Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, December 10, 2021

Friday afternoon massive meme dump

I've been posting lots of memes besides cartoons on Twitter and on Instagram.

Here are some from recent weeks:

12/10 Links Pt1: Expansionist Iran is the Pearl Harbor of the Middle East; UN Condemns Israel 6 Times, Rest of World 0; Media Erases Iran’s Ties to Hamas and Terrorism

From Ian:

Dore Gold: Expansionist Iran is the Pearl Harbor of the Middle East

This past Tuesday, America and its allies commemorated 80 years since the attack by Imperial Japan on the US Pacific Fleet based at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. At that time, Japan was carving out its “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.”

To secure the emerging Japanese Empire, Tokyo expanded its armed forces and its navy in particular, focusing its efforts on Manchuria, Southeast Asia, Indonesia and the Philippines. The key to securing its positions in Asia was knocking out the US military presence in the Pacific and making itself the uncontested hegemonial power in Asia.

The dominant diplomatic doctrine in the late 1930s in the US was isolationism, undoubtedly encouraging Tokyo to conclude that to force an American retreat was feasible even with just six aircraft carriers in the Japanese Navy. The Japanese command envisioned that the strike on Pearl Harbor would undermine America’s self-confidence to a point from which it could not recover.

It is important to review this history today as the Islamic Republic of Iran seeks to evict the US military from the Middle East and assert Iranian hegemony over the entire region. Indeed, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared during Friday prayers on January 17, 2020, that the real punishment for America is “expelling them from the region.”

Tehran’s plan began to unfold not long after the fall of the shah in 1979. Iran chose Lebanon as one of its earliest testing grounds, deploying its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to the Bekaa Valley. It made every effort to evict the US Marine Corps from Beirut, using Hezbollah, the Shi’ite militia that it was forming under its command.

The Tikvah Podcast: Victoria Coates on the Confusion in Natanz

On Saturday, December 4, 2021, an explosion occurred near Iran’s nuclear facility outside the city of Natanz. Afterwards, two nearby villages were evacuated. Was the explosion the result of a weapons test? An accident? Sabotage? No one yet knows what took place in the mountains of northern Iran that day. And whereas civilians and observers can afford to wait for more information, national-security professionals are forced to act and react to events like this in real time without a lot of information. If there’s an explosion near the nuclear compound of an adversarial nation, what do you do?

Natanz and its uncertainty is the point of departure for this week’s podcast. Victoria Coates, the former deputy national security adviser for Middle Eastern and North African affairs, shares her experience making decisions under pressure and with imperfect information.

Caroline Glick: The generals' belated awakening

Something is changing in Israel's military brass' assessment of the Iranian nuclear threat. Evidence is growing that members of the IDF General Staff and the Mossad are beginning to realize that the US doesn't share Israel's goal of preventing Iran from becoming a nuclear power. Last week, for instance, Michael Makovsky, head of the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, (JINSA) a Washington-based group that cultivates ties between Israeli and US generals, published an article in the New York Post in which he described their rude awakening.

Makovsky wrote, "Recent meetings with senior defense officials from our closest Middle East ally, Israel, were the most pessimistic I can recall. They perceive America as checked out, adrift, pusillanimous, unfeared and desperate to avoid military confrontation, and Iran as emboldened and nearing the nuclear weapons threshold."

Makovsky said that all his interlocutors had raised the same three points: The US withdrawal from Afghanistan showed that the Biden administration is comfortable betraying US allies. The administration's decision not to respond to the Oct. 20 Iranian attack on its airbase in Tanf, Syria, showed the US is willing to allow Iran to attack it with impunity. And the administration's willingness to be humiliated by the Iranians at the nuclear talks in Vienna shows that the only thing the administration wants is to reach a deal – any deal – with Iran.

By Makovsky's telling, the Israelis are divided on what the Iranians want and they still haven't completely given up hope that the Americans will come through, somehow. He ended his article by arguing that the US should provide Israel with the equipment and weapons platforms it requires to successfully strike Iran's nuclear installations without the US. But it was clear from his description of the Israeli security brass' disposition that their faith the US will actually follow through on its pledge to block Iran from becoming a nuclear power has waned significantly. It is beginning to dawn on them that in the fight against Iran, Israel is alone.

While Israel's security establishment's frustration with the Biden administration, and their apparent, grudging acceptance of reality are understandable, there is something deeply unsettling about both.

Where have the generals been for the past 13 years?

Israel must adjust to a weak US

If you need an indication that nothing is going to come out of the Vienna talks other than total capitulation to Iran's demands should look at the US's reaction to a more immediate and material threat to its closest allies in NATO – the Russian threat on Ukraine. Russia has shown determination, strength and strategic consistency, while the US has no sense of direction – something no superpower can afford, especially when it wants to stand up to the plate and counter the most important challenge of our generation, China's rise.

Tehran and Beijing are watching Biden and NATO and feel at ease. If the West's major powers just want to "return home safely from the battlefront" there is no risk that they will check Iran, and definitely not China.

Biden's Afghanistan fiasco has hurt him domestically, but that's much less of a concern because it was just a botched operational mission that ended a 20-year strategic failure that involved an unhelpful military deployment. Even the US departure from Iraq and other theaters in the region does not underlie weakness in and of themselves. In fact, in a different context, this would actually signal that the US was putting its resources where they are most needed.

But Biden has consistently shown that he lacks a backbone on all fronts. Just this week, the CIA chief said the US has no indication Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has decided to develop a military nuclear program. It's like a cop trying to stop a bank robbery but then says that he has no proof that the robbers' weapons are loaded.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has massed troops on the border with Ukraine and has been sending plainclothed troops to help pro-Russian rebels in Ukraine. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has vowed a forceful response if Russia invades. But judging by how the US reacted to the annexation of Crimea, Putin can very well assume that the only thing he will face after an invasion is sanctions.

Tens of thousands gather in Gaza and on the Temple Mount, all hating Jews

Today, Hamas celebrated its 34th anniversary, and tens of thousands of Gazans gathered for a pro-Hamas rally.

