Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, October 07, 2021

New Service 'Uber Alles Eats' Takes Palestinian Territories By Storm (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Hebron, October 10 - An entrepreneur with a keen sense of local cultural and political sensibilities launched a new operation last month that delivers restaurant and fast food throughout areas under autonomous rule, and reported this week that it has already turned a profit by integrating burgeoning demand with a venerable and abiding sympathy among the populace for Nazi ideology and policies.

Businessman Hassan Obeid opened his Uber Alles Eats in mid-August. Revenue forecasts predicted the company would shift from red to black sometime in the first quarter of 2022, but the resonance of a Third Reich slogan combined with the familiarity of the term Uber Eats proved so popular that Mr. Obeid has already generated enough income to pay off initial loans, and now looks to expand the business beyond food delivery.

Other food delivery apps and services exist in the Palestinian Territories, but Uber Alles Eats resonates with Palestinians in ways that other, similar operations have failed to do. The "Deutschland über alles" phrase - "Germany above them all" - from a Nazi anthem reminds Palestinians of their leadership's alliance with Hitler and evokes the glory days of when Jews were defenseless victims and still at least a societal peg below them and always available as a punching bag when scapegoating became psychologically necessary.

Survey data bore out the latter point in several polls, according to marketing researchers. "Uber Alles Eats basically steamrolled the competition since its launch," observed Khalil Mustafa of the firm Hussein Bakri. "All the others were local initiatives, and lacked either the resources or imagination to implement something like this. Clever puns about food, a slick online interface, and a modern color scheme might work over in Tel Aviv, New York, or London, but here the people respond better to campaigns that suggest they are not just tools of greater powers, but actually have some connection to power themselves, even if only relative to the downtrodden dhimmi Jew of the past."

The valence of Nazi attitudes and symbols in Palestinian society has often featured in political contexts, notably in the conflict with Israel: burning swastikas at protests; Nazi flags at demonstrations; and genocidal rhetoric as in the Hamas movement's charter. Commercial entities have also sought to capitalize on the phenomenon, notably a Gaza Strip fashion store named Hitler. Uber Eats Alles, however, marks the first time such an initiative has launched on a national scale, and Mr. Obeid hopes one day to gain use of Hamas's tunnel network in the Gaza Strip to expedite deliveries in inclement weather.

10/07 Links Pt1: Kontorovich: Why the US really wants a Palestinian consulate in Jerusalem; Profs Denounce Abraham Accords in the Name of 'Democracy,'

From Ian:

Eugene Kontorovich: Why the US really wants a Palestinian consulate in Jerusalem

The Biden administration is trying to partially undo one of Israel's greatest diplomatic achievements of recent decades - the recognition of Israel's sovereignty over Jerusalem. The U.S. is pushing to open a new diplomatic office in Jerusalem to the Palestinian Authority.

The U.S. does not want to open a consulate merely to have a place for diplomatic liaisons with the PA. They could easily do this by opening a mission in Abu Dis or Ramallah - where most other countries conduct their relations with the PA. Instead, the purpose of the consulate is to recognize Palestinian claims to Jerusalem.

Since its creation, no Israeli government of any political inclination has allowed the opening of a diplomatic mission not to Israel. For Israel to allow this would cement the notion that "both sides" have legitimate claims to the city. Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid has expressed his opposition to such a move, making it clear that this is not about a diplomatic office - it is about the status of Jerusalem.

Report: US 'quietly asked' PM to suspend settlement construction

The Biden Administration recently sent a "quiet message" to Prime Minister Naftali Bennett asking him to suspend settlement construction in Judea and Samaria, Walla News reported Wednesday.

According to the report, as the issue of the settlement enterprise could potentially strain relations between Jerusalem and Washington, both the White House and the Prime Minister's Office are trying to reach understandings on the issue through back channels.

Israel National News said that last week, US Chargé D'affaires in Jerusalem Michael Ratney called senior officials in the Prime Minister's Office and informed them that the Biden administration would like to see "restraint or reduction" with respect to the planning and execution of new settlement construction projects.

Ratney also reportedly "expressed concern" over construction in the E1 area. The latter, which stretches across 7 kilometers (4.3 miles) east of the Jerusalem municipal boundary, between Jerusalem and Maaleh Adumim, has been the focus of conservancy, as the Palestinians claim it is essential for their future state.

Both news outlets noted that in the six weeks since Bennett met with Biden at the White House, the Civil Administration's Planning Committee, which oversees zoning and construction plans in Judea and Samaria, has not convened, nor has a future date been set for it to do so.

A senior Israeli official told INN that "there is a great deal of sensitivity at the moment with the Americans when it comes to settlements. That is why the promotion of new construction is delayed."

Biden’s Anti-Israel Ally Demands White House Meeting

Rev. William Barber, who was arrested alongside Jesse Jackson during an anti-filibuster protest earlier this year, is asking the White House for a sit-down meeting with Biden, according to a letter first reported by the Religion News Service. Barber, who leads the radical George Soros-funded Poor People's Campaign, says in the letter he wants to help Biden pass the $3.5 trillion spending package being debated in Congress.

"For 140 million poor and low-income people in this country, it is incredibly disheartening to hear Democrats who ran on the platform you are advocating say publicly that they do not see the need or the urgency for more investment," Barber wrote in the letter. "We know that need intimately, and we are prepared to bring people to the White House to demonstrate the need."

"We cannot allow the filibuster, which has been used to stall even a conversation about so much important legislation, to block the action that is so desperately needed in this moment," Barber wrote.

The massive spending bill supported by both Barber and the White House does not have the votes needed to pass through the Senate, even if the filibuster was abolished, as Democrats only have 48 members of the Senate behind the bill.

