Monday, August 16, 2021
Elder of Ziyon
Monday, August 16, 2021Elder of Ziyon
Monday, August 16, 2021Elder of ZiyonIsraeli officials are up in arms over the UN agency for Palestinian refugees' refusal to take action against employees who incite violence and promote antisemitism online.A report by UN Watch, a Geneva-based nongovernmental organization that monitors UN activity, found 113 instances of incitement to violence by UNRWA staff, in clear violation of UNRWA's rules.Israel's Ambassador to the UN and the US demanded UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini take action against those cited in the UN Watch report. The UN body, however, rejected Erdan's demand, announcing it would host a workshop for employees on the issue instead.
Sunday, August 15, 2021Elder of Ziyon
Paula Shugart, the president of the Miss Universe organization, said Israel has been on the pageant's shortlist of host countries "for a number of years due to its rich history.""As we sought a location for our 70th anniversary celebration, it became clear through our conversations with acting mayor Lankri (of Eilat) and the Israeli Ministry of Tourism that Israel, which has done a good job containing the global pandemic, has the best resources to host Miss Universe in December," Shugart told Insider.
"We look forward to deepening our commitment to creating meaningful cultural conversation, connection, and understanding through this partnership," she added
The Miss Universe Organization said contestants will "explore the rich history and culture of Israel" in the weeks leading up to the competition with visits to the Dead Sea, Jerusalem, and Tel Aviv.
According to Omar and her defenders, telling the truth about her anti-Semitism and hatred for Israel was "putting her life at risk." The left-wing J Street lobby claimed that in simply noting the facts, AIPAC was "declaring war on progressive Democrats" and making false accusations about "women of color."Peter Beinart's war on Israel
Sadly, Pelosi and Hoyer said that speaking out against the pair or Tlaib was "deeply cynical and inflammatory" and wouldn't increase support for Israel.
The problem here is not just that members of the expanded 2021 version of "The Squad" have been lying about Israel and helping to incite anti-Semitic violence against Jews. It's that their fellow Democrats are still more offended by attempts to hold these people accountable than they are by the kind of open anti-Semitism expressed by them.
Democrats respond to every query about this issue with talk of the far right's anti-Semitism. But gaslighting the country with partisan talking points about Trump is no answer.
We know that Democratic Socialists and other members of the left-wing base of the party that currently controls both the White House and Congress are increasingly embracing anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic positions, making it politically dangerous for mainstream Democrats to confront them.
Even as it was engaging in disgraceful attacks on those who seek to point out the truth about "The Squad," J Street did withdraw its endorsement from Tlaib for her open embrace of Israel's elimination. But there is little difference between her stands and those of House members like Omar, Ocasio-Cortez and Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) who also support the anti-Semitic BDS movement.
We're now at the point where liberal Jewish groups – not to mention House Democratic leaders Pelosi and Hoyer – cannot be allowed to continue to get away with an effort to distance themselves from these haters while not actually condemning them or calling for their removal from Congress. The talk about defending "women of color" and other attempts at distracting us from the reality of what now amounts to an informal pro-anti-Semitism caucus in the House just won't cut it anymore.
Simply put, if Rashida Tlaib isn't given the same treatment dished out to Taylor-Greene, then there is no way to argue that the House Majority hasn't established a standard that gives a permission slip to anti-Semitism from the left.
Over the years, Beinart's criticism of Israel, and the settlements, in particular, has become increasingly extreme. If only it ended there. Beinart has undermined the very structure of Israel's regime. He believes Israel should be a state in which Jews and Palestinians live together in full equality. It seems this is the reason he has called for Israel to open its gates and allow the Palestinians to realize their "right of return." Just recently, he has gone even further, in his Israel criticism, so much so that his recent opinion piece, titled "America Needs to Start Telling the Truth About Israel's Nukes" and published just a few days ago in The New York Times, could be seen as comparing Israel to Iran.Past time for ‘Telling The Truth’ about Palestinian lies
Honest Reporting, a US pro-Israel media watchdog group, was highly critical of Beinart's piece, the subject of which was Iranian and Israeli nuclear policy. In his piece, Beinart called for the US and Israel to begin to reveal the truth about Israel's alleged nuclear missiles. Beinart dwarfed the Iranian threat toward Israel, making no mention of the fact that it is Iran that is threatening to wipe out Israel and the country's leaders who consistently call for the destruction of the Jewish state.
