Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, January 02, 2022

Before 1967, Arabs explicitly said ALL of Israel was occupied Palestinian territory at the UN

It is easy for clueless Westerners to think that when anti-Zionist Arabs speak of "occupation" that they are only talking about the areas that Israel won in 1967.

However, UN documents show that the Palestinian Arabs and the Arab world as a whole considered all of Israel to be illegally occupied by Zionists.

Issa Nakhleh, a Palestinian Arab envoy of the Arab League who was invited to speak at the 367th meeting of the UN Special Political Committee, 12 December 1962, floated the idea that Israel illegally occupied all of Palestine:

If the situation in Palestine was the result of an armed conflict between the Jews and the Arabs, the occupation by the Jews of 80 per cent of the area was a belligerent occupation subject under international law to the law of war. It was clear from the Abandoned Areas Ordinance of June 1948 that the Jewish authorities based themselves on conquest and occupation. In that Ordinance an abandoned area was defined as any area or place which had been conquered by .Jewish armed forces, had surrendered to Jewish armed forces or had been deserted by its inhabitants. Thus the Jewish occupants would be entitled only to the rights attributable to a temporary belligerent occupation pending the settlement of the dispute by peaceful means and subject to the law of war regarding the belligerent occupation.

This was echoed as definite international law a year later by the Jordanian delegate to the UN at the 411th meeting of the Special Political Committee, Monday, 18 November 1963:

14. In paragraph 166 of volume II of his book International Law,.Y L. Oppenheim, the leading authority on international law, said that it had taken the whole of the nineteenth century to develop the rules regarding occupation. Those rules, which were universally recognized, were based on the principle that, although the occupant in no wise acquired sovereignty over a territory through the mere fact of having occupied it, he exercised for the time being military authority over it and he must use that authority for the ultimate benefit of the inhabitants.

15. It was thus clear that Israel had no sovereignty over the area it occupied in Palestine and· that its position there was simply and purely that of a military occupant. As such it was not entitled to oppose such action as the United Nations might take to protect the properties of the refugees.

16, Although some might contend that Israel at least had sovereignty within the borders allotted to it by the General Assembly under the Partition Plan that was not so under the rules of international law. Israel had acquired no sovereignty whatever over the territory it now occupied, because the legitimate owners had not ceded that territory to it and because the United Nations itself did not possess the power to cede the territory of one people to another or to transfer sovereignty over it. Now did recognition of one States by any number of Member or non-member States confer sovereignty on it under international law. Israel could acquire sovereignty only if the territory which it occupied was ceded to it by the legitimate sovereign, namely the Arabs of Palestine.

Jordan's 1962 argument is that the UN had no right to recognize Israel as a state, ever, because the entire territory belong to the fictitious Palestinian Arab nation first, and it then puts forth the argument that unless the Arabs of Palestine agree to it, Israel can never become a state.

When Palestinians say that they want to end the "occupation," they are usually very careful not to say anything about 1967. To them, "occupation" means the entire State of Israel, and most Westerners are too clueless to ask them that question directly.

From Times of Israel:

The Israel Defense Forces said Saturday morning that two rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip toward central Israel.

Large explosions were heard in a number of central Israel cities around 7 a.m.

Video circulating on social media showed an explosion in the sea off the coast of Jaffa.

Other footage apparently showed the two rockets being fired from Gaza.

Armed factions in Gaza said the rocket fire was “caused by weather conditions,” not the first time the excuse has been used to explain the firing of projectiles toward Israel.

Indeed. I know of at least two times that rocket fire was said to have been caused by lightning strikes - but the other two times, the IDF actually accepted the excuse.

One was in November 2020, and the other in October 2018, both times the rocket fire was blamed on lightning. And Israel seemed to accept that excuse.

In at least one of the previous attacks, Israel was able to link the launch with a specific lightning strike. The video of the rockets being launched over Gaza today shows rainy conditions, but no lightning is evident.

Clearly Israel didn't believe that excuse this time, because the IDF responded with limited attacks against Gaza military targets early Sunday morning.

There are other differences. These rockets did not seem to be aimed at targets, but deliberately towards the sea and another unoccupied area. They appear to have been a message from, probably, Islamic Jihad, to pressure Israel to release a prisoner on a hunger strike whose condition is deteriorating.

UPDATE: Hamas, and Iran, are trumpeting the claim that Hamas responded to Israel's raid with SAM-7 rockets, the first time they have used those anti-aircraft missiles.

It seems entirely possible that the initial rocket fire was meant to get a predictable, symbolic reaction from Israel just so they could use those missiles and claim to field a successful new weapon.

01/01 Links: The Middle East: A year in review; Socialism’s Jewish question: Modern antisemitism explored in new book; Danish-Israeli Restores the Historic Iconic Jaffa Clock Tower

From Ian:

Seth Frantzman: The Middle East: A year in review

In contrast to this threat, Israel increased its joint training with the US and other partners and allies. It hosted an exercise with the British and Americans called Tri-Lightning and sent F-35s to fly in Italy. It also did a joint naval drill with US Central Command and Bahrain and the UAE in the Red Sea. It hosted US Marines at the same time for training in Israel. This was the highest tempo of joint training in Israel’s history. It came amid a joint drone training in Israel and the Blue Flag drills that saw an unprecedented number of partner countries come to Israel.

Israel was putting itself on the map in military technology in a way it hadn’t before. This was tied to Israel’s increased work with the US defense industry and also talk of more Israeli partnerships in the Gulf and beyond. This is where Israel excels, in developing new technology such as precision weapons, artificial intelligence and air defense. Israel revealed, for instance, that it had used a drone swarm for the first time over Gaza in the May war, and it had used more artificial intelligence. The message was that Israel could confront Iranian-backed adversaries.

