by his assumption to the throne. It’s not only that Bennett lacks the polish and statesmanship of Netanyahu, it’s the way he seized power.

Israel is a true democracy, pretty much split down the middle in terms of right and left. We comprise a plurality of views. And that is precisely why we kept having election after election (after election after election). It is so darned difficult to settle an election when half the population feels one way, and the other half feels the other way. But even right and left are fragmented into itsy bitsy parties. Except for Netanyahu’s Likud, which received the most significant block of votes.

An election was always going to be decided by forming a coalition, because without 61 seats, you can’t make a government, and Likud had only 30. The only thing to do then is to make a match between a large party, the next largest party (Lapid’s Yesh Atid), and a few lesser parties. It was either that or cobbling together lots of teeny tiny little parties to make a larger whole of a coalition that would be so fragmented in its views that it would always be doomed to failure and not represent anyone at all.

The latter is exactly the track Naftali Bennett chose in his rise to power. He glued together teensy little parties that the majority of Israelis did not vote for, and then put them all together in a basket and presented us with a government that doesn’t represent the majority of Israelis, or even the largest sector of Israelis represented in the election, those who voted for Likud, the party of Netanyahu.

Alas, the majority was still not enough to keep Bibi in power. With only 30 mandates, he was short by more than one half of the 61 mandates he needed to remain on Balfour St.

To the hopeful, it looks as though Bennett achieved an amazing feat of unity, by crafting a government composed of every part of society: right, left, Arabs and Jews, gay, straight, people of color or with disabilities—this government has it all. Those with hope see this new government as all of the people getting together to make real change and compromise: an inclusive government. But the rest of us see it as chicanery, a coup to unseat Netanyahu, a group of tiny parties of few votes so hungry for power that they would and did play dirty.

Bennett swore up and down he would not be in a government with the people with whom he is now in a government. Bennett’s party received just 7 mandates. Netanyahu’s party had 30. Is it any wonder that Netanyahu feels he was done dirty by Bennett?

Also: you don’t have to love Netanyahu to know that this is not the time to have a changing of the guard, with Iran weeks away from the bomb and a president hostile to Israel in the White House. Netanyahu is a seasoned statesman. Bennett lacks stature, presence. Maybe that’s why the people did not choose him. He got in through deception, alone.

The night that the new government passed its final parliamentary vote, I slept badly, and had nightmares. I am afraid of this government, afraid of the Biden Administration, and terrified of Iran. The situation feels out of control.

No. I did not love Netanyahu—he made promises to the right and never kept them—but that is who needs to be prime minister right now. In Israel we have two groups of voters: Only Bibi, and Only NOT Bibi. Now we have the Only NOT Bibi government in power, and consider this: four times the number of people who voted for Bennett, did not want him in power.

Of those who did vote for Bennett, many feel betrayed. I know because I live in a town where he is very popular, and he mentioned us in his first speech as prime minister in a nod to that support. I polled my friends and many said they feel betrayed by him for sitting with Lapid, the Left, and with Ra”am (the Arab party.) A minority of my Bennett-voting friends are taking a wait-and-see attitude. They are not yet ready to give up on their romance with Naftali.

Those outside of Israel often find it difficult to understand our political climate. The following segment of Guy Zohar’s M’HaTzad HaSheini [From The Other Side] of June 1, 2021, from Israel’s Channel 11 Kan News, is enlightening, but in Hebrew only. The clip details the promises that Bennett has made and broken.

I endeavored to make a rough translation (apologies in advance for my shortcomings as a Hebrew-English translator) of the 4-minute segment to help my non-Israeli readers understand why there is such a lack of trust in Naftali Bennett. It boils down to this: every politician breaks promises, but Bennett went beyond the pale, abusing his voters’ trust, and taking advantage of the kinks in our electoral system. This makes it all the more clear that we have a desperate need for electoral reform in Israel, something to which Netanyahu alluded in his bitter parting speech.

נפתלי בנט הודיע שבכוונתו לפעול כדי להקים ממשלה עם יאיר לפיד, ועם השמאל. ברוטציה. רק עם שישה מנדטים. טוב אתם מבינים מה צריך לעשות, כן?#מהצד_השני עם @guyzo pic.twitter.com/5ZEW7f4W9v
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) June 1, 2021

Guy Zohar: We have to take a breath, it just doesn’t come easy for us.