Barber, who Biden has compared to Martin Luther King Jr., has a long record of controversial statements attacking the Jewish state. In 2018, he called Israel an "apartheid state" and said the notion that Israel was created as a response to the murder of millions of Jews during the Holocaust was a lie.

"It was never just purely about righting the terrible wrongs of the Holocaust," Barber said, arguing instead that it was about "expanding a global empire."

Palestinians outraged over court ruling allowing Jewish prayer on Temple Mount

Palestinians expressed outrage and warned of an escalation on Thursday after a court ruling on Wednesday implied support for allowing quiet prayer by Jewish visitors on the Temple Mount, the first such official recognition of the practice which has gone relatively undisturbed for the past year and a half.

On Wednesday, the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court heard the appeal of Aryeh Lipo, a Jewish visitor to the Temple Mount who had been removed and distanced from the complex for 15 days after a police officer ordered him to stop praying during a visit on Yom Kippur.

After watching a recording of the incident, Justice Bilha Yahalom ruled that the appellant's behavior did not violate the law or police instructions on the Temple Mount, as he was praying without a crowd and quietly in a way that was not external or visible. The ruling stated as well that Israel Police did not dispute that Lipo, like many others, prays on a daily basis on the Temple Mount.

The justice additionally dismissed the notion that Lipo posed any danger or committed any violation with his quiet prayer, despite claims by police to the contrary.

While the High Court of Justice has ruled in the past that Jews do have the legal right to pray on the Temple Mount, police have cited security concerns to impose a blanket prohibition on Jewish prayer.

Jewish visitors to the site are informed upon entry that prayer and religious items such as prayer books or prayer shawls or forbidden in the complex, although, since late 2019, Jewish visitors have been able to pray quietly, in certain parts of the site, relatively undisturbed.

Hassan Asfour was an aide to Mahmoud Abbas while he was in Tunis and a negotiator for Oslo II, as well as a PA minister and member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, who now edits the Palestinian Amad site.

His latest article says that while Israelis celebrate normalization with Arab countries, the reality is that they are not even close to full normalization. This makes him happy.

His proof is that Israelis cannot walk freely in Egypt's and Jordan's capitals. But he really means Jews.

The entity’s leaders have the right to be proud of normalization only when we see them walking in the streets of the popular neighborhoods in Cairo, and to sit untouched in the cafes of Al-Sayyida (Zaynab), Al-Hussein and Khan Al-Khalili neighborhoods, and to roam in the center of the Jordanian capital Amman, and visit its popular markets. When we see them there without people throwing their shoes at the visitors, we will say, “Normalization has won.”....and then our country will not be our country that we know and love.

Until then, the joy of the "entity leaders" with the current normalization will remain distorted and deceptive... despite all the "disturbances" it brings to the human spirit...

At least one of the Cairo neighborhoods he mentions appear to have been heavily Jewish before the Jews were expelled. Khan al-Khalili was where Jews owned jewelry shops and it as near the Jewish quarter. At least one building in the Sayyida Zaynab neighborhood features Hebrew inscriptions.

And how would Egyptians distinguish between Israeli and Jewish visitors to those neighborhoods, where the visitors would presumably be greeted with anger and shoes?

Jew-hatred is so ingrained in Palestinian culture that a prominent Palestinian is bragging that normalization cannot be considered successful as long as Arabs hate Jews, and he doesn't see that changing anytime soon.

Asfour is not too bright. He has argued that Israel assassinated Yasir Arafat because Arafat claimed that the First Temple was in Yemen.

He is still considered a respected analyst in the Arab world.

On Wednesday, the Gaza Chamber of Commerce announced that it received 10.447 applications from people wanting to obtain a work permit inside Israel and PA-ruled areas, after the organization announced Israel's offering more permits.

Israel offered 2600 additional permits, according to Gaza officials.

Times of Israel adds

An Israeli security official said authorities decided to allow in 7,000 workers in September but were only able to issue 4,500 permits. They are now taking applications for the remaining 2,500, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations. The permits were for businesspeople, rather than day laborers.

Two points that the media is reluctant to make:

1. Ever since the new Naftali Bennett-led coalition, Israeli policy has been to help Arabs - within Israel and under Palestinian rule. No one is giving the government any of this credit.

2. If Israel was such an "apartheid state," why are Palestinians flocking to enter it?

Arutz-7 reports:

A Jerusalem judge has backed the right of Jews to engage in silent prayers on the Temple Mount, marking the first time a court has endorsed Jewish prayer on the holy site since authorities quietly began rescinding their de facto ban on all non-Muslim prayers.

On Tuesday, Justice Bilhha Yahalom of the Jerusalem Magistrates Court ruled that silent prayers on the Temple Mount cannot be construed as a criminal act, and ordered police to drop a restraining order imposed on Rabbi Aryeh Lippo, who had been barred from the Mount over his silent prayers.

She didn't say Jews could say prayers out loud. She didn't say they can build a synagogue. All the judge said is that Jews, standing respectfully and silently praying on the holiest Jewish site, cannot be considered to be doing anything criminal.

Can any statement be more obvious? What possible crime could there be?

Naturally, the Muslim world went a little crazy.

The Palestinian ministry of foreign affairs condemned Jews silently praying.

In a press statement, the Palestinian ministry of foreign affairs said that it condemns "the unprecedented decision of an Israeli court granting Jews limited right to perform silent prayers in the courtyards of al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem."

"It is a flagrant aggression against al-Aqsa Mosque," the statement said.

The Arab League condemned the ruling:

The Secretary-General of the Arab League, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, condemned the Israeli court’s decision to allow Jews to pray in Al-Aqsa Mosque, which sets a dangerous precedent, and reflects the new government’s intentions and continuous plans to Judaize Jerusalem and target the Palestinian presence there.

