Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, August 05, 2021

08/05 Links Pt1: After the Abraham Accords, Olympics Continue to Build Israeli-Arab Peace; Moral Anorexia in the Cognitive War Against Israel

From Ian:

Arab News: After the Abraham Accords, Olympics Continue to Build Israeli-Arab Peace

To this day, sports are used to bring together Israeli and Arab children in an open, neutral, and friendly environment. Sports have a way of stripping down biased tendencies, and allowing people to connect on a basic, person-to-person level.

The Abraham Accords marked the beginning of a warm peace between two nationalities that were eager to move forward. Unlike past treaties, these accords were not limited to government interaction but extended to people-to-people exchange.

Across the Middle East — and in the face of armed conflict, terror, and political discord — brave individuals have decided that rather than hide behind barriers, it is time to start building bridges and connect with people from different religions, countries, and races.

Whether it is in sports, the arts, culture, or religion, when we push past personal biases and relate on a person-to-person level, we discover that we are more similar than we might think.

The Olympic Games were created on the premise of the 9th century BC Olympic Truce, which halted regional conflict to allow athletes and their families to travel safely to and from the Olympic games.

The Olympics continue to be a time of unity and pacifism, as the Saudi-Israeli judo match beautifully proves. Sports, in the form of “ping-pong diplomacy,” have improved international relations before. Let’s hope that the Tokyo Olympics can help do it again.

Dore Gold: Israel Enters the Arab World

When Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the U.S. Congress in 2015 to make the case against the Iran nuclear deal, many Arab heads of state heard him lay out the evidence for Iran's plans for increased control of the Middle East and found themselves nodding in agreement.

With hindsight, Netanyahu's controversial appearance looks like the catalyst that accelerated rapprochement between Israel and many Arab states. It set the stage for the Abraham Accords in 2020, which formalized new normalization agreements between Israel and key Arab states. Iranian aggression - more than any peace plan or blueprint for economic cooperation - became the glue that was binding Israel and some of its former adversaries.

The Israeli prime minister explained how four Arab capitals - Baghdad, Damascus, Beirut, and Sanaa - had fallen under Iranian domination. "If Iran's aggression is left unchecked," he warned, "more will surely follow." In fact, Iranian media at the time was predicting the imminent fall of Saudi Arabia.

Without having planned it, Israel's diplomatic campaign against the Iran deal opened its door to the Arab world. Communication channels soon opened between Arab states and Israel, even in the absence of formal agreements. Israel has achieved a level of integration with a large part of the Arab world that would have been unthinkable not long ago.

The threat Israel and many Arab states face is the same. Tehran likes to remind its people that the Arab states had once been part of its territory, and that those lands must one day be returned to Iran. A common threat, to adapt a phrase, is a terrible thing to waste. The time to move this improbable, promising, and essential alliance forward is now.

Israel in contact with most Arab countries, including Iraq — senior diplomat

The Foreign Ministry maintains some form of contact with almost all Arab countries, including ones officially designated as “enemy states” like Iraq, a senior Foreign Ministry official said Tuesday.

“Over the last twenty years, the Foreign Ministry was always in touch with almost all the players in the Arab World,” said the outgoing director of the Foreign Ministry’s Middle East Division, Haim Regev, during a briefing in Jerusalem.

While he clarified that this list of covert contacts does not include Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen, it does extend to Baghdad.

In 2019, Iraqi ambassador in Washington Fareed Yasseen said, “There are objective reasons that may call for the establishment of relations between Iraq and Israel,” speaking in Arabic at an event entitled “How Iraq Is Dealing with the Current Regional and International Developments” at the Al-Hewar Center for Arab Culture and Dialogue in Washington.

He noted that there is an important Iraqi community in Israel and they are still proud of their Iraqi attributes. “At their weddings, there is Iraqi culture of celebration. At their weddings, there are Iraqi songs,” the veteran diplomat, who has served in DC since November 2016, went on. Yasseen also noted “outstanding” Israeli technologies in the fields of water management and agriculture.

“But the objective reasons are not enough,” he added, stressing that there are “emotional and other reasons” that make open communication between Jerusalem and Baghdad impossible.

Though he faced backlash from other Iraqi officials, Yasseen was not recalled.

Wednesday afternoon, 3 rockets were fired from Lebanon into Israel. Two of them made it into Israeli territory, landing in Kiryat Shemona. One of them landed within Lebanon.

It soon became clear that the rockets were launched by Palestinian factions -- not by Hezbollah:

#Israel-#Lebanon: 'Rockets were fired by Palestinian factions, not Hezbollah, no deeper escalation for the moment,' i24NEWS correspondent Jonathan Regev reports pic.twitter.com/mNBlRF0Qeh
— i24NEWS English (@i24NEWS_EN) August 4, 2021

As i24NEWS points out, even given that the rockets were not launched by Hezbollah, the fact remains that those rockets could not have been launched without the permission of Hezbollah.

And Iran.

Which might account for the timing of the attack. After all, it was only Tuesday that Ebrahim Raisi was inaugurated as President of Iran.

Maybe Raisi -- and Iran -- are trying to send a message.

In an article last month in the Jerusalem Post, Yonah Jeremy Bob suggested that Israel's successful attacks on Iran's nuclear reactors are having an effect on more than just the reactors themselves and on Iran's nuclear program.

Israel's attacks may have an effect on US policy towards Iran and on Biden's eagerness to restart the Iran Deal:

Washington’s premise for rejoining the deal without prior fixes of loopholes was that there was no way to stop the Islamic Republic from obtaining a nuclear weapon besides that specific diplomatic solution.

One of the reasons this was Biden’s strategy was another premise: Any military action to set back Tehran’s nuclear program would either be too costly in terms of Iranian responses, would flat out fail or would only slow – not stop – the ayatollahs.

But the four (known) attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities and officials have hobbled the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program far more than most of the general public realizes.

