Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, September 09, 2021

EU lying about international law

The official Twitter account for the European Union Delegation to the Palestinians posted:

Let's assume that parts of Jerusalem are "occupied" under international law. Is Israel violating that law when enforcing laws against illegal construction?

Of course not. The Geneva Conventions are clear:

Art. 64. The penal laws of the occupied territory shall remain in force, with the exception that they may be repealed or suspended by the Occupying Power in cases where they constitute a threat to its security or an obstacle to the application of the present Convention.

Subject to the latter consideration and to the necessity for ensuring the effective administration of justice, the tribunals of the occupied territory shall continue to function in respect of all offences covered by the said laws.

The Occupying Power may, however, subject the population of the occupied territory to provisions which are essential to enable the Occupying Power to fulfil its obligations under the present Convention, to maintain the orderly government of the territory, and to ensure the security of the Occupying Power, of the members and property of the occupying forces or administration, and likewise of the establishments and lines of communication used by them.

Art. 65. The penal provisions enacted by the Occupying Power shall not come into force before they have been published and brought to the knowledge of the inhabitants in their own language. The effect of these penal provisions shall not be retroactive.

Art. 66. In case of a breach of the penal provisions promulgated by it by virtue of the second paragraph of Article 64 the Occupying Power may hand over the accused to its properly constituted, non-political military courts, on condition that the said courts sit in the occupied country. Courts of appeal shall preferably sit in the occupied country.

Art. 67. The courts shall apply only those provisions of law which were applicable prior to the offence, and which are in accordance with general principles of law, in particular the principle that the penalty shall be proportionate to the offence. They shall take into consideration the fact the accused is not a national of the Occupying Power.

In fact, between 1949 and 1967 the Jordanians not only demolished houses in Jerusalem and elsewhere, but they forcibly evicted Palestinians from areas they wanted for other purposes. From The Palestinian refugees in Jordan, 1948-1957 by Avi Plascov:

The Jerusalem Town Council was relieved by the Government-UNRWA decision to transfer the Mu'askar Camp in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City to another site in Anata, a few kilometres away. The site chosen for their resettlement was mostly formerly Jewish-owned land; hence the transfer would not be at the expense of the natives, nor would it raise problems of confiscated land. Furthermore, showing the refugees that they still occupied Jewish land would perhaps give them some satisfaction and a kind of tangible security, while naming the new camp Shu'fat attracted refugees, it being in a salubrious neighbourhood where many villas were built. Nevertheless, most refugees refused to move as they feared losing both their source of income—the market and the tourists—and the opportunity to pray in the second most holy place [sic] for Muslim believers. Consequently the army had to transfer them by force to their new camp as late as 1965.

Another UNRWA-Government scheme was in the Ramallah area where eight concentrations of refugees were to be broken up and given land of their own. The Government wanted to resettle them near the Broadcasting Station away from the town's entrance. UNRWA refused to carry out the project as it knew it was bound to encounter problems. It was also not its policy to build new camps or to take over unofficial ones since it wanted to dilute refugee concentrations.

However the T.C. was anxious to move the refugees and promised it would provide and be responsible for sanitation facilities and would cover the land's rental for the first year, after which the Government would pay. UNRWA agreed. The old houses which disfigured the town were to be demolished and the many non-refugees were to be evacuated by the Police to their respective villages.

This is the Jordanian law that Israel inherited, which was based on previous British and Ottoman laws.

(Incidentally, Jordan also would demolish houses of opponents of the regime, relying on British regulations that allowed the military to demolish the house of anyone suspected of violence, in its Palestine Defence (Emergency) Regulation 119.)

In short: If Israel legally annexed Jerusalem, it can apply its own zoning laws. If Israel occupies parts of Jerusalem, it is obligated to apply previous zoning laws which allow demolition of illegally built structures.

The EU's claim that Israel enforcing existing zoning laws is illegal is completely wrong.

From Tufts Daily:

An act of antisemitic vandalism occurred in one of Tufts’ dorms on Saturday, according to an email sent to the Tufts community Wednesday night. The email was signed by University President Anthony Monaco.

According to the email, a Jewish student had discovered his mezuzah — an important Jewish symbol traditionally affixed to the doorposts of Jewish homes — removed from his doorpost.

“Regardless of intent, the removal of this important symbol of Jewish faith is antisemitic and has caused harm,” Monaco wrote in the email. “This is a moment from which we can all learn. All members of our community should feel comfortable displaying and expressing their faith, and all members of our community should respect those displays and expressions.”

Monaco said that Tufts University Police Department had launched an investigation into the incident but has not yet been able to identify the people or person responsible for the mezuzah’s removal.