(UPDATE) And this:

The Palestinian National Council considered the decision of the Israeli occupation court to allow Jews to pray in the courtyards of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, as a direct and explicit aggression against the pure right of Muslims to the first two qiblah and the third holiest mosque.

Anyone who argues strenuously against the rights of Jews to quietly say prayers at the site of the First and Second Temples is simply an antisemite. One can argue that it isn't a good idea for various reasons (real and mostly imagined,) but to say Jews have no right to pray is saying that Jews should not have the same human rights as members of every other religion.

10/06 Links Pt2: Auschwitz-Birkenau Site Vandalized With Antisemitic, Holocaust Denial Graffiti; Dara Horn: What Happens When the Last Jew Leaves Afghanistan

From Ian:

Auschwitz-Birkenau Site Vandalized With Antisemitic, Holocaust Denial Graffiti

Wooden barracks at the Auschwitz II -Birkenau death camp memorial site in Poland were vandalized with antisemitic phrases as well as Holocaust denial slogans, staff operating the memorial grounds disclosed on Tuesday.

Signs of the act were discovered on Tuesday on nine wooden barracks at the Auschwitz-Birkenau memorial and museum site, the institution said in a statement. They included spray-painted inscriptions in English and German, some of them “antisemitic in nature.” There were “two references to the Old Testament, often used by antisemites, and denial slogans,” the statement read.

“Such incident is, above all, an outrageous attack on the symbol of one of the greatest tragedies in human history and an extremely painful blow to the memory of all the victims of the German Nazi Auschwitz-Birkenau camp,” the museum stated.

The museum said that the handwriting of the slogans would be analyzed, and that police have opened an investigation into the vandalism, with available video material now being examined.

“We hope that the person or persons who committed this outrageous act will be found and punished,” the museum said.

Staff at the museum called on anyone who may have been in the vicinity of the death camp site on Tuesday morning and witnessed the incident to come forward, particularly anyone with photos taken around the Gate of Death, at the entrance to Birkenau, and the wooden barracks.

Yad Vashem Chairman Dani Dayan Reacts to the Antisemitic Attack at Auschwitz

Today, Yad Vashem Chairman Dani Dayan reacted to the news about the antisemitic graffiti recently discovered at the site of the former Nazi German concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau.

"We are very saddened by the attack on Auschwitz, the authentic location where over a million Jews were murdered, and strongly condemn the willful vandalism of the barracks there with antisemitic and Holocaust denial inscriptions. This incident, at such a major and significant site of the atrocities of the Holocaust, constitutes an attack not only on the memory of the victims, but also on the survivors and any person with a conscience. It is also yet another painful reminder that more must be done to raise awareness about the Holocaust and to educate the public and the younger generation regarding the dangers of antisemitism and Holocaust denial and distortion."

Dara Horn: What Happens When the Last Jew Leaves Afghanistan

Places around the world now largely devoid of Jews have come to think fondly of the dead Jews who once shared their streets, and an entire industry has emerged to encourage tourism to these now historical sites. The locals in such places rarely minded when living Jews were either massacred or driven out.

But now they pine for the dead Jews, lovingly restoring their synagogues and cemeteries — sometimes while also pining for live Jewish tourists and their magic Jewish money. Egypt’s huge Jewish community predated Islam by at least six centuries; now that only a handful of Jews remain, the government has poured funding into restoring synagogues for tourists.

I have visited, and written about, many such “heritage sites” over the years, in countries ranging from Spain to China. Some are maintained by sincere and learned people, with deep research and profound courage. I wish that were the norm. More often, they are like Epcot pavilions, selling bagels and bobbleheads, sometimes hardly even mentioning why this synagogue is now a museum or a concert hall. Many Jewish travelers to such sites feel a discomfort they can barely name.

I’ve felt it too, every time. I’ve walked through places where Jews lived for hundreds or even thousands of years, people who share so many of the foundations of my own life — the language and books I cherish, the ideas that nourish me, the rhythms of my weeks and years — and I have felt the silence close in.

I don’t mean the dead Jews’ silence, but my own. I know how I am supposed to feel: solemn, calmly contemplative, and perhaps also grateful to whoever so kindly restored this synagogue or renamed this street. I stifle my disquiet, telling myself it is merely sorrow, burying it so deep that I no longer recognize what it really is: rage.

WATCH:

What is it like to be Jewish in Europe?

These 12 quotes from the EU's survey of European Jews are truly heartbreaking. pic.twitter.com/56SRP07c3h
— American Jewish Committee (@AJCGlobal) October 5, 2021

Weekly column by Vic Rosenthal

Recently I have been hearing that Israel can’t stop Iran’s nuclear program, and America is our only hope. For example, here is Daniel Gordis:

[Former PM Ehud] Barak wrote that Israel no longer has a viable military option for preventing Iran from crossing the nuclear threshold, and that the Mullahs are marching steadily forward on their quest. Israel needs the US to develop military plans to stop Iran (Barak said that not only does the US have no such plans, it also has no interest in developing them); furthermore, he said, Israel is going to have to recognize its increased dependence on the US, and to work hard to deepen its ties to America.

But Barak does not draw the appropriate conclusion from the facts that he presents, and neither does Gordis, who thinks that Israel must “mend fences with American Jews” to help influence the US “to do the right thing” and act against Iran. Barak’s argument (Hebrew link) actually implies that we cannot depend on America.

Barak wrote that Iran’s “breakout time” – the time it will take to produce enough enriched uranium for a bomb once Iran has decided to do so – has been reduced to about 30 days. Of course there are other technological hurdles to pass before that uranium can be made into a deliverable weapon, but still, Israel’s moment of decision is closer than ever.

