Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, August 06, 2021

08/06 Links Pt1: Ruthie Blum: Time to take advantage of cracks in Tehran’s armor; Lebanese Druze intercept truck with rockets meant for Israel; The “Squad” targets Jerusalem

From Ian:

Ruthie Blum: Time to take advantage of cracks in Tehran’s armor

According to MEMRI, he went on to say, “Lebanon and Hezbollah now stand strong and capable against the Zionists, and every time the enemy wants to make a move, Hezbollah nips it in the bud. America has brought the nations of the world nothing but poverty, backwardness and the looting of their wealth. America has lost its credibility in Iran, and we sacrifice our lives for the Iranian nation.”

Then, he hit the relevant crux of the matter.

“Now that the enemies have all realized that they are unable to defeat the Iranian nation in bitter warfare,” he said, “they have hatched other plots, such as imposing economic sanctions… From the first day of the [Islamic] Revolution, our enemies, chief among them America, showed their hostility towards us with all kinds of plots, assassinations, sanctions and threats, but our nation never stopped; [on the contrary, it] accelerated its pace.”

These foes, he announced, “must know that the Iranian nation will not give up Islam and the revolution because of power outages or a water shortage… The people of Iran have shown these days that they are loyal to the ideals of Islam and of the revolution.”

Salami seemed not to grasp that footage of those very people shouting to be released from the chains of the corrupt, repressive regime’s bondage has managed to make its way to Twitter for everyone to see and many to champion.

Whether or not his social-media adviser failed to fill him in on the discrepancy between his words and goings-on in the street below, however, he was able to claim with no small amount of justification: “Today, we are dictating the terms under which a superpower like America will return to the nuclear deal, and this indicates the [extent of] the authority wielded by Islamic Iran.”

Biden and his European cohorts must not prove him right. The time has come to take advantage of the cracks in the regime’s armor. Khamenei, Raisi and Salami should be put on notice that it is not they, but rather their victims, who warrant bolstering.

Since that’s not likely to happen in the immediate future, Israel will have to go it alone. Let’s hope that Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is up to the task.

The Caroline Glick Show: Episode 16: How to Overthrow the Iranian Regime | Guest: Cameron Khansarinia (NUFDI Policy Director)

In this week's episode of the Caroline Glick Mideast News Hour Caroline filmed from Washington, DC. Where she spoke with Cameron Khansarinia, Policy Director of the National Union for Democracy in Iran. The two discussed the anti-regime protests that have spread throughout the country. They talked about how the US and/or Israel can assist the protesters to bring down the regime. And they contemplated what Iran's achievement of military nuclear capabilities will mean for human rights in Iran and international security.

This episode is dedicated to the courageous men and women in Iran risking their lives for freedom. Their struggle truly is our struggle. Their success will be a blessing to us all.

On Israel TV, prisoners who escaped Iran’s 1988 killings compare Raisi to Hitler

In Israeli TV interviews broadcast Thursday, former political prisoners who escaped Iran compared the Islamic Republic’s new President Ebrahim Raisi to Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler for his alleged central role in extrajudicial executions, mostly of young people, across Iran in the late 1980s.

“It was exactly like the final solution that Hitler made for the Jews,” Iraj Masadagi, a former Iranian political prisoner, told the Kan public broadcaster.

“Raisi was a killer,” Masadagi continued. “He talked to me, and he said that they don’t want to have any more political prisoners. He said that we want to solve the ‘problem.”

The ultra-conservative cleric Raisi was sworn in on Thursday as the Islamic Republic’s eighth president. He has been accused by activists and human rights groups of having played a key role as a prosecutor on the “death commission” that sent thousands of prisoners to their deaths in 1988.

Amnesty International has described the killings as a crime against humanity.

“They sent hundreds of prisoners to the gallows,” Masdagi said. “When I see him I see the face of the one who killed my fellow prisoners, my friends, my beloved ones.”

Masdagi, one of the tens of thousands of political prisoners in Iran at the time, told Kan he spent 10 years in jail, starting in 1981. “I was in solitary confinement for a long period, and when I see him, I remember those days, that I was tortured,” he said.

Israeli Officials, Human Rights Activists Condemn EU for Envoy Appearance at Iranian Presidential Ceremony Next to Terrorist Leaders

Israeli officials and human rights activists criticized the presence of a top European Union diplomat seated immediately behind senior leaders of the Hamas and Hezbollah terror groups at Thursday’s inauguration of hardline Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi.

