Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, December 19, 2021

Taking the wrong lesson from a photo of a "brave" Palestinian confronting a soldier

This tweet is going viral this morning, celebrating the fearlessness of a Palestinian arguing with a heavily armed Israeli soldier.

Once we are imagining, can you imagine such a scene with a Palestinian arguing with a Palestinian Authority policeman? With a Hamas terrorist? With a Lebanese or Syrian soldier?

You won't find photos like that, because the Palestinian would be arrested or beaten or killed.

But there are lots and lots of photos of Palestinians unafraid to get in the faces of Israeli soldiers and police.

The reason that you see so many photos of "brave" Palestinians confronting Israeli soldiers and police is because they know the soldiers will not touch them as long as they don't get violent. They know that Israeli security professionals are not going to hurt them.

They would be equally brave to confront a soda bottle.

These photos prove what the people posting them deny: that the Israeli security forces are professionals, who have no desire to hurt anyone. They prove that soldiers and police who take abuse every day, who are falsely accused of crimes every day, who are literally dared every day to respond with force, will adhere to their laws and regulations. They prove that the Palestinians tell one thing to Western media about Israeli forces abusing them for no reason but they know the truth - if Israeli forces were 10% as violent as they say, they wouldn't be around to confront the forces tomorrow.

These photos prove that, unlike the propaganda spread by Israel haters, the IDF really is the most moral army in the world.

UPDATE: You can see video of how this photo was taken here.

Man dresses up as a Jew in Egypt as a practical joke, and proves Egyptian antisemitism

The Egyptian city of Assiut (Asyut) has a reputation for miserliness. As a result, the people of Assiut have nickname, being known as the "Jews of Egypt." Because, cheap Jews, har-har.

A man decided, as a practical joke, to dress up as a caricature of a rabbi and walk through the streets of Assiut to prove that the residents there are tolerant and really aren't like "Jews."

Dressed up in a ridiculous hat a fake sidelocks, he walked around the streets, posing in front of Assiut's landmarks.

Cairo Live reports that the resulting photos caused anger on social media in Egypt.

The jokester defended himself, saying he only wanted to show how tolerant the people of Assiut really are, as he is one of them.

The photographer says that indeed the citizens of the town were not angry - it was the other Egyptians who got upset at seeing a "Jew" walking around their beloved nation.

But even the jokester did the video with the intention to prove that Assiut's residents weren't like miserly Jews, so there was plenty of antisemitism all around in this episode.

Ha-ha.

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

12/18 Links: Rabbis: College Diversity Officers Promoting ‘Irrational Hatred of Jews’; Israeli injured in terror stabbing attack near Cave of Patriarchs

From Ian:

Rabbis: College Diversity Officers Promoting ‘Irrational Hatred of Jews’

A group of more than 2,000 rabbis is calling on all American universities to suspend their "diversity, equity, and inclusion" (DEI) programs due to their overwhelming anti-Israel and anti-Semitic bias.

The Coalition for Jewish Values, an umbrella organization representing Orthodox rabbis, wants all DEI programs put on ice in light of a recent study that exposed how university staffers in these positions use their social media accounts to bash Israel and incite hatred of Jews. That study, conducted by the Heritage Foundation think tank, concluded that "rather than promoting diversity and inclusion, universities may be contributing to an increase in anti-Jewish hatred by expanding DEI staff and power," the Washington Free Beacon reported last week.

"Repeatedly accusing the Jewish state of Israel of ‘genocide,' ‘apartheid,' and other fictitious crimes while praising China, a country that is putting Muslims in internment camps, indicates an irrational hatred of Jews and not a concern for human rights," Coalition for Jewish Values managing director Rabbi Yaakov Menken said in a statement provided to the Free Beacon.

The Heritage Foundation researchers reviewed the Twitter feeds of 741 DEI officials at 65 different U.S. universities to determine their attitudes on Israel and China. They found that DEI staff "tweeted, retweeted, or liked almost three times as many tweets about Israel as tweets about China." Of the tweets in question, 96 percent were critical of Israel, and 62 percent of the China-centered tweets were favorable. In many cases, Jews were criticized for their support of Israel and referred to as "Nazis" and "colonizers."

While DEI staff are primarily tasked with creating a welcoming space on campus and protecting the student population, their obsession with Israel and Jews indicates they put liberal politics first. The study was released amid a soaring number of anti-Semitic attacks on college campuses that have put the Jewish community on high alert.

"So-called diversity leads have responded to a dramatic spike in anti-Semitism by engaging in openly hateful rhetoric against Jews themselves, often using Israel as a convenient foil." said Rabbi Steven Pruzansky, Coalition for Jewish Value's Israel regional vice president.

Israeli injured in terror stabbing attack near Cave of Patriarchs

A 38-year-old Israeli was lightly injured in a stabbing attack in the West Bank city of Hebron on Saturday morning. The terrorist, a 65-year-old Palestinian woman, was neutralized by Border Police officers at the scene of the attack at Ruth checkpoint, near the Cave of the Patriarchs.

Magen David Adom (MDA) paramedics treated the injured Israeli, who is fully conscious.

