Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, August 27, 2021

Algeria partially blames Israel for its severing ties with Morocco. (It doesn't have to make sense.)

Al-Monitor lists lots of excuses that Algeria blames Israel somehow for its decision to break relations with Morocco.

Algeria's announcement this week that it was severing its diplomatic ties with Morocco came as no surprise — Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune had issued a statement Aug. 18 saying relations with Morocco were being reviewed. Still, the depth of accusations Algeria leveled against Israel Aug. 24 did surprise Jerusalem.

More than the Palestinian issue, the Algerian anger against the Israeli-Moroccan rapprochement was fueled by the American recognition of Moroccan sovereignty of Western Sahara. .... Algeria has been supporting the Western Sahara independence movement Polisario for decades, and the new triple Israeli-American-Moroccan consensus on Western Sahara was perceived by Algeria as especially hostile.

Recently, Algeria accused Morocco of complicity in deadly forest fires where 90 people were killed. According to Algerian authorities, the fires were of criminal origin..."particularly the MAK, which receives the support and aid of foreign parties ... Morocco and the Zionist entity."

Algerian anger was further fueled by the Aug. 12 visit of Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid to Morocco. During that visit, Lapid expressed concerns over signs of rapprochement between Algeria and Iran. Algeria was furious over this statement, as clearly expressed in the Aug. 24 declaration by Foreign Minister Ramtane Lamamra. “Morocco has turned its territory into a platform allowing foreign powers to speak with hostility about Algeria. … Since 1948, no Israeli official made a hostile declaration to an Arab country from another Arab country,’’ said Lamamra.

It's sort of insane, but insanity is accepted as normal in certain parts of the world.

But it can get even crazier.. An Algerian paper has this article:

Jordanian writer and academic researcher Walid Abdel Hai confirmed, this Wednesday, that there is evidence of "increasing Zionist planning to create a state of turmoil in Algeria and exhaust it with the aim of dragging it into the field of normalization."

In this context, Walid Abdel Hai explained that Zionist opinion polls indicate that "the Zionists believe that the Algerian society is the Arab society that most hates the Zionists, and that it must be dragged into the field of normalization or exhausted." The Jordanian writer pointed to the role played by the Jewish lobby, especially among Moroccan Jews, in strengthening American-Moroccan relations, in return for developing Zionist-Moroccan relations

They certainly think Jews have amazing powers.

08/26 Links Pt2: Dozens of Civilians, at Least 12 US Troops Killed in Bloodbath at Kabul Airport; Why the Crown Heights Pogrom Still Matters; Dr. Fauci must apologize for comments on Hasidic Jews

From Ian:

Dozens of Civilians, at Least 12 US Troops Killed in Bloodbath at Kabul Airport

Suicide bombers struck the crowded gates of Kabul airport with at least two explosions on Thursday, causing a bloodbath among civilians and US troops, and bringing a catastrophic halt to the airlift of tens of thousands of Afghans desperate to flee.

Two US officials put the US death toll at 12 service members killed, making it one of the deadliest incidents for American troops of the entire 20-year war.

There was no complete toll of Afghan civilians but video images uploaded by Afghan journalists showed dozens of bodies of people killed in packed crowds outside the airport.

A watery ditch by the airport fence was filled with blood-soaked corpses, some being fished out and laid in heaps on the canal side while wailing civilians searched for loved ones.

Several Western countries said the airlift of civilians was now effectively over, with the United States having sealed the gates of the airport leaving no way out for tens of thousands of Afghans who worked for the West through two decades of war.

A Taliban official said at least 13 people including children had been killed in the attack and 52 were wounded, though it was clear from video footage that those figures were far from complete. One surgical hospital run by an Italian charity said it alone was treating more than 60 wounded.

The explosions took place amid the crowds outside the airport who have been massing for days in hope of escaping in an airlift which the United States says will end by Tuesday, following the swift capture of the country by the Taliban.

Israeli leaders condemn ‘horrific’ Kabul airport bombings

Israeli leaders on Thursday night expressed their condolences over the deadly attacks at Kabul airport earlier in the day, which killed at least 72 people and wounded dozens more.

“On behalf of the people of Israel, I share our deep sadness over the loss of American lives in Kabul,” Prime Minister Naftali Bennett tweeted.

“Israel stands with the United States in these difficult times, just as America has always stood with us. Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of the United States,” he added.

Bennett is currently in Washington and was scheduled to meet Thursday with US President Joe Biden, but the meeting was delayed to Friday because of the attack.

“I am shocked and saddened by the horrific terror attack in Kabul,” Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said.

“The prayers of the people of Israel are with the families of the civilians and soldiers who were murdered today,” Lapid said, adding that “we stand shoulder to shoulder with the United States in the fight against terrorism.”

Jonathan S. Tobin: Why the Crown Heights Pogrom Still Matters

A look back at the rhetoric used then (and even today by those who seek to minimize or rationalize the anti-Jewish violence) shows that it was primarily focused on the notion that the ultra-Orthodox, and in particular, the Chabad movement, whose members lived in Crown Heights and were the targets of the mob, possessed a degree of “white privilege” that blacks were denied.

This should sound very familiar to us in 2021. In the last year since the death of George Floyd, the idea of white privilege has not only served to justify last year’s riots, committed in the name of the Black Lives Matter movement, but remains key to understanding the dialectic of critical race theory—a toxic patent nostrum that has migrated from the fever swamps of academia to mainstream discourse.

Critical race theory divides us all into groups in which we are either victims or possessors of privilege who benefit from what we are told is structural racism embedded into everything that happens in society. Nor is it an accident that the Black Lives Matter movement and its theorists, like Ibram X. Kendi, are prominent advocates of the notion that Jews, who come in all colors and nationalities, are white, and that the State of Israel is an expression of oppressive white privilege.

Myths about Jewish privilege helped justify an anti-Jewish riot in 1991, even though that was patently absurd since the Jews of Crown Heights had so little privilege that they were not even able to get the city government and police to take their plight seriously for days. But the same myths about privilege and conspiracy theories by latter-day race-baiters helped fuel not only the appalling attacks on Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn in 2019, but also the anti-Jewish violence that took place on the streets of American cities in May of this year in reaction to the fighting between Israel and Hamas terrorists in Gaza.

