Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, November 23, 2021

11/23 Links Pt2: Emily Schrader: Not everything is about Palestine; Israeli squash team goes to court to fight ban from world championship in Malaysia

From Ian:

Alan Johnson: ‘Can’t You See He’s Fooled You All?’: An Open Letter to Peter Gabriel et al explaining why Israel is not a ‘Settler Colonial’ society

So the ‘settler colonialism’ paradigm is not just analytically useless. It is also politically reactionary.

Activists in thrall to the paradigm are not constructive. They are destructive. They think it is their role to rewind the film of history, ‘smash the settler colonial Jewish state!’, and put in its place a new ‘de-Zionised’ ‘one state’. The Jews – who would soon be a minority in that state – and the Arabs, they tell us, will then live together in peace and harmony. (In today’s Middle East, no less.)

The ‘settler colonialism’ paradigm treats a tragic, and as yet unresolved, national question as if it is a Hollywood movie, with much cheering and booing, sanctifying and anathematising. That’s why, despite your intentions, the ‘settler colonialism’ paradigm is an obstacle to the Palestinian National Movement. As President Biden recently pointed out, the Palestinians must say unequivocally that they acknowledge the right of Israel to exist as an independent Jewish state. The ‘settler colonialism’ paradigm pushes the Palestinians and their allies in the opposite direction, egging them on to take maximalist positions that make a final status agreement impossible.

There are two highly developed and distinct societies, Israeli and Palestinian. Each is based on a powerful sense of national identity and neither is going away, so they must divide the land. (When there are strong desires for national self-determination the one-state idea collapses, the world over, living on only among western intellectuals and activists.) However, to negotiate a division of the land each people needs to feel confident and secure, otherwise it will not make the necessary (and excruciating) compromises needed to make a deal. Each people must feel itself to be understood as a permanent feature of the Middle East. The ‘settler colonialism’ paradigm, and its linked revanchist programme, takes everybody in absolutely the opposite direction. (Yes, there are many in Israel too, of course, who do what they can to make the Palestinians feel they are not a permanent feature of the Middle East, and they too are part of the problem not the solution.)

To end, a word about the alternative. The alternative is to recognise the right to self-determination of both national groups and to pursue the realisation of that right in the form of ‘two states for two peoples’, to be reached in the only way it could ever be reached: peacebuilding, deep mutual recognition, negotiations, compromise, security guarantees and a sharing of the land.

Often the subject of premature obituaries, in truth this ‘two state solution’ is the only solution that has come near to ending the conflict; that has the majority support, even now, of the two peoples; and that has the good will, diplomatic heft – and financing – of the international community. Nothing else has that combination of democratic legitimacy, popular support and international approval. Yes, it is difficult to achieve, the spoilers are determined, and the last inch is, as they say, a mile deep. But no other proposed solution is real-world politics.

Peter, I believe that once decent people stop being fooled by the likes of Ilan Pappe and Ken Loach, stop viewing the conflict through the distorting prism of ‘settler colonialism’, and stop being in thrall to its crude analytical reductions and its reactionary, if beguiling, political simplicities, then they will hope for, encourage, and even be active in promoting peace through an accommodation between the two peoples.

Emily Schrader: Not everything is about Palestine

Several weeks ago at the climate change conference, protesters in Glasgow raised Palestinian flags. Protesters held signs claiming that Palestine is a climate change issue.

Last month, anti-Israel activists supposedly concerned with LGBTQ rights, harassed filmmakers over participating in the Tel Aviv LGBTQ film festival, which featured both Israeli and Palestinian films, without a care in the world for the fact that Palestinians cannot even hold an LGBTQ film festival in the Palestinian territories.

Graffiti was spotted following protests for Britney Spears over her controversial conservatorship stating “Free Britney + Palestine.” In the Scotland-Israel football game, protesters held signs calling to cancel the match because of “Israeli Apartheid” – never mind the fact nearly half the team is Arab. Fans at the match were even fined by FIFA for booing the Israeli national anthem.

Throughout the last month, anti-Israel activists have turned the Miss Universe pageant into an Israel-Palestine debate by harassing and bullying Miss South Africa and calling on her to not take part because the pageant is being held in Israel.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has nothing to do with the Women’s March, nothing to do with Black Lives Matter, nothing to do with climate change, with police brutality, with hate crimes against Asians, with Miss Universe, with Britney Spears, or with the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict. The cynical attempts to hijack causes and make them about Palestinians is simply tragedy tourism on the part of anti-Israel activists, not to mention it is disrespectful to the causes they are hijacking. There’s a difference between showing solidarity and using the publicity of another cause to promote your own propaganda.