The Hebron attack is the latest in a recent wave of terrorist attacks across the West Bank and Jerusalem.

On Thursday, Palestinian gunmen killed 25-year-old Yehuda Dimentman and wounded two others in a West Bank shooting attack. A week prior, a Jewish woman was stabbed while walking with her children in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of east Jerusalem.

IDF carries out intensive West Bank searches for attackers in deadly terror shooting

Israeli troops carried out intensive searches overnight in the area surrounding the West Bank city of Jenin as the manhunt continued to find the gunmen behind a deadly terror shooting, Palestinian media reports said Saturday.

The reports said the searches were concentrated on Kafr Ra’i, southwest of Jenin and a few kilometers from the scene of Thursday’s attack. Other villages in the area were also searched, including Sanur and Jaba.

Yehuda Dimentman was killed and two others were lightly hurt after they were fired on while driving a car as they left Homesh on Thursday night. A military official said the car was ambushed from the side of the road.

The searches came hours after IDF chief Aviv Kohavi on Friday toured the site of the attack and vowed to expand the manhunt until the Palestinian gunmen are found.

“Along with using intelligence capabilities, we will also increase combat forces and will continue to act and expand operational activities as needed,” Kohavi said while visiting the scene.

According to television reports on Friday evening, security officials are concerned the cell could attempt to carry out another attack before it is captured.

Police arrest 13 at Jerusalem protest calling for government action against attacks

Dozens of right-wing protesters gathered at the entrance to Jerusalem on Saturday evening calling on the Israeli government to take action following a series of Palestinian terror attacks in recent weeks, including a deadly shooting in the West Bank Thursday that claimed the life of a 25-year-old yeshiva student.

Police said they arrested 13 people for disorderly conduct, including one person who was carrying “weapons.” According to Ynet, these included a knife and brass knuckles.

In footage from the demonstration Saturday, police can be seen using a water cannon to disperse some protesters, whom they said were trying to block a highway. One person was lightly hurt, medics said.

In one video from the scene, some of the protesters — mainly Jewish youths — can be heard chanting “death to Arabs,” while waving Israeli flags.

The protest Saturday came hours after a 38-year-old man was lightly hurt when he was stabbed at a checkpoint close to the Tomb of the Patriarchs in the West Bank city of Hebron by an elderly Palestinian woman.

The victim, a resident of the Kiryat Arba settlement, struggled with the Palestinian attacker before Israeli troops subdued her without opening fire, police said in a statement.

Palestinians are still seething over the photo of the Philippines' contestant for Miss Universe making stuffed grape leaves dish in Israel and captioning it "Day in the life of a Bedouin."

A very angry article in Arab America said that Israelis were taking credit for Palestinian culture.

Imagine what their headline would be if the Miss Universe contestants were only exposed to Jewish culture. They would be talking about Israel erasing Arab culture!

The fact is that some 20% of Israelis are Arab and their culture is part of Israeli culture no less than that of Mizrahi, Russian or Ethiopian Jews.

Now the official Palestinian news agency Wafa is quoting an Arab Israeli restaurant manager as saying that stuffed grape leaves made by the pageant contestants was Palestinian (and that there is no such thing as Israeli cuisine.)

No, stuffed grape leaves is not Palestinian.

There is disagreement over where it originated, but the best guesses are Greece, Persia or Egypt. I don't see any source that claims this is a Palestinian food.

Who practices cultural appropriation again?

12/17 Links Pt2: Meir Soloveichik: What Zionism Owes Yavneh; Mark Regev: Why is support for a two-state solution declining?; SNL's Michael Che Obsesses Over Israel Once Again

From Ian:

Meir Y. Soloveichik: What Zionism Owes Yavneh

On Hanukkah, as part of the country-wide celebration, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) opened to the public a Jewish town excavated from the earth. Yavneh was where the Sanhedrin, the supreme religious and judicial body of rabbinic Judaism, took up residence in 70 C.E. Talmudic tradition accords the credit for the Sanhedrin’s survival to the sage Yohanan ben Zakkai, who fled Jerusalem before it fell. Today, an entire home has been uncovered in Yavneh, a home that clearly belonged to Jews who kept kosher and followed the Levitical laws of ritual purity. It may have been the domicile of a Sanhedrin member. Nearby, a cemetery may well bear the bodies of some of the most important rabbis in Jewish history.

All of Jewish ritual from the destruction of the Second Temple to the present has been defined by what ben Zakkai and his Sanhedrin ordained in Yavneh. It is, after Jerusalem, the most influential site in the history of Jewish law.

Now Yavneh’s significance is being celebrated and highlighted by Israeli archeologists. The excavators informed the media that the town represents “a direct voice from the past, from the period when the Jewish leadership salvaged the remaining fragments from the fall of the Temple, went into exile in Yavneh, and set about re-establishing the Jewish people there.” Simultaneously the IAA is staging an exhibit in northern Israel illustrating how the Sanhedrin preserved Judaism and the memory of Jerusalem. Rightly understood, these excavations and this exhibition are nothing less than the righting of a historic wrong, a recognition of all that modern Zionism owes to Yavneh, the Sanhedrin, and the man who oversaw its survival.

