Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, November 22, 2021

Elder Comix: Blaming others solves everything!

US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield tweeted on Saturday, "This week, I had the chance to meet with civil society leaders in Ramallah. I was inspired by their work to advance democracy, human rights, and economic opportunity for the Palestinian people. We support Palestinian NGOs’ role monitoring human rights abuses wherever they occur."

This statement was interpreted as a rebuke to Israel for declaring six organizations as terrorist.

But there is more to this story.

According to an anonymous State Department official, Thomas-Greenfield did not plan to meet with any of the NGOs Israel says are linked to terror, as reported by Al Quds Al-Arabi. As a result, 70 Palestinian NGOs boycotted Thomas-Greenfield and said they would refuse to meet with her, calling any such meetings "normalization."

That means that if Thomas-Greenfield did meet with anyone, she has to keep it a secret - because the same Palestinian "human rights" community that she extolled would be most unhappy with anyone who felt it was important to speak to the US.

As we've seen with Arab boycotts since at least the 1930s, when anyone defies them, the consequences are not pretty.

So we have a huge irony where Linda Thomas-Greenfield is praising organizations that are either threatening other NGOs for not toeing the Palestinian line of hate, or those who cannot work freely in the oppressive environment that Palestinian civil society has created.

Most of her tweets from her trip to the region include photos. Not this one. A photo would endanger people.

In short, she has proven that there is no freedom of expression in the Palestinian territories, and the US is forced to hide who it is talking to to protect them from Palestinian "human rights" activists.

That's pretty messed up. And it shows that the entire "human rights" edifice in the Palestinian-ruled areas is against basic human rights.

11/22 Links Pt1: Eli Kay - Passionate Zionist whose heart was always open to his friends; Hamas Supporters Are Terrorist Sympathizers. The UK Is Right to Punish Them

From Ian:

Jpost Editoiral: There is only one face to the terror group Hamas

Hamas used the terrorist two-step for years, pretending it had an “armed” wing and a “political” wing. Many terrorist groups used this privileged stance in the 20th century, which enabled governments often to host the “political wing” while pretending not to work with the “armed wing.”

The illogic behind this policy is that it gave terrorist groups more privileges than countries or mafias. While a country can’t pretend that its “armed wing” commits crimes against humanity while its government has no connection to it, and a mafia can’t pretend its boss is not connected to the “criminal wing,” when it came to terrorist groups, they could always use this pretense.

Often this pretense of legality was used solely regarding Israel. That means terrorist groups that targeted the West, such as al-Qaeda or ISIS, didn’t have a fictional division under the law between the “armed wing” and the “political wing.” Only with groups that killed Jews and Israelis was this the case. Many of these groups, including Iranian-backed terrorists, have targeted Jews and Jewish institutions in Europe, the Middle East, Turkey and South America.

Thanks to the British efforts, the fiction behind Hamas’s “political” and “military” wings has been revealed, and the curtain pulled back. The United States, Canada, the European Union and Israel have similarly designated Hamas in its entirety as a terrorist organization. Australia and New Zealand have applied the terrorist label only to Hamas’s “military wing.”

According to Jonathan Schanzer, senior vice president of research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, the move could also prompt Australia to similarly outlaw Hamas’s “political wing.”

The British decision will likely help cut off funding sources for Hamas.

The effects may not be felt immediately, around the world or on the ground in Jerusalem. But the more countries that recognize the true stripes of Hamas, the safer we all will be.

Ian Austin: Hamas Supporters Are Terrorist Sympathizers. The UK Is Right to Punish Them

Home Secretary Priti Patel's decision to ban Hamas in its entirety should be welcomed by all those who oppose terrorism. Hamas is not - as some of its sympathizers intimate - a legitimate campaign for Palestinian rights. It is an armed group of genocidal terrorists that wants to wipe Israel off the map and murder both the Jews and Arabs who live there. It has subjected the poor people of Gaza to a brutal dictatorship ever since it seized power in a bloody coup 15 years ago.

The group is opposed not just to the idea of any sort of peace process with Israel but rejects the very existence of the Jewish state in the first place. In fact, its founding charter contains disgusting racist language calling for the death of all Jews worldwide. Funded by Iran, it presents an existential threat to the Middle East's only democracy.

Earlier this year, Hamas provoked a conflict with Israel by firing thousands of rockets indiscriminately at Israeli civilians. Had it not been for the country's Iron Dome missile defense system, thousands would have been slaughtered. Several of their missiles misfired and killed Palestinians.