The Israeli embassy in Austria — the country hosting ongoing talks between Iran and world powers over the 2015 nuclear deal — called the attendance of EU representative Enrique Mora at the inauguration of the cleric “unbelievable but true.”

Raisi was placed under US sanctions in 2019 after his appointment to lead Iran’s judiciary, for his alleged role executing thousands of political prisoners in 1988.

Also attending Thursday’s event were leaders of three militant groups that the Israeli embassy noted are on the EU terrorist list.

Mora was spotted behind Palestinian Islamic Jihad chief Ziad al-Nakhalah, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and Hezbollah deputy chief Naim Qassem, who were taking their seats in the first row at the presidential ceremony.

“Hezbollah, Hamas & the EU in one photo at the inauguration of the ‘butcher of Tehran.’ How can they [EU] preach about human rights while sitting with representatives of terrorist organizations days after Iran’s murderous attack on a civilian ship and right before the UNSC discusses the issue?” Gilad Erdan, Israel’s Ambassador to the United States and the United Nations, questioned.

This week, UN Watch issued a report on the pro-terror, antisemitic social media posts of over 100 people who claim to be UNRWA employees.

I had started this line of research back in 2014 when I exposed antisemitic and pro-terror posts in nearly 100 specific Facebook pages of UNRWA employees after earlier exposing antisemitism in official UNRWA school sites.

UN Watch ran with this idea, and since then has issued reports on UNRWA employees' hate.

While UNRWA read my reports and silently removed the posts, it never actually did anything to address the underlying problem - that UNRWA teachers and UNRWA itself support terror and Jew-hatred as part of their official and unofficial curriculum.

UNRWA's response to the UN Watch report this week is a classic example of not taking responsibility, shifting the blame, superficially covering up the main problem attacking the messenger:

This week, UN Watch -- an organization with a deep history of unfounded and politically-driven assertions against the Agency -- released a report accusing 22 UNRWA personnel of promoting violence and hate through social media channels. UNRWA confirms that 10 of the 22 persons mentioned in the report are UNRWA personnel; the others are not associated with the Agency.

UNRWA is upholding the values of the United Nations and has a zero-tolerance policy for hatred. The Agency takes each allegation seriously. It has immediately launched a thorough investigation through due process to determine if any of these 10 persons, out of more than 28,000 personnel, violated the Agency’s social media policies that prohibit personnel from engaging in non-neutral behaviors online. We are concerned that some of the posts violate our rules and policies, and should misconduct be found, UNRWA will take immediate administrative or disciplinary action.

In previous reports over a five years period, UN Watch identified a total of 101 cases where UNRWA personnel allegedly posted content on social media that was in breach of its Regulatory Framework, including the neutrality policy. Upon investigation of these cases, UNRWA found that 57% of the allegations could not be tied to personnel employed by the Agency at the time of the reported incident. Personnel who were found in breach, then, where either censured and/or subjected to financial penalties.

To suggest that hate is widespread within the Agency and schools is not only misleading and false, but validates sensationalist and politically-motivated attacks that deliberately harm an already vulnerable community: refugee children. UNRWA’s mandate is to provide life-saving humanitarian assistance to over five million Palestine refugees, a responsibility the Agency takes very seriously. The Agency has invested immense efforts in training its personnel to promote their understanding of neutrality and the vital role it plays in their daily work and of their obligations in that regard, including through courses on social media and neutrality, ethics trainings, and in-person field trainings on neutrality. Oversight and accountability of any organization is vital, and UNRWA welcomes future opportunities of assessment and looks forward to continued partnerships with all parties engaging with UNRWA to ensure every Palestine refugee child has access to quality education.

If UNRWA is really neutral, then find a single map of the Middle East showing Israel in an UNRWA school.

Let us know specifically what was done in the past when UNRWA schools held student events commemorating terrorist attacks besides removing the evidence.

Explain why UNRWA designated a "youth ambassador" who glorifies violence against Israeli in music videos - and extended his contract.

Ask UNRWA whether they still teach students that they will "return" to destroy Israel.

And very simply - explain why doesn't UNRWA have school websites anymore? If they have a zero tolerance policy for hate, then they should not be worried that their school sites will have anything problematic! Why take down the sites if the problem is so minimal or nonexistent? Why deny students the pride of a website?

UNRWA knows that they are selling lies. They may have invested a lot in neutrality, but they know that schools that teach that the students will defeat Israel is not going to be neutral.