While rabbinic sources differ as to details of Yohanan ben Zakkai’s story, all agree as to certain facts. The rabbi fled Jerusalem while the Jewish rebels against the Romans were still fighting. He then met with the Roman authority and requested to be allowed to settle the Sanhedrin in Yavneh. But it is often unappreciated why he did so; why did he not hope for the miraculous salvation of the city, as it had been saved in the age of the Maccabees and so often in the Bible? The Talmud stresses that ben Zakkai was horrified by how the Jews in Jerusalem, riven by factionalism, were attacking one another inside the city even as they fought the Romans without. The last straw for ben Zakkai, according to the Talmud, was when the rebels burned their rivals’ food. This rabbinic text parallels another in Josephus’s contemporaneous history, The Jewish War. Josephus describes the horrific behavior of Jerusalem’s Jews toward one another: “It was as if to oblige the Romans they were destroying all that the city had laid up against a siege and hamstringing their own powers…. It was hunger that defeated them, a thing that could never have happened if they had not brought it about themselves.”

Jews lost Jerusalem by attacking one another. Nearly 2,000 years later, the moment would be cited by Menachem Begin in 1948 when he stood upon the ship Altalena as the forces of his political rival, David Ben Gurion, fired upon members of Begin’s Irgun, and Begin ordered his men not to fire back. Yohanan Ben Zakkai, seeing a Jerusalem where Jew slaughtered Jew, sensed the city would fall not only because of the brutality of the Roman emperor Vespasian’s assault, but because a Jerusalem that had eschewed Jewish unity had no right to expect salvation. He therefore set about preserving Jewish tradition, preparing for an age when Jews could claim Jerusalem again.

Mark Regev: Why is support for a two-state solution declining?

In his famous 2009 Bar-Ilan University address, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu placed Palestinian recognition of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people as an indispensable ingredient in any future peace, arguing that “the Palestinian leadership must arise and say: ‘Enough of this conflict. We recognize the right of the Jewish people to a state of their own.’”

Of course, Netanyahu has been accused of deliberately creating obstacles to peace.

Unlike the Likud prime minister, Tzipi Livni is “known for her efforts to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.” Yet in the lead-up to the November 2007 Annapolis peace conference, she as foreign minister urged the Palestinian leadership to recognize Israel as the national home of the Jewish people, seeing this as a vital prerequisite element in a genuine process of reconciliation.

The Palestinians refused to do so.

Herein lies the fundamental contradiction: Palestinians demand from Israel recognition of their right to national self-determination, while simultaneously refusing to acknowledge the corresponding right of Jewish people.

Palestinians counter that they accepted Israel in 1993 as part of Oslo when the sides exchanged mutual letters of recognition, and that should suffice. But acknowledging Israel as a fact is no substitute for affording it legitimacy. (Iran recognizes Israel as fact, like cancer is a fact, a cancer that must be removed.)

Ultimately, if the Jewish state remains fundamentally illegitimate in the eyes of our Palestinian neighbors, what sort of peace are they offering us?

When Israeli prime ministers Ehud Barak and Ehud Olmert adopted proposals that dealt with the post-’67 issues in a highly forthcoming manner, even accepting the redivision of Jerusalem, it was never enough for the Palestinian leadership. If the heart of the dispute is 1948 and not 1967, it really does not matter how flexible Israel is in the negotiations, how acquiescent our proposal on final borders, or how many settlements we offer to uproot. Contrary to the conventional wisdom, for Palestinians, the real problem is not Ariel and Ma’aleh Adumim, but Herzliya and Ra’anana.

Perhaps the international community needs to appreciate its accepted formula is more convention than wisdom.

Ruthie Blum: Yes, prime minister

Yes, prime minister, you know this about the settlers. You know it, as well, about the PA, which on Wednesday lauded Bar Lev for presenting the “first official recognition” of “settler violence,” and called on more Israeli ministers to “condemn and oppose settler terrorism and attacks on Palestinians.”

Regional Cooperation Minister Esawi Frej, from the left-wing Meretz Party, did so on Tuesday, tweeting: “Not all settlers are violent, but there is a great deal of violence that originates in the settlements. Anyone who ignores this problem, and the need to deal with it, encourages it.”

Yes, Prime Minister, you’re familiar with Frej. He’s the minister who last month led Israel’s delegation to the biannual gathering of PA donor countries in Oslo, where he did some fundraising for the leadership in Ramallah. Their till, after all, has been on the wane as a result of their refusal to cease paying stipends to the families of Palestinians killed while committing terrorist attacks on Israelis, or to those survivors imprisoned for doing so.

Frej is also the guy who accompanied Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz on a pilgrimage to Ramallah in October to suck up to PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and assure the terrorist-in-a-tie that the left-wing members of the Israeli government were on a mission to “keep the two-state solution alive, not let it disappear and not sabotage the chance of reaching it in the future.”

Horowitz told Abbas, “We believe that there’s no room for unilateral measures… No new settlements, no illegal outposts, and no violence by extremists among the settlers.”