There is a lot of discussion of whose fault this is, with Barak and others placing the blame on Netanyahu and Trump. I don’t want to expend too many words on this, but I disagree. Trump is accused of precipitously ending the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran (with Netanyahu’s encouragement), which allowed the Iranians to increase their uranium enrichment activities significantly. But Iran was already violating the too-weak deal, and Trump’s policy of “maximum pressure” – both economic and covert, as in the assassination of Qassem Soleimani – was causing the regime great distress. The policy’s failure was assured by its early termination: Trump was not reelected, and Biden chose to scrap it. But it doesn’t matter who’s to blame; the question is what to do about it.

Barak suggests that the Iranian regime intends to develop all of the pieces of a nuclear weapon, starting with the necessary fissionable material, without immediately assembling one. Technically Iran will not be a nuclear state, but it will be able to become one in a very short time, perhaps measured in days or even hours. By remaining a “threshold state” and not assembling or testing a weapon, the regime can protect itself diplomatically, while for all practical purposes having a nuclear capability. And Barak correctly notes that the US Administration does not see this situation as sufficiently threatening to American interests to require a military response.

And here I need to say a few words about America. I’ve said a lot of this before, so I’ll summarize.

First, support for Israel among US elites is waning, due to the success of the campaign of cognitive warfare that has targeted the American educational system since the 1970s, when massive amounts of petrodollars were recycled into contributions to universities and think tanks, departments of Mideast Studies were established, and professorial chairs endowed. Money also flowed from organizations linked to billionaire George Soros and left-leaning foundations like the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, into anti-Israel groups targeting sectors of the population, like Jews and Evangelicals, that had traditionally provided the backbone of support for Israel. More recently, the broad Left, which includes numerous student groups, “racial justice” movements, and left-leaning members of Congress, have universally adopted anti-Israel positions regardless of their relevance to their causes.

Second, the officials responsible for Iran policy, prominently represented by special envoy to the nuclear negotiations Robert Malley, are associated with a policy of appeasement of Iran rather than coercion (either economically or by force). Malley also has a history of taking anti-Israel positions in the Palestinian arena.

Third, especially after the debacle in Afghanistan, the US is wary of becoming involved in any military activity in the Middle East, either unilateral or cooperative. The best that Israel can hope for is that if she decides to take action against Iran, the US will not intervene in some way against Israel, such as by leaking information that might compromise an Israeli attack on nuclear sites.

Fourth, the US has its own problems which are rapidly getting worse. Led by an incompetent president who is incapable of being a unifying personality, the nation is wracked by social conflict (which I believe is to a great extent instigated by cognitive warfare being waged against it by external enemies). The collective mind space of the elites is occupied by mass-psychotic aberrations about gender and race. The media are no longer trusted or trustworthy; people get their news in social-media bubbles where they are easily manipulated. The bubbles, where the more radical an opinion is, the more it is valued, create extremists and amplify outlandish ideas. But reality is out there, and while Gen. Mark Milley, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, worries about “white rage,” China prepares to take Taiwan. And it won’t stop there.

I think it is a foregone conclusion that the US will not take military action against Iran, especially if Iran remains a threshold state. Further, it is clear that the Biden administration will not even follow the path of Trump and impose strong sanctions; it is moving in the direction of appeasement. And the Iranian regime is so close to their nuclear goal that they can taste it.

The diplomatic track followed by the US is counterproductive from Israel’s point of view. No deal that the regime will agree to make with the US will prevent Iran from becoming a threshold state. A deal will simply give it time to continue development while protecting the nuclear program from Israel, who would be cast as a rogue state if she acts. This, I think, is why Netanyahu forbade his government to discuss parameters for a deal with the Americans: no possible deal is a “good deal” for Israel.

Therefore there is no reason for Israel to “recognize its increased dependence on the US, and to work hard to deepen its ties to America” as Barak and Gordis suggest. The opposite is true: Israel must realize that she is almost alone in her struggle with Iran, and she must develop a plan to eliminate the threat by herself, with whatever help she can get from her Arab allies in the Gulf. And it’s painful to say this, but Israel must also be wary of a US effort to sabotage her plans.

Barak describes the difficulties and dangers inherent in an Israeli attack on Iran. They are indeed formidable. But there is no solution to be found in America. The alternative to stopping Iran is to give up the future of the Jewish state, or, in other words, there is no alternative. In Hebrew, ein breira.

David Ben Gurion is not my favorite personality in Israel’s history. If I hadn’t been 5-1/2 years old at the time, I would have preferred to be on the deck of the Altalena than on the shore shooting at her. But unlike Barak, Ben Gurion understood that when there is no alternative, you do what you have to do. He knew that the moment he declared the state, it would be at war. He knew that the new state would be weak and outnumbered. But his approach was to declare the state and find a way to win the ensuing war.

We have some number of months before Iran effectively becomes a nuclear state. Dealing with Iran is a technical problem, and technical problems are soluble. We have no choice but to solve this one. Ein breira.

Is Islam the oldest religion? This is the not-so-innocent question a friend in South Africa put to Google a month ago. She was looking for factual information to use in an online debate regarding which religion is the older: Judaism or Islam. The friend sent me the above screenshot of the featured snippet that came up in response to her question.

The text of said snippet:

'Islam is the oldest religion in the world, founded by Adam, and it was reborn with Abraham and a second time with Muhammad. Between Abraham and Muhammad, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism and Christianity emerged in this order. Then Sikhism emerged after the time of Muhammad. These are the six world religions.'