Beinart claims his minimization of the severity of the threat is aimed at promoting the nuclear disarmament of the Middle East. The difficulty, he argues, lies in the fact that Israel is not a signatory to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, and unlike Iran, does not allow inspection of its facilities. The nuclear issue appears to be a recent addition to Beinart's Israel criticism. After all, Jewish American criticism of Israel tends to focus on the settlements as the source of all evil. For Beinart, Netanyahu's years in office provided a comfortable platform for him to write his criticism. The question is: Will the American Left Beinart represents soften its stance on Israel in the Naftali Bennett era or will it become even more radicalized?
Even a cursory glance at contemporaneous Arab and Muslim newspapers and other Muslim media makes clear that it was Arab leaders who commanded the local Arab population to “flee” their homes in anticipation of the genocide of the Jews:
- On April 3, 1949 the Near East Arabic Broadcasting Station reported: “It must not be forgotten that the Arab Higher Committee encouraged the refugees’ flight from their homes in Jaffa, Haifa and Jerusalem”.
- On October 12, 1963 the Egyptian daily “Akbar el Yom” reported that : “The 15th May, 1948 arrived…On that day the Mufti of Jerusalem (the Grand Mufti Amin al-Husseini) appealed to the Arabs of Palestine to leave the country, because the Arab armies were about to enter and fight in their stead”.
- On April 9, 1953 the Jordanian daily “Al Urdan” reported: “For the flight and fall of the other villages it is our leaders who are responsible because of their dissemination of rumours exaggerating Jewish crimes and describing them as atrocities in order to inflame the Arabs… By spreading rumours of Jewish atrocities, killings of women and children etc., they instilled fear and terror in the hearts of the Arabs in Palestine, until they fled leaving their homes and properties to the enemy”.
- Even the contemporaneous reporting of “The Economist” makes clear that the alleged “Nakba’ was self inflicted. On October 3, 1948 “The Economist” reported: “Of the 62,000 Arabs who formerly lived in Haifa not more than 5,000 or 6,000 remained. Various factors influenced their decision to seek safety in flight. There is but little doubt that the most potent of the factors were the announcements made over the air by the Higher Arab Executive, urging the Arabs to quit…It was clearly intimated that those Arabs who remained in Haifa and accepted Jewish protection would be regarded as renegades”.
- On August 19, 1951 the Beirut weekly “Kul-Shay” opined: “Who brought the Palestinians to Lebanon as refugees, suffering now the malign attitude of newspapers and communal leaders, who have neither honor not conscience? Who brought them over in dire straits and penniless, after they lost their homes? The Arab states, and Lebanon amongst them, did it”.
- The Arab National Committee in Jerusalem, following the Arab Higher Committee’s March 8, 1948 orders, instructed women, children, and the elderly living in Jerusalem to leave their homes: “Any opposition to this order … is an obstacle to the holy war … and will hamper the operations of the fighters in these districts.”
- Furthermore, the Jordanian newspaper “Filastin” on February 19, 1949 stated: “The Arab States encouraged the Palestine Arabs to leave their homes temporarily in order to be out of the way of the Arab invasion armies, have failed to keep their promise to help these refugees”
- The Syrian Prime Minister in 1948–49, Haled al Azm, also openly acknowledged the Arabs’ role in persuading the refugees to leave: “Since 1948 we have been demanding the return of the refugees to their homes. But we ourselves are the ones who encouraged them to leave.”
Anti Israel fanatics in the main stream media, on college campuses and in political circles cannot change the reality of what contemporaneous Muslim and Arab media reported.
The “Nakba” was self inflicted.
Sunday, August 15, 2021Elder of ZiyonSeveral days ago, the occupation authorities began conducting new secret excavations under the western side of Al-Buraq Square leading to Al-Sharaf and Al-Mughrabi Quarters in Old Jerusalem, which form an integral part of Al-Aqsa Mosque.“Haret al-Sharaf” is an Islamic neighborhood in Old Jerusalem, with an area of 133 dunams, and it is adjacent to the Magharebia Quarter. In 1967, the occupation demolished about 70% of its area and confiscated most of its remaining buildings, expelled 3,000 Palestinians from its residents, and changed its name to “The Jewish Quarter.”
