Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, January 09, 2022

Abbas' Fatah delegation visits, praises Syria

The Syrian Foreign Minister, Faisal Miqdad, met on Sunday with a delegation of Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party, who was led by Jibril Rajoub.

Fatah official Ahmed Helles said that the delegation will pass on a message from Abbas to Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, emphasizing how great their relationship is "and the desire of the Palestinian leadership to strengthen brotherly bonds between the Palestinian National Authority and the Syrian Arab Republic."

Helles added that Palestinians supports Syria against Israeli airstrikes of arms en route to Hezbollah, saying they are "keen on Syria's stability and territorial integrity."

Syria has killed over 3000 Palestinians in recent years.

I guess calling for BDS against Syria is not on the table.

01/09 Links: Biden administration remains ‘deeply blind’ to inherent flaws of UNRWA, say Mideast experts; Hoodlums, Jewish teens and the BBC; Democracy PA style

From Ian:

Biden administration remains ‘deeply blind’ to inherent flaws of UNRWA, say Mideast experts

Wilf said that no matter what the Americans seek to achieve with their funding, the Palestinian perception is more important.

“The way that American and all Western funding of UNRWA is perceived by Palestinians—and again we have ample evidence of that in the book—is perceived as Western legitimacy for the idea that they are refugees, that the war of 1948 is not over and that it could one day be won to their cause of no Israel,” she said.

The money, she said, will serve as fuel for another generation of conflict despite America’s good intentions.

“I think one of the biggest problems of U.S. foreign policy and Western foreign policy is that they prioritize feeling good over doing good,” said Wilf. “And that this is a classic case in point. They feel good about giving money, but they’re actually doing something very bad. They’re literally pouring money that translates into many more years of conflict.”

Yet Israeli governments, with the exception of former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have not prominently opposed the funding of UNRWA. Wilf said that this is due to a mistaken notion among the Israeli security establishment that UNRWA is a stabilizing force. Yet, she pointed out, it’s not a coincidence that the places where UNRWA is most active, such as Gaza and southern Lebanon, are also the areas where Israel has found itself involved in wars combatting terrorism.

Romirowsky pointed out that Israel doesn’t contribute to UNRWA; rather, it’s American taxpayers that do, making it an American issue where the United States should ask what exactly it is funding.

Wilf noted that is especially true in Gaza, where 80 percent of the population is registered as refugees by UNRWA, despite being born there. The funding of UNRWA by the United States and Western nations has convinced the Palestinians that their place in Gaza is temporary.

“This means that they have exactly zero incentive to turn Gaza into the Singapore of the Middle East or the Dubai of the Mediterranean,” she said. “Because Gaza, in their view, is not their home and every dollar that goes to UNRWA merely sustains and fuels the Palestinians in their view that Gaza is a temporary station. They can have it until they take back … ‘Palestine from the river to the sea.’ ”

Instead, Wilf said that the Biden administration would be better served by defunding UNRWA, making it clear to the Palestinians that they’re not refugees, that the 1948 war is over, and that Israel is here to stay.

The Biden administration, according to Wilf, should demonstrate that they would be “thrilled” to fund Palestinians with a goal of living next to Israel, rather than instead of Israel, but that it has no intention of underwriting a worldview that seeks to “eradicate, annihilate and erase an ally of the United States.”

Will UN go ahead with plan to blacklist companies operating in Judea and Samaria?

A spokesperson for the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs told JNS that despite an Israeli government transition back in June, "There is no change in the way Israel sees the UN human-rights office and there won't be until there will be a fundamental change on its side and the way it treats Israel."

OHCHR spokesperson Rupert Colville told JNS, "Unfortunately, we have not received any indication from the Israeli authorities that our requests for visas will be answered in the near future. Nor have we received any specific requests from the Israeli authorities in relation to the possible granting of visas. As a result, none of the 18 international staff are currently able to return … which is deeply regrettable," adding that his office has reached out to the Israeli government on numerous occasions, without any substantive response.

"We are continuing to engage with concerned UN member states and continue to reach out to Israel in order to sort out this unsatisfactory situation. But so far, these efforts have not borne fruit. We sincerely hope the visa issue will finally be resolved soon and that we will be able to revert to our normal working conditions … as mandated by the international community," said Colville.

Among the 112 blacklisted businesses, 94 are domiciled in Israel with the remaining 18 scattered in the United States, Great Britain, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Thailand. The American companies include international food conglomerate General Mills – known for products such as Cheerios cereal and Häagen-Dazs ice-cream – along with communications company Motorola Solutions and travel lodging website Airbnb, which delisted rental properties in Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria in 2018 before reversing course under legal pressure.

The BDS movement has had no noticeable impact on Airbnb's current operations in Judea and Samaria or elsewhere, and none of the companies on the OHCHR blacklist have made any public indication that their inclusion has harmed their bottom line or that they plan to decrease their activities in any territory tied to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The OHCHR said it had examined another 76 companies that were ultimately not included in the original list. It has given no indication yet whether it intends to follow through with an updated blacklist this winter.

An Israeli government source told JNS that none of the foreign members of the record 24 full-time staff expected to be hired for the current Commission of Inquiry should expect to receive a visa to conduct its work either. The commission's findings could potentially be used by organs like the International Criminal Court to bring charges against current and former Israeli government officials and military leaders – a process that current Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz reportedly personally requested that Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas put a halt to.

"In my experience, the Palestinians do promise not to continue with their diplomatic terrorism to use international organizations as a platform to carry out their war against Israel, but they always retract their commitment," said Danon

Amid calls to boycott #Israel at #SydneyFestival, @joshrfeldman writes: “There’s no excuse