Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, November 10, 2021

11/10 Links Pt2: Fighting Anti-Semitism: Lessons From Kristallnacht; The ADL Convenes a Summit of Anti-Semites to Fight Anti-Semitism; Woman pleads guilty to raising PFLP funds through charity

From Ian:

Gil Troy: We need to focus on the Jews that love Israel, not those who are anti

Judaism is not just an heirloom. My great-grandparents passed on no valuables. All I inherited from them is something invaluable – pride in being Jewish, delight in belonging to this extraordinary extended family, and a strong sense of mission, not just to stay Jewish but to use my Judaism and Zionism to find meaning in my life while bettering the world.

The corona crisis reinforced how lucky we are to belong to this people – and how much we need one another.

Zionism counters the nihilistic Woke Left’s self-hatred of Israel and America along with the nihilistic, hyper-aggressive Right’s hatred of outsiders. Since establishing Israel in 1948, Zionism’s mission involves defending and perfecting Israel. That doesn’t mean you only defend Israel because it’s perfect; rather, defending Israel includes perfecting Israel – strengthening it from within.

This is constructive patriotism. No people ever improved by hating themselves. Such negativity neutralizes the optimism necessary to stretch, to reform.

Zionism also counters modern society’s hyper-individualism, technological addiction, materialistic madness, and enervating anomie by providing community, human contact, inspiring narratives, constructive values – and work to be done together.

Recently, Israel accused Palestinian human rights organizations of bankrolling the terrorist PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine) without first publicizing evidence showing how Palestinians fool the world by slapping on noble-sounding names. A student asked me accusingly what I thought. The “aha” tone suggested – “you see, Israel’s unworthy, why should it exist… ” I replied, “like every move Israel makes in its fight against enemies, as I learn more, I’ll have one of two opportunities: either it’s a chance to again defend Israel, or it’s a chance to roll up my sleeves and improve Israel.”

That is Identity Zionism: fostering a rich, resilient, multidimensional, historically-infused identity in a world that often eviscerates the self; mobilizing our historic community in a world that often invites disunity not unity; and plunging in purposefully, to fulfill the Jewish mission of making our homes, our homeland and our world, better than they were yesterday – even if they are not yet as good as we will make them tomorrow.

Daniel Gordis: "The unraveling of American Zionism"

“Inside the Unraveling of American Zionism” is a headline bound to attract attention, and the article under that name in the New York Times did just that. It is not surprising that a piece about the “unraveling of American Zionism” would upset many people. What was surprising, given where it was published, was how accurate, informed and balanced the article was. Marc Tracy is a seasoned writer about the Jewish scene, and “Inside the Unraveling of American Zionism” brings both his talent and his knowledge to the fore.

What was surprising to me, but probably shouldn’t have been, was how his piece highlighted the similarity in language of progressive Jews (rabbinical students in this case) and progressive antisemites like Sunrise DC and BLM.

That proverbial double standard
When hostilities broke out between Israel and Hamas once again this past May, as Tracy notes, 93 American rabbinic students, enrolled at a variety of (non-Orthodox) seminaries, published a letter accusing Israel of “intentional removal of Palestinians” and “Apartheid,” among other crimes. One thing that the letter failed to mention was how Hamas had provoked the conflict. In fact, their letter didn’t mention Hamas at all.

Try telling the story of that conflict without mentioning Hamas. It’s quite the challenge.

So egregious was the lack of balance in the letter that the leaders of two of the rabbinical schools whose students signed the letter, Rabbi Bradly Artson Shavit of the Ziegler School at American Jewish University in Los Angeles and Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld, President of Hebrew College just outside of Boston, wrote letters1 chiding their students for, among other things, a lack of ahavat yisrael, a love of the Jewish people.

That is true, but what the students’ letter actually did was precisely what Israel’s enemies have long done to the Jewish state, and what antisemites in America are increasingly doing to the Jewish people: holding Israel and Jews accountable to a standard that they do not apply to others. Examples abound, but I’ll point to just one.

The rabbinical students advocate rethinking American Jewish education about Israel to teach about “the messy truth of a persecuted people searching for safety, going to a land full of meaning … for so many other peoples, and also full of human beings who didn't ask for new neighbors.”

