Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, November 09, 2021

11/09 Links Pt2: Why we haven't solved antisemitism yet; Phillips: The unconscious historical experience of the Royal Court theatre; Israel Commemorates 83 years Since Kristallnacht

From Ian:

Why we haven't solved antisemitism yet

November 9, 1938, anti-Jewish demonstrations broke out across Germany, Austria, and the Sudetenland region of then-Czechoslovakia. Over the next 48 hours, about 7,500 Jewish-owned businesses, homes and schools were destroyed. Ninety-one Jews were murdered, with another 30,000 Jewish men arrested and sent to concentration camps. The Jews were officially blamed for their own victimization and German Jews were fined one billion reichsmarks (today that would be worth over $7 billion) for the riot that rose up against them.

Kristallnacht (“The Night of Broken Glass”), the night when anti-Jewish rhetoric turned into state-sanctioned action that would culminate with the Holocaust, was over eighty years ago, yet Jews all over the world are still living with the reality – and the increasing prevalence – of violence against them for the sole reason of who they are.

The United States is unique in the world for recognizing the moral responsibility to respond to the rise in antisemitism. Yet President Joe Biden’s nominee to The Office of the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism, Holocaust scholar Deborah Lipstadt, has still not gotten her confirmation hearing. The reason: political rancor over determining the country’s self-proclaimed identity.

The “Jewish question” was first asked in the 19th and 20th centuries as countries began debating what defined them as nations, and it is still the question that undergirds national identity. What to do about the Jew in society is just another way a society asks, “How do we define ourselves?” It is the leitmotif of the modern world’s life story.

The Jewish question always demands a reason for the Jew – since a Jew’s very being says something about everyone else. The very begging of the Jewish question reveals the structural antisemitism that pervades western society.

‘Anti-Zionism is Antisemitism,’ Head of ADL Declares in Speech to Summit Combating Hate and Discrimination

The head of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) will warn in a speech on Tuesday night that a belief is taking hold on the political left “that all Jews are oppressors — part of a white establishment that has exploited racial and ethnic minorities for generations.”

In his address to be delivered later to the ADL’s three-day “Never is Now” annual summit, the organization’s CEO, Jonathan Greenblatt, said that such views represented an “ugly form of historical revisionism” that would “come as a big surprise to my grandparents who fled Europe for their lives — only to come to this country and experience discrimination. Or to Iranian or Ethiopian Jews who came more recently but also seeking refuge from vicious persecution. Or to the more than half of Israeli Jews who aren’t of European descent.”

Greenblatt’s speech, a copy of which was shared with The Algemeiner in advance, sounded the alarm on antisemitism on both left and right. Comparing the rise of antisemitism to the global environmental crisis, Greenblatt quoted the observation of a German anti-racist activist who told him that far-right antisemitism was reminiscent of devastating weather events like hurricanes, whereas antisemitism on the left was akin to the gradual change in climate.

“Slowly and surely, the temperature is increasing,” Greenblatt said. “Often people don’t perceive the shift or choose to ignore it even when there are once uncommon storms. But the environment is becoming more hostile, and the conditions threaten to upend life as we know it if we sit back and do nothing.”

Addressing the widespread hostility on the left to Israel and Zionism, Greenblatt said, “Don’t get me wrong: there certainly are things that the Israeli government has done that deserve rebuke. But, criticizing the actions of a government is categorically different than deeming it illegitimate because of wildly inaccurate claims that it is instituting ‘apartheid’ or leading a ‘genocide.'”

StandWithUs: Launches Website Exposing Corporate Antisemitism

StandWithUs is proud to announce the launch of a website dedicated to exposing corporations that are complicit in discrimination and hatred against the Jewish people. The site is located at www.corporatehate.com

"Corporations are among the most powerful and influential forces in the world today, and it is crucially important to hold them accountable when they promote or enable antisemitism," said Roz Rothstein, CEO of StandWithUs. "An initial focus of this effort is Unilever, a multinational corporation which owns Ben & Jerry's and is complicit in a discriminatory boycott targeting Israelis. In the face of ample evidence that Unilever's actions empower extremists who oppose Israel's existence, and despite multiple requests that Unilever reverse course, the company has refused to do so."

The new website includes a video explaining how Unilever is enabling antisemitism, along with additional resources about the company. It also exposes the corporate sponsors of a non-profit called Slow Factory, which has repeatedly promoted antisemitic rhetoric and double standards. Additional corporations will be added to the site as appropriate.

Corporate antisemitism exists when a corporation or business promotes or enables hatred and discrimination against Jews, individually or as a group. StandWithUs uses the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism, which is the internationally accepted standard, to determine whether a corporation falls into this category. Corporate antisemitism is not new and has taken many forms. Henry Ford, who founded the Ford Motor Company in 1903, was one of the most prominent sources of anti-Jewish propaganda in the United States. Volkswagen, a company established under Nazi rule in Germany, used Jews to do forced labor in its factories and operated four concentration camps and eight forced-labor camps on its property (it has since taken significant steps to atone for this history). In the 1970s and 1980s, numerous Japanese car companies and other corporations refused to do business in Israel because they were afraid of economic punishment from the Arab League. The Arab League was engaged in a boycott of Israel, aimed at destroying the one Jewish state in the world.