Naftali Bennett: I inform you today, that my intention is to work with all my strength toward the creation of a national unity government, together with my friend Yair Lapid.

Guy Zohar: We have no choice. You understand now what we have to do, don’t you?

Host: You will sit under him if he is prime minister?

Naftali Bennett: No!

Host: Will you make a rotation [agreement]?

Naftali Bennett: Not in rotation. Not in mutation. [waves hand]

Guy Zohar: Ouch. No one says he didn’t learn from Netanyahu.

Naftali Bennett: Forever and without any preconditions, I will not lend my hand to the establishment of a government with Yair Lapid.

Guy Zohar: Ouch.

Naftali Bennett: I won’t permit Yair Lapid to be prime minister, not even in rotation.

Guy Zohar: It hurts us more than it hurts you. And it gets worse.

*ding*

Naftali Bennett: We won’t form a government that elevates the Left. Because I’m Right. What I’m going to do is to establish a national government, that is to say not to transfer administration to the Left, because most of the nation, 80 mandates, are on the right, at today’s count.

Host: Lapid is the Left?

Naftali Bennett: Lapid, yes.

*ding*

Naftali Bennett: I commit before you that no matter what, I will not sit [in government] with or give my hand that *ding* Yair Lapid will be prime minister of Israel. And of course, I will not flip Lapid *ding* to become prime minister, not by rotation, and not without rotation [waves hand], because I am a man of the right.

Guy Zohar: And it doesn’t end here. Come let’s return to the speech in which Naftali Bennett declared his intention to—yes—establish a unity government with Yair Lapid.

Naftali Bennett: This is a government that will not be against any sector or any group.

Guy Zohar: But . . . just before the elections, you said that . . .

Naftali Bennett: Yair Lapid caused polarization in the last decade, truly terrible, in the Israeli community. I don’t think this should be the character that the nation of Israel today needs as its prime minister.

Guy Zohar: Back to this week’s speech. (Hoo-wa!)

Naftali Bennett: Know that the Left makes here difficult compromises in granting me the position of prime minister.

Guy Zohar: Wait! You prime minister?? YOU prime minister??? But you only have 6 mandates [out of the necessary 61 minimum needed to form a government]!

Naftali Bennett: I hope and believe that the public will give me the strength *ding* with 15 mandates I won’t be prime minister. Twenty? Yes. And I am the insurance policy for a right-wing government that will care about you.

Host: The public gives you a small number of mandates, nine mandates in the latest polls.

Naftali Bennett: Excuse me. Today I am already at 11. *ding* And if I reach 15 we will have established here a government. I need just a few more mandates to generate a change in leadership. Impossible with ten mandates to do this. 15 mandates, we can come and change the leadership in real fashion.

Host: You are the spoonful that tips the scales. You can be prime minister.

Naftali Bennett: But not with *ding* ten mandates.

Host: With ten mandates!

Naftali Bennett: That’s not democratic. You need more.

Guy Zohar: Yes. Now, let’s return to the speech that’s fresh. What does it mean that the left makes compromises?

Naftali Bennett: Know that the Left makes compromises that are not easy.

Guy Zohar: Does this mean that you are going to sit with the Labor Party?

Host: The Labor Party with seven mandates is a sort of partner?

Naftali Bennett: No. With them, they’re not in favor of a Jewish and Democratic state.

Guy Zohar: Do you mean to say that you will sit with Meretz?

Host: We’re ready to come to an agreement on this that you will not sit with Meretz?

Naftali Bennett: Right. You know why? Because they support The Hague.

Guy Zohar: What about Ra”am’s [refers to the Arab party] abstention or support?

Naftali Bennett: Listen, it’s an unbelievable thing, also this. Look how Netanyahu embraced Ra”am in this way. It’s a disgrace. I’ll explain why. Ra”am is the Islamic Movement’s party in Israel, in fact the Israeli branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. This is who the prime minister is ready to embrace—those who contribute to the murder of our soldiers.

Guy Zohar: Okay. There’s one thing you have to credit him, that this also Bennett said before the elections.

Naftali Bennett: *Ding* We won’t go to a fifth election. I won’t drag the State of Israel to a fifth election. This would be a crime! Vote for the right, letter Bet, it’s a kind of insurance policy that 1. We’ll establish a government.

Guy Zohar: Here it is. Everything’s okay. There were a few promises. They were all contradicted. But hey! You have to choose "1."