Emily Schrader: The Online Voice for Israel

There are few issues more hostile and controversial than the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, especially when it comes to the digital world. As social media has transformed the way we operate online, we've seen a manifestation of real world political conflicts being played out on social media as well â€“ whether that be India and Pakistan, Armenia and Azerbaijan, the US, and Iran, or Israel and Palestine. As a result, there has also been a significant rise in hate speech against minority groups and increased political polarization. Emily Schrader, an Israeli content creator and the CEO of digital marketing firm Social Lite Creative, is hoping to fight that.

Schrader has been one of the leading voices in the fight for more accurate information across social media in the last decade â€“ whether through advising on policy change to fight antisemitism or in being a voice for what she calls "fighting misinformation."

Schrader's background comes from facing off against antisemitism on US campuses. As a politically involved student at University of Southern California, she encountered the campus group Students for Justice in Palestine which held the controversial "apartheid week" events to criticize Israel. Schrader said she was unable to understand why "these American students were so obsessed with Jews," and that many of the inaccurate statements they make about Israel are later repeated in the press as well. Thus began Schrader's journey of correcting exaggerated claims about Israel on a professional, and personal level.

Schrader became an activist on campus, working with organizations like CAMERA on Campus and StandWithUs, before eventually studying in Israel for her Masters's degree at Tel Aviv University. With a background in digital political campaigning, she established the digital department at StandWithUs, growing it to one of the leading pro-Israel platforms in the world today with over a million followers, including in Arabic. "I saw an opportunity to reach a wider audience and knew that there was a lack of information in the Arab world about Israel. I worked to build a team that could remedy that and helps stop lies that fuel incitement to violence," she said.

Israel: The only country with a net gain of trees in last century, the only country that recycles 90% of its water, a leader in green technologies.

PA: Burns down forests, makes giant tire fires, claims to emit 0 emissions and blames only Israel. ???????pic.twitter.com/cAAtHOQlZ9
— The Mossad: The Social Media Account (@TheMossadIL) November 10, 2021

Kamala Harris, under the auspices of the Anti-Defamation League, is to be rehabilitated after her recent antisemitic oopsie. At least that was my impression on reading that the vice president was to be the featured speaker at the annual Anti-Defamation League (ADL) conference. Perhaps you remember the vice president’s “faux pas” in which she smiled and nodded as a student accused Israel of “ethnic genocide.” After which Harris congratulated the student for speaking her “truth.”

WATCH: Kamala Harris nods as student accuses Israel of "ethnic genocide": “your truth cannot be suppressed" pic.twitter.com/FcqCyT7Uo8
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) September 28, 2021

Now the ADL, under former Clinton and Obama appointee Jonathan Greenblatt, is giving Harris cover for her unforgiveable behavior, and attempting to blind us to the poor optics of that event.

Even before the conference, held Tuesday night, we were already told what Harris would say during her address. Harris was to denounce “the singling out of Israel ‘because of anti-Jewish hatred.’” Elder has already commented on the fact that such a statement is a tautology, that anything that is singled out because of Jew-hatred is antisemitism. As such, this makes Kamala’s denouncement, well, not very smart, and also meaningless.

As Elder rightly states, there is another issue with Harris’ denouncement. Harris is saying that the singling out of Israel is only antisemitism when it’s done out of anti-Jewish hatred. In so saying, the vice president is actually suggesting that it’s okay to single out Israel as long as you don’t do it out of anti-Jewish hatred. That means that any individual or group can claim their harsh, overweening focus on Israel is righteous, because it has nothing to do with Jews or antisemitism. Which of course, is a lie.

Just like Harris’ denouncement is a lie, framed so neatly to impress and mollify the Jews.

Note that Harris refers to “anti-Jewish hatred” as opposed to “Jew-hatred.” The distinction between the two phrases is important. “Anti-Jewish hatred” is about hating the Jewish religion or perhaps Jewish culture, like hating, for example, bagels. “Jew-hatred,” on the other hand, is about hating JEWS. Actual, live people.

The phrase “anti-Jewish hatred” was crafted with care to suggest that the singling out of Israel is never about hating people. And in fact, in making this linguistic distinction, Harris is pretty much saying that antisemitism isn’t really about a people, but their religious beliefs.

This kind of reminds me of the way parents are advised never to tell children that they are bad. Instead, the parent is supposed to say, “That is a bad thing you did.”

In other words, refer to the thing, never to the person.

