Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, August 11, 2021

Palestinian envoy to Greece spouts antisemitism at an "anti-racism" festival

The Greek city of Kalamata hosted it s tenth annual Anti-Racist and Anti-Fascist Festival on July 24 and 25. Photos of the event show lots of socialist graphics and literature and perhaps 200 people in attendance.

The first day of the festival had sessions on LGBTQ+, wind energy and Greek history. The second day featured the Palestinian envoy to Greece to give an anti-Israel speech.

The speech by Marwan Toubassi was filled with clear lies and incitement against Israel as well as pure antisemitism.

He said:

I come from a land where 100,000 Palestinians have been killed since 1948 and 1 million Palestinians have been imprisoned in Israel since 1967 and 1.5 million have been displaced from their homes and land. I come from a country where more than 60 organized massacres have taken place since the founding of the colonial state of Israel.

I come from a country that suffers from an ongoing holocaust.

Literally every word is a lie, and the use of the word "holocaust" is by any definition antisemitic.

But the Jew-hatred doesn't end there.

On this occasion, I would also like to mention some excerpts from the book by the President of the State of Palestine, Mahmoud Abbas, entitled "The Zionist Movement in Lenin's Writings", the first edition of which was published in 1979 and the second in 2011.

"Lenin believed that the continued exploitation of the Jewish question was in the interest of colonialism and that it achieved the goals of the Zionist movement, which feeds on this issue, moves it and benefits from it."

He goes on to say, "If world leaders had followed Lenin's example in their assessment and handling of the Jewish question, there would have been no Zionist movement and no colonial state of Israel, because, in short, Lenin believed that Jews they are not a nation and they do not have the components of a nation and they should live in the societies in which they existed hundreds or even thousands of years ago. "Lenin did not accept the declaration of separation between colonialism and imperialism on the one hand, and the Zionist movement on the other. "

Toubassi is quoting Mahmoud Abbas' book saying that the Jews aren't a people and they should not have a state.

Denying Jewish peoplehood is antisemitism, and in this case it is part of a demand that Jews in the Middle East always remain as second class citizens under Muslim rule.

The irony of a featured guest spreading antisemitism at an "anti-racist" festival was somehow lost on the organizers and attendees.

An elevator for the disabled is called a "racist, Judaizing, colonialist,Talmudic crime" by the Palestinian Authority

The Palestinian ministry of foreign affairs issued a statement condemning Israel for doing...something..at the Cave of the Patriarchs, what they call the Ibrahimi Mosque.

Nowhere in the entire press release does the ministry actually say what Israel is planning to do.

The mentality of the racist colonialism dominates the government in the occupying state and its various arms, and is embodied in its worst forms, with the operations of control, familyization and Judaization of the Ibrahimi Mosque, changing its historical, cultural, cultural and religious landmarks, and depriving the original owners of the land and Muslims from accessing it and praying in it. The occupation is one, its mentality is one, and its narrative is one, whether as it constantly appears in the oppression of Palestinian and Arab prisoners in prisons, or in the theft of Palestinian land and targeting the Palestinian presence through mass demolitions and forced displacement, or in the attempt to impose Israeli sovereignty and control over all the holy, archaeological and historical sites that are located in the heart of cities and Palestinian towns. As a result of this racist mentality, Palestinians are constantly paying high prices for the occupation’s complex crimes and violations. ....It is the mentality of Judaization and creeping annexation that denies the right of the Palestinian to his homeland and tries to change the parameters of the historical and legal reality to serve the Talmudic narrative of occupation, with the aim of replacing the political character of the conflict with the religious one.

The Ministry condemns in the strongest terms Israel's colonial attacks on the Ibrahimi Mosque and Christian and Islamic holy sites, and bears the Israeli government full and direct responsibility for this crime. The Ministry calls on UNESCO to defend its decisions and take the necessary practical measures to protect the Ibrahimi Mosque and return it to its historical and legal reality that was distorted and stolen by the occupation forces....

When the ministry says they want the Cave of the Patriarchs to "return to its historical and legal reality," they mean they want to revert to the days before 1967 when Jews were not allowed to visit the site altogether.

So why did they issue this unhinged screed?

This is all about an elevator that Israel approved to be built to that handicapped people can access the holy site. Right now, anyone in a wheelchair needs to be physically carried up the ancient stone stairs to visit the site.

Israel unilaterally decided to build the elevator after many years of lobbying because the Palestinian Authority would never agree to anything like this. The human rights of the disabled would not even be considered as a factor. In fact, you will not find any supposedly liberal anti-Israel activist who supports the idea that Jews have the human right to visit the site freely, let alone that disabled people have the right to visit safely, because the imperative of being anti-Israel is much more important than mere human rights.

Arab media claim that this will be a Jewish-only elevator. Arab media is lying - the elevator is for all. But the hate that the Palestinians and their supporters have for Jews is far, far higher than their desire to allow even disabled Muslims to visit their own holy sites, as long as the plan also helps any Jews.

The main Palestinian argument is that this elevator and supporting infrastructure is using land that belongs to Arab Hebron and the Waqf, and therefore this violates agreements. But the Palestinians have also signed agreements saying that Jews should have free access to their holy places. No one seems to insist that they hold up those agreements. If they were a normal government that cared about human rights and peace, something could have been hammered out to allow wheelchair access for all back in 2003.