From the Iranian perspective, where they have an established record of successful manipulation and exploitation in terms of their nuclear program, terrorism, kidnapping and expanding their influence -- the Iranian government finds itself in a position of being repeatedly stymied, and embarrassed, by Israel.

Meanwhile, Iran is immensely embarrassed by the attacks and feels it is negotiating from a far weaker position than it believed it would be in. Without a real imminent threat to hold over the West, why would the West give in to Tehran on any new concessions that it wants?

Enter Ebrahim Raisi.

Over the past few months, the previous Iranian president Rouhani has been signaling an imminent agreement on the renewal of the Iran Deal.

Yet, so far -- nothing.

While Rouhani had the reputation of being a "moderate," Raisi is known for cracking down on dissidents and for his alleged role in a series of extrajudicial political executions.

This rocket attack on Israel could be a risk-free way for Raisi -- and Iran -- to assert themselves.

That would be in the context of Tuesday's incident when a tanker ship was seized by suspected Iranian gunmen in the Gulf of Oman near the port of Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates, and the drone strike last week on an oil tanker off the coast of Oman -- also attributed to Iran. That second attack killed two crew members from the UK and Romania.

The Jerusalem Post article suggests

Biden administration officials are starting to consider whether it might be possible to keep Iran’s nuclear program “in a box” for a very extended period even without the JCPOA.

It is not clear what the source is for this analysis, but Iran does appear to be making a point to dispel such an assumption.

The rocket attack might be part of that.

Open season on Jews from members of and candidates for Congress. In the US. In 2021.

Antisemitism from members (or wannabe members) of Congress are getting more and more egregious, and American Jews need to wake up.

We've already discussed member of Congress Rashida Tlaib's outrageous linking of Israel to "they" who profit off of racism in America. Somehow, Israel is responsible for racism in America, and the "same people" who are behind Palestinian lack of water are those who take away water from people of color in Detroit - the people behind the curtain: The Jews. The Jew "behind the curtain" meme is a variant of the antisemitic trope of the Jew as the secret puppet-master controlling the lives of their poor victims, who are - according to Tlaib - "us" vs. the rich, Jewish, capitalist "them."

Then Democratic candidate Nina Turner blamed "evil money" three times for her defeat in a special congressional primary election on Tuesday to Shontel Brown in a heavily watched race.

Turner had raised far more money than her opponent - $4.5 million to Brown's $2.1 million - but the bulk of Brown's support came from the Democratic Majority for Israel buying ads. Saying that money raised by pro-Israel Jews is "evil" is once again evoking Nazi tropes about Jewish control. Somehow, Jewish money is more effective at winning elections than gentile money. Not only that, but she is saying that campaign money from Jews is equivalent to accepting money from murderers or thieves, that it is immoral for a campaign to allow funding from Jews who support a Jewish state.

Even though the President and the mainstream Democratic Party supported Brown, Turner blames Jews and their evil money for her defeat. It is hard to imagine a more antisemitic take.

But there was yet another politician, and member of Congress, who linked Jews to dirty money this week. Cori Bush gave a speech - on the floor of the House, no less - saying that Israel is somehow stealing money from poor people in St. Louis, repeatedly linking Israel with social problems in her district.

Bush, Turner and Tlaib are scapegoating Jews in the guise of "criticism of Israel" when their blaming Israel or Zionists for their own issues is as bogus as the age-old blaming of Jews for every other problem.

For a thousand years, people have falsely blamed Jews for every problem they cannot solve and everything they hate. The scapegoating of Zionist Jews we are seeing here from major politicians is exactly the same - the same hate, the same irrationality, the same scapegoating, the same antisemitism. This is not "criticizing Israel" - it is political figures going out of their way to attack Jews, to foment antisemitism and to attract antisemites to their side.

Almost worse are the apologists for these prominent political Jew-haters. They split hairs - Tlaib was only talking about "global systemic racism" (in which her only example happens to be Jewish Israelis), Turner is only talking about outside money influence (in which her only example happens to be Jewish Zionists,) Bush is only talking about the intersectionality of people struggling for their rights worldwide (in which her only example happens to be Jewish Israelis.)

This is more than concerning. This is the mainstreaming of Jew-hatred in American politics in ways that have not been seen since the 1930s.

EcoPeace ME is an organization of Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian environmental activists who work on fixing the water shortages in the region to benefit all.

It doesn't get more progressive than that.

But it breaks a BDS rule.

So BDS attacked EcoPeace, and specifically Nada Majdalani (center), director of the Palestinian branch, who recently met with her Israeli and Jordanian counterparts in Washington:

BDS issued a statement denouncing the meeting: "What [Nada] Majdalani is doing goes beyond normalization by being completely involved in covering up the crimes of the occupation against our people, and in harmony with the betrayal of Arab regimes that are rejected and fought by the peoples of the Arab region, including our Palestinian people."

This was particularly upsetting to the BDS hate group because Majdalani's father, Ahmed Majdalani, is the Palestinian minister of Social Affairs and Secretary-General of the Popular Struggle Front. Majdalani is also a member of the PLO Executive Committee. Seeing his daughter actually touching an Israeli must have been enraging.

Of course, they were also trying to shame Nada's father Ahmed with this statement, as they name checked him.

So what did her father do?

He organized his own "normalization" meeting between Israelis and Palestinians in Al Bireh, under the auspices of the PLO!

BDS Fail!

Other Palestinian factions and media complained bitterly that Palestinian officials are meeting with Israelis sometimes.

Palestinian journalists also protested a press conference today for Israeli journalists in Ramallah.

This obsession with cutting off all communications with Israeli Jews has accomplished less than nothing, but many Palestinian officials continue to insist on it - either because they are stupid or because they are afraid of their constituents.

You will not find "pro-Palestinian activists" publicly denouncing BDS, even when they are clearly acting in ways that are counterproductive to all Palestinians. For most of the "pro-Palestinian" crowd, hating Jews is a higher moral imperative than helping Palestinians.