There have been other antisemitic incidents at Tufts, notably a swastika drawn on a Jewish student's dorm room door almost exactly two years ago. Also in 2019, posters accusing Israel of "apartheid" and blaming American imperialism were plastered on the university Hillel offices.

Tufts has an active Students for Justice in Palestine chapter. It's "Jewish Voice for Peace" chapter has been quiet for several years on social media.

If an Arab leader giving New Year's greetings in Hebrew upsets you, you just may be an antisemite

The Foreign Minister of the UAE and the Bahraini ambassador to Israel both issued Rosh Hashanah greetings on Sunday on Twitter in Hebrew.

Both of them extended their greetings to Jews worldwide.

This naturally brought out the Arab and Iranian antisemites, hiding their hate behind the pretense that these greetings were to Israel.

Iran's Abna News wrote that Arabs were surprised and upset over the tweet.

Jordan's Al Majd, a pan-Arab nationalist news site, called both Arab officials "traitors" for tweeting in Hebrew and damned them saying "God's curse on them."

Abu Zayed had tweeted Shana Tova greetings in 2019, before the Abraham Accords, and in 2020. Arabs expressed anger on those occasions too.

Weekly column by Vic Rosenthal

The American debacle in Afghanistan is bad for America, and bad for Europe. The jihadists of the Middle East have received a huge gift of military equipment. They may even receive “humanitarian aid” from the US, in return for releasing some of the Americans still in Afghanistan. The Americans may call it aid, but everyone knows it is ransom for the release of hostages.

Psychologically, this is a massive boost to Islamic militants everywhere. Their belief that Allah is on their side has been confirmed. While I am probably too old to see them marching into the Vatican, unless present trends are reversed, my children probably will. Maybe they will find our Menorah, the one that Titus looted from the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE.

America’s defeat is also bad for Israel, and not just because of the American-made arms that the Taliban is selling to Iran and to every swaggering group of savages who believe they have a divine mandate to loot and rape. Even before the disaster in Afghanistan, the forces of jihad here have been feeling the wind of history at their backs, and have become drunk with their power to make demands and have them met by a government which is always willing to choose, as Churchill said, dishonor over war – and which, like Britain under Chamberlain, got war anyway.

So when six murderous terrorists from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and Fatah organizations escaped from an Israeli prison on Monday, their parent organizations threatened violence. Hamas, apparently feeling left out, also made threats of escalation and launched incendiary balloons across the border. The tension has been growing for the past few weeks, as Hamas makes demands for loosening of restrictions on the entry of building materials and financial aid from Qatar, and Israel tries vainly to satisfy them with concessions.

Recently, Israel agreed to “loan” the Palestinian Authority about $150 million, in order to “strengthen the PA against Hamas.” This is a strange “loan:” the source of the money is about $186 million of funds that were collected by Israel on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, for Palestinian taxes on imports that pass through Israeli ports. Israel, however, withheld the money from the PA because of an Israeli law that forbids transferring money as long as it is used to pay stipends to imprisoned terrorists or the families of “martyrs.” The Palestinians have refused to stop paying their heroes, so the transfer is called a “loan” in order to bypass the law. Wrap your head around that.

I know, it’s complicated. There is the PIJ, there is Hamas, and there is the Fatah-dominated PLO which in effect constitutes the PA. But here’s a rule to make it simpler: they are all waging jihad (even Fatah, which is officially secular), they are all deploying terrorists against us, and they are all dedicated to the idea that if they kill enough Jews the rest of us will pick up and go back to Poland, or wherever they believe we come from.

The new government is not quite as dysfunctional as the preceding one, but because of the inclusion of left-wing parties and even an Arab Islamist party – that’s right, a party whose ideology is that Israel should be ruled according to the principles of Islamic sharia is part of Israel’s governing coalition – it seems to be unable to deal with the escalating chutzpah of its Palestinian enemies.

The Prime Minister, Naftali Bennett, is someone with a solid right-wing ideology, at least he has always expressed himself as such, but I believe that he is not able to call the shots in a government whose majority is center-left and left. Incidentally, and I know I will get a lot of objections to this, I think he is a courageous person who has sacrificed his political career – I doubt that his party will even get into the Knesset in the next election – to extricate the country from an endless series of elections and caretaker governments. The present situation is not good, but it was worse before. For this, I am grateful to him.

