Wednesday, November 17, 2021
- Wednesday, November 17, 2021
- Elder of Ziyon
- Wednesday, November 17, 2021
- Elder of Ziyon
The National Political Committee is aware of the trip that DSA member and Congressman Jamaal Bowman took to Israel this week, and has received letters from various DSA chapters and members about the situation.DSA unapologetically stands in solidarity with the Palestinian people in their ongoing struggle for liberation. Our platform proudly states continued support for and involvement with the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, and efforts to eliminate U.S. military aid to Israel, while resisting the “normalization” of relationships between the Israeli government and other governments.The NPC is treating this as its highest priority right now; to work with the DSA BDS & Palestine Solidarity Working Group and the Congressman’s local chapters to address this directly with Representative Bowman. We will be meeting with him in the next few days. We will update the members as soon as possible following that meeting.
- Wednesday, November 17, 2021
- Elder of Ziyon
Tuesday, November 16, 2021
It Is a Tree of Life
Review of 'Squirrel Hill' by Mark OppenheimerEmily Schrader: Expo 2020 is a stunning example of tolerance
SQUIRREL HILL is a book for Jews (and Gentiles) everywhere, but it is particularly a book for those of us who grew up Jewish in Pittsburgh. (The house where I grew up is a 15-minute walk from Tree of Life, although we were members of the larger Reform synagogue, Temple Sinai.) Fellow residents, both former and current, will recognize many of the places and names; at one point in the book I paused, read aloud a passage Oppenheimer transcribed from a Jewish journalist’s recounting of her work with the city’s liberal Chevra Kadisha, and then told my wife that I had had a crush on said writer for most of elementary school.
In that regard, Squirrel Hill showed me how unusual the neighborhood was as a place to grow up. Being raised Jewish in Pittsburgh is a bit like how Oppenheimer’s podcast co-host Liel Leibovitz recently described being Jewish in Israel: “You are Jewish by osmosis. You just open the window and breathe in a lot of Jew.” It offers what Oppenheimer describes as “an idyllic Jewish life in a modern urban shtetl”—so if the dream of being fully Jewish and fully American is possible anywhere, it’s there.
But it is all too easy—in Squirrel Hill, and in modern liberal Jewish life—for Jewish identity to stop being a choice, for it to become something that happens to us but to which we do not contribute. I grew up unselfconsciously Jewish because of the environment in which I lived. It was only after I left Squirrel Hill (and after I fell in love with a non-Jewish woman and spent years watching her work on conversion for her and our son) that I began to understand that for most American Jews, being Jewish is not something you “breathe in”—it’s something you choose, or don’t choose, every day.
The choice to be willfully, deliberately Jewish always means accepting the risks that go with it—of anti-Semitism that can be subtle and, in its violent expressions, unsubtle. A place like Squirrel Hill hints at a world in which being Jewish is easy and free from fear, but the Tree of Life shooting shows that even there it is not.
That’s why the best stories in Squirrel Hill are those of people who, face-to-face with the scourge of anti-Semitism, chose to become more Jewish, rather than less. There’s Lynn Hyde, married to a Jewish man but who had always stopped short of converting—until she realized that if the shooter had entered the synagogue where she and her husband were praying, he wouldn’t have bothered to ask if she wasn’t Jewish before shooting her. Or Robert Zacharias, the computer artist who responded to the shooting by starting to wear a kippah everywhere he goes and grappling with all the discomfort that being publicly and visibly Jewish brings. Even Ron Symons, the Reform rabbi who walked with his Orthodox brothers during the funeral procession, captures this: In mourning another Jew, we are all Jewish together.
These stories and others are the closest thing Squirrel Hill offers as an answer to the question it poses. To be Jewish has always meant to be Jewish after tragedy—after the fall of the Temple, after the exile, after the Holocaust—and therefore through overcoming it. That choice to overcome, to be Jewish over and against the desires of violent anti-Semites, is the way Jews continue to preserve and build places like Squirrel Hill.