Nu, so what exactly is a featured snippet and why should we care? A featured snippet is a box with a brief text answer followed by a source URL (a link). You might see a featured snippet above your search results, especially if your search is framed as a question. The purpose of the featured snippet is to preempt the need for the user to click on search results by providing a fast answer right out of the gate.

Here, for illustrative purposes, I asked Google: What color is milk?

Featured snippets are often accurate and answer your most burning questions (such as, for example, what color is milk) without any need for further searching or clicking. But in the case of my friend asking about the chronology of world religions, the featured snippet went horribly wrong, featuring nothing so much as bullpucky.

It literally makes no sense to claim that Islam is the oldest religion. Mohammed wasn’t even a gleam in his mama’s eyes when Abraham, the first JEW, was born.

Exhibit A:

Note that Google corrects my spelling when I try to type "Mohammed."

Exhibit B:

The birth of Abraham may have preceded Mohammed by 2720 years or so (you did the math, right?), but repeat a lie often enough, for instance the silly lie that Islam is the oldest religion, and it may, in fact, be accepted. (Hence the people talking about Israel’s “ethnic genocide” and “displacement of peoples.” Hence the idiots who understand Iron Dome as some kind of weapon or an imbalance of power rather than as a purely defensive technology that saves lives by intercepting and destroying the missiles that Arab terrorists shoot at Jewish civilians. Hence the people who refer to bold lies that demonize Jews as “your truth” and get away with it by professing their love for Israel after the fact—and hence the idiot people who are grateful to accept such professions of love, because Democrats.)

But I digress. (Perhaps not.)

There's a problem with that featured snippet that told what might have been hundreds of thousands of idiots that Islam is the oldest religion: People are sheeple. They think that Google is the word of God. Anyone who happened on this snippet during a search may now believe and repeat the lie—kind of like media "clarifications" and "corrections." People may not see the tiny print of a correction or clarification, but they sure read the lie in the first place. And more often than we'd like to think, they believe it.

The good news regarding that snippet about Islam gone wrong (calling Dr. Freud) is that I couldn’t replicate that result, not even when searching incognito. Nor could my friend when I had her check again, today. The snippet gone wrong is now merely gone (poof!). Instead, there's a featured snippet from the History Channel website which says the opposite of that earlier snippet. Islam, says the new and improved feature snippet: “is the youngest of the world religions.”

The source cited in the original misbegotten featured snippet has now dropped down to second place in the search results. That’s a good thing. People are no longer being misled about the place of Islam in the chronology of world religions. At least not by Google today, though we see from what happened here that a featured snippet can change in a flash.

The other piece of good news is that the original source of the earlier snippet for "Is Islam the oldest religion"—actually links to a refutation of that idea, hosted by, of all things, a Malaysian website. Click the link and you’ll be taken to a letter citing and rebutting the very text that Google had earlier so promptly supplied us:

All of which makes Google’s horribly wrong momentary mistake even worse, presented as it was, completely out of context. But let's face it: some Google algorithms suck worse than others. For us, the devil is in the details. And those details all too often tend to walk all over the Jews, their religion, and the Jewish State.

10/06 Links Pt1: UN Chief Should Rescind Ban on Naming Antisemitic UNRWA Teachers; Biden Admin Reverses State Department Declaration of Strategic Talks with ‘Palestine’

From Ian:

UN Watch: UN Chief Should Rescind Ban on Naming Antisemitic UNRWA Teachers

A watchdog group today appealed to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to intervene after the UN Human Rights Council president on Friday cut off a speech for naming antisemitic teachers who work for UNRWA, the UN agency that runs schools for Palestinians.

In an unprecedented and controversial move, President Nazhat Shameem Khan cut off Hillel Neuer for what she said were unacceptable “personal attacks.” She then ruled his statement “out of order.”

Khan interrupted the Geneva-based human rights activist as he began to present examples from UN Watch’s recent report that exposed over 100 antisemitic UNRWA teachers, a study that has already prompted UNRWA investigations — and, according to Al Jazeera, suspensions.

“I have noticed that in the course of this video, derogatory, insulting and inflammatory remarks have been made which in particular refer directly to specific individuals,” said the council president, reading from prepared remarks.

“This amounts to personal attacks against those individuals and it is not acceptable in this forum. This statement is out of order,” ruled Khan, who then gave the floor to the Palestinian Return Centre, a group linked to the Hamas terrorist organization.

Gilad Erdan Israel Ambassador Today, the UN tried to silence the truth. UN personnel prevented me from bringing in a photo showing the antisemitism and incitement that exists among UNRWA teachers. Despite their best efforts, I will always continue to fight to defend Israel. pic.twitter.com/DCrITSfGji
— Eye On Antisemitism (@AntisemitismEye) October 5, 2021

BREAKING: B'TSELEM ACTIVIST WAS CAUGHT ON CAMERA SETTING PALESTINIAN PROPERTY ON FIRE, AND THEN TRYING TO BLAME THE JEWS.@EUinIsrael @btselem @DTzantchev @Ofer_Hadad pic.twitter.com/rjH9sqRZwv
— ????? ??? | MyIsrael (@MyIsraelorgil) October 5, 2021

JTA reported last month:

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan are contributing $1.3 million to 11 Jewish groups, eJewish Philanthropy reported, citing a spokesperson for the couple.

News of Zuckerberg and Chan’s donations comes as the couple has gradually emphasized its Jewish identity in public in recent years. Privately, Zuckerberg and Chan have also been meeting with rabbis and scholars to discuss Judaism and the Jewish community, according to eJewish Philanthropy.

Two of the grantees are national organizations: OneTable, which supports Shabbat dinners hosted by young Jews, and PJ Library, which distributes Jewish children’s books and music for free.