Arab, Israeli, and Proud

Yoseph Haddad has served in the Israeli Defense Forces. He’s also an Arab. Why would an Arab volunteer to join the Israeli military? If Israel really is an apartheid state, why would Haddad be proud to defend it? He explains. (h/t NormanF )

The PA cabinet held its weekly meeting on Monday in Ramallah, with the usual mix of making decisions too trivial for dictator Mahmoud Abbas to make himself, plus symbolic announcements. They included:

Noting that Monday, November 15, is Independence Declaration Day.
Approval of the nomination of the board of directors of the National School of Administration.
Allocating 8 million shekels for emergencies in the winter season.
Demanding companies and factories to use solar energy on their roofs, similar to public institutions.
Recommending to Abbas to join the World Trade Organization, Amnesty International and the Organization for the Protection of Property Rights.
Commemorating the anniversary of Yasir Arafat's death on November 11.

But one decision seemed to be intended to provoke Israel: the announcement that their next meeting would be held in Jerusalem, which Israel would not allow.

It turns out that this is symbolic, too. They said that the next meeting will be held in the headquarters of the PA's Jerusalem Governorate, which is in Al-Ram - outside Jerusalem's municipal borders.

Al Ram is divided between Area B and C.

Perhaps Al Ram would be an appropriate place for the US to open a "Jerusalem" consulate - the PA clearly considers it to be Jerusalem for its own internal propaganda purposes while Israel doesn't, so everyone could ostensibly get what they demand and the US could avoid the diplomatic headache from the current impasse.

11/09 Links Pt1: Emily Schrader: Claims of Israel bulldozing Palestinian graves are libel; Lapid meets with congressional Democrats, ending Israel’s long snub of J Street

From Ian:

Emily Schrader: Claims of Israel bulldozing Palestinian graves are libel

Palestinian factions issued a statement promising “bloodshed” of the “Zionists” over the incident, and the Palestinian Authority news agency WAFA claimed that “dozens” of bodies had been dug up by Israel, another unsubstantiated claim. Adding fuel to the fire, figures such as the head of the Committee for the Care of Islamic Cemeteries in Jerusalem, Mustafa Abu Zahra, claimed that Israel was “covering the cemetery with dirt.”

These false claims led to riots near the construction site throughout the week, which included violent attacks and rock throwing against Israeli police, as well as antisemitic calls to violence, with Palestinian crowds chanting “Khaybar khaybar ya yahud...,” a reference to when the army of Muhammad massacred the Jews in Khaybar.

Instead of investigating the issue thoroughly, social media spread the news of graves being “bulldozed” like wildfire in the West as well, thanks largely to celebrities such as Hadid, who shared false information about the Nababta case on her Instagram story to her 46 million followers. Similarly, her father, real estate mogul Mohamed Hadid, accused Israel of “not respecting the dead,” in a post that garnered over 42,000 likes.

Turkish news sources and Middle East Eye also shared stories with inaccurate information about the events occurring at al-Yusufiya Cemetery, intensifying the social media outrage.

While debating about the appropriateness of an archaeological park in Jerusalem is valid, outright incitement to violence and the spread of misinformation over these events on social media is unacceptable and dangerous.

Graves are not being excavated or demolished in al-Yusufiya, and those claiming otherwise are engaging in irresponsible reporting at best, and intentional incitement to violence at worst.

We cannot resolve issues between Israelis and Palestinians when misinformation continues to inflame the debate and twist the facts of the issue.

Lapid meets with congressional Democrats, ending Israel’s long snub of J Street

Foreign Minister Yair Lapid met Monday with a Congressional delegation brought to Israel by J Street, marking the first time in years that a senior Israeli cabinet member has engaged with the dovish Israel lobby.

Among the lawmakers making up the Democrat-only delegation in Israel are Reps. Rosa DeLauro, who heads the House Appropriations Committee, Mark Pocan, Barbara Lee, Melania Stansbury and Jamaal Bowman. The trip, which will also include meetings with Palestinian officials, was sponsored by the J Street Education Fund.

In a tweet, Lapid said he thanked the group “for supporting the replenishment of the Iron Dome missile defense system, and we discussed the importance of continuing to strengthen the US-Israel relationship.”

The meeting was the first between a minister and a J Street delegation in at least four years, according to Haaretz.

Meretz’s Minister of Regional Cooperation Issawi Frij also met with the group, and tweeted that J Street were “true friends of Israel and partners in promoting the two-states solution.”

Former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was in power from 2009 until June 2021, had a prickly relationship with the liberal group, and right-wing members of his governments pointedly stayed away from meetings sponsored by the group and from its annual conference in Washington.

Since the group’s first Congressional delegation to Israel in 2010, it has been consistently blackballed by members of Netanyahu governments. On that first trip, the top government official it met with was deputy minister Dan Meridor.

Ra’am party chief Abbas discusses 2-state solution with Jordan’s king

Islamist Ra’am party chief Mansour Abbas met with Jordanian monarch King Abdullah II in Amman on Tuesday, Ra’am party officials announced.

Ra’am official Walid al-Hawashleh confirmed the meeting, first reported by Israel’s Channel 12, to The Times of Israel, but declined to comment further.

