Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Saturday, January 08, 2022

01/08 Links: Meet the Arab Zionists: a new generation of online pioneers; Uni of Bristol Denounces Training Module That Advised Not to Hire Shabbat-Observant Jews

From Ian:

Abraham Accords' true potential goes far deeper than business ties - opinion

Potential models for enhanced Abraham Accords regional economic cooperation can be found particularly in Asia, where organizations such as the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have contributed to the growth and an increase in intra-regional trade.

The new Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), linking 15 Asia-Pacific nations of different sizes, levels of development, and systems of government, could serve as an initial model for economic partnership among Avraham Accords countries.

As the enormous benefits of this win-win regional cooperation become increasingly clear, more countries will likely join the Abraham Accords, thereby creating a virtuous circle of peace and growth.

While the Abraham Accords have the potential to transform the region, such a transformation will not happen on its own. Decision makers must focus time, energy and effort on those actions that serve to liberate the economic potential of the Avraham Accords, adopt a strategic approach which utilizes the unique contributions of each member, cut through bureaucratic red-tape, and help with integration with global markets.

Concluding government-to-government financial and investment agreements must be given top priority, and ongoing high-level forums of officials empowered to overcome remaining barriers should be established.

It is critical that such processes make substantial progress in 2022, otherwise we risk losing the positive momentum begun with the signing of the original accords in September 2020.

Realizing the full potential of the Abraham Accords will undoubtedly require great vision and investment. Fortunately, the region has shown tremendous capacity for both. Leveraging the historic agreements today will provide returns of prosperity, opportunity and stability for generations to come.

Meet the Arab Zionists: a new generation of online pioneers

“The Golan Heights is the only area in Syria that hasn’t been destroyed and had its people killed.”

With these words, a Syrian blogger began a video begging the Israeli government to “occupy” the entire country of Syria to save more lives.

In another video, an Arab academic dressed in a long white kandura is moved to tears by visiting Yad Vashem, promising: “Today, together, Muslims Jews and Christians, we promise you, it will never happen again.”

The huge growth of social media has in recent years allowed the world to see a different Middle East — one where individuals have been able to directly communicate their honest views on Jews and Israel to the world.

But in 2020, something changed again. The signing of the Abraham Accords in September that year was a watershed moment: it allowed many Arabs to speak out openly about Israel without fear of a backlash — while opening the door to positive experiences of Israel, whether via the news or trips to the Jewish state.

Now, in a growing trend, pioneering Arab Zionists and pro-Israel influencers — who once would have been labelled traitors — are promoting Israel to their hundreds and thousands of followers.

Loay Al-Shareef, 39, is an Abu Dhabi-based social-media influencer and a self-declared Zionist. He has 180,000 followers on Twitter, and more than 80,000 on Instagram, thanks largely to his regular posts about languages and etymology.

01/07 Links Pt2: Melanie Phillips: The conversation the Jewish world should be having — but isn't; Outrage as BBC demands victims of Oxford Street bus attack reveal identities

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: The conversation the Jewish world should be having — but isn't

True, Israel has a unique relationship with the Jewish diaspora. Famously, all Jews have the “right of return” to Israel. It is the unequivocal refuge for a people who were persecuted and made to wander across the world for almost two millennia until their ancient homeland was restored to them.

But unless they make aliyah, diaspora Jews are not citizens of Israel. The entitlement of shared peoplehood does not negate the particular compact of citizenship made between Israel’s government and its citizens alone.

This compact — common to all democratic nations — confers reciprocal duties and responsibilities on each party. The most important duty of any government is to keep its citizens safe.

And although the strategy of keeping foreign nationals out was always open to criticism, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett was entitled to take the measures he believed to be essential to keep Israelis safe from the virus.

With this strategy having now fallen apart under the huge wave of Omicron infections, these travel restrictions have just been lifted. But the tensions brought to the fore by Daroff’s remarks go deeper.

In a thoughtful post on his Substack blog, Daniel Gordis writes that there has never been an honest conversation between Israel and the diaspora about the obligations and prerogatives of each side.

What has been obscured as a result is something that many Jews outside of Israel find unpalatable — the absolute centrality to Israel of aliyah. The country’s founders, writes Gordis, had called for nothing other than an end to the diaspora altogether.

Gordis is undoubtedly correct to identify this issue as important, ignored and still unresolved.

Hen Mazzig: It’s Not the Antisemitism Your Grandparents Warned You About

Hebron, Ramallah, and eastern Jerusalem are tough neighborhoods. I know, because I served there as a soldier in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). I was stationed on a front line where Israel fought for both its existence and its reputation as a humane, decent neighbor. I was a humanitarian officer overseeing the building of infrastructure, education, health, and housing projects for Palestinian communities — but many saw me as an enemy combatant.

After completing my service in the IDF, I began to advocate for the safety, empowerment, and appreciation of Israel and Jews worldwide. I toured Europe, Australia, and North America, addressing diverse audiences about our history and heritage. Today, a decade later, I’ve realized that the real battlefield for the future of Israel and Jews worldwide isn’t in Jerusalem, Gaza, Iran, or on the hundreds of college campuses where I have lectured.

The frontline is online.