But now is not the time for concessions. America is leaving the Middle East, starting with Obama’s tacit decision to allow Iran to get nuclear weapons (as long as the breakout happens after his presidency), continuing through his inaction when Bashar al-Assad crossed his “red line” by using chemical weapons, and now being concluded by the empty suit in the White House. It should be clear to every American ally in the region, especially Israel, that it is impossible to count on support from America. Of course Israel doesn’t need American troops to fight for it, or even military advisors. But political developments in America make it uncertain if it will continue to support Israel diplomatically, with military aid, or even by selling her weapons for cash.

I don’t want to be even more negative than I have to be, but there is a fundamental cultural instability in America that seems to be becoming more intense with time. I suspect that Americans will soon be concerned more with their own personal security, even their physical safety, than anything else. Maybe it looks worse from here than it is, but I visualize it as an engine revved far beyond its redline, and holding there. At any moment it will fly apart.

We are living at a major historical inflection point, with America withdrawing her influence everywhere. Unfortunately the beneficiaries of this are Iran and the Islamists of all stripes, as well as the totalitarian Chinese Communist party, nuclear-armed Pakistan and North Korea, and others.

The end of the Roman Empire was followed by the Dark Ages, which aren’t called that for nothing. It's going to be hard for everyone.

09/08 Links: The Taliban and implicit antisemitism in int'l relations; Italy, Croatia bring countries boycotting Durban conference to 14; Arizona divests $143Mil from Ben & Jerry's

From Ian:

Rabbi Dr. Elie Abadie: Boosting Muslim-Jewish relations at Rosh Hashana

For 1,400 years, Judaism and Islam were inextricably linked in the Arabian Peninsula, the Middle East and in medieval Spain. Each had a common ancestry, similar values and holy scriptures. We are enjoined by our faiths to find a path toward peaceful coexistence between all religions and all people. Therefore, in order to establish a channel of communication and cooperation between Jews and Muslims, between Judaism and Islam, the following steps are necessary.

First, we must lead by example and communicate to our own congregations that peace is a basic human right. We must stand together should any of our communities suffer harassment or attacks. And we must overcome some of the misrepresentation, demonization, stereotyping, prejudice and lack of awareness in the world through an ongoing educational process that teaches peace and respect for each religion.

Second, as each of us takes enormous pride in our own religion’s history, culture and tradition, so too must we pride ourselves on our level of understanding and tolerance of each other’s religion. Just as we encourage our own people’s pride in our own religions, we must castigate those who show intolerance and ignorance of other religions and cultures.

Third, it is our responsibility to guide our people toward looking for the inestimable value of peace, and not in the “importance” of religious conflict. Yes, the world is made up of different races, colors, ethnicities, religions, and political ideologies. However, the seeds of peace begin to grow when people of all faiths and backgrounds are encouraged to communicate, tolerate, accept, respect, and ultimately trust one another.

As the Jewish new year approaches, let us reflect on the wise words included in the UN manifesto on the Culture of Peace, which states: “We must learn to use one another’s religious belief as ways to connect — not as reasons for conflict.” May these words serve as a guiding light for everybody in this region for the coming year. Judaism and Islam are forever bound together as sister religions. We are intertwined in our faith, liturgy, history and culture. It behooves us to maintain an open dialogue and cherish our similarities and our differences with respect, acceptance, coexistence and love for each other. We owe it to our communities, to our people and to our common father Abraham.

Arizona divests from Ben & Jerry's over its "antisemitic" Israel boycott

The state of Arizona plans to completely divest $143 million from the global ice cream company Ben & Jerry’s as of September 2021 over its Israel boycott.

“Israel is and will continue to be a major trading partner of Arizona,” Arizona State Treasurer Kimberly Yee said on Tuesday.

“As Arizona’s Chief Banking and Investment Officer, I stand with Israel and I will not allow taxpayer dollars to go towards antisemitic, discriminatory efforts against Israel,” she stated.

Arizona is the first state to totally divest from Ben & Jerry’s after the ice cream giant, which is a subsidiary of the British based Unilever conglomerate, announced that it planned to end its contract with its Israeli franchise as of December 2022.

The Israeli Ben & Jerry’s franchise is based in southern Israel and has been in operation for 35 years. It ran afoul of Ben & Jerry’s for its refusal to halt ice cream sales to West Bank settlements.

The boycott decision by Ben & Jerry’s Independent Board of Directors to end its ties with its franchisee was modified by Unilever and the Ben & Jerry’s CEO, who said they wanted the ice cream company to maintain ties with Israel through another franchise that would not allow sales to the settlements.

The office of the Arizona Treasury said on Tuesday that state laws prohibited continued investments in Ben & Jerry’s in light of its boycott decision.