Keeping the Jewish State (Vic Rosenthal)

Weekly column by Vic Rosenthal

For the first time in its history, Israel’s government includes an Arab party.

Arabs have sat in the Knesset since Israel’s founding, both as members of primarily Jewish parties and as representatives of various Arab parties. From time to time Arab MKs have kept a government in office by supporting it from outside the coalition, as happened in 1993 when the Oslo Declaration of Principles was approved. But no Arab party has ever been member of the governing coalition until now.

Some people think this is wonderful. The Arabs are 20% of our population, so why shouldn’t they have a commensurate role in government? Mansour Abbas is a pragmatist who just wants the best for his constituents, they say. Others think it is a disaster. The Arab parties are all anti-Zionist and in some cases disloyal. What will happen when there is an operation against Hamas? Mansour Abbas represents an Islamist party that is associated with the Muslim Brotherhood, the parent of Hamas!

My view is that I honestly have no idea how this will work out, even assuming that the new government lasts more than a few weeks. But one thing is absolutely clear: putting an Arab party in the coalition brings the question of the relationship of the Jewish state to its Muslim Arab citizens front and center in a way that it heretofore hasn’t been.

Indeed, it’s one of those elephants in the room that we have been carefully ignoring for years. But since the formation of the new government that elephant has been tromping around and bumping into things. It can’t be ignored any longer.

Although the law requires that any candidate for the Knesset not “negate” the Jewish and democratic character of the state, the Supreme Court has required a very high standard of proof in order to disqualify an Arab candidate, and has several times overturned the decision of the Knesset’s Elections Committee to do so (the law also bans “incitement to racism,” and this has been invoked several times against Jewish candidates, including of course Meir Kahane’s Kach party).

This is in keeping with the extremely weak interpretation of “Jewish state” that was propounded by the influential former President of the Court, Aharon Barak, in whose opinion a “Jewish” state is little more than one whose values are “universal values common to members of democratic society, which grew from Jewish tradition and history.” The absurdity of this view is evident (it makes the US, for example, a Jewish state), but it is popular among those, Arabs and Jews alike, who are made uncomfortable by either Judaism or Jewish nationalism.

In 2006, a group of Israeli Arab intellectuals (I use this term although some prefer “Palestinian citizens of Israel”), under the auspices of the Arab heads of local authorities, produced a document called “The Future Vision of the Palestinian Arabs in Israel” in which they declare themselves “the indigenous peoples, the residents of the States of Israel, and an integral part of the Palestinian People and the Arab and Muslim and human Nation,” and call for Israel to relinquish its Jewish character and become a binational state. It accuses the “Zionist-Jewish elite in Europe” of settler-colonial oppression of the indigenous “Palestinian People.” It calls for equal representation of Jews and Arabs in the government, and the recognition of the Arabs as an “indigenous cultural national group” with international protection. “[A]ll forms of ethnic superiority, be that executive, structural, legal or symbolic” must be removed. There is a great deal more, including the placing of all “Islamic holy sites” (which naturally include all the Jewish ones) in Arab hands.

If anything “negates” the Jewish character of the state, this does. And yet, several of the participants in the development of that document, including Ayman Oudeh, the head of the Joint List of Israeli Arab parties in the Knesset, Aida Touma-Sliman, and Ghaida Rinawie Zoabi, currently serve in the Knesset.

One of the reasons that the Nation-State Law was passed was in response to this. It states that “the actualization of the right of national self-determination in the state of Israel is unique to the Jewish people,” and even specifies the flag, the national anthem, and the symbol of the state. The Basic Law (part of what serves Israel for a constitution), which was passed by a majority of Knesset members, is nevertheless controversial. The Jewish Left subjects itself to cognitive dissonance, insisting that it still believes in Zionism while wanting a “state of its citizens” (see the self-contradictory Meretz platform here) and opposing the Nation-State Law.

Jewish Israelis need to face this issue head-on and stop pretending that it does not exist. Our state – our state – was created explicitly as a Jewish state because the founders were Zionists who believed that Jewish survival depended upon the existence of a sovereign state of the Jewish people. The evidence of the past 73 years of Israel’s existence, especially the burgeoning of Jew-hatred in the 21^st century, has only strengthened my belief that they were entirely correct.