When the PA uses language like "racist" and "colonialist" and "Talmudic" - one of their favorite epithets - to describe an elevator to help the disabled, it proves yet again that this is all about hating Jews and denying Jews their rights.

A Gazan threatens to stab his 13 children to death if he doesn't get a job and medicine. He won't stab himself, just his kids.

Nabil Al-Jabri, who lives in Gaza, cannot find a job, and needs medicine for his son.

He is a Hamas loyalist. He sent his kids to Hamas camp and shows off their souvenir trading-card style photos on his Facebook page.

He's no sexist though - he allows his daughter to pose with weapons, too, as in this photo posted this week.

As well as a son too young for the camp:

One of al-Jabri's sons had a medical condition and needs medicine. Al-Jabri himself seems to have a kidney ailment. He does not have a job and cannot afford the medicine needed.

So he made a video to get Hamas' attention to get the medicine and possibly a job.

In the video, he didn't threaten to kill himself if he didn't get what he wanted. No - instead, he threatened to slaughter his 13 children. (He didn't mention the two wives he seems to have.)

On camera.

With a knife.

The commenters are all very sympathetic. I didn't see one who said, "How can any decent father threaten to murder his own kids, even if it is meant to publicize his medical plight.

It seems his love of Hamas has paid off, because on Tuesday, he posted that he spoke with Hamas officials who assured him that things will work out, although they made no promises yet and negotiations are continuing.

This is a story about both how Hamas has no problem spending millions on weapons and tunnels, very little to help the people of Gaza, and only the people of Gaza who are on Hamas' side can expect some help. It is also the story of the sickness that so many Palestinians have where threatening their own children is not worth condemning.

08/10 Links Pt2: Diaspora minister: ‘We may lose US’ if liberal Jews continue backing BDS, BLM; The bride is beautiful: An irresistible anti-Zionist story; When Hitler’s Mufti Gave a Press Conference

From Ian:

‘We may lose US’ if liberal Jews continue backing BDS, BLM — Diaspora minister

Diaspora Affairs Minister Nachman Shai warned last week that if liberal American Jews continue supporting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions and Black Lives Matter movements, Jerusalem may lose the support of the United States altogether.

Making a guest appearance on the American Jewish Committee’s People of the Pod podcast, Shai said he recently briefed fellow members of the Israeli government on the status of American Jewry, telling them that “if we see more of the radical left and progressive liberal Jews continuing to support BDS and Black Lives Matter, and similar to the Palestinians… relat[ing] to Israel as a genocide state or an apartheid state, we may lose America.”

Israel has long identified the BDS movement as a significant threat against which millions of dollars have been invested, but the lumping of the boycott movement together with the Black Lives Matter movement is less common.

Some major Jewish organizations in the US have expressed opposition to statements and positions made by some BLM activists. However, the movement has won the support of many US Jews, and the Anti-Defamation League has spoken out against portraying its supporters as “violent extremists.”

Over 600 Jewish organizations, representing the majority of American Jews, signed a letter in support of the Black Lives Matter movement that was published in a full-page New York Times ad in August 2020.

Shai said “there were ideas to rely on other groups in America today” for support, instead of American Jewry, but that he rejects such proposals. He appeared to be referring to recent remarks made by former Israeli ambassador to the US Ron Dermer who suggested that Israel should prioritize the “passionate and unequivocal” support of evangelical Christians over that of American Jews, who he said are “disproportionately among our critics.”

Israel Advocacy Movement: Are progressive Jews abandoning Israel?

The data suggests that Reform Jews are less likely to be emotionally attached to Israel than Orthodox Jews and more and more appear to take more hostile positions on Israel.

We explore whether this is the case and what can be done to strengthen the bond between Diaspora Jews and the State of Israel.

We're joined by Rabbi Haim Shalom, Rabbi Lea Mühlstein and Josh Howie (@joshxhowie)

75 years on, harsh British detention of Holocaust survivors in Cyprus remembered

After surviving the Holocaust, trekking the Alps in winter and crossing the Mediterranean in an overcrowded boat, Rose Lipszyc clearly remembers her months incarcerated in harsh British camps in Cyprus.

“After all that, we were back behind barbed wire again,” 92-year-old Lipszyc said, speaking 75 years after British soldiers began imprisoning Jews on the eastern Mediterranean island, dark events whose legacy resonates today.

Lipszyc’s family, from the Polish city of Lublin, were among the six million Jews the Nazis massacred during World War II.

She escaped death using false papers, working as a forced laborer in Germany.

After the war, she walked to Italy. Then, joining an exodus of thousands of traumatized refugees dreaming of a Jewish nation, Lipszyc boarded a rickety boat in Venice bound for British-run Palestine.

“There were 300 of us squeezed into the boat,” Lipszyc said. “We were like sardines.”

But as the shores of Palestine appeared on the horizon, two British warships powered out.

“The English soldiers — who I would have kissed the feet of for liberating me in Germany — were leaping into our little boat with batons,” she said, her voice trembling.

When Hitler’s Mufti Gave a Press Conference

By the 1960s, however, Husseini’s position had deteriorated considerably. Rejecting peace and any accommodation with Zionism, his forces had tried — and failed — to destroy Israel during its 1948 War of Independence. Husseini no longer had a great power patron and was reliant on support from Egypt and later Saudi Arabia. Nonetheless, he lived in comparative luxury with a retinue of staff, including a driver for his limousine, and constantly plotted against the Jewish state and the West.

