Tuesday, July 06, 2021
- Tuesday, July 06, 2021
- Elder of Ziyon
After Palestinians reject deal, Israel to send 700,000 vaccines to South Korea
Israel will send South Korea some 700,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine that are due to expire shortly in a deal signed between the two nations on Tuesday, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett announced, calling the deal a “win-win” situation for both countries.
The deal comes weeks after the Palestinian Authority backed out of a similar agreement, saying the vaccine doses were too close to their expiration date despite Israel using the same batches to vaccinate its teens.
Under the deal with Seoul, Israel will supply doses for immediate use that are set to expire by the end of the month. In return, Israel will receive the same number of doses from South Korean orders later in the year.
“We continue to protect the lives of Israeli citizens,” Bennett said in a statement.
“The vaccines are efficient and life-saving — that’s a fact. We agreed to an exchange that is a win-win situation. South Korea will receive vaccines from our existing stocks and we will be repaid from their future orders,” Bennett said.
The agreement was negotiated by Israel’s Health Ministry together with the Foreign Ministry and the National Security Council.
The statement said the agreement was made with the cooperation of Pfizer and came after several conversations in recent days between Bennett and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla.
The agreement will go into effect in the next few days after South Korea inspects the vaccines, the statement said. The Korean vaccines will arrive in Israel sometime during the fourth quarter of 2021.
The South Koreans chose moving forward, hard work and prosperity, and the Palestinians together with the Arab states used @UNRWA to nourish grievance, hate and war:https://t.co/TG10LOsjua
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) July 6, 2021
Israel's long a brutal occupation of Korea create a fundamentally unequal situation between the countries, where Seoul has no choice but to accept second-hand vaccines in what amounts to medical apartheid. I am doing this right @hrw @btselem? https://t.co/qNCCUzzgYe
— Eugene Kontorovich (@EVKontorovich) July 6, 2021
Israel confirms vaccine less effective against Delta variant, eyes third dose
Israel’s Health Ministry released data on Monday showing that the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID vaccine appears to largely prevent hospitalization and serious cases, but is significantly less effective against preventing the spread of the Delta variant of the coronavirus.
According to the ministry, the Pfizer vaccine’s effectiveness in preventing symptomatic COVID-19 has dropped by some 30 percent to 64%, given the spread of the Delta variant. The data shows that during May, when the strain was less prevalent, the vaccine was 94.3% effective.
The Delta variant, which is believed to be twice as contagious as the original strain of COVID-19, is thought to be responsible for 90% of new cases in Israel over the past two weeks.
The data, however, also shows that the vaccine is still highly effective against preventing serious symptoms and hospitalization. During May, that figure stood at 98.2%, and during June, it was 93%.
On Monday evening, the Health Ministry said that 369 people had been diagnosed with coronavirus since midnight, bringing the total number of active cases in the country to 2,766.
There were 70 people hospitalized and 35 in serious condition. A week ago there were just 22 people in serious condition.
- Tuesday, July 06, 2021
- Elder of Ziyon
- "pro-Palestinian", AGPS, media silence, No Jews No News, Syria, The Action Group for Palestinians in Syria
Syrian security forces have tightened military grip around Deraa and its outskirts, south of Syria.Local sources told AGPS that all access roads to the city centre have been blocked except for the Sajneh road, where three military checkpoints have been pitched.Palestinian refugees have expressed concerns over a new wave of forced military conscription and arbitrary manhunts in the area.
A former commander of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) in the al-Lajat area told Enab Baladi that Russia’s mediation through its affiliate 8th Brigade had allowed the return of displaced families from the villages of al-Shayyah, al-Shomara, al-Modawara, and Alali to their homes.He added that the residents of those areas had been displaced since 2018 in the villages of Hauran, and their areas were controlled by the 9th Division and Hezbollah-affiliated forces.He pointed out that residents took the return decision after Russia guaranteed them that the Syrian regime’s security apparatus would not arrest them.
- Tuesday, July 06, 2021
- Elder of Ziyon
- Tuesday, July 06, 2021
- Elder of Ziyon
Monday, July 05, 2021
Anti-Israel Item Before Largest US Teacher’s Union Overwhelmingly Defeated at Assembly
An anti-Israel item placed before the National Education Association (NEA)’s Representative Assembly was overwhelmingly voted down, with only 23 percent of representatives supporting it, while another was sent back to committee.
The largest union in the United States, the NEA has more than three million members, and exercises considerable influence both in national Democratic politics as well as over curriculum and other educational activities.