The UK decision will mean that showing support for Hamas could result in imprisonment under the Terrorism Act. That will prevent the group raising funds here. Moreover, it will deal with some of the disgusting anti-Semitic racism we have seen on British streets during the recent conflict, like pro-Palestinian demonstrators wearing the Hamas-style headband traditionally worn by its suicide bombers. The decision is showing that the supporters of anti-Semitic terror will not be tolerated on the streets of Britain.

The Palestinian Jihad against Jews

If Palestinian leaders believe that Jews are not entitled to their holiest site, the Temple Mount, and that Jerusalem belongs only to Muslims and Christians, how can they talk about establishing a Palestinian state that would exist in peace and security next to Israel?

Western donors seem not to understand that the refusal by Palestinian leaders to recognize Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people remains a major obstacle to peace and the "two-state solution."

"We categorically reject the Jewish state," Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has stated on more than one occasion. "We will not backtrack on this matter."

On the eve of the meeting of the donor countries, PA Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh reminded Palestinians that there is no such thing as Jewish history in Jerusalem.... "Jerusalem has Canaanite, Roman, Islamic, and Christian antiquities, and no one else has any traces in it."

This is the same Shtayyeh who days earlier told foreign journalists in Ramallah that the Palestinians have no problem with Jews.

Perhaps Shtayyeh thought that his remarks in Arabic during the PA cabinet meeting would not be translated or noticed by non-Arabic speakers.

On the same day the Western donors were meeting in Norway, the PA Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement saying that the Palestinians oppose visits to the Temple Mount by Jewish students.

The Norwegian foreign minister and the donor countries should have taken note of what Palestinian leaders are telling their people and the rest of the Arabs and Muslims about Israel and Jewish history. Had they paid attention to the words of the Palestinian leaders, they would have realized why it is impossible to achieve peace between the Palestinians and Israel at a time when the PA is openly saying that Jews have no right to live in their own homeland.

Western donors might wish to consider this Judenrein type of Palestinian anti-Semitism and incitement against Israel and Jews the next time they open their wallets to the PA.

There have been a number of articles in Arabic media lately warning about the dangers of a supposed new religion, the "Abrahamic religion," that seeks to combine Islam, Christianity and Judaism into one religion.

The commentators believe that this supposed religion is a Trojan horse to destroy Islam.

Apparently, since the Abraham Accords stress the common roots of Islam, Christianity and Judaism, some Muslims are alarmed that the accords are an attempt to impose Judaism - the original Abrahamic religion - on the region.

The Grand Imam, Sheikh of Al-Azhar, Dr. Ahmed Al-Tayeb, spoke recently about this Abrahamic religion. Al-Tayeb attacked the "new religion", describing it as "dreams of pigs". He said these calls seem to aspire to "mix Christianity, Judaism and Islam into one religion upon which people will gather, and rid them of the burdens of conflicts." The Grand Imam asked whether the purpose of the call was “the believers in religions cooperate on their common and noble human values, or if the purpose was to create a new religion that has no colour, taste or smell.”

Tayeb warned, "It appears on the surface to be a call for human meeting and the elimination of the causes of disputes and conflicts. In fact, it is a call to confiscate freedom of belief and freedom of belief and choice."

Jordanian writer Dr. Labib Kamhawi sees a far more sinister plot.

The Arab world is now faced with a new set of challenges that are more dangerous and far-reaching than anything else the Arabs have gone through in their relations with Israel and Zionism.

Israel and Zionism are now seeking to come up with a new system that reformulates many religious concepts to meet with the school that claims Islam, Christianity and Judaism are “Abrahamic” beliefs that stem from the same Abrahamic source and thus urges the followers of the three religions to act as they belong to one religious framework.

The spiritual aspect related to that alleged call, which aims to spiritually subjugate Muslim and Christian Arabs and transform them into followers of the proposed Abrahamic faith, is a very dangerous matter as it is exposed to the hardening of spiritual convictions, confronts them and works to adapt them to serve the interests of the Jewish-Israeli and allow it to penetrate into the spiritual life of the residents of the region and to share all the Islamic holy places Christianity with the Jews.