In a statement, the Jordanian Royal Court said Abdullah and Abbas discussed the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians. Abdullah reiterated his support for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the court said.

Additionally, both Abdullah and Abbas stressed the importance of maintaining the status quo at Jerusalem’s Temple Mount.

“Abbas expressed appreciation for His Majesty the King’s stances towards the Palestinian cause and Jordan’s tireless efforts to preserve the status quo in Jerusalem,” according to the Jordanian court.

The Jordanian monarch has never met an Arab Israeli party chief who was a sitting member of an Israeli government. Ra’am is the first Arab Israeli party to join an Israeli coalition in decades, while Abdullah has ruled since 1999.

Jordan’s ruling Hashemite family has also traditionally had an adversarial relationship with local Islamist factions, especially the Muslim Brotherhood. Ra’am shares ideological ties with the Brotherhood, and draws inspiration from some of the same Islamist thinkers.

Jordanian Professor Ahmad Nofal: Europeans Dumped the Jews on the Arabs; Arab Countries Should Sue Britain, Demand Compensation for the Balfour Declaration #Antisemitism #Jordan @dr_ahmadnofal pic.twitter.com/m874pwKSmd
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) November 9, 2021

Palestine - a magical place at the center of every "social justice" issue

At the UN's Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, there were lots of people protesting...Israel.

They all knew that Israel was guilty of climate crimes, although they disagreed as to which ones.

We've shown before that somehow Israel is guilty of violating every single social justice issue - which is ironic because Israel is in the forefront for fighting for every social justice issue and Palestinians either are apathetic or openly hostile to those same issues.

For climate, Palestinians support burning tires to pollute the air and burning Israeli forests and farms. They waste enormous amounts of water while claiming they don't have enough.

While Palestinian flags could be seen at the Women's March in Chicago...

...Palestinian government officials have denounced equal rights for women and the right to abortions.

While pro-LGBTQ marchers protest Israel...

... gays in the Palestinian Authority are in fear for their lives of being "honor killed" or beaten and 93% say society should not accept homosexuality. Sex between men is a crime in Gaza.

While Israel bashers absurdly claim that Israel tries to quash free speech, Palestinian leaders routinely arrest those who say anything they don't like and BDS supporters try to censor any Zionist views on campus.

While people have even tried to link Israel with animal rights issues, Palestinians abuse animals and Israeli police protect them.

It seems pretty clear that the social justice warriors really don't care about these issues, and only use them as an excuse to attack the Jewish state.

And they follow the Palestinian Authority, which joins international forums and treaties on the environment, women's rights as so forth with no intention of applying any of their standards to Palestinian society but to use them as platforms to attack Israel.

The facts are clear. The modern antisemites want to distract everyone from the facts.

(based on a tweet of mine that went viral yesterday)

Human Rights Watch @HRW again absurdly calls distinguishing between Israelis and non-citizens "apartheid"

Human Rights Watch has dug up another angle to tar Israel with the label "apartheid," and it is just as false and scurrilous as all its others.

Sari Bashi, special advisor to HRW, a wrote this article in The New Arab that HRW republished on its own site:

In an October 27 ruling, the Supreme Court denied tax-exempt status to an Israeli-registered group running a school in the West Bank because the school educates Palestinian, not Israeli, children. The precedent-setting decision imposes financial burdens on civil society groups providing services to Palestinians, including groups that step in to fulfill responsibilities that the Israeli government, the occupying power in the West Bank and Gaza, has flouted.

The court's ruling means that Israeli-registered groups operating in the West Bank will get tax breaks if they provide services to Jewish Israelis living in unlawful settlements, but not if they provide services to Palestinians living under military occupation in the same territory.

These are the facts that arise from the court ruling: For the past three decades, the Society of Islamic Sciences and Cultural Committee has run schools in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including in East Jerusalem. The Society submits regular reports to the Israeli nonprofit registrar. In 2004, as Israeli authorities built a barrier that cuts East Jerusalem off from the rest of the West Bank, the organization closed its Jerusalem schools and maintained just one school, in Bir Nabala, a West Bank Palestinian town inside an enclave surrounded by walls and fences.

The separation barrier severs Bir Nabala from East Jerusalem and requires residents to access the rest of the West Bank through gates in the barrier and tunnels dug underneath it. Major roads in Bir Nabala, formerly commercial arteries, now reach a dead-end in an eight-meter-high concrete wall. After closing its Jerusalem properties, the Society rented them out to another educational organization, for a contracted annual sum of about US$600,000.

Section 9(2) of the Israeli Income Tax Ordinance exempts nonprofit organizations from income tax if they perform a "public purpose," such as education. The ordinance does not specify a geographical scope for those services, and organizations serving Jewish residents of unlawful Israeli settlements in the West Bank receive Israeli income tax and other tax benefits.

Israeli Supreme Court Justices Isaac Amit, David Mintz, and Alex Stein ruled unanimously that the Society must pay tax on its rental income because running a school for Palestinian children in the West Bank is not a "public purpose" that the Israeli government will indirectly subsidize through the tax exemption.