Some may argue that the particular circumstances that created the pogrom in Crown Heights are not likely to recur. The truth is that the same justifications for antisemitic violence used then are no longer relegated to the margins of society, and are now treated as respectable ideas taught on college campuses and given deference by the press and government. A three-day riot against Jews may not be imaginable today, but Americans witnessed weeks of riots in the name of the BLM movement last summer with police similarly unwilling to step in to stop them. Not only is it easy to imagine a new round of Jewish violence in America, we’ve already witnessed it happen again with many Jews as indifferent to it today as they were to what happened in Crown Heights.

That means that not only are we still obligated to remember the events of August 1991, but we should also understand that far from being marooned in a dark past, the lies that helped kill Yankel Rosenblum have actually gained traction among intellectuals and popular culture. We ignore the consequences of legitimizing critical race theory and its advocates at our own peril.

The Tikvah Podcast: Elliot Kaufman on the Crown Heights Riot, 30 Years Later

Thirty years ago, in August 1991, riots broke out in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Crown Heights, a neighborhood shared by African Americans and Jews, the latter of whom were mostly members of the ?asidic Chabad-Lubavitch movement. During the riot, which was sparked by a car accident that killed one young black child and injured another, local black residents attacked Jews on the streets, burned their businesses, and killed one of them, often while chanting anti-Semitic slogans. For three days, local authorities looked on passively.

The episode is a sad one in the history of American Jewish-black relations. This week’s podcast guest believes that if Jews and blacks are to enjoy a fruitful and mutually beneficial relationship in the future, as they have in the past, understanding how and why events like the Crown Heights riot came about is essential. Elliot Kaufman did just that in a recent essay for the Wall Street Journal. A Canadian who is too young to remember what happened, Kaufman—in the piece and in this conversation with Mosaic‘s editor, Jonathan Silver—forensically reconstructs what happened in Crown Heights, puts together what it meant at the time, looks at what it teaches us today, and suggests pitfalls that can be avoided so that the two communities can avoid such bitter antagonism.

Melaine Phillips: The state of the Jews in Britain and the world

On a podcast with Jonny Gould for his website Jonny Gould’s Jewish State, we ranged over some of the most noxious confusions of the age. We discussed the fact that, from Margaret Thatcher onwards, Britain’s Conservative party had increasingly forgotten what conservatism was, and how this had led it into some unwitting alliances with the most destructive elements on the left.

I talked about my own Jewish background in London, how my experiences while working at the Guardian shattered my assumptions about politics and also about whether Jews can ever be truly safe in the diaspora. We discussed how the response by Britain’s Jewish community leadership towards venomous prevailing attitudes ranges from supine to venomous in itself; we pondered whether zealotry can ever be good; and I talked about my… interesting relationship with Britain’s tunnel-visioned broadcasters. And we discussed my novel, The Legacy, which deals with antisemitism and fractured diaspora Jewish identity.

Unpacked: Do Jews Cause Antisemitism? | Antisemitism, Explained

It may sound bizarre, but a shockingly large number of people believe that Jews cause themselves to be hated. For centuries, bigots have blamed racial, religious, and sexual minorities for their own persecution. If we're going to beat back antisemitism, we'll need to understand why this claim is so egregiously wrong—logically, historically, and morally.

In 2017, Jewish Voice for Peace published a document that explains perfectly what a sham the organization is.

As the majority of what makes the earth, water is in one sense an ordinary resource. As those in Palestine and Puerto Rico are denied access to adequate water, water as an extraordinary resource is amplified.

Mikveh is a simple ritual. In it’s simplicity, it is extraordinary. We hope that this ritual will bring you closer to an experience of Jewish culture. We hope this closeness fuels your work for justice in Palestine. We hope a depth is integrated between your one simple life and the extraordinary movement we are all in together.

Enjoy this mikveh guide and check out this incredible project queer Jews are doing with mikveh in the spirit of living in diaspora.

The "Mikveh Ritual Guide" is a truly bizarre mishmash of new-age nonsense that has literally nothing to do with Judaism except for its gratuitous use of some Hebrew words. In fact, parts of it are pretty much idol worship.

Excerpts:

WHO GETS TO DO MIKVEH?
Everyone! Mikveh practice is available to all of us as a healing tool at any time. You don’t need any credentials. Your own wisdom is all the power you need to be a Jewish ritual leader. We do mikvahs in lakes, rivers, bathtubs, showers, outside in the rain, from teacups and in our imaginations.

Mikveh has been continually practiced since ancient Judaism. It is an offering of unbroken Jewish lineage we have claimed/re-claimed as our own. We want to make mikveh practice available as a tool to all Jews and non-Jews who want to heal wounds caused by white supremacy and colonialism.

Queer mikveh is a ritual of Jews in diaspora. We believe the way we work for freedom for all beings is by using the gifts of our ancestors for the greatest good. We bring our rituals as gifts. It acknowledges that our path is to live on lands that are not historically our peoples and we honor the Indigenous ancestors of the land we live on, doing mikveh as an anti-colonialist ritual for collective and personal liberation....You don’t have to be Jewish. Queer mikveh is an earth and water honoring ritual.

A lot can be said about divination practices and Judaism. Using divination can assist you in setting your intention. Oracle and tarot decks are both helpful tools.

For some people, doing mikveh in drag will feel most vulnerable, with all your make-up and best attire.

HOW TO MAKE MIKVEH A NON-ZIONIST RITUAL
Reject all colonial projects by learning about, naming & honoring, and materially supporting the communities indigenous to the land where you hold your mikveh. Name and thank the Indigenous people of the land you are going to do your mikveh on. Take time to vision our world to come in which Palestine and all people are free.

SOUND MIKVEH:
One way that’s felt very meaningful for many is a “sound mikveh.” This can be a group of people toning, harmonizing or chanting in a circle. One person at a time can be in the center of the circle and feel the vibrations of healing sound wash over their body. Another method of sound mikveh is to use a shofar or other instrument of your lineage to made sounds that reach a body of water and also wash over you.