These anti-Israel activists should not be welcomed in spaces where they cannot show genuine solidarity; these cynical hijackings show their true colors.

UN Watch: LIVE: Monitoring the United Nations

On Monday, November 22, at 12 pm EST, UN Watch’s Fundraising Campaign continues. Hillel Neuer will speak about how we monitor the United Nations, expose the hypocrisy, and answer your questions.

Mark your calendars and send your questions in advance to: campaign@unwatch.org

About the Campaign:
UN Watch needs to raise $500,000 by the end of November to ensure the continuation of its vital work. We are turning to our social media community to help us reach our goal.

To take part in the campaign, all you have to do is make a $5 donation and inspire 5 friends to do the same so that we can reach our $500,000 target by the end of November. It might not sound like much, but if every one of our social media followers gives $5 and asks 5 friends to do the same, we will surely hit our goal.

Donate now, visit: www.unwatch.org/2021-donate

Elder Comix: Solidarity!

I always see BDSers say that they boycott Israel out of "solidarity" with Palestinians.

So, I wondered what that means, exactly...

When I posted this on Twitter, some people were upset at stereotyping Palestinians. Of course, not every Palestinian is guilty of every one of the things on the list, but surveys and Palestinian laws as well as reading mainstream Palestinian publications shows that either a majority of Palestinians fiteach of these descriptions, or that they never disagree (in the case of animal abuse or burning Israeli forests, for example.)

The Middle East Quartet envoys issued a press release last week:

The Envoys of the Middle East Quartet from the European Union, the Russian Federation, the United States, and the United Nations met in person in Oslo, Norway following an important meeting of the Ad-Hoc Liaison Committee addressing the Palestinian economic situation.

The Envoys welcome steps announced by Israel to reach out to the Palestinian Authority and to assist with the fiscal crisis. The Envoys remain deeply concerned by developments in the West Bank, Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, including ongoing acts of violence in the West Bank, the advancement of new settlement units, the untenable fiscal crisis within the Palestinian Authority and threats of violence from the Gaza Strip.

In this context, the Quartet highlights the urgent need for all parties to take additional steps to address these challenges directly through fiscal and other reforms, as well as to avoid unilateral steps that exacerbate tensions and undermine the prospects for peace.

The Envoys noted the pressing need to address the fragile situation in Gaza -- with the support of all relevant stakeholders, including in the region -- by ensuring continued humanitarian efforts and an easing of access and movement restrictions for people and goods.

The Quartet Envoys highlighted the urgency of the situation and the importance of taking constructive steps to advance a two-State solution. They further underscored the importance of respect for human rights and the actions of civil society groups.

Finally, the Envoys agreed to work toward a resolution of the conflict and continue consultations with the parties and key regional actors.

The statement is not saying anything that the EU doesn't say all the time. It touches on all the hot topics and takes the standard line that "everyone knows."

It seems that once an organization is started, it is nearly impossible for it to disappear.

The Quartet webpage has not been updated since 2016, and it has not published a statement since 2013. Even this press release it not on its own page yet.

While the original Quartet members were quite visible, it appears that they are all now technocrats, working on specific issues like water and energy, looking for a niche.

Everyone wants to have a piece of Middle East peace.

11/23 Links Pt1: UN anti-Jewish bias blocks the road to peace; Eli Kay was a role model for olim to Israel; After Jerusalem killing and 50 terror arrests, Lapid urges Turkey to shut down Hamas

From Ian:

David Singer: UN anti-Jewish bias blocks the road to peace

The United Nations (UN) needs to end its ongoing deceptive misrepresentation of the Arab-Jewish conflict in former Palestine - as it once again prepares to celebrate its self-proclaimed International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People – but not the Jewish People - on 29 November.

The UN trumpets this date in the following terms:
"Pursuant to General Assembly resolution 32/40 B of 2 December 1977, the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People is observed annually on or around 29 November, solemnly commemorating the adoption by the Assembly, on 29 November 1947, of resolution 181 (II), which provided for the partition of Palestine into two States."

This statement fails to mention that the Jews accepted Resolution 181(II) - whilst the Arabs rejected it and went to war to try and wipe out the nascent Jewish State of Israel that was subsequently declared on 14 May 1948.

1. Arab acceptance of Resolution 181 (II) would have ended the Arab-Jewish conflict.
2. This statement is also false and misleading: Resolution 181(II) only dealt with the partition of 22% of the territory of Palestine located west of the Jordan River.
3.The remaining 78% of the territory of Palestine located east of the Jordan River (today called Jordan) had already caused it to become a sovereign Palestinian Arab State 18 months earlier - on 25 May 1946 - with not one Jew living there.