Abrahamic philosophy is an Israeli-Zionist heresy that takes the Arab region thousands of years back in order to be able to penetrate into the current reality of the region and reformulate it in a way that gives the Jews the right to impose rights for them or to claim them as representatives of the oldest and closest religion to Abraham, “the father of the prophets.” It is definitely diabolical thinking, but the ability to implement it depends to a large extent on either the naivety, stupidity or betrayal of the other parties involved. Abrahamic philosophy in general is a trap that many Arab regimes fell into, whether out of ignorance, stupidity, or conspiracy, especially the Arabs of normalization who opened the door wide open to “Abrahamic philosophy.”

The basis of this Zionist thinking stems from the desire to control the region from the Nile to the Euphrates without the need to fight wars and occupy lands to reach that goal. Wars involve dangers and sacrifices for the Israelis, and [this way] the Zionists can occupy human minds instead of military occupation.

Major Arab media are also concerned - Al Arabiya had an op-ed against this mythical religion, BBC Arabic reported on the Tayeb speech, a professor improbably in an AC/DC T-Shirt railed against it on YouTube to an audience of 50,000, Al Khaleej Online in the Gulf discussed its dangers.

Echorouk Online summarized the Arab view:

The so-called “Abrahamic religion” is basically a Zionist Masonic idea and its hidden goal is to promote the idea of “tolerance” with the executioner, accept the occupation, stop resisting it, accept the loss of Palestine and Jerusalem, the destruction of Al-Aqsa, and submission to injustice, as well as the distortion of Islam and its replacement with another invented religion. Unfortunately, the Zionists today found an Arab country that adopts their satanic idea and promotes it with deceptive flashy names, spending huge amounts of money to build a “common temple” for it.

When you combine a culture that embraces conspiracy theories and has a deep inferiority complex, this sort of thing is inevitable.

Survey shows that the vast majority of Palestinian judges are sexist

A new survey by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics indicates that most of the current Palestinian judges are sexist.

66% of the regular judges in the West Bank said that there are enough female judges. According to the UN, in 2018 only 18% of the judges in Palestinian courts were female. If you assume that all of the women in the survey did not think that 18% is enough, that means that 82% of the male judges are sexist.

Similarly, 58% of sharia judges felt there were enough female sharia judges. As of 2019, there were three female sharia judges out of 245 total.

To be sure, the Palestinian Authority is ahead of most Arab countries in this regard - most do not have any female sharia judges and a smaller percentage of regular female judges. However, there is a bigger story here.

There is almost certainly a higher percentage of NGO workers in the West Bank than anywhere else in the world. Leftist Westerners love to work there - they can party in Tel Aviv and commute to their jobs in Ramallah where they can write extensive papers on how awful Israel is.

These NGOs and the ecosystem that they are in show very little interest in researching or publishing anything that is not anti-Israel.

When a Palestinian woman does become a sharia judge, she is rightly celebrated - a documentary about the first such judge gathers lots of awards. The tagline makes it sound as if the problem of sexism in the Palestinian territories is solved.

When Israel appointed a female sharia judge, however, media wrote, "Opinions vary on whether Israel’s first female sharia court judge marks social change or is mere symbolism."

Palestinians appointing such a judge is a victory for feminism. Israel doing the same is considered a cynical PR ploy.

There is a chicken and egg problem here - does the anti-Israel posture of the NGOs come because they are funded by people who only want to bash Israel, or is the latent antisemitism of the Left the driver and the funding only reflects that?

There is no doubt that the mostly European funders of these NGOs only want their grantees to bash Israel. The NGOs concentrate on anti-Israel issues in order to keep themselves funded. They hire people who are anti-Israel to work for them. But they are founded with an anti-Israel agenda to begin with before the first dollar goes into their coffers.

This survey wasn't even done by an NGO, but by the PA government itself. With the millions of dollars being poured into Palestinian NGOs, practically none of those dollars go towards improving Palestinian society, or even to make it more aligned with Western and liberal values.

In short, these NGOs don't give a damn about Palestinians and improving their lives. They buy into the antisemitic, zero-sum pretense that if something hurts Israel, it somehow helps Palestinians.

Practically all the money that pours into Palestinian NGOs is not meant to help Palestinians but to attack Israel. The thousandth report on how terrible Jewish settlers are does not help ordinary Palestinian Arabs in the least.

If such survey results would have been found in Israel showing how sexist the judiciary is, it would have been headline news. In this case, though, the article that mentions these statistics in Ma'an didn't even note the sexism of the judges; that statistic was practically a footnote in the main article on how Palestinians look at their judiciary.

The phrase "the soft bigotry of low expectations" was first used by President George W. Bush in 2000. The Western, liberal funders of Palestinian NGOs have no expectations that Palestinian society can fight sexism or homophobia or the people's massive support for terrorist attacks.