Sunday, August 15, 2021Elder of Ziyon
Sunday, August 15, 2021Elder of Ziyon
Over the last few months, American Jews have been the target of a pogrom. Beatings, intimidation, and the stabbing of a rabbi have been only the most prominent atrocities in a frenzy of racist violence, mostly committed by Muslim antisemites backed by members of the far-left, who used Israel’s recent conflict with Hamas as an excuse. An excuse by and large accepted and endorsed by the non-Jewish establishment.Israel Furious as Poland’s President Signs Bill to Limit Property Claims
One of the most astonishing things about this pogrom, however, was the fact that it took the American Jewish establishment almost entirely by surprise. Indeed, they were so shocked that their reaction was almost non-existent during the pogrom and its immediate aftermath.
Recently, I saw one of the most prominent leaders of the American Jewish establishment acknowledge, at long last, that antisemitism on the left actually exists, and something probably ought to be done about it. My immediate reaction to reading this missive was twofold. The first was the intense desire to say, “if you’d done your job, we wouldn’t be in this mess!” The second was to wonder, “where have you been for the past 20 years?”
Regarding the latter, it is a simple fact that, for some of us, the recent pogrom came as neither a shock nor a surprise. We have been aware — and shouting at the top of our lungs — that since the outbreak of the second intifada in 2000, antisemitism had become not simply a part but an essential part of far-left ideology. We knew, because we saw with our own eyes, that this metastization was rapid and aggressive, and would inevitably end in violence. And for that entire time, in an act of willful denial that must have required extraordinary energy to sustain, the American Jewish establishment simply pretended it wasn’t happening.
This points to perhaps the most important lesson of the recent violence: the American Jewish establishment is not simply ineffective at stemming the rise of antisemitism on the far-left and in the American Muslim community. It is incompetent.
This has immense implications, because the American Jewish establishment is, of course, meant to represent and serve the American Jewish community. And perhaps the most important service they can render is to effectively combat and prevent antisemitic violence. It has now been conclusively proven that it either cannot or will not do so. That some of its more prominent figures may have finally acknowledged what is happening is not so much a positive sign as a confession of guilt. If they had done their job, after all, we wouldn’t be in this mess.
Put bluntly, what this dereliction has demonstrated is that the American Jewish establishment is not a vigorous leader and guardian of the community, but a decadent and impotent aristocracy that must be overthrown in favor of a new, passionate, and effective generation.
This is an absolute imperative, because the Jewish people cannot and have never been able to afford incompetent and ineffective leadership. We know, after all, what happened during the Holocaust when an earlier American Jewish establishment proved itself incompetent and ineffective. And in any other situation, the solution would be obvious: replace them with those who aren’t incompetent and ineffective.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett condemned the law and said Israel would not simply stand by at its approval. “It is a shameful decision and a disgraceful contempt for the memory of the Holocaust,” he said in a statement.Israel recalls envoy to protest signing of Poland's anti-restitution law
Israel’s Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said: “Poland today, for the first time, approved an antisemitic and immoral law.” In response, the head of Israel’s embassy in Warsaw was being called back immediately, he said.
“Poland has tonight become an anti-democratic, non-liberal country that does not honor the greatest tragedy in human history,” Lapid said in a statement.
A new ambassador to Warsaw will not be sent at this stage, Lapid said. He also suggested Poland’s ambassador to Israel extend his vacation and not return to the country.
“He should use the time he has on his hands to explain to the Poles what the Holocaust means to Israel’s citizens and the extent to which we will not tolerate contempt for the memory of those who perished and for the memory of the Holocaust. It will not stop here,” Lapid said.
Israel was discussing further steps with the United States, he added.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday said Washington was deeply concerned that the Polish parliament had passed the bill, and urged Duda not to sign it into law.
Washington is one of Warsaw’s most important allies, but relations between the two countries have been strained by the property issue, as well as other issues such as plans to introduce changes that the opposition says aim to silence a US-owned news channel critical of the government.
The World Jewish Restitution Organization (WJRO) on Saturday urged the Polish government to work on resolving the issue of property seized in the past.
“Democracy & justice hits new low in Poland, as President Duda signs a law making it virtually impossible for all former Polish property owners to secure redress for property illegally seized during the Communist era,” Gideon Taylor, chair of operations of the WJRO said in a statement sent to Reuters.
Israel recalled its envoy from Poland to protest a new law that limits the ability of Jews to recover property seized by Nazis during the Holocaust and retained by post-war communist rulers.
“Poland today approved – not for the first time – an immoral, antisemitic law,” Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said in video message he issued on Saturday night.