Today’s social media digital pen is mightier than any sword that has ever existed.

What do the assailants in the lethal attacks on Jews in Monsey, Jersey City, and Pittsburgh have in common? They all posted their hatred of Jews before acting on it. It is through social media where today’s hatred of Jews and Israel finds its voice, and where it gains its lethal force. In many cases, it is on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and in the dark underbelly of hundreds of discussion groups, where antisemites are radicalized and called to action.

Every bigot, demagogue, and hate monger knows the power of social media. These extremists post jokes and graphics geared toward impressionable teens. As purveyors of hate, they devote themselves to indoctrinating the naïve and vulnerable. “Extremists are able to reach, research and radicalize in ways that they haven’t had to, or could do, in human history,” Oren Segal, the ADL’s Vice President of the Center on Extremism, told NBC News, noting how they target isolated teens who turn to online for community, and can recruit them into hate “without ever leaving their couch.”

1,000 Reasons Why Not to Fight Anti-Semitism But are they legitimate?

Anti-Semitism helps Jewish unity.
I’ve heard that anti-Semitism is like death and taxes. It’s inevitable. It’s just an unfortunate byproduct of humanity and of the Jewish experience but it prompted the survival of the Jewish people for thousands of years. Anti-Semitism creates Jewish unity; it has been the only point of unity among increasingly divergent Jewish communities. When Jews feel safe and prosper, they are more at risk of assimilation and intermarriage, so we need anti-Semitism to bring them back to their roots. So why fight it? Instead, we should be thanking Hashem and our lucky stars for this Jew-hatred. It’s all part of a divine plan that’s above our pay grade to understand.

Anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism.
Jew-hatred and the violence stemming from anti-Semitism seem like a growing problem only because we label the expanding but justified condemnation of Israel as “anti-Semitic.” Many told me that if we create a wedge between the diaspora Jews and their homeland, being the State of Israel, and welcome criticism of Israel, it can only lead to greater love, understanding and appreciation for Jews everywhere. Those with an unbridled love for the Jewish people but deep hatred toward Israel such as supporters of the BDS movement will accept us as respected members of society. Considering our long history of oppression, we’re rarely given a choice in anything. So, let’s be good Jews and become champions of the anti-Israel movement.

Anti-Semitism: A cost-benefit analysis.
In theory, it would be great to eradicate anti-Semitism, but we simply don’t have enough people and sufficient resources to do so. Even if every single Jew in America donated to the cause, it will never be enough to counter the billions being poured into anti-Semitic campaigns. So, if our numbers and resources are limited, is it really worth dedicating so much time and money to a fight that we’ll inevitably lose? Many prefer to dedicate their limited resource to existing Jewish institutions such as schools, synagogues and social services, as well as hiring armed security services to protect our Jewish institutions and their communities.

Valuable advice rather than financial commitments.
Jews are known to be smart. They are excellent in providing opinions and ideas, including on how to fight anti-Semitism and how to raise the necessary funds to fight it. But, when it’s time to put money where their mouth is, most prefer to stick with giving priceless advice. Most claim that they don’t have the necessary resources to help financially and those who do have such resources claim that there are many more important undertakings than to fight Jew-hatred.

Although there are many excuses and good reasons why not to fight anti-Semitism, there are also great advantages in doing so and now. Anti-Semitism is a universal problem; the enemies of the Jewish people are first and utmost the enemies of America. Hatred against Jews and/or any other minority groups in America is cancerous to our society. Thus, for the first time in several thousands of years, it’s in the best interest of Western civilization and all Americans to join together and combat this evil.

Second, we now have a strong Jewish state, the State of Israel, on our side. The people of Israel view anti-Semitism as a serious threat and are willing to lead the fight against it, not just observe from safety, by providing courage, resources and innovation.

Despite the convincing excuses I’ve heard, I stay optimistic and hope that some, like me, will stop downplaying the threat, move past the fear, paranoia, and inaction, and join me in standing up and fighting anti-Semitism.

The Jerusalem Post reports:

New research on several artifacts dating back 2,600 years and uncovered in the area of the Temple Mount or its immediate proximity has shed light on where both the Temple and the Kingdom of Judah’s treasuries once stood, two Israeli archaeologists have suggested.
The two, Zachi Dvira and Dr. Gabriel Barkay, analyzed dozens of clay seals that were found over the decades by sifting soil from the holy area – where archaeological digs are not allowed – as well as from excavations at Ophel Park, adjacent to the southern wall of the Old City.
Clay seals were used in antiquity to sign documents or containers, ensuring they would reach their recipients closed and untouched. The seals could bear symbols or inscriptions.
“Scholars usually don’t consider the back of the seals, but by doing it, a lot can be learned, especially about the type of objects they were attached to,” said Dvira.
By analyzing the seals, the scholars realized that a significant number of the artifacts carried impressions of woven fabrics on their reverse. This likely indicated that they were used to seal small bags filled with precious metals.

A lot of the evidence gathered for this research came from the Temple Mount Sifting Project, which goes through tons of debris that the Waqf dumped in the 1990s from their illegal digs underneath the Temple Mount.