As Arizona Treasurer, I've divested all state funds from Ben & Jerry's for boycotting Israel. Israel is and will continue to be a major trade partner of AZ. #IStandWithIsrael and I will not allow taxpayer dollars to go towards anti-Semitic, discriminatory efforts against Israel. https://t.co/F7mFhCq1Rt
— Kimberly Yee (@KimberlyYeeAZ) September 7, 2021

Emily Schrader: Did we learn from the lessons of 9/11?

I don’t mention these intelligence failures to criticize the US for not acting prior to 9/11, but rather to point out that it’s difficult not to see history repeating itself today.

For years, Israel has been providing proof of Iran’s illicit nuclear program and their funding of global terrorism – including against US troops in Iraq. In 2018, Israel provided indisputable evidence that Iran had lied about nuclear weapons programs in the lead-up to the Iran deal. Yet now, instead of US (and EU) taking necessary action, they’ve made it a political game and given Iran more time, through bad decisions like the Iran deal.

The US does not feel the full impact of Iran’s terrorist activity because it occurs far from home, but if the US thinks Iran doesn’t seek to carry out acts similar to 9/11, they aren’t living in reality. Have we learned nothing from the intelligence failures pre-9/11?

While we should be creating a long-term strategy for withdrawal from Afghanistan that prevents from coming to power the very terror groups that assisted in 9/11, the US is instead betraying Afghanistan and leaving millions to die while literally arming that same terrorist organization.

While we should be sanctioning Iran and demanding they end terrorist activity and military action against Israel and the US – as well as maintaining a zero-tolerance approach to their nuclear program – the US is instead discussing re-entering the nuclear deal. No one wants war, but the Biden administration’s approach is shockingly naive.

None of this means that the US should be launching a full-scale war against Iran today, but it does mean that the US is not taking the Iranian threat seriously, and the ramifications could be deadly. The US took its security for granted ahead of 9/11 due to geographic proximity and global strength. They refused to learn from the experience of others, like Israel. As both an American and an Israeli, I know we can’t afford to make the same mistake again.

The new podcast is up with special guest @DrZuhdiJasser discussing 9/11, 20 years on. https://t.co/FWWAwLYyUH
— Jon Gabriel (@exjon) September 8, 2021

Shana Tova u'Metuka 5782

Wishing all of my readers a sweet and happy New Year!

I will not be posting or tweeting until at least Wednesday night.

09/06 Links Pt2: Jpost: 50 Most Influential Jews of 2021; Israel’s New Gulf Allies UAE and Bahrain Send New Year Wishes; Biden Invites Pro-Sarsour 'Rabbi' Who Defended BDS for Rosh Hashana

From Ian:

50 Most Influential Jews of 2021

The Jerusalem Post is proud to present its 2021 list of the 50 Most Influential Jews.

Many people influence the world we live in and impact our daily lives.

This year, we strived to create a list showcasing the diversity of the Jewish nation while highlighting people from all walks of life – government, art, medicine, literature and science.

1 Israel's Changemakers Naftali Bennett & Yair Lapid
2 The Diplomat Antony Blinken
3 America's COVID Warrior Rochelle P. Walensky
4 King of the Cure Albert Bourla
5 Intel Czar Avril Haines
6 Mr. President Isaac Herzog
7 Leading Global Jewry Ronald Lauder
8 Mrs. Unicorn Eynat Guez
9 Britain's Fighters for Justice Michael Ellis & Lucy Frazer
10 Prime Opposition Benjamin Netanyahu

'Bahraini first:' Houda Nonoo on the Middle East's new era of peace - The Jerusalem Post https://t.co/uKLrMKxlIo
— Seth Frantzman (@sfrantzman) September 6, 2021

09/06 Links Pt1: When Biden dropped the ball in Afghanistan, America showed up; Taliban Grounds Planes, Biden Admin Says There’s Little It Can Do; 6 security prisoners escape from Israeli prison

From Ian:

Bethany Mandel: Perspective: When Biden dropped the ball in Afghanistan, America showed up

When I first asked Corinne Snow if I could talk to her for a piece about grassroots efforts to evacuate and aid Afghan refugees, she demurred. She told me, “I would be more than happy to talk to you but I don’t feel comfortable being highlighted. There are private citizens chartering planes, putting themselves in harm’s way, doing incredible things and I’m just sending emails and texts in between feeding my baby while on maternity leave. I would just feel really foolish taking credit when there are people out there doing really heroic stuff.”

Snow wasn’t alone in her humility; every single person involved in the efforts to rescue Afghans who I asked to talk to for this piece felt similarly.