“This evening I instructed the charge d’affaires at our embassy in Warsaw [Tal Ben-Ari Yaalon] to return immediately to Israel for consultations, for an indefinite period of time,” Lapid said. The newly appointed ambassador to Poland, Yacov Livne, has been asked to remain in Israel “for the time being.” In addition, Lapid asked Poland’s Ambassador Marek Magierowski, who is out of the country, not to return. “He should use the time he has on his hands to explain to the Poles what the Holocaust means to Israel’s citizens and the extent to which we will not tolerate contempt for the memory of those who perished and for the memory of the Holocaust. It will not stop here,” Lapid said.
Two weeks ago, at the end of a fairly standard meeting in City Hall with a group of East Jerusalem businessmen, Mahmoud, a local entrepreneur, pulled me aside.
He told me that as the result of his attendance at one of the webinars organized by the UAE-Israel Business Council, an organization I co-founded over one year ago, he now has a promising new business with an Emirati investor which utilizes Israeli technology and Moroccan raw materials.
At that very moment I truly understood the power of people-to-people peace. This is the new model of peace and co-existence we are building every day.
Up until now, Israel was a lone player in the region and we were not part of any regional cultural, sporting or business alliances. Our network faced west rather than to our own neighborhood, where we share much in common.
This past year has changed everything. In June 2020, my co-founder Dorian Barak and I saw that a shift was taking place, but we did not know just how quickly it would boom.
The minute the Abraham Accords normalization agreement was announced, we created an online platform for people to connect, the first of its kind for the accords.
Within weeks thousands of Israelis and Emiratis had joined in order to interact with each other, to talk, to do business and to become friends.
This is embarrassing. Un-grit your teeth and show some damn pride in America's accomplishment. https://t.co/JwsEoFacN9
— Seth Mandel (@SethAMandel) August 13, 2021
The signing of the Abraham Accords will no doubt be one of the biggest Middle East milestones in our lifetime and as we celebrate its first anniversary, it is an opportunity to reflect on this auspicious time for the Kingdom of Bahrain, and the region more broadly. It is also the time to look forward to the limitless opportunities ahead of us.
As one of the few indigenous Jews in the Arabian Gulf, it is particularly meaningful to me. As a citizen of this region, I am filled with excitement to see the construction of a new Middle East, one focused on coexistence and prosperity.
I would like to thank His Majesty, King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and His Royal Highness, Prince Salman Bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister, for their leadership, vision, and courage to lead our nation proudly and boldly into the future through the signing of the Abraham Accords.
These Accords represent a promise that the leaders in the region have made to build a better life with security and opportunity for all of us and for future generations still to come.
This is the fundamental accomplishment of the Abraham Accords. In the past, the nations of the world dealt with Israel in the shadows. The Jew was to be used but not seen with. Now the Jew's place in the world is open, acknowledged, and *equal.* Long live the Abraham Accords!
— Seth Mandel (@SethAMandel) August 13, 2021
Asked about the expectations, she says that the peace deal has not met expectations in the UAE. “There have been so many missed opportunities on both sides. However, the UAE has repeatedly demonstrated good faith and that it delivers on its promises. Israel, on the other hand, hasn’t been meeting the UAE with the same amount of dedication and risk-taking. In fact, Israel has so far over promised and under-delivered. While normalization between Israel and the UAE, Morocco, Bahrain and Sudan was a calculated risk and took into consideration potential political and economic gains, it also took tremendous courage to pull it off. This courage is often overlooked and under-appreciated by Israelis. Economic benefits will take a long time to show.”
She points out that while the agreement can benefit trade and innovation, “its real value and incentive lies in a political and ideological agenda. The Arab Spring exposed the danger of Islamist groups.” This means that many countries in the Gulf and officials in Egypt realized the threat of the Brotherhood. “We are already starting to witness the largest effects of the normalization deals and to witness Islamist delegitimization and the dismantling of the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamist ideology in the region.” I also asked Dan Feferman, communications director for the organization Sharaka, which has been helping advance person-to-person connections in the wake of the peace deals. “Looking back one year, I could not have imagined that the relationships would have moved this quickly across all issues. I am so impressed and surprised by the scope and pace of normalization… I don’t know what the expectations were. I can only imagine they exceeded them. There are still many challenges ahead... There were and will be again policy disagreements.” He pointed to major trade implications. He says the new path with the Gulf will “reshape the Middle East as we know it. I believe this is the beginning of the end of the Arab-Israeli conflict. A path to taking extremism head on, a path to diplomatic engagement and cooperation in the region. The regional implications in fighting extremism are the most important here.”