But the rest primarily serve local needs in the San Francisco Bay Area. Three educational institutions received funding: Contra Costa Jewish Day School in Lafayette, Gideon Hausner Jewish Day School in Palo Alto and the Jewish Community High School of the Bay. Three summer camps in California, URJ Camp Newman, Camp Ramah in Northern California and Camp Tawonga, also were beneficiaries.

For Zuckerberg, this is very little. He has given $250 million to the Center for Tech and Civic Life and hundreds of millions to education programs. $1.3 million is pocket change for him.

It makes sense that Israeli and Jewish media would report on the Zuckerman donation to Jewish causes, even though they are small for him.

But why would Palestinian media care?

The story was picked up in Palestinian media today. I couldn't find any stories about Zuckerberg's much larger other charitable donations in Palestinian media.

The recipients of the $1.3 million are not particularly Zionist. They are not funding settlements. The donations are exclusively for helping American Jews.

So why is this series of small donations even being reported by Palestinian news media?

It is hard to know for sure, but it seems like the story is meant to elicit negative reactions from Palestinians. The story seems to promote the idea that the Jew Zuckerberg is prioritizing charity to his fellow Jews at the expense of others, and that Jews stick together for nefarious purposes, an echo of the Elders of Zion myth.

Yasan al-Masri, 2

On the first day of the May war, and anti-Israel NGO DCI-P reported:

Six Palestinian children and two adults were killed in a third blast that occurred around 6 p.m. in Beit Hanoun about 800 meters (2,600 feet) west of the Gaza Strip perimeter fence. Those killed included Rahaf Mohammad Attalla al-Masri, 10, and her cousin Yazan Sultan Mohammad al-Masri, 2; brothers Marwan Yousef Attalla al-Masri, 6, and Ibrahim Yousef Attalla al-Masri, 11; as well as Hussein Muneer Hussein Hamad, 11, and 16-year-old Ibrahim Abdullah Mohammad Hassanain, according to information collected by DCIP. When the blast occurred, members of the al-Masri family were reportedly harvesting wheat in the field outside their home, and their children were playing nearby, according to information collected by DCIP.

DCIP has not yet confirmed the cause of these deaths. At the time of the incident, Israeli drones and warplanes were reportedly overhead and Palestinian armed groups were firing homemade rockets towards Israel. DCIP continues to investigate these incidents to determine and identify the responsible parties.

The launch site of a Hamas rocket that killed this family, including 6 children, has been identified:

The rocket came from an underground Hamas rocket launch site with 10 silos. It flew 7.5 kilometers to Beit Hanoun, where it killed the al-Masry family.

The silos were located next to a mosque in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood.

This occurred at 6 PM on May 10, either before or within minutes of any Israeli airstrikes in Gaza.

Even though Defense for Children - International believed that this might have been a "homemade" rocket, Human Rights Watch decided months later this was an Israeli missile after its sham "investigation."

On May 10 near the town of Beit Hanoun, an Israeli-guided missile struck near four houses of the al-Masri family, killing 8 civilians, including 6 children.

HRW based its lies on "eyewitnesses" who said the rocket came from the east. and it decided, based on its experts who know literally nothing about weapons, that it was an Israeli anti-personnel missile.

And so it goes - Hamas kills Gaza kids and Israel gets blamed.

10/05 Links Pt2: Phyllis Chesler: People just love dead Jews; Kamala Harris and the Truth about Israel; The myth of Cable Street; Middle East 'kidney diplomacy' saves 3 women's lives

From Ian:

Prof. Phyllis Chesler: People just love dead Jews

I am, quite simply, blown away by Dara Horn’s impeccable and original research, relentless courage, and sheer eloquence as contained in her latest book, People Love Dead Jews: Reports From A Haunted Present.

I think that Horn is rather like Ruth Wisse, only younger. And, it is no accident that they are both steeped in Yiddish literature and Jewish sacred texts. In addition, both are supremely literary Ladies—Grand Dames, really.

Please understand who exactly is being overwhelmed here. And overjoyed, because Horn is almost half my age. In her hands, the work of truth-telling against all odds, continues.

By 2000-2001, I was already writing The New Anti-Semitism and have proudly been seen as a traitor in certain circles ever since I published it in 2003. In lectures, I’d ventured the idea that Jewish deaths have long been worshipped as “redemptive” by Christians—but, like Horn, I was also made uneasy by the unsettling reverence that Jewish people manifested when they visited Holocaust exhibits.

In 2006, I published “How a Holocaust Happens,” a piece in which I wrote:

“As dangerous as Holocaust denial is, Holocaust Memorialization may also function as a form of denial…it may allow us the luxury—and the consolation—of assuming that the ‘worst’ has already happened. Alas, this may not be true. Certain intellectuals, Jews among them, attempt to hide their rabid Jew-hatred by focusing on the European Holocaust—on all the dead Jews—as a way of diverting attention from the impending (slow motion) Holocaust against living Jews. Because they oppose what was done to the Jews in World War Two, they feel justified, credentialed, to say that today’s attacks on Israel are ‘justified,’ that the Palestinians are now the true victims, (the ‘new Jews’ in a sense), and the Israeli Jews are their ‘Nazi’ persecutors.”

I am so glad to say that Horn has taken my insights to a whole other level.

Her essay on Anne Frank is masterful. She reminds us of the vast tourist industry that has grown up with visitors to Anne’s hidden room—just as if “people love dead Jews.” But there’s more, much more, especially the bizarre incidents in which Museum employees were prohibited from wearing yarmulkes—lest the Anne Frank House be seen as losing its “neutrality.”