It is the same with Kamala’s crafty phrase “anti-Jewish hatred.” When you characterize “antisemitism” as not being about people but about their religion or their culture, you pretty much suck all the meaning out of the word. Antisemitism is not about hating a religion or a culture. It’s about xenophobia. It’s about hating people.

By referring to Jew-hatred as “anti-Jewish hatred,” Harris, in effect, delegitimizes antisemitism as a concept. It’s as if she is saying there is no such thing as hating Jews because they are Jews, but only because of their beliefs. And she said as much in her address to the ADL conference: “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.”

Yes, Kamala. Crystal clear. According to you, Harris, Jews are not targeted because they are Jews—they are targeted for their beliefs or because they identify as Jews.

This is not about missing the point, but a deliberate feint. Imagine you are a secular Jew in Germany and you identify not as a Jew, but as a proud and patriotic German. Do you think Hitler gives a crap how you identify? He hated and wanted to eradicate Jews not because of how they identified or what they believed in but because they were Jewish.

I am sure that many liberal Jews will point to the vice president’s remarks with satisfaction and put that little episode with the student behind them. They’ll say, “We knew she couldn’t be an antisemite. After all, she’s married to a Jew.”

And the people at JStreet will fawn all over themselves because they now have official government sanction to single out Israel, as long as they say they’re not singling out Israel from “anti-Jewish hatred.”

What of the ADL, the host of this vice presidential theater? Back in 1913, when Sigmund Livingston founded the Ant-Defamation League with a $200 budget, his stated mission was “to stop the defamation of the Jewish people.” Livingston understood that antisemitism is first and foremost about people—Jewish people. This became even clearer when around the time of the ADL’s founding, Leo Frank was lynched for a crime he did not commit. He was lynched because he was a Jew—and not because of his culture or religion.

Today, however, the ADL is presided over by Jonathan Greenblatt. Greenblatt makes no secret of his political leanings. In fact, the ADL leadership, as Jonathan Tobin put it, “seems to think they no longer even have to pretend to be anything but a Democratic Party auxiliary group.”

Support for Harris in spite of her nodding approval at a student’s statement that Israel is engaged in genocide is just the tip of the iceberg for Greenblatt. According to Tobin, “Greenblatt tweeted his opposition to the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court within seconds of the announcement, no matter that there was no discernable Jewish issue at play, let alone one involving the ADL’s brief on anti-Semitism.”

Greenblatt also shared a stage with notorious Jew-hater Al Sharpton on the MSNBC show “Politics Nation With Al Sharpton” in July of 2020. Greenblatt’s excuse for appearing with Sharpton was that he was on the show only to promote the ADL's call for a corporate ban on Facebook because of the social media giant’s unwillingness to ban hate speech. No one else thought this partnership between the ADL and a flagrant and unrepentant antisemite was a good idea, except perhaps for Al Sharpton.

And then there’s this:

In @ADL's "Tools for Dealing with Anti-Semitic & Anti-Israel Incidents on Campus," ADL labels JStreetU as "pro-Israel activists" and a "tremendous resource and support" for Jewish students. 🤮

Six Proactive Strategies to Prevent Anti-Israel Activity… https://t.co/tFEtn4JivH pic.twitter.com/UnMtHv3AyO
— Dan (@DanFined) November 7, 2021

The ADL, under the heading "Tools for Dealing with Anti-Semitic & Anti-Israel Incidents on Campus," has a resource entitled, “Six Proactive Strategies to Prevent Anti-Israel Activity,” which proclaims JStreetU as “pro-Israel activists" and a "tremendous resource and support" for Jewish students.”

Yeah. That’s the same JStreet that jumped on the bandwagon to defend John Kerry when he said that if Israel didn’t sign on to Obama’s fake peace agreement, it would become an “Apartheid state.” From the NY Times:

J Street, a pro-peace Jewish organization, defended Mr. Kerry. “Instead of putting energy into attacking Secretary Kerry, those who are upset with the secretary’s use of the term should put their energy into opposing and changing the policies that are leading Israel down this road,” it said in a statement.

In other words, if Israel doesn’t stop building homes in its indigenous territory and doesn’t allow terrorists to overrun the country and murder Jews, then that makes the Jewish State an Apartheid state. And JStreet signed on to that idea. What a “tremendous resource and support” for Jewish students to have these “pro-Israel activists” on campus.

Under the heading of “our values,” the ADL website makes a now ludicrous claim, “We stand up for the Jewish State of Israel—the only democratically-elected government in the Middle East.”