Nada Majdalani should be a hero for people who claim to want the best for Palestinians. Instead, she is vilified. And that tells you everything you need to know about the hypocrisy and regressiveness of the BDS crowd.

08/04 Links Pt2: Rashida Tlaib Says Certain (((People))) Are Exploiting America; Top gallery accused of hosting ‘hate-filled’ exhibit; Why Does the Media Ignore the Only True Democracy in the Middle East?

From Ian:

Rashida Tlaib Says Certain (((People))) Are Exploiting America

In a recent video, Rashida Tlaib tells her audience that “behind the curtain,” the forces who stop a “free Palestine” are the “same people” who exploit “regular Americans” for “their profit.” Jonathan Greenblatt of the ADL, who’s done yeoman’s work wishing away the anti-Semitism being normalized on the progressive left, calls this a “dog whistle.”

It isn’t. This isn’t some subtle messaging aimed at other leftists or Hamas apologists; these are some of the oldest anti-Semitic tropes on the books. The claim that Jews are “exploiting” “regular” citizens is the basis for nearly every major anti-Semitic tract of the modern age — from The Protocols of the Elders of Zion to Mein Kampf to the Hamas charter. The notion that Jews operate behind curtains is another popular anti-Semitic image.

Tlaib knows exactly what she’s saying. She also knows that no one in her party — not the cowardly Chuck Schumer or Nancy Pelsoi or anyone else — is likely to call her out on any of it.

So many people have been willfully blind toward the worldview of this congresswoman. Facing the truth of it -- and the silence of the majority of her colleagues--means giving up too much. https://t.co/uVZfdFFyST
— Bari Weiss (@bariweiss) August 3, 2021

Top gallery accused of hosting ‘hate-filled’ exhibit

The Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester has been accused of hosting a “hate-filled” art show on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The exhibition, titled Cloud Studies and created by Forensic Architecture, a research agency based at Goldsmiths, University of London, purports to detail the environmental effects of Israel’s military action in Gaza and the West Bank - as well as looking at "toxic clouds" in places such Indonesia, Argentina, Hong Kong, the UK, US, Mexico, Turkey, Lebanon.

Visitors are shown an opening statement headed “Forensic Architecture stands with Palestine”, and can then browse films and displays that show how “tear gas, bomb clouds, chemical weapons... suffocate entire neighbourhoods and air pollution targets the marginalised”.

Language used in the exhibition includes phrases such as the Palestinians’ “struggle against apartheid” and the problem of “settler colonial violence”.

One visitor to the Whitworth told the JC: “I don’t remember experiencing anything so hate-filled in an art gallery. The information is totally decontextualised and there is no mention of Hamas or the reasons for the conflicts”.

UK Lawyers for Israel have written to the vice-chancellor of Manchester University — to which the Whitworth belongs – reminding it that the gallery is “legally bound by the Public Sector Equality Duty”.

The lawyers said they were concerned about “the impact of the inflammatory language and representations contained in the exhibition on the Jewish people in Manchester”.

“Forensic Architecture stands with Palestine”

“tear gas, bomb clouds, chemical weapons... suffocate entire neighbourhoods and air pollution targets the marginalised”.

“struggle against apartheid”

“settler colonial violence”https://t.co/zeDQ3KVIqx pic.twitter.com/FVtgCZnZKg
— David Hirsh (@DavidHirsh) August 3, 2021

One UK uni stands by prof who calls Jewish students racist agents

One, told by its own committee to investigate institutional antisemitism, hasn't

One failed a student's degree for writing an essay critical of Hamas

One disciplined a lecturer for satirising a famous Corbynite
— David Hirsh (@DavidHirsh) August 4, 2021

How the West was Lost (Vic Rosenthal)

(Judean Rose is taking off for several weeks.)

Weekly column by Vic Rosenthal

Today the world we live in is dominated by a Western alliance that includes the US and much of Europe, along with some smaller players. This alliance is threatened by two major forces: radical Islam, whose most dangerous expression is the revolutionary Iranian regime; and the People’s Republic of China (PRC), still smarting from its oppression by the West prior to its emergence as a great power. I’ll discuss Iran first.

Last week, Iranian drones attacked a ship near the coast of Oman, killing the captain and a crew member. Apparently the motivation was a tenuous Israeli connection. More recently, a ship in the same region was hijacked, and several others were disabled, apparently by a cyberattack. Although Iran denies being connected with any of these incidents, most observers believe that the Iranian regime was responsible for them.

The Iranian regime finances and arms terrorist groups throughout the region, including in Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen. Lebanon, which survived a brutal civil war, an attempt by the PLO to set up a “Palestinian state” within her borders, an Israeli intervention to throw out the PLO, and the systematic murders of members of its government by Syrian agents, has finally been brought to her knees by her exploitation by the Iranian-controlled Hezbollah. The Covid epidemic, and a massive explosion of a cache of Hezbollah’s explosives at the port that leveled a third of her capital city didn’t help.

Israel, which fought a vicious little war with Hezbollah in 2006, now lives in the shadow of 130,000 rockets located in South Lebanon. These rockets, which include ones with precision guidance systems that can strike within a few meters of targets anywhere in Israel, are deeply embedded in the civilian population, including private homes. Israeli defense officials have said that if Hezbollah activates its rockets, the IDF will be forced to employ massive firepower that will essentially destroy the country. The possibility of war breaking out due to escalation between Hezbollah and Israel is a constant threat.

Westerners who visit relatives in Iran or go there for business, educational, or other reasons are often arrested on trumped-up charges and held hostage, either for ransom or political advantage. Sometimes they are tortured. Conditions in prisons for Iranian political dissidents are atrocious, with torture and rape common. Hundreds of Iranians are executed every year, some for serious crimes like murder or rape, but also for “being gay, committing adultery, sex outside marriage and drinking alcohol.” Political opponents of the regime are sometimes charged with spying and executed as well.