Head of Lebanese Forces tells Hezbollah to stop endangering Lebanon by shooting rockets at Israel (update)

Overnight and this morning, Hezbollah shot 19 rockets at Israel - three of which landed in Lebanon itself, and ten of which were intercepted by Iron Dome.

This was in response to Israel's mostly symbolic air strikes to earlier rocket fire from southern Lebanon.

The Lebanese are not supporting Hezbollah at all.

The head of the Lebanese Forces, Samir Geagea, tweeted to Hezbollah,

What is happening in the south is very dangerous, especially in light of the great tension emerging in the region.

The Lebanese people have had enough torment, daily suffering and continuous struggle until the day comes where someone plays with fire. If it ignites, God forbid, you will destroy what is left of the people of Lebanon.

Fear God and leave the Lebanese people with their current tragedies, and do not add to them other bigger, more terrible and more painful tragedies.

Lebanese citizens actually stopped a Hezbollah rocket-firing truck that had fired, according to Hezbollah, 21 of its 34 rockets at Israel. A video shared on social media showed angry villagers blocking the truck and accusing Hezbullah of endangering civilian lives by launching rockets from close to residential areas.

The Lebanese army later arrived in the village and confiscated the truck carrying the rocket launcher. This is the first time I have ever seen the Lebanese army directly confront Hezbollah.

The Lebanese are sick of Iranian meddling in their country, and on top of their other problems, this is bringing their anger to a boil.

UPDATE: Here's the video of Lebanese villagers attacking Hezbollah rocket launcher personnel.

(h/t Daled Amos)

On March 15, 1960, Connecticut senator Thomas J. Dodd submitted a long, impassioned speech to the Congressional Record on the subject of antisemitism. It took up over 8 pages in the tightly printed Congressional Record, which is probably about 25 normal book pages. It starts on page 5205.

Dodd knew a great deal about antisemitism. He was a prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials.

In this speech, Dodd surveyed the entire breadth of antisemitism of the day, from residual antisemitism in West Germany from the Right (there was an epidemic of swastikas on synagogues,) through ex-Nazi officials who were still in positions of power worldwide, to a long, detailed description of antisemitism of the Left from the Soviet Union, which he said was being largely ignored in the West.

Just as it is today.

He says:

There should be no secret about Soviet anti-Semitism. The terrible ordeal of the Jewish people under the Kremlin's rule has been painstakingly set forth and documented in a whole series of studies by scholarly authorities....

But for some strange reason, the terrifying story of persecution of the Jews under communism has not penetrated the public consciousness of the free world.

...I try to be a reasonably assiduous reader. I was aware before I began preparing this analysis that anti-Semitism existed on a very substantial scale throughout the Soviet sphere. But as I checked through the available documentation. I found myself constantly appalled.

I was appalled by the totality of Soviet anti-Semitism, by its utter ruthlessness, by its doctrinal and practical similarity to Nazi anti-Semitism. I was even more appalled to discover how little I knew, how little my friends knew, about this terrible crime against humanity which has been going on for more than two decades now.

Let me set forth here the full record of this crime.

There follows an exhaustive analysis of socialist antisemitism from Karl Marx' own words through 1960.

About Marx, he said:

In reality, anti-Semitism is as inherent in Marxist totalitarianism as it was in Nazi totalitarianism. Karl Marx himself was, in many of his statements, as virulently anti-Semitic as Goebbels. Over the decades, the Communists have done their utmost to conceal this fact. Marx's translators into English and the European languages carefully eliminated his anti-Semitic diatribes from editions of his books and writings. But the proof exists.

I have in hand the first English translation of the unexpurgated papers of Karl Marx on the so-called Jewish question. It was printed only last year. In it, you will find that Marx referred to the distinguished German Social Democratic leader, Ferdinand Lasalle, whom he considered too moderate, as, I quote, "Judei Itzig--Jewish nigger." In another letter, Marx made the statement: "Ramsgate is full of Jews and fleas." In still another statement he said—and I quote again—"emancipation from usury and money, that is, from practical real Judaism, would constitute the emancipation of our time."

This was not Hitler speaking. It was the recognized ideological father of Soviet communism. This was Karl Marx.

After proving beyond a doubt the systemic, state-run antisemitism of the Soviet Union, Dodd mentions that the Soviets also have geopolitical reasons to be more vicious towards Jews than other suffering minorities behind the Iron Curtain.

The USSR was trying to ensure the Arab world would be on its side.