Interestingly, absent from Israel’s pavilion was any mention of its history or any political messaging whatsoever. In fact, Israel didn’t even display a map. Sadly, the same cannot be said for the Palestinian pavilion. While also a beautiful display of culture, their displays were highly politicized in a way that seemed out of place: from heavy Jerusalem imagery throughout the exhibit to maps displaying the entirety of Israel as Palestine.Pop icon Justin Bieber announces 2022 concert in Tel Aviv
They also had a coloring activity to color the map of Palestine and an interactive map of Israel, which they labeled Palestine, urging visitors to mark off where they are from on the map. Finally, their pavilion prominently featured sweeping nature shots of “Palestinian” cities today, including Acre, Haifa, Nazareth and Masada. The problem with this is, of course, that they aren’t Palestinian cities at all; they are Israeli and they are even within the 1967 borders.
While the rest of the participating countries, even enemy states, presented a forward-facing, apolitical perspective of their countries, the Palestinian pavilion used the expo, a symbol of tolerance and acceptance, to once again push political messaging and look backward instead of forward. The contrasting narratives were blatant and once again demonstrated that instead of progressing toward a brighter future for all the region and the Palestinian people, the Palestinian leaders are hell-bent on missing every opportunity they can.
Meanwhile, the UAE leads the way for the entire Arab world presenting a path forward for peace and collaboration instead of war. Of course, this doesn’t mean agreement on every political issue, but it does mean an open line of communication and understanding to create a better world.
I would be remiss not to note the striking similarities between the vision of the UAE’s leaders and the State of Israel. Both nations are states that developed something stunning out of virtually nothing. Both nations massively developed only in the last decades, and both nations continue to expand and improve the world through technology, business, innovation and yes, peace.
It is only natural then, that the UAE and Israel, both nations of dreamers, continue setting an example for the region and the world of what the future can be.
Justin Bieber is coming to Israel, planning to perform October 13, 2022, in Tel Aviv’s Ganei Yehoshua, as part of his Justice World Tour.
The Canadian pop singer, discovered when he was just 13 (he’s now 27), has concerts planned in five continents through March 2023, kicking off the tour in North America. The new dates were announced Monday, with more shows to be announced for Asia and the Middle East.
Bieber hasn’t toured like this since 2016. The pandemic sidelined his previously announced 2020 concert dates.
The tour begins in 2022 in North America, kicking off in San Diego on February 18, moving to Mexico in May before heading to Scandinavia, South America, South Africa and the Middle East in September and October, followed by Australia and New Zealand in November and December and the UK and Europe in early 2023.
“We worked hard on this tour and created the best event we’ve ever done,” said Bieber in a statement. “I can’t wait to share it with fans around the world. I’ll see you soon.”
- Tuesday, November 16, 2021
- Elder of Ziyon
- book review, RealJerusalemStreets
By RealJerusalemStreets
I hesitated. At first, I said to myself--no way.
The fiction I really like to read would be a good murder mystery. However, a novel based in 1943-1944 - and in Auschwitz?
Unsettling as the concept was, the author and publisher, Tom Hogan, and his bio piqued my curiosity.
Hogan grew up in a German village with his US military family after World War II. As an eight-year-old, he visited Dachau with his family. He wondered how many of his neighbors knew about and participated in the Holocaust.
Hogan taught at Santa Clara University after graduating from Harvard with an MA in Biblical Archeology and developed curricula in Holocaust Studies for college and high school.
Along with survivors' testimonies, he presented the Shoah to US audiences.
Hogan left teaching in the 1980s, to join a growing company as its first creative director. Perhaps you may have heard of Oracle? Next, his venture capital company launched over 50 startups and he co-authored The Ultimate Startup Guide.
After leaving the tech world, Hogan returned to teaching Holocaust and Genocide Studies at UC Santa Cruz before he retired and began to write fiction.
Hogan's Heroes was the name of the American sitcom popular from 1965-1971, where during World War II, the inmates of the prisoner-of-war camp, the fictional Stalag 13, did their best to sabotage the German effort. Their escapades led to humorous results involving Col. Klink and Sargent Shultz, and these Nazis were portrayed as bumbling comedic characters. Cast member Robert Clary had a number tattooed on his arm, as the Jewish actor had really spent 3 years in a concentration camp before arriving in Hollywood. He was often referred to as "cockroach" by the Nazis on the show, but it was a light feel-good program that always ended with Col Hogan's guys outsmarting the Germans.