The Leftist funders of Palestinian NGOs pretend to be so anti-racist - but they assume at the outset that Palestinians are irredeemably bigoted, sexist and antisemitic and are quite happy with that status quo.

They are the bigots.

75 members of Jordan's parliament signed a statement condemning and denouncing the British Home Secretary's decision to consider all of Hamas a terrorist organization.

The statement says:

We the undersigned MPs condemn and denounce the British Home Secretary's decision to consider Hamas a terrorist organization..

We in the Jordanian House of Representatives consider the British decision an aggression against the Palestinian people and an aggression against the Arab nation. It is equivalent to the Zionist occupation that kills the Palestinian people, occupies the Palestinian land and besieges the people of Gaza, and thaT brings Jews from all over the world to settle them in Palestine.

We demand the British government retract this decision, which is contrary to international law and international legitimacy, and we also ask the British House of Commons not to approve the British Government's unfair decision and to drop it because it constitutes a bias towards aggression and injustice.

There are 130 MPs in the Jordanian House of Representatives. Which means that more than half of the Jordanian House or Representatives voted to support a terror group that was responsible for a murder on the same day that they issued this statement.

Meanwhile, Israel is signing agreements with Jordan to help it with water and natural gas.

I hope that there is some strong pushback in diplomatic channels between Israel and Jordan. Jordan needs Israel a lot more than Israel needs Jordan, and Israel needs to act more like a regional superpower rather than like a country that is always begging for acceptance from its neighbors.

It isn't 1948 anymore.

Elder Comix: The one way street for "supporting Palestinian rights"

11/21 Links: Hamas gunman kills 1, wounds 4 in terror shooting in Jerusalem Old City; Jerusalem terror attack fatality named as South African immigrant Eliyahu David Kay

From Ian:

Hamas gunman kills 1, wounds 4 in terror shooting in Jerusalem Old City

A Hamas gunman opened fire in the alleyways of Jerusalem’s Old City on Sunday morning, killing one Israeli man and wounding four others, two of them seriously, Israeli officials said.

Police officers at the scene opened fire at the terrorist, a 42-year-old Palestinian man from East Jerusalem, and killed him, according to police.

The fatality was named as Eliyahu David Kay, 26, a recent immigrant from South Africa who worked as a guide at the Western Wall and resided in the central city of Modiin.

He was the first Israeli civilian to be killed by Palestinian violence in over six months, since May’s 11-day conflict with terror groups in the Gaza Strip, which killed 12 civilians in Israel.

Hamas hailed the attack, calling it a “heroic operation,” and identified the terrorist as a member of the organization, Fadi Abu Shkhaydam, a Hamas leader in the Shuafat refugee camp in East Jerusalem, where he lived.

According to police, Abu Shkhaydam entered the Old City armed with a Beretta M12 submachine gun and opened fire at three Israeli men who were walking through the area, near the Chain Gate entrance to the Temple Mount, fatally wounding one of them and seriously injuring the other two. Eliyahu David Kay, killed in a terror attack in Jerusalem on November 21, 2021. (Facebook)

Two female police officers rushed to the scene from one side of the alleyway, opening fire at Shkaydam. Shortly thereafter, two male officers ran in to assist them.

“[The gunman] moved through the alleys and fired quite a bit. Luckily, the alley was mostly empty because otherwise — heaven forbid — there would have been more casualties. The entire incident lasted 32 or 36 seconds. The actions of the female officers was — operationally — at the highest possible level,” Public Security Minister Omer Barlev said at the scene of the attack.

Kay was taken to Hadassah Hospital Mount Scopus, where he was pronounced dead. One of the severely injured victims, a rabbi, was taken to Shaare Zedek Medical Center, where his condition stabilized somewhat after emergency surgery, doctors said. Another man sustained moderate-to-severe injuries — from gunshots and from shrapnel — and was taken to Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem.

Jerusalem terror attack fatality named as South African immigrant Eliyahu David Kay

The man killed in a terror attack in Jerusalem’s Old City on Sunday was named as Eliyahu David Kay, 26, from the central Israeli city of Modiin.

Kay, a recent immigrant from South Africa who was employed at the Western Wall as a tour guide, was shot dead by a Hamas gunman in Jerusalem’s Old City.

Before working at the Western Wall, he had served in the military as a lone soldier (one of the soldiers from foreign countries who move to Israel without family) in the Paratroopers Brigade, until August 2019.