Meir wanted Gideon Hausner, the Israeli Attorney General and prosecutor at Eichmann’s trial, to tie the infamous Nazi to Husseini, and thereby “link Israel’s Arab enemies to the Nazis.” Hausner had Avraham Zellinger, who did research for the trial, investigate the relationship between the two men. Zellinger found an entry in the Mufti’s diary which speaks of the “best of the Arab friends” with the name “Eichmann” written underneath it. But the court, Klagsbrun noted, “went no further than to recognize that Eichmann had met the Mufti once, with no evidence of a close relationship between them.”

It was against this backdrop that Amin al-Husseini held a March 4, 1961, press conference in Beirut. The Mufti, CIA cables reveal, “categorically denied any connection with the persecution of Jews in Germany during the Second World War.” He claimed that “all allegations in this respect were baseless and they were prompted by Zionists’ enmity toward him and the Palestinian national movement.”

The Mufti also distributed a statement in response to a recent book on Eichmann by the American journalist Quentin Reynolds, which alleged that Husseini had several contacts with the SS officer and had toured Nazi death camps. Husseini “said that he did not know Eichmann and that he had no connection whatsoever with him.” Further, “neither he nor any other Arab had plans in the past or at present to annihilate any race, Jews or others.” Husseini closed out the press conference by asserting that “what the Jews have done” in Israel “is similar to what the Nazis did to them in Germany” — a libel that is still echoed by antisemites today.

Husseini’s press conference was replete with lies.

Husseini was well aware of Hitler’s plans for European Jewry. Indeed, he hoped to replicate them in the Middle East.

In his own memoirs, the Mufti recorded a November 28, 1941, meeting with Hitler: “Our fundamental condition for cooperating with Germany was a free hand to eradicate every last Jew from Palestine and the Arab world. I asked Hitler for an explicit undertaking to allow us to solve the Jewish problem in a manner befitting our national and racial aspirations and according to the scientific methods innovated by Germany in the handling of its Jews.”

“The answer I got was: ‘The Jews are yours.’”

Many apologists, journalists, and academics spent decades denying that Husseini visited concentration camps, but in 2017, conclusive photographic evidence emerged showing Husseini touring the Trebbin camp near Berlin.

There is no possible legal way the Arabs at the Sheikh Jarrah building have ownership rights

Here is a detail of the Sheikh Jarrah issue that I was not aware of, from a 2010 report from The Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies:

In 1956, in the context of a cooperative project between the government of Jordan and UNRWA, 28 Palestinian refugee families were housed in a residential compound (26 dual-family houses and two single-family houses) that had been constructed in the neighborhood to the east of Nablus Road and south of the cave of Shimon HaTzadik (named the Karam al-Ja’uni” Compound). In exchange, the residents were required to relinquish their refugee ration cards, that is, their right to receive material assistance from relief and works agencies of the United Nations and the Jordanian government. This did not, however, change the Palestinian residents’ status as refugees according to the UNRWA criteria or their demand for return of or monetary compensation for the property they abandoned in Israel. The rental lease that the Arab residents of the compound signed with the government of Jordan stated that the agreement does not in any way affect their rights in their country of origin, and if they return to their original homes they will be required to return the property in this neighborhood to the government of Jordan (see the annexed agreement). Each apartment was 60 square meters in size, on a yard of 350 square meters in size. Every family that entered the compound was required to pay symbolic rental fees to the Jordanian Ministry of Economy and Development in the sum of one Jordanian dinar per year. The agreement stated that after three years and three months have passed, the residents may renew the lease, under the same conditions, for an additional 30 years, after which they could renew it for another 33 years.

This makes it very clear that Jordan had no intention of giving up the ownership rights to the property. It also means that under Jordanian law, the residents could not live in that house beyond 2022.

The part that says that if the residents return to their homes in Israel then they must give up this house proves that Jordan “Custodian of Enemy Property.” never gave up its own claims - claims that no longer exist since state property (not private property) transferred over to Israel in 1967.

The residents claim, improbably, that Jordan promised to give them the land outright after the initial three years, but no one has ever brought any proof for this. Earlier this year Jordan provided evidence that it intended to give them legal title in 1966, but again, that never happened.

This is the only legal agreement about how the land can be used that anyone has seen. Saying that the Palestinian residents "own" it has no legal basis whatsoever.

Here is the entire agreement:

Jordan is Palestine - according to AP in 1950

Newspapers carrying the Associated Press had an interesting story on April 25, 1950:

If Jordan annexed areas of western Palestine, that means there must have been an eastern Palestine - on the other side of the Jordan River.

The term "West Bank" didn't exist yet, so AP called it the historically accurate "western Palestine."

1950 was less than three decades removed from the original partition of Palestine into western Palestine and Transjordan, so the terms "eastern" and "western" Palestine were still used. In the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica, the phrases "Eastern Palestine" and "Western Palestine" were capitalized.

Somehow since then the world has forgotten about eastern Palestine, mostly due to Jordan's insistence that it is not Palestine - it is so insecure that its king still insists, even today, that nations assure it that they will not consider Jordan as a Palestinian state.

The only reason Jordan is so touchy on the subject is because it knows that at least parts of Jordan have always been considered part of Palestine - ever since the Israelites settled there.