Yes, prime minister, though you are cognizant that the Palestinian apparatus, not the settlement movement, is the real cause of “violent extremism,” you are stuck with the likes of Bar Lev, Frej and Horowitz for the duration of this coalition. But it’s a concoction that you yourself contrived.

The “settlers in Judea and Samaria [who] have been suffering from violence and terrorism, daily, for decades” – many of whom voted for your party – aren’t thanking you for your lip service.

12/17 Links Pt1: Ukraine recognizes Jerusalem as capital of Israel; UN Completes 14 Resolutions on Israel, 5 on Rest of World Combined'; Netanyahu and Trump's well-defended goal

From Ian:

Ukraine recognizes Jerusalem as capital of Israel

Ukraine recognizes Jerusalem as Israel's "one and only capital" and will open a branch of its embassy in the capital in the upcoming year, Ambassador to Israel Yevgen Korniychuk said on Thursday.

Korniychuk's announcement came at the Kyiv Jewish Forum, an event marking 30 years of Israel-Ukraine ties, which was attended by Jerusalem Affairs Minister Ze'ev Elkin, who grew up in Ukraine. Elkin is also the housing and construction minister.

The embassy branch in Jerusalem would be responsible for promoting bilateral trade and technological ties and will be inaugurated during a visit by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to Israel next year.

The aim of the annual Kyiv Jewish Forum – which was held online this year due to coronavirus restrictions – is to foster dialogue among leaders from around the globe that will help bring about solutions to such challenges as antisemitism, the rise of the anti-Israel boycott movement, and the effects of the ongoing pandemic. Discussions also centered on pressing issues facing Jewish communities worldwide, and relations between Ukraine, Israel, and the global Jewish community.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky attended the online event, as well as Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, Foreign Affairs Minister Dmytro Kuleba and Health Minister Viktor Liashko, in addition to Elkin, Diaspora Affairs Minister Nachman Shai and Tourism Minister Yoel Razvozov, among other senior leaders and officials from Europe, Israel and the US.

Reopening Jerusalem consulate a priority for Biden admin. - Nuland

The US is still determined to reopen the Jerusalem consulate for the Palestinians and is still in dialogue with Israel about it, contrary to many reports, US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland told Maariv.

She explained that, as clarified by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, reopening the consulate is seen as a priority for the Biden administration. This, she explained, would be a return to the longtime status quo, until former US president Donald Trump had closed the consulate down.

The Israeli government has been vocal in its opposition to reopening the consulate, as have some members of the opposition.

UN Watch: UN Completes 14 Resolutions on Israel, 5 on Rest of World Combined

The UN General Assembly will condemn Israel today in two separate resolutions, concluding the world body’s 2021 legislation with a total of 14 resolutions that single out the Jewish state, and five on the rest of the world combined.

There was one resolution each adopted yesterday for the regimes of North Korea, Iran and Myanmar, one on Crimea, while a draft resolution on Syria was deferred.

“The UN’s assault on Israel with a torrent of one-sided resolutions is surreal,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, a Geneva-based non-governmental watchdog organization.

“It’s absurd that in the year 2021, out of some 20 UN General Assembly resolutions that criticize countries, 14 of them—70 percent—were focused on one single country: Israel. Make no mistake: the purpose of the lopsided condemnations is to demonize the Jewish state,” said Neuer.

Today’s Two Resolutions Against Israel
The plenary will vote today to ratify two one-sided resolutions against Israel that were adopted in draft form last month by the UNGA’s Second Committee.

The resolution entitled “Oil slick on Lebanese shores” singled out Israel as the only country to be censured under the “Sustainable Development” agenda item, and refers to an alleged incident from the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel. It is expected to pass by an overwhelming majority.

A second resolution condemns Israel for allegedly exploiting natural resources of the Palestinians, and in the Golan, also expected to be adopted by a wide margin. The text makes no mention of Hamas’ commandeering of international aid money to fund the construction of terror tunnels rather than to rebuild destroyed infrastructure; environmental pollution caused by Palestinian tire burning; destruction of flora and fauna with arson balloons and kites; and refusal to develop their own water resources and deal with their own sewage as required by the Oslo Accords.

Palestinian Self-Determination Resolution Adopted
Only yesterday, a resolution on “The right of the Palestinian people to self-determination” was adopted by a vote of 168 to 5, with 10 abstentions. Out of hundreds of self-determination claims worldwide, thee UNGA singled out one—the claim against Israel—while omitting Palestinian obligations to dismantle terrorist infrastructure before a state is to be created.

StandWithUs: The UN and Israel UN Secretary-Generals past and present all agree: The UN's disproportionate criticism of and obsession with Israel has to stop!

Here's an unusually sane article in Egyptian media.

Well-known writer and editor Ibrahim Eissa confirmed that the Christian community in Iraq has been subjected to violent and racist attacks over the past years, noting that 4 million Iraqi Christians have left the country as a result of persecution.

During his interview at the Cairo Talk program, Eissa said that there is real fear for the disappearance of Arab Christians and what it means for diversity in Arab societies, pointing out that the proportions and numbers of Christians in Lebanon and Syria have greatly decreased as a result of the control of Islamic leaders in most Arab countries.