Hamas official Mahmoud al-Zahar praised the terror attacks against Jews in Jerusalem, promised that not an inch of land can be compromised on, and told Great Britain, "We are a national Islamic liberation movement whose duty is to liberate its homeland and its people from occupation. If that is terrorism, then yes, we are terrorists."

Meanwhile, 50,000 Muslims went to the Temple Mount this morning.

If you think this was just to worship, think again.

The worshipers came out of the Al-Aqsa Mosque chanting slogans for Al-Aqsa and Al-Quds in front of the Israeli police.

Palestine Today writes, "It is noteworthy that hundreds of people performed the dawn prayer in the premises of Al-Aqsa Mosque in response to calls from Jerusalem institutions; In response to the massive incursions carried out by extremist settlers that accompanied the days of the so-called Jewish Festival of Lights or 'Hanukah'; During which the settlers and their rabbis carried out provocative tours and performed Talmudic rituals in the courtyards of Al-Aqsa and its squares where they received false explanations about the alleged temple."

So this isn't about worship, just like Hamas isn't about liberation. The root of these events always comes down to Jew-hatred.

A new chart of UN bias against Israel (update)

Palestinians are celebrating the UN passing 6 anti-Israel resolutions yesterday by lopsided margins.

These are in addition to three others passed last week.

The Palestinian representative to the UN, Riyad Mansour, thanked the international community for their "tremendous support in favor of the Palestinian cause and its resolutions."

UN Watch has been keeping a database on UN resolutions since 2015. Here is my updated chart using their data of the number of General Assembly resolutions condemning specific countries in that time period.

Outside the seven countries shown here, the UN has not condemned anyone else in that time period.

The UN is a joke, illustrated in one diagram.

UPDATE: UN Watch tells me that the latest 10 resolutions against Israel over the past couple of weeks have not yet been included in their database, so the reality is even worse than shown here!

Her father was a Nazi. She's a woke professor at Columbia. They both boycott Jews.

Willem Sassen was a Dutch collaborator with the Nazis who ended up becoming a Nazi reporter and a colonel in the Waffen-SS.

He was held in a British prison camp after the war but managed to escape and hide in various places after the war. In 1947, his girlfriend gave birth to a daughter, Saskia, and later that year they escaped Europe with many other Nazis, SS members and collaborators to hide in Argentina.

He became famous for interviewing Adolf Eichmann in 1957, before he was discovered and captured by the Israelis. He was friends with Eichmann, and the mass murderer visited Sassen weekly. Sassen had hoped to write a book of Eichmann's memoirs where Eichmann would deny the Holocaust, but Eichmann was proud of his role and the book never got written. Sassen sold the recordings to Life magazine in 1960, which claimed it did not know he was a war criminal.

Sassen was also a colleague of Klaus Barbie in Argentina.

His daughter Saskia grew up with Eichmann visiting her home, although at first she didn't know who he was. She would have political discussions with her father:

At home, Sassen didn’t hide his political views from his precocious daughter. Father and daughter discussed the war, politics, things that weren’t taught in school. Saskia Sassen proclaimed herself a Communist at age 12. “We were like two little titans having a lot of political debates,” she says. “When it came to politics, we disagreed completely. And he was part of my political education, clearly.”

Saskia became a professor of sociology at Columbia University with a very good reputation.

At least one part of Sassen's thinking made it through to his daughter, though: a hatred of Jews.

While the elder Sassen wanted to deny the Holocaust to discredit Jewish survivors, his daughter agrees that Jews are overly powerful and evil and should be boycotted:

Sassen signed a statement, published on August 12, 2014 by “American Muslim organizations, academics, Imams, community leaders and activists" who wished to “affirm our unequivocal support for Palestinian rights to freedom and dignity while forcefully condemning the illegal and oppressive occupation structure."

Signatories of the petition wrote that “The Israeli aggression against the civilian population of Gaza has surpassed all levels of brutality and cruelty" and went on to “Support the BDS Campaign to end occupation."

In December 2010, Sassen authored an article in which she described Gaza as “a site where Israeli forces can experiment with modes of urban warfare given the fact of occupation and control over most of the means of survival of the Gaza people. In the process it terrorizes a whole population."

She went on to charge that Israel “has done just about all that is conceivable to destroy it and demoralize a people."

On November 10, 2004, Sassen appeared on a panel at the University of Chicago (U of C) titled “Examining National Identity: Nationalism, Transnationalism, and the Future of the Middle East."

In an article chronicling the event, it was reported that Sassen walked out in the middle of the panel, outraged that her co-panelist suggested that Israel is disproportionately criticized by the United Nations.

The horseshoe theory of antisemitism has a great mascot.

(h/t Martin D)

12/09 Links Pt2: False Knowledge is Power: Deconstructing Definitions of Apartheid that Delegitimise the Jewish State; Did Resolution 181 create the State of Israel?

From Ian:

NGO Monitor: False Knowledge is Power: Deconstructing Definitions of Apartheid that Delegitimise the Jewish State

At the beginning of 2021, Human Rights Watch (HRW) and B’Tselem published reports alleging Israel to be responsible for, and Israeli officials to be guilty of committing, the crime against humanity of apartheid. These publications were accompanied by an extensive PR campaign. Concurrently, NGOs were influential in the establishment of two UN bodies where the claim of apartheid will prominently feature, and these same groups are vigorously lobbying the International Criminal Court to include allegations of apartheid in its investigation into Israel.

However, the definition of apartheid used by HRW, B’Tselem, and other NGOs is not legally substantiated. Instead, these groups promote artificial and manufactured definitions designed to extend the ongoing campaigns that seek to delegitimize and demonize Israel.

Beyond its pejorative colloquial meaning (“apartheid state,” “vaccine apartheid”), apartheid is also criminalized in some treaties as a crime against humanity and/or a war crime, establishing individual criminal responsibility. In addition, states are prohibited from practicing apartheid in other treaties and by customary international law.