Although the international law of occupation and international human rights law obligate Israel to ensure that Palestinian children in the West Bank are able to get quality education, and although the Palestinian Authority has no jurisdiction in Area C, where the school is located, the court found that educational services in Bir Nabala have no "link" to Israel for purposes of the tax law.

The court ruling itself explains its reasons, and of course HRW downplays or ignores them. Here, the ruling summarizes the finding from the District Court that it upheld.

On 30.10.2020 the District Court dismissed the appeal. The court held that a "public institution", as defined in the ordinance, is an existing member of society and acts for a public purpose, and that the wording of the ordinance makes no explicit reference to the connection between public activity and the State of Israel and the public in Israel. Therefore, the court moved to examine the purpose of section 9 (2) of the Ordinance. The court noted that the recognition of a body as a public institution for the purposes of section 9 (2) of the Ordinance is the same as an expense distributed from the state coffers and it constitutes indirect financing of the activities of that institution by the state. Given the general nature of the definition in the Ordinance, there is a concern that without a restrictive interpretive policy the dam will be breached and state resources will be distributed without adequate control. The purpose of the legislation therefore requires a narrow interpretation of the term "public institution", so that it will also include a component of affiliation with Israel. In the absence of such an element, the range of cases to which the section will apply will be construed far beyond the original intention of the legislature. The extension of the range of cases to which section 9 (2) of the Ordinance also applies in cases where there is no connection to the State of Israel may harm the public coffers and in fact constitute a tax benefit for entities that promote purposes that do not contribute to the State of Israel and the Israeli public. The court noted that beyond the substantive consideration, there is also a systemic consideration leading to the said result, since the state does not have the ability to effectively monitor public institutions operating in areas beyond its control.

The Israeli tax code specifies that non-profits must serve a "public purpose." The court rulings were that since tax breaks indirectly subsidize the activities of the organizations, the interpretation of "public purpose" must be made restrictively or else the Israeli public could end up subsidizing activities around the world or even those that could be covers for terrorism.

The court ruling defines "public purpose" as being either inside Israel or serving Israeli citizens or residents. It makes clear that if the students at the school are Israeli residents (Arabs of East Jerusalem) then the school indeed would be tax exempt - but the organization brought no evidence of this.

This means that within parts of Jerusalem outside the Green Line, there are plenty of tax-exempt organizations that serve Arabs. It is proof that the policy is not "apartheid" but a reasonable distinction between citizens and non-citizens that every nation on the planet has.

The Beit Safafa Primary School B is outside the Green Line. It exclusively serves Arabs in Jerusalem whom HRW call "Palestinians." It is accredited by Israel's Ministry of Education. It has the full support of the State of Israel. It proves that there is no discrimination against Arabs.

HRW adds irrelevant facts like Israel is responsible to ensure that Arabs in Area C get an education under "occupation." But that has nothing to do with tax law. Israel is not closing or threatening the school.

HRW also claims that there are indeed some Jerusalem residents (not citizens) who moved to Bir Nabala and send their children to this school, but they did not want to say this publicly because then the families might be subject to losing their Israel residency status for leaving Jerusalem. Even if this is true, the court can only rule based on evidence, and for HRW to demand that the Israeli High Court ignore the facts brought before it is fairly ridiculous.

HRW terms this legal ruling to be "apartheid:"

The court decision is a binding precedent and a departure from previous practices. It places a financial burden on Israeli-registered groups that serve Palestinians living under Israeli occupation and is the latest example of Israel's highest court rubber-stamping discriminatory practices that contribute to the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution, under an overall policy to maintain the domination by Jewish Israelis over Palestinians, even in matters of education.

As with every single other charge by HRW, this is false and slanderous. Israeli law has been completely consistent that Arab citizens of Israel and Jewish citizens of Israel are treated equally, no matter which side of the Green Line they live in. It is not apartheid - it is saying that citizens and residents have rights that non-citizens do not. That is not apartheid by any definition.

Finally, HRW betrays its own hypocrisy.

Israel has the right to define its criteria for non-profit tax status, as does every other country. The US has its own more expansive definition that says that educational and cultural institutions can be tax exempt for activities worldwide. But Human Rights Watch has demanded that the US restrict its own definitions of tax exemption to exclude non-profits that pay for services for Jews who live in Judea and Samaria!

While HRW claims that legal distinctions between citizens and non-citizens in tax laws are apartheid, it also demands a policy of excluding Jews - and only Jews - from the US definition of non-profit.

There is no apartheid in Israel. But there sure is antisemitism in Human Rights Watch.

One final note: The original article was, as noted, published in The New Arab, a virulently anti-Israel publication that HRW has no problem promoting. Here is its illustration for the article:

The caption says that the Israeli High Court is in "occupied Jerusalem."

It is two kilometers west from the Green Line. If it is in occupied territory, then all of Israel is "occupied."

Meaning that HRW promotes the position that Israel altogether is illegitimate.

Arab news site: Jewish prayers on the Temple Mount are chants of prostitution

Arab media published a ridiculously antisemitic screed by Dr. Mustafa Youssef El Lidawi, who is upset at the idea of Jews praying on their holiest site, the Temple Mount.