The journalist and Islamic thinker explained that Christians in Egypt were subjected to much sectarian strife as a result of the control of the Wahhabi Salafist movement over the country, pointing out that the exodus of the Jews from Egypt after 1956 made the country lose the civilized, internationalist character of which it was part.

This is not a take that one sees often.

Eissa has won freedom of expression awards for his outspoken journalism.

You won't believe why the Palestinian Authority shut down four mosques in Hebron

Four mosques in Hebron have been closed by the government for Friday prayers today.

Not the Israeli government, though. That would be Islamophobic!

No, the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Endowments in Hebron announced that the four mosques would be closed to encourage Muslims to all pray at the "Ibrahimi Mosque," the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron.

It announced the closure "in support of and strengthening the presence and endurance in the Holy Ibrahimi shrine and to counter repeated attacks."

When they say "attacks," they mean "Jews praying." Which means the official reason of closing these mosques is to promote antisemitism.

However, commenters on Facebook understood that the official reason was not the real reason. If it was, the PA would have made this announcement when Israel's President Herzog lit the first Chanukah candle there. Or for any of a dozen other reasons before now. Why this week?

The real reason is because those mosques are Hamas strongholds! Hamas planned a demonstration today after prayers at one of those mosques to celebrate the 34th anniversary of its launch.

The PA wanted to stop the Hamas rally, but admitting that is the goal would be divisive and look bad. So instead the PA chose to use as an excuse the only point of unity between virtually all Palestinians: hating Jews.

This one incident - the PA arbitrarily closing mosques, the official reason being antisemitism, and the real reason being a passive aggressive attack on its political rival - is a microcosm of the reality of Palestinian politics. It isn't an anomaly; this sort of stuff happens every day. But Western journalists don't bother telling their audiences how dysfunctional, broken and hateful the PA is.

Because the incompetent, petty and Jew-hating PLO represents the "best chance of peace."

‘‘Combating International Islamophobia Act’’ can easily be misused to condemn Israel defending itself from terror

The US House of Representatives approved a bill Tuesday that seeks to combat Islamophobia around the world - but not within the United States. The bill is supposed to create an Office to Monitor and Combat Islamophobia in the State Department, which only deals with foreign affairs.

The text of the bill is problematic.

Firstly, it doesn't define Islamophobia. Given that we have seen any criticism of any Muslim being used as examples of "Islamophobia," a definition is critical. Its absence means that the envoy who heads this department has wide latitude in deciding what is and isn't Islamophobic.

The bill does give some examples of a subset of things that it does consider Islamophobic:

Acts of physical violence against, or harassment of, members of the Muslim community, and acts of violence against, or vandalism of, Muslim community institutions, including schools, mosques, and cemeteries.

The first part is too vague. It need to say that an act of violence or harassment is Islamophobic only if the act was clearly directed against Muslims as Muslims. A random shooting or looting a store that happens to be Muslim-owned is not necessarily Islamophobic; there needs to be evidence that the attack was meant to target Muslims. (The second part is not bad -one can assume that an attack against a mosque or a Muslim cemetery is indeed aimed at the Muslim community.)

Instances of propaganda in government and nongovernment media that attempt to justify or promote racial hatred or incite acts of violence against members of the Muslim community.

Without a definition of Islamophobia, this can be badly misused. The Palestinian Authority issues a weekly report on "racism and incitement" in Israeli media and social media, and very few of their examples are racist or incitement. They interpret anything they disagree with politically to be incitement against them as Palestinians or as Muslims. This includes archaeological finds that support the Jewish history in the land.

The Israeli flag can be seen as incitement to people who pretend that the purpose of Israel was colonialism and ethnic cleansing of Muslims. The Israeli national anthem can be called racist. Calling Israel the Jewish state could be considered off limits. Without a definition of Islamophobia, the opportunities for misusing this example are unlimited.

And, as before, anything done towards members of the Muslim community is only Islamophobic if they are deliberately aimed at them because they are Muslim. The current language could result in absurdities, like Israeli airstrikes against terrorists with rocket launchers or Hamas weapons caches being interpreted as "acts of violence against members of the Muslim community."

So could attacks on ISIS or against Syrian chemical weapons factories.

These aren't the only problems. Is it Islamophobic to criticize women being forced to wear the hijab or burqa? Is it Islamophobic to point out that most designated terrorist organizations base their philosophy on Islam? Is pointing out the antisemitism of the hadiths that trees and stones will instruct Muslims where to find Jews to murder off limits? Can a Jew say that the Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism, which would hurt the feelings of Muslims who insist it should be Judenfrei? Can one write academic studies about Muslim cooperation with Nazis? Can one even talk about the problems of child marriage or female genital mutilation or "honor killings" in Muslim countries?

Critics of Israel falsely claim that Jews use the charge of antisemitism to silence critics - will anything in this bill forestall that very accusation from becoming true but with Muslims and Islamophobia?

As it stands, this is a poorly written, vague bill that can easily be weaponized against not just Israel but the entire West.

And let's be honest: Ilham Omar's incentive to write this bill is not to fight worldwide Islamophobia. It is to water down the effectiveness of the antisemitism envoy, which calls out antisemitism that Omar supports.