While Snow may not be chartering planes, her efforts have contributed to the successful evacuations of Afghan families and individuals and more than 8,000 items purchased off of Amazon wishlists she put together for U.S. troops and refugees in conjunction with troops stationed in nearby Qatar. Alongside countless other Americans, Snow played a vital role in getting as many Afghani allies out as possible following the quick and dramatic fall of the government to the Taliban.

None of the individuals I spoke with could pinpoint the moment they became involved: Sometime in the past several weeks, they started to receive requests for help from both those still inside Afghanistan and from individuals around the world who cared about people there. Message after message rolled in, and eventually groups of individuals with connections in the military, on the ground, in the government, or just concerned citizens were formed on WhatsApp and Signal.

Snow worked with another woman, Simone Ledeen, who described her grassroots work as being a communications hub and facilitating connections between parties. Ledeen was the perfect woman for the job. Thanks to spending more than a year in Afghanistan across two deployments — one that brought her around the country, and one stationed in Kabul — Ledeen had a large and varied number of contacts on the ground. A former government employee, Ledeen has an extensive network in government in Washington, D.C., as well, all of which she harnessed over the past two weeks as she worked to connect those who needed help with those who would have a hope of providing it.

Dore Gold: Iran and the Taliban: Bitter Enemies or Potential Partners

At the end of the 1990s, Shiite Iran and the Sunni Taliban nearly went to war. However, the Iranians also pursued a strategy of supplying Taliban units with arms and cash as well as training Taliban fighters, using the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.

Iran later deployed the Afghan Fatemiyoun Division in Syria, which became the largest external militia involved in the fighting there. Both Iran and the Taliban were committed to seeing U.S. power in Afghanistan weakened. But now that the Americans are gone, does there remain a basis for Iranian-Afghan cooperation?

Will Iran seek to add the demographic weight of Shiite communities in Afghanistan and Pakistan to its cause?

The Taliban Takeover: Iranian Interests in Afghanistan

Iran's primary security interests in Afghanistan are to prevent terrorist infiltration. As of now, Iran regards ISIS as the most significant terrorist threat. According to American reports, the Afghan branch of ISIS has conducted many terrorist attacks against civilian Shiite targets in Afghanistan. The American withdrawal is liable to strengthen ISIS in Afghanistan and reinforce its activity against the Shiite community or Iranian targets.

Iran also wants to safeguard its economic interests as the largest exporter to Afghanistan, one of Iran's largest markets for non-oil exports. Another important Iranian interest is the free flow of water from Afghanistan to Iran - a matter of dispute between the two countries. The Helmand River, which flows from Afghanistan to the Sistan region in Iran, supplies water for about a million people.

The improved relations between Iran and the Taliban, despite the ideological and religious differences and the Shiite-Sunni rift, reflect a large degree of realpolitik. As long as its security and economic interests are preserved, Iran is not expected to support the Taliban's opponents or engage in subversive activity in Afghanistan.

No joke: U.N. Under-Secretary-General Martin Griffiths meets Taliban chief Mullah Baradar in Kabul, the terrorist group's highest-level meeting with an international figure.

If the Taliban win U.N. recognition, they inherit the Afghan seat on the U.N. Women's Rights Commission. https://t.co/oT3xzGEKir pic.twitter.com/548O4usQzw
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) September 5, 2021

How British newspapers described Rosh Hashanah, 1805

From the The Morning Chronicle London, September 23, 1805 :

I confess I don't know what a "white fast" or "black fast" are. I've seen some refer to Yom Kippur as a "white fast" because Jews wear white on that day, with Tisha B'Av being a "black fast," but that clearly isn't the meaning here. I cannot figure out what they are talking about, especially saying that the "White Fast" lasts a week and the "Black Fast" several days.

The Aberdeen Journal and General Advertiser for the North of Scotland had essentially the same article two weeks later, replacing "Yesterday" with "Saturday last."

20 years later the London Morning Post of September 17, 1825 had a much better description of the Jewish holidays of the month of Tishrei, showing that not much has changed in the last 196 years.

By 2030, the majority of world Jews will live in Israel

Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics came out with its annual Rosh Hashanah report on Israeli and worldwide Jewish populations.

This year, there are 6,940,000 Jews living in Israel, compared to 15,200,000 Jews worldwide.

This means that 45.7% of all Jews live in Israel, today.

I looked at the Jewish population worldwide and in Israel since 1970. Here is my graph, with a forecast going to the year 2030:

That line is remarkably straight even as over a million Jews moved from the former Soviet Union to Israel in the 1990s it only affected the slope a little bit.

If current trends continue, the majority of world's Jews will live in Israel by 2030. (Actually, it would happen in 2027, but I'm playing it safe because the diaspora population used to be lessening every decade but seems to have bottomed out.)