These contrasting views share some commonalities but also point to some major conceptual differences between the Gulf and Israel. In Washington the change in administration has created a mixed bag of results. While there is hope the new administration will continue to stick with the Abraham Accords, and build on them, there are some who wonder if the administration will indeed do that, or will it put an emphasis on a new Iran deal and other agendas.
David Weinberg, vice president of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, points out that the “real shadow hanging over the future of Abraham Accord-type peace treaties in the region comes from the incipient reconciliation between Washington and Tehran in the form of a renewed nuclear deal.” He pointed out that while the Gulf states could seek closer ties if they see instability in the region, they could also “hedge their bets by minimizing open ties to Israel and their full alignment with the United States. To a certain extent, this process may already be underway. For the first time in many years, the Saudis and Emiratis recently held direct and public talks with Iranian leaders.”
This leaves many questions about the challenges and hurdles that lie ahead for the Abraham Accords. While much has been accomplished, and the current Israeli government is hosting delegations and taking positive steps, there are complex hurdles. For instance, the pandemic has papered over questions about when Emiratis will get visas easily. If and when Israel opens to tourists, people from the Gulf will want the same ability to travel to Israel as Israelis enjoy going to the Gulf.
Friday, August 13, 2021Elder of Ziyon
Friday, August 13, 2021Elder of Ziyon
Something shameful is in the works.France to boycott UN anti-racism conference, citing previous antisemitism
It’s the UN General Assembly’s plan to mark the 20th anniversary of the Durban Conference, on September 22.
What was the Durban Conference?
On paper, it was the name of a UNESCO conference held in the eponymous city in South Africa, at which the world was supposed to recommit to the fight against “racism, xenophobia and intolerance.”
But in reality, it was the occasion of an inexcusable three-faceted failure.
First, as soon as the Palestinian question took center stage (which was very early on), the stigmatization of Israel became the leitmotif of the proceedings.
Yasser Arafat denounced “apartheid.”
Fidel Castro feigned alarm at a “genocide.”
The sinister 1974 resolution equating Zionism with “racism” was resurrected, despite having been repealed in 1991.
The struggle against “occupation” was turned into the mother of all present and future political battles.
And some of the six thousand NGO representatives invited to the event slid easily from rabid anti-Zionism to good old-fashioned antisemitism. Jewish delegates were insulted.
People wearing yarmulkes were threatened, harried by cries that they “didn’t belong to the human race.”
Stands sprang up selling The Protocols of the Elders of Zion in various languages.
Demonstrations led by groups of radical Islamists, with whom antiglobalists militants did not seem to mind mingling, marched to shouts of “One Jew, One Bullet” behind placards proclaiming that Hitler should have “finished the job.”
It was Act I of neo-antisemitism. Never had we witnessed its full expression on such a scale and with such dark force.
French President Emmanuel Macron will boycott a United Nations conference on the fight against racism next month over concerns about “antisemitic statements” at previous editions, the presidency said on Friday.
The follow-up meeting of the Durban Conference, named after the South African city where the first edition was held in 2001, is scheduled to bring together world leaders on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York in September.
But the format has been controversial since its inception, with critics, led by Israel, charging that the first edition in Durban was tarnished by virulent and undisguised antisemitism.
Several countries, including France, also boycotted follow-up meetings in 2009 and 2011.
The United States, Canada, the UK, Australia, Israel and numerous other European countries have already announced they are boycotting this year’s meeting.
The French presidency said in a statement that Macron “has decided that France will not take part in the follow-up conference due to take place this year as he is concerned by antisemitic statements made within the Durban Conference.”
The significance of #France now pulling out of antisemitic #DurbanIV 'Festival of Hate' at @UN, is that all 3 democratic UNSC Permanent Members have withdrawn. https://t.co/Gq4wrOsw7V
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) August 13, 2021
It is rare for CNN host Fareed Zakaria to issue an apology – but he did so after interviewing Jordan’s King Abdullah II last week.
Zakaria had wrongly attributed the following comments to prominent Israeli diplomat Dore Gold when questioning the King:
“Jordan needs to start thinking of itself as the Palestinian state. In other words, there is a two-state solution, the Palestinian state is Jordan.”
Abdullah’s response to Zakaria was dismissive:
“Jordan is Jordan. We have a mixed society from different ethnic and religious backgrounds… it is our country. The Palestinians do not want to be in Jordan; they want their lands, they want their football team, they want their flag to fly above their houses.”