Modern antisemites like to claim that antisemitism can be fought just like every other bigotry and therefore needs no special attention. Statements against antisemitism issued by everyone from colleges to Congress get watered down into "all lives matter." Yet history shows that they are wrong: antisemitism is fundamentally different from all other hates, and as such requires different tools and methods. Only antisemitism is based on conspiracy theories, only antisemitism is hate based on the target group having too much power, only antisemitism can explain the obsessive hate of anti-Zionists. The current false narrative of the world being divided into the oppressors and the oppressed deliberately puts Jews in the "oppressor" category and therefore it is impossible to fight antisemitism within that context.

But can the same be said about Islamophobia? Is there any difference between anti-Muslim hate - which is very real - and other prejudices, bigotries and racism? Why, exactly, do we need a separate Islamophobia envoy and not, say, an envoy to combat anti-Black racism or anti-Asian racism or anti-Hindu hate worldwide? The US already monitors human rights issues around the world - what is being added by this office? The most important question to be asked about any new government organization is "what value does it add?" I don't see that this question has been answered.

Given that the downsides of the possibilities of this office being misused, compared to the undefined and nebulous benefits it would bring, one wonders why this is needed altogether.

12/16 Links Pt2: Charging Israel with apartheid turns int’l law on its head; Big Four auditors ditch NGOs listed as terror groups by Israel; Gaza Boy Is 6,000th Child Saved by Israel's Save a Child's Heart

From Ian:

Charging Israel with apartheid turns int’l law on its head - NGO Monitor

Attempts to tar Israel as an apartheid state under international law, twist legal tools for political ends, a new NGO Monitor report argues.

Authored by British Barrister Joshua Kern and NGO Monitor Legal Advisor Anne Herzberg, the report delves deep into legal sources to identify what “apartheid” means as a crime in concrete legal terms as opposed to its colloquial and political uses.

The report comes following non-governmental organizations (NGOs) increasing campaign to apply the “apartheid” label to Israel not only in political discourse but lobbying the International Criminal Court (ICC) to charge Israelis with this crime and bolstering related campaigns at the UN.

“Apartheid is a grave accusation, but claims of apartheid have been made imprecisely and casually by many NGOs… the definition of apartheid is untested in international law as no court has yet examined the crime, and there is comparatively little legal writing available,” says the report.

NGO Monitor views the report as an opportunity to address “this legal vacuum and provides a full analysis grounded in international law of the elements of apartheid as a crime against humanity.”

According to the report, “the elements of the crime have been broadened by Human Rights Watch [HRW] and others in a manner that is inconsistent with both the principle of legality (under international human rights law) and the presumption that the definition of crimes shall be strictly construed (under international criminal law).”

Law Professors' Group Should Revoke "Human Rights Award" Given to Raging Antisemite Zahra Billoo

Zahra Billoo is the Executive Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, San Francisco Bay Area. According to her official bio, she received the 2017 Human Rights Award from the Society of American Law Teachers, a left-wing law professors organization.

Let's start by noting that mainstream (i.e., in this context, progressive-leaning) Jewish organizations have been among the strongest advocates for admitting Muslim refugees to the U.S., opposing Trump's so-called "Muslim ban," opposing hateful remarks against Muslims by populist right-wingers, and so on.

Nevertheless, as the Jerusalem Post reports Billoo holds these organizations, which she calls "polite Zionists," responsible for "Islamaphobia:" "When we talk about islamophobia, we often think of the vehement fascists… but I also want us to pay attention to the polite Zionists, the ones that say 'let's just break bread together.'" Who is she referring to? "the Anti-Defamation League, we need to pay attention to the Jewish Federation, we need to pay attention to the Zionist synagogues, we need to pay attention to the Hillel chapters on our campuses." These, she said, are Muslims' "enemies."

You can't get more mainstream in the Jewish community than synagogues (almost all synagogues would qualify as "Zionist" by her lights), Hillel, the Federation charitable infrastructure, and the ADL. In other words, Billoo wanted her audience to see the overwhelming majority of the American Jewish community as the "enemy." Even "organizations who say they're not zionists but want a two-state solution" are the enemy, assumedly because they don't want Israel destroyed.

Worse yet, she strongly implies that Islamaphobia is a Jewish conspiracy: "Islamophobia is a well-funded conspiracy, a well-funded project — A well-funded project to marginalize us… We have to connect the dots between the organizations that promote Zionist agendas materials marketing and legislation are the same ones that want to ban Muslims, are the same ones that want to pass anti-sharia legislation…"

‘Jews Don’t Count’ Author David Baddiel Explains to ‘Late Night’ Host Seth Meyers Why Antisemitism Is a Kind of ‘Racism’

British comedian and writer David Baddiel discussed how antisemitism fits into the concept of racism during a Tuesday guest appearance on “Late Night With Seth Meyers.”

The author, who was born Jewish but identifies as an atheist, published “Jews Don’t Count” in September. In it, Baddiel uses his “unique combination of close reasoning, polemic, personal experience and jokes” to argue “that those who think of themselves as on the right side of history have often ignored the history of antisemitism,” according to the publisher.