An Israel that has more than half the world's Jews would be significant, both in terms of Zionism being proven to be a wild success and to give antisemites more reasons to direct their hate at Israel while claiming to be merely expressing political opinions.

It turns out I'm not the first to make this observation. Top Israeli demographer Sergio Della-Pergola said this in 2016, but the media didn't really make a big deal out of it.

It seems hugely important.

Israel has had a plurality of Jews for a while now but we are on the cusp of seeing Israel as the true center for Judaism. Practicing Jews will look for guidance and leadership from Israel.

Already, the biggest innovations in Jewish education come from Israel but, as far as I can tell, they remain in Israel.

While it is too early to know how diaspora Jews and organized diaspora Jewry will respond to this shift, chances are they will feel marginalized and there is potential for catastrophe. Israel and Israeli institutions should be planning now to take on the real leadership role for Jews of all stripes worldwide, or else risk losing them.

The very idea of Jewish unity seems quaint nowadays. It is needed more than ever, and the way to make it happen is to have Jews recognize that their center of gravity is moving inexorably back to where it came from, and to welcome this.

Special taxes on Jews in the early 1700s

Continuing on my research into how newspapers in the 18th century reported about Jews, I see lots of stories of European countries imposing taxes specifically on their Jewish populations.

The Caledonian Mercury, Edinburgh, Scotland, Sunday, December 1, 1726, reporting from Warsaw:

Same newspaper, October 14, 1728, reporting from Hamburg:

Pennsylvania Gazette, Philadelphia, March 5, 1730:

The Newcastle Weekly Courant, England, Tuesday, July 25, 1730:

09/05 Links: David Collier: Teaching to hate – UK Islamist extremism grows in confidence; Will Qatar use an ‘Afghan’ model for Hamas in the West Bank?

From Ian:

David Collier: Teaching to hate – UK Islamist extremism grows in confidence

The legitmised attacks on Jews

Whilst attacks on Christians still occur in the dark – those against the Jews happen in broad daylight. A man has recently been arrested following a spate of attacks on Jews in Stamford Hill. The man’s MO was simple. He would simply walk by someone who looked visibly Jewish and then punch them.

It is only a few months since a convoy of cars drove through a Jewish area calling for the ‘rape’ of our daughters. This got mainstream attention because it happened on our own doorstep. It also fits the narrative – the ability to blame a couple of extremists and pretend there is not a far wider problem.

But at the same time as those cars drove through North London – hundreds of other Islamists gathered in cities throughout the UK and chanted Islamist songs about massacring Jews. Those actions received absolutely no coverage outside of the Jewish bubble. Hundreds of Islamists actually marched through the streets of the UK, promising the Jews that the army of Mohammed is returning to slaughtered them – and not a single mainstream outlet gave a damn. It is too ‘real’ to be addressed – and anyway they think, ‘it is only the Jews’ – it is all because of ‘Israel’.

Rather than see Israel as being under attack from the Islamists – this twisted logic actually blames Israel for the hate it receives from radical Islam. A classic case of reverse causality. It is part of the societal pyramid of lies that has been built up to stop people in the UK understanding what is taking place in places such as Dewsbury, Bradford and a dozen other towns. They have legitimised attacks on Jews and given up the Jews to the Islamists, in the hope that the Islamists won’t turn their attention on to them.

So they turn a blind eye to anti-Jewish activity as long as it carries the Palestinian flag and doesn’t explicitly call for rape. ‘Palestinianism’ is an excuse that allows radical Islamists onto the streets with their murderous chants. They can even openly threaten Jews as they walk alongside the British police and the police don’t do a thing.

What we have witnessed this year – in the covoys – the attacks – the threats – is not an increase in extremism (the extremism is already there) – it is an increase in confidence. And for that our Government, security forces and police are all firmly to blame.

David Singer: Bennett schmoozes, Biden snoozes, mainstream media disabuses

Their claims that a video of the meeting was “misleadingly clipped” or “misleadingly cropped” are fanciful - as the following transcript of what actually happened indicates.