He said:

Let me give you one example of the Kremlin's propaganda to the Arab world. I quote from the publication, -The State of Israel—Its Position and Policies," printed by the Soviet state publishing house in 1958:

"The Zionist movement represents a form of the nationalistic ideology of the rich Jewish bourgeoisie, intimately tied to imperialism and to colonial oppression of the people of Asia. Zionism has tied itself to American and other Western capitalism and, with Jewish terrorist tactics, attacked its Arab neighbors. The national liberation movement of the people of the Middle East, spearheaded by its native leaders (such as President Nasser, King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia, and King Iman Ahmed of Yemen) is constantly threatened by naked Jewish aggression. The clear duty of all Marxists and Communists in this situation is to help the Asian and African people crush the reactionary Jewish forces."

This quote shows that early Leftist anti-Zionism was the same as classic antisemitism. Ideologically, they started at the same place.

Then, as now, the world didn't take Leftist antisemitism seriously.

Then, as now, the Leftist leaders took pains to hide their historic - and current - antisemitism.while claiming to be anti-racist.

Then, as now, anti-Zionism was simply a specific manifestation of antisemitism.

08/05 Links Pt2: Bari Weiss and Merav Michaeli on How Global Media Portrays Israel; The Franklin Prophecy; Dershowitz: Ben and Jerry's Decision Is Anti-Semitic; Oren: The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem

From Ian:

Bari Weiss and Merav Michaeli on How Global Media Portrays Israel

This Q&A is adapted from one of eight mainstage conversations held at Z3 2020: Visions of a Shared Future, a virtual conference produced by The Z3 Project and the Oshman Family JCC of Palo Alto, California, aimed at reimagining Diaspora-Israel relations.

This discussion has been condensed and edited for length and clarity. It is adapted from a conversation moderated by Anne Kornblut, Facebook’s vice president of global curation, featuring Israeli lawmaker and former reporter Merav Michaeli and New York Times editor Bari Weiss.

Kornblut: My whole life has been spent in the media, much like you all, but for me, specifically journalism and newspapers. I was at the Daily News, The New York Times, The Washington Post … and everywhere I worked — everywhere — there was a complicated relationship between the news organization and Israel, and the Jewish Diaspora, and the Jews that we covered. There was no place where it was easy, or where it wasn’t a pain point. … Then I left traditional journalism, and I joined Facebook. And I think it’s fair to say that the relationship is also fraught. So I want to ask you both: This pain point — coverage of Jewish issues, coverage of Israel — where are we with it? And is the traditional news coverage growing more fair? Is it growing more antisemitic?

Weiss: I think that, in part, the fixation of The New York Times and other places on Israel and on the conflict with the Palestinians had to do with a just a mirroring or an echoing of that conventional viewpoint — that if you want to solve the broader problems of the Middle East, and all of these sort of pathologies that set groups against one another, well, the only way to do that is to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. There’s an old idea: “If it bleeds, it leads.” And it’s also true that if you could also have the slogan that if Jews are involved, if Jerusalem is involved, it’s more than just a story. People are inordinately focused on Jews and on Israel. What I’m contending is that the [stress] on it in the American press bears very little relationship to how important it is to the Middle East story. Meaning if every newspaper has a dwindling amount of resources and, you know, foreign bureaus and foreign correspondents, and Jerusalem always seems to be sort of like the center point of people’s attention. Maybe you [Michaeli] think that’s justified, I’m just curious.

Michaeli: It’s not a linchpin that, you know, once solved means that everything else will, you know, fall in place. But it is a linchpin, even in the sense that it provides an excuse to so many other hostile factors in the region. Even in that sense, it will generate a major change once there is genuine advancement or something really happens in the direction of a peace process regarding the conflict. So I completely agree. I mean, like the war in Libya, for instance, OK. Obviously it does not have anything to do with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But the whole sort of how people and how countries and forces are divided in the Middle East, all of them have something to do with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. And once this is changed, it will change a lot in the area. But having said all this, as an Israeli, all this is a lot less important for me, and what’s most important for me is to care about Israel’s security and its sustainability. And for that I need to find a way to figure out this conflict.

Weiss: We’re living in an era, at least in the States, or at least let’s say in the liberal institutions, like places like The New York Times, in which there is an unbelievably intense fixation on diversity, inclusion, making sure work is a safe space for everyone. And yet, you know, the lack of care when it comes to Jews inside these institutions is striking. For example, The New York Times ran two, you know, large puff pieces about the writer Alice Walker while I was there, who is a medieval antisemite. She writes poems about the bloodsucking rabbis of the Talmud, she talks about the lizard Illuminati, she’s a huge fan of David Ickes, who was banned from YouTube. We ran puff pieces about her. The Times ran one recently about Louis Farrakhan, basically saying he was just a gentleman who was sort of misunderstood.