New Business Item 29 brought before the 8,000-member assembly employed virulent anti-Israel language that referred to Palestinian terrorism as a “heroic struggle” against alleged Israeli “military repression” and “ethnic cleansing,” and demanded the NEA “publicize its support for the Palestinian struggle for justice and call on the United States government to stop arming and supporting Israel.”
It cited a cost of $71,500 in order to implement its stipulations.
Following strong opposition, including from Jewish members, the item was defeated by a margin of 77 percent to 23 percent.
The Cleveland Jewish News reported before the vote that the NEA’s Jewish Affairs Caucus had mobilized strongly against the item, with chair Patrick Crabtree saying, “I’m almost positive 29 is so divisive, it will go down in flames.”
The caucus also opposed NBI 51, which calls on the NEA to “use existing digital communication tools to educate members and the general public about the history, culture, and struggles of Palestinians.”
Citing a budget request of $5,500, it would have the NEA “recognize the existence and sovereignty of Palestine and Palestinian children and families,” including by placing an article in the union periodical NEA Today acknowledging members’ work “fighting for the rights of Palestinian children and families.”
The Representative Assembly adjourned before NBI 51 came to a vote, sending it back to committee.
These items, the Jewish Affairs Caucus leadership said in a letter, “could inadvertently exacerbate antisemitic sentiment, or anti-Arab sentiment, in the United States, and G-d forbid, lead to hate crimes of some sort.”
Washington State’s ‘Native Education’ 5th-grade curriculum attacks Israel
Public school officials in the state of Washington have inserted the Israeli-Palestinian conflict into mandatory 5th-grade lessons on Native American history.
Children as young as 10 are being taught to associate the Native American experience with the Palestinians’ “fight to be free from Israeli dominance.”
The lesson is part of an otherwise informative Native American curriculum called Since Time Immemorial: Tribal Sovereignty in Washington State, which was developed by the Tribal Leaders Congress on Education, the Washington State School Directors Association and the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Subsequently, the curriculum was approved by all 29 federally recognized tribes in Washington State. It has since been widely used in K-12 public schools after state legislation in 2015 required the teaching of Native American history.
The bizarre inclusion of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict seems to be at odds with the curriculum’s self-described “place-based approach,” in which teachers and students are supposedly encouraged to focus on “the context of tribes in their own communities.”
“Unfortunately, we’re finding this sort of politicization of Israel in public schools across the United States,” said my colleague Steven Stotsky, who investigates bias in K-12 education for the CAMERA International Student Leadership Institute.
“In this case, I find it particularly troubling that the curriculum is being used by anti-Israel activists to divert attention away from Native American history,” Stotsky said. “It’s as unfair to Native Americans as it is to Jews. And ultimately, it’ll damage the credibility of the entire curriculum, as people figure out what’s going on.”
Troubled as well, I contacted the organizations behind the curriculum.
Jews who suffer from self-hatred - what does it mean?
Says Peter Beinart, quite literally the guy who called for One State Solution and annihilation of the Jewish state. I don’t think he is exactly the best suited to lecture on Jewish leadership! pic.twitter.com/gq0xxNwYnu
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) July 5, 2021
- Monday, July 05, 2021
- Elder of Ziyon
Mohammed, 14, told Al-Monitor, “I joined the camp in order to defend my land against Israeli attacks and subsequently join the ranks of al-Qassam Brigades.”He stressed that although his family does not belong to Hamas, they let him join the camp for the second time — the first time was in 2019.“I don't find the training to be hard or inappropriate for my age. On the contrary, I want to learn more martial arts,” he said.He pointed out that he learned how to dismantle and load weapons and shoot. He also received scouts and physical training.
Khalil, 12, from Gaza City who joined the summer camp for the first time, told Al-Monitor, “I will participate in the camp in order to strengthen myself and learn self-defense skills so I can fight Israel, become a martyr and go to heaven.”
David Singer: Israel signals end to EU-funded unauthorised building in Area C
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s declaration in January 2020 – made before he was elected Israel’s Prime Minister – should now set off alarm bells in the EU:
“Our objective is that within a short amount of time, and we will work for it, we will apply [Israeli] sovereignty to all of Area C, not just the settlements, not just this bloc or another… We are embarking on a real and immediate battle for the future of the land of Israel and the future of Area C"
The EU then responded:
"Demolitions and seizures of humanitarian assets are contrary to Israel's obligations under international law".
Representing these EU-funded structures as “humanitarian assets” was deceptive and misleading. They are “political structures aimed at stopping Israeli sovereignty being applied in Area C “.
EU intervention and meddling in Area C of the 'West Bank' over the last ten years will seemingly no longer be tolerated by Israel’s new Government.