“He was the first to come to Israel from our family,” Kay’s brother told reporters on Sunday evening.

“He was the first to join the army as a combat soldier, and then the rest of the brothers. We gave everything for this country,” he said.

Kay’s brother added that the family plans to build something in his memory, “so we will truly remember him eternally.” Eliyahu David Kay, killed in a terror attack in Jerusalem on November 21, 2021. (Instagram / HaShomer HaChadash)

“He raised the spirits of everyone. He did his holy work with dedication and loyalty,” the Western Wall Heritage Foundation said in a statement on Sunday.

Kay had been walking to work when the terrorist, an East Jerusalem resident whom Hamas identified as one of its members, opened fire.

He was taken to Hadassah Hospital Mount Scopus, where he was pronounced dead.

Kay is to be buried Monday at 11 a.m, at Jerusalem’s Har HaMenuchot Cemetery.

Kay was the first Israeli civilian killed by Palestinian violence since the 11-day conflict in the Gaza Strip this May.

This is Elijah Kay. He was murdered this morning in Jerusalem

He was a new immigrant from South Africa, he was due to get married in six months. Kay, his fiancé, who recently made aliyah from the U.K., worked at the Kotel.

May his memory be blessing 🕯 pic.twitter.com/M4C6SOL9mv
— Self Declared Zionists (@SussexFriends) November 21, 2021

The official Palestinian Wafa news agency shows yet again why peace is impossible, in its story about the terror attack in Jerusalem this morning, under the tag "Israeli violations:"

A civilian was shot dead by the occupation in Jerusalem
Jerusalem, 11/21-2021 WAFA - The citizen, Fadi Abu Shkhaydam, 42, from Shuafat camp in occupied Jerusalem, was killed today, Sunday, by the Israeli occupation forces, near Bab al-Silsila, one of the gates of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque .

According to local sources, the occupation forces are still imposing a complete closure in the vicinity of Bab al-Silsila, while reopening the gates of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Old City .

The occupation police had mobilized its forces in the Old City, closed the Al-Amud Gate, set up military checkpoints and impeded the movement of citizens and prevented them from heading to Al-Aqsa. It also provided protection for settlers who were storming Al-Aqsa at that time, and expelled worshipers from the courtyards of the Haram from the side of the Mughrabi Gate.

The occupation forces also stormed the Rashidiya Secondary School near Bab Al-Sahira in occupied Jerusalem, where the martyr was working as a teacher.

Eyewitnesses said that large forces of the occupation army stormed the town of Silwan, south of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The occupation police claimed that a shooting attack took place in the Old City of Jerusalem, killing a settler and wounding three others, one of whom was critically wounded.

Truth is not a value for the Palestinian Authority.

This morning, a Hamas terrorist with a submachine gun started shooting Jews returning from prayer at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, killing one and injuring others.

The victim was still wearing his tallit and tefillin when he was murdered. He was killed because he was a Jew.

The murderer, Fadi Abu Shkhaidem, was a preacher and teacher at a school in Jerusalem - the Rashidiya school which is under the authority of Israel's Education Ministry.

This terrorist was teaching high school boys every day.

Reportedly, his family left for Jordan several days ago, presumably to avoid being arrested by Israel.

According to Public Security Minister Omer Bar-Lev, Shkaidem was a member of Hamas' so-called "political wing" - not the Al Qassam Brigades "military wing" of Hamas. The Al Qassam website is not claiming him as a member.

Hamas' political website issued a statement, in Arabic and English, that tied this attack to the British decision to ban all of Hamas as a terrorist group.

The Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, mourns the heroic martyr, Sheikh Fadi Mahmoud Abu Shukhaydem, a leader of the movement who carried out the Bab al-Silsila operation in the occupied Jerusalem today.

We affirm that the option of comprehensive resistance in all forms, especially armed resistance, is the one capable of curbing the enemy and stopping its aggression.

Our Palestinian people will continue their resistance despite all the hostile decisions made by the colonial countries that aim to perpetuate the occupation and repudiate the historical rights of our people.

The British decision, and declaration that Hamas is antisemitic, has been proven correct - unfortunately at a very high cost.

Notably, the Palestinian Authority also condemned the British decision, choosing to support Hamas rather than admit that it was a terror group.

Mainstream Palestinian Arabic media, justifying the attack, refers to the victims as either "soldiers," "settler" or an "extremist Zionist rabbi." Palestinian media avoids as much as possible any hint that a Jew can be an innocent victim of terror.