Apartheid is a grave allegation both for the individuals accused as well as the country they represent. A conviction comes with long terms of imprisonment, while the accusation alone can result in severe penalties including sanctions and international isolation. It is not a claim to be made casually, and the crime itself must be precisely defined. However, the definition of apartheid is untested in international law as no courts have yet examined the crime, and there is little detailed analysis available. As a result, central actors in the delegitimization campaign have exploited this gap to advance narrow, and destructive, political agendas.

This report presents a corrective. First, it analyzes the policy and practices of apartheid as pursued historically in South Africa. Second, it examines the nature and evolution of the apartheid allegation levelled against Israeli officials. Third, it addresses the legal vacuum and provides a full analysis grounded in international law of apartheid’s definition as a crime against humanity.

In early 2022, NGO Monitor will issue a companion report, assessing whether apartheid, as defined here, is applicable to Israel and territories under its administration.

Did Resolution 181 create the State of Israel?

Although the League of Nations was superseded by the United Nations following WWII, Article 80 of the UN Charter stipulated that the UN would not alter existing states, peoples or mandates. This meant that the UN preserved and recognized the legal right for the establishment of a Jewish state from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, which was the boundary of the Mandate for Palestine.

Additionally, this boundary delineated Israel’s borders; under the customary international law doctrine of uti possidetis juris, newly forming countries acquire their pre-independence administrative borders.

In 1947, Britain resigned as the “mandatory” and gave control over to the United Nations. The UNGA passed Resolution 181 in November of that year, recommending the partition of the land into separate Jewish and Arab states, with Jerusalem and the areas surrounding it placed under international control.

However, Resolution 181 did not declare statehood, as all UN General Assembly resolutions are non-binding recommendations that carry no force of law. Instead, Resolution 181, as former Israeli ambassador to the UN Dore Gold stated, “provided international legitimacy for the Jewish claim to statehood.” Gold stated that what establishes countries is declarations of independence as opposed to actions in the UN. Israel would declare its independence on May 14, 1948.

As of today, the Mandate for Palestine also provides legal rights for any claims Israel has to the disputed West Bank. Eugene Rostow, former US under secretary of state and Yale Law School dean, commented that the West Bank is an “unallocated part of the British Mandate.”

As an unallocated part of the British Mandate, the terms of document are still binding today even though the British resigned as the mandatory 74 years ago.

Rostow confirmed this by explaining, “Many believe that the Palestine Mandate was somehow terminated in 1947, when the British government resigned as the mandatory power. This is incorrect. A trust never terminates when a trustee dies, resigns, embezzles the trust property, or is dismissed. The authority responsible for the trust appoints a new trustee, or otherwise arranges for the fulfillment of its purpose.” Therefore, the international community is obligated in implementing the terms of the mandate.

In summation, it was the Balfour Declaration and the documents that enshrined it as a binding part of international law that created Israel, as opposed to the United Nations. These documents still apply today when it comes to Israel’s rights to the West Bank.

On This Day: Ottomans surrender Jerusalem in World War I

December 9 marks 104 years since the Ottoman surrender at the Battle of Jerusalem, winning major morale and strategic victory in a key city in this important World War I battle.

The battle itself was the culmination of a long, bloody campaign in the Middle East by the British against the Turks, something that had been up to a rough start for a while.

Throughout World War I, British forces suffered multiple humiliating and costly losses against the Turks. This included the disastrous Gallipoli campaign, the Battle of Kut in modern-day Iraq and two losses in Gaza.

Taking the holy city was important, not just because of the religious symbolism for the largely-Christian UK, but because it was vital for Ottoman supply routes and for the British to establish a stronger position.

Fortune began to change when, after a second loss at Gaza, the commanding general of what had been dubbed the "Egyptian Expeditionary Force," Gen. Sir Archibald Murray, was replaced with Gen. Edmund Allenby, who had been given instructions by the prime minister: Capture Jerusalem by Christmas.

This was easier said than done. The Ottoman front line dominated the South with trenches, redoubts and fortifications, as well as key roads and railway lines.

But at the end of October, Allenby finally led the British to victory over the Ottomans in the Battle of Beersheba, beginning the British Army's advance into the region, pushing back the Ottomans.

Was there a day of religious freedom in Jerusalem in 1909?

I just found this description of Jerusalem written in 1909 that described an incident earlier that year.

The author was Frederic J. Haskin, who was a prominent journalist and author, well known for a newspaper feature where people would ask him questions and he and his staff would find the answers.

I find it hard to believe this story is true, but if it is, it is remarkable. (Notice the antisemitism alongside the sympathy for Jews.)

From the Salt Lake Herald-Republican, December 26, 1909:

Within the year since last Christmas the light of freedom has broken upon this distressed Holy Land and for the first time in all the centuries its people have known the spirit of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man.

For eighteen centuries it has been death for a Jew to enter the court yard of the Church the Holy Sepulchre. For twelve hundred years no Jew has stood upon the site of the Temple of Solomon. Blood-thirsty Christians, forgetting the words of the Master upon the cross, have murdered Jews who so much as dared to approach the grave of Jesus. Cruel believers upon Mohammed have cut the throats of pious Jews who sought to lift up their voices in prayer 'upon the hill where Melchesidek and Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, David and Solomon, Hesekiah and the Maccabees. invoked the succor of Jehovah. Treacherous and vindictive Jews, suffering under the persecutions of centuries, have dealt death to their enemies of other creeds. ever since Jesus died on the cross of Calvary has Jerusalem and all this Holy Land been drenched with blood shed by murderers who slew their victims in the name of religion.

Then came this year 1909 of the Christian era, 5669 of the Jewish era and 1327 of the Mohammedan era, and the light of liberty for the first time broke through the clouds of religious intolerance and illumined the churches and synagogues and mosques of the city of Jerusalem. It was the Young Turks' revolution.