If that were true, the ADL would have condemned Harris for applauding that misguided, possibly evil student who accused Israel of genocide. Instead, the ADL gave Kamala Harris pride of place at its conference: what appeared, at least, to be the best possible cover for her bad optics with that student.

Sigmund Livingston may not have been able to even imagine a Jewish State back in 1913 when he founded the ADL. But dollars to donuts he would never have stood for turning the organization into a partisan mouthpiece that carries water for either political party. As such, he never would have allowed the ADL to be used as a platform for a Kamala Harris makeover.

In praise of (presumed) Israeli attacks on Iranian war facilities

Iran International reports:

A weekly publication in Iran says an incident reported as a fire in a military research center in September was an “attack” by Israel to exert pressure on Iran.

The little-known Sobh Sadegh publication of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) mentioned Tuesday that a “self-reliance research center” west of Tehran was in targeted by Israel in an operation similar to other attacks since July 2020, including two explosions in the Natanz uranium enrichment facility.

The IRGC reported on September 26 that a fire damaged one of its research facilities and three personnel were injured. Hours later, the announcement was deleted from its website and another version appeared saying that the fire was in the depot of the facility. Later, IRGC said that two of its personnel died in the incident.

Days later, ImageSat International published images saying that an explosion had taken place in a secret IRGC missile center west of Tehran. The images showed that one-quarter of the building was destroyed.

According to Iran Watch, the IRGC Research and Self-Sufficiency Jihad Organization is responsible for ballistic missile research and development;and has helped improve the missile capabilities Gaza, Hezbollah and Houthi terrorists. It has also reportedly overseen an IRGC missile and space research center; has developed combat drones and a 1,900kg solid-fuel motor.

Here are the before and after ImageSat images:

Based on Google Maps satellite photos, the total area destroyed was about 15,000 square feet (1400 square meters.)

One would need to smuggle a large amount of explosives into a highly secure facility to cause that much damage - or the facility already had lots of explosive materials that had to be ignited.

It is really remarkable espionage that saves lives, today and tomorrow.

11/10 Links Pt1: Israel’s UK ambassador evacuated from event under heavy security amid protests; Commentary Podcast: The Real Story of The Israel-Gaza War

From Ian:

Jonathan Tobin: Is there still hope for American bipartisan support of Israel?

Part of the reason for that is that the two parties have more or less exchanged identities on Israel in the past half-century. Democrats were once the solidly pro-Israel party. Now, its members are deeply divided over it with its left-wing activist wing increasingly influenced by intersectional ideology that falsely claims that the Jewish state embodies “white privilege” and that the Palestinian war to destroy it is somehow akin to the struggle for civil rights in the United States.

At the same time, the GOP is now nearly unanimous in its affection for the U.S.-Israel alliance. That trend reached its apotheosis under Trump, who can lay claim to being the most pro-Israel president to date, even if Democrats and the majority of Jewish voters give him no credit for it.

While the congressional leadership of the Democrats still firmly identifies as pro-Israel—as demonstrated by the determination of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer not to let the opposition of the so-called progressive wing of their party stop funding of the Iron Dome missile-defense system earlier this year—members of the party as just as likely to be found among Israel’s most fervent ideological opponents as its friends.

It is wrong to label all Democrats as being as bad as the “Squad.” But when push has come to shove on key issues of interest to the pro-Israel community, most of them fell short. That meant that some who are not only Jewish but who have long claimed to be Israel’s most ardent defenders either joined the other side on the Iran deal—as did former Democratic National Committee Chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-Fla.)—or simply acquiesced to their party’s betrayal, as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer did.

With courageous exceptions to this standard few and far between, such as Rep. Ted Deutch (D-Fla.), who both opposed the Iran deal and called out Tlaib and others for their anti-Semitic invective during the House debate about Iron Dome, it’s possible to argue that perhaps those cheering Haley’s comments are right about AIPAC’s failure and the need to reject bipartisan advocacy.

Yet it’s both premature and unwise to completely write off AIPAC.

It is deeply wrong for Jewish Democrats to accuse their GOP counterparts of politicizing the issue of Israel since it was their party, and not the Republicans, which failed on Iran and Jerusalem, as well as by their cowardly refusal to reject the anti-Semitism of the progressives. But the goal of pro-Israel advocacy can’t be to convince all Jews to become Republicans. That would be true even if it were possible, which it isn’t, given the fact that most believe so-called social-justice issues are actually more important than Israel and fail to see that anti-Semitism is as much a danger on the left as it is on the right.