Baddiel argued to Meyers on Tuesday that antisemitism should be judged as a form of racism, though it is often not.

“It’s about the identity politics conversation and how in that conversation, which has intensified incredibly over the last 20 years, it seems to me that antisemitism, which is a very old racism [and] a very old form of discrimination, is kind of very low in the mix of that,” he said about his book. “It kind of feels like people aren’t so bothered about it.”

Baddiel told Meyers that in the US, it’s “more of a complex thing” and there “seems to a problem” with identifying racism and antisemitism.

He explained to the talk show host, “I’m an atheist, but that would get me no free passes out of Auschwitz. White supremacists don’t check whether I keep kosher before they think ‘I’ll burn down that Jews house.’ So for me, its an accident of birth that the racists hate me for and so, therefore, its racism.”

It's funny that they accuse us of "whataboutism"....

Family Makes Aliyah Just To Escape All-Pervasive Christmas Music (PreOccupied Teritory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Check out their Facebook page.

Christmas music West Hempstead, December 19 - Saturation of the environment with "seasonal" songs has driven one homeowner in this Long Island hamlet, along with his wife and children, to pack up and move to Israel.

Adam Shulman, 30, told PreOccupied Territory today that the family's Aliyah, literally "ascent" in Hebrew, will take place next week, following what the father of three characterized as "year after year of the same musical assault on the ears and mind every time you walk into a store or turn on the radio, and it gets worse as time goes on." Shulman spoke to journalists as movers loaded the family's furniture and other possessions into a truck for shipment to Haifa, and thence by truck to the community of Efrata, south of Jerusalem, where they hope to find an environment blessedly devoid of lyrical references to silent nights, coming faithful, red-nosed reindeer, and bearded folk figures coming to town after making lists and checking them twice.

"Three years ago, Tehilla and I resolved to escape this jingle-hellscape," he recalled, nodding to his wife of eight years. "We always knew we wanted to live in Israel, and had a vague plan to get there, but that was when we started to make concrete arrangements, because neither of us could stomach the prospect of another slog through the pre-Christmas season each time Thanksgiving rolls around. It's bad enough that a couple of our neighbors put up their decorations in October. Our original shipment and flight reservations were for this past summer, but COVID complicated things and we've been forced to endure more than half of this year's music. At least we're getting out before it peaks next week."

The Shulmans' destination community of Efrat, a few minutes south of Jerusalem, boasts a sizable contingent of English-speakers, many of recent American extraction. Most immigrants to the town of about 11,000 chose the locale for ideological reasons, either because of the political and spiritual significance of living in the ancient Jewish heartland in the face of international opposition to Israel's control of the area, or because they believe Jews belong in Israel and simply found Efrat convenient and affordable. Tehilla and Adam, however, while acknowledging the influence of Zionism in their "modern orthodox" Jewish upbringings, talked mainly of getting the hell out of the dystopian world of commercialized paganized acoustic assaults.

"It's not even that it's all Christian and we're not," explained Tehilla, 28. "I used to love watching the fire department drive 'Santa' around the streets on its biggest truck, waving at all the kids, even while I knew we weren't really part of the celebration. It was all kind of sweet, kind of wholesome. The music has just become unbearably omnipresent. We're out of here."

No one has yet informed the Shulmans that Jewish holiday music in Israel is fast approaching similar saturation as the respective festivals approach, and that said music has even less to recommend it.

12/16 Links Pt1: Israeli Military Leaders: Biden Nuclear Deal Poses ‘Significant Threat to Israel’s Security’; Abrams: Two Signs the Palestinian Issue Is Rapidly Losing Its Importance to World Politics

From Ian:

Israeli Military Leaders: Biden Nuclear Deal Poses ‘Significant Threat to Israel’s Security’

A group of nearly 3,000 Israeli military leaders, soldiers, commanders, and intelligence officials are warning the Biden administration and Democrats in Congress that a new nuclear deal with Iran poses "a significant threat to Israel's security."

These leaders, who organized under the umbrella group Israel's Defense and Security Forum (IDSF), raise concerns that the United States will sign a deal that gives Iran the cash assets needed to fund terrorism and put it on a glide path to a nuclear weapon that will be used to destroy the Jewish state, according to a letter sent last week to Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Bob Menendez (D., N.J.) and senior Biden administration officials.

The 2015 nuclear accord "is fatally flawed and represents a significant threat to Israel's security," the Israeli leaders write, according to a copy of the letter obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. "Returning to this expired and flawed agreement would be a grave mistake." Iran's only goal, they say, is to create a "nuclear umbrella under which Tehran can dominate the region."

The letter, sent on Dec. 9, comes as the Biden administration continues its diplomatic effort to secure a revamped nuclear deal with Iran, which would lift sanctions on the hardline regime and provide it with billions of dollars in cash assets. The Israeli government has expressed its fear about a new deal, but the IDSF letter outlines in the clearest terms to date what the Jewish state expects from the Biden administration if it follows through with negotiations. Concerns about a new deal have been growing as Iran boosts its enrichment of uranium, the central fuel for an atomic weapon, even as it participates in talks with the United States.