The Franklin Prophecy

When Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., borrowed the title of a song by rapper Puff Daddy in 2019 and tweeted that “it’s all about the Benjamins, baby,” critics across the political spectrum lost no time denouncing her. The reference to $100 bills, which bear the portrait of Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), was widely interpreted as an antisemitic trope suggesting that the pro-Israel lobby, because of its campaign contributions, holds unwarranted sway over American policy in the Middle East.

Omar’s tweet called to mind the age-old “dual loyalty” accusation often leveled against American Jews, but she might just as well have been referring to another antisemitic slur that also concerns Franklin, the Founding Father sometimes known as “the first American.”

This is the story of the “Franklin Prophecy,” known more accurately as the “Franklin Forgery”: how it got started, how it has been appropriated through the years, how it persists to this day, and what the Jewish community ought to do about it. Apart from Ben himself, the cast of characters runs the gamut from white supremacists William D. Pelley and Robert Edward Edmonson, to Nazis Rudolf Hess, Joseph Goebbels, and Julius Streicher, to New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, New York Gov. Thomas Dewey, historian Charles A. Beard, poet Ezra Pound, columnists Walter Winchell and Charles Krauthammer, and even Osama bin Laden.

Like its elder sibling, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the Franklin Forgery has survived because of its utility to Jew-haters, who, in every generation, have relied on rumor, innuendo, and falsehood to excoriate “the Jews” when facts fail to serve their ends. Concocted in 1934, it has refused to disappear despite overwhelming evidence of its wholesale fabrication. The “fake news” of its day, the Franklin Forgery stubbornly lives on, one item in a veritable Sears catalog of antisemitic slanders in the Twitter and Facebook feeds and hate sites of neo-Nazis in America and in the polemics of clerics across the Muslim world.

Michael Oren: The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem

Israeli television’s latest hit, The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem, is melodramatic, plodding, predictable, and, by American standards at least, culturally inappropriate. It is also ahistorical and politically biased. Most disconcertingly, though, at a time when Israel is increasingly believed to have been born of militarism, racism, and colonialism, The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem is silent about these charges. At its worst, it corroborates them.

Based on a bestselling novel by Sharit Yishai-Levi, the series follows the vicissitudes of the Ermozas, an upscale Sephardi family in pre-state Jerusalem. Clumsily toggling between the early 1920s and late ’30s, the drama focuses on the materfamilias, Merkada, and her sybaritic son, Gabriel. The owner of a store that appears to sell only halvah, Gabriel falls in love with a working-class Ashkenazi woman but is forced by Merkada to marry an even lower-class Sephardi woman, their illiterate housekeeper, Rosa. Played by the alpaca-eyed Hila Saada, Rosa inundates the show with a stream of tears that stretches across all 16 of its first-season episodes. And there are the Ermoza daughters—Rachelika and Luna, with the latter growing up to become the eponymous beauty queen. Their loves and disasters, longings and disappointments take place against the backdrop of Palestine from the end of the Ottoman Empire and throughout the British Mandate.

It was a period of relentless instability, punctuated by outbursts of internecine violence. It began in Jerusalem in April 1920, when thousands of Arabs, led by the fiercely antisemitic Hajj Amin al-Husayni and chanting “Palestine is our land, the Jews are our dogs,” ravaged the Old City’s Jewish Quarter. Hours of looting, raping, and murder left five Jews dead and 216 injured. Some 300 Jews had to be evacuated. The following April saw another spate of pogroms, this time directed at the Jews of Jaffa and Petah Tikvah. Eight years later, the same al-Husayni—since dubbed Grand Mufti by the British—claimed that the Jews were plotting to take over the al-Aqsa mosque. The libel incited Arab mobs to massacre the Jewish communities of Sefad and Hebron and overrun Kibbutz Mishmar Haemek. In Jerusalem, dozens of Jews were killed and wounded both within and outside the Old City walls.