The prayer of the Jews in Al-Aqsa Mosque and its courtyards is not worship nor is it an approach to God Almighty, and it does not soften hearts, nor purify souls, nor transcend souls, nor purify people, nor create goodness, nor call for peace, nor indicate the goodness of its performer or the sincerity of the one who carries it. It does not contain fear, tranquility, or reverence, nor is it preceded by humility or forgiveness, nor relinquishment of guilt nor abstinence from disobedience, nor intentions for righteousness or resolves for honesty and endeavors for purity.

Rather, they are corrupt rites, hate chants, and prostitute chants, and they are malicious prayers and provocative movements, and deliberate quarrels and stubborn competition, sick souls, and malicious intentions.

They are also an expression of arrogance, contempt and lack of manners, and worship with loudness and immorality, which is not worthy of worshipers who stand before the Almighty God with reverence and submission, and with the humility of the sincere and the acceptance of the hidden, and the fertilization of the truthful, so you see them clapping their hands with joy and raising their judgment, and their loud voices have proved their arrogance. Repeatedly their prayers in Al-Aqsa Mosque, despite the knowledge of their senior judges, show that they intend to provoke and restrict the Palestinians, crowd out their prayers, and compete with them over their mosque, in preparation for their empowerment in it and their control over it, their exclusivity in it and their seizure of it, which is the goal they have been pursuing for years, upon which they work and plan.

... the Arabs and Muslims in all parts of the world wish to contribute to the defense of Al-Aqsa Mosque and protect it from the plots and deception of the Jews. Occupation, subject to its will and satisfied with its policy, so you see that it is silent about its practices, accepts its procedures, and does not object to the oppression, injustice and coercion it is doing to the Palestinian people.

To illustrate the Jews evil prayers, the news site used a photo of Jews at the Kotel - which they consider just as bad as praying at Al Aqsa.

11/08 Links Pt2: The invention of Arab Jews erases Mizrahi Jewish history; NYTs Hires Journalist Who Blamed Israel for Palestinian Suicide Bombers

From Ian:

The invention of Arab Jews erases Mizrahi Jewish history

The status of Jews under Islamic rule varied between different regions, but generally, they did not enjoy the same rights as their Arab neighbors and were often persecuted. When the State of Israel was established, those same Jews were not "Arab enough" to their neighbors to be spared from violence and expulsion. Even the Jews of Iraq, who somewhat managed to integrate into the local society, were the targets of a violent pogrom in 1941, which became known as the Farhud.

These very same struggles are often erased by anti-Zionist organizations like Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP). In 2019, a coalition of Mizrahi organizations issued a statement against the appropriation and distortion of the history of the Jewish communities of the Middle East by JVP, who seek to strip the Jewish people of their indigenous origins.

However, why are anti-Israel media outlets like Al-Jazeera and antizionist groups like JVP trying to push this false narrative?

This false narrative is part of their bigger "Colonialism" lie. Anti-Israel forces have tried to delegitimize the Jewish State by calling it a colonialist project, claiming that Zionism is a Jewish-European colonialism project, despite it being a project of indigenous awakening.

Since more than 50% of Jewish-Israeli citizens are originally from families that have lived in the Middle East and North Africa, and not Europe, these anti-Israel forces had to make up a story to isolate the European Ashkenazi Jews from the broader Israeli-Jewish population, to fit their "colonialism" sham. They have totally falsified history and are spreading lies, to push their narrative of delegitimization and that the State of Israel shouldn’t exist.

Attempts to strip Jews of their Jewish identity and homeland always result in historical revisionism.

The existence of Jews in Arab societies has always been conditional, much like the existence of Jews in European societies has, not only in the 20th century, but throughout the entire history of the diaspora. Now that Jews finally have a place to rest, where we can feel safe in our indigenous homeland, we won’t let our adversaries distort our identity and history, just to delegitimize our very own existence.

America, perfidy against Jews is never a good thing

The 1967 liberation of Jerusalem and Judea & Samaria are intertwined. Both places are integral parts of the biblical heartland. Any accommodation with the Arabs must take this, and the topographic advantages of retaining the high ground, into consideration. Both must be controlled by Israel as an integral security necessity, as well as biblical legitimacy, in any agreement with the Palestinian Arabs.

It is puzzling that the Biden Administration is willing to put such strain on US-Israel relations over this minor issue of opening a consulate in the middle of Israel’s capital in west Jerusalem to serve non-Israeli Arabs who publicly declare Israel as an enemy state that must be annihilated.

When Israeli officials recommended that the State Department locate their office in Ramallah or in Gaza City, the State Department took great offence. Yet they remain deaf to Israel’s claims that there is no legal or historic precedent for a capital to be used by the United States to serve an external nation or entity, let alone an enemy.

Both sides of the warring Palestinian factions, backed by their Congressional supporters, are pushing the current Administration hard on this point.

It is clear that there is a growing anti-Israel, even anti-Semitic, groundswell in the Democrat Party, led by a radical grouping within the ruling government, that is dictating thought, language, and policy.

Some observers say that the anti-Israel strategy adopted by the US State Department is a sop to the leftist radical wing of the party. This is precisely the point. They are the ones who are calling the shots, not Biden in the White House, nor Blinken in the State Department.

As we have learned from our history, when a great power tacks away from its original and affirmative support and caters to those who are baying for Jewish blood, bad things happen.