Since the Temple Mount Sifting Project has been going through the debris, it has found numerous findings from the First Temple period including these seals. Clearly, there was an important building on the site and others surrounding it during the Iron Age. The evidence would be far more fragmentary if it wasn't for the Muslims who tried to destroy Jewish history.

As far as I know, there had been essentially no findings from the First Temple period before the Sifting Project and a few other projects on or near the Mount.

Imagine what could have been found if Israel had not allowed the Waqf to build the Marwani Mosque underground.

(h/t Yoel)

01/07 Links Pt1: Col. Kemp: Exposing the Lie of Israel Apartheid; Caroline Glick: Our enemies keep their focus; Meet Mansour Abbas’s radical Jewish adviser

From Ian:

Richard Kemp: Exposing the Lie of Israel Apartheid

The breakdown in Israel-Soviet relations was later compounded by Israel's defensive victories against the Arabs in 1967 and again in 1973. Over this period all hope of Israel becoming a Soviet client had steadily evaporated. Arab armies sponsored, trained and equipped by the USSR had been humiliated, and so had Moscow. Thus the Soviets progressively developed a policy of undermining Israel. Their primary objective was to use the country as a weapon in their Cold War struggle against the US and the West.

"We needed to instil a Nazi-style hatred for the Jews throughout the Islamic world, and to turn this weapon of the emotions into a terrorist bloodbath against Israel and its main supporter, the United States." — Yuri Andropov, Chairman of the Soviet KGB, later General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party, as reported by General Ion Pacepa, former chief of Romania's intelligence services.

As well as mobilising the Arabs to the Soviet cause, Andropov and his KGB colleagues needed to appeal to the democratic world. To do so, the Kremlin decided to turn the conflict from one that sought simply to destroy Israel into a struggle for human rights and national liberation from an illegitimate American-sponsored imperialist occupier. They set about transforming the narrative of the conflict from religious jihad — in which Islamic doctrine demands that any land that has ever been under Muslim control must be regained for Islam — to secular nationalism and political self-determination, something far more palatable to Western democracies. This would provide cover for a vicious terrorist war, even garnering widespread support for it.

To achieve their goal, the Soviets had to create a Palestinian national identity that did not hitherto exist and a narrative that Jews had no rights to the land and were naked aggressors. According to Pacepa, the KGB created the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in the early 1960s, as they had also orchestrated so-called national liberation armies in several other parts of the world. He says the 1964 Palestinian National Charter was drafted in Moscow. This document was fundamental to the invention and establishment of an artificial Palestinian nationhood.

The details of Moscow-sponsored terrorist operations in the Middle East and elsewhere are set out in 25,000 pages of KGB documents copied and then smuggled out of Russia in the early 1990s by senior KGB archivist Vasili Mitrokhin and now lodged in the UK, at Churchill College, Cambridge.

The initial charter did not claim the West Bank or the Gaza Strip for "Palestine". In fact, it explicitly repudiated any rights to these lands, falsely recognising them respectively as Jordanian and Egyptian sovereign territories. Instead, the PLO claim was to the rest of Israel. This was amended after the 1967 war when Israel ejected the illegal Jordanian and Egyptian occupiers, and the West Bank and Gaza for the first time were re-branded as Palestinian territory.

Moscow first took its campaign to brand Israeli Jews as the oppressors of their invented "Palestinian people" to the UN in 1965. Their attempts to categorise Zionism as racism failed at that attempt but succeeded nearly a decade later in the infamous UN General Assembly Resolution 3379.

Zuheir Mohsen, a senior PLO leader, admitted in 1977: "The Palestinian people do not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity... Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct 'Palestinian people' to oppose Zionism. Yes, the existence of a separate Palestinian identity exists only for tactical reasons."

The Mitrokhin documents show that both Yasser Arafat, and his successor as PLO chief, Mahmoud Abbas, now President of the Palestinian Authority, were KGB agents. Both were instrumental in the KGB's disinformation operations as well as its terrorist campaigns.

Will 2022 be the year the ‘Israel apartheid’ label sticks?

THE CAUSE of this problem can be assessed in different ways, depending where someone stands on the political map, Lapid said. “Some may say it’s because the Palestinians get economic aid and we coordinate security with them, even though they petition against us in international organizations,” Lapid said. “Some say this is what happens when there are no negotiations.”

First, Lapid said: “I’m leaving the reasons aside. This is the result. Part of what the Israeli Foreign Ministry has to deal with in the coming years is the topic of Israel apartheid.”

But then the minister argued that “without diplomatic talks, it will get worse. We have to go there” – to negotiations with the Palestinians. Lapid said Israel must be careful not to be portrayed as the side that is refusing to make peace, while the Palestinians pursue it, though he gave the Palestinians’ appeal to the ICC and their payments to terrorists who kill Israelis as examples for why that is false.

While Lapid believes talks with the Palestinians could stem the tide of delegitimization coming toward Israel, he pointed out that the current governing coalition is not able to conduct them.

“There is no reason for me to delude the Palestinians and open a diplomatic process that doesn’t have a coalition behind it.... That would damage our credibility, which is important,” the minister stated.