Tom Hogan's The Devil's Breath is not light and not humorous. However, when the extermination camp details he has included get too heavy, readers are given a break to recover with his excellent character development. Lead characters Perla and Shimon Divko are transferred from the Warsaw Ghetto to Auschwitz and forced by Kommandant Rudolf Hess to solve a murder and a theft.
Hess is the only non-fiction character. In this genre, as opposed to memoirs, Holocaust expert Hogan is able to weave in historical information. I was at Auschwitz on a March of the Living trip years ago. Some of the facts are not only stranger than fiction, but worse as well, and I confess to skimming quickly over details of Kanada, the selection and gas chambers.
One example of adding positive information was the introduction of a drug connection along with the theft and murder of a Nazi officer in his office. Previously I was not familiar with Pervitin , but went on to read about how it was used by the Nazis later in the war. The details in the book fit the information I found.
While The Devil's Breath is not a light read and should have trigger warnings for today's crowds, I felt it important and well done enough to share. As there are fewer survivors to tell their stories, Hogan has found a new approach to educate the public about the horrors of the Holocaust.
Title: The Devil's Breath ISBN: 978-1-7369436-1-8
Tom Hogan 274 pages Paperback/Kindle
- Tuesday, November 16, 2021
- Elder of Ziyon
- Al Mal News, anti-Zionist not antisemitic, conspiracy theories, Hezbollah, Jews control the world, PEZ, The Protocols
It is very important for understanding the seriousness of the document, realizing the dimensions of this plan to rule the world, with the most important methodologies; Anarchy and libertarianism, economic wars, gradually changing the morals of states, tyranny and modern progress, methodologies of control, world wars, controlling the awareness of the masses, corrupting education, spreading atheism and sick literature, controlling the press, entertainment, destroying religion and its men, and flooding countries with debts....Dr. Abdel-Wahhab El-Mesiri asserts that Zionism promotes it with the aim to “spread terror into the hearts of Muslims and Arabs by exaggerating the power of the Jews, in order to win the psychological war before they enter the battlefield” to be able to “distort the cognitive map of Arabs and Muslims."The debate is not about their falsification or forgery, but the existence of a kind of continuous domination of Jewish personalities over the media, the economy and global politics, whether achieved randomly or in an organized gradual manner! A review of the protocols themselves reveals that the emergence, development and course of many global events and crises from 1905 to today are consistent with the vision, strategy and tactics contained in them literally from Protocol 1-20!Regardless of the authenticity or fabrication of the protocols, anyone contemplating them must consider1- The exclusion of the Israeli security theory2- Talmud rulings, such as a record of Jewish rabbis’ attempts to interpret the Old Testament, to suit the status of the Jews as God’s chosen people with groups scattered throughout the world, so it was considered one of the most dangerous books sacred to the Jews, because it contains the thought of conspiracy and control over human structures, to enslave them, break up the heavenly religions, and destroy human values, with the aim of achieving the Jewish dream of ruling the world.
Seth Frantzman: Israel at the Dubai Air Show symbolizes new Middle East
This growing regional partnering has ramifications that go beyond specific defense deals or even joint training. It’s about a consensus that views stability and moderation as key pillars of foreign policy.
This is in contrast to the policy of countries like Iran and Turkey that prefer confrontation in the region. That is why wherever Iran has a role there is poverty, chaos and civil conflict. In Lebanon and Iraq, people – including Iraq’s prime minister – are targeted for assassination by Iran’s proxies.
Meanwhile, Ankara has played an aggressive and threatening role in places like Syria and Libya, often heating up conflicts, rather than turning down the tensions.
However, the emerging consensus between Israel and the UAE is not all-inclusive. The US, for instance, ostensibly opposes the UAE’s outreach to Damascus.