Planting a consulate in Jerusalem to assist an enemy is akin to planting a stake in the heart of Judaism.

Perfidy against Jews is never a good thing.

Is Dave Chappelle an Admirer of Louis Farrakhan?

Again, that seems about right, but there’s more to be said. The gag that Chappelle offered about world-conquering Jews sounds a lot like the things Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam and a well-known antisemite, has said about Jews over the years.

Farrakhan, who has recruited a fair number of African-Americans into his movement, has described Jews as evil figures who dominate the world.

With his “space Jews” gag, Chappelle was channeling — and sanitizing — Farrakhan’s antisemitic bigotry.

I’m not interested in getting Chappelle canceled; I just want answers to the following questions that Letterman didn’t have the nerve to ask:

Was your introduction into Islam through the Nation of Islam? Do you think Louis Farrakhan represents a legitimate expression of the Muslim faith?

Why did you have your picture taken with Farrakhan at Muhammad Ali’s funeral in 2016? And why did you invoke Farrakhan’s presence at the funeral in such benign terms when you spoke to a journalist writing a piece for the New York Times Style magazine?

Dave, this is what you said: “I was at Ali’s funeral and I saw Farrakhan there, and Arnold Schwarzenegger, and I saw Bill Clinton. They all looked great, but I realized that these guys are getting old. And then I realized I’m getting old, and we’re all here because Muhammad Ali is dead!”

Is Farrakhan’s name one you want to drop so blithely?

In 2020, Christianity Today published an article by a fan of yours, who anointed you as the “cultural pastor America needs.” Well, OK, but who were the people who helped prepare you for this pastorship?

Was Louis Farrakhan one of your mentors?

And if he wasn’t, why are you retailing his brand of hate to a larger audience?

And a bonus comic:

Today, there was an important announcement about a new university being created, the University of Austin. It is meant to bring universities back to what they once were, where people can study and research without worrying about the "wokeness" that hinders students and instructors from pursuing the truth.

Its principles:

Universities devoted to the unfettered pursuit of truth are the cornerstone of a free and ﬂourishing democratic society.

For universities to serve their purpose, they must be fully committed to freedom of inquiry, freedom of conscience, and civil discourse.

In order to maintain these principles, UATX will be ﬁercely independent—ﬁnancially, intellectually, and politically.

It is a worthy and lofty goal, and I wish it luck.

Sadly, though, these principles are not enough to protect Jews.

When Twitter, Facebook and other social media started going overboard in their censorship, people flocked to other less restrictive platforms under the guise of free speech. And what happened? On Gab, Parler, 4chan, 8chan - there is plenty of antisemitism that people love to spread unfettered.

A university is not a social media site. But the heroes of these principles - the philosophers of the past few centuries, like Voltaire, Kant, Hume, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Heidegger,Wittgenstein, Marx - all expressed antisemitic ideas while architecting their universal moral theories.

Is it that difficult to imagine a course, or an area of research, meant to prove that Jews or the Torah have been the source of immoral ideas? Or that the Holocaust has been exaggerated? Or, for that matter, that Zionism was built on racist foundations? People that make these claims today all claim that their ideas are being quashed by the politically correct and they are only interested in the truth - exactly as the University of Austin says it wants the campus to resemble.

Truth is always better than lies, and freedom better than censorship. However, even the most brilliant thinkers have not been immune to bigotry - or to justifying their bigotry in the name of moral principles. A university that is dedicated to truth can still become a source of hate. After all, Harvard and Yale's mottos also extol truth.

I once postulated that what needs to be taught, along with the truth, is humility. I believe that the bigotry we see all too often stems from those who think that they have nothing to learn from others. They seek to justify their conscious or subconscious hate, not to examine and expose it.

Too often university instructors and students end up acting like they are better than others, that they have nothing to learn from those who cannot or do not seek higher education or those who choose different ways to educate themselves.

That same mentality can lead to using one's intelligence to justify bigotry rather than uproot it.

Dedication to truth is not a guarantee that a university will avoid bigotry. Antisemitism is so much a part of the fabric of the world that I'm not sure if any institution can guarantee that its principles are immune to being twisted into hate. But perhaps it is possible to minimize the chances of missteps along the way if the University of Austin, and any others that choose to follow its path, make humilitas as important a principle as veritas.

Humility is still not a guarantee against bigotries like antisemitism, but it is a necessary precondition to seeking the truth instead of confirming one's biases.

11/08 Links Pt1: David Singer: The UN and EU semantic war in Judea and Samaria backfires; Mossad Thwarts Iranian Attacks Against Israelis in Africa

From Ian:

David Singer: The UN and EU semantic war in Judea and Samaria backfires

Travel tour operators cannot escape identifying ancient Jewish sites in Judea and Samaria – even as they use this false and misleading UN and EU language designed to bury their existence:

Tripadvisor describes Kalia Kibbutz, with its lovely Israeli resort, camping site and beach as being: “Adjacent to the Caves of Qumran Kalia 90666 Palestinian Territories”

The Dead Sea Scrolls were initially discovered in the Caves of Qumran in 1947. The Scrolls comprise more than 800 mostly Hebrew documents written on animal skin and papyrus, that shed light on the histories of Judaism and Christianity. Among the texts are parts of every book of the Hebrew Bible — the Old Testament—except the book of Esther. The Scrolls also contain the earliest version of the Ten Commandments.