The objective for the pro-Israel movement is not to destroy the Democrats, but to get them to return to their former stance of strong support and revive a consensus that the left is destroying. That means that efforts to cultivate moderates and even some progressives—and to convince them to back the Jewish state—is still both the right thing to do and good politics must continue. At the moment, that looks like a losing battle, as the party’s growing progressive wing has fallen under the spell of toxic ideas like critical race theory that give a permission slip to anti-Semitism.

In American politics, change is a constant. The left may have thought the future was theirs after the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement and the defeat of Trump. But the party’s radical tilt may herald its impending defeat in future elections and a necessary course correction that will eventually bring it back closer to the center. At that point, if AIPAC is still doing its job, pro-Israel Democrats will be there to reap the benefits.

That doesn’t mean Republicans shouldn’t continue to oppose the left’s anti-Israel invective and Biden administration policies that undermine the alliance. Yet in the long run, the pro-Israel community will be stronger if AIPAC is capable of vindicating its bipartisan strategy. If it can’t, then that will be a tragedy for the Democrats, the lobby and Israel.

Commentary Magazine Podcast: The Real Story of The Israel-Gaza War

The podcast crew is joined today by our pal Jonathan Schanzer, whose illuminating new book Gaza Conflict 2021 provides an eye-opening account of the hostilities earlier this year—and a guide to the state of play in the Middle East more broadly.

US Jews failed to anticipate antisemitic violence during Gaza conflict – study

A study of antisemitism in the US during Operation Guardian of the Walls in May found that Jewish communal organizations and leaders were taken by surprise by violence against Jews that took place during the conflict.

“This time the Jewish community was doubly surprised by the rapid transformation of protests by the American extreme left, especially the pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli groups, into outbreaks of violent antisemitic acts that had broad geographic distribution, and by the increased criticism of Israel among larger circles within the Democratic Party than in the past as well as among several civil social organizations,” wrote Shahar Eilam and Tom Eshed of the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv.

The report, titled “Increased Antisemitism in the United States Following Operation Guardian of the Walls: Permanent or Short-Lived?” also found that American Jews were surprised by the difficulty they experienced “in enlisting their natural allies and partners” in the fight against antisemitism.

“The main question that occupied me was how it was possible that the US Jewish establishment was surprised, despite its deep experience in dealing with similar previous incidents of escalation as part of the Israel-Palestinian conflict, in which there also was a similar dynamic in the US theater,” Eilam told The Times of Israel. “Deep changes in American society are not supposed to surprise the Jewish community.”

Eilam said he was worried by the “delay in the identification and in the deep understanding of the trends, and the hesitance in absorbing their implications and in building appropriate responses by the Jewish community along with its different partners.”

The report argued that the issue of antisemitism is becoming politicized in the US, rendering it “more difficult to form a broad and united front to condemn and combat antisemitism of any type.”

The report is slated for publication on Wednesday.

Israel’s UK ambassador evacuated from event under heavy security amid protests

Israeli Ambassador to the UK Tzipi Hotovely was evacuated under heavy security from an event at the London School of Economics on Tuesday evening amid a large protest by pro-Palesestinian activists against her presence.

Video from the scene showed security guards rushing Hotovely, who was clutching a bouquet of flowers, into a vehicle, while others tried to fend off a group of jeering activists, who chanted, “Aren’t you ashamed?”

Hotovely had been invited by the prestigious university’s student union to take part in a debate forum.

“We will not give in to thuggery and violence,” Hotovely pledged after the incident, according to Ynet. “The State of Israel will send its representatives to every stage.”

Hotovely and the spokesman for Israel’s embassy in London both stressed that the hour-and-a-half event took place in full, and 200 students were able to hear what Israel’s envoy had to say.

“The extremists will continue to demonstrate outside – and the embassy will continue to speak directly with students inside,” the spokesman said.

The event drew widespread opposition from pro-Palestinian and other groups on campus for “platforming racism.”

The protests specifically targeted Hotovely, saying that she had “advocated for settler colonialism, engaged in Islamophobic rhetoric and has perpetuated anti-Palestinian racism.”