TEA CUP MIKVEH:
Fill a special teacup. If you want, add flower essence, a small stone, or other special elements. Sing the teacup a sweet song, dance around it, cry in some tears, tell the cup a tender and hopeful story, hold the teacup above the body of your animal friend for extra blessing, balance it on your head to call in your highest self. Use the holy contents of this teacup to make contact with water. Mikveh to go. We've always been people on the move.

FERMENTATION MIKVEH:
Some food goes through natural changes by being immersed in water. If we eat that food, we can symbolically go through a change similar to the one the food went through.

Jews don't worship water. They don't worship the Earth or the sun or holy teacups. Jews worship God, which JVP redefines as the "spirit of the world."

The entire point of "Jewish Voice for Peace" is to subvert Judaism for their own political purposes. Here, they are trying to attract dopey Jews and non-Jews to their anti-Israel movement by creating a new religion that they claim is a valid form of Judaism - and then they can say they oppose Israel; "as Jews."

(h/t Irina)

UPDATE: I didn't look at the end - one of their links is to "Shekinah Ministries," a Christian missionary group. Perfect.

Agatha Harkness To Deliver Every Gov't COVID Statement (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Check out their Facebook page.

Agnes Jerusalem, August 29 - Israeli public health officials has launched a pilot program under which a character from a television comedy series by Marvel will serve as spokeswoman each time the Ministry of Health issues new guidelines or predictions, to lend such messages the appropriate gravitas and credibility.

Minister of Health Nitzan Horowitz told reporters today (Thursday) that beginning this week, updates on restrictions and the effectiveness of COVID mitigation efforts will come through Agatha (Agnes) Harkness, who established a reputation for delivering information at face value via her appearance in Season 1 Episode 3 of the comedy series Wandavision (see photo).

"We are pleased to announce that we have teamed with the person who, we believe, embodies the proper level of seriousness we strive to convey through the information and recommendations we provide," Horowitz stated. "This initiative begins next week and will proceed as a trial phase at least through the upcoming holidays in the month of Tishrei, after which we will assess its impact on the public's adherence to constantly-shifting and scientifically-dubious policies that we always assure them will contain the spread of coronavirus."

"If it proves successful," the minister continued, "Ms. Harkness has agreed to expand the aegis of her pronouncements to include other government ministries and entities, the credibility and reliability of which she reflects so well." Horowitz encouraged those in attendance to visualize the current announcement as coming from Harkness with her characteristic mannerisms, and to observe the immediate effect on the weight the announcement carries as a result.

Analysts remarked that at the very least, the use of Agnes Harkness - played by Kathryn Hahn in the series - will finally bring the way government-provided COVID information is presented into line with the way the public views it. "Sometimes it's just a question of which personality resonates with the message, and which ones do not," explained media and politics commentator Adam Gold. "I am given to understand that the Ministry of Health conducted numerous focus groups to test various personalities and how people viewed them as appropriate for the government's COVID messaging. Apparently Ms. Harkness prevailed over other minor celebrities such as Yuval HaMevulbal, a clown; Mongo from the Mel Brooks film Blazing Saddles; the Minions; and the idea of simply rendering the text of every announcement in alternating capital and lower-case letters, the advantage of which lies in it remaining unnecessary to speak the words aloud to convey the most suitable tone."

08/26 Links Pt1: At least 13 said killed at Kabul airport in suspected IS suicide attack; Reuters Transforms Grenade-Wielding Palestinian Into ‘Anti-Israel Protester’

From Ian:

At least 13 said killed at Kabul airport in suspected IS suicide attack

Explosions went off on Thursday outside the Kabul airport, where thousands of people were gathered to try to flee Afghanistan on Western airlifts since the Taliban seized power earlier this month. Officials described the incident as deadly suicide bombings allegedly carried out by the Islamic State terror group.

The Pentagon and Russia’s Foreign Ministry said a second explosion then went off outside Kabul airport. Moscow said the twin suicide attacks killed at least 13 people and wounded another 15.

A Taliban official told Reuters children were among the killed and numerous Taliban guards were among the injured.

A US official told Fox News that the explosion near one of the airport gates in Kabul was a combined suicide bombing and firefight. The outlet said at least three US troops were injured and that there were also Afghan casualties.

A US official said on condition of anonymity that the attack was “definitely believed” to have been carried out by the Islamic State. The terror group, which is more radical than the Taliban and has carried out a wave of attacks targeting civilians, was yet to officially claim responsibility.

The US official said members of the US military were wounded in the attack, which involved two suicide bombers and gunmen.

#BREAKING : Second explosion hit Baron Hotel near #Kabul airport where Americans were rescued last week.
Reports saying now 30 killed in blasts pic.twitter.com/Et74OMlBvV
— ZionWarrior (@ZionWarrior6) August 26, 2021

Lee Smith: The Dream Palaces of the Americans

When new Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett meets with President Joe Biden and his minders at the White House today, a few things seem like sure bets. First, Bennett and his aides will lay out a scheme for keeping Iran from going nuclear, which the Americans will nod at and ignore. Second, the American side will solemnly raise the necessity of establishing a Palestinian state living side by side in peace with Israel.

Instead of nodding, smiling, and pretending to share the dream of peaceful democratic Palestinian statehood, Bennett could show true friendship to America by pointing to the example of Afghanistan. It’s clear no one in the American political establishment has yet internalized the lesson.

For twenty years, official Washington, DC dared not describe Afghanistan as it truly is and would be after America’s exit. It would have been gauche to do so— worse, it would have shown that one lacked vision, high ideals. Anyone who didn’t believe there was a democratic polity just waiting to escape its despotic chains and unleash its liberal energies was guilty of “the soft bigotry of low expectations” — that is, a racist. In this fun-house-mirror version of Afghanistan, America was building yet another city on a hill, a citadel whose government would promote Western gender theory’s latest findings, which would be enforced by elite special forces units trained by American officers and loyal to the central government in Kabul.

These elements of the Afghani dream-state were part of a bespoke tapestry spun out by and for the policy establishment and Beltway defense contractors, NGO workers, think tank experts, and the rest of the client state. So long as everyone was getting paid, the mirage never hurt anyone — unless your child happened to subscribe to the fiction and put his or her life in danger either in uniform or as an aid worker. But now, the dream palace has burned to the ground, and as the smoke clears no one can mistake the fact that authentic Afghanistan is in the hands of the Taliban.