This Arab-Jewish friction came to a head in the Arab Revolt, lasting from 1936 to 1939, when Palestinian irregulars attacked both Jewish and British targets. The result was a disaster from which the Palestinian nationalist movement never recovered. While 90 Jews were murdered and many more wounded, an estimated 10% of all adult Palestinian males were either killed, wounded, or jailed. Haj Amin al-Husseini took his Grand Mufti title with him to exile in Beirut, and from there to Berlin where he became an honored guest of Adolf Hitler and supporter of the Final Solution.

EuroPalestine: Pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel or antisemitic?

Here is the header of the (French language) "EuroPalestine" site.

The words "Boycott Israel" are much larger than the site name itself!

Nothing about Palestinian culture or music or cuisine or poetry. Just attacks on Israel.

Or, maybe, on Jews.

In the top article at this time of this writing, a roundup of the week's news, it says:

It is not good to pray in Al-Aqsa, the third holiest site of Islam, and the hypothetical location of Herod's temple! On the esplanade of the mosques, the almost daily provocations, around 9 a.m., by Jewish supremacists protected by the army are not always limited to slogans and insults. Sometimes, on the 27th for example, these thugs in kippahs amuse themselves by molesting the faithful Muslims, as if to transform this colonial conflict into a religious war.

Really? The religious Jews"molested" the Muslim worshippers?

Anyone who has visited the Temple Mount - or even watched videos - knows that the police keep the Muslims far away from the Jews - to protect the Jews. If one of the Jewish visitors managed to run away from the tight group and touch a Muslim it would have been screaming headlines.

So we have Temple denial, lies about Jews, snide comments about their kippot, more lies about Jews, and then this photo to illustrate it:

Isn't their behavior outrageous?

In this case, EuroPalestine has proven itself to be not only anti-Israel but antisemitic.

The "Who We Are" section of this antisemitic site, naturally, insists it cares about human rights:

We citizens of all origins, committed to respect for human rights, international law and justice for all the peoples of the world, are determined to tirelessly denounce the occupation of the Palestinian territories which has endured for decades and which threatens seriously world peace.

The brutal repression suffered by the Palestinian people, the destruction of their houses, their cultures, their health and educational infrastructures, their social organization, aims to drive them out of their lands.

The State of Israel, which has always refused to define its borders in order to be able to annex more and more territory, has turned its back on all just solutions despite the many concessions made by the Palestinians over the years.

You can't even spoof these idiots. Lying is a basic part of their very identity.

Mahdi Spotted At Tel Aviv Ice Cream Parlor (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Check out their Facebook page.

milkshake Tel Aviv, August 5 - Customers and passers-by saw the main eschatological figure of Islam enjoying himself at a local frozen treats shop in this hip Mediterranean city, witnesses reported Thursday.

The Mahdi, known in some Islamic sects as the Twelfth Imam, and believed in some circles to be in a concealed state until Allah decides the End Times have come, ordered a strawberry milkshake followed by an espresso and some cold water, drawing awed whispers from other patrons of Menudo. He was seen to pay with a Bank-HaPoalim-issued charge card, an act that further fueled speculation that Allah's attitude toward Zionism differs from the mainstream Muslim position of the last several centuries.

"I couldn't believe it at first," admitted fellow customer Ron Guy. "Who expects to share a space with one of the most important figures in all of history? Quite the privilege. I wish I'd had the presence of mind to snap a few photos. Must have been too surprised and impressed to even think of it."

"I knew exactly who it was the moment I caught sight of him," recounted a still-wide-eyed Navi Sheker, a tourist from India. "I was right behind him at the counter! You bet your bottom rupee I ordered the same thing. I even sneaked a selfie with him in the background - look." She retrieved her phone from her handbag. "Oh. His face is all blurred. Darn it."

Discussion of the dramatic sighting included guesses as to the Mahdi's purpose in Tel Aviv. "Must be to move along the resolution of history," offered one witness.

"It might just be he needs a break from centuries of occulation," suggested another. "I know I could get tired of hiding away from human eyes for so long. A milkshake would be just the thing to restore my spirit and patience for a good while. I'd go for chocolate, though."

Talk then turned to the fact that the Mahdi had apparently shared a table with another mysterious figure, whose beard and quirky attire attracted no notice in a city as cosmopolitan and open as Tel Aviv. "Oh, I see the two of them come in here every now and then," recalled the manager. "They're obviously close, always affectionate, or at least very friendly. Jesus, the other guy looks so familiar, too, but I can never place him. Maybe next time I'll start a conversation. Anyway, I'm happy to have the venue be my business, but the event itself isn't all that surprising, what with Tel Aviv always being called a Gay Mecca."

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.