Britian’s Home Secretary Priti Patel and Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi condemned the “aggressive and threatening behavior” against Hotovely.

“This is deeply disturbing, I am so sorry Ambassador Hotovely,” Zahawi tweeted.

She later thanked the British government and others “for all the support I have received.”

One major difference between anti-Israel demonstrations and pro-Israel rallies is that the Israel-haters rely heavily on repeating slogans.

Here's a small clip from yesterday's London demonstration that successfully threatened and attempted to physically attack Ambassador Tzipi Hotovely:

We see it over and over: every anti-Israel rally is filled with repetitious sloganeering, from small venues to large rallies.

Countless studies show that repeating anything makes it more likely to be believed.

A 2020 article in Psychology Today notes:

First described in a 1977 study by Temple University psychologist Dr. Lynn Hasher and her colleagues, the illusory truth effect occurs when repeating a statement increases the belief that it’s true even when the statement is actually false.

Subsequent research has expanded what we know about the illusory truth effect. ...For example, the perceived truth of written statements can be increased by presenting them in bold, high-contrast fonts or when aphorisms are expressed as a rhyme.

"From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free."

"There is only one solution, Intifada revolution:"

"Hey hey, ho ho, Zionists have got to go!"

"Khaybar Khaybar al Yahud, jaish Mohammed sa yahud."

See a pattern?

The repetition is used in many different ways. The entire point of "Israel Apartheid Week" on campuses is to have people associate "Israel" with "Apartheid," and this year Ken Roth of HRW used the words "Israel" and "apartheid" over 130 times together - and stopped using the word "apartheid" with any other country (as he had previously done). It is all part of the brainwashing technique with the express aim of demonizing Israel.

This is especially true for the young people who are the targets of anti-Israel brainwashing. Neuroscientist and physiologist Kathleen Taylor explains in her 2004 book on the subject that

repetition is an integral part of brainwashing techniques because connections between neurons become stronger when exposed to incoming signals of frequency and intensity. She argues that people in their teenage years and early twenties are more susceptible to persuasion. Taylor explains that brain activity in the temporal lobe, the region responsible for artistic creativity, also causes spiritual experiences in a process known as lability.

Britannica summarizes:

The techniques of brainwashing typically involve isolation from former associates and sources of information; an exacting regimen requiring absolute obedience and humility; strong social pressures and rewards for cooperation; physical and psychological punishments for non-cooperation ranging from social ostracism and criticism...

Taylor's solution to brainwashing is actually amazing because it shows how the socialist Left is making freedom of thought into a thoughtcrime:

In the final portion of the book, Part III: "Freedom and Control", Taylor describes an individual's susceptibility to brainwashing and lays out an acronym "FACET", a tool to combat influence and a totalist mindset.FACET stands for Freedom, Agency, Complexity, Ends-not-means, and Thinking.

How many times have you seen the Israel haters say stuff like this:

They don't want their followers to think. They want facile, false, repeated slogans instead to brainwash them.

They hate complexity. Real life is messy, but they want to reduce problems to black and white: everyone is good or evil, oppressor or oppressed, moral or Nazi.

They don't want their followers to even be exposed to the other side of the argument - hence "cancelling" and censorship, forcing self-censorship because of fear of violence, all with the goal of ending any possibility of voicing other opinions. The Tzipi Hotovely episode is one of many where they were successful. (My Twitter feed is blocked by hundreds of people I never heard of - the haters share lists of tweeters that they want to ensure they are never exposed to.)

They are against agency - Palestinians are passive victims with no responsibility, and so are members of every "oppressed" group.

The Israel haters and socialists not only knowingly brainwash young people, they are trying to set up an alternative morality where individual rights and freedom of thought are bad and unquestioning, blind following them is the only correct path.

The reason the pro-Israel and anti-Israel rallies are so different is because pro-Israel activists rely on truth, anti-Israel activists rely on brainwashing. And brainwashing is more effective.

The sad part is that it takes orders of magnitude more effort to combat brainwashing than it takes to brainwash to begin with. Facts are not relevant to those who are already in the cult (which is what Wokeism is.)

When do the UN, Amnesty, Human Rights Watch, PFLP-linked NGOs, the BDS Movement, Students for Justice for Palestine, Peace Now, Jewish Voice for Peace and J-Street not condemn Israeli citizens living in the West Bank?

When they are Arabs, of course.