Bennett knows it would be more polite to nod along meaningfully with his hosts and that he’d insult them by explaining Palestinian statehood is a hallucination on the level of Afghani democracy. Speaking up, however, would nonetheless help safeguard the interests of his own country, while winning the favor of an American public that has seen their elites throw away the lives of thousands of the country’s most high-spirited and honorable young men and women to satisfy their whimsy.

The Caroline Glick Show: Episode 18 – The fallout for Israel (and the world) of Biden’s destruction of U.S. credibility

Episode 18 of the Caroline Glick Mideast News Hour with Gadi Taub focused on the strategic repercussions of the U.S. defeat in Afghanistan for the U.S. and it allies in the region and the world and of course on Israel. The Israel-centered second half of the show centered in on Israel’s unelected Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s trip to Washington this week to meet with Biden and his top advisors while they oversee the abandonment of U.S. citizens and Afghan allies in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. How will the rout in Afghanistan affect Bennett’s hopes of convincing Biden to work with Israel to block Iran’s efforts to become a nuclear power?

Thanks @colrichardkemp for joining my podcast The Diplomat on @Newsweek to discuss the terrible situation in #Afghanistan. Take a listen. Episode 2 in my Afghanistan series. You can listen to all episodes on Apple, Spotify & wherever podcasts are heard.

https://t.co/HcJuz8IFJL
— Jason D. Greenblatt ???? ???????? (@GreenblattJD) August 24, 2021

Palestinian prime minister Mohamed Shtayyeh met with Sweden's deputy foreign minister Robert Rydberg on Tuesday,

He used the occasion to ask the EU to pressure Israel economically to agree to establish a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital. He also thanked Sweden for its supposed support for the "right of return." (As far as I can tell, Sweden's position is for a token number of Palestinians to be allowed to move to Israel as part of a larger peace agreement, and it says "the Palestinians will have to abandon their demand for a mass repatriation to Israel itself.")

Perhaps the most absurd part of the conversation was Shtayyeh's insistence on the fiction that the PA really, really wanted to hold the scheduled legislative elections in May, but Israel's refusal to allow Arabs in Jerusalem to vote is what scuttled the plan.

Even though that was the excuse used by Abbas when he canceled the elections in April, no one believed him. His Fatah party had split into three groups and polling showed that Hamas would win handily. And the few thousand Jerusalem Arabs who used post offices in 2006 to cast remote ballots could have easily traveled a short distance into the territories to vote.

The proposed elections, from the start, were intended to establish that Jerusalem was Palestinian land. The ruling Fatah party never had any intention of giving up its rule, and as soon as the Fatah split showed it losing many seats, the elections were canceled. (The presidential elections originally scheduled for July 31 also weren't held.)

Sorry, @RashidaTlaib, but you cannot visit your grandmother - because the PA won't allow it

In 2019, after Israel originally denied permission for Representatives Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib to visit the West Bank because of their support for BDS, Tlaib appealed to Interior Minister Aryeh Deri asking to visit her elderly grandmother ("sity") on humanitarian grounds, saying that she will not use the occasion to promote boycotting Israel.

Israel granted permission for her visit.

After a backlash from her fans, Tlaib did an about-face and angrily said that she would never submit to such humiliating restrictions - that she had explicitly accepted only one day beforehand. Her sity was just not that important.

This week, Tlaib criticized the Palestinian Authority for their arrests of protesters, telling Mahmoud Abbas "Shame on you!"

According to Khaled Abu Toameh, as a result of her tweet, Tlaib "is persona non grata in Palestine, according to a senior Palestinian official in Ramallah."

So even if Tlaib would want to visit her grandmother now - whether through Israel or through Jordan -it looks like the Palestinian Authority would ban her.

Will there be any headlines about this?

Media doesn't mention the Gazan who died at Saturday riot was a Hamas terrorist (UPDATE: He was holding a grenade)

Al Jazeera and AFP: "A Palestinian man has died of injuries sustained during weekend confrontations with Israeli forces..."

TRT World: "A Palestinian man died on Wednesday from a bullet wound that he sustained over the weekend when Israeli forces opened indiscriminate fire on protestors along Gaza's border fence, Palestinian health officials said. "

Al-Monitor: "A Gaza man injured in violent clashes with Israeli troops over the weekend was pronounced dead Wednesday, the Hamas-run Health Ministry said.

Middle East Monitor: "A Palestinian young man was pronounced dead this morning after he succumbed to a bullet wound he sustained while taking part in a protest rally."

Middle East Eye: "A Palestinian man who was shot by Israeli forces during weekend protests in Gaza succumbed to his wounds and died on Wednesday..."

Here is a case where Hamas is more honest than the English-language media.

Hamas Al Qassam Brigades:

The Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas, announces that one of its heroic mujahideen from the northern Gaza Strip ascended to Al-Ula, rising from wounds sustained in the occupation's aggression against the popular marches on the anniversary of the burning of Al-Aqsa.
In its military statement, Al-Qassam Brigades mourned the Mujahid / Osama Khaled Muhammad Duaij (32), from the Al-Amin Muhammad mosque in Jabalia camp in the northern Gaza Strip, who rose to death today, Wednesday, Muharram 17, 1443 AH,...
And the brigades said in their statement: "Let him go to his Lord after a blessed life full of giving, jihad, sacrifice and bonding in the cause of God."
And they continued: "We ask God Almighty to accept him and dwell in his vast gardens, and to make his jihad pure for his honorable face, and to be patient with his family and loved ones and improve their solace, and the blood of our martyrs will remain a beacon on the path to liberating Palestine and a fire that burns the occupiers until they are defeated from our land, God willing."

What an amazing coincidence that the only casualty from the riots happened to be a Hamas terrorist! Especially since he almost certainly was not in uniform - Hamas organizes these riots to make them appear to be spontaneous, popular protests but Hamas officials direct the youth when to go to the fence, cut the wire, set off IEDs and shoot live bullets.