08/10 Links Pt1: Hope and Optimism: A Reflection on the Abraham Accords Anniversary; 20th Anniversary of Sbarro Terror Attacks Commemorated, Along With Demands for Extradition of Mastermind From Jordan

From Ian:

Arsen Ostrovsky: Hope and Optimism: A Reflection on the Abraham Accords Anniversary

These are truly historic times, bringing a paradigm shift in the Middle East and the Jewish state's acceptance in the region. Gone are the days of the infamous "3 Nos" of Khartoum, instead replaced with "3 Yeses"—yes to peace, yes to negotiations and yes to recognition.

There is a tremendous, palpable sense of excitement and optimism not only amongst Israelis, who yearn for peace and normalization with our Arab neighbors, but also amongst our newfound friends from the Gulf. The feeling is reciprocal.

One would imagine that, after not having formal diplomatic relations for decades, these countries would proceed to embrace each other at a steady, incremental pace. But that couldn't have been more wrong. Instead, they have moved with remarkable speed. From direct flights and the opening of embassies to the signing of new agreements, bilateral trade and cooperation on COVID-19 responses, health and education, the sky is truly the limit.

In May of this year, I found myself rushing to the bomb shelter in Tel Aviv with my family after a wave of rocket attacks from Hamas in Gaza. The first people to message me to ask "are you ok?" were my friends from the UAE. This would have been unthinkable barely a year ago, but moved me so deeply beyond words.

As the first anniversary of the Abraham Accords approaches next week, I have never been more hopeful, inspired or optimistic about the future of Israel's relations with the Arab world. This is a real friendship based on shared values and a mutual commitment to create more prosperous, peaceful and tolerant societies, both today and for future generations.

Peace is very much like a flower. Politicians and diplomats plant the seeds of peace, but ultimately, civil society, young leaders, educators and the business community are the ones who allow it to grow. That is what differentiates the Abraham Accords from past agreements—this peace is being led not by the politicians, but by the people on the ground.

Israel-Morocco Ties Deepen as Lapid Prepares for Rabat Trip

In the wake of the signing of the Abraham Accords last year, Israel’s renewed diplomatic relationship with Morocco appears to be bearing fruit, as a raft of cooperation agreements between the two countries are reportedly in the pipeline.

In July, Israel and Morocco signed a cybersecurity cooperation agreement, which was the first time the two countries had reached a deal on anything since the renewal of ties, according to Israeli outlet Globes.

The foundations for that signing were laid after Foreign Affairs Ministry director-general Alon Ushpiz’s recent trip, which mapped out the required steps to promote economic and trade cooperation.

Economy Minister Orna Barbivay is also expected to visit Morocco in the coming weeks at the head of a delegation of businesspeople and industrialists, reported Globes.

The cybersecurity deal is not thought to relate to the recent furor over Morocco’s alleged use of Israeli company NSO’s Pegasus spyware, in which the government supposedly spied on political opponents and surveilled one of French President Emmanuel Macron’s cell phones.

Despite Israel and Morocco signing last years’ accord, Prime Minister Saad-Eddine El Othmani, head of the Islamic Justice and Development Party and a supporter of the Palestinian cause, said that he would not be meeting with Foreign Minister Yair Lapid during his visit to Morocco.

20th Anniversary of Sbarro Terror Attacks Commemorated, Along With Demands for Extradition of Mastermind From Jordan

Jewish groups and Israeli and US officials marked the 20th anniversary on Monday of the infamous Palestinian terrorist bombing of the popular Sbarro pizza eatery in Jerusalem, with some calling on the US to demand extradition of one of its masterminds to face charges for the deaths of Americans killed in the attack.

The Hamas-orchestrated bombing, which took place in 2001 at the height of the Second Intifada, killed 15 innocent people and wounded over a hundred.

The World Jewish Congress marked the occasion with a video featuring testimonies from the survivors and a tribute to the victims.

Several commentators pointed out that one of the masterminds of the bombing, Ahlam Tamimi, remains at large under Jordanian protection, even though she is under indictment in the US on terror charges.

Arnold Roth, whose daughter Malki was among those murdered by Tamimi, tweeted a video from 2017 on the unsealing of Tamimi’s indictment, saying, “The tweet below is from March 14 2017, four years to the day that US terror charges against the @Sbarro bomber were finally unsealed.”

“Please honor the Sbarro victims today on the massacre’s 20th anniversary by viewing the clip,” he said. “Please help us get justice done.”

This week marks 20 years since a Palestinian suicide bombing at Sbarro restaurant in Jerusalem during the Second Intifada killed sixteen people, including eight children.

When anti-Israel protesters in Brooklyn chant “Globalize the Intifada,” they call for more bloody violence. pic.twitter.com/fYakNmW0gp
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) August 10, 2021

Words cannot convey the enormity of a 20th anniversary of the massacre that took our child's life. Instead I'll focus on the ongoing travesty of justice and home in on the US @StateDept's current stancehttps://t.co/6VWL4aFzEA pic.twitter.com/EGD47JKXaE
— Frimet Roth (@FrimetRoth) August 9, 2021

I've been following the Twitter account of Ken Roth, head of Human Rights Watch, and his multiple attacks on Israel daily.

I count that he has tweeted against Israel 95 times since July 1, far more than any other nation except Myanmar and China.