From Haaretz:

Rawabi markets itself as a unifier of Palestinian interests and an actionable road map for statehood, replacing the grandiose promise-making of traditional leadership with literal facts on the ground.

Located in Area A – placing it, on paper at least, under full control of the Palestinian Authority – and situated some 35 minutes north of Ramallah, construction began here in 2010, financed initially by the Palestinian-American entrepreneur Bashar Masri and aided by substantial Qatari funds.

During a recent visit, I sat down with the city’s first-ever mayor, Ibrahim Natour.

Asked about the presence and role of the Arab Israeli population in the city, Natour hastens to correct me: “We’re not looking at them as Arab Israelis: they’re Palestinians. To be Palestinian is not about having an [Israeli] ID card. I’m Palestinian but I’m from Jerusalem. We don’t discriminate.”

Despite early hopes of attracting as many as 40,000 residents, Rawabi’s current population sits at a somewhat meager 5,000, of whom 70 percent consider the city their permanent home. A municipal official described the other 30 percent as “weekend/vacation” visitors. Except for wealthier Palestinians holding dual citizenship, it stands to reason that many of them are Arab Israelis – the only ones capable of passing through the border crossings uninhibited.

Amal, a 46-year-old resident of the Arab Israeli city of Umm al-Fahm, was surprised by the demographic breakdown of the city, which had marketed itself as a stepping-stone in the direction of statehood. “I also asked how many residents come from outside [i.e., Arab Israelis]. I had the impression that at least 80 percent were from [the West Bank]. You see all the yellow [Israeli] car license plates and most of them come every few months for a visit – but they’re never going to tell you that,” he says, referring to the municipality.

Any way you count it, thousands of Arab Israelis own houses and live at least part time in Area A - under Palestinian control.

They are settlers.

In an area Jews aren't allowed.

The mayor says "we don't discriminate." Well, as long as you don't count discriminating against Jews, I suppose not.

Ken Roth of Human Rights Watch has said that "Each transfer of a settler to occupied territory is a war crime." Both Jews and Arabs voluntarily move to the West Bank. But Roth only considers it a "war crime" if they are Jewish.

There is a word for that.

The Israeli Arabs who live in Rawabi can vote in Israeli elections - just like the Jews who live in less than ten kilometers away in Shiloh or Eli.

They can drive on every road in the West Bank - not only the mythical "Jewish-only roads" but the Arab roads as well that are off-limits to Jews.

Every single argument that Israel practices "apartheid" is demolished by the existence of Israeli Arabs living in an Arab community that, we are told, is "occupied."

The more you look at the "apartheid" claim, the most you see that it is prompted by its own bigotry - against Jews and only Jews.

(h/t Ahron)

From BBC Russian:

The Russian Ministry of Justice has included in the list of extremist materials the Soviet propaganda film "Secret and Explicit. Aims and Deeds of the Zionists." The film was shot in the 1970s on the wave of "anti-Zionism" in the USSR, but it never made it to the wide screen because of the fears of the Soviet authorities.

The decision to ban the film was made by the Syktyvkar City Court in July this year, but it was only on November 8 that it was officially included in the list of extremist materials.

The documentary black and white tape was released in 1973 by the Central Documentary Film Studio.

[T]he script for the film was approved at the highest level - in the international department of the Central Committee of the CPSU, a whole group of reputable consultants from the USSR Academy of Sciences, the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the KGB were assigned to work on the picture. The filmmakers were even allowed to travel to Europe to collect material.

The well-known historian of the Soviet era Yevgeny Dobrenko wrote: "This film was the Soviet version of the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion ," so odious and wild even by Soviet standards that it was assessed as anti-Semitic and banned even by the KGB and the Central Committee."

I found a version of the film where it appears that someone added clips from the 1990s (Bill Clinton, Ehud Barak). But it seems to include the original complete film.

I don't understand Russian but the antisemitism is obvious - scenes of Jews praying, shots of Jewish books that are almost certainly being claimed to demean non-Jews, accusations that Jews collaborated with Nazis on the Holocaust.

Leftist anti-Zionism started off indistinguishable from classic antisemitism. After missteps like this film, the Left learned to hide their Jew-hate a little better, always insisting that they weren't anti-Jew but only anti-Israel.

That doesn't change the fact that the anti-Zionists are still motivated by the same hate for Jews that they always were. Hiding it better doesn't make that any less true.

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.