The despotic Sultan Abdul Hamid was overthrown, and the constitution became a realty in benighted Turkey, of which Palestine is a part. What a great celebration it was in Jerusalem! Young men of every creed united in the demonstration of joy. Christians, arm in arm with Jews and Mohammedans, went boldly into the holiest of all 'holy Christian churches, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and gave thanks for their new found liberty. Mohammedans took with them Jews and Christians to the platform of the temple, surrounding the Mosque of Omar, and gave vent to their joyous feelings. Jews took Christians and Turkish political allies into the sacred precincts of their synagogues. Every difference of faith was forgotten In the common joy.

Of course this religious union lasted only for a day and now the old lines are drawn again, but they are not as taut as they used to be, and never again will they mean death to the trespasser. Turkey is free and the Holy Land is delivered from the curse of despotism.

I cannot find any record of this in Jewish media of 1909. I cannot believe that the Muslims of Jerusalem, whose opposition to Jews visiting the Temple Mount were based on their own antisemitism, would have changed their policies even for a day without being instructed to.

But there might be some grain of truth in this story, as Haskin was a legitimate journalist.

IDF Detention Facilities Rampantly Assuming Gender Of Palestinians (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Check out their Facebook page.

prison Ofer Prison, north of Jerusalem, December 9 - Human Rights groups accused Israel's military today of inhumane treatment of Palestinian detainees, including such unnecessarily harsh measures as simply presuming that prisoners who talk, dress, act, and have anatomy in the manner of males are in fact males.

Amnesty International, Btselem, and Human Rights Watch, among others, issued a joint statement Thursday charging that the Israel Defense Forces, in violation of all things sacred and acceptable, assume the gender of every single inmate or detainee, a policy that underscores the cruel nature of the occupation and the urgent need to end it.

"This sadistic practice continues despite robust public awareness of the need to accommodate non-cisgender people," the statement read, in part. "We acknowledge our disappointment, but not our surprise, given Israel's established reputation for mistreatment of Palestinians." The document also cited the IDF's practice of not allowing Palestinians to stab Israelis, and even of applying lethal force in thwarting Palestinian attempts to kill Jews.

Progressive organizations followed up the letter with an online drive to get activists outside Israel to convey to their governments the importance of addressing the crucial issue of misgendered Israeli prisons, perhaps conditioning military aid to the beleaguered Jewish State on the implementation of a robust, independently-verified gender inclusiveness program in all military detainment facilities.

Palestinian activists embraced the statement and its overseas ripples. "Uh, yeah, that's uh, terrible," objected a spokesman for the Palestinian Ministry of Prisoner Affairs. "Truly horrifying. Can't believe they'd be so, uh, evil. I can't imagine the horror our brave martyrs-to-be face day in, day out in those prisons. Sounds like pure torture. Somebody ought to do something."

A Hamas representative told reporters the movement would probably wait to declare another Day of Rage over the issue. "It's just that our schedule is so full of Days of Rage in the next few months," he lamented. "We wouldn't want to dilute the power of each Day of Rage, and its impact on the occupier, by holding another one in so short a time. An issue of this, er, importance deserves its own discrete... treatment."

The spokesman then requested more specifics about the phenomenon of "misgendering," and, upon receiving explanation, wondered aloud why the supposedly cruel IDF didn't do what he and his movement would have done, namely to hurl the identifying-as-female detainee from the nearest ten-story rooftop. "Something doesn't add up here," he cautioned.

12/09 Links Pt1: The Phenomenon of Lone Palestinian Terrorists; Gantz is handing Palestinians a state on silver platter; German Jews wary of new 'traffic light' government

From Ian:

JCPA: The Phenomenon of Lone Palestinian Terrorists

The IDF is alarmed by the imitation phenomenon of lone terrorists, mainly the mimicking of knife and vehicular attacks. Moreover, in recent weeks, the incitement on social media has increased, which has the most significant impact on the younger Palestinian generation, especially when they view the live action in east Jerusalem and the Temple Mount.

In November, there were three terrorist attacks: a stabbing attack in the Old City of Jerusalem in which two Border Police soldiers were wounded; a shooting attack by Hamas terrorist and cleric Fadi Abu Shahidam in which an Israeli civilian was murdered; and a stabbing attack in Jaffa in which a civilian was seriously wounded.

So far, in the early days of December, there were two attacks: a stabbing at the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem in which an Israeli civilian was seriously injured and another vehicular attack at the Te’enim crossing in Samaria in which an Israeli security guard was seriously injured. In all cases, the terrorists were killed.

Hamas is trying to re-launch terror inside Israel and the West Bank after it suffered a severe blow: in recent months, the Israel Security Agency arrested an extensive network of dozens of Hamas terrorists who planned a series of attacks in Israel and the Judea and Samaria area. Weapons and explosive belts intended for suicide bombings were captured.

This terrorist activity in Jerusalem and the West Bank is directed from the Gaza Strip, Turkey, and Lebanon through Hamas’ “West Bank headquarters.” The mastermind is Saleh al-Arouri, the head of Hamas’ military-terrorist wing in the West Bank.

Hamas is attempting to carry out a “showcase” assault that will serve as a role model and fuel for the fire that has already begun in east Jerusalem.

Hamas estimates that Israel is struggling to cope with the phenomenon of lone terrorists. Their attacks occur spontaneously and often in seemingly undirected waves. Hamas, therefore, tries to ride each wave as soon as it is detected and before it fades. For Hamas and other terrorist groups, the main “enemy” of the spectacle of a handful of terrorists is the security coordination between Israel’s security forces and the PA security services.

PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas knows that he holds a double-edged sword that could undermine his rule. So, while his prime minister, Mohammad Shtayyeh, attacks Israel for killing the young terrorists (“cold-blooded murder”), Abbas, in recent days, has changed direction and ordered his security forces to stop the stabbings and end the incitement.

The phenomenon of lone terrorists is attributed mainly to young Palestinians who continue to feed on the incitement on Palestinian social networks and media.

Many of the young terrorists are frustrated. They come from families living in difficult economic situations. They seek to become “heroes” in the Palestinian society that nurtures the legend of “martyrs.”