The facts:
Jordan – then called Transjordan - was founded on 77% of the territory contained in the 1922 League of Nations Mandate for Palestine (which was to be the Jewish National Home) - following the San Remo Conference and Treaty of Sevres in 1920 and the 1921 Cairo Conference.
The planned reconstitution of the Jewish National Home in Transjordan was postponed or withheld under article 25 of the Mandate with the result that no Jews live there today – the population being entirely Arab.
Transjordan achieved independence in 1946 – changing its name to Jordan in 1950 after unifying its territory with Judea and Samaria (aka 'West Bank') and East Jerusalem conquered by Transjordan in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Only Great Britain and Pakistan recognised Transjordan’s decision.
Friday, August 13, 2021Elder of ZiyonThe ghost of antisemitism has returned to haunt France, prompting criminal action against a website that claimed Jews control the country and the prosecution of a teacher who allegedly suggested that President Macron was part of a Jewish plot.The government ordered the crackdown after incidents that showed how much the pandemic has fuelled a return of the old ugly currents that have stained French history.On Wednesday a monument in Brittany to Simone Veil, the feminist, former minister and Holocaust survivor, was daubed with swastikas.
It was the third time that monument was desecrated in a week.
Gérald Darmanin, the interior minister, sent in prosecutors after a site called IlsSontPartout.com [They Are Everywhere] laid out the names and profiles of Jewish politicians, media owners, financiers and arts figures who supposedly connive to control the country. The site’s name is an allusion to Je Suis Partout [I Am Everywhere], an anti-semitic newspaper during the Nazi occupation of 1940-44.
The site attracted government attention after Cassandre Fristot, 34, a schoolteacher and councillor for Marine Le Pen’s National Rally, marched in an anti-vaccine protest in the eastern city of Metz with a placard police said was “manifestly antisemitic”.It called Macron and Jewish ministers, media figures and financiers “traitors” and included the words: “Mais Qui?” [But who?].The question is the latest code for the conspiracy theory that a Jewish cabal is behind the epidemic and Macron’s imposition of health passes to compel vaccination. Fristot was charged with incitement to racial hatred.“Antisemitism is a criminal offence, not an opinion, and such expressions will not remain unpunished,” Darmanin said.Fristot received support from thousands of people on social media, who expressed their belief in the old conspiracy theory of a global cabal.
This month the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, the Jewish human rights body, wrote to the government about a campaign that claims Jewish doctors are behind the epidemic. Shimon Samuels, director for international relations, likened it to medieval charges that Jews poisoned wells and to the 1940s round-up of Jews by the wartime government.
Friday, August 13, 2021Elder of Ziyon
1948, Arab Legion, East Jerusalem, ethnic cleansing, Jerusalem, jew hatred, Jewish Quarter, Jordan, vandalism, zzzI recently stumbled upon a photography book shot by the acclaimed Life magazine wartime photographer John Phillips. The large, innocuous-looking book was simply titled, A Will to Survive. After flipping through the pages, I realized I entered a time capsule that memorializes the Arab destruction of Jerusalem’s ancient Jewish Quarter in 1948.Not only is it a dramatic firsthand account of the fall of the Jewish Quarter in 1948, but it documents the Arab Legion’s scorched-earth tactics that razed and burned to the ground every structure there, including all its synagogues and yeshivahs. The Arabs expelled all of the city’s residents, mainly defenseless, old Orthodox Jews. They were given about an hour to vacate homes that most extended families had lived in for centuries.And there never has been a reckoning by any international body about the Arab Legion’s barbaric actions after it captured the Quarter.To get his shots in May 1948, Phillips posed undercover in Jerusalem as a British officer in the Arab Legion. He also smuggled out his photos to avoid Arab censors who were eager to keep the sacking of the Jewish Quarter secret.Phillips faced personal danger to do the shoot. He entered the Middle East undercover and wore the uniform of the Arab Legion, a British-created Arab army led by British officers, many of whom stayed on with their units to fight the Jews. “Mistaking me for a British officer, the Arab populace left me alone,” he wrote.He was appalled about the Arab censorship. “Aware that the sack of the Jewish Quarter would shock the western world, Arab authorities across the Middle East tried to prevent the news from leaking out. Jerusalem could not be mentioned under any circumstances,” he wrote.“I knew my pictures of the agony of the Jewish Quarter would end up in a censor’s wastepaper basket. I did not want this to happen and decided to smuggle them out of the Middle East.”
Buy EoZ's book, PROTOCOLS: EXPOSING MODERN ANTISEMITISM