“Even after a coalition rotation, I will remain with the same people and the same disagreements” about the Palestinian issue, Lapid said. “I plan to stand behind the agreement I made with my partners.”

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and his Yamina Party oppose a Palestinian state, as does Justice Minister Gideon Sa’ar’s New Hope Party, while other coalition parties would support one under different conditions. The coalition has a narrow majority and cannot afford to lose the support of any of its parties, or an election would likely be triggered.

Meanwhile, Lapid has not spoken with PA President Mahmoud Abbas – who met with Defense Minister Benny Gantz in his home last week – but has talked with other senior Palestinian officials, whom he did not name, about specific issues that arose.

Without peace talks on the horizon, Lapid said the ministry is preparing for the worst in the international arena.

“It’s the Foreign Ministry’s challenge to deal with it... and soon the whole government will,” he said.

Caroline Glick: Our enemies keep their focus

Something happens almost every day that tells us that Israel's enemies are preparing for war. On the other hand, Israel's responses to these events indicate that Israel is not preparing for war.

Three separate events this week exposed this distressing state of affairs.

First, on Monday, Iran and its proxies in the Gaza Strip, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen marked the second anniversary of the US assassination in Iraq of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force Commander Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani. At a ceremony in Tehran, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi pledged to kill former president Donald Trump and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Not only did the Biden administration not condemn the Iranian regime for threatening the life of a former president and secretary of state, on the day Raisi threatened to murder Trump and Pompeo, President Joe Biden's nuclear negotiators were in Vienna beginning another round of nuclear talks with Raisi's emissaries. US officials told reporters ahead of the talks that they expect to close a deal with the Iranians, perhaps a partial one, in the near future.

To go by the reports of the negotiations, a deal means nothing less than complete US capitulation to Iran's demands. Last week, Britain's Spectator published a report titled "Inside Joe Biden's Disastrous Negotiations with Iran." It described how the Western position has collapsed due to the radical pro-Iranian posture of the US team led by Robert Malley.

British and other negotiators characterized Malley as "the most dovish official we've ever seen."

One official said that Malley bent over backwards so far that "he now speaks to Tehran between his legs."

Malley, they explained, presented the Iranians with what was supposed to be the US's final take-it-or-leave-it offer at the opening session of the negotiations. After the stunned Iranians "caught their breath and climbed back onto their chairs, they set about demanding further concessions."

The Caroline Glick Show: Ep33 – How can Iran be stopped?

In Episode 33 of the Caroline Glick Mideast News Hour, Caroline was joined by Gadi Taub for a discussion of the dismal state of efforts to block Iran from becoming a nuclear-armed regional hegemon. They walked across the regional terrain of Iran’s proxy armies in Lebanon, Syria, Gaza and Yemen and into the negotiating rooms in Vienna and came away with the understanding that the only true way to avert a disaster is to back the Iranian people in their quest for freedom.

Far right Romanian party opposes Holocaust education

From Balkan Insight:

The Alliance for the Union of Romanians party, AUR said on Monday that the Holocaust and sex education represent “minor issues” and that teaching them in schools would ” undermine the quality of education in Romania”.

The AUR was responding after the upper house of Romania’s parliament voted by a large majority in November 2021 for a law making teaching about the Holocaust and Jewish history compulsory in schools from 2023.

“The ideological experiments on children in Romania must stop! Real education is classical education, which makes citizens aware of their rights and responsibilities, their culture, history and origins,” the AUR said in a press release.

The party argued that introducing new classes on the Holocaust and sex education will reduce the importance of subjects like sciences, the Romanian language and literature, and national history.

The AUR has 13 representatives in the 136-member Romanian Senate and 30 in the 330- member Chamber of Deputies. It appears to have little chance of changing the law but is hoping to put pressure on the education ministry.

AUR has been accused of downplaying the Holocaust.

According to the Elie Wiesel Institute for the Study of the Holocaust, there are at least 17 places in Romania with streets, busts, or institutions named after war criminals, who helped send hundreds of thousands of Jews to their deaths.

Faisal al-Qassem is the host of the Al Jazeera program "The Opposite Direction" which is known for raucous debates about Arab politics.

He asked his 5.9 million followers on Twitter, "Which is better, Israel's reputation or Iran's reputation in the region?"

Israel's reputation was judged better by nearly a 3-1 ratio over Iran.

Many people responded saying that they hate both countries. But some explained why Israel was the only logical choice.

" A mighty economy, advanced human development, universities, the highest global ranking, a free democratic system, high-tech industry, smart urban planning, solid infrastructure, golden coasts for tourism and investment, high technology, and farms to generate solar energy, even in agriculture, self-sufficiency in its agricultural crops" said one, adding, "Real democracy: science, education, culture, hygiene as well, research and production, a mighty economy, and industry. A conscious, ambitious people and a rational, enlightened government."

Al-Qassem also asked, "What do you think of the position of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, which rejects the Israeli bombing of the Syrian regime's sites in Syria?"

In this case, those opposed to the Muslim Brotherhood (and therefore tacitly supporting Israel attacking Syrian sites) had a 2-1 ratio over those who think the Muslim Brotherhood is correct.

Retired Jordanian Lieutenant-General: Jews are greedy!