Israel can end lone wolf terror wave with five-step plan

The coordination with the PA and the weakening of Hamas's incitement: The security coordination with the PA is better than it's been in a while. An example of that is the rescue of the two members of the Breslov Hassidic movement, who accidentally entered the city of Ramallah last week. In addition, the Palestinians make arrests of instigators, terror operatives, and issue warnings to their relatives. In one such case last week, an alert was received about a lone attacker who intended to throw an explosive device at IDF soldiers, as a result, his family was located, warned, and he was questioned.

Furthermore, the Shin Bet along with the IDF is preparing for next Tuesday, November 14, the anniversary of Hamas' establishment. For weeks arrests have been made and every activity of Hamas in West Bank has been monitored. The concern is that a sequence of terror attacks may be carried out by Hamas operatives on that day, with the terror group's incitement campaign already in full swing.

Deterring the family of the assailant: One of the things that were proven as very useful, and prevented dozens of attacks, is actions taken against the family of the attacker. These acts include the demolition of their houses, prevention of entry to Israel in order to work, and arrests of family members.

This is done in an effort to force family members of potential attackers to alert the security forces if they notice any changes in his behavior, or his patterns of action. It has already happened in the past and it is proven to be a very useful tool against lone assailants.

And the last step is operational professionalism: The first seconds of any attack are crucial for the outcome. An attack that ends with a rapid, sharp response, and the neutralization of the attacker - without casualties among civilians or security forces -would make a potential terrorist think twice, and such an event won't be used as an example to incite others.

Police officers cleared in deadly shooting of Palestinian stabber

The State Prosecutor’s Office said Thursday it had closed an investigation into two Border Police officers who shot dead a Palestinian assailant after he stabbed a Jewish civilian in a Jerusalem terror attack, saying there was legal justification for the shooting.

The officers were questioned after video of the Saturday incident showed them firing at Muhammad Salima once he was already lying on the ground.

Police video of the entire incident that was later released showed Salima stabbed one civilian and then also tried to attack the officers. The video showed that the officers did not immediately fire the fatal shot at the assailant as he lay on the ground, but did so only after he moved, apparently trying to get up.

State Prosecutor Amit Aisman on Thursday adopted the recommendations of the Justice Ministry’s internal investigations unit, and decided to close the probe into the two officers.

The State Prosecutor’s office said in a statement that the Police Internal Investigations Department (PIID) had “thoroughly, professionally and efficiently” investigated the officers’ actions.

“The Border Police officers’ explanations that they acted in self-defense were consistent with the rest of the investigation’s findings, including a video documenting the incident in its entirety,” the statement read.

“An examination of all the circumstances found that this was an incident that lasted only a few seconds, in circumstances where there was a real and tangible danger to the lives of the officers and civilians in the area,” the statement read.

The expression "Funny, you don't look Jewish" has been around for a long time. It was even lampooned in the Beatles' cartoon movie Yellow Submarine which was released in 1968.

It is clearly the punchline for a joke - a joke that was so well known that the punchline itself could be re-used for other jokes and the listener would get it.

But what was the original joke?

I finally found it in an article about Jewish humor written for the Zionist magazine Midstream in the 1950s.

A lady approaches a very dignified man on the subway and asks him, "Pardon me for asking, but are you Jewish?" He coldly replies, "No."

She returns in a moment and apologetically asks again, "Are you sure you're not Jewish?" Yes, he is sure.

Still not convinced, she asks a final time, "Are you absolutely sure you're not Jewish?"

The man breaks down and admits it, "All right, all right, I am Jewish." To which she makes the rejoinder, "That's funny. You don't look Jewish."

The article includes some really good jokes that reflect the Jewish American mindset of the time: Jews were still discriminated against, but in the aftermath of the Holocaust, complaining about it seemed petty. Jews were assimilating, but still felt guilty about it and struggled between being Jewish and wanting to be accepted to be as American as a WASP. Jews could be self-deprecating but if non-Jews would make the same jokes it was obviously antisemitic.

The article itself is very serious, but the jokes are funny (and many would be considered politically incorrect today.) Here are some of them that I had never heard before.

A Jew is discussing the Jewish problem with a Gentile in the Old Country. The Gentile contends that Jews cheat and lie. The Jew replies that they really are smarter than Goyim and sets out to prove it. He brings his companion to a Gentile store and asks for some matches, but refuses them when they are offered saying, "These matches light at the wrong end. I want the kind \ that light at the other end." Proprietor: "I'm sorry these are the only kind we have." They then proceed to a Jewish establishment, where the same transaction takes place. This time however, the Jewish businessman shouts to his helper, "Moishe, bring me those matches from the new consignment." He hands over the matches, turning them around. Outside the store, the Jew triumphantly faces the Gentile, exclaiming, "See!" The latter protests, "But maybe the first store didn't get that new consignment."

An aged Jew, dressed in traditional East European garb, black gabardine, white socks, kaftan, with long payes, appears in a Deep Southern town. He is an immediate object of curiosity. A crowd assembles and follows him. After a few moments his patience is tried. He turns on the crowd and says in a thick Yiddish accent, "What's the matter? Didn't you ever see a Yankee before?"

Maxie was a terrible soldier: In basic training lie never cleaned his rifle. When he marched with the troops he seemed to have two left feet. He was always getting commands wrong. His company commander had little hope for him when they went into battle, but was surprised to find Maxie receiving the Congressional Medal of Honor for holding off an entire German regiment single-handed while his platoon moved to a safer position, saving, thereby, many lives and an important military position. The company commander demanded of Maxie's platoon leader how he had managed this superhuman feat of leadership. Replied the lieutenant, "Why I just handed Maxie a machine gun, patted him on the shoulder, and announced, 'Now, Maxie, you're in business for yourself!' "

A Jewish gangster has been in a gun fight with police. As he staggers into his mother's East Side apartment, nearly in extremis, his hands on a big bloody wound, he gasps, "Ma, ma, I-I've been hit. . . ." Mama says, "Eat. Eat. Later we'll talk."

Some missionizing Quakers make great inroads in a Long Island Synagogue, converting a sizeable number of its members. This prompts the Rabbi to say, "Some of my best Jews are Friends."