The EU claims to have given the PA 34.4 million EURO since the beginning of the year.
— Maurice Hirsch, Adv. ???? ??''? ????? ???? (@MauriceHirsch4) July 5, 2021
The PA financial reports say that the PA hasn't received even one single euro cent.
I wonder who, @vonderleyen @JosepBorrellF @EGiaufretEU @EUpalestinians @EUinIsrael, isn't telling the truth? pic.twitter.com/0k3s4P2VgQ
Will Palestinians denounce Mufti Hussaini, and Hitler?
That the Palestinian institute does not denounce Hitler — and anyone who cooperated with him, outright and without any justification — is a huge ethical and moral failure. Since the dawn of history, nations formed alliances in ways that served their interests, and that’s understandable.
Hitler, however, was not an average autocrat with whom an alliance was debatable. Hitler was a psychopathic leader who unleashed endless evil among his followers. Believing that other ethnicities or races were inferior and deserved to be exterminated belonged to Medieval times. But by the Twentieth centuries, such ideas had become morally reprehensible. That some Palestinians still believe, today, that an alliance of expediency with Hitler was justifiable, is a problem.
Now the question is this: Why does IPS still support Hussaini, even though some of its most influential leaders, such as the Chicago academic activist Rashid Khalidi, do not think highly of Hussaini?
In his most recent book, the picture that Khalidi painted of Hussaini was as such: “[A] bitter split between those loyal to the mufti… and the mufti’s opponents, led by the former Jerusalem mayor Raghib Al-Nashashibi… resulted in hundreds of assassinations in the late 1930s [and] gravely sapped the strength of Palestinians.”
Al-Nashashibi was forced into exile in Beirut in 1938, “after his life was threatened and his house in Ramleh burned with the loss of all his books and papers. This was undoubtedly the work of the mufti’s men,” according to Khalidi.
So Mufti Hussaini was not only someone who did not see the moral failure in allying with Germany’s Hitler, he was also a charlatan who threatened the lives of his political rivals in Jerusalem and sent them into exile. And yet, the IPS celebrates Hussaini’s life as one of the founding fathers of the Palestinian national movement. Until those Palestinians start denouncing such characters and learning from their mistakes, their movement will remain as ethically and morally challenged as it is today.
- Monday, July 05, 2021
- Elder of Ziyon
Merriam-Webster defines antisemitism as “hostility toward or discrimination against Jews as a religious, ethnic, or racial group.” On this score, Zionism minced no words. In its foundational doctrine “the negation of the Exile,” Zionism, of course, did not discriminate per se against Jews as a religious, ethnic or racial group. It did, however, express hostility towards them, particularly in its devalorization of Jewish life and culture abroad over the past two millennia – often encapsulated in the dismissal and ridicule of “galut (exilic) mentality.” While targeting Jewish communities for the purpose of recruiting them to its settler project, Zionism repudiated them, denying their very validity.This is the basis for Halper's long article attacking Zionists as being anti-Judaism - that Judaism is Exile, and any desire for a Jewish state somehow negates the Judaism in communities throughout the world.
- Monday, July 05, 2021
- Elder of Ziyon
- Monday, July 05, 2021
- Elder of Ziyon
Some 5,000 Israelis have received Emirati citizenship during the past three months, Emirates Leaks reported on Thursday.This was done due to the Arab country having recently amending its law that would make it easier to grant citizenship, explaining that granting foreigners citizenship would help stimulate its economy amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.A visa will not be necessary for Israelis in order to cross Arab countries and the Persian Gulf, provided that they have Emirati citizenship, multiple sources confirm.Furthermore, UAE authorities would allow businesspeople and investors to acquire citizenship without having to give up their Israeli citizenship.
Sunday, July 04, 2021
- Sunday, July 04, 2021
- Elder of Ziyon
- Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, EuroMed Human Rights Monitor
Killing four civilians in NuseiratOn May 12, an Israeli aircraft bombed with a single missile a group of civilians in the Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip, killing four of them: Hamza Mahmoud Al-Hor, 25, Muhammad Abdel Moneim Shaheen, 27, and Muhammad Mu›in al-Qarah, 26, Ahmed Walid Al Talaa, 29.
Melanie Phillips: The real story about that Gaza death toll
In the recent hostilities between Israel and its attackers in Gaza, a prime Israel-bashing meme was — as ever — the falsehood that the Israeli forces were killing a huge number of Gaza’s civilians.
In vain did defenders of Israel point out that Hamas deliberately sited its missiles and other weaponry in and among apartment buildings, schools and hospitals in order to maximise civilian casualties of Israeli air strikes and thus defame Israel as a wanton aggressor.