For Israel’s friends in the Gulf, though, the big question was whether the US would be leaving the region. After the debacle of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, it became clear that the US was not going to remain in many places. The US might reassess its role in Syria in 2022. It was taking all its combat troops out of Iraq. This was lip service to appease pro-Iran voices in Iraq. But the larger context was the Iran deal talks in Vienna and major worldwide shifts, as the US pivots to confront China. Many countries wondered if the absence of the US in the region would require them to change their policies.

Toward that end the UAE and Egypt patched things up with the Assad regime, and together with Saudi Arabia they seemed willing to patch things up with Iran as well. At the end of the day, this didn’t fit a clear narrative of who was on whose side in the region. The Assad regime, for instance, is backed by Iran, but countries in the Gulf want it to reincorporate with the Arab League.

With everyone hedging their bets at the end of the 2021, the question was also what Russia and China would do.

Russia and Turkey were playing an increasing role in Africa. China, meanwhile, appeared to have signed a 25-year deal with Iran, and China was becoming more critical of Israeli actions. The overall story was that China believed that if it was going to be confronted by the US, then it would be tougher on Western countries and regional countries that are close to the US.

This presents the US with a problem. It wants to leave the Middle East and Africa to confront China and do near-peer rivalry with Russia in Ukraine. But every time it leaves a place like Afghanistan, it is China and Russia that seek to move into the vacuum. They don’t see it as a zero-sum game; they believe they can move into areas the US is leaving, while the US believes it must leave to focus on China and Russia. This puts US allies and partners in the region in a bind.

At the end of 2021, it remains to be seen what long-term ramifications this major shift will lead to.

Socialism’s Jewish question: Modern antisemitism explored in new book

Book: The European Left and the Jewish Question 1848-1992 As several contributors to this book remark, socialism took on the form of a quasi-religion. Belief rather than analysis became the centerpiece of endeavor. For many, Jews simply did not count when it came to discrimination. So when the Soviet show trials took place in the 1930s, many on the Left, including critics of Stalin, preferred to look away when anti-Jewish themes pervaded the courtroom.

Several authors highlight external factors that have influenced groups on the Left. The Spanish Left imbibed ideas at the altar of historical anti-Judaism during the Inquisition. The Christian Left promoted the vision of a Jesus who identified with the poor – and thereby with the Palestinian refugees.

In France during the 1950s, many embraced anti-colonialism and supported the National Liberation Front’s struggle for independence in Algeria – and warmed to Nasser’s backing for it. Decolonization during the 1960s allowed the New Left in Europe to identify more with the nascent Palestinian national movement than with the Israeli one – and this was before the West Bank settlement drive.

In an effort to express solidarity with discriminated Muslim minorities in Europe, some on the French Left maintain a mistaken silence about the reactionary politics of the Islamists. And anti-Zionism sometimes tips over into overt antisemitism. There were antisemitic killings in Toulouse, Montauban and Vincennes in recent times. In 2006, Ilan Halimi was killed because he was Jewish – the first antisemitic murder in France since 1945.

This volume is unusual because it goes into the origins of contemporary antisemitism and anti-Zionism within the European Left in mainly France and Italy. Pushing the slogans and clichés of campaigners against antisemitism to one side, it looks at the roots of the problem today. Its detailed explanations by scholars will certainly provide food for thought for those who wish to deepen their knowledge.

Desmond Tutu and the Jews

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who died on Sunday, was a Nobel Prize winner and a hero of the anti-apartheid movement. Yet despite all his many qualities, he had a real problem with Jews and the Jewish State. He had many Jewish friends and admirers. But his blatantly antisemitic rhetoric, on public record, consistently and simply proved that you can be a likable, even sweet hero, and still be a dangerous fool.

I have tried to understand why so many perfectly nice, good Christians seem to have such trouble with Israel. Is it just the sympathy for the underdog? Or the arrogance of many Israelis? Is it something about Jews or Judaism that offends them?

Mahatma Gandhi, one of the founders of modern India was regarded as a holy man. He, too, could not sympathize with Jewish aspirations. Gandhi’s great ideal was that of satyagraha: non-violent resistance to evil. A lovely idea in theory, and a very Christian idea of turning the other cheek observed more in the breach. Of Hitler’s evil, Gandhi said in 1938, “the calculated violence of Hitler may result in a general massacre of Jews, but if their minds could be prepared for voluntary suffering, the massacre could be turned to a day of thanksgiving and joy.”

Thank you, but no thank you. He admired the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem who visited Hitler to ensure that if he invaded the Middle East, he would exterminate the Jews there too. He even suggested that “the Jews should follow the doctrine of satyagraha and offer themselves to the Arabs to be shot or thrown into the dead sea.” One wonders why he didn’t suggest satyagraha to Stalin.

There were two men I admired who were both committed Christians and devoted much of their lives to fighting against Apartheid. And yet they did not suffer from Tutu’s blind spot when it came to sympathizing with Jewish aspirations for and the right to defend a homeland. Robert Birley and Trevor Huddleston — both men I had got to know late in their lives through my involvement in the Anti-Apartheid Movement and close friends.

Pseudo-journalist CJ Werleman - who we have already proven is an lying antisemite - is at it again,

From Turkey's TRTWorld:

The Zionist state has been pumping billions of dollars into US-based groups to portray Muslims as a community of terrorists.

Billions!