Some think that all that’s necessary for Israel to be a Jewish state is that it have a Jewish majority and a Law of Return for Jews. This ignores the real connection that most Israeli Jews have to the ancient homeland of their people, without which there is no reason for a Jewish majority, and no justification for a Law of Return. Possibly “religious” people find this easier to grasp, but it’s not necessary to be observant to see yourself as part of a historic people, a people with a land, a language, a religion, and a culture.

If the Jews of Israel give up the idea of the connection of the people to the land, if they decide to emphasize democracy at the expense of Jewishness, if they stop believing that there is great value in having their capital in Jerusalem instead of Tel Aviv, if they give up their control of Jewish holy places (because, in the words of Moshe Dayan, “who needs all that Vatican?”), they will soon find that there is no longer a Jewish majority in the Land of Israel, and indeed that the Jewish people are again wanderers in foreign lands.

The Muslim Arabs understand this quite well, and the imperatives of their religion drive them to struggle relentlessly to get control back over the entire Land of Israel, which they consider a Muslim waqf, land that permanently and irrevocably must be under Muslim control. This is why they struggle to conquer not only the physical land and temporal assets in the hands of the Jews, but to obtain symbolic and spiritual control. This is why Jerusalem and the Temple Mount are often the focus of their violence. This is why they will never give up.

Mansour Abbas may be a pragmatist in the short term, but he is also an Islamist, which implies the longest of terms. If the Jews are to prevail in the struggle for this land, they too need to understand the limits of pragmatism. They need to learn how to draw lines and stick to them, to understand the importance of symbolism, everywhere in the country, from the Galilee to the Negev. But especially now, they need to wrest control of the Temple Mount and the Old City back from the Arabs, who have systematically undercut Jewish sovereignty there since June of 1967.

We have the power and the resources to do this. Do we also have the spiritual strength, the perseverance, and the ability to sacrifice that will be required?

06/16 Links Pt1: The Paradoxes of Benjamin Netanyahu; Biden’s ‘Sanctions Hygiene’ Will Rearm Hamas Terrorists; ICC prosecutor went after Israeli settlements, but not Cyprus

From Ian:

Bret Stephens: The Paradoxes of Benjamin Netanyahu

Netanyahu is hardly Tolstoy. Still, he’s a man of formidable ambition and talent who entered the political fray looking for the harmonious universe in which a Jewish state—recognized, whole, and secure—could take its rightful place among the nations. What he found instead was that there was no straight way to get there, and perhaps no way at all, given the implacability of many of its enemies and the faithlessness of some of its friends. The two great “solutions” are equally false. There is no plausible Palestinian state that can satisfy Israeli security requirements and Palestinian desires. There is also no map of Israel that can simply swallow the Palestinians without risking being swallowed by them in turn.

What there is, then, is a muddled reality that must deeply disappoint idealists of every stripe. But it’s also a reality that beats every conceivable alternative. Netanyahu understands this, even if it’s not something he would say out loud. The criticism that he does nothing but kick cans down the road ignores the fact that, when it comes to Israel’s major strategic challenges, at least for now, that’s the only thing an Israeli prime minister can do. The question is how far the can gets kicked, and how much power and flexibility Israel can gain—militarily, economically, demographically, and so on—before it needs to kick it again. As Michael Oren, the historian and former Israeli ambassador to the U.S., has pointed out to me, Israel’s entire history is one long “war of attrition” or “war between the wars.” Still, it’s a war that Israel can fight for the long term while its people continue to flourish.

The paradox of Benjamin Netanyahu is that a man who rose to power on the strength of a certain vision of Israel held on to power at the expense of that vision. It’s that a man who did much to strengthen Israel’s position in the world through the bullishness of his personality also did much to damage to Israel’s politics through the same bullishness. It’s that a man whose thoughts, ambitions, and actions always seemed to have the broadest sweep could become the agent of his own political undoing thanks to a succession of small grievances and petty power plays.

There’s no reason to search for definitive answers anytime soon. The coalition that succeeds Netanyahu is fractious and thin, held together by little more than its loathing for a singular man. Nobody knows this better than Netanyahu himself, which is why the thought that must surely run through his head, rightly, is, “I’ll be back.”

Danny Danon: Thank You Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Throughout his tenure, Netanyahu’s perceptive policies and informed approach led to a transformation of Israel’s economy. Despite recently experiencing an economic downturn due to COVID, we in Israel have found ourselves better prepared and equipped to deal with the economic situation compared to many other countries. Netanyahu shifted the country’s focus to more liberalized markets, drastically reduced taxes, and increased competition in a market that was largely run by monopolies. The stability and growth we see today have been a direct result of Netanyahu’s approach to economic advancement.