The government of Israel is worried about its unpopularity in foreign countries. So Ben-Gurion hires a market research company in New York to find out why people don't like Israel. The company does an exhaustive study and boils it down to this, "The reason you are unpopular is because Israel is identified with Jews. We therefore recommend that you change your name from Israel to Irving."

A Jewish girl calls up her mother, and the following conversation ensues:
"Mama, I'm married."
"Mazel Too! That's wonderful."
"But, mama, my husband is a Catholic."
"So? Not everyone is a Jew."
"But, mama, he's a Negro."
"What of it? The world has all kinds. We gotta be tolerant."
"But mama, he has no job."
"Nu? That's all right."
"But, mama, we have no place to stay."
"Oh, you'll stay right here in this house."
"Where, mama? There's no room."
"Well, you and your husband can sleep in our bedroom. Papa will sleep on the sofa."
"Yes, but, mama, where will you sleep?"
"Oh, don't worry about me, darling. As soon as I hang up I'm going to drop dead."

Three Reform Rabbis are arguing about which of them is the most thoroughly Reform.
The first one remarks, "My temple is so Reform that there are ashtrays in every pew. The congregation can smoke while it prays."
"You think that's Reform?" asks the second Rabbi. "In my temple there is a snack bar. The congregation can eat while it prays—especially on Yom Kippur."
"Gentlemen," says the third Rabbi, "as far as I am concerned, you are practically Orthodox. In my temple, every Rosh Hashonah and Yom Kippur, there are signs on the doors saying, 'Closed for the Holidays.' "

Hamas issued a press release yesterday where they praised the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, for her remarks at a virtual UN session held by the Committee for the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People on Tuesday.

Hamas said that Bachelet's remarks were "important and pivotal", as they "shed light on the continued Israeli occupation's violations against the Palestinian people and holy places."

When a terror group praises the UN's top human rights official, that indicates that something is wrong. And indeed, something is very wrong with Michelle Bachelet.

Her statement can be seen on video here. She speaks for about ten minutes, of which about nine and a half are about how terrible Israel is - starting with the May war in Gaza, which she claims was "directly linked to protests and violent responses by Israeli security forces — first in East Jerusalem, then spreading to the entire Occupied Palestinian Territory and to Israel."

She doesn't mention that Hamas and other groups shot 150 rockets into Israel on May 10, including Jerusalem, and Israeli airstrikes were responses to those attacks. Instead, Bachelet fully adopts the Hamas narrative that somehow Israeli actions in Sheikh Jarrah and Jerusalem were what caused the war to start - implying that Hamas rockets were meant to defend Palestinians, not attack Israeli civilians.

Bachelet has nothing bad to say about Hamas at all. She doesn't even mention the terror group's name.

The other thirty seconds that don't obsess over Israel (starting at 10:50) are almost all directed at Hamas' rival Palestinian Authority, where she quickly lists "assaults of journalists and human rights defenders, as well as intimidation; gender-based violence and harassment; excessive use of force; arbitrary arrests and censorship." She then briefly mentions that "the de facto authorities have also restricted Palestinians’ rights."

Unlike her allegations against Israel, she goes into no detail on these human rights abuses against Palestinians. Palestinian women are victims of gender-based violence? Who cares? Certainly not the UN's chief human rights defender.

The video is even more striking. When Bachelet accuses Israel of abuses, she speaks deliberately and looks up from her prepared notes and tries to make eye contact with the viewer. But when she talks about Palestinian abuses, she turns into a robot - she speeds up her delivery and barely looks up from her text. It is a checkbox for her - she doesn't want to be accused of bias so she throws in a little about Palestinian human rights abuses, burying it in her litany of impassioned criticism of Israel.

There is essentially no daylight between the positions of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and those of the Hamas terror group. No wonder Hamas praised her.

Like Hamas, the UN's own human rights chief proves that she doesn't care at all about the human rights of Jews. Like Hamas, Michelle Bachelet proves that the only time she pretends to care about the human rights of Palestinians is when she can blame the Jews.

"Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion" officers on campus are the most intolerant people around

In recent years, American universities have been appointing large numbers of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) staff with the intention of creating more tolerant environments on campus for students from all backgrounds.

The Heritage Foundation did a study of the tweets from over 700 DEI staff, and found that when it comes to Zionism and Israel, they are quite intolerant.

The analysis is somewhat predictable but still shocking:

To measure antisemitism among university DEI staff, we searched the Twitter feeds of 741 DEI personnel at 65 universities to find their public communications regarding Israel and, for comparison purposes, China. Those DEI staff tweeted, retweeted, or liked almost three times as many tweets about Israel as tweets about China. Of the tweets about Israel, 96 percent were critical of the Jewish state, while 62 percent of the tweets about China were favorable. There were more tweets narrowly referencing “apartheid” in Israel than tweets indicating anything favorable about Israel whatsoever. The overwhelming pattern is that DEI staff at universities pay a disproportionately high amount of attention to Israel and nearly always attack Israel.

While criticism of Israel is not necessarily antisemitic, the inordinate amount of attention given to Israel and the excessive criticism directed at that one country is evidence of a double-standard with respect to the Jewish state, which is a central feature of a widely accepted definition of antisemitism.

Frequently accusing Israel of engaging in genocide, apartheid, settler colonialism, ethnic cleansing, and other extreme crimes while rarely leveling similar criticisms toward China indicates an irrational hatred that is particularly directed toward Jews and not merely a concern for human rights.

The evidence presented in this Backgrounder demonstrates that university DEI staff are better understood as political activists with a narrow and often radical political agenda rather than promoters of welcoming and inclusive environments.

Rather than promoting diversity and inclusion, universities may be contributing to an increase in anti-Jewish hatred by expanding DEI staff and power.

This chart summarizes the main findings.

Anyone who thinks that Israel is a worse violator of human rights than China is pretty much guaranteed to be an antisemite.