Roth really emphasizes his bizarre idea that Israel is in the top tier of human rights abusers in the world. In one very telling tweet from August 4:

Biden "is preparing an overhaul of arms export policy to increase the emphasis on human rights." The real test: will that mean a cutoff of arms sales to systematic abusers like Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the Philippines, and Israel?

Here is Roth's list of the worst human rights abusers that buy arms from the US. However, as I pointed out then, there are a lot of countries with horrific human rights records that Roth didn't bother to mention in his list, among them Nigeria, Qatar, Lebanon, Mexico, Colombia, Tunisia, Pakistan, Kenya, Turkey, Jordan, Oman, Indonesia, India, Thailand, Niger, Morocco and DR Congo.

There is another angle that proves Roth's obsession with the Jewish state.

With most other countries, Roth concentrates on one (or two) major human rights abuses. With Israel, there is a seemingless endless list of issues that Roth feels are important enough to emphasize.

Since July 1, the top issue was the NSO Group, a private Israeli cybersecurity firm whose software is misused by autocratic customers. I count 34 tweets about NSO Group that specifically mention or blame Israel even though the countries that used the software in ways that violated the license agreement are the ones who are the actual human rights abusers.

No less than 22 tweets about Ben and Jerry's ice cream - a truly remarkable amount of time and effort for a supposed leader in human rights to spend.

But no issue is too trivial for Roth to tweet about as long as he can try to make Israel look bad: Israel dragging its feet on extraditing an alleged Mexican criminal, Israel not fielding any Arab Israelis on its Olympics team, multiple tweets about the law that didn't pass on restricting marriages between Israeli and Palestinian Arabs, settlers and "war crime" settlements, generic accusations of Israeli "apartheid," eight tweets on a property dispute in Sheikh Jarrah that shows that Roth knows nothing about the law, and others. There is no other country that gets this level of attention where so many issues are used as fodder for attacks.

Roth's obsession can only be described as antisemitism. Besides the tweet he made last month blaming Jews for antisemitism - which he took down but didn't apologize for - Roth yesterday tweeted:

"Israeli claims that Ben & Jerry’s is engaging in a boycott against Israel is untrue," say several Democratic aides. And "what right does Israel have to dictate an American’s right to decide" or "to order state governors to punish this American company?” https://t.co/55OHs4MdF9 pic.twitter.com/5lonp8KSN3
— Kenneth Roth (@KenRoth) August 9, 2021

American Jews are the ones who are writing letters and contacting governors and representatives about this topic. Roth, by highlighting this quote, is saying that American Jews are not really Americans, and they have no right to complain about American companies. Moreover, any Americans outraged at the Ben and Jerry's boycott are - according to Roth's tweet - really acting as agents of the Israeli government.

Accusations of dual loyalty are antisemitic. Here a human rights icon is seriously pushing the same trope, and he is serious.

From Haaretz:

Dozens of Israeli organizations, both public and private, fell victim to a coordinated cyberattack that most likely originated in China, the international cybersecurity company FireEye announced Monday.

This is the first documented case of a large-scale Chinese attack on Israel. It was part of a broader campaign that targeted many other countries, including Iran, Saudi Arabia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Thailand. FireEye has been monitoring the operation for two years.

According to the company’s report, the Israeli targets came from the fields of shipping, high-tech, telecommunications, defense, academia and information technology. IT companies are particularly sought-after targets because they are what is known as a supply chain threat – meaning that through them, the hackers can reach many other companies.

The attacks were aimed at stealing know-how, commercial secrets and business intelligence.

Sanaz Yashar, who led FireEye’s investigation into Israeli targets, said that one possible factor in the attacks is China’s Belt and Road Initiative, which is meant to create a continuous land and water route around the world for Chinese products. This initiative “is connected with huge infrastructure projects in which China is involved, including in Israel, like ports or railroads,” she explained.

“Another Chinese interest in Israel is its technology sector,” Yashar said. “There are a lot of Israeli companies that are involved in the very fields at the core of Chinese interests, as reflected in their five-year plans.

“Their goal isn’t necessarily always to steal intellectual property; it’s possible that they’re actually looking for business information,” she added. “In the Chinese view, it’s legitimate to attack a company while negotiating with it, so they will know how to price the deal properly.

“When the Chinese do business, they don’t enter the contract with their eyes shut. They examine the other offers, the board of directors’ emails, correspondence among people, what the intrigues are and who the key people are.”

Yashar said the Chinese are most likely interested in know-how in fields such as cybersecurity, renewable energy, agricultural technologies and 5G communications. “Anyone who does business with China also interests them,” she added.

The hackers mainly took email correspondence and documents, Yashar said. “This attacker was specifically interested in emails, vacuuming up huge quantities of emails. We see that immediately after entering, they mapped the network and looked for document and email servers.”

They also seized usernames and passwords – possibly to be able to reenter the same targets later on, or possibly to enable them to enter different targets.

By analyzing the hacking tools used and comparing them to similar attacks in the past, FireEye concluded that China’s Ministry of State Security was behind the attack.

From the description given, this wasn't an "attack" per se - it was a huge reconnaissance mission.

China recognizes the value of information and is not shy about using any means to obtain it. To them, stealing emails and passwords is how other people think about using search engines.