For Israel, hopefully, Syria will dial back the Iranian role there. Reports say that the Assad regime may have been nonplussed by an IRGC-backed attack on the US Tanf garrison.
That could also be a talking point in regional media. What is clear is that there are a lot more meetings coming between Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Bahrain and the UAE and their partners in Asia and the West.
While Israel’s role at the Dubai Air Show can be seen through specific deals and companies – such as the participation of UVision, an innovative company that makes loitering munitions – the greater symbol is that Israel is now in the room with big players in the region.
In the past, Israel often felt isolated or even bifurcated from the region, not even included in US Central Command, for instance. Now, the inclusion of Israel in the room alongside others in a multilateral framework provides a space in which to build upon the Abraham Accords in a way that was only a dream a few years ago.
Defense Minister Gantz to visit Morocco next week
Defense Minister Benny Gantz will make an official visit next week to Morocco, where he is expected to sign a memorandum of understanding with the North African kingdom.Israel, UAE begin talks on free-trade agreement
Gantz will meet with his Moroccan counterpart, Abdellatif Loudiyi, and will sign an MoU that will outline defense cooperation between the two countries.
According to foreign reports, Gantz and Loudiyi will sign defense cooperation deals that include plans to develop a domestic industry to produce loitering munitions, also known as suicide drones.
According to Defense News and the French publication Africa Intelligence, the two countries are currently working on the development of a project to manufacture the drones to strengthen Morocco’s air power.
The report said that defense giant Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) subsidiary BlueBird Aerosystems has been negotiating with Moroccan teams for several months about developing a business incubator to manufacture such drones.
Israel and the UAE began talks for establishing a free-trade agreement when Israel’s Economy and Industry minister, Orna Barbivai, met her Emirati colleague, Abdulla bin Touq Al Mari, to launch discussions on Monday night for a deal that will significantly strengthen trade between the two countries.
Since the Abraham Accords were signed in September 2020 normalizing relations between Israel and the UAE, trade between the two countries has increased dramatically. While trade between the two was about $125 million in 2020, that figure reached nearly $500m. in the first seven months of 2021.
The Foreign Trade Administration anticipates that these figures can continue to grow at a rapid pace and reach much higher levels.
Some have estimated that trade will exceed $1 billion this year and reach $3b. within three years. That does not include direct foreign investment between the two countries, which will likely reach tens of billions of dollars.
“This meeting opens the door to the many meetings on the way, and there is no doubt that this agreement will help significantly strengthen trade between the countries, remove barriers, and expand economic cooperation,” Barbivai said. “I hope that we will be able to realize the enormous potential inherent in the friendship between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.”
Ohad Cohen, director of the Foreign Trade Administration who is leading Israel’s negotiators, said, “We intend to conclude a meaningful and comprehensive agreement with our fellow colleagues, which will include, among other things, issues relating to trade in goods including regulation and regulation, customs, trade in services, government procurement, e-commerce and the preservation of intellectual property rights.”
History in the making! Mazal Tov and Mabrouk Your Excellency. https://t.co/dlhHo8XA13
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) November 16, 2021
- Tuesday, November 16, 2021
- Elder of Ziyon
Israeli forces have shot dead a 26-year-old man in the northern occupied West Bank city of Tubas after a confrontation broke out during a raid early on Tuesday, Palestinian medics said.The man was identified as Saddam Hussein Bani Odeh, from the village of Tammoun – about 5km (3 miles) south of Tubas city. A bullet fired by an Israeli soldier at the entrance to the city penetrated his shoulder, heart, and left lung, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
Palestinian sources for Al Mayadeen have confirmed that the Israeli occupation forces were under no threat.
“During the operation, shots were fired at the soldiers and an explosive device was thrown at them from a moving car. The soldiers returned fire at the suspicious vehicle,” the military said.