Duaij was not an innocent protester. The media that parrots the (Hamas-run) Gaza Health Ministry language simply doesn't want to go to the next step and find out if they are being misled.

In Arabic, terrorist media is proud of this "martyr." In English, they are sorrowful over an "innocent life" lost.

One other interesting detail: Osama got married only three weeks ago, because he was pressured to do so he was already very old for a groom. He didn't want to get married. Perhaps he was gay. He may have wanted to die a martyr and hero rather than be stuck with someone he doesn't like - and who would stop him from meeting his very good "friends."

(h/t Tomer)

UPDATE: Joe Truzman found footage of Duaij, in civilian clothing, holding a hand grenade.

08/25 Links Pt2: Nevergreen: A Victim of Cancel Culture Strikes Back With a Devastating Campus Satire; Eichmann Was Turned in By Anti-Nazi Geologist, German Paper Reveals

From Ian:

Nevergreen: A Victim of Cancel Culture Strikes Back With a Devastating Campus Satire

7 years ago, Professor Andrew Pessin, a respected teacher of religion and philosophy at Connecticut College, criticized Hamas. Back then, cancel culture wasn’t the familiar buzzword that it is now, but when the local Students for Justice in Palestine affiliate and the college paper came after him, the college leadership sided with the mob and against their own professor.

Front Page Magazine took on the story back then, exposing the radical hate of the mob’s leaders. In the years that have passed, Pessin’s experiences have been replicated on campuses across the country. Social media mobs have spread beyond the campus, coming for ordinary people with the misfortune to appear on some social justice Twitter influencer’s radar.

And college campuses have only gotten crazier and more dangerous in the last 7 years.

Now, Andrew Pessin is back with Nevergreen. Though none of the events of the novel reproduce his own encounter with campus cancel culture (that would be life, not art), and there is no Nevergreen College (although there is an Evergreen College which was the epicenter of one of the worst radical campus meltdowns), Pessin’s novel distills the madness that has taken over campuses across the country in a still of literary satire that is all the more devastating because it’s so disarming.

There are the "atheists in the 'Be Grateful God is Dead Club'" and a character is described as wearing "the official t-shirt of the campus tea shop, Chai Guevara, featuring the iconic image of the revolutionary leader sipping a mug of chai itself emblazoned with the Chai Guevara logo".

A professor named “Peace” teaches conflict studies while making threats, and the students campaign for a wheelchair ramp for the high diving board.

“‘It’s for the principle, the principle of inclusion,” the earnest young woman explained when J. asked whether any wheelchair-bound person were likely to actually use the diving board.”

At Nevergreen College, 1984’s Two-Minutes-Hate is countered with an “official Two Minutes of Hate-Hate later this afternoon”. And Nevergreen’s protagonist J becomes its target.

Eichmann Was Turned in By Anti-Nazi Geologist, German Paper Reveals

Sixty years after infamous Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann was captured by Mossad agents and brought to Israel for trial, a German media outlet has revealed, for the first time, the identity of the person believed to have turned Eichmann in.

The German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung ran a feature article this week describing the role German geologist Gerhard Klammer, who opposed the Nazi regime and worked with Eichmann in Argentina, played in revealing Eichmann’s true identity to the Mossad.

According to the report, Klammer worked for the Capri building firm in the Argentinian city of Tucuman, where he met Eichmann, who was employed at the same company under the fictitious name “Ricardo Klement.” Eichmann reportedly revealed his true identity to Klammer in the 1950s, and Klammer made multiple anonymous attempts to alert authorities in both Germany and Argentina, hoping they would take action against Eichmann for his war crimes.

Associates of Klammer said that Eichmann’s true identity had been an “open secret” in the German community in Argentina and that supporters of the Nazis worked to protect him. But Klammer had opposed the Nazi regime, and therefore sought to have Eichmann face trial.

In the 1960s, the building company encountered financial difficulties and Eichmann left Tucuman to try and find work in Buenos Aires. At that time, Klammer returned to Germany, where he told a close friend—a priest who had served in the German army—where Eichmann was and the cover story he had adopted.

The two delivered the details of Eichmann’s false identity, as well as a picture of him, to Fritz Bauer, the prosecutor responsible for the Eichmann case. Bauer had already heard about Eichmann’s whereabouts from a German Jew whose daughter dated Eichmannn’s son briefly. The son told the man’s daughter about his father’s new secret identity, but many details were missing. Klammer’s evidence gave Bauer proof that Eichmann was alive and in Argentina, and the prosecutor reached out to the Mossad, whose agents began searching for him, eventually locating him in a small town near the Argentine capital.

Poland’s Troubling Legislation, and the United States’ Unwavering Commitment to Holocaust Era Justice

Immediately after the “yes” vote, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed his deep concern, urging President Duda not to sign the bill into law. After the bill was signed by President Duda, Secretary Blinken reiterated his stance by emphasizing: “We deeply regret the adoption of these amendments [severely restricting restitution and compensation for property wrongfully confiscated during Poland’s communist era]. Further, we urge the Polish government to consult with representatives of affected parties and to develop a clear, efficient, and effective legal procedure to resolve confiscated property claims and provide some measure of justice for victims. In the absence of such a procedure, this legislation will harm all Polish citizens whose property was unjustly taken, including that of Polish Jews who were victims of the Holocaust.”

In July, when the proposed bill was sent to the Polish Senate, it also came under scrutiny when 12 prominent US Senators, led by Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) sent a letter to President Duda urging him to “press for the withdrawal of the bill from the Polish Senate, but if the bill is passed, veto it.”

International leaders at the highest levels also expressed their condemnation of the bill.

We do not suggest in any way that Poland is responsible for the crimes of Nazi Germany. This is about Poland addressing the wrongs committed by its own post-World War II Communist government. The house or shop or factory in a town in Poland affected by this legislation was taken by Poland after the war, remains today in Poland, and has benefited Poland for more than 76 years.

For many Holocaust survivors and their families, a home is the last remaining physical connection to the lives they once led, to the countries where they were born, and to the towns where they grew up, before their lives were shattered.

We also must not forget that there are many other countries in Europe that have yet to fulfill their commitments on Holocaust era property restitution, as the JUST Act Report articulates.