Most, experts say, were written between 200 B.C. and the period prior to the failed Jewish revolt to gain political and religious independence from Rome that lasted from A.D. 66 to 70.

Tripadvisor fails to disclose that Kalia Kibbutz was established in the 1930’s but was destroyed by Transjordan in 1948 when it invaded and conquered Western Palestine. Residents of Kalia and nearby Kibbutz Beit HaArava – established in 1939 - fled by boat on 20 May 1948.

The area remained unpopulated save for a Jordanian military camp until lost by Jordan to Israel in the 1967 Six Day War. Kalia was re-established and resettled by Jews in 1972 - Beit HaArava similarly in 1996.

The UN and EU use of language denying Jews have any proprietary rights in Judea and Samaria is pointedly racist.

UN engagement in such reprehensible conduct in blatant violation of its own Charter explains why the UN has failed to end the 100 years old Arab-Jewish conflict. Palestinian Arab insistence on providing false information to airlines and others about "Palestinian territories" or the non-existent "State of Palestine" when referring to Israeli-populated land explains the rest.

JPost Editorial: Israel must stand strong against reopening of US consulate

The consulate issue is being tied to another thorny question: construction over the Green Line. Here, too, the Biden administration is opposed to building plans, while some parties in the Bennett government want to proceed with major West Bank settlement projects.

There is a broad consensus within Israel that reopening the consulate in Jerusalem is not only unnecessary but harmful. A consulate in Jerusalem would in fact undermine the pursuit of peace by giving the Palestinians a false hope that one day they will have control over the city. Reopening the consulate, particularly now that the US Embassy is located in Jerusalem, would in effect bring Israel’s sovereignty in its own capital into question, and possibly encourage other countries to follow suit. Instead of opening embassies to Israel in Jerusalem, there could be a move to open consulates and trade representations for the Palestinians in the Israeli capital.

The Bennett-Lapid coalition is eager to repair ties with the Democrats after the Trump and Netanyahu eras, but both the prime minister and the alternate prime minister need to stand firm on Israel’s interest. Reopening the consulate for the Palestinians in Jerusalem does direct harm to Israel’s interests, and would not help a future peace process. To gain a consulate in western Jerusalem in return for nothing but intransigence will not encourage the Palestinians to return to the negotiating table in good faith.

Israel must continue to stand strong in its opposition to reopening the US consulate in Jerusalem. As for construction over the Green Line: it is time the government itself decides what it wants, where its red lines lie, rather than letting it be determined by outside forces.

Mohammad Shtayyeh: "Jerusalem is an occupied city and an integral part of the land of Palestine. We hope that the Biden administration will keep its promise to reopen the US consulate." pic.twitter.com/T7XeTKtD31
— Khaled Abu Toameh (@KhaledAbuToameh) November 8, 2021

PMW: “We will give our children’s blood” to undo Balfour Declaration, says Fatah official in Gaza

Senior Fatah official in Khan Yunis Faisal Fayyad: “We demand that the international community and the free people of the world stand with us to restore our rights in this usurped land. It was stolen in 1917 in the cursed Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration), and also in the May 15, 1948 Nakba (i.e., “the catastrophe,” the establishment of Israel). We all emphasize that we are still defending this stolen land, and that we will give our blood and the blood of our children and our families for the sake of Allah and the homeland.”

[Official PA TV, Palestine This Morning, Nov. 3, 2021]

The Balfour Declaration of Nov. 2, 1917 was a letter from British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour to Baron Rothschild stating that “His Majesty's government views with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.” In 1922, the League of Nations adopted this and made the British Mandate “responsible for putting into effect the declaration,” which led to the UN vote in favor of partitioning Mandatory Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state in 1947. In response, Britain ended its mandate on May 15, 1948, and the Palestinian Jews, who accepted the Partition Plan, declared the independent State of Israel. The Palestinian Arabs rejected the plan and together with 7 Arab states attacked Israel, in what is now known as Israel’s War of Independence.

The University of Haifa has signed a Memorandum of Understanding to work with UAE's Zayed University to work together on environmental and other research.

Previously, Mohamed Bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI) launched a program with the Weizmann Institute of Science on AI research.

These are welcome developments, but it takes time to reverse the antisemitism in the UAE.

News site UAE71 reports on how some activists find the idea of Jews in UAE universities as "ominous." And yes, the headline says Jews, not Israelis.

One activist, under the hashtag "#Normalizaion_Betrayal," says that the incoming students will be Mossad spies.

Someone responded that there is a plot to render "normalization" to be normal. (He doesn't seem to quite grasp the concept." He goes on to say that the goal is to make the UAE students love Israel and paper over how much Jews hate Islam and Muslims, which is a textbook case in psychological projection.

The news site seems to have gone out if its way to find these negative reactions - those tweeters are not hugely popular - meaning that the UAE media is not on board with peace with Israel. But it also means that there is some level of freedom in UAE media to criticize the government.