Today, Tuesday, November 16, 2021, the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine mourned its righteous son, Saddam Hussein Bani Odeh (26 years), from the town of Tammun in the occupied West Bank. Responding to the call of duty to defend the land and the holy sites against the aggressions of the occupation.The movement said in a press statement: "The waterfall of the pure blood of the Mujahideen of the Islamic Jihad movement is still flowing and running in the beloved plains of Palestine throughout the lost homeland."The movement added: "Our heroic mujahid left his town of Tammun to the city of Tubas, the martyrs, as soon as he received the news that the occupation forces had stormed the city in a massive campaign of arrests, in order to carry out his jihadi duty in advance of his duty to defend his people."
- Tuesday, November 16, 2021
- Elder of Ziyon
Israel will push for more international aid to the Palestinians at a conference of donor countries in Norway this week, Regional Cooperation Minister Issawi Frej told The Times of Israel on Monday.“During our meetings in the coming days, our message to donor countries will be to provide more aid to the Palestinians. The neglect over the past years has created a financial crisis that threatens not just the Palestinian Authority, but the region as a whole,” Frej said in a phone call.Foreign assistance to the PA has plummeted over the past year. According to publicly available filings, Ramallah received $480 million in foreign budget aid between January and September 2019. Over the same period in 2021, it received just $32.75 million in budget support.
Israel confiscated NIS 600 million from taxes it collects on Ramallah’s behalf in July. Under a 2018 Israeli law, Israel regularly confiscates money from the revenues to penalize Ramallah for its policy of paying stipends to Palestinian security prisoners held in Israel, and the families of Palestinians killed during violent confrontations with Israeli forces — including those who committed terror attacks against Israelis.
In his remarks to the cabinet on Monday, [PA prime minister Mohammad] Shtayyeh said he would ask international donors to pressure Israel into ending the policy.
- Tuesday, November 16, 2021
- Elder of Ziyon
- 1943, Al-Quds, Amani Qurum, antisemitism, collaboration, final solution, Hungary, jew hatred, Mark Regev, Mufti of Jerusalem, Nazi Germany
In the spring of 1943, al-Husayni learned of negotiations between Germany's Axis partners with the British, the Swiss, and the International Red Cross to transport thousands of Jewish children to safety in Palestine. He sought to prevent the rescue operations with protests directed at the Germans and Italians, as well as at the governments of Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria. Demanding that the operations be scuttled, al-Husayni suggested that the children be sent to Poland where they would be subject to "stricter control." Although his preference that the children be killed in Poland rather than transported to Palestine appears to have been explicit, the impact of the letters was nil.
Of course, Husseini’s relations with the Germans cannot be denied at all, but they must be placed in their proper circumstances and context. Germany did not occupy Palestine and did not give it to the Jews falsely. On the contrary, Britain and France shared the region as a whole between them as the two largest colonial powers at that time. Within the framework of the game of alliances, isn't it natural for al-Husayni to bet politically on Germany, only in order to defend Palestine, which colonial Britain unjustly gave to the Jews?
Monday, November 15, 2021
Melanie Phillips: Cracks in the bulwarks of decency
Why are The Critic and the Spectator rehashing inane anti-Israel malice?
Two things stand out from this. The first is not just the number of errors in these articles, but their eye-watering dislocation from easily ascertainable reality and factual evidence.
The second is that this malicious propaganda aimed at destroying Israel’s right to exist is the hallmark of elements on the left, which trade on both ignorance and ideological obsession. Both the Spectator and The Critic are supposed to stand against all that by providing intelligent and informed writing that elevates public discourse. Yet with these two pieces, they have joined the ranks of those who instead are corrupting public discourse and closing the western mind against truth and decency.
What on earth were these two editors thinking by publishing them? They appear to have seen nothing wrong with them. Perhaps they thought — if they thought anything at all about them — that they were merely “a point of view” just like any other? A controversy on which these editors need not have an opinion, since all they have to do is hold the ring in suitably Socratic editorial fashion? Valid contributions to public debate?
But these lies, distortions and malicious libels against Israel are not valid contributions to public debate. They are part of a strategy to demonise, delegitimise and destroy Israel through a sustained propaganda campaign that has colonised the collective mind of the western intelligentsia.