As a matter of urgency, we call upon Congress to convene a hearing on the JUST Act Report, and hold accountable all countries that endorsed the 2009 Terezin Declaration, including Poland.

Progress on Holocaust justice depends upon continued and heightened United States leadership. We must help survivors secure what is rightfully theirs. For Holocaust survivors, restitution or compensation for property is about justice and fairness. It is an acknowledgment of the destruction of their families and an opportunity to restore and reconnect with at least a small part of a life and culture that was so wrongfully taken from them.

Tragically we are losing survivors every day. Time is of the essence. We must address this dark chapter in human history by facilitating the restitution of or compensation for wrongfully confiscated property. This issue will not go away until justice is achieved.

Bennett Should Have Stayed Home (Vic Rosenthal)

Judean Rose is taking off for several weeks.

Weekly column by Vic Rosenthal

Israel’s PM, Naftali Bennett, is already in the US and will be meeting with US President Biden on Thursday.

There are some who think that Bennett should have stayed home. While it is unlikely that the administration can be convinced to turn aside from its path of appeasement toward Iran, it is expected to pressure Bennett on several other issues, like construction in Judea/Samaria, the re-opening of the American consulate in eastern Jerusalem, and who knows what else.
The issue of the consulate is particularly painful. Before Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, it served as the de facto US Embassy to the “State of Palestine.” A country locates its embassy in the capital of the state that it serves, and the significance of an embassy to Palestine located in Jerusalem, is that Jerusalem is the Palestinian capital. Trump – or his Ambassador to Israel, David M. Friedman – realized this and closed the consulate, transferring its functions to the new US Embassy to Israel in Jerusalem. Reopening the consulate and resuming its function as a mission to the Palestinians, in effect walks back Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and at the very least supports the division of Jerusalem into Israeli and Palestinian sovereignties.

The Biden Administration also considers any Israeli construction east of the Green Line as undesirable, because it prejudices the possibility of obtaining a “two-state solution,” that is, an Israeli withdrawal from territories it gained control of in 1967. Somehow there is less excitement when Arabs illegally build in Area C, where Israel has full civil control, according to the Oslo Accords, which still have the force of international law. Biden has already restarted aid to the Palestinians that Trump cut off due to policies such as anti-Jewish indoctrination in Gazan and Palestinian Authority schools, and payments to convicted terrorists or the families of “martyrs.”

After the realism of the Trump Administration, it feels like swimming underwater to hear the familiar platitudes about “two-states, living side by side in peace” coming from Biden’s officials. Today there are only two kinds of people who support an Israeli withdrawal from Judea and Samaria: those who are entirely disconnected from reality, as it has unfolded in the past century (and particularly in the past three decades), and those who want Israel to be replaced by an Arab state, and see the reversal of 1967 as a step on the way. Biden himself, to the extent that he thinks about anything at all, is in the former category; but many administration officials fall into the latter one.

Biden and the Democrats are in big trouble now, because the debacle in Afghanistan has made it impossible to maintain the fiction of a competent government and chief executive. Even some of the formerly sycophantic media are beginning to sound discordant notes. The fact that the mighty US was (and apparently still is) unable to even rescue its citizens – not to mention the thousands of Afghans who had worked for it and whom are already being targeted by the Taliban – sends a signal of weakness and even cowardice, which Biden only made worse by unconvincingly blaming Trump and the Afghan army.

China has already made propaganda hay out of the situation, warning Taiwanese that American support can’t be depended upon. And Islamic terrorists of all stripes have been cheering loudly.
Biden’s people will be looking for a foreign-policy achievement to help make Americans and others forget the humiliation, especially one that will send a message of strength and control. How better to get one than to bully Israel, which – unlike the Taliban – is unlikely to shoot back?
In an interview this week with the NY Times, PM Bennett made it clear that his top priority is to get the US to work together with Israel and its Sunni allies to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons. He also insisted that he would defend construction policies in Judea/Samaria (although he has already preemptively cut building plans to avoid irritating Biden) and that he is not interested in any new Palestinian peace initiatives.

Perhaps Bennett thinks that if he throws Biden a news-cycle lifeline, Biden will be grateful enough to give him something in return. Bennett is very unpopular these days in Israel – the Right thinks he has sold out to the Left, and the Left dislikes him for his right-wing ideology. Some crumbs from Biden’s table might be politically useful to him.

So I’m sure Bennett will return brimming with accomplishment over some encouraging words about Iran that he will have received; but the possibility that there will be any substantive change in US policy is negligible, given the cast of characters in the American administration. If, as I suspect, the administration is strongly influenced by the circle around former president Obama, that is even more reason to think that Israeli concerns will not affect American Iran policy.

The phrase for “negotiations” in Hebrew is literally translatable as “give and take.” But when one side holds all the cards, there is mostly give and very little take. Anything that Bennett does get from the meeting, even if it is only insubstantial promises, he will pay for, probably in concessions regarding the Palestinians.

There are plenty of crises in Israel right now – for example, hospitals are claiming to be out of money and refusing to take more Corona patients – that could serve as legitimate reasons to stay home. Bennett should have picked one of them and not gone to America.

UNRWA's webpage on Lebanon says:

More than 479,000 refugees are registered with UNRWA in Lebanon. About 45 percent of them live in the country’s 12 refugee camps.

The implication is that 55% of them live among the Lebanese, outside of the camps.

But Lebanon doesn't allow any Palestinians to live outside the camps! 100% of the Palestinians in Lebanon live in camps. Where are the other 55%?

UNRWA doesn't want you to know that they have left Lebanon altogether. Because UNRWA wants to tell the world that it should be funded for 479,000 "refugees," not less than half that amount.

UNRWA does this consciously. In a recent article on Lebanon's woes, UNRWA writes, "UNRWA remains the main provider of basic services, such as health, education and camp improvement to over 210,000 Palestine refugees present in Lebanon. These include about 28,000 Palestine refugees from Syria."

In fact, when you subtract the Syrian refugees, actual UNRWA recipients are less than 40% of the "refugees" registered in Lebanon.

If anyone of Palestinian descent needs aid, the ones remaining in Lebanon do. Lebanon has literal apartheid laws aimed at keeping them landless, stateless, jobless and incarcerated in camps they can't easily leave.