It is also notable that there has been an increase in online criticism of Hamas in Gaza recently. Hamas' popularity among mainstream Palestinian Arabs always goes up after they attack Jews, so the timing here may be to blunt the criticism against Hamas corruption. (h/t Ibn Boutros)

People handed out sweets in Gaza to celebrate the murder of a religious Jew.

Hamas has proven that the British decision is correct. The mainstream Palestinian support for terror attacks proves that there is no interest in peace with Israel.

Arabic media reports that the Justice Organization for Development and Human Rights criticized Britain's classification of Hamas as a terrorist organization.

The organization's official spokesman, Zaidan Al-Qani, dsid that it is Israel that is the largest terrorist organization in the world.

Furthermore, this "human rights" leader said that Hamas attacks on Jews, which he calls "resisting the Israeli occupation," is not terrorism.

The organization called on the United States and the European Union to classify "all racist Jewish organizations inside Israel and right-wing Jewish organizations that support settlements as terrorist organizations."

Who is the Justice Organization for Development and Human Rights?

Its webpage seems to have disappeared in 2016, but before that it was a Yemen-based organization whose webpage had links to a few major human rights treaties - and no information about anything the JODHR actually does. (

It looks like a shell organization meant to issue statements and perhaps act as a tax shelter for Zaidan al-Qani, who may be the only member.

Apparently, anyone can start a human rights organization and issue statements that the media will take seriously - even if those statements directly contradict human rights!

How do you think organizations started by the PFLP terror group, whose entire idea of "human rights" is to attack Israel and never say anything negative about Palestinian terror, are treated seriously by Western NGOs? They are a somewhat more sophisticated version of this group.

11/20 Links: Jews get to define antisemitism; It’s Ethnic Studies ‘Groundhog Day,’ This Time in Massachusetts; Daniel Pipes: Will Islam survive Islamism?

From Ian:

Jews get to define antisemitism

As the late great Rabbi Jonathan Sacks often discussed, at its core, antisemitism is a conspiracy theory. Conspiracies about Jews or Jewish groups conspiring to harm others through nefarious means are a central feature of antisemitism going back centuries. Here, the argument that IHRA is wrong and not designed to try and stem the rising tide of antisemitism, and is instead part of an effort to stifle free speech, is itself an antisemitic conspiracy theory.

As for the claim that adopting the definition of antisemitism supported by almost all Jews and Jewish institutions will somehow increase anti-Arab or anti-Muslim hate, it is hard to imagine a bigger red herring. There is nothing in the IHRA definition that even refers to Arabs or Islam, nor should it. Sadly, Jew-hatred and Jew-haters come in all stripes. No one group or faith owns a monopoly on the oldest form of bigotry. Moreover, if people are promoting anti-Arab hate or anti-Muslim hate, that should be addressed too, though not at the expense of addressing by far the per capita No. 1 hate crime in America, and certainly not by “all lives mattering” Jew-hatred.

Lastly, and perhaps most insulting, is the argument that because a tiny minority of Jewish groups want a narrower definition for antisemitism, the IHRA definition should be disregarded. This is tokenism. It is equivalent to far-right members of a largely White group, like the Proud Boys, asking for a school board to more narrowly define anti-Black racism and to ignore endorsements for the broader definition supported by the NAACP, the National Urban League, the Rainbow Coalition, etc., as well the endorsement of every predominately African American church in the city — based on the argument that Candace Owens, a conservative commentator who is Black, agrees with the Proud Boys.

This is the chutzpah of the arguments being made by those who wish to exclude almost all Jews and mainstream Jewish organizations from defining antisemitism. Sadly, while it does require chutzpah to make these arguments, it is not surprising that those who want to demonize what polls have shown are at least 8 out of 10 U.S. and Israeli Jews (who support, care about and identify with Israel) also want to exclude their brand of Jew-hatred from the definition of antisemitism. What is surprising is how many people give credence to such arguments to those telling Jews they don’t get to define Jew-hatred. It would not be tolerated for anti-Asian hate, anti-Muslim hate or anti-Black hate. And it shouldn’t be tolerated for antisemitism. Not for one second.

JPost Editorial: Goldreich crossed a red line by calling for boycott

The scientist’s lawyer, Michael Sfard, called the decision "a death blow on the prestige of the Israel Prize and shows that an award that should be given for professional achievements is in fact also an award for avoiding criticism of government policy."