The continuing flagrant violation of Article 80 of the UN’s own 1945 Charter by its member States highlights the rapidly-increasing anti-Jewish bias that is infecting the UN and its agencies.

This Jew-free area in the major part of Palestine had been achieved because article 25 of the 1922 League of Nations Mandate for Palestine provided that the Jewish National Home could not be extended east of the Jordan River.

Maintaining its International Day of Solidarity in 2021 without acknowledging that the Arabs-only State of Jordan has existed in 78% of former Palestine for more than 75 years continues to destroy the UN’s neutrality and credibility to broker an end to the Arab-Jewish conflict.

26 Democrats Urge Biden Administration to Prevent Israeli Housing in E-1 Region

A group of 26 Democrats is calling on US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to act to prevent the advancement of plans for Israeli construction in the E-1 corridor between Jerusalem and Ma’ale Adumim.

The letter, led by Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), who recently visited Israel on a J Street-sponsored trip, expressed “immense concern” over Israeli plans to approve 3,400 housing units in the E-1 region.

“The recent efforts by the Israeli government to advance the approval to build 3,400 housing units in the highly sensitive area known as E-1 pose an irreconcilable challenge to a lasting peace solution between Israel and the Palestinians,” said the letter.

“To ensure the prospects of peace, we urge the State Department to exert diplomatic pressure to prevent settlement construction in E-1,” it added.

The E-1 region has long been considered for construction, especially as the population of Jerusalem continues to grow, and housing becomes increasingly scarce and expensive in the city. However, construction in the area has been controversial with critics saying the plan to create a physical link between Ma’ale Adumim and Jerusalem would bisect the West Bank and jeopardize a future Palestinian state.

JPost Editorial: Eli Kay was a role model for olim to Israel

Eliyahu David Kay, 26, the South African immigrant who was fatally shot in a terrorist attack while walking to the Western Wall on Sunday morning and laid to rest in Jerusalem the next day, was a real hero.

As South African Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein wrote in his statement of condolences to the Kay family, “Eli, their son, was a hero of the Jewish people who made aliyah and served in the IDF – like their other sons – and made us all so proud.”

Noting that “the Kay family have for generations been pillars of the South African Jewish community – exemplars of kindness, contribution and faith,” Goldstein wrote: “They are a family renowned and beloved for making this world a better place through their good deeds, and Eli lived with the same spirit and values.”

Kay – the grandson of Rabbi Shlomo Levin, the rabbi of South Hampstead United Synagogue in London, and son of Avi and Devorah Kay – moved to Israel from Johannesburg on his own in 2016 to study at the Chabad yeshiva in Kiryat Gat. A year later he volunteered to serve in the IDF Paratroopers Brigade in the framework of Machal. Despite being injured a few times in the IDF, he marched on with courage and determination, completing his military service in August 2019.

After deciding to officially make aliyah, he volunteered on Kibbutz Nirim on the Gaza border for a year and most recently worked as a guide for the Western Wall Heritage Foundation in Jerusalem.

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

On October 1, the winner of the Miss Greece pageant, Rafaela Plastira, gave a vague statement that she was withdrawing from competing in Miss Universe because, mumble mumble, Israel.

Her exact words were:

I will not be attending “Miss universe” this year. The reason for that is the country. I am absolutely not disrespecting the country. I love all countries from all over the world but my heart goes to all the people fighting for there lives in Israel & Palestina. I can’t go up that stage and act like nothing is happening when people are fighting for there [sic] lives out there.

This was over six weeks ago.

Greek news sites ignored the story. I can barely find any stories about this in Greek media. The runner up Katerina Kouvoutsaki was quickly set up as the new Miss Greece, and then two weeks ago she withdrew for health reasons and now Miss Greece is Sofia Arapogianni, a stunning beauty, who is preparing to go to Israel.

But now, the BDSers finally found out about Plastira, and is starting to tweet about her and make her into a heroine.

Greek fans will still have someone to cheer at the contest. The only thing that seems to have been accomplished is that a more qualified contestant will be in Eilat.

Plastira ended her message by vowing to compete in future pageants. I somehow doubt that she will have much success; no one wants a contestant who is that ignorant and who causes problems for the people who had been working with her.

UPDATE: Israellycool dug deeper (he does pop-culture like no one else) and found that Plastira was never the official Miss Universe Greece to begin with! She was some other contest winner but her organization is not the one that is the official Miss Universe-linked group.