But UNRWA has the obligation to be honest about the number of people it serves. It shouldn't play fast and loose with those numbers to scam more money from the international community.

08/25 Links Pt1: Two-states is so dead, it isn't on the Bennett-Biden agenda; The Afghanistan Catastrophe Is an American Humiliation; Into the Heart of a Hezbollah Terror Tunnel

From Ian:

Two-states is so dead, it isn't on the Bennett-Biden agenda

The Biden administration also seemed to downgrade expectations on that score. On Monday, US State Department spokesman Ned Price said of the coming parley that “we seek to see to it that Israelis and Palestinians alike can enjoy equal measures of what is important to both people: prosperity, freedom, and importantly, dignity.”

It was almost as if, even before the meeting took place, the Biden administration had written out acceptable talking points Bennett could get behind that did not address Palestinian statehood or self-determination.

Former Israeli Ambassador to the US Michael Oren told The Jerusalem Post that Biden and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken were as committed as their predecessors Barack Obama and John Kerry, to a two-state resolution to the conflict. But they are not going to “go down that road” now because they fear it would bring down Bennett’s government.

Instead, Oren speculated, the conversation would focus on small steps, in which the US would ask Bennett to make gestures to the Palestinians. If two-states is mentioned, it will be the US that speaks of it, he said.

The stumbling block here, however, is not just the policy difference between Bennett who opposes Palestinian statehood and Biden who believes in two states at the pre-1967 lines.

At issue is the acute financial and leadership crisis within the Palestinian Authority itself, that would make it impossible to move forward on statehood.

The question, these days, is less about how to make peace than how to prevent violence.

The conversation will likely focus on economic gestures Israel can take to help the Palestinians or steps in can refrain from taking in the West Bank's Area C.

Bennett’s public silence on the Palestinians is less about the topic’s unimportance than about the absence of any possible horizon. The harsh reality is that ‘two states’, once a standard bearer of the US-Israeli-Palestinian dialogue, has been buried so deep that the best one could hope for is a series of gestures to prevent violent explosions.

Hamas' latest antics in Gaza are aimed at Washington

Hamas has in the past few days organized several particularly violent riots ahead of the meeting between Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and U.S. President Joe Biden, set to take place on Thursday in Washington.

The leaders of the terror group that rules Gaza hope that this will push the issue of the enclave's rehabilitation following the 11-day May war to the top of the meeting's agenda.

Hamas expects the United States to both pressure Israel to advance the issue and be an active partner in the reconstruction of the Strip. This means that any attempts on Israel’s part to reconcile with Hamas by easing restrictions on the Strip are doomed to failure.

Israel’s conduct in Gaza over the past week - mainly its failure to retaliate for the rocket fire and lax response to violent riots on the perimeter fence - could only be described as a military blunder. It was only meant to contain the riots and avoid casualties on the Palestinian side in order to not exacerbate the situation.

Mainly, it was a strategic failure on the part of Defense Minister Benny Gantz and Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. Both of them utterly failed to properly read the diplomatic map.

Israel thought it would be able to buy some peace of mind with money, while failing to understand that Hamas sees violent border riots as an opportunity to achieve much more than a few economic perks. For instance, it seeks to force the Americans to pressure Israel into reaching a long-term agreement with Hamas that would include the release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.

Hamas will never voluntarily agree to peace with Israel.

David Singer: The ghost of Trump's Peace Plan hovers over the White House

Biden’s seven months tenure as President has already seen unprecedented chaos and confusion in America’s internal and external relations following Biden’s unilateral dumping of three major Trump policies without consulting individuals, state or foreign Governments affected by such changes:
Ceasing construction of Trump’s security fence on America’s southern border - facilitating increased unauthorised and illegal entry of aliens into the US.

CNN reported on this continuing crisis on 13 August:
“The Biden administration is facing a "serious challenge" at the US southern border, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Thursday, saying the US has encountered an "unprecedented" number of migrants illegally crossing the border.

During a news conference in Brownsville, Texas, Mayorkas stressed the sharp increase of migrants arriving at the US-Mexico border, many of whom are fleeing deteriorating conditions in their home countries.”

- Blocking completion of the Keystone XL pipeline (costing 11000 jobs) and reviewing oil-exploration leases granted by Trump in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge - reversing hallmark policies of Trump’s administration championing the oil industry by promoting oil-exploration projects in the interests of securing US energy independence.

- Ditching Trump’s plans for a conditions-based orderly American withdrawal from Afghanistan and replacing it with an unconditional withdrawal - leaving behind billions of dollars of American sophisticated and highly-secret military equipment, up to 15000 American civilians, and thousands of Afghani civilians who helped the US military – and their families - at the mercy of the anti-US Taliban terrorist militants taking over Afghanistan.

Biden cannot – after these disastrous unilateral policy decisions – dump Trump’s Plan without Bennett’s approval.

Trump’s Plan is the most comprehensive and detailed plan ever prepared by an American President for dividing sovereignty in Judea and Samaria (West Bank) and Gaza between Arabs and Jews.

Trump’s Plan – and his vision for peace - will surely be hovering over Biden and Bennett when they face-off in their White House meeting this week.

It's always Israel's fault.

For the third straight day, Egypt has closed the Rafah crossing, stranding thousands of people on both sides who want to cross the border. Egypt also closed the Salah a-Din Gate from where some truckloads of goods are sent.

Egypt's sudden closure is largely assumed to be an expression of anger over Hamas organizing violent protests at a time when Egypt has been putting its own reputation on the line to bring down tensions between Israel and Gaza.

Gisha, the Israeli NGO that monitors movement from and to Gaza, is upset over this - but they don't blame Egypt.

On the first day of the closure, they wrote, "The closure of Rafah compounds severe movement restrictions imposed by Israel, leaving Gaza residents with even fewer options to travel for medical, professional, educational, or personal needs."

And in its conclusion, they don't call on Egypt to lift the restrictions - but Israel: "Given its ongoing effective control over Gaza, which amounts to occupation, Israel is obligated to protect human rights and facilitate normal life in the Strip to the greatest extent possible. This includes facilitating access abroad, particularly given Egypt’s closing of Rafah Crossing."