In vain was it pointed out that Israel goes to lengths deemed unthinkable by any other armed forces in the world to avoid the loss of enemy civilian life, including issuing residents of targeted buildings with evacuation warnings by text, phone calls or “knock on the roof” harmless missile strikes to tell anyone in there to get out.
None of these facts stopped the relentless flow of claims that the majority of those killed by Israeli missile attacks in May’s Operation Guardian of the Walls were defenceless civilians.
Now, however, the evidence from the updated casualty figures in that operation reveals that, relative to Israel’s massive bombardment of Gaza with some 1500 strikes, the proportion of civilian deaths was astonishingly small.
With two million civilians — 60 percent of whom are children — packed into densely occupied Gaza, and given the Hamas strategy of using them as cannon fodder for air attacks, any Israeli airstrike would be expected inadvertently to kill thousands.
The Hamas-controlled Gaza health ministry says in fact that 256 Gazans were killed.
According to Israel’s Meir Amit Terrorism and Information Centre, which puts the figure at 234, nearly half of those were Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad combatants whom it has identified by name. Of the 95 of those killed who had no terrorist affiliation, 52 were children and 38 were women.
By international standards, this roughly one-to-one ratio of civilian to combatant deaths is amazing. In Afghanistan, Iraq or other theatres of war, British, American and other armies’ airstrikes usually achieve a ratio of about three civilians killed for every one combatant.
Seth Frantzman: Does Iran think Israel is vulnerable at sea? - analysis
The reason Iran doesn’t sink the ships, if Iran is indeed behind all this, is because the crews of these ships – and the management, ownership and flags they sail under – are not Israeli. In the case of the Gulf of Oman mining attack in May and June, the crew was not harmed. This is because Iran didn’t want a war on its hands.Anti-Zionist Jews and Antisemitism
It believes in using proxies and pin-pricks to strike at enemies. That is why it sends drones and missiles to Yemen to get Houthis to die for Iran and it is why it delivers weapons to Hezbollah and units in Syria, and aids Hamas, but doesn’t do the fighting itself. And why it encourages Iraqi-based pro-Iran militias to fire 107mm rockets at American forces. Because a 107mm rocket is less likely to inflict severe casualties, but rather to cause damage and send a message.
The question these maritime incidents raise is whether Tehran believes it can carry out retaliatory strikes against Israel after it alleges incidents took place in Iran, and whether it will strike at commercial interests.
Iran has done things like this before. It was likely linked to the attack on the Jewish AMIA center in Argentina in 1994. Hezbollah, and thus Iran, was linked to the Burgas bombing in 2012 in Bulgaria. Iran may have been linked to a New Delhi attack in January this year and attacks in Bangkok in 2014. There were also attacks in India and Georgia in 2012, for which Israel blamed Iran and Hezbollah.
This means that Iran has sought to target Israelis and Jews abroad and that it has possibly set on a new course of action against commercial shipping. Then-prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed Iran for the February incident at sea: It is unclear if officials will point the finger at Iran again.
This phenomenon of Jewish antisemitism is nothing new.
Throughout the Middle Ages, Jewish apostates spread lurid “inside stories” of Jewish blasphemy and perfidy against Christians, prompted anti-Jewish religious disputations such as the burning of the Talmud, and reinforced anti-Jewish claims of deicide and blood libels.
During the 19th century, Otto Weininger, an Austrian thinker of Jewish descent, wrote an antisemitic screed entitled “Sex and Character” that was later incorporated into Nazi propaganda and praised by Hitler.
A century later, the Jewish wing of the Soviet Communist party known as the Yevsektsiya was tasked with the “destruction of traditional Jewish life, the Zionist movement, and Hebrew culture.” These Jewish antisemites agitated to close down synagogues and Jewish cultural centers throughout the Soviet Union. For them, Zionism was counter-revolutionary and reactionary, harming the assimilation of Jews into the workers’ paradise.
Today’s Jewish anti-Zionists are simply following the long tradition of Jewish antisemitism. Often from assimilated backgrounds at odds with the mainstream Jewish community, they gain “in-crowd” standing by reinforcing widespread anti-Jewish attitudes and repeating falsehoods such as the idea that Israel engages in apartheid, war crimes, and genocide.
The recent wave of anti-Jewish harassment and violence is the latest confirmation that the anti-Zionist movement is inextricably linked to hatred toward Jews. People of good faith must not allow themselves to be misled by those who use their Jewish identity to cover for their antisemitic ideologies.