As the Biden administration considers inking a temporary deal that places fewer restrictions on Iran's nuclear program, the Israeli generals warn that this type of agreement "would fuel Iran's already recovering economy and leave Israel in an unacceptably precarious situation."

The Iranian Threat Cannot be Underestimated

As we enter the new year, Israel’s strategic position is sound, but fragile and facing many challenges. Sound, because despite the events of the past year, Israel ends 2021 with its diplomatic standing strong, its economy robust and its military power established beyond doubt. Israel continues to harvest the fruits of its diplomatic achievements, of the perception of its prowess and of being a nation of innovation and technology.

Fragile in view of the large number of volatile issues that it faces, the connections between them and the broad implications of each. Above all, of course, the Iranian nuclear issue on which we are approaching a decisive point, and where tensions are increasing in the diplomatic arena and on the security front.

That Israel faces many challenges seems to always be the case. But at this time, among those challenges is the need to tread lightly on every level, from the strategic to the operative planes. Some of the challenges the country currently faces involve decisions on issues within the Israeli sphere itself.

The unity of Israeli society is essential to our national resilience. This is true at any time, and all the more so because of the challenges that the political-security reality may spring upon us. The tensions between Jews and Arabs in mixed cities since “Operation Guardian of the Walls” in May, the decline in the sense of personal safety, the apparent decline in governability and the increase in serious crime in the Arab sector have created new fissures and deepened existing ones. These are the results of internal polarization.

The situation assessment on this matter necessitates a change of approach, and addressing these issues must be among the government’s primary goals for the coming year.

Gantz was warning Washington, not Tehran

If, as the Times reports, the Israelis fear that the United States is currently conducting secret back-channel diplomatic discussions with Iran that will lead to renewed public negotiations, whose outcome will be a pre-ordained surrender of Western interests, then they have good reason to think so.

That's what happened nine years ago when President Barack Obama was conducting his successful re-election campaign in 2012. During his foreign-policy debate with Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, Obama promised that any nuclear agreement with Iran would mean the end of Tehran's nuclear program. But he was already planning on ignoring that pledge. Senior White House Advisor Valerie Jarrett was conducting backchannel talks with the Iranians and preparing the way for a deal that would contradict Obama's avowals. By the time new talks had convened in 2013, the Western slide to surrender to Iranian demands was a fait accompli.

While Jarrett is no longer on the federal payroll, most of the same cast of characters that were running foreign policy for Obama are doing the same for Biden. There's every reason to believe that when their obsession for diplomacy for its own sake is stymied, their reaction will be to again double down on appeasement rather than honestly confront their mistakes and seek a different course.

The Israelis know their window for both attempts to influence Biden and/or to take action on their own may be closing. Once the United States and Iran are back in Vienna and moving towards concluding another nuclear pact that won't actually stop Iran's march to a nuclear weapon, it may be too late for the Israelis to act.

Just as troubling is the likelihood that the Americans aren't taking Gantz's threats seriously. They know how difficult a military campaign to take out Iran's nuclear facilities would be even with the much greater forces that the United States can bring to bear on the problem than Israel. And, as the Israelis are finding out, American opposition to Israeli action can be made clear in ways other than diplomatic exchanges. As the Times later reported, the Americans are stalling on delivering new refueling tanker planes that will be needed if Israel is to attack Iran. That won't impact events in the short term. But it is, at the very least, a symbolic gesture intended to warn the Jewish state to defer to Washington, even if it means sacrificing their defense interests.

The South Africa contestant for Miss Universe, who was under huge pressure by Israel haters to withdraw from the pageant, also gained lots of support from her fellow South Africans on social media.

She wrote on Instagram,

“The most beautiful turn of events is when the obstacles that were meant to tear you down, end up strengthening you in ways you never could've imagined”

I decided to choose faith over fear and follow what felt right and good to my soul and I am filled with so much appreciation and gratitude for all the love and comfort I received in support of my pursuing something extremely important to me.

In the run-up to the contest, NGO Citizens For Integrity (CFI) wrote an open letter to sports, arts and culture minister Nathi Mthethwa, calling on him to apologize for his treatment of the young woman, and reiterated it after her third place finish.

Columnist for Eyewitness News, Kenneth Mokgatlhe, also called for an apology from the government:

Miss South Africa, Lalela Mswane, is an embodiment of resilience and bravery. She was able to secure a second-runner-up place at the Miss Universe competition in Eilat, Israel this week. This, despite an attempt by naysayers who did everything possible to discourage and pressurise Mswane from competing in this extraordinary international meeting.

Our government was quick to withdraw its support for Mswane, siding with anti-Israel organisations which label the Jewish state as an “apartheid” state. However, we have come to see the power of social media as Mswane received enormous support from ordinary South Africans, hence she was able to resist the pressure from politicians and other influential personalities in this country.

It goes without saying that the government, through the minister of Arts and Culture (Nathi Mthethwa) should offer an unconditional apology to Mswane and to the entire country for behaving like a tyrant and failing to show the world that South Africa is a true democracy.

The haters know how to make noise, but most people are far more sensible.