A strategy deployed against no other country, people or cause in the world. A strategy that incites hatred, paranoia and murderous violence. A strategy cooked up in the sixties by the Soviet Union and Yasser Arafat to knock the west off its moral compass so that it could be weakened and defeated. A strategy that has paved the way for the hijack of language and destruction of reason which fuel “intersectionality” and identity politics, and which are de-moralising the west in every sense of that word.
This is the madness against which the Spectator and The Critic purport to act as a vital bulwark. Now, alas, that bulwark has cracked and is gaping wide open on a lethal battleground.
Amb. Tzipi Hotovely: Are we for free expression and dialogue or intolerance and violence?
Last week, I was invited to talk to students at the London School of Economics. The event was an open discussion about the new era in the Middle East, an era of collaboration between new partners who took the bold step of opening a fresh chapter and starting a dialogue.Gerald Steinberg: European Funding for Palestinian NGOs as Political Subcontracting
While inside the hall a very interesting conversation took place about the role of Israel as the only democratic state in the Middle East and the challenges we face, while outside the venue crowds of people called to silence me. The contrast in the two scenes speaks volumes. Dialogue and critical thinking are the cornerstones on which universities were founded. In the Jewish tradition, open discussion is a fundamental value in which generations of Jewish scholars have been educated.
Freedom of expression is a core tenet of the Israeli system of government. Therefore, as an ambassador, I see it as my duty to have frank discussions with diverse groups about the realities in our region.
The situation in our region is complex and does not fit into a 280-character tweet. Only through in-depth conversation can one unravel those complexities. It is clear that the crowds who gathered to shout outside LSE did not seek discourse.They sought to achieve their will by violent means and the suppression of alternative voices.
I wish I could say this was the first time I have encountered such behaviour, but unfortunately, it is all too common. During the recent conflict in Gaza, we saw similar crowds demonstrating in front of the embassy, burning Israeli flags and trampling on them. Scenes that we see frequently in Iran.
In the neighbourhood where I live, there was a convoy of cars calling for death to Jews and inciting assaults against Jewish women because of a conflict happening in Israel. This is not only my experience: many in the Jewish community are living with the impact of such violence with the rise in anti-Semitic incidents reaching unprecedented levels in the past year.
Analysis of the 20-year history of European government funding for Palestinian NGOs reveals a number of important findings that contrast sharply with the declared objectives. Of particular importance is the constancy of this funding for a relatively small group of organizations, both in terms of the repetitive grants that are provided over numerous funding cycles (vertical clustering), and the practice by the numerous government frameworks (direct and indirect) in supporting the same recipients (horizontal clustering). The primacy of political subcontracting is reflected in the detailed patterns and close examination of the evidence, in contrast to official declarations and reports.By funding blacklisted NGOs, European governments are financing terror
Although the label “civil society” is used repeatedly by European officials to describe and justify these policies, the term is ambiguous and problematic in the Palestinian framework. In closed systems, as is the case both the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank as well as Hamas-controlled Gaza, these organizations would not be able to operate or receive funding without the approval of the authorities (the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, respectively). In addition, the centrality for the PFLP’s NGO network in European policy is particularly inconsistent with the concept of civil society.
These processes and relationships, through which hundreds of millions of euros were provided by European governments to Palestinian NGOs during a twenty-year period, have and continue to have substantial impacts. Instead of advancing the formal objectives of promoting peace, economic development, Palestinian democracy, and rapprochement, these policies sustained the conflict through campaigns alleging Israeli violations of “international law” and “apartheid,” as well as active participation in lawfare and boycott campaigns.
The application of the political subcontractor model clarifies many of the otherwise inexplicable and inconsistent explanations for the deeply entrenched relationships between European governments and the selected group of Palestinian NGOs. When viewed from this perspective, the exchange of state funds for NGO services, through means that European officials and diplomats are unable to pursue themselves, is consistent with the evidence and the evolution of these policies. Although European support did not begin as a form of subcontracting, as officials recognized the influence and capabilities of the NGOs, these links evolved and strengthened, while benefiting from the image of altruism and independent civil society.