Recent revelations that an anti-Muslim hate group allegedly paid thousands of dollars to two employees of a Muslim advocacy organisation to undermine American Muslim activists on behalf of the Israeli government are undoubtedly shocking but represent only the tip of the iceberg in what is now a decades-long effort by the Jewish State to harass, smear and threaten pro-Palestinian activists in the United States.

The International Project of Terrorism is not an Israeli group. It is also not an anti-Muslim group, from everything I can see. It exposes antisemitism and terror ties in some Muslim groups, I have never seen it say any blanket anti-Muslim statement.

Anyway, that is "thousands" of dollars, and not from Israel. Next?

[T]he nexus between Zionism and the Islamophobia industry is documented in great detail, starting with a Zionist-funded conference in 1979. The conclave brought together US neoconservatives with Likud Party figures to tie Islam to terrorism in mainstream political discourse, with the aim of tying Palestinian aspirations for liberation to “terrorism” in the minds of American voters, as observed by Professor Deepa Kumar in Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire.

The book isn't online, so I have no idea what conference this is, but even here Werleman doesn't claim that the supposedly anti-Islamic conference was funded by Israel, just that it was "Zionist-funded." Strike two.

His next two examples likewise say that Zionist groups are funding anti-Islamic groups. Nothing about Israel, and if anyone wants to bother to check if these groups are really Islamophobic, feel free. I've never seen anti-Muslim statements from Campus Watch or Daniel Pipes or the others.

Strike two. Next?

Last year, the Jewish-American magazine Forward obtained documents showing that Israel’s Ministry of Strategic Affairs transferred $40,000 to US-based Christian Zionist organisation,

Proclaiming Justice to the Nations (PJTN), which has been identified as an anti-Muslim hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Centre, a non-governmental organisation that tracks hate crimes in the United States.

I couldn't find PJTN listed as an Islamophobic group on the SPLC website. Werleman doesn't want you to know that the PJTN strongly protested, and the SPLC removed them from their Islamophobic list!

So the only "evidence" that Israel gives "billions" to "Islamophobic hate groups" is a single $40,000 contribution to a Zionist Christian group that isn't a hate group.

Werleman strikes out, and proves yet again that he is a serial liar. I don't expect him to recant - his lies are deliberate - but perhaps Turkey's media mouthpiece has at least a modicum of journalistic ethics.

12/31 Links Pt2: 18 noteworthy Jews who died in 2021; BDS bigotry at the Sydney Festival; Bookseller Pulls Children’s Book That Erases Israel From Middle East

From Ian:

18 noteworthy Jews who died in 2021

Every year brings the deaths of Jewish icons who leave behind outsized legacies, from the realms of art and culture, government, business, philanthropy and beyond.

Here are 18 whom we lost in 2021 — none from COVID — presented in alphabetical order.

Sheldon Adelson
Few people have exerted as significant an influence on American and Israeli politics as Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire casino magnate who gave lavishly to Republican candidates and Israeli causes.

The founder and CEO of the Las Vegas Sands Corporation and one of the world’s richest men, Adelson regularly set records for his donations. At $25 million, he was the largest donor to Donald Trump’s successful 2016 presidential bid and the biggest giver in the 2012 American election cycle, at nearly $93 million. He was also a leading supporter of Birthright Israel, the Republican Jewish Coalition, the Zionist Organization of America, the Republican Jewish Coalition and the Israel American Council.

He had previously been a top AIPAC supporter, but cut off support more than a decade ago in favor of more conservative pro-Israel groups. He was also a principal backer of former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He died in January at 87.

PodCast: Why the Media Keeps Getting the Jerusalem Story Wrong A fireside chat with Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem

Jerusalem is probably the most famous city in the world, but much of it is for the wrong reasons. This past May, when Hamas launched a terror war against Israel, Jerusalem was at centre stage, thanks to anti-Israel propaganda which was being spread around the world.

But Jerusalem is more than a city under the siege of misinformation; it is also the 3,000 year old home of the Jewish People, and is undergoing a historic revitalization.

One of the people most responsible for Jerusalem’s revitalization is Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, the city’s deputy mayor, who joined The Honest Report as our guest.

The Tikvah Podcast: Our Favorite Broadcasts of 2021

In 2021, 49 different guests appeared on the podcast over the course of 44 new episodes. Our conversations touched on some of the most important and interesting subjects in Jewish life, including discussions with leaders of Israel’s Haredi community, a course developer who is deploying technology to teach people Yiddish, diplomats and strategists shaping foreign-policy debates in Israel, Europe, and America, elected officials and diplomats, historians and social scientists, theologians and rabbis, academics and authors, reporters and entrepreneurs. Each guest, in conversation with Mosaic editor Jonathan Silver, trained his or her unique perspective on some timely or enduring question that stands before the Jewish people and the Jewish state.

In this episode, we present some of our favorite conversations this year. Guests featured in this year-end episode include the Israeli rabbi Yehoshua Pfeffer, the foreign-policy analysts Benjamin Haddad and Michael Doran, Wall Street Journal editor Elliot Kaufman, social scientist Nicholas Eberstadt, Jewish educational leader David Rozenson, Yiddish expert Meena Viswanath, tech CEO Sean Clifford, novelist Dara Horn, and the eminent writer Cynthia Ozick.

‘Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions’ bigotry at the Sydney Festival

The Sydney Festival has been subjected to intolerable pressure for accepting a $20,000 partnership with the Israeli Embassy in Canberra. The funds are to be used to stage the dance Decadence by Israeli choreographer Ohad Naharin at the Sydney Opera House during the 2022 Sydney Festival in January.