Retired Jordanian Lieutenant-General Musa Al-Adwan writes frequently in Jordanian news media.

His latest piece in Sawalief extends a popular myth about the Rothschild family.

Up until a few years ago, many historians believed that Nathan Rothschild had gotten early information about Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo, and parlayed that into making a fortune in the British stock exchange. The story has changed from Rothschild being at Waterloo himself, to his having a network of people with swift boats to get him the news early.

The source of the story was an antisemitic pamphlet published 30 years after the event by someone who called himself "Satan." In fact, Rothschild did not get the information about the war until about the same time as other financial titans. The story of Rothschild making millions from the news was debunked a couple of years ago.

Musa al-Adwan is not safistied with the already fabricated story. He adds a whole new twist:

There was a spy in the English army, working for the wealthy Jewish Freemason Nathan Rothschild in London.

After the battle went in favor of the English, this spy sent news to his master about the victory of the English army. Rothschild was the first to learn of this news, spreading rumors that the English army had been defeated in the battle.

The spread of this news led to a fall in the value of shares on the London Stock Exchange. The Rothschilds could then buy a large percentage of the shares at a low price. When the official news of the British victory in the battle reached, the value of the shares rose again, so he sold them at high prices, making a fabulous profit without any effort.

Complete fiction. But the lie is enough for al-Adwan to conclude:

The malice of the Jews in making money is rooted in their blood, and neither character nor friendship deters them from doing so, because they put their material interest above all considerations. The story of Shylock is but one of its models.

Just another example of antisemitism in a mainstream Jordanian news site. Nothing to see here.

01/06 Links Pt2: Gene Simmons, Nick Cave blast anti-Israeli boycott of Sydney Festival; Harry Potter and the search for fake antisemitism

From Ian:

Gene Simmons, Nick Cave blast anti-Israeli boycott of Sydney Festival

But Hollywood heavyweights, including Nancy Spielberg, as well as KISS frontman Gene Simmons signed an open letter yesterday urging Australians to resist attempts at censorship for political purposes.

“While art can reflect politics and artists can choose to reflect their politics in their own art, art should never become subservient to politics, and artists and cultural events should never be forced to be politicised,” the letter said.

Warner Records chief executive Aaron Bay-Schuck and Australian musician Nick Cave were also among the 120 signatories to the letter, co-ordinated by the Creative Community for Peace — a non-profit group promoting the arts as a means to counter anti-Semitism and oppose the cultural boycott of Israel.

The $20,000 reportedly paid by the Israeli embassy went to supporting the presentation of Israeli choreographer Ohad Naharin’s Decadance at the Sydney Opera House from Thursday.

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A festival spokesman said the performance was close to selling out, and of the 133 events originally scheduled, 11 were not proceeding.

NSW Jewish Board of Deputies chief executive Darren Bark said China had indirectly backed the event for years.

“Despite the accusations against China’s government regarding the genocide against the Uyghurs and the Tibetans, there were no similar boycott campaigns like we are seeing this year,” he said.

Sydney Festival boycott activists hurting the Palestinian cause

At the heart of the misguided Sydney Festival BDS stunt lies the profound irony that, among Israelis, choreographer Naharin is well known for his criticism of Israeli government policies and his sympathy for Palestinian aspirations.

“I’ve always said that if protesting and boycotting my performances would improve the situation in the territories or bring a solution to the conflict, I would support the boycott myself,” Naharin told Ha’aretz in 2019.

“(But) this doesn’t help the Palestinians and won’t result in anything.”

This is not only the assessment of Naharin and other prominent left-wing Israelis but also many Palestinians themselves, including veteran Jerusalem-based Palestinian human rights campaigner Bassem Eid, founder of the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group.

“We have to tell people what the facts are,” Eid told a US newspaper in 2020. “The facts are that BDS is hurting Palestinians more than Israelis.”

Obviously, some Palestinians do back BDS. But the question that those pressured to endorse BDS need to ask is why they should support a boycott that Palestinians themselves cannot agree is in their best interests.

The Australian campaign to shut doors to Naharin, rather than embrace a potential ally for Palestinian rights, says far more about the blinding, destructive obsessive animosity guiding the BDS campaign than about Israel’s alleged failings towards Palestinians.

It is a deeply offensive obsession which has no place amidst the celebration of artistic creativity and diversity that the Sydney Festival represents.

Patrons of the arts deserve better than the bullies of BDS.

Elder Anime Comix!

This is 90% of anti-Israel Twitter.

Woman Who 'Follows The Science!' Dismisses Genetics, Archaeology Tying Jews To Levant (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Check out their Facebook page.

woman in mask Tel Aviv, January 6 - A resident of the affluent northern section of Israel's commercial and financial center expresses disgust and animosity toward those who disregard what she touts as the objective, clinical, and therefore unimpeachable approach to policy questions such as COVID mitigation, while she ignores more robust evidence undermining her political assumptions regarding her people's origins.