Emily Schrader: The cost of Kamala validating 'Israeli genocide' speech

Several years ago, we saw this occur with the Women’s March, which is absolutely a necessary and just cause. Yet instead of being able to grow the movement and gain allies across the aisle in fighting against sexual assault and sexual harassment, the co-founders of the Women’s March damaged the credibility of the movement by making multiple inflammatory and antisemitic comments, which frankly have nothing to do with the fight for women’s equality.

We saw a similar phenomenon with Black Lives Matter inserting anti-Israel positions based on outright lies into its agenda.

Unfortunately, these are just a few of many examples of how anti-Israel interests have made a concerted effort to dump Palestine onto any and every cause they possibly can, inserting the issue in debates that have absolutely no association whatsoever with Israel and the Palestinians or even the Middle East. These efforts polarize important discussions that should be taking place in society, be they racial inequalities, feminism, or voting rights.

For the vice president of the United States to fall into the trap of labeling outright lies as “your truth” sets a terrible example for the rest of society from a leader who absolutely knows better.

While her office has clarified her position, noting that, “the vice president strongly disagrees with the student’s characterization of Israel,” it’s too little, too late. Her response already gave legitimacy to anti-Israel lies when she had the perfect opportunity to set an example and take a stand for the truth the way any leader should.

Kamala Harris and the Truth about Israel

The fact of the matter is that truth is not subjective. The second-highest elected official in the United States is not doing our undergraduates any favors by encouraging them to believe they can imagine the truth to be anything they want. And in this case, the truth is that the state of Israel is America's great and good ally which has flourished for more than seven decades as the only democracy in the Middle East, and is a critical security partner. Our alliance has enjoyed robust, bipartisan support in the United States Congress for decades, which both Joe Biden and Kamala Harris claim is their administration's policy.

It is also a truth, however inconvenient, that Jews are the disproportionate targets of violent crimes both in the United States and around the globe. Failure to respond to false assertions that demonize Jews implicitly condones this violence. Harris' shameful episode happened to have occurred on the eve of the 80th anniversary of the Babi Yar massacre, which took place at the end of September, 1941.

Nazi forces had entered Kiev a month before, and booby traps left by retreating Soviet forces destroyed some of the buildings they occupied, causing significant casualties. Whether they knew who the real perpetrators were or not, the Nazis took advantage of the situation to scapegoat the remaining Ukrainian Jewish population. They swiftly massacred 33,771 Jews at the Babi Yar ravine, creating one of the largest mass graves in history. As the events of World War II become more distant in time, they run the risk of becoming abstract. Our contemporaries forget all too easily how the long, ugly history of anti-Semitism, and its tacit acceptance, erupted into the Holocaust.

Rather than gloss over pernicious bigotry, Harris would have done better to treat the George Mason student to a history lesson on what such attacks have led to in the past. "Never forget" doesn't mean we assume the Holocaust can never happen again. It means we all do everything we can, in ways great and small, to vigilantly oppose this evil. After the flare up of violence in Gaza this spring, there was a disturbing trend in both Europe and America of attacks on any and all Jews as surrogates for Israel, regardless of their citizenship. The way to reverse this trend is not to legitimize it as some sort of subjective personal truth, then have your communications team issue a "clarifying" statement. It is to personally and unequivocally reject false allegations, and forcefully defend the U.S. alliance with the Jewish state.

From Iran's IQNA:

Prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Isa Qassem condemned Bahraini government’s steps to normalize ties with the Israeli regime as a crime against the Islamic Ummah.

“What will you write in history about the opening of the embassy of the occupying regime and the visit of the Zionist foreign minister Lapid to Bahrain and the welcome of the Bahraini rulers except the government’s shame and crime against Islam, the Islamic Ummah and the people of Bahrain? And what gap this will create between the government and people?” tweeted the top cleric.

For once, it isn't Israel committing the "crime" - but nations normalizing relations with Israel.

Given that Israel has relations with 164 nations, that is a lot of criminal activity.

Recent articles in Arabic consistently accept the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" as true

A century after the "Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion" was

proven to be a hoax, Arabic media continues to believe that they are true. All of these articles are from within the past month.

Egypt's popular Seventh Day news site celebrated the birthday of the first person to translate the Protocols into Arabic.

Iraq's Kitabat quotes them as an aside in an article on political money to prove the point that controlling the media and money is a decisive factor in politics.

An Amman news site says that one should not believe the "Pandora Papers" accusations against Jordan's King Abdullah because the media is under Zionist control, as the Protocols prove.

A Jordanian writer in Al Quds says, as an aside, that luxury items should be eschewed because the Protocols say that Jews use luxury items to control everyone else.

Last but not least, Dr. Ghazi Hussein - an elder Palestinian statesman whom we recently quoted - wrote an entire article in Al Majd filled with Jew-hatred based on the Protocols. Excerpts:

The protocols aim to create the means to control global politics by controlling money and the press, spreading chaos and corruption, undermining Christianity, Islam,
nationalism, moral values, values of truth and justice, and sanctifying power and placing it above truth and the principles of international law.
The Zionists spread corruption, devastation, destruction, settler colonialism and genocide from the Torah, the Talmud, the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and the Israeli strategies, which feed in them placing force above the right, and that force creates the truth, and that the world and what is in it belong to the chosen people of God, belief in superiority, racism, terrorism, and the theft of the lands, property and wealth of non-Jewish peoples. . They believe that only Jews are human beings, and non-Jews are animals created in human form to serve the Jews. They established protocols to corrupt and weaken the world so that it would eventually be subject to the control of the Jews and their interests in the Middle East and the entire world through the control of American Judaism over the Congress, the White House, the Pentagon, the American National Security Council and the State Department.