One of the most conspicuous outcomes of his growth plans was the miraculous phenomenon of Israel’s catapult to the position of global high-tech powerhouse. With the largest number of startups per capita in the world, that’s around one startup per 1,400 people, it is hard to imagine how our tiny nation, in constant war since our founding and with limited natural resources, was able to reach such heights. Netanyahu was instrumental in establishing export channels across the world for Israel’s high-tech innovators and encouraging the world’s technology giants to invest billions in Israel’s R&D centers. This created one of the world’s most concentrated high-technology sectors, only second to Silicon Valley. There is a saying in Proverbs 29:18 that “where there is no vision, the people perish.” Netanyahu had vision and this last decade we have seen it becoming a reality.

Despite all of Netanyahu’s striking achievements, it is natural within a strong and vibrant democracy that alongside his ardent fans there will be many adversaries. While there will always be those who criticize his leadership and who are not in agreement with his policies, the majority will agree that he was an exceptional and visionary leader, whose brilliance and strategic vision transformed the landscape and our nation’s path. Today we are stronger militarily, technologically, economically, and diplomatically.

President Teddy Roosevelt once said that “Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.” Netanyahu has accomplished a lifetime of hard work already and I am sure he will confirm that every minute was precious. His impact will be felt for decades to come. We don’t know what the future holds for him but I can say for certain that Israel is eternally grateful for his service as our prime minister.

Ruthie Blum: Comic relief from a serious Israeli drama

Yamina enthusiasts are split. Some feel duped by Bennett for his broken promises. These include a vow not to join forces with Lapid and never to accept backing by Ra'am, let alone sit with it in a government.

Others are consoling themselves that at least their candidate will be prime minister for two years and lead a government that consists of a number of like-minded right-wingers. The people in this category, who wanted Bennett to replace Netanyahu, say that they're willing to give him a chance. What they mean is that they're hoping he won't cave, where it counts, to the leftists and Islamists.

The latter seem to be assuming that he will, or at least are planning to bide their time until Lapid takes over in 2023 to get to work reversing Netanyahu's policies. Despite their carry-on about his criminal charges, which are trumped up at best – and aside from their assertions that "most Israelis" voted against him – his successes are the bane of their existence far more than his failures.

The opposite is true of Bennett, who has been contending that he could do a better job than Netanyahu at implementing the ideas that they share. In other words, the difference between the two "anybody but Bibi" groups now occupying the same rows of Knesset benches is stark.

No wonder the public harbors little faith in the longevity of the so-called "pro-change coalition." But the Left, whose La La Land ideas about Palestinian victimhood at the hands of Israeli "occupiers" have become so unpopular, appears to believe that the absence of Netanyahu and an administration in Washington anxious to return to the Iran deal are its ticket to resuscitation.

Boy, is it ever in for a surprise.

The irony lies in the thrill its members are exhibiting at having the likes of Bennett serve as their savior. Bets are on about how soon their literal and figurative parties will be over.

The Israeli electorate may have been slightly divided for the past two-and-a-half years over Netanyahu's continued rule after well more than a decade. But it's been crystal-clear about where it stands on Iran, Hamas, the boycott divestment and sanctions movement and the International Criminal Court, to name but a few issues liable to put a damper on the kumbaya coalition.

I, for one, pray that Bennett remembers and acts on this. If he does, a whole different crowd will be descending on Rabin Square and elsewhere to applaud. In the event that he doesn't, the next election might just see Netanyahu return from opposition exile.

From MyLondon.News:

A 69-year-old protester climbed to the very top of a huge crane at a Nine Elms building site and has spent the night after unfurling a Palestinian flag as police try to talk him down.

The Metropolitan Police spent Tuesday (June 15) attempting to speak to the man after he climbed about 100 metres to the top of the crane between Battersea Power Station and the Sky Pool at just before 4am.

On Wednesday morning the Met confirmed they were still trying to speak to the man, and road closures remained in place.

One of the few people tweeting about him said that "He has little water and no sleeping bag, yet, he won't come down until #Palestine is trending again."

I'm sure that there is a Knesset meeting happening now about what to do.

This is pro-Palestinian activism in a nutshell - instead of actually helping Palestinians, they resort to gimmicks and stunts. Not to mention that they end up tying up police and firefighters from actually saving the lives of people who need it.