Despite a number of individual performers and organisations pulling out in protest over the Israeli embassy’s sponsorship, a Sydney Festival spokesperson has said they would not be terminating their agreement with the Israeli embassy.

‘The festival is unwavering in its commitment to ensuring a culturally safe space for all artists, employees and audiences,’ the statement said.

‘[The Sydney Festival] will be reviewing all funding arrangements with embassies and cultural organisations to ensure that any continuance of these partnerships is compatible with maintaining a welcoming and culturally safe environment moving forward.’

That statement on behalf of the Sydney Festival might sound fair and reasonable however, the increase in Boycott, Diversity and Sanctions (BDS) activity in Australia should be seen as foreboding for those Australians who believe in a multicultural tolerant society because BDS is the very antithesis of that.

There are a lot of offensive Israelophobic behaviours to unpack in this sorry saga with the Sydney Festival. An article in the ‘extreme left’ publication Meanjin by a clique of pro-Palestinian activists epitomises a vicious, racist attack on artistic freedom by pro-Palestinian bullies.

Let me run through the names of those who wrote a hateful article Sydney Festival: ‘Progressive Except for Palestine’ in Meanjin. Before I do that, I would like to put paid to this ruse of ‘Progressive Except for Palestine’, which Philip Mendes has explained in an article in the journal Fathom to be the new buzzword for Palestinian supporters.

In this essay, Philip Mendes argues that the new buzzword for Palestinian nationalists, ‘Progressive except for Palestine’ aimed at progressives who do not support fundamentalist calls for the abolition of the State of Israel, is ‘not a perspective which seeks to advance principled reasonable criticism of Israel’. Rather, Mendes argues the term is ‘a viewpoint based on demonising the State of Israel and all its supporters, including the many who favour a two-state solution, and limiting freedom of speech by illiberally excluding them from progressive publications and debates’. – from Fathom.

Mendes points out that a true call should be ‘Progressive except for Jews’ with the Left having been selectively ignoring manifestations of Jewish oppression throughout history. I would go further and discount the slogan ‘Progressive except for Palestine’ as a cheap trick to demean progressiveness that ignores Palestinianism – as though there is some special virtue in supporting a cause that ignores the corrupt, misogynist, kleptocratic, and intolerant nature of the Palestinian Authority or the manifest Jew-hatred from Hamas that is abundantly evident in the annals of Palestine Media Watch.

It happens every time.

A Palestinian attacks Israelis with a knife, he gets killed, and the Palestinian media starts off with sob stories about how he in an innocent victim.

The Ministry of Health announced this afternoon the death of the young man, Amir Atef Khader Rayan, from the town of Qarawat Bani Hassan, after the occupation soldiers shot him on charges of trying to carry out a stabbing attack west of Salfit.

The martyr was shot by the occupation, leaving behind his wife, who is seven months pregnant, and his sons Muhammad, 9, Jana, 7, Atef, 4, Maryam, two, and his wife, who is pregnant with a child in her seventh month.

How could a man with four kids and a pregnant wife possibly want to jeopardize that?

Perhaps because he wanted to be a hero:

The Islamic Resistance Movement ( Hamas ) mourns its martyr hero Mujahid Amir Atef Rayan from Qarawat Bani Hassan, who rose to life after carrying out a heroic stabbing operation today, Friday, with an unplanned coming.

These operations are a natural response to the crimes of the enemy and its settlers.

A thousand greetings to the spirit of the heroic martyr and to all the heroes of the stabbing and ramming operations and the heroes of the resistance who clash every night with the enemy and its settlers, and we call upon the masses of our people to confront the occupation army and its herds of settlers.

The convoys of martyrs will remain a beacon that illuminates the path for our people towards freedom and independence, and the purification of our sanctuary, our sanctuaries, and our holy sites from the impurity of the occupation and its usurping settlers.

And no one in Palestinian media ever asks why people who attack Jews and get killed are considered heroes, encouraging more.

Because that is the entire point.

12/31 Links Pt1: The UN - where anti-Israel prejudice remains supreme; US announces $100M in funding for UNRWA; AOC Staffer: Israel a ‘Racist European Ethnostate Built on Stolen Land’

From Ian:

Mark Regev: The UN - where anti-Israel prejudice remains supreme

There are clear signs that Arab hostility towards the Jewish state is on the wane. The Abraham Accords normalized Israel’s relations with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, an Israeli Defense Minister can make a very public visit to Morocco and even Saudi Arabia allows flights to and from Israel to cross over its territory. But there remains at least one bastion of anti-Israel enmity, the United Nations, where systematic, organizational prejudice against the Jewish state reigns supreme.

The opening act: Though not representing a member state, in 1974 Yasser Arafat was issued an extraordinary invitation to address the UN General Assembly (UNGA). His speech included a call for an end to Israel. The Jews, he said, could become citizens in the PLO’s “democratic Palestine.” Extreme content notwithstanding, and the fact that he spoke soon after his PLO massacred 25 hostages in Ma’alot, mostly high school students, Arafat received a standing ovation.

Infamously, the following year, the UNGA adopted Resolution 3379 which declared Zionism a “form of racism and racial discrimination”. Although that travesty was officially repealed in 1991, its annulment did not mark the end of the UN’s anti-Israel obsession – far from it.

Every year the UNGA routinely passes, with massive majorities, a series of blatant anti-Israel resolutions; in 2021 17 were enacted. Earlier this month, for example, the UNGA called upon Israel to withdraw from the “occupied Syrian Golan,” with delegates voting to hand over the Golan to Bashar Assad’s murderous regime.