The Weizmann Institute agreed that the ban was excessive, issuing a statement that said, “In a democratic society, the principle of freedom of expression must be preserved as a supreme principle, and political statements should not be a consideration in the decision regarding the recipients of the Israel Prize, adding that ”the only consideration for its award should have been research excellence.”

By that criteria, Goldreich’s nomination and acceptance of the Israel Prize should be upheld. However, it’s not so simple when other considerations are brought into play.

Is a government obligated to grant an award to a citizen who works for a partially state-funded institution and has called for a boycott of another institution and his colleagues, with no consideration for “research excellence”?

Freedom of academia and freedom of speech are two central cornerstones of any democracy. Being able to criticize the policies of your government is also a vital element of that process. But calling for a boycott is another matter.

Although it’s in the commercial - and not academic - sphere, we’ve seen the huge reaction to the decision by Ben & Jerry’s to stop selling their ice cream in Israeli West Bank settlements. That’s just one of many examples of efforts to boycott, divest and sanction Israel over its presence in the West Bank, under the umbrella of the BDS movement.

Israelis are certainly free to support and be involved in such an effort. But awarding an Israel Prize and giving a soapbox to someone who bears those beliefs is another matter. Believing that Israel should give up the West Bank should obviously not preclude being awarded the highest honor by the state. Calling for the boycott of professional colleagues, however, is a red line that shouldn’t be crossed

It’s time to speak out for China’s beleaguered Jews

Since Jews are not an officially recognized minority group in China and Judaism is not accorded the status of an official religion, the question of Kaifeng Jewry’s status is a sensitive one for the Communist regime, which views them as full-fledged Han Chinese.

Nonetheless, it should be clear that in a country of over 1.4 billion people, a few hundred Jewish descendants in Kaifeng hardly pose a threat to China’s social or political order.

And yet, despite the close ties that have developed between Israel and China, the Jewish state has done virtually nothing to protest the treatment of Kaifeng’s Jews. As far as is known, the Israeli embassy in Beijing does not reach out to the community nor does it seek to plead their cause with the Chinese regime.

And the same holds true for the American Jewish leadership, which has remained deafeningly silent over the years.

This cannot be allowed to continue. We cannot and must not abandon the Kaifeng Jews or sacrifice them on the altar of Chinese economic power. Many of them are doing the best they can under very difficult circumstances to reconnect with their Jewish heritage. But under the watchful eyes of the Communists, who monitor their activities and intimidate them, Kaifeng’s Jews and their history are slowly and inexorably being snuffed out.

In its discussion of Hanukkah, the Talmud in Tractate Shabbat 21b says that the mitzvah is to place the lights, “at the entrance to one’s house outside,” but it also states that, “in times of danger, one lights inside and that is sufficient.”

Sadly, unless the State of Israel and world Jewry speak up with a loud and clear voice and protest the treatment of Kaifeng’s Jews, they will be forced to kindle the Hanukkah candles behind shrouded curtains and locked doors, for they are truly living in “times of danger.”

From the Daily Maverick (South Africa):

The government has withdrawn its support for Lalela Mswane, Miss SA, who is headed to Israel to compete in Miss Universe next month. Civil organisations have also called for her to boycott the beauty pageant.

The government last week withdrew its support for Lalela Mswane, who was crowned Miss SA a month ago, for her upcoming trip to Israel, where Miss Universe will be hosted.

Nathi Mthethwa, the Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture, said: “It has proven difficult to persuade the Miss SA pageant organisers to reconsider their decision to partake in the Miss Universe event scheduled to be held in Israel during the month of December 2021.

The next part is almost unbelievable in how condescending it is:

“What during initial consultations appeared like engaging, constructive and progressive discussions, was later met with an unpleasant demeanour that is intransigent and lacking appreciation of the potential negative impact of such a decision on the reputation and future of a young black woman.”

So the South African government claims it is only doing what is best for Miss Mswane, saying they only care about her reputation . She, as a young black woman, is obviously too dense to understand what is best for her - she needs her government to pressure her into doing what she clearly doesn't want to do.

The only people who would trash her reputation are the bigots who support BDS - including the South African government itself! If they cared about her reputation, they would support her without reservation. By them saying that she does not know what is best for her, the South African government is acting like racists themselves.

Even though the South African contestants have won the pageant twice in the past four years, Mswane's standing up to pressure from her own government should be reason enough for her to win this year as well.