Iranian women protesting Islamic dress codes that are forced on them are beaten, arrested, jailed, and tortured. Masih Alinejad, an Iranian feminist now living in exile in the US, was the target of a plot to kidnap her and bring her back to Iran. The plan was foiled by the FBI. Kidnapping and murdering dissidents abroad has been standard procedure for the regime since it came to power in 1979.

The new Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi, has been nicknamed “the butcher of Tehran,” because of his responsibility for the execution of thousands, possibly tens of thousands, of people during a reign of terror in 1988. Raisi is considered one of the top candidates to succeed Ali Khamenei as Supreme Leader.

Last, but not least, is the regime’s plan to develop nuclear weapons, which is advancing rapidly. Whether such weapons would be directly used – something which is difficult to judge, due to the religious aspects of Iranian ideology – or whether they would be employed as an “umbrella” to shield its more conventional military aggression, it’s likely that the imminent attainment of nuclear capability would greatly change the balance of power in our region, and make war likely. The regime has consistently and explicitly threatened to “wipe Israel off the map,” and Israel takes these threats seriously.

The Iranian regime, while it is economically and militarily weak, has developed means of leveraging asymmetric warfare, which along with its aggressive and even messianic ideology makes it a serious threat – not just to the region, but to the Western alliance and its leader, the US, which it calls “the great Satan.” The threat is immediate in the short term, due to its nuclear program. It is a highly repressive society, and although there is a strong domestic opposition, attempts to overthrow the regime will be (and have been) met with great brutality.

As an Israeli, naturally I am concerned about the local and immediate threat of Iran. But the PRC is a far greater threat to the Western alliance. China is already a nuclear power, and has recently been reported building up its stock of weapons. China’s military and economic power is thousands of times greater than that of Iran, and is every bit as brutal in its repression of internal dissent.

Although China does not publicly announce that the US is Satan, it is quietly moving its pieces – military and economic – on the world’s chessboard to increase its power and influence. It operates an unprecedented system of industrial espionage that has already neutralized the technological superiority of the US. It is building infrastructure throughout the world under its “Belt and Road Initiative” that will not only provide its industries access to markets, but the large debts incurred by the recipients will provide China political leverage over them.

Chinese technology that is used in the most critical communications infrastructure may contain “backdoors” that allow access to traffic on the networks. Everything from mobile phones to PCs to military communications systems have been suspected to be compromised.

The US and other developed countries are experiencing a long-term transition of their economies away from agriculture and manufacturing and toward service-based economies. Manufacturing has moved to China and to other countries, most of which are, or soon will be, in the Chinese sphere of influence. At the time of the outbreak of the Covid-19 epidemic, the US suffered a severe shortage of personal protective equipment and medical devices such as masks and so forth. It was simply not produced in the USA.

China does not (as far as I know) export violent terrorism as does Iran. But it has been engaging in territorial expansionism in all directions. Chinese pressure on Hong Kong and Taiwan make headlines, while China quietly “nibbles away” at Japanese islands, territories under Indian control, bits of Nepal and Bhutan, and so on. In the South China Sea, China has built artificial islands which have greatly extended its territorial waters and provided locations for military installations, including missile silos.

I have not discussed the possible exploitation of the Covid-19 epidemic. Certainly the misinformation and disinformation that was provided by China at the time of its outbreak exacerbated the harm to Western societies. There is even a credible argument that once the disease had become established in Wuhan, authorities there – under the direction of the national government – deliberately allowed the residents of the city to travel worldwide during the Chinese New Year period, knowing that this would spread the disease.

The Chinese strategy is safer and surer, if somewhat slower than the Iranian one. But the West has done little to protect itself, either against the immediate danger of nuclear weapons in the hands of a proven rogue aggressor state, or the long-term combined economic, military, and possibly biological domination of a rising totalitarian superstate. Western nations should be confiscating the Iranian regime’s nuclear toys, reestablishing self-sufficient economies, protecting their technological intellectual property, and strengthening their military forces. They are not doing any of these things.

Instead, the most advanced states of the West are self-destructing over issues of race and gender identity.

In 1921, prominent lawyer and former ambassador to the Ottoman Empire Henry Morgenthau Sr., wrote an article describing why Zionism is foolishness and a Jewish state is simply impossible.

Here are some excerpts, reported in the Bnai Brith Messenger, August 5, 1921.

Zionism is the most stupendous fallacy in Jewish history , writes Mr . Morgenthau . I assert that it is wrong In principle and impossible of realization ; that it Is unsound in its economics , fantastical in its politics , and sterile in its spiritual ideals . Where is it not pathetically visionary , it is a cruel playing with the hopes ol a people blindly seeking their way out of age-long miseries . These are bold and sweeping assertions , but I shall undertake to make them good . The very fervor of my feeling for the oppressed of every race and every land , especially for the Jews those of my own blood and faith , to whom I am bound by every tender tie , impels me to fight with all the greater force against this scheme , which my intelligence tells me can only lead them deeper into the mire ol the past , while it professes to be leading them to the heights .

...The notion that Great Britain would for one instant allow any form of government In Palestine , under any name whatever , that was not , in fact , an apparange of the British Crown , and subservient to the paramount interests of British world policy, is too fantastical for serious refutation .

... I speak as a Jew . I speak with fullest sympathy for the Jew everywhere . I have seen him in his poverty —despised , hated , spat upon , beaten and murdered . My blood boils with his at the thought of the indignities and outrages to which he is subjected . I , too , would find for him , for me , the way out of this morass of poverty , hatred , political inequality and social discrimination . But , is Zionism that way ? I assert emphatically that It is not . I deny it , not merely from an intellectual recoil from the fallacy of its reasoning , but from my very experience of life ; as a seeker after religious truth , as a practical businessman , as an active participant in politics , as one who has had experience in international affairs , and as a Jew who has at heart the best interests of his co-religionists .