Israel is working with China on critical infrastructure projects - a new railway between Eilat and Ashdod, a private port at Ashdod, and the port of Haifa. There is no doubt that China wants to leverage those into more espionage and intelligence. Moreover, China partners with many Israeli high tech companies that they no doubt are extracting information from.

Israel must be far more cautious about partnering with China. The Haaretz article indicates that Israel may be waking up to that fact, seeming to stop a couple of major deals for Chinese companies to buy an Israeli mobile operator and an insurance company.

The FireEye report describes how China is getting more and more sophisticated at trying to hide its tracks. For example, it autotranslated some of the artifacts in its attack tools into Farsi so make Israelis think this was an Iranian attack. (The language was stilted and used terms that native Farsi speakers wouldn't use.) They also wrote tools specifically to clean up indications that they were ever in computer systems to begin with.

Arab news site claims to reveal agreement between the US, Israel and Palestinian Authority. The supposed leak might be the bigger story.

Arabi21 claims to have received details on an agreement between the US, Israel and Palestinian Authority that was hammered out by US Deputy Assistant Secretary for Israeli and Palestinian Affairs Hady Amr during his visit last month.

The agreement includes many of the things that Israel would insist upon, so the report might be credible.

According to Arabi21, the agreement was was signed on July 14. It includes the US imposing strict control over the Palestinian media and educational curricula, and the reactivation of the tripartite American-Israeli-Palestinian committee to track and report on incitement in Palestinian media.

It is also said to address the "pay for slay" issue, where the US and Israel would modify the Palestinian Prisoners Law in ways that would be acceptable.

Additionally, the agreement is meant to strengthen the Palestinian Authority by providing strong auditing mechanisms against corruption and misuse of funds, with major US accounting firms like PriceWaterhouse performing the audits.

The US also asked the Palestinian Authority to credibly investigate the apparent murder of Nizar Banat, to be completed within three months, to regain PA credibility on the Palestinian street.

Perhaps more interesting than this story is the leaking of this story. If it is true, or partially true, it means that someone who works in the US State Department leaked it - and they chose to leak it to an Arab news site. Only an Arabic speaker would choose Arabi21, a site that is barely known to the Western world.

If the leak is legitimate, it was done to embarrass the Palestinian Authority. We know that because the end of the story quotes the source as saying "the document, with what it reveals of American and Israeli interventions, reveals the truth about who runs the Palestinian Authority."

It is also notable that the leak doesn't include any concessions to the Palestinian Authority itself, which any real agreement would do, which hints that there are other sections of the alleged agreement that were not leaked - in order to make the PA look as bad as possible.

All of this means that if it is found out that the story is true or partially true, there is someone in the State Department who is actively working to undermine the Palestinian Authority and try to boost more radical Palestinian factions.

That might be bigger news than the reported agreement itself.

08/09 Links Pt2: Melanie Phillips: The west's cultural meltdown We need allies to stop this disease; Democratic Socialists of America Host Corbyn; Farrakhan Roots Feed BLM's Anti-Semitism

From Ian:

Understanding the ‘hows’ of antisemitism

We all agree that antisemitism is bad. People are less likely to be seduced by this hate because we all know where it leads. But anti-Zionism is not perceived to be in the same category. It is sold as speaking truth to power, masked as justice.

The antisemitism we all acknowledge as bad started out looking nothing like where it led. In fact, in comparing the beginnings of antisemitism with anti-Zionism the similarities are striking. In the secular 19th century, Jews were designated as Semites, yet it was never intended to mean anything but Jew.

In the Soviet Union, which claimed to not notice differences in people or religion, Jews were designated as Zionists, and today the designation of Zionism in the West is described as having immutable loathsome qualities. To Christian Europe, we were Christ-killers. To the Nazis, we were an impure race. To the Soviets, we were capitalists. And today, when the greatest sins of the world are racism and colonialism, the Jewish collective is defined as the ultimate bastion of white supremacy, and Israel is seen as a state born in sin.

Antisemitism relies on the greatest authority of any given time. Religion in ancient times, science in the modern era and human rights today. It is only by appealing to the religious doctrine that all Jews of the 12th century could be referred to as the killers of Jesus, 1,000 years after his death. It is only by appealing to the authority of perverted science, that Jews could be accused of endangering its racial purity. It is only by appealing to a distorted version of human rights that Israel and Zionism, a Jewish liberation movement, could be considered its greatest violators. It is only by appealing to this distortion that the same people who continually agreed to partitioning the land into a Jewish state and a Palestinian state, could be the ones standing in the way of a two-state solution.

Why go to all these lengths to single out a group and distort reality?

Melanie Phillips (PodCast): The west's cultural meltdown

In a podcast, I joined the editor of spiked, Brendan O’Neill, to discuss the baleful issue which preoccupies both of us — the disarray of the western world, its decline into vicious identity politics with its gross abuse of power, and its progressive repudiation of freedom, community and reason.

Starting with the trans-gender agenda, we covered relations between men and women, the origin of the bedrock values that are currently being lost, the current epidemic of antisemitism and the undermining of what it is to be a human being. You can listen to this spiked podcast by clicking on the arrow above the picture.