JTA reports:

Vice President Kamala Harris is set to denounce the singling out of Israel “because of anti-Jewish hatred” in a speech at the Anti-Defamation League’s annual Never Is Now conference.

“Three years ago, we suffered the most deadly attack on the American Jewish community in the history of our nation at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,” Harris will say, according to prepared remarks Harris’s office released ahead of her appearance at the virtual conference on Sunday evening. “And I want to be very clear about this: When Jews are targeted because of their beliefs or their identity, when Israel is singled out because of anti-Jewish hatred that is anti-Semitism. And that is unacceptable.”

Is there any more obvious statement than "when Israel is singled out because of anti-Jewish hatred that is anti-Semitism"? It is a truism - when anything is singled out because of anti-Jewish hatred it is antisemitism!

Saying that anti-Jewish hatred is antisemitism isn't a brilliant insight. It is a tautology.

This statement would never be contested by the modern antisemites of the Left, who claim that their obsessive and malicious targeting of Israel as "colonialist," "apartheid," "racist" and so forth are legitimate criticism, while never using those terms about any other nation who are obviously truly guilty of them.

Palestinian Jew-haters would never publicly admit that their hate for Israel has anything to do with Jews, even when they freely talk about their hate in Arabic .

The media, the UN, NGOs, the old Soviet Union, Hamas, Louis Farrakhan, Al Qaeda - they all have claimed that they have no problem with all Jews, just Israel and Zionists (who deserve being hated.) They would all publicly agree with Harris' statement.

They aren't singling out Israel because of anti-Jewish hatred. Oh, no, how can you even think that? No, they single out Israel because to them Israel is truly a uniquely evil entity that must be destroyed, alone among every nation on the planet. Their hate for Israel is righteous, not bigoted.

Harris says nothing to disagree.

The only people who admit that their hatred of Israel is prompted by Jew-hate are neo-Nazis. And even they would happily agree that their antisemitism is behind their hatred of Israel.

Harris' statement is an utterly meaningless bromide. It is nothing but applause bait - and you can be sure that when she says "and that is unacceptable!" her voice will rise, she will pause, and the audience will cheer her for her bravery at saying something as trite as hate is bad.

As such, unless she clarifies it during her speech, this isn't a positive statement that combats hate - it is a coded statement that justifies hate as long as the haters can hide behind an excuse of "legitimate criticism."

Which they always do.

I don't consider Harris to be an antisemite by any means. But if this is all she says on the topic of antisemitism masquerading as anti-Zionism, she is giving a gift to the modern Jew-haters.

Her speech doesn't combat antisemitism. It promotes it - as long as the haters call it something else.

In late October, Israel announced that it would add another 3000 work permits for Gazans to work in Israel, making a total of 10,000 workers who will have such permits.

This weekend, Israel reportedly approved permits for 500 high tech workers from the territories to work in Israel over the next three years.

These completely contradict the anti-Israel narrative of the haters.

In the second quarter of 2021, Israel employed 146,000 Palestinian workers, 19,000 in settlements. That's over 14% of the Palestinian workforce. These workers receive double the pay they get on average under Palestinian rule. That means that some 24% of the Palestinian tax base comes from workers who work in Israel. (h/t Irene for correcting my math.)

In short, working for Israelis is the best thing the Palestinian economy has going for itself, especially after the significant drop in aid from the world.

Palestinians know this. Last month, tens of thousands of Gazans applied for the several thousand permits Israel was releasing.

Egypt doesn't employ Palestinians. Jordan doesn't employ Palestinians who live in the West Bank. There is nothing stopping those countries' borders from being opened to allow Palestinians to have jobs and dignity - but the only country that actually provides that is Israel.

Yet the only thing one ever hears about Palestinian jobs in Israel is that it isn't enough. Which is very funny, since BDS demands that Palestinians don't accept Israeli jobs altogether (and the Palestinian Authority tried to stop them as well once, without making any dent in the numbers of Palestinians working in Israel.)

Another thing that gets very little coverage: when the Bennett government allowed Palestinians to use 4G networking, which will roll out over the next few months, it gives many Palestinian tech workers the opportunity to work remotely around the world.

How can one jive the facts that Israel is doing so much to help ordinary Palestinians and the lies that get spread by the media and NGOs?

Simple. Just don't give much coverage to the truth.

Despite budget crisis, Palestinian terrorists and their families are getting paid today

The Al Hayat Press Agency reports that today, terrorists and their families will be getting their salaries paid by the Palestinian Authority.

There was fear that with the current financial crisis gripping the PA, they would not be able to pay their terrorist population, but those fears were allayed.

Intisar Al-Wazir, head of the Foundation for the Care of the Families of Martyrs and the Wounded, stated that the payments for the families of the "martyrs" and the wounded will be disbursed today, Sunday, in the northern and southern governorates.

The minister emphasized the keenness of the Palestinian leadership, headed by Mahmoud Abbas, to disburse these allocations despite the financial hardship the Authority is going through.

Abbas has been explicit in saying that these payments to terrorists are his highest budget priority.

The Minister thanked all the parties that cooperate with the Foundation for the Care of the Families of Martyrs and the Wounded in order to regularize the disbursement of these allocations, especially the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Communications and the money changers working in the Gaza Strip.