The truth is that Palestine cannot support a large population in prosperity . It has a lean and niggardly soil. . It is a land of rocky hills , upon which for many centuries a hardy people have survived only with difficulty by cultivating a few patches of soil here and there with the olive , the fig , citrus fruits and the grape , or have barely sustained their flocks upon the sparse native vegetation . The streams are few and small , entirely insufficient for the great irrigation systems that would be necessary for the general cultivation of the land . The underground sources of water can only be developed at a prodigious capital expense . This is the condition of Palestine ; not only must agriculture be pursued under the greatest possible handicaps of soil and water , but it is subject to the direct competition of far more favored lands in the very agricultural products for which it is distinctive . A great industrial Palestine is equally unthinkable . It lacks the raw materials of coal and iron ; it lacks the skill in technical processes and the experience in the arts ; and , above all , it is not in the path of modern trade currents . What hope is there for Palestine , as an industrial nation , in competition with America , Great Britain and Germany , with their prodigious resources , their highly organized factories , their great mass production , and their superb means of transportation ? The notion is preposterous .

Is Zionism a political fantasy ? I assert most emphatically that it is . The present British mandate over Palestine is a recognition , by the great powers of the world , of the supreme political interest of Great Britain in that region .,,, British statesmen can hold but on opinion concerning either Egypt or Palestine , and this opinion is that no matter what else may befall , British influence must be omnipotent on both sides of the Suez Canal . Neither can the British Government afford to irritate India by placing the Mohammedan shrines in Palestine under the control of a Jewish State.

Remember that Palestine Is as much the Holy Land of the Mohammedans as it Is the Holy Land ot the Jew or the Holy Land of the Christian. His shrines cluster there as thickly . They are to him as sacredly endeared . In 1914 I visited the famous caves of Machpelah , twenty miles from Jerusalem , and I shall never forget the mutterings of discontent that murmured in my ears , nor the threatening looks that confronted my eyes , from the lips and faces of the devout Mohammedans whom I there encountered . For these authentic tombs of Abraham , Isaac and Jacob are as sacred to them , because they are saints of Islam , as they are to the most orthodox of my fellow-Jews , whose direct ancestors they are , not only In the spiritual , but in the actual physical sense . To these Mohammedans my presence at the tombs of my ancestors was as much a profanation of a Mohammedan holy place as If I had laid sacrilegious hands upon the sacred relics In the mosque at Mecca . To Imagine that the British Government will sanction a scheme for a political control of Palestine , which would place in the hands of the Jews the physical guardianship of these shrines of Islam , is to imagine something very foreign to the practical political sense of the most politically practical race on earth . They know too well how deeply they would offend their myriad Mohammedan subjects to the earth.

My answer to the spiritual pretensions of Zionism Is the positive answer that the solution has already been discovered—the way out has been found . The courageous Jew , the Intellectually honest Jew , the forward looking Jew , the Jew who has been willing to fight for his rights on the spot where they were infringed , has won his battle and has found all the glorious freedom which Zionism so unpractically describes .

It is interesting in retrospect that while Morgenthau spends a lot of further space describing how successful Jews have been in the West, he still has a diaspora mentality that indicates that Jews are only successful because the gentiles allow it. It certainly doesn't occur to him that Jews can fight for their rights in Palestine - because the Muslims will never allow it. To him, it is perfectly natural that Muslims should bar Jews from their holiest spots.He says (in a section I didn't excerpt) that Zionism would prompt antisemitism in the same Western nations that he claims Jews have achieved equal rights - but if Jews truly had equal rights, they wouldn't be worried about being attacked by the majority gentiles.

Morgenthau (and other anti-Zionist Jews of the era) were really concerned about the possibility that a Jewish state would threaten their own financial and political gains by turning Americans against Jews. But they created more seemingly scientific arguments to buttress their opinions, about how the land of Israel could not support more than a million people, how agriculture and industry is impossible.

When you read an expert opinion, it is very often as based on incorrect assumptions and wishful thinking as that of Henry Morgenthau.

Of course, this is also a reminder of Ben Gurion's quote: "In Israel, in order to be a realist you must believe in miracles."

08/04 Links Pt1: Poll: With only 40% support, Israelis still think 2 states best option; Saudi FM praises Abraham Accords, puts Palestinian statehood first; Resolving the Khan al-Ahmar Issue

From Ian:

With only 40% support, Israelis still think 2 states best option - poll

Only 40% of Israelis support a two-state resolution to the conflict with the Palestinians, even though it remains the most popular choice, according to a poll conducted by the Israel Democracy Institute.

Past IDI polls on this question have shown that Israeli support for two states has fluctuated widely over the past 28 years since the signing of the 1993 Oslo I Accord in Washington.

Past polls on this topic by IDI show that support for a two-state resolution peaked at 70% in 2007 during the Annapolis peace process brokered by former president George W. Bush between former prime minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

It was at its lowest point in 1995 with only 36.9% support, based on IDI data.

From July 27 to 29, the IDI polled 750 Israelis over the age of 18 by phone and over the Internet, including 151 Arabic-speakers. The margin of error is 3.59% for the poll on a wide array of topics, including the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Participants were asked if they would back a “two-state solution with the establishment of an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.”

Israeli-Arabs were much more likely to support a two-state resolution than their Jewish peers.

Saudi FM praises Abraham Accords, puts Palestinian statehood first

The Abraham Accords have been good for the Middle East but its momentum should be used to help the Palestinians achieve statehood, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud said at a virtual conference of the Aspen Security Forum on Tuesday.

“We think, overall, the Abrahamic Accords have worked positively to spur engagement in the region, so in that sense, the decision by those countries can be viewed positively,” he said.

The Saudi Foreign Minister added that the best way to build on the normalizations between Israel and Arab states in the past year would be “to find a path to solving the issue of the Palestinians and finding a path to a Palestinian state because that will deliver complete normalization for Israel in the region.”