We need allies to stop this disease

The impact of trigger events such as this on the Jewish community in the UK cannot be understated, and it really is the entire community that is affected. Jewish individuals are targeted regardless of age, regardless of gender, regardless of public prominence and regardless of level of religious observance. Jewish institutions are subjected to antisemitic threats and abuse, whether or not they have ever passed comment on Israel. Every time that violence in Israel and Gaza flares up, a significant spike in antisemitism is observed. It is indiscriminate. It is not a coincidence.

Of these 1,308 reports, 832 took place across May and June, in light of the conflict escalating. Of these 1,308 reports, 693 referenced the war between Israel and Hamas, were motivated by the fury it inspired, demonstrated anti-Zionist sentiment, or a mixture of the three.

When perpetrators do not separate anti-Israel hatred from anti-Jewish hatred – indeed, when they use whatever they claim Israel is doing to vindicate their prejudice towards Jews – whatever academic distinctions may exist between anti-Zionism and antisemitism become irrelevant. When a Jewish child fears for their safety in school because shouts of “Free Palestine” are repeatedly directed at them; when a Jewish university student is told that their life is worthy of being threatened if they don’t declare themselves to be anti-Zionist; when community members are scared of expressing their identity in public in case they are held accountable for Israel’s alleged actions – this is antisemitism.

CST’s mission is to protect the Jewish community, physically and emotionally, in order to facilitate the thriving of Jewish life in the UK. But this mission cannot be fulfilled alone.

It demands the support of allies, those who want to create an inclusive society that celebrates diversity and denounces racism, to stand in solidarity and call out antisemitism.

It demands the action of social media platforms to adhere to their own policies and show that their claims of zero tolerance for hate is not merely lip service. It demands that the police treat hate crime with the severity it deserves and investigate, arrest and prosecute its offenders. This is a shared responsibility.

Democratic Socialists of America Host Former UK Labour Leader Corbyn at Annual Convention

The Democratic Socialists of America hosted former UK Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn on Saturday at their annual convention.

During his tenure as head of Labour, Corbyn fostered an atmosphere of systemic antisemitism, including animus toward Israel, antisemitic conspiracy theories, harassment of Jewish members, and his own claim that “Zionists” were un-British. Several Jewish and non-Jewish Labour MPs quit the party and denounced his leadership.

The UK Jewish community, large numbers of which said they would consider emigrating if Corbyn became prime minister, undertook a concerted campaign against him and his allies, and he was eventually routed in the 2019 election by Prime Minister Boris Johnson and resigned as party leader.

During the DSA convention, held virtually due to the coronavirus pandemic, Corbyn mentioned the Israeli-Palestinian conflict only once, noting that his new Project for Peace & Justice had “mobilized for solidarity with the people of Palestine during the bombing of Gaza,” an apparent reference to Israel’s 11-day war with the Hamas terrorist group in May.

Corbyn also presented a vague conspiracy theory to participants, saying, “The richest and most powerful are organized across the world. We need to be not as organized as them, but better organized than them.”

"Justice, Justice You Shall Pursue" is one of the most Zionist verses in the Torah

In this week's Torah portion, we see one of the verses that Israel haters love to quote: "Tzedek, Tzedek Tirdof" - "Justice, Justice You Shall Pursue." (Deuteronomy 16:20)

It is all over the place, as the haters love to pretend that the verse shows that Israel is violating the tenets of the Torah that they don't believe in to begin with.

You will never hear them quote the entire verse.

The verse is a promise by God to give the entire land of Israel to the Jews.

It is generally understood to mean that the Jewish nation must establish a functioning, moral legal system as a fundamental part of the nation's ethos.

Even though the modern State of Israel is not a religious state, it has an excellent legal system. People who want to denigrate Israel try not to attack Israel's justice system directly because they know that they cannot argue with their meticulous rulings that run circles around their own pathetic interpretation of the law. (All of the Sheikh Jarrah criticism boils down to "It's not fair!" Because they know that the rulings have been legal.)

By the standards of this verse, no one deserves to live on the entire land of Israel more than the Jews who have brought there the best legal system it has seen since the last time Jews lived there.

"Tzedek, Tzedek Tirdof" is a most quintessentially Zionist verse. Which is why the haters will never want to discuss the second half of it.

08/09 Links Pt1: Israel's National Security Doctrine; Bennett Cabinet Cuts Taxes Collected for PA by $31 Million Paid Out to Terrorists; Lebanon's Maronite patriarch calls on army to confront Hezbollah

From Ian:

JISS: Israel's National Security Doctrine

Israel has an unwritten but broadly accepted national security doctrine - "first principles" - which can assist in long-term planning, setting priorities and allocating resources.

Israel will forever face a yawning gap between the size of its resident population and that of neighboring countries, which have all been hostile to Israel's existence in the past, and some remain so. Israel always will be a small country in size, and hence hyper-sensitive to any loss of territory and to artillery and rocket fire - unlike most of its neighbors.

Israel can never attain a decisive victory in war - a moment which would radically transform the political culture of the region regarding the desire to annihilate it. No victory in any war would ensure, once and for all, that Israel again will not face threats to its existence. Moreover, Israel's first defeat may well be its last, if its territory ends up being conquered by Arab or Islamic forces. This is not the case for any Arab country which Israel might defeat and occupy its territory.

Thus, Israel is doomed to plan for the next war at the end of any war it fights, no matter how successful; and in every war it must prevail against all odds. In sharp contrast to its adversaries, the IDF has no option of retreat.