While there has been much condemnation in Arab media and from individuals on the British decision to label all of Hamas a terrorist group, the reaction from Arab governments has been muted.

An op-ed in Arabi21 decries the silence of the Arab nations, seeing it as part of a larger issue of Arab nations not even bothering to condemn Israel:

Officially, no Arab political position has been issued condemning the British designation of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) as terrorist and the prohibition of its activity on British soil.

The positions of the Arab foreign ministers and the positions of the Arab League and its leaders have been dead for a long time, not only towards the British and Western classification of the Palestinian people’s resistance to the Zionist colonial force, but from all the terrorism practiced by the occupying power on land and people.

Middle East Eye lists Arab political leaders who have condemned the move, and the list is pretty short: Hamas itself, Hezbollah, the Palestinian Authority, and 75 members of Jordan's parliament (but not its foreign ministry or government.)

The reason isn't hard to understand: most Arab governments themselves already treat Hamas as a terror group, and a part of the Muslim Brotherhood. They regard Hamas' brand of Islamism as a threat to their own stability.

Sunday's terror attack where the murderer was a member of Hamas but not its Al Qassam Brigades, and Hamas' rush to praise the attack, cemented the fact that all of Hamas indeed is a terror group.

Hamas' political website stresses that all of Hamas wholeheartedly supports murdering Jews:

The mujahid brother Ismail Haniyeh, head of the political bureau of Hamas, called the family of the martyr Mujahid Fadi Abu Shkhaydam, the executor of the heroic Jerusalem operation that took place yesterday, Sunday.

He said, "The martyr Fadi, may God have mercy on him, combined knowledge, faith, jihad and martyrdom, and defended Al-Aqsa with this heroic operation that raised the head of the entire nation.

The leader of the movement considered that the pure and pure blood of martyr Fadi that was shed in the alleys of the Holy City is on the path to liberating Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa, and it is a debt on our necks, so there is nothing greater than martyrdom for the sake of God, and to be in Jerusalem and on the walls of Al-Aqsa.

The deputy head of the political bureau of Hamas movement, Sheikh Saleh al-Arouri stressed that the will of our people is renewed through the resistance, stressing that Jerusalem is a safety valve for the Palestinian cause.

Al-Arouri expressed Hamas’s pride and honor that the martyr Fadi Abu Shkhaydam, the executor of today’s heroic Jerusalem operation, was one of its sons, noting that he had a fragrant and blessed journey, and one of those stationed in Al-Aqsa Mosque.

It is hard for even Hamas fans to argue that Hamas' political wing isn't terrorist when their own leaders proudly take credit for terror attacks - and promise more.

Archysport reports:

Algerian judoka Fathi Noureen announced his retirement two months after being banned from all official competitions for 10 years by the International Judo Federation after Noreen chose to boycott his Israeli opponent.

Algerian judoka Fathi Norine has announced his retirement from the sport, two months after being banned from competition after withdrawing from the Tokyo Olympics, where he faced an Israeli competitor.

International Judo Federation Noreen and its trainer Ammar Benikhlef were banned from all official competitions for 10 years in September after choosing to boycott their Israeli opponent at the July Olympics in solidarity with the Palestinian cause.

“I decided to retire after the decision to suspend myself for 10 years,” he said in a music video.

“I know that the international federations have always colluded with Zionist terrorism, especially the International Judo Federation, and perhaps the best proof is that my sentence has remained the same even after an appeal was filed.

He had more to say to friendlier Arab news media.

Noreen denounced the British Home Secretary’s decision to declare Hamas a “terrorist organization,” stressing that “Western countries and international unions are of the same faith, rejecting every resistance to the Zionist entity, be it political, sports, social or economic, and what encourages them to do so is the apathy of Arabs and some of them submit to normalization with the Zionist entity,” he said.

In a message to Hamas, Noreen said, "You are the pride of Palestine and the Arabs. Keep the same principle and approach. Palestine, I would be a soldier and a fighter with you."

The Algerian hero called for the widest state of Arab popular solidarity with Hamas and the Al-Qassam Brigades.

The man has such principles that he would love to become a terrorist himself.

11/22 Links Pt2: Does a Palestinian "Right of Return" Exist in International Law?; Helen Mirren attacked on social media over Golda Meir role

From Ian:

Amb. Alan Baker: Does a Palestinian "Right of Return" Exist in International Law?