Peace, he said, “is a strategic choice of the Arabs” that must be used to reach a comprehensive solution for the Palestinians.

Asked if that’s a precondition for Saudi-Israel normalization, in light of the divisions among Palestinian factions making Israel-Palestinian peace unlikely in the short term, Prince Faisal did not address the first part of the question.

Rather, he said that the PLO and Palestinian Authority are the legal representatives of the Palestinians.

“That engagement is the key engagement in order to progress towards a peaceful solution,” he stated. “I think without solving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in a sustainable, long-term way not, we’re not going to have real, sustainable security in the region. We need to try everything we can to make that happen.”

Prince Faisal pointed to the new government in Israel, saying “perhaps it can deliver some progress. Let’s wait and see.”

Saudi Arabia's foreign minister also said that he sees an emboldened Iran acting in a negative manner around the Middle East, endangering shipping, arming Yemen's Houthis and contributing to political deadlock in Lebanon.

Here's @PressSec on same topic: "Aside from putting forward a peace proposal that was dead on arrival, we don’t think [Trump admin] did anything constructive, really, to bring an end to the longstanding conflict in the Middle East."

But what would the Saudi FM know about that? https://t.co/intNP1c6xn
— Omri Ceren (@omriceren) August 3, 2021

The only Jewish village in Jordan

In the Israeli War of Independence in 1948, Jews were expelled from East Jerusalem and Gush Etzion in the West Bank. Not well known is that a few Jews were also expelled from the east bank of the Jordan. According to the Jewish Virtual Library, Tel Or was the only Jewish village, built to house the employees of a power station.

During the Israeli War of Independence in 1948, Tel Or was the only Jewish village in Transjordan at the time. Tel Or was designated for residence of the permanent employees of the power plant and their families, aiming to create an agricultural village at the Eastern border of the Land of Israel. Employees of the power station also farmed thousands of dunams of land and sold some of the produce at a company workers’ supermarket in Haifa. Due to its relative isolation and despite the limited number of resident families, the village included a clinic, a kindergarten and even a school, established by Yosef Hanani for the children of employees.

An Iraqi brigade invaded at Naharayim area on May 15, 1948, in an unsuccessful attempt to take the Gesher kibbutz and fort. The power plant was occupied and looted by the Iraqi forces. After the Tel Or village and the power plant were overran by the Arab forces they were destroyed. To prevent Iraqi tanks from attacking Jewish villages in the Jordan Valley, the sluice gates of the Degania dam were opened. The rush of water, which deepened the river at this spot, was instrumental in blocking the Iraqi-Jordanian incursion.

Today the power plant and the destroyed village of Tel Or are located on the Jordanian side of the Israel-Jordan border. The remains of the power station are part of the Jordan River Peace Park on the Island of Peace on the Israel-Jordan border.

After the expulsion of the residents of Tel Or, combined with the expulsion of the Jewish residents of the Jewish quarter of Jerusalem, an Arab commander remarked,
“For the first time in 1,000 years not a single Jew remains in the Jewish Quarter. Not a single building remains intact. This makes the Jews’ return here impossible.”

Lebanon has been failing as a state for years, and in the past year its severe problems have been on the world stage with the explosion at the Beirut port and the incompetent government response.

That has been only the most visible part of Lebanon's swift decline. A political deadlock has left Lebanon with a government has not been able to govern. Hezbollah has veto power over anything it doesn't want. Even so, the terror group had built its own independent army that is more powerful than the Lebanese army, with an arsenal of 200,000 rockets in civilian areas. Internal fighting still breaks out. Lebanon treats Palestinian refugees from Syria differently than other Syrian refugees. It's COVID response has been anemic. Its economy is in shambles as people cannot get basic goods.

This morning, rockets were fired from Lebanon into Israel. This has been the most serious such rocket fire, although it has not been the first one - there have been other rocket launches in recent months. Hezbollah is not behind them - Palestinian groups in Lebanon are.

A wide assumption is that Hezbollah is the beneficiary of Lebanese chaos. It has better organization than most Lebanese political parties - and it has an army. This is probably true.

But the further assumption Hezbollah, and therefore Iran, would take over Lebanon itself is far less likely.

Alma, an Israeli thinktank that specializes in threats from the North, gave its latest analysis in its weekly newsletter yesterday:

The statement that Hezbollah is taking over Lebanon is vague and needs more clarification. Hezbollah will not be a sovereign government serving on behalf of the Iranians after officially, legally, and completely replacing the Lebanese government.

Like Syria, Lebanon is made up of a variety of ethnic groups. There are areas in Lebanon like the Druze Chouf Mountains, the Sunni Tripoli in the north, or even Christian areas, that Hezbollah would not be able to enter easily. In any scenario in which "Hezbollah takes over Lebanon", with or without the defeat of the Lebanese army, there will be more chaos than order.

Like Syria, Lebanon is likely able to be divided into areas of influence and control of the various factions, local or foreign, while the central government becomes irrelevant. This is a reasonable scenario, in light of the images originating in Lebanon, that depict a shortage of food, fuel, and medicine. They depict an unending political crisis and a ruling elite that is in no hurry to solve the country's fundamental problems.

Lack of control and chaos also require a different approach on Israel’s part - when negotiating on the maritime border, Israel cannot assume that it is dealing with a normal sovereign state.

Israel has no influence over what is happening in Syria and Lebanon, and if it does have any influence, it is a very small amount and cannot prevent the collapse of these two countries. But the Israeli government has a greater responsibility than any other country in the world in anticipating the future and being prepared for continued instability in our neighboring countries.

Saying that Hezbollah will take over seems too simplistic. However, Iran certainly benefits from a Lebanon in chaos and divided in sectarian sections, just as it has benefitted from Syrian and Iraqi chaos. It doesn't necessarily have to take over the country to achieve its goals of creating safe areas for its military and allied militants to act with impunity.

In fact, just as in Gaza, governing is a distraction from Iran's goals. What would Hezbollah be able to achieve that it cannot do today? It already has near complete control of its own virtual state on the border with Israel.

Hezbollah might be unable to rule Lebanon - but the alternative chaos may be even worse.

Here is an article about a new market in Portland, selling Palestinian goods and meant to "preserve Palestinian culture."

Sprinkled among the examples of this culture are anti-Israel incitement and lies, which is the real product being sold.

On the corner of NE MLK and Morris, a new-ish market serves as a culinary portrait of Palestine and the Palestinian diaspora. Jerusalem Rose’s storefront sits right next to owner Ramzy Farouki’s other project, the Center for Study and Preservation of Palestine.

That project is intended to counter the narrative "created by a western, pro-zionist gatekeeper system of discourse."

In 1948, Farouki’s family fled their homeland, along with 700,000 other Palestinians who were left stateless when Zionist forces expelled them.

Most of the Arabs fled, and were not expelled.

On one end of the fixture, as a sort of unconventional sign indicating the produce section, a photo of Palestinian watermelon men balancing the fruit on their heads is tacked up. “The watermelon is a special thing to Palestinians because during the first popular uprising by the people—called the first intifada, and even before that—the flying of the Palestinian flag was criminalized,” Farouki explains. “But many Palestinians would use the watermelon as a symbol of their culture because it contains green, white, red, and black.”

He is cheering the murder of over 250 Jews during the first intifada. Moreover, people don't realize that Palestinians killed hundreds of fellow Palestinians during that innocent sounding "uprising."

This is what he celebrates.

Another time-honored product stocked at Jerusalem Rose is Nabulsi olive oil soap. Once the site of a booming soap industry of over 40 soapmakers, there are now only two factories left in the West Bank making soap with a thousand year-old technique. The rest were tragically decimated by a large-scale Israeli military operation in 2002, which also resulted in the severe damage or destruction of 64 UNESCO heritage buildings.

Two baldfaced lies in one sentence.

Israel didn't destroy 38 soap factories in Nablus - one was damaged and it was rebuilt. The others closed over the decades because of no demand for their product.

Israel didn't destroy 64 UNESCO heritage buildings. It damaged buildings in Nablus' Old City that were being used by terrorists, another small detail that is missing. Some of the damage came from Palestinian fighters placing explosives between the buildings there as booby traps.

It turns out that this store really does market Palestinian culture. Lying about history and about Israel is Palestinian culture.

The Center for Study and Preservation of Palestine next door shows this to be the case, as there is nothing in the window that indicates anything about Palestinian cuisine, costumes, soap, or history - only anti-Israel (and BLM) posters.

Hate, incitement and lies about Israel and Jews are the most important and integral parts of Palestinian culture.

(h/t RealJerusalemStreets)

Speaking at the Democratic Socialists of America national convention this week, Rashida Tlaib nodded and winked for an attack on Jews using the codewords that we hear so often.

We also need to recognize and - this is for me as a Palestinian-American - we also need to recognize... you know as I think about my family in Palestine that continue to live under military occupation and how that really interacts with this beautiful black city I grew up in, you know, I always tell people cutting people off from water is violence and they do it from Gaza to Detroit and it's a way to control people to oppress people.

It's those structures that we continue to fight against.

So I know you all understand the structure we've been living under right now is designed by those that exploit the rest of us for their own profit.

I always say to people, you know I don't care if it's the issue around global human rights and our fight to free Palestine or pushing back against those that don't believe in the minimum wage or those that believe that people have a right to health care and so much more, and I tell those same people, that if you open the curtain and look behind the curtain it's the same people that make money - and yes they do - off of racism, off of these broken policies, there is someone there making money and you saw it it was so exposed during the pandemic, because all those structures everything that was set up they made record profit when we were all at having some of the most challenging most difficult times in our lifetime at that moment, and and again they made record profit so if anything this pandemic just exposed what we all have been fighting against.

Tlaib makes a direct connection between the Jews in Israel and the money-grubbing capitalists in America. Both of them are "they." "They" are racists. "They" are greedy. "They" profit from their racism. . "They" are hiding behind the curtain, and she reveals to her audience who "they" are: rich, miserly, greedy Fagins.

Even the leftist Jonathan Greenblatt of the ADL called this antisemitic.

Tlaib knows what she is saying. She knows her audience. It's barely a dogwhistle - it's an air raid siren.

UPDATE: "Behind the curtain"

This is what @RashidaTlaib means when she says "behind the curtain”.

This is a piece of Nazi propaganda that presents Jews as behind the curtain controlling the Nazi’s enemies. pic.twitter.com/EV4p8samHg
— Ben M. Freeman (@BenMFreeman) August 4, 2021

08/03 Links Pt2: Boycotting the Western Wall; When cancel culture comes for Jews; My College Experience at Temple University Was Tainted by Antisemitism

From Ian:

Boycotting the Western Wall

Mittal has made it crystal-clear that she considers eastern Jerusalem “occupied territory.” As recently as July 30, for example, she re-tweeted a statement about “Israeli occupiers” arresting Arab rock-throwers “from Sultan Suleiman Street in J’salem.” Sultan Suleiman Street runs along the walls of the Old City. Part of it is within the pre-1967 armistice line, part of it is beyond. To the chair of the Ben & Jerry’s board, it’s all “occupied.”

So why, in their official announcements, has Ben & Jerry’s been coy about Jerusalem? Because they know what would happen if they said, openly: “Our company is boycotting the Old City, the Western Wall and Temple Mount because we consider it to be Occupied Palestinian Territory.” The volume of protests that Ben & Jerry’s is facing would be ten-fold what it is now. The Gristedes supermarket chain would not be reducing its Ben & Jerry’s shelf space by 30 percent, as they have announced; they would reduce it by 100 percent. Delta would not still be serving Ben & Jerry’s on its flights to Israel; neither would any other airline.

But as long as the company makes it seem as if it’s just targeting “settlements,” a certain segment of the Jewish community will support them. A number of left-wing Jewish groups, including J Street, Americans for Peace Now and Partners for Progressive Israel, have issued statements taking the side of the ice-cream makers.

And some major liberal Jewish groups, such as the Union for Reform Judaism, have not actively joined the protests. Look at the URJ website. Not a word about the Ben & Jerry’s action against Israel.

A divided Jewish community undermines the anti-Ben & Jerry’s protests and makes it more likely that the company will stick to its guns. The backing of Jewish left-wing groups enables Ben & Jerry’s to say, “See? We’re not anti-Semitic. We’re not anti-Israel. Look at these Jewish groups that support us.”

Could an organization such as the Union for Reform Judaism remain on the sidelines if a major American company says it is boycotting the Western Wall? I don’t think so.

It’s time for Ben & Jerry’s, and its left-wing Jewish supporters, to stop playing word games. Stop trying to pull the wool over the public’s eyes. Stop pretending that this is an argument over a handful of wild-eyed “settlers” on remote hilltops. This is a fight over boycotting the Western Wall. They know it, and we know it.

Imagine the reaction if Israel decided to …

For many of us, the world’s hypocrisy when it comes to Israel is self-evident, and the double standards applied to the only Jewish state are clearly anti-Semitic. Typically, we think about these biases when issues arise directly related to Israel, but it may be even more obvious to others if we consider the likely response if Israel engaged in some of the policies and activities of other countries.

Imagine the reaction if …

Israel announced it was planning to ban halal slaughter.

The European Union’s highest court ruled in 2020 that countries can ban ritual slaughter (including by Jews) to promote animal welfare. How loud do you think the condemnation would be if Israel told Muslims how to practice their religion?

Israel moved to disband Muslim civic groups and shut down a mosque where thousands worship as the French have done?

Look at the furor over Israel’s activities related to the Temple Mount even as tens of thousands of Muslims were praying there on their most recent holy day.

Israel banned Muslims from wearing headscarves?

In another ruling, the E.U. court said companies could ban the hijab if justified by an employer’s need to present an image of neutrality to customers. France has prohibited the wearing of headscarves in state schools since 2004. Unlike the Europeans, Israel does not feel threatened by Muslim attire, and women can be seen in hijabs at the beach in Tel Aviv and the streets of Jerusalem.

Israel made it illegal for Muslim women to wear the full-face veil?

France first enacted a ban in 2010. In April, Switzerland became the latest European country to ban the niqab. Other countries with full or partial bans include Belgium, Bulgaria, Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway. It is inconceivable that Israel would consider, let alone get away with, fining or arresting women for wearing veils.

My College Experience at Temple University Was Tainted by Antisemitism

In the Fall of 2018, I took my first political science course at Temple University. In November of that year, Marc Lamont Hill gave an antisemitic speech at the United Nations, which led to his firing at CNN. During a class discussion, my professor proudly stated that he “fully supported” Marc Lamont Hill’s call for a “Free Palestine from the river to the sea” — a dog whistle to ethnically cleanse Israel of its Jewish population.

One year later, I attended a political science social event. I was repeatedly asked,“how do you feel about Israel and Palestine?” And I soon found myself debating with a notable campus leftist, who violently declared that “Jews are not a people.”

This was just the beginning.

In January 2021, Jewish students were welcomed back to campus with a viral Snapchat video posted by a Temple Student Government representative viciously raising his middle finger at the Israeli flag with the caption “f*** outta here.” Facing backlash, the student resigned from his position.

On February 26, 2021, a Temple University student spoke through a university program called “Dissent in America Teach-In.” Her presentation was titled, “Israel/Palestine: Can Biden’s Middle East Policy Broker Peace?” I just so happened to see the event advertised in the Temple Political Science Department newsletter, so I decided to attend.

The presentation was riddled with propaganda, antisemitism, and threats.

One slide stated that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is one of the strongest lobby groups in the country, with the speaker stating that “Jewish political participation is important because of [the] dependence of politicians on campaign cash.” This is a classic antisemitic trope — that Jews have financial control over the political landscape.

Another slide displayed a cartoon of Uncle Sam serving then-Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a drink with an AIPAC umbrella on a golden platter. Bibi was depicted with a pinocchio-like nose, resembling the “hook nose” Jew from 1930s Nazi propaganda, which categorized Jewish people as racially inferior.

It's amazing how Mizrahi Jews and Ethiopian Jews in Israelcan turn on a dime from being people of color oppressed by Ashkenaz Jews into becoming Jewish white supremacist oppressors, depending on the day's narrative.

On anonymity

There was a thought provoking article about Internet anonymity in the New York Times this week. In general, the writer supports the ability to be anonymous, despite the chances that bad actors will abuse that ability.

I've always remained anonymous because of concerns about my career far more than any worries about harassment or threats. In recent months, though, the latter reason has come to the forefront for me.

Antisemitism is worse than it has been in decades, and the digital world is where one can see it in its most ugly forms, in real time.

I see how Zionist social media stars - especially but not exclusively women - are routinely harassed. One of the reasons is because they are not anonymous. Bigots want something to hang onto as their objects of hate, and the more human a person is, the more of a target they are.

I've become most appreciative that I have separated the Elder persona from my real world self as I've seen the explosion of antisemitic attacks both in the real world and online.

If I was only concerned with my own safety, I could brush it off. But I have to worry about my family, my kids and grandkids - all of whom could become targets from sick, hateful Jew haters (including those who swear they are only "anti-Zionist.")

It is actually frightening to think that the more I share about myself, the less safe I and my family would be.

We aren't in 1930s Europe yet. But all arrows are pointing in that direction. The Internet is where to see the early indicators of hate, and it has been a reliable metric for what happens in the physical world not long after.