The Fifth Protocol provides for the elevation of Jewish ambitions to the rank of religion, and states:
“We have been chosen by God to rule the whole earth. And God gave us the genius to take on this burden... All the wheels of the apparatus of governments need a motor, and this motor is in our hands and it is gold... Then we step forward after that and establish the supreme world government”
.
The eleventh protocol states:
“God has bestowed upon us, the chosen people, the grace of captivity, exile, dispersal, and scattering in the land, and this matter that was in the past the manifestation of our weakness, has later been reversed, the reason for our strength that has led us now to enter the door through which we extend our sovereignty over the whole world.”
Protocol Seventeen: “We will degrade the dignity of the clergy in order to succeed in harming their message, and it will only take a few years for Christianity to completely collapse, and the rest of the religions will follow in the collapse, and the King of Israel will become a “pope” over the world.”
The Protocols clearly show what the sages and leaders of the Jews planned for the world of hatred, evil, and enslavement of peoples and individuals by exploiting the weaknesses in souls to achieve their plans and ambitions.
The Jews seek to destroy morals and spiritual values and destroy religions because achieving this enables them to reach their plans and goals and brings them wealth and wealth. They use the press, cinema, theater, and publishing houses, which in the United States and Europe are under their control, to reach their goals and to eliminate all those who stand in their way from politicians, countries, nations and peoples.
The Jewish history recorded by the Torah writers was characterized by violence, terror, genocide, the killing of children and women, and the appropriation of the property and lands of other peoples. The past and present of the Jews, and in particular Israel, were based on aggressive wars and genocide of other peoples, just as they do today with the Arabs in Palestine and the rest of the neighboring Arab countries.
In the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the Jewish rabbis planned to establish a global Jewish government that would control the world and control it and its capabilities for the benefit of the Jews only and to increase their profits, influence and control.. They laid the path that the Jews should follow in order to reach global control and make Greater Jerusalem, which extends to Jericho, the capital of the world.
Thus, the Protocols are a hellish Jewish scheme to control the Middle East and the world through their control of the United States of America and the rest of the Western countries and their followers from the Arab kings and princes in the Gulf. The Protocols clearly demonstrate the evil intentions of universal Judaism towards all peoples in the world and towards all humanity.

The Protocols were used heavily by the Nazis to spread antisemitism. Today, the "progressive" Left - while claiming to hate Nazism - insist that antisemitism and anti-Zionism have nothing to do with each other, when these articles show that they are one and the same. Their failure to condemn Arab antisemitism, and particularly Palestinian antisemitism, shows that they don't really care about antisemitism at all.

10/05 Links Pt1: UN prevented Erdan from displaying pro-Hitler posts by UNRWA teacher; Global Media and Leaders Tacitly Accept Palestinian Authority-Backed Violence

From Ian:

UN prevented Erdan from displaying pro-Hitler posts by UNRWA teacher

UN security personnel stopped Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan from bringing a display poster into the General Assembly on Monday showing a social-media post by a UNRWA teacher that glorified Hitler.

“I see it as a very dangerous precedent here, preventing my freedom of expression, preventing my freedom of speech and hiding the truth from the UN,” Erdan said during his public speech to the UNGA.

He had meant to display the post during a discussion on the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees so that he could illustrate his concern about the problem of incitement in UNRWA schools.

Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan decrying the UN's prevention of his display of pro-Hitler posts by an UNRWA teacher, October 4, 2021.

“I am shocked because I brought here with me a photo of a UNRWA teacher’s post glorifying the most horrific mass murderer in history, Adolf Hitler,” Erdan said. “Unfortunately, shockingly, I was prevented from bringing in this photo in order to share this proof with the other distinguished ambassadors here.”

UN protocol prevents ambassadors from using props when delivering speeches, a UN representative told The Jerusalem Post.

However, heads of state who speak during the high-level opening sessions that take place every September can do so, the representative added.

43 countries pledge to combat antisemitism at UNHRC session

Statement led by Austria, Czech Republic and Slovakia in coordination with World Jewish Congress

At least 43 countries signed a statement pledging to combat antisemitism that was issued at the 48th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva on Monday.

The statement was led by Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia with the coordination of the World Jewish Congress.

Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg warned of the dangers of antisemitism in a video statement, saying that "we will remain steadfast in our pledge, never again."

"Even 75 years after the end of World War II it is a tragic reality that antisemitism is not a thing of the past," Schallenberg said. "This venom still exists, right in the midst of our societies. This is why today we declare our unequivocal solidarity in the face of hatred."

The statement was read at the start of a debate on racism, antisemitism and the growing threat from hate speech and the glorification of Nazism.

Countries that signed the declaration include: Israel, Germany, the United States, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Honduras, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Australia, the United Kingdom, Greece, Belgium, Cyprus, Ukraine, Cameroon, Japan, Slovenia, Argentina, Armenia, Croatia, Finland, New Zealand, Guatemala, Colombia, Chile, Poland, Moldova, the Netherlands, Latvia, Romania, Seychelles, Lithuania, Estonia, Uruguay, Norway and Sweden.

Also at the UNHRC special session on Monday, the World Jewish Congress and the Muslim World League issued a joint a statement calling for the protection of human rights for all in what is the first joint declaration between Jewish and Muslim organizations at a UN body.

The fall season of ?@JIPodcast? kicks off with ?@mikepompeo?. Topics: Iran, Afghanistan, Abraham Accords, Israel & the possible reopening of a consulate in Jerusalem. Plus: ?@jarrodbernstein? & I discuss Iron Dome funding & @Unilever. https://t.co/AS4mtMIBIu
— Richard Goldberg (@rich_goldberg) October 5, 2021