Meanwhile, the ADL released its own study of campus anti-Zionism that often veers into antisemitic tropes:

Continuing a historic trend, in 2020-2021 a segment of campus anti-Israel groups and activists engaged in rhetoric that incorporated antisemitic tropes, including those related to alleged Jewish power and control over the media or political affairs. While major anti-Israel groups state their opposition to antisemitism on their websites, they repeatedly appear unaware, ambivalent or defiant when their own rhetoric about Israel and Zionism becomes offensive or plays into antisemitic themes. More often, they deny that it is even possible for anti-Israel or anti-Zionist rhetoric to be antisemitic. While only a minority of anti-Israel activity on campus explicitly references antisemitic tropes, the large volume of anti-Israel activity ensures many Jewish students will encounter bigotry.

In addition to the use of antisemitic tropes and themes, anti-Israel rhetoric can become antisemitic when opposition to Zionism turns into the active maligning, exclusion and denigration of Zionism and Zionists. During the 2020-2021 academic year such a pattern was evident, in particular during the May 2021 Israel-Hamas conflagration. Viewing Zionists as inherently nefarious and undeserving of certain rights can lead to many Jewish students feeling isolated and under siege. Moreover, the vitriol aimed at Jews who support Israel’s existence is rarely matched with energy targeting non-Jews, most of whom also recognize and support Israel’s existence.

12/08 Links Pt2: Michael R. Bloomberg: Both Parties Must Fight Anti-Semitism in Their Ranks; Bob Dole fought to free Soviet Jews; BDS: 'A Front for Terror Groups'

From Ian:

At UJA-Federation’s Wall Street Dinner, attendees pledge to fight antisemitism

Despite the swanky setting and the (mostly) maskless crowd in bespoke suits and dresses, UJA-Federation of New York’s Wall Street Dinner Monday night made very clear that the city – and even its most affluent denizens – still lived in the shadow of the pandemic.

There was an atmosphere of relief in the room, with the usual scenes of hugging, smiling and schmoozing that typify fundraising dinners. Hors d’oeuvres were eaten, awards were given and speeches were made.

But the ongoing effects of COVID pervaded the event Monday night at the Marriott Marquis in midtown Manhattan, and lent it an air of guardedness. Former mayor Michael Bloomberg received the night’s main award, and Stephanie Cohen, an executive at Goldman Sachs, was also honored.

But in the first speech, former Goldman Sachs CEO and current chairman Lloyd Blankfein made a point of reminding attendees how the pandemic has bared their privilege.

“The lesson of COVID that’s most pertinent to tonight’s purpose is just how bifurcated our society is,” said Blankfein, who emceed the event.

“So let me say, at the risk of being provocative and sounding tone-deaf, I had a pretty good pandemic, and most of my friends who live in the same bubble as me had a pretty good pandemic too,” he continued. “The market went up and we even made money. That is our bubble. But what about the rest of the world, the 99%? People in service jobs who had to show up or whose jobs didn’t survive the pandemic?”

Michael R. Bloomberg: Both Parties Must Fight Anti-Semitism in Their Ranks

I realize that standing up to your friends is not easy — and that’s especially true for young people. They have their antenna up against injustice, and that’s great to see. But on campuses across the country, if they want to be involved in social justice issues, they often feel forced to make a terrible choice. They can either defend their Zionism and be excluded from groups that claim to be progressive, or they can join these groups and turn a blind eye to them when they single out for attack the only democratic country in the Middle East and the only Jewish state in the world.

That is wrong.

We cannot allow a new generation of Jews to be intimidated from supporting the very existence of Israel — or to feel shame about their heritage, rather than pride.

So to everyone here, whatever your party, I hope you will recognize that as a people — and as a country — we cannot afford to let prejudice live within partisanship. We must call it out wherever it exists, and no matter who is involved — whether we hear it from Marjorie Taylor Greene or Rashida Tlaib or anyone else.

And as we do this, we should remind our allies of something Rabbi Jonathan Sacks of Great Britain once said: “The hate that starts with the Jews never ends there.” And of course, as the quotation on the wall of the Holocaust Museum reminds us, the hate that starts with others can end with us.

We have always believed that in America, “It can’t happen here.” But when lies are widely accepted as truth, when verbal and physical attacks on marginalized groups pass without condemnation, when wild conspiracy theories run rampant, when election results are dismissed as fraudulent, and when leaders in government downplay an assault on the U.S. Capitol and the peaceful transfer of power, we must recognize that, tragically, it could happen here.

America is increasingly becoming a tinderbox. And we know from history that small fires — if they are not extinguished — can grow more dangerous and deadly, and can even lead to the unthinkable.

Tonight, as the holiday ends, let us resolve to find inspiration in the unity Hanukkah celebrates — all year long. Let us shine a light on anti-Semitism, whenever it appears and whoever it comes from. And as we do, may God’s light shine on all of us, of all faiths, working to repair the world.

We can't afford to let prejudice live within partisanship.

We must call out anti-Semitism wherever it exists - and no matter who is involved, on the right or on the left. https://t.co/CpYHH8hjwQ pic.twitter.com/3WazGyTSpF
— Mike Bloomberg (@MikeBloomberg) December 7, 2021

Bob Dole fought to free Soviet Jews

Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas, who died on Sunday at 98, had a complex record on Israel but a much more clear-cut one on Soviet Jews, whose cause he championed as a senator and Senate leader.

“The freedom of enslaved people is America’s business, and freedom is a task we must apply,” Dole, a Republican and Senate minority leader at the time, said in remarks at the 1987 mass rally at the U.S. Capitol on behalf of some 400,000 Jewish refuseniks. “I will not rest, and you will not rest, America will not rest, until they are all free.”

Dole told the crowd that in his close to three decades in Congress, he had dealt with many requests from people who wanted help for family members seeking to immigrate to the U.S. “I’ve never had one ask for help to leave America.” The list of Soviet Jews who were aided by Dole includes the dissident-turned-Israeli politician Natan Sharansky and Evgeny Yakir.