On Nov. 9, 2021, the Fourth (Special Political) Committee of the UN General Assembly adopted by a 160-1 vote a draft resolution on Palestinian refugees. The U.S. abstained, although all previous administrations, apart from the Obama administration, had voted against this resolution.

In 1999, the U.S. representative (representing the Clinton administration) stated, "This delegation could not support unbalanced resolutions which attempted to prejudge the outcome of negotiations; lasting peace would come from agreements reached among the parties themselves, not from any action taken by the Committee."

The international media pounced on the latest change in the U.S. voting pattern, erroneously claiming that it signified "support by the Biden administration for a right of return for Palestinian refugees to sovereign Israel." In fact, the U.S. vote-change signifies no such thing, and the resolution does not mention any right of return for Palestinian refugees.

Several international legal and political documents try to tackle the question of return of refugees, but they do not establish any right of return for Palestinian refugees. UN General Assembly Resolution 194 states that "refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so," but no resolution of the General Assembly has the capacity to determine laws or establish rights. The term "should" underlines that this is solely a recommendation.

Moreover, a "right of return" does not appear in resolutions of the UN Security Council, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), or in Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process documentation.

Clifford D. May: The Demoralization of the UN

I'm going to give you one example which I hope will make clear the depth and extent to which the UN has been demoralized – in the most literal sense.

Emma Reilly is an Irish human rights lawyer. In 2012, she was lucky enough – or so she thought – to get a job with the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

About a year later, the persecution of minorities within the borders of the People's Republic of China began to receive a little attention. Witnesses applied for accreditation to testify in Geneva, where the OHCHR and the UN Human Rights Council are headquartered.

Reilly soon became aware that UN staffers, in violation of UN rules, were secretly providing Beijing with the names of those potential witnesses, including Uyghur, Tibetan, and Hong Kong dissidents and activists. Witnesses were subsequently threatened, imprisoned, and tortured. One reportedly died while in detention. The families of witnesses were harassed.

Reilly reported all this to her superiors, including the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the secretary-general. She provided documentary evidence.

Her superiors were outraged – not at those tipping off Chinese officials but at Reilly for doing her job which, as she put it, was "to report deliberate endangerment of human rights activists."

But they didn't fire her. Initially, she figured there were two reasons for that. One: They knew she was telling the truth. Two: The UN has pledged to protect whistleblowers. From then on, however, she was ostracized, treated like a traitor, and given only busywork.

Jonathan Schanzer joins ‘Limited Liability Podcast’

With the aftereffects still being felt from the 11-day conflict between Israel and Hamas in May, Jonathan Schanzer, senior vice president of research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, joins Jewish Insider’s “Limited Liability Podcast” to discuss his new book, Gaza Conflict 2021: Hamas, Israel and Eleven Days of War, in which he argues that the Biden administration’s initial support of the Palestinian Authority election indirectly sparked the conflict.

Early start: “My view is that the war was probably put in motion a month before the conflict erupted. And that stemmed from a decision — an ill-fated decision — by the Biden administration when they first came in to accept the decision of the Palestinians to hold elections in April… Hamas was slated to take part in those elections. It would have undoubtedly led to a disastrous consequence had Hamas actually been able to take part because it would have meant that Hamas was going to hold seats in the parliament and take part in whatever the next government would look like. And that would trigger laws that would defund the Palestinian Authority here in the United States, in fact, set in motion by a guy named Senator Joe Biden… In April, the U.S. prevailed upon the Palestinians to cancel the elections. But that left Hamas feeling pretty raw, left out of the political arena, and looking for a way to make themselves relevant again. And there is no better way for Hamas to make itself relevant than by waging war against Israel.”

Indirect result: “I’m not saying that they caused it directly, what I would say is that they made a disastrous decision. And I actually remember talking to a relatively senior Biden administration official when they made the call that they were going to move forward with these elections initially. And I asked, I said, ‘You know, don’t you think that it’s a bad idea that Hamas is taking part, given that Hamas is a designated terrorist organization here in the United States?’ And the response that I got was, ‘Well, far be it from us, after the disastrous events of January 6, for us to tell anyone who can take part in an election, what democracy should look like, how it should operate.’”

The chameleon: “Hamas is many things to many people or many regimes. It is one of Iran’s most important proxies based in the Gaza Strip. It is also a proxy of Turkey. It’s a proxy of Qatar. It’s even maybe, to some extent, a proxy of Malaysia, which gets very little attention. But I would argue that the group has really benefited over the last several decades from the largesse of Iran, and it has become a tool of Iran, even as its leaders maintain some semblance of independence from its paymasters in Tehran.”

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.