Bennett had already been addressing Biden for almost six minutes at this starting point – when Biden suddenly nodded off during Bennett’s remarks : “And one last word, Mr. President — I’ll take this off [Bennett’s face mask – ed.] for this part, if I may: You’re a man of faith, as am I. In the synagogues across the world, we read a biblical portion, beyond the Parsha; it’s called the Haftarah.
"And tomorrow, we’re going to be reading words of the prophet Isaiah — Yeshaʿyahu. In Hebrew, the words are: (Recites verse of Isaiah in Hebrew.)
"What this means — I can saying anything now. Right? (Laughter.) What this means is: The sons and daughters of the Jewish people are going to come back to our land, are going to nurse our ancient land and rebuild it.
"And this ancient Jewish prophecy is today’s Israel reality. And it’s a miracle that you’ve been so central and so part of it for so many years.
"So, Mr. President, today, you and I — and you’ve been so generous with your time in these difficult days — you and I are going to write yet another chapter in the beautiful story of the friendship between our two nations: The United States of America and the Jewish and democratic State of Israel — both of us who seek to do good and need to be strong, both of us who are a lighthouse in a very, very stormy world.
"Thank you, Mr. President. I look forward to working with you now and for many years forward. Thank you."

PRESIDENT BIDEN: Well, thank you. And you give me credit, much of which should go to Barack Obama, for making sure that we committed to a qualitative edge you would have relative to your friends [should Biden have said “enemies” ?– ed] in the region. So, he’s the one that deserves the credit.

PRIME MINISTER BENNETT: Thank him as well.

PRESIDENT BIDEN: Thank you very much, folks.

Important as Bennett thought it necessary to convey this amazing history of the Jewish people to Biden – using Jewish liturgical terms like “Parsha” and “Haftarah” and quoting a Biblical passage in Hebrew (text below) were understandably lost on Biden - who then dozed off for 30 seconds.

The mainstream media’s continuing honeymoon with Biden had clearly clouded its judgement.

In so doing - the mainstream media was exposed once again for its biased reporting on Biden – undermining its integrity and trumpeted independence.

Beware the mainstream media when reporting Biden news.

Media Bias Provides Cover for Rashida Tlaib’s Efforts to Hide Palestinian Terror

On August 28, United States Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) ignited a firestorm after posting a claim on Twitter that Israel was dehumanizing Palestinians by not returning the body of an assailant who in June had attempted to ram a car into IDF soldiers before exiting the vehicle while wielding a knife. She was subsequently shot dead.

First, there is the obvious fact that Tlaib failed to even note that Afana had committed an act of terrorism.

Second, Afana was not killed by “the Israeli government,” but rather by security forces who were intentionally targeted.

Third, Tlaib alludes to an Israeli policy whose underpinnings she is clearly unfamiliar with.

While Rashida Tlaib in particular, and more broadly the international media, have seemingly turned a blind eye to the ramifications of Israel returning the bodies of dead Palestinian terrorists, the country’s High Court of Justice has addressed the matter.

In 2019, the court ruled that the military has the legal right to keep the bodies of slain terrorists. The justices determined that doing so is a matter of national security, and that the practice was not illegal under international law governing armed conflict.

The ruling was effectively a judicial seal of approval for a 2018 parliamentary law that allowed district police commanders to determine whether to release terrorists’ bodies for burial. The law made clear that praise has repeatedly been lavished on dead terrorists at their funerals, which, in turn, has served to incite additional attacks.

Indeed, what Tlaib overlooks — and the media continually downplays — is the culture of “martyrdom” that pervades Palestinian society.

Young Labour’s BAME representative leads chant about Israel as a 'terrorist state'

The newly elected BAME representative for Young Labour officer has been filmed leading a chant about Israel as a “terrorist state” at a pro-Palestine rally that he organised.

Clips of the rally emerged as Young Labour faced calls to be shut down over its extremist views.

Abdullah Okud, one of three Momentum-backed candidates elected to official posts within Young Labour last month, could be seen telling the crowd in Sheffield to chant after him, “five, six, seven, eight, Israel is a terrorist state”.

In another film of the May demonstration, protesters also could be heard chanting the Hamas rallying cry, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”.

Many view the slogan as a call for the dismantling of the Jewish state. It has also long been a Hamas rallying cry.

Mr Okud also designed the poster for the event which includes the same inflammatory phrase.

He also urged the crowd to “look up” Cage — a Muslim advocacy group whose research director hailed Isis terrorist Jihadi John as a “beautiful young man” in 2015 — in order to “know the great work that they do”.

Placards at the protest declared, “Zionism is racism” and called for the end of “Israeli apartheid”.

Israel outlives another antisemite dedicated to its destruction

Former Iranian armed forces chief and senior military advisor to Iran's Supreme Leader, Major General Hassan Firouzabadi, has died of COVID-19. He was 70.

In 2011, he said, "The Zionists, who do not have any fate but death, will continue screaming of war until their destruction."

In 2012, he said, “The Iranian nation is standing for its cause, [which] is the full annihilation of Israel.”