Adi Bar-Lev, Assistant Professor of Sociology at Tel Aviv University, rails at colleagues, students, and fellow Israeli citizens who fail to maintain adherence to government and institutional distancing, masking, isolation, and vaccination guidelines, even as a consistent stream of studies has demonstrated the questionable benefit of such guidelines, which were based on flawed modeling and framing. At the same time, Professor Bar-Lev insists Jews have no historical, legal, moral, or other claim to the land on which they have established a state of their own, a position that flies in the face of mountainous genetic, archaeological, documentary, and cultural evidence that Jews emerged as a people in what is now Israel several thousand years ago and have maintained their distinct character despite centuries of exile and dispersion.

"Those who refuse to follow the science, and thus endanger us all, must be shunned, perhaps punished," the academic declared at a faculty meeting this morning. She proceeded to delineate various violations of COVID protocols she had witnessed among university staff, including minimum-wage custodial workers whose lax attitude toward keeping a cloth or disposable mask properly in position over the nose prompted the professor to suggest dismissal. Initial, but soon reversed, and more recently reversed again, input from scientists downplayed the utility of cloth or standard masks. Shifting scientific consensus on masks and other elements of public health policy in the shadow of COVID has not seen Professor Bar-Lev waver from her commitment to a late-2020 moment in that consensus.

By contrast, Bar-Lev waves away firmly-established factors disproving her contention that Jews represent a foreign element in the Arab Middle East, such as haplotypes that Jews whose ancestors spent centuries in Europe share with Jews of Mizrahi heritage and with no one else, haplotypes that point to a Levantine common origin; uninterrupted genealogical and historical documentation tracing Jews everywhere to the land of Israel; ancient artifacts and sites confirming Jewish traditional accounts of Israel as the cradle of the Jewish civilization; and the centrality of the land and Jerusalem in particular in Jewish worship. The professor, who touts the scientific method and the integrity of changing one's view in light of evidence, has given no indication she intends to shift her understanding of reality in light of the robust evidence of Jewish Levantine origins and attachment.

01/06 Links Pt1: Dutch Government Cuts Funding to Palestinian NGO, Citing Extensive Ties With PFLP Terror Organization; Arab Israelis speak on why they choose to serve in the IDF

From Ian:

Dutch Government Cuts Funding to Leading Palestinian NGO, Citing Extensive Individual Ties With PFLP Terror Organization

The Dutch government on Wednesday announced that it was cutting funds to a Palestinian NGO working in the agricultural sector over its ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) — designated as a terrorist organization by the US, the European Union, Israel, Australia, Canada and Japan.

The decision means that the Netherlands will not pay out the next installment of an aid grant to the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC), a Palestinian NGO that has so far received approximately $25 million of Dutch taxpayer money.

In a lengthy joint statement, Ben Knapen, the Dutch Foreign Minister, and Tom De Bruijn, the Dutch Minister for Foreign Trade and Development, said that research commissioned by the Netherlands cabinet from an independent consultancy had “provided sufficient evidence that there were ties at the individual level between UAWC staff and board members and the PFLP for a considerable period of time.”

The statement noted that “for the government, the findings on individual links between the UAWC and the PFLP and the lack of openness about this from the UAWC, also during the investigation, are sufficient reason to stop financing the activities of the UAWC. The Netherlands will not proceed with payment to UAWC of the last part of the financial contribution under the Land and Water Resource Management Program.”

Last October, the UAWC was one of six Palestinian organizations proscribed by the Israeli government over their connections with the PFLP. Formed in 1967 as an ideological fusion of Marxism and Arab nationalism, the PFLP’s overarching goal is the violent defeat of the State of Israel and its replacement with a Palestinian state extending from the Mediterranean coast to the Jordan River.

Netherlands defunds blacklisted Palestinian group

Former Dutch prime minister criticized for accusing Israeli settlers of poisoning Palestinians

A former prime minister of the Netherlands, Dries van Agt, said in an interview for a recently aired documentary that Israeli settlers poisoned their Palestinian neighbors in 2015, drawing criticism from Dutch Jews who say he is perpetuating a centuries-old antisemitic blood libel.

B’Tselem, the leading Israeli organization devoted to documenting alleged human rights violations, said it is not aware of the incident described by van Agt.

“The colonizers who conquered the hill a week or two earlier came each night to pound on their door at night, to achieve maximum intimidation, to tell them to go away and they refused,” Van Agt said in the interview for a documentary on antisemitism that was aired in November by the KRO-NCRV broadcaster. “And then one morning something terrible happened: The olive grove and the vegetable garden below — the colonizers always take to top hills – were strewn with poison. And a three-year-old child became very ill. The only explanation was that she drank the milk of a poisoned goat. She was poisoned.”

Van Agt, 90, then began crying and apologized for his emotional state. The incident occurred in 2015 near Nablus, he said.

His interviewer, Frans Bromet, asserted: “These things, they’re not unusual.Van Agt replies: “Oh, no. That’s what the wonderful people from the peace organization say. This happens all the time in the occupied territory.”

David Singer: Grovelling before Abbas

It didn’t take long for President Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett to be shown up as inept political leaders following the much-publicised visit by President of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and Chairman of Fatah its largest faction – Mahmoud Abbas - to the home of Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz.

Their two-and-a-half hour’s meeting was Abbas’s first in Israel since meeting then Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Jerusalem in 2010.

Whilst Bennett privately criticized Gantz’s intention to hold the meeting and expressed resentment about the hosting of Abbas in Gantz’s home – he did nothing to prevent it occurring.

Some Ministers in Bennett’s Government were not so circumspect.

Housing Minister Ze’ev Elkin said:
“I wouldn’t have invited to my home someone who pays salaries to murderers of Israelis and also wants to put senior IDF officers in prison in The Hague, including the host himself.”

Elkin was referring to Abbas’s:
- Pay for slay policy: paying monthly stipends to terrorists in Israeli jails and the families of slain terrorists killed while committing terror attacks. These annual payments now total over US$300 million – about 8% of Abbas’s budget.

- Campaign to see Israeli security officials - including Gantz — a former Israeli chief of staff — being prosecuted by the International Criminal Court as war criminals.

Israel’s Communications Minister - Yoaz Hendel – said he:
“personally wouldn’t have met” with Abbas, who “in my eyes is still a Holocaust denier and is playing a very strange double game.”

However Abbas’s visit brought this effusive response from US State Department Spokesperson Ned Price: “The US is very pleased Defense Minister Gantz hosted PA President Abbas at his home in Israel. We hope confidence-building measures discussed will accelerate momentum to further advance freedom, security, and prosperity for Palestinians and Israelis alike in 2022."

Palestinian projection: Now they are accusing Jews of purposefully hitting them with cars

This morning, a Palestinian man on his way to work was hit by a car while crossing the street and died. Palestinian media say that the driver was a Jewish settler.

The Palestinian ministry of foreign affairs condemned what it called "the deliberate run-over crimes committed by the occupation forces and settlers against Palestinian citizens, which are escalating and spreading in more than one location in the occupied West Bank" and said that they consider them an intentional attempt to kill Palestinians and "an extension of a racist colonial mentality that harass the life of the Palestinian citizen in various ways."

There is no campaign by Israel - or Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria - to run over Palestinians. There have been accidents of Jews hitting Palestinians,and Palestinians hitting other Palestinians.

But Palestinians continue to purposefully target Jews with car ramming attacks, today.

We've seen Palestinian psychological projection before, but this is as blatant a case as can be imagined. Because the Palestinian car ramming attacks are explicitly antisemitic, explicitly deliberate and explicitly celebrated.

Don't believe me? Here's a sample of cartoons over the past few years that encourage Palestinians to run over Jews, and that make fun of Jews who don't want to be run over.

As usual, the Palestinians accuse the Jews of doing what they themselves do - or would do if they had the opportunity.

Their accusations mirror their desires. Every time.

Abu Ali Express reports that Hamas political leader Mahmoud Zahar has used a derogatory Arabic equivalent of "gay" to insult Arab nations that have made peace with Israel.

In recent days, al-Zahar has led ceremonies in #Gaza on behalf of Hamas to mark the second anniversary of the assassination of Qasem Soleimani.

In one of these ceremonies, al-Zahar gave a speech in which he used the word "شواذ" (Shawath), a derogatory term in the Arabic language for homosexuals, to describe those who were happy with the assassination of Soleimani. According to him, these "Arab Zionists" are the same "gays of the Arab Ummah" who normalized relations with Israel.

"Shawath" literally means "deviant."

This is not the first time a prominent Palestinian has used that term as an insult.

In 2019, Sheikh Ikrima Sabri who is head of the Supreme Islamic Council and the preacher of Al-Aqsa Mosque, said that some of the buildings that Jews are buying in Jerusalem from Arabs are sold by “rogue homosexuals and the owners of sick and malicious souls.”

No comment from Queers for Palestine.

Palestinians really think they are the center of the world

The latest Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research poll of Palestinians, released in late December, does not have any real surprises in the answers to questions that they ask every time.

There is still a plurality that believes that terrorism is the best way to achieve a state, far more than those who prefer negotiations.

However, oe new question reveals a great deal.

In reaction to the UK government decision to label Hamas as a terrorist organization and the idea of boycotting British products, 49% expressed the belief that such a boycott would be effective in forcing the UK government to rescind its decision while 45% think the boycott would not be effective. The belief in the efficacy of the boycott of British products is higher in the West Bank (52%) compared to the Gaza Strip (45%), among the youth between the ages of 18 and 22 (54%) compared to those whose age is 50 or higher (45%), in villages (57%) compared to refugee camps and cities (46% and 48% respectively), and among women (52%) compared to men (47%).

First of all, PCPSR didn't even ask if people agree with calling Hamas a terror group. It is assumed that every respondent disagrees, even though they know otherwise - they see Hamas propaganda first hand.

But consider the fact that most of those who expressed an opinion felt that a Palestinian boycott of British good would cause the British to change their minds.

How much trade is there between the UK and the Palestinian Authority?

According to the UK's Department for International Trade, the total UK imports from "Occupied Palestinian Territories" amounted to £9 million ($12 million) in the four quarters to the end of Q2 2021.

Palestinians were the UK’s 184th largest trading partner in those four quarters, accounting for less than 0.1% of total UK trade.

The UK does more trade with well-known economic powerhouses the US Minor Outlying Islands, Laos, Vanuatu, St Kitts and Liechtenstein than it does with the Palestinians.