The subcontractor model also helps explain the unusual scale of European support for Palestinian NGOs, the small number of organizations involved, the overlapping contracts and the clustering, both vertical and horizontal, and the intense secrecy—all of which are unique when compared to other civil society relationships. European officials give very high priority to involvement (or at least the perception of involvement) in the Palestinian-Israeli arena, and for the reasons explained in this analysis, close cooperation with the specific group of NGOs provides an important addition to the otherwise limited sources of influence. From this perspective, the actual impacts on officially proclaimed objectives (Palestinian democracy, peace) are less important than this influence.
After twenty years, however, with little to show for hundreds of millions of euros in budgetary allocations, and in the light of recent revelations of terror links for a number of Palestinian NGO subcontractors, it might become more difficult to justify these relationships.
For over 10 years, NGO Monitor has published reports documenting the ties between numerous Palestinian civil society groups and the PFLP (full disclosure, I served as NGO Monitor’s managing editor and Canada liaison in 2016-2020). Using only open-source information, often simple Google and Facebook searches, the research institute has, piece by piece, put together a clear network of foreign government-backed organizations with leadership serving dual roles in the NGOs and in the terror group.
NGO Monitor staff traveled to governments around the world and to the United Nations, presenting this information and showing government officials the first-hand evidence linking the six NGOs to the PFLP terror group. Concerned members of parliament and senators have questioned their foreign aid offices in the public record about the suspicious funding, yet time and time again the governments refused to take action and cut funding.
The issue of the PFLP-tied NGO network even gained public and donor government attention in 2019, following the disclosure of a 50-person strong PFLP terror cell responsible for, inter alia, the murder of the 17-year-old Israeli girl Rina Shnerb. The cell included numerous members of these same government-funded NGOs. For instance, UAWC’s accountant Samir Arbid was, according to Israeli security officials, responsible for commanding the PFLP terror cell that carried out the bombing.
It is therefore almost laughable that governments are decrying the Israeli decision to formally designate the groups, and utilizing precious international resources like the UN Security Council to call for more “credible evidence.” These governments – whether the elected officials or government bureaucrats – have known for years that the six organizations had links to the PFLP terror group.
They have been presented with ample and publicly available and verifiable evidence. Only now, because an official government designation of a terror group will finally pressure governments to act on their own domestic terror laws and cease financing, are they up in arms and pretending as though they did not know the risks of using taxpayer funds to support such groups.
We can only hope that the public in each of the countries guilty of financing these six organizations will recognize this sheer failure of accountability and oversight and demand not only a cessation of funds but a reform in the foreign aid system to prevent such a farce from occurring again.
- Monday, November 15, 2021
- Elder of Ziyon
- Monday, November 15, 2021
- Elder of Ziyon
- book review
JPost Editorial: UNRWA doesn't need more funding, it needs to be shut down
UNRWA was founded in 1949 to provide what was meant to be a temporary solution until the “Palestinian refugee problem” was sorted out. Most other refugees are cared for by the UN’s High Commissioner for Refugees and, unlike the Palestinians, their status is not passed on to future generations.Israel is taken for a ride on Erdogan's 'Midnight Express'
The Palestinians, on the other hand, have their own agency and have been granted perpetual refugee status. According to UNRWA, Palestinian refugees are not just people who fled from the nascent Jewish state during the 1948 War of Independence and have yet to be resettled, but they include descendants of those refugees. Someone born this week, during the UNRWA donor meeting, can be considered a refugee of a war that occurred more than seven decades ago.
There is some irony in Jordan being the sponsor of the meeting given that the majority of the Jordanian population is Palestinian and many meet the UNRWA definition of being “refugees,” despite having Jordanian citizenship.
UNRWA has not solved the “refugee problem.” On the contrary, it has created a bigger one than ever before. While some 726,000 Arabs originally fell under the agency’s auspices in 1949, the number more than 70 years later now stands at 5.7 million – almost eight times as many. In other words, it has added to the refugee problem and, at the same time, perpetuated the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
Instead of getting on with their lives, the Palestinians in places like Gaza, with UNRWA’s encouragement, continue to grasp a false dream of one day “returning” to Jaffa, Haifa, Safed or Jerusalem. Far from transforming refugees into self-sufficient individuals, the agency has fostered dependency and a culture of entitlement. It is this that the donor countries are now being asked to fund with even greater sums of money than before.