He also has said that Israel's Iron Dome doesn't work and that the West uses lizards as nuclear spies, so it seems that his record of expertise is perfect.

Some Catholic media have lately been posting articles about how Pope Pius XII was not as passive in the face of the genocide of Jews in the Holocaust as he has been accused of.

The Catholic News Agency interviewed Deacon Dominiek Oversteyns, a former engineer with no formal background as a historian, who pored over public archives to show that Pius XII actively helped save several hundred Jews from Rome.

According to his study, there were 8,207 Jews in Rome before the Nazi raid on the Jewish ghetto on Oct. 16, 1943.

Out of these, 1,323 — or 16% — found refuge prior to the raid. Eighteen went to the Vatican extraterritorial properties, 393 to villages in the mountains around Rome, 368 to the private homes of friends, 500 to 49 different Roman convents, and 44 to parishes and pontifical colleges in Rome, Oversteyns reported.

Pius XII was also able to help 152 Jews hidden in private homes under the protection of DELASEM, the Delegation for the Assistance of Jewish Emigrants. In all, Pius XII gave support to some 714 Jews.

Oversteyns also highlights the Vatican intervention that slowed down Nazi deportations of Jews from Rome, as the Nazis released some 249 Jews out of 1,351 who had been rounded up from the Rome ghetto in 1943 after Catholic pleas. The Jews who were released were those who had married Catholics or who were in the service of "Aryans."

Yet even Oversteyns admits that this was temporary, and the Nazis deported hundreds more Jews in subsequent months.

This is not new news. As John Pawlikowski, Professor of Ethics at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, has argued when another non-professional tried to whitewash Pius' record, "We know that Pius did some things that were good, but they tended to come rather late, they were mostly behind the scenes and were relatively minor gestures."

In fact, the Pope could have done more for the Jews of Rome themselves. Only last year it was discovered that Pius ignored a memo to publicly protest the deporttion of Jews from Rome:

David Kertzer, a professor of anthropology and Italian studies at Brown University, said he has now found the full version of a memo from a senior Vatican official urging Pius to formally protest against the deportation — advice the pope ignored. “There was no formal papal protest to Germany,” said Professor Kertzer.

The real legacy of Pope Pius XII is not that he indirectly and silently helped several hundred local Jews take shelter in various Catholic convents or monasteries, but what he didn't do that could have saved tens of thousands more.

The Vatican maintained a policy of neutrality from the start of World War II. The Allies signed a declaration condemning the extermination of the Jews on December 17, 1942, but the Pope refused to add his signature to the document. He obliquely referred to the Holocaust in his Christmas message a week later, but didn't mention Jews explicitly and kept it low key, referring to "the hundreds of thousands of persons who, without any fault on their part, sometimes only because of their nationality or ethnic origin, have been consigned to death or to a slow decline."

Pius XII's failure to explicitly condemn the Holocaust gave the responsibility of saving or damning Jews to individual Catholic leaders and laypeople. Some decided to shelter and save Jews and some decided to collaborate with the Nazis, secure in the knowledge that they were not contradicting any of the teachings of the Church

The Vatican opened up its archives on the wartime record of Pius last year for only a week before the library was shut down on account of COVID-19, and even in those few days scholars found damning evidence against the Pope and the Church.

On September 18, 1942, Pius’ assistant, the future Pope Paul VI, received an eyewitness report of “incredible butchery” of Jews in Warsaw. One month prior, Ukrainian Archbishop Andrzej Szeptycki had delivered a similar report informing the pope of atrocities carried out in the Lviv Ghetto, reports Haaretz’s Ofer Aderet.

Soon after, the United States’ envoy to the Vatican asked if it could corroborate accounts of mass killings in Warsaw and Lviv. In response, Vatican Secretary of State Luigi Maglione reportedly stated, “I don’t believe we have information that confirms this serious news in detail.”

While sifting through the papers, the researchers also found a memo from a Vatican staffer that warned against believing the reports, dismissing these accounts on the grounds that Jews “easily exaggerate” and “Orientals”—a reference to Archbishop Sheptytsky—“are really not an example of honesty.”

The memo was conspicuously absent from the 11-volume collection published by the Vatican in defense of Pius’ reputation, reports Religion News Service.

While Pius may have helped Catholics save a small percentage of Rome's Jews, he was not a local Rome official - he was the leader of some 200 million European Catholics. His words could have encouraged them to save and rescue hundreds of thousands of doomed Jews. His main crime was one of omission, and no amount of research showing that he indirrectly saved a few hundred local Jews can possibly take away his execrable record of refusing to use his significant moral weight to condemn Nazi Germany and instruct his followers to save every Jew they could.