He implored Gorbachev, who was scheduled to arrive soon after for bilateral talks in the U.S., “Let every last woman and child, who wants to sleep under the same roof with their children and their family, or say a prayer in the synagogue, whether it be in Washington or Jerusalem; who only wants the chance of medical treatment — let them go, Mr. Gorbachev, let them go.”

In 1985, when he was Senate majority leader, Dole introduced a resolution that called for an end to harassment and for the release of refuseniks. It read in part: “Americans are a people who have strong compassion for the oppressed, undying love for freedom and an unwavering intolerance of the deprivation of basic God-given rights.”

A few years earlier, in 1982, Dole and former Congressman Jack Kemp — donning yarmulkes — presided over a Jewish long-distance wedding between a dissident in Washington, D.C., and a woman seeking to escape from the Soviet Union.

Strengthening the Walls of the Ghetto (Vic Rosenthal)

Weekly column by Vic Rosenthal

This morning I sat down with my newspaper, my coffee, and my cat, to read that the IDF held a ceremony on Tuesday to mark the completion of the massive and sophisticated barrier on the border (or whatever it is) with the Gaza Strip.

They call it an “iron wall,” 65 km long, with a fence that rises to a height of 6m above the ground and a concrete barrier below it whose depth is not specified, but is said to go deep enough to stop the tunnels that Hamas loves to dig. There is also a barrier that extends into the sea at its northern end. The whole system is rich in various kinds of sensors, radar, cameras, and even remotely controlled weapons. The IDF reports that numerous tunnels were discovered and destroyed during the construction of the underground barrier.

The system took three and half years to build at a cost of 3.5 billion shekels, or more than US$ 1.1 billion. That is a lot of money that could be used for many other purposes, but given the situation it was necessary.

There is nothing quite as frightening for civilians living near Gaza or on the northern border near Lebanon than the prospect of a terror tunnel opening up a few meters from their homes. In some cases, residents heard sounds of digging and voices speaking Arabic before a tunnel was discovered. Hamas had plans to kidnap civilians and execute mass casualty attacks through these tunnels, and during Operation Protective Edge in 2014, some 14 tunnels that crossed the border into Israel were destroyed, plus several more inside the strip.

You may recall that Hamas terrorists infiltrated through a tunnel back in 2006, attacked an IDF post near Kerem Shalom at the southern end of the strip, killed two IDF soldiers and wounded several others including Gilad Shalit, who was carried back through the tunnel to Gaza, where he was held for more than six years. He was ultimately released in exchange for 1,027 prisoners in Israeli prisons, many of them murderers serving long sentences. These prisoners represented both Hamas and other terrorist factions, and many returned to terror activities.

But barriers in general have not proven effective deterrents to attack, because ways are almost always found to bypass or neutralize them, as happened with the Maginot and Bar-Lev lines. And while Hamas may not be able to go over or through the new barrier, they can still launch rockets and fire mortar shells over it, as well as release incendiary and explosive balloons to be carried by the prevailing winds into nearby fields and Jewish communities. The inexpensive rockets, even when most of them are intercepted by Iron Dome, comprise an effective form of economic warfare, with each Iron Dome launch costing some $40,000 (usually at least two interceptors are fired at each incoming rocket at a cost of $40,000 each).

Just as the mounted cavalry was neutralized by the machine gun, and the machine gun made less effective by the tank, Hamas rockets are presently neutralized (except economically) by Iron Dome. But the advent of precision-guided rockets and drones can change the equation. Today we know that Hezbollah has some quantity of them, and probably Hamas has some or will get some soon.

The new barrier also doesn’t prevent Hamas from exporting subversion to sympathetic Arabs in Judea/Samaria and even among Arab citizens of Israel.

Those of you who regularly read my columns know what’s coming. Pure defensive measures, building the ghetto walls higher and stronger, can only hold an enemy at bay, not defeat him. And technological advances by the aggressor, like precision-guided rockets, can tip the balance quickly. The only way to defeat an enemy is by moving from defense to offense. So while defensive technology, like the barrier, may be necessary for survival, it is not sufficient for victory.

Everything I’ve said so far deals only with the tangible or kinetic aspects of the conflict. The psychological aspect is another story entirely. The message that we send to ourselves, our friends, and our enemies, by our reliance on defensive technology and tactics, is that it is if not acceptable, it is still understandable that savage Jew-haters will continue to bombard our country with the intent to kill as many of us as possible. And soon – this, actually, has already happened – many people begin to think that it is acceptable after all. We become the guy at the carnival who sticks his head through a canvas sheet and dodges balls thrown by the patrons.

For the sake of our national honor as well as to maintain deterrence, such a situation cannot be allowed to stand.

Hamas is a deadly infection, and it has turned Gaza into a pocket of pus on the side of our country. Walling it off is only a temporary expedient; curing the disease will require wiping out the bacteria that cause it. The danger to our citizens in the south and ultimately in the entire country can only be ended by crushing Hamas as a military and political force, which calls for an intensive campaign, including a ground incursion.

It’s sometimes suggested that if Israel destroys Hamas, then what will arise in its place will be worse. The answer is that in that case, we’ll need to destroy the replacement as well. It is also said that the expense and difficulty of ruling the strip in the event that there is no acceptable autonomous leadership will be too great.

But keep this in mind: in January of 2009 Israel was poised for a ground invasion of Gaza, which was called off after Tzipi Livni was summoned to the US and apparently given an ultimatum by officials of the incoming Obama Administration (the same one that supported Hamas’ parent group, the Muslim Brotherhood, in Egypt). Since then, we have found it necessary to have four small but costly wars, and to spend 3.5 billion shekels on a barrier – and the threat remains. What if we had gone ahead and conquered Gaza and killed the war criminals leading Hamas?

Or go back further, to 2005, before Hamas had control of the strip. What if Israel had not withdrawn, if we had not destroyed numerous successful Jewish communities and displaced 8,000 people? What would the situation look like today? Would it be better or worse? Would it have been more “costly and difficult” than a series of wars and the building of a massive barrier?

I think the answer is clear. Cowering behind the walls of the ghetto is a poor idea both practically and psychologically. Rather, we must bring Hamas to total defeat, like Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.