(h/t Yoel)

11/19 Links Pt2: How Radical Fringe Groups Manipulate Westerners Against Israel; Melanie Phillips: Keir Starmer and Labour's antisemitism problem

From Ian:

Mark Regev: Happy Israelis are the secret to Israel's success

In late October, The New York Times published “Whose Promised Land?” – a special feature on modern-day Israel. The authors of the article toured the country from Kfar Giladi in the north to Eilat in the south and discovered Israelis to be a much-divided people, nurturing resentments and wrestling with contradictions, “a collection of incompatible factions, each with its own priorities, grievances and history.” One would think with the very real social, religious, ethnic and national tensions so avidly described by the Times, together with the ever-present security threats – the thousands of rockets aimed at Israel’s cities from Gaza and Lebanon, terrorists eager to stab and shoot, and Iran busily enriching uranium – that it would be logical to presume Israelis are a tense, worried and depressed lot. But it is not so. On the contrary, by global standards the Israeli public is remarkably happy, with statistics attesting to this repeatedly produced by an international organization not renown for praising the Jewish state, the United Nations.

The UN’s annual World Happiness Report consistently positions Israel as one of the happiest countries on the planet. The most recent index is no exception: with the 2021 compilation of aggregate data taken over the last three years placing Israel in the twelfth spot in a list of 149 countries.

Ahead of Israel in the aggregate happiness index are Finland (1), Denmark (2), Switzerland (3), Iceland (4), Holland (5), Norway (6), Sweden (7), Luxembourg (8), New Zealand (9), Austria (10) and Australia (11). They are all countries that have the luxury of living in peace with their neighbors. That Israel would immediately follow them in the rankings is quite astounding.

Even more instructive is to look down the list to see which countries are less happy than Israel. According to the UN’s data, Israelis are happier than the citizens of the predominantly English-speaking democracies of Canada (14), Britain (17) and the United States (19).

Poll finds 1 in 4 European Jewish leaders mulling emigration due to antisemitism

A survey of Jewish community leaders in Europe found that 23 percent said they were considering emigrating.

That figure is unchanged since the last time the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee conducted its regular survey of European Jewish sentiment three years ago.

But the JDC survey found that European Jewish leaders, especially in Western Europe, are increasingly concerned about antisemitism, which for the first time since 2008 topped respondents’ rankings of concerns for their communities.

It also found that European Jewish leaders say they feel less connected to communities across the continent than they have in the past and that they are more concerned about poverty in their own communities.

Only 3% of the leaders surveyed said they had made active preparations to leave Europe and 67% said they had not considered emigrating at all. Another 8% did not answer the question.

Of the Jewish community leaders who said they had contemplated leaving, roughly two-thirds said they would make aliyah, or immigrate to Israel. Illustrative: Immigrants from France arrive at Ben Gurion airport in central Israel on July 10, 2017. (Nati Shohat/Flash90)

The survey did not ask respondents their reasons for contemplating emigrating. But it is clear from their responses that European Jewish leaders are increasingly concerned about antisemitism and security.

More than two-thirds of respondents said they expected antisemitism to increase in Europe over the next decade; only about half of respondents answered that way in 2008, the first time the survey was conducted. At the same time, 22% of respondents said they feel unsafe in their cities now, compared to 7% in 2008.

Republican attorneys general discuss countering Ben & Jerry’s boycott against Israel

The gathering, which took place on the sidelines of the 2021 Federalist Society conference, included remarks by Richard Goldberg, who drafted one of the first anti-BDS laws while working for former Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner in 2015.

Goldberg reminded those in attendance that 33 states currently have laws that either require pension funds to divest from or refuse contracts to companies that boycott Israel. He also called on the attorneys general to demand an explanation from Ben & Jerry’s parent company, Unilever, regarding its relationship with the independent board that oversees the ice-cream maker.

“[Unilever has] pledged that Ben & Jerry’s has said they will find a way to still work in Israel, even though its independent board chair has said it won’t,” he told The Washington Post. “It opens up a lot of questions as to the truthfulness about their statements to the market.” Subscribe to The JNS Daily Syndicate by email and never miss our top stories

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita said, “Unilever is on our radar.” At the meeting, he also pronounced his support for state governments taking action that affect the share prices of companies that “do not share our values.”

The New York State comptroller announced in October that it is pulling $111 million in investments from Unilever. Florida is moving $139 million in investments from Unilever, and Texas, New Jersey and Arizona announced similar measures.