This NGO doesn't even call for Egypt to lift the restrictions. Even though Israel cannot do anything to help people who want to go to or return from Egypt, Gisha is programmed to make everything Israel's fault and Israel's responsibility.

Moreover, Gisha doesn't even ask Hamas to stop its activities that are prompting Egypt to make this decision.

Arabs hurt Arabs and Israel gets blamed.

Gisha's obsession with castigating Israel is part of its DNA. For example, on August 17, it wrote that Israel was not allowing communications equipment into Gaza. However, since then Israel has lifted that restriction. You wouldn't know about it from Gisha, though - the article about the restriction is still on their front page, and there has been no update.

Israel has recently allowed over a thousand traders and businesspeople from Gaza to resume entering Israel to facilitate trade - but Gisha was silent. Israel recently resumes allowing construction material into Gaza for international organizations - but Gisha ws silent.

In fact, one can see more accurate information about imports and exports from Gaza from Islamic Jihad media than from an Israeli NGO. If you want reliable information on people and goods going in and out of Gaza, this Western-funded NGO is the worst place to look.

Gisha has 25 employees, a budget of $1.6 million and is funded from a variety of sources:

Action Against Hunger

Broederlijk Delen

Danish Representative Office

DROSOS FOUNDATION

Foundation for Middle East Peace

Irish Aid

Leonard Hill Charitable Trust

New Israel Fund

NGO Development Center

Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Oxfam SDC-Danida

Oxfam Novib

Rockefeller Brothers Fund

Salesforce.com Foundation (in kind donation)

Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs

The Embassy of Finland in Tel Aviv

United Nations Development Programme

All of them are complicit in demonizing Israel, even for things not under Israel's control.

The Foreign Press Association issued a press release yesterday:

On Saturday, August 21st, Palestinian security forces in the West Bank harassed, abused and threatened a pair of Washington Post journalists, Salwan Georges and Sufian Taha, covering a protest in Ramallah’s Manara Square.

The demonstrators had gathered to protest the Palestinian Authority’s handling of the death of Nizar Banat, a government critic who died in the custody of Palestinian police on June 24.

As police broke up the gathering, a Palestinian policeman grabbed the Washington Post photographer as he was taking pictures of the arrests. The officer seized the camera, held the photographer’s neck and tore his press badge.

Georges explained that he was with the international media and tried to hold onto his camera. But additional security men surrounded him, taking away the camera and telling him: “Here it’s different. We don’t care.”

The police held on to the camera for over an hour, deleting seven photos and preventing him from doing his job. When the camera was returned, both journalists were ordered to leave and told there would be a “big problem” if photos of one of the officers were published.

The Foreign Press Association condemns this egregious behavior in the strongest terms. We call on the Palestinian Authority to sanction the officers who were involved in this incident and to stand behind its past promises to respect the freedom of the press.

A government attacking media is pretty big news, right?

But this story - which happened on Saturday, and this press release issued Tuesday morning - has not gotten any coverage in the media that I could find.

Not even from the Washington Post!

The Washington Post made a conscious decision not to cover an attack on its own journalists. It chose to publish AP's story on the protest in Ramallah, and not the account of its own people on the scene.

The venerable news organization chose to adhere to the wishes of the Palestinian Authority that they censor their own story about Palestinian police violence.

Compare the lack of response here to the huge headlines when Israel attacked an office tower that housed AP along with Hamas offices and intelligence equipment in May. Article after article hinted that Israel deliberately attacked the media, a most ridiculous accusation. But when Palestinians target media explicitly - silence.

That cowardice is the real story here, not the attack itself. A news organization that makes a decision to censor itself in the face of threats from Palestinian bullies cannot be trusted to objectively report any news from the region - Palestinian threats clearly work.

And they aren't only effective against Washington Post reporters. There must be a tacit agreement among mainstream media to keep this story quiet, because 24 hours after the FPA issued their press release, there are still no articles on this (that I could find in Google News.)

This is just a small example of how media bias works - at all psychological levels. The media does not fear retribution from Israel so it can be as critical and unfair as it wants. It fears a great deal what the PA and Hamas can do so it censors itself. That self-censorship results in more anti-Israel stories to justify their cowardice and make reporters act like they are fearless in the face of a regional superpower.

The deliberate choice by the entire international media to ignore a story of attacks on journalists betrays a deep rot in today's journalism.

Too bad that story won't be covered by journalists.

UPDATE: David Gerstman reminds me that a few years ago, Israeli police accidentally detained a Washington Post reporter for a brief time and it made a headline in the New York Times.

UPDATE 2: Sufian Taha was arrested with Booth in 2016 - the very same person, two arrests, only one newsworthy!

From Reuters:

A U.S. donation of 500,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses arrived in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza on Tuesday, as Palestinian officials work to boost uptake and counter a surge in new cases by requiring some workers to get the jab.

The Palestinians began administering vaccines in February, but despite having purchased or received what officials have called “an abundance of doses”, uptake has stalled at just 35% of age-eligible Palestinians in the West Bank, and around 11% in Gaza.

With the U.S. donation of 500,000 Moderna doses, facilitated through the global COVAX vaccine-sharing programme, the Palestinians say they have now received 2.5 million doses. The West Bank will take 300,000 of the donation and Gaza 200,000.

"Stalled" is right. Few seem to want the vaccine in the Palestinian areas. A mere 4200 doses a day were administered over the past week. At that rate, they wouldn't run out of the vaccines they already have for seven months - enough time for the US donation to expire! (Assuming about 2.3 million Palestinian adults and 1 million doses already given.)

For months, we were told that Palestinians were being deprived of much needed vaccines. But none of those reporters bothers to take a survey of what Palestinians themselves want.

Hamas is offering cash rewards for people to take vaccines. and both Hamas and the PA are forcing their employees to get vaccinated or else lose their paychecks. The Palestinians are expecting a shipment of a million more vaccines in September, which will again expire before they are used unless there is a significant wave of new people taking the vaccine.

The only survey I found, from June, found that 35% of Palestinians refuse to take the vaccine. But that number seems to be low, since the vaccines have been widely available for months and most people are not bothering to get them.