If, after 70-plus years, the Palestinian refugees still need more help than any other group of refugees, such as those struggling to enter Europe in the humanitarian crisis along the Polish-Belarus border, then UNRWA has clearly failed.
UNRWA doesn’t need more funds – it needs to be closed down.
The Israeli couple, who found themselves arrested in Turkey last week after taking a picture of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's residence during a tour of Istanbul, are merely unfortunate pawns in the decrepit sultan's twisted game of political survival.Israel Must Not Let Erdogan Exploit His Israeli ‘Hostages’
The pair could have easily been Dutch or American, but Israelis are far "sexier." The term "connections to the Mossad" always makes great headlines.
This is all part of Erdogan's plan: Get as many headlines as you can to divert the Turkish people's criticism away from himself, his party and his ebbing popularity.
Concocting diplomatic crises — preferably with non-Muslim nations — has been a reoccurring strategy to boost his standing in the polls. Over the past few years, Erdogan has already played this trick with Germany, Russian, the Netherlands, the U.S. and even China.
He is willing to be subjected to both European and American sanctions, all for the goal of uniting the nation around him and keeping himself in power.
Now, when the Turkish opposition is poised to become a real threat in the 2023 general elections, as had previously happened with the municipal elections in Istanbul in 2019, tall tales of Mossad agents make a comeback.
Against expectations, a court in Istanbul has extended the detention of Israeli tourists Natali and Mordy Oknin on the grounds they allegedly spied on the country for Jerusalem by 20 days. It appears the Turkish attorney's demand their detention be extended is sending signals that the innocent incident, which took place at the new tourist observation point in Istanbul, is turning into a diplomatic crisis between Jerusalem and Ankara.Israeli reporter detained on air in Turkey while covering couple held in custody
In retrospect, the timing of the couple's arrest is no coincidence. Just one month ago, the two states experienced another crisis of faith when 15 Palestinians were arrested by the Turkish intelligence agency for allegedly spying for the Mossad intelligence agency. Despite widespread coverage of the incident in Turkey, given the fact the suspects were not Israeli citizens, Jerusalem chose not to make the arrests an issue with Ankara. Nevertheless, if the Israeli couple is not released the next time the court convenes on the matter, their arrest could lead Israel straight into a new "hostage" crisis with Turkey.
Those who follow Turkish foreign policy know all too well that such "hostage" cases can be solved in one of two ways: the soft power displayed by Berlin or the tough diplomatic stance adopted by former US President Donald Trump.
Israeli officials believe the coming 48 hours will be critical in seeking to secure the release of an Israeli couple detained in Turkey after photographing a presidential palace, according to television reports.
Channel 13 news says officials believe that if not the saga is not resolved in the next two days, the couple could remain in Turkish custody for years.
The network also reports that other Israelis have been snapping photos of the palace in Istanbul without incident. And a Turkish journalist tells Channel 12 that thousands of people would be facing espionage charges if taking pictures of the palace is considered to be an act of spying.
A separate report by Channel 12 news quotes unnamed diplomatic officials saying they have been unable to get a response from Turkey on the matter.
Earlier, a Channel 13 news reporter was detained while broadcasting live from Turkey. The reporter, Ali Mograbi, was later released.
- Monday, November 15, 2021
- Elder of Ziyon
We are on the outskirts of the eternal capital, the jewel in the crown, the point where heaven and earth meet, the flower of all cities, the object of longing of the hearts of the Muslim and Christian Believers who come to it to pray in the Al-Aqsa Mosque and to walk on the Via Dolorosa in order to pray in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which witnessed the signing of the Pact of Umar, in which the Caliph Umar pledged to the people of Iliya (the Arab version of Aelia Capitolina/Jerusalem) that no Muslim would pray in their church. “Iliya Al-Quds” has Canaanite, Roman, Islamic, and Christians antiquities and is theirs alone, and no one else has any traces in it.