Annual Palestinian trade with the UK is worth less than two hours of trade between the US and the UK.

If Palestinians would boycott Great Britain, no one would notice.

After decades of getting huge amounts of media attention, Palestinians really think they are important to the world, and that their economic might can bring a great power to its knees.

This fantasy world they live in is another reason why peace is impossible. They always believe they have the upper hand, and there are plenty of prominent people who pretend to be in "solidarity" with them which strengthens that belief. So why compromise when they are convinced they will win outright?

01/05 Links Pt2: Israel needs compelling stories, not just facts, to win the PR war; Bari Weiss on Fighting Anti-Semitism & the Cancel Culture

From Ian:

Gil Troy: Israel needs compelling stories, not just facts, to win the PR war

Israel must address different audiences with nuanced and customized messaging – from Israel’s most ardent Jewish and non-Jewish supporters, to liberal yet still supportive Jews, to often disengaged but instinctively sympathetic Americans, to other Westerners, to often hostile reporters. Israel must stop obsessing about anti-Israel fanatics, be they Jewish or non-Jewish, who frequently run the conversation, pulling resources from more receptive audiences.

Each audience needs to hear a more compelling story about Israel – with the day’s relevant facts or explanations fitting into a larger narrative arc. Sometimes the story will be reacting to Palestinian terrorism or some internal Israeli squabble. But more often, the story should emphasize Israel’s status as the only Jewish state in the world, as the only democratic state in its region, and as one of the few surviving, thriving, progressive Western states. We spend too much time worried about the stories “they” tell about us – overlooking the stories we don’t tell well about ourselves.

Consider, for example, the two most underappreciated stories of the last two years:
The Abraham Accords have triggered tremendous excitement among Israelis and many Arabs, while eliciting yawns in America. This breakthrough showed that the unrealistic go-for-broke strategy needs to be replaced by a more systemic, step-by-step approach – going from “Peace Now” to “Peace More.”

And today’s broad-based coalition disproves the assumption that all 20th-century democracies are paralyzed and dysfunctional. Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid built this government by playing the 70-30 game, focusing on the 70% that united them, not the 30% that separated them. That’s a recipe for national strength and democratic success.

Zeroing in on Israel’s relationship with key democracies, especially the United States, the Bennett government should add a third pillar to the AIPAC line that Israel and America are united by shared interests and shared values. Addressing our shared challenges, too, will allow Israel’s representatives to speak more humbly, acknowledging occasional problems, failings or misfires. It also automatically reinforces Israel’s identification with other Western democracies that are struggling with systemic problems today, ranging from political polarization and hyper-partisanship to technological addiction and social media-fed demoralization.

Finally, the most effective public relations emanates from internal strength and national pride. If Israelis feel good about themselves and about what they are doing, that will never convince the haters, but it will reassure the fence-sitters while inspiring our fans. So, more than public diplomacy, Israel needs a Zionist reset, a reminder of who we are, why we are here, and why we do what we do – and remain proud of it.

Jonathan Greenblatt: Why ‘It Could Happen Here’

Even today, nobody wants to believe that extremism, illiberalism, and violence inspired by different variants of the virus of intolerance could unfold on our shores.

But as I write in my new book, “It Could Happen Here,” the title of which was inspired by, and is the inverse of Sinclair Lewis’ ironic formulation, our social fabric is weakening, and our communities are buckling under the pressure from hate seemingly generated on all sides.

Our society is becoming more vulnerable by the day to hate on both the left and the right. Beset by a pandemic that has devastated communities, unsettled everyday life, and cost millions of jobs, people are on edge, and ever more likely to blame the “other” for deepening economic inequality, excessive levels of personal debt, and other stressors.

From my vantage point as the CEO of one of the Nation’s oldest anti-hate organizations, the trends we’re seeing in America are alarming. Hate is on the rise everywhere — much more than many people realize.

Between 2015 and 2018, the US saw a doubling of antisemitic incidents.

In 2019, the ADL logged more antisemitic incidents than we had tracked in any year in the past four decades. And one need look no further than the attacks in Pittsburgh, Poway, Jersey City, and Monsey, and the brazen assaults of Jews in the streets in May 2021 during the Israel-Gaza conflict, for examples of how antisemitic ideologies and rhetoric that are spread online have contributed to acts of real-world intimidation and outright violence.

We know that antisemitism is the proverbial canary in the coal mine — that a good barometer of the level of tolerance in any given society is to look at how accepting that country is to its Jewish people and other minorities. So we should not be surprised by the fact that it’s not just antisemitism, but hatred of all kinds – including anti-Black racism, anti-Asian hate, anti-Latino xenophobia, homophobia, anti-Muslim bias, and more — that’s exploded in recent years. In 2019, the US saw a reported 7,314 hate crimes, i.e. more than 20 each day. In 2020, hate crimes against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders skyrocketed by almost 150 percent in large urban areas.

Andrew Roberts: ‘We are far from out of the woods with anti-Semitism in Britain’

The two talk about Roberts’ latest book on King George III, former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and the way debates about history can shape America’s vision of itself, as well as who is thwarting British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s efforts to bring the U.K. closer to Israel.