But the story doesn’t end with these multiple resolutions, as some of them establish UN organs whose sole mission is to further propagate an anti-Israel agenda. The Special Committee to Investigate Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People is one such body. The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, which every year organizes the UN’s annual International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, is another.

Melanie Phillips: New Year’s resolution? Abolish the UN Human Rights Council

These visionaries failed to grasp that, since the world was dominated by states and regimes that were both repressive and deeply imbued with Jew-hatred and hostility to Israel, any world body or supra-national system of law would itself become an accomplice to tyranny and antisemitism.

That’s why “lawfare,” or the weaponisation of international law to wage war with better PR, has become a prime weapon against Israel, singling out the Jewish people alone for such unhinged attack.

And it’s why the UN, the world body set up to ensure that never again would crimes against humanity be repeated — a global aim which it has conspicuously failed to achieve — has itself turned into a weapon with which to commit them against the Jewish people once again.

In other words, the UNHRC has become an engine of evil.

In January, the US returns to the Council as a member. The Biden administration claims it will thus be able to stop its abuses. This is unlikely.

The UN is supposedly the world’s police force. But if a police force is in the pocket of a murderous and tyrannical cult, it turns into a protection racket where the innocent get gunned down and the guilty remain free to inflict yet more carnage.

This is not just Israel’s problem. As long as the west ignores the profound corruption of the UNHRC, it corrupts itself.

How to make the world a better place in 2022? Shut down the UNHRC.

v Caroline Glick: The escalating international war against Israel

And this brings us to the Human Rights Council's permanent inquisition whose operations a large majority of UN member nations voted to fund last week at the General Assembly. As Professor Anne Bayefsky explained in a detailed report published this week by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, the commission of inquiry's mandate is effectively limitless. The commission is empowered to rewrite the entire history of the Arab conflict with Israel and determine that Israel's birth was an original sin which must be undone. The commission is empowered to carry out an "investigation" on the basis of "testimonies" which EU-funded anti-Israel groups will supply them describing entirely fraudulent "war crimes" that will form the basis of indictments of Israeli elected leaders, IDF commanders and line soldiers, and Israeli civilians who reside in Judea, Samaria and unified Jerusalem. The UN's political "courts" in turn will agree to try them for these made-up crimes.

Moreover, as Bayefsky noted, the commission is charged with making "recommendations on measures to be taken by third States to ensure respect for international humanitarian law in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem…[to ensure] that they do not aid or assist in the Commission of internationally wrongful acts."

A similar statement is made in the resolution's preamble regarding "business enterprises."

The message in both cases is self-explanatory. The reports the inquisition will publish will serve as the basis for economic boycotts of Israel to be enacted by both government bureaucrats and businesses.

Israel has no choice but to fight this commission and any business, government or judge that uses its reality-free reports. Israel must ensure that the antisemitic propaganda the commission puts out does not turn into "law" through the actions of radical justices and government attorneys. And Israel must reconcile itself to the fact that the EU bureaucracy and much of Europe is waging a war against it, and launch a vigorous counter-assault.

The Caroline Glick Show: Ep31 – Lawfare – Domestic and Foreign | Guest: Prof. Avi Bell

In Episode 31 of the Caroline Glick Mideast News Hour, Caroline was joined by Prof. Avi Bell from Bar Ilan University and University of San Diego law schools. Caroline and Avi discussed first Israel’s legal fraternity’s transformation of Israel from a democracy to an authoritarian aristocracy of lawyers. Given Israel’s legal fraternity’s focus on seizing the power of Israel’s elected leaders, it is not surprising that if fails to understand the nature of the international lawfare being waged against Israel, first and foremost by the UN. The two discussed the nature of the UN-led political war against Israel and the central role of pseudo-legal claims play in the efforts. Caroline ended the show with a discussion of Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s role in mainstreaming contemporary anti-Semitism.

Fatah holds a military parade - in a Beirut suburb

To commemorate the 57th anniversary of Fatah's first terror attack, the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades of Fatah held a military parade in the Burj Al-Barajneh camp in Beirut.

They marched with weapons including rifles, bazookas and machine guns.

The camp features a mural of Palestinian terrorist heroes of all factions - not just Fatah but Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

This isn't in southern Lebanon, but in a crowded suburb of Beirut. Palestinians can openly parade around with weapons only meters from where Lebanese citizens live, and occasionally violence erupts in these UNRWA-run camps.

No wonder the Lebanese people hate the Palestinians.

The Waqf on the Temple Mount issued it annual report on "violations" by Jews of the area.

The number of Israeli settlers who stormed the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque during 2021 reached more than 34,000.

The Director-General of the Department of Islamic Endowments and Al-Aqsa Mosque Affairs Sheikh Azzam Al-Khatib said - today, Thursday - that "the number of Jewish extremists storming the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque during the year 2021 reached 34,112 extremists."

The settlers, according to a statement by the Director of Endowments, carried out their incursions "under the protection of the Israeli police and its heavily armed special forces, which turned Al-Aqsa Mosque into a military barracks."

Sheikh Al-Khatib warned against the dangerous escalation of Jewish extremists' incursions into the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, and desecrating its sanctity by performing Talmudic prayers and rituals inside its courtyards.

They then go into details of the horrible things the Jews did:

Throughout the year, incursions were carried out inside the mosque led by rabbis, soldiers, officers, intelligence agents, and former Knesset members. They deliberately organized guided tours of the “alleged temple”, delivered biblical lessons in Al-Aqsa Square, organized “rabbinic blessings” and puberty ceremonies for males and females, and announcing marriage, in addition to reading the Psalms of the Torah.

A Jewish group calling itself "Return to the Temple Mount" announced last September that the shofar (one of the biblical rituals) was blown inside Al-Aqsa for the first time since the occupation of Jerusalem. Extremists brought the fruits of the "Feast of Sukkot" and palm fronds to the mosque on the first day of their feast, and they raised the Israeli flag in the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque at that time.

I cannot find any news articles about blowing the shofar or bringing a lulav and etrog to the Temple Mount. These objects would be confiscated at the entrance. It may be that someone snuck in a shofar and blew it quietly, but I cannot find it reported.

Among the most serious violations that were also recorded, the extremist Rabbi Yaakov Hayman published a picture of the Dome of the Rock, and announced the need for an engineer specialized in demolishing facilities, to present a proposal for how to remove the building and establish the “Third Temple” in its place.

Indeed, Yaakov Hayman did post that on Facebook. He used to be a leader in the Temple Mount Heritage Foundation but that organization no longer exists (the domain name was lost, its Facebook page has not been updated since 2015.) He posted it as a private person, it received no coverage in Israeli media - and the Muslim world freaked out.

Facebook banned him for a day because of how offended Muslims were.

So in the end, the most serious "violations" were: 34,000 Jews visiting (which is fewer than the number of Muslims on any given Friday,) rumors about shofars, lulavs and etrogs being brought there; people giving talks about the Temples, silent prayer, someone unfurling an Israeli flag for a second before being expelled, and a Facebook post that offended them.

Great documentary for the 85th anniversary of the Israel Philharmonic

This past weekend, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra celebrated its 85th anniversary with a virtual gala describing its illustrious history. The first 40 minutes are pretty much a documentary.

It essentially shows the history of Israel through the Orchestra, with some astonishing and moving footage.

(h/t MtTB)

12/30 Links Pt2: Remembering the Heroes; The Passion of the Antisemites; Damning new evidence undermines BBC’s Oxford Street racist slur claim; Israel approaches 9.5 million residents on eve of 2022

From Ian:

Keep calm and call someone, it’s urgent

When the BBC – one of the world’s most revered and esteemed news institutions – insists that something is so and stands by it so rigidly despite massive outcry, it can make anyone doubt themselves. There’s gaslighting and then there’s industrial-scale gaslighting of the kind that has a half a billion audience numbers, multi-billion-pound revenue and 22,000+ staff and the cultural cache of, well, being the BBC.

Despite this, members of our humble complement of staff and Honorary Officers who didn’t speak Hebrew, nevertheless put their trust in me. We published a video where I re-enact the utterance of the Hebrew phrase to make it clear to people what they are hearing and how well it fits precisely in line with the more distorted phrase from the viral footage. Many of those who had doubts said to us they were now more convinced that it was indeed Hebrew. Those who do speak Hebrew got it immediately. There was still nothing but the sound of crickets from the BBC.

We then published our open letter to the BBC top brass even copying in Department of Culture, Media and Sport Minister Nadine Dorries – not something we do lightly. The crickets were now chirping so loudly they should have a slot at The Proms. We eventually received a formal acknowledgement but then weeks went by before we received the same canned response that hundreds of other complainants will eventually have received as well. The Beeb was not backing down and the crickets were being booked for Jools Holland’s Hootenanny. While other communal organisations and leaders were raising their own complaints, we knew that we needed to escalate.

For the next step to be taken, we knew we would need something more authoritative than “trust us, we asked some Hebrews”. We also knew that it was imperative to get the absolute best quality source footage we could. Our friends at the Jewish Chronicle helped us get in contact with the person who took the footage on the bus. They were distraught by the way the BBC was reporting the story and were happy to help. After various technical and Covid hurdles we were able to secure direct access to the original file.

To verify the authenticity, we did so with the help of OSINT specialists at DigFind. We commissioned them to authenticate the file extraction, preserve the metadata, and verify that there was no tampering with the footage. The team at DigFind also brought in specialist support from D3 Forensics – experts in digital forensics who could clean up the audio, isolate the disputed segment, apply the necessary filters to make it as clear and audible as possible and together with DigFind analyse what they can hear in the audio. DigFind/D3 Forensics were commissioned with no prejudice as to any desired outcome other than to ascertain the truth. And they found it. The truth was that the BBC accused a Jewish man calling out for help in Hebrew of instead uttering a racist remark.

Damning new evidence undermines BBC’s Oxford Street racist slur claim

THE JC can reveal damning new evidence which appears to undermine the BBC’s claim that an anti-Muslim slur was uttered by a victim of the antisemitic Chanukah bus attack on Oxford Street.

The Charedi students whose panicked voices can be heard in a video clip of the attack have categorically rejected the BBC’s allegation that they used any racist phrase whatsoever.

And a dossier of exhaustive analysis by forensic audio experts and a distinguished, independent linguist, commissioned by the Board of Deputies, appears to confirm their testimony.

The revelations heap further pressure on the BBC to justify its claims to the Jewish youngsters. So far it has refused to apologise, causing outrage.

Rabbi Schneur Glitzenshtein, who organised the bus trip, told the JC that he had personally spoken to those whose voices are heard in the video. “All they were doing was trying to protect each other,” he said. “That insult did not happen.”

Separately, the Board of Deputies commissioned digital experts DigFind and D3 Forensics, who used audio technology to slow down and clean up the recording so that each syllable of the phrase in dispute could be heard.

Professor Ghil’ad Zuckermann, Chair of Linguistics and Endangered Languages as the University of Adelaide inSouth Australia, one of the most senior experts in his field, then studied the tape.

The Professor, who is fluent in 13 languages, including Hebrew, and is a consultant to the Oxford English Dictionary, established that the “slur” was actually a Hebrew phrase, “Tikrah lemishu,ze dachuf” meaning: “Call someone, it is urgent.”

Independent Reports commissioned by Board of Deputies conclusively prove BBC error in antisemitic incident story

In a piece for this week’s Jewish Chronicle, Board of Deputies President Marie van der Zyl has described the BBC’s “misreporting” as “a colossal error”, which “has added insult to injury in accusing victims of antisemitism of being guilty of bigotry themselves…But what takes this from an egregious failure to something far more sinister is the BBC’s behaviour when confronted with its mistake. Instead of admitting it was wrong, it has doubled and tripled down.” The President also states that the corporation’s behaviour “raises serious questions about deep-seated biases within the BBC towards Israelis, and indeed towards Jews in general.”

In her article, the President also notes that “it should not have been left to us, a Jewish communal organisation, to commission an independent report to prove this point. The BBC should have done this itself, rather than apparently conducting an internal investigation and finding no wrongdoing. To us, this apparent attempt to mark its own homework is reminiscent of the behavioural pattern the corporation has displayed amidst past scandals. Once again, instead of approaching a potential error with an open mind, its default response appears to be to circle the wagons and deny everything. This is clearly a calamitous approach to retaining the public’s trust.” She has called for the BBC at the very least to apologise publicly to the victims of the Oxford Street attack, and has referred to a meeting the Board of Deputies will be holding with the BBC Director General and other Senior Executives in January, which will include “a full and frank discussion of this issue.”

Further information on the Board of Deputies’ process for conclusively proving the BBC’s inaccuracy can be found in this article written by the Board of Deputies’ Digital Communications Officer, Adam Ma’anit.

Independent Reports commissioned by BoD conclusively prove BBC error in antisemitic incident story

From Iran's Tasnim news agency:

The spokesperson for the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) said the Zionist regime and the global arrogance have been terrified by the power of the axis of resistance.
The process of downfall of the Zionist regime has reached its most intense part over the past 70 years, General Ramezan Sharif said at a cultural meeting on Tuesday.

He said the global arrogance and the Zionists have become so frightened of the power of resistance axis that they assassinated senior Iranian commander Lt. General Qassem Soleimani.

The spokesman also noted that the blood of martyrs and the resistance of people have frustrated the Zionists and the enemies of Islam.

From looking at recent Iranian headline, it sure looks like they are the ones who are terrified. Not of a war - but of Israeli normalization with Arab countries:

PressTV: "Report: Jewish-American group visits Saudi Arabia to advance Israeli normalization"

Tasnim: "Iran Urges OIC’s Action against Normalization of Israel Ties"

IQNA: "Experts Discuss Reasons behind Normalization with Zionist Regime"

Mehr: "Iran envoy warns of danger of ties normalizing with Zionists"

ABNA: "Normalization into effect: First Zionist ambassador to Bahrain hands King Hamad credentials"

They had more coverage of the last story than Israeli media did.

Israel's Muslim enemies could always count on the unity of the 'umma in opposing Israel. That was their main source of power. That has fallen apart, and this is truly frightening Iran.

Couple Feeling Pressure To Have Same Loud, Shallow Wedding As Everyone Else (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Check out their Facebook page.

party Hod HaSharon, December 30 - A woman and her fiancé acknowledged this afternoon that while the two of them much prefer an intimate, wholesome celebration to accompany their upcoming nuptials, their social circle and the industry surrounding the production of their affair have aroused a sense of shame in failing to throw the gaudiest affair they can afford and then some, lest anyone get the wrongheaded idea that the event marks the start of a bedrock institution of any stable society and family instead of merely an excuse to get drunk and grope the waitstaff.

Shenhav Katz, 28, and Lior Zakenn, 30, confessed their misgivings Thursday about the wedding they plan for this coming March. The couple announced their engagement over the summer and set about making arrangements, discovering along the way that they shared a simple sensibility in celebratory occasions: small family gatherings in someone's home, rather than lavish catered affairs. Knowing that a wedding calls for more elaborate fare and a wider circle of invitees, Katz and Zakenn agreed on a wedding hall in this Tel Aviv suburb, while establishing that they intend to keep the music, boozing, and consequent shenanigans to a minimum. Disappointed, even horrified, reactions from relatives and friends in the meantime, however, have given the couple pause.

"'You mean you're not going to wear the flashiest, sexiest, most expensive gown?!' I swear, that was the first response I got," recalled Katz, who plans to wear a conservative, heirloom dress that once belonged to a beloved great-great aunt, a Holocaust survivor. "It's almost as if people think this is about partying down, which of course is an important element, but that there's no more than token space for tradition, commitment, or basic dignity."

"My friends' first reaction was to ask about the bachelor party," added Zakenn. "Where did they get that from? I've never been the boozing type, and when I do go to parties I'm all about the food and the conversation. Shenhav and I met through volunteer work in the community. I know my various friends' weddings were... festive, I guess you'd call it, but that's not my thing. But now they've given us this sense that unless we do as they did, blowing tens of thousands of shekels on a big-name DJ, flowing alcohol, kitschy party favors, an interminable slide show that everyone secretly hates, and a million other superficial things, we've deprived ourselves, or them, or something, and we're not really married? I have no idea what's happened here."

12/30 Links Pt1: Mansour Abbas crossed the Rubicon, more need to follow; The Beginning of the End of the Arab-Israeli Conflict?; UN inquiry comes with new independent façade, same anti-Israel bias

From Ian:

Mansour Abbas crossed the Rubicon, more need to follow

This conflict will not end until the rejectionists accept defeat and recognize the legitimacy and permanency of the Jewish State. Let’s not forget that this is the same Abbas who once said: “Since 1948, when all of the land of Palestine was occupied by the Zionist movement gangs, and this state was established, our people have been expelled from our land.”

However, this Abbas is no more because he has accepted that this worldview will not be victorious. It has been defeated.

Mansour Abbas has demonstrated that this can be achieved in a peaceful manner in a way that benefits both the Israeli Arab community and wider Israeli society.

Nevertheless, for the process that Abbas mentions to succeed and win the battle for hearts and minds in the Arab community against those like Salah, Israeli society, especially its leaders, have to embrace it. They have to show that there is a significant carrot for those who follow Abbas and reject Salah.

The defeat of Salah, and those who have slammed Abbas, like senior Palestinian Authority officials, is not just a victory for the Ra’am leader and his followers, but for all of Israel.

Hopefully, Mansour Abbas represents a large public, and support for him grows. There is no doubt that as this public grows, so will the rejectionism by the forces that oppose recognition and cooperation.

At the same time as embracing Abbas, Israeli leaders should increase the pressure on his and our opponents. There has to be a clear message to rejectionists that it will not be rewarded. Those like Raed Salah should be sitting in jail for more than a year and five months for incitement to violence. Inciting Palestinian leaders should not receive gifts in the form of the construction of 1,000 housing units in Area C of Judea and Samaria, and financial assistance.

Abbas has shown through act and deed that, as far as he is concerned, the conflict is over, the Jewish State will be preserved. We must understand the path that Abbas has taken, and ensure that more Arabs, on both sides of the Green Line, understand that the conflict is over and violent rejectionism will be defeated. This will then be a win for all.

INSS: The Beginning of the End of the Arab-Israeli Conflict?

In its familiar format, the Arab-Israeli conflict is fading away and we are now witnessing the beginning of the end. This is not the dream of peace that was promised by the Oslo process. It is possible that the threats to Israel have actually increased because of the actions of Iran. It certainly does not signal the end of the conflict with the Palestinians.

What is new is Israel's success in breaking the pan-Arab front against it, and in convincing the majority of the Arab countries to effectively acknowledge in their policy that a strong Israel is an essential condition for their survival. Violence and instability in the region remain as they were, but the axis of struggle is not between Israel and "the Arabs"; it is between an Arab-Israeli coalition, on the one hand, and Iran's Islamic Revolution and Erdogan's Turkey, on the other.

Most of the Arab states are unwilling to go to war against Israel, contribute concrete and significant national assets to the struggle against it, or refrain from cooperation with Israel on matters of importance to them. These positive trends depend predominantly on the image of Israel's power in the Arab environment.

UN inquiry comes with new independent façade, same anti-Israel bias

The notorious United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, also known as the Goldstone Report, accused both the Israel Defense Forces and Palestinian terrorists of war crimes and possible crimes against humanity in the Gaza War of 2008-09. Only two years later did the report’s namesake, South African jurist Richard Goldstone, publicly retract the report’s accusations that it was Israeli government policy to deliberately target citizens. The damage had been done, though.

Then-Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke in early 2010 of a “Goldstone effect,” ranking it alongside Iran’s nuclear program and the rocket arsenals of Palestinian and Hezbollah terrorists among the three main threats facing Israel, due to the headlines it generated and its use in public discourse.

A spokesperson for the Israeli Mission to the U.N. in Geneva confirmed to JNS that Israel will not cooperate or collaborate with the new commission.

According to the spokesperson, the commission’s first report will be submitted to UNHRC in June, before a summary is turned over to the U.N. General Assembly next December. While neither the UNHRC nor the General Assembly can produce a binding resolution with the force of law, the General Assembly could make recommendations that would require another body, such as the U.N. Security Council or, more critically, the International Criminal Court, to act.

But, unlike other U.N. Commissions of Inquiry, this one won’t end after six or nine months or even a year. It is set to carry on in perpetuity.

“The Inquisition lasted hundreds of years. This inquiry might, as well,” said Neuer.

Once Again, the UN Treats Israel Like the Most Evil Country on Earth

While tens of millions of poor souls are dying and starving under brutal regimes in Yemen, Afghanistan, Syria, Sudan, Congo and Somalia, among others, the UN decided last Thursday that only one country merits an open-ended investigation - Israel. What did the world's only Jewish state do this time? Last May, Israel decided it didn't want to see thousands of its citizens - Jews and non-Jews alike - perish at the hands of Hamas terror rockets. Israel's defense of its people triggered the UN's Human Rights Council, which voted to investigate Israel for possible "war crimes."

The way the UN treats Israel significantly worse than the most murderous and evil regimes on earth is itself a crime. Not only does it undermine the UN's credibility, it adds fuel to Jew-haters everywhere.

A video surfaced this week showing a group of Belgian Beerschot football supporters singing anti-Jewish slogans such as 'Sieg Heil. Hamas, Hamas, all Jews to the gas."

The Antwerp police have launched an investigation into the video, Het Nieuwsblad reports .

The chants were done before a game between Beerschot and Anderlecht on Monday. Anderlecht is considered to be a "Jewish" team by soccer hooligans.

Fittingly, Anderlecht won the game, 7-0. Their Israeli starter Lior Refaelov scored one of the goals.

Beerschot has the worst record in their league.

Which just goes to prove, antisemites tend to be losers.

Here's the video.