Israel's "center of gravity" is concentrated in a narrow geographical space in the greater Tel Aviv region - 10 miles from the Green Line, 45 miles from the Jordan River border, and 25 miles from Gaza. Keeping the enemy away from the region and defending it from attack is vital and critical for Israel's ability to survive and to function during any wartime scenario. Beyond that, due to its small size, Israel does not have much redundancy when it comes to critical infrastructure, which is a serious vulnerability.

Israel will make every effort to bolster its ability to defend itself by itself. It cannot and must not rely on others to fight its wars. Both to deter, as well as to defend effectively, and to attack and win when necessary, Israel must maintain a "qualitative edge" over its enemies, mostly using advanced technology and highly-qualified manpower. Israel will do everything necessary to sustain and increase its qualitative advantages.

Bennett Cabinet Cuts Taxes Collected for PA by $31 Million Paid Out to Terrorists

One month after the Political-Security Cabinet approved the decision not to transfer terrorist funds to the Palestinian Authority, on Monday morning Israel transferred the tax money it collected on behalf of the Palestinian Authority after offsetting NIS 100 million ($31 million). The offset was made in accordance with the cabinet decision and according to a calculation presented by the IDF and the Finance Ministry as an estimate of the sums of money the PA transferred to the families of terrorists between the years 2019-2020.

According to a law passed in 2018, the defense minister is charged with presenting at the end of each year the total money paid out by the Palestinian Authority to terrorists and their families during that year, and in the following year, an equal amount shall be frozen out of the taxes Israel collects for the PA, in accordance with the Paris Agreement.

But in years past, the Netanyahu government did not keep up with the requirements of the 2018 law that it initiated, and, in fact, in March 2020 transferred NIS 800 million ($248 million) to the PA to help it deal with its economic crisis following the Corona pandemic. But as right-wing news website Hakol HaYehudi pointed out back then, the main reason that led to the PA’s economic crisis was the transfer of more than one and a half billion shekels each year as wages to terrorists who carried out attacks against Jews.

The Bennett cabinet decided to move ahead with freezing those terrorist wages and restarting the monthly payments of collected taxes sans the terrorist payments to the PA, which is facing a collapse over not paying its public employees for several months. In the past, Chairman Mahmoud Abbas refused to receive the discounted funds from Israel, but he appears to have softened over time and now he’ll take whatever Israel gives him.

According to the report that was prepared by the Defense Ministry’s Economic Warfare Headquarters, in 2020 the Palestinian Authority paid out NIS 597 million ($185 million) as indirect support for terrorism. Following the approval of the report, 1/12 of these funds will be frozen every month from the money that Israel transfers to the PA.

"Pay-for-Slay" Explained by Former Head of IDF Military Prosecution for Judea & Samaria

Lt. Col. Maurice Hirsch, former Head of IDF Military Prosecution for Judea & Samaria and current Director of Legal Strategies for Palestinian Media Watch, explains the Palestinian Authority's "pay-for-slay" program.

Lebanon's Maronite patriarch calls on army to confront Hezbollah

Lebanon’s Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros al-Rahi called on Sunday for the Lebanese army to take control of the southern part of the country, Hezbollah’s stronghold, and strictly implement UN Security Council Resolution 1701, after recent clashes between Israel and Hezbollah.

“We call upon the Lebanese army, which is responsible with the international forces for the security of the South, to take control of the entire lands of the South, to strictly implement Resolution 1701 and to prevent the launching of missiles from Lebanese territory, not for the sake of Israel’s safety, but rather for the safety of Lebanon,” said Rahi during Sunday Mass, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA).

The Maronite patriarch stressed that he could not “accept, by virtue of equality before the law, that a party decides peace and war outside the decision of legality and the national decision entrusted to two-thirds of the members of the government.”

On Friday, 19 rockets were fired from southern Lebanon into northern Israel, with the Iron Dome intercepting 10 rockets and six rockets falling in open areas near Har Dov, along the Lebanese border. The others fell inside Lebanon. There were no injuries or casualties.

A sampling of boycotts of Jews 1881-1920. They sure resemble BDS today.

Here are only a sampling of boycotts of Jews around the world before 1920. They have different reasons (when any reasons are given) but the bottom line is that they are simply antisemitic.

The feel just like BDS does today. The last one I list is exactly like BDS today.

Germany, reported in the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, January 9. 1881:

West Fork, Indiana, from the Gazette of Cedar Rapids IA, March 1, 1893:

Algiers, reported by Western Mail of Cardiff, December 9, 1898:

This is exactly like Fatah saying that they keep track of and photograph Palestinians who shop at Rami Levy stores in Judea and Samaria.

France, reported in the Chicago Tribune, May 10, 1900:

Sounds lot like the extensive rules the BDSers have on what is forbidden.

Ireland, from Inter-Ocean (Chicago), May 8, 1904:

As always, instead of protecting the Jews, the Jews are told to run away "for their safety."

Odessa, Russia, October 1906:

Atlanta, GA, from Montgomery Times,. June 24, 1915:

Jersey City, from the New York Times, June 5, 1919, in an echo of the current Polish refusal to admit complicity in atrocities against Jews during the Holocaust:

And here was a justification for boycotting Jews in Europe, by pretending to care about a fictional Jewish boycott of Arabs in Palestine - this is pure BDS from 1894 reported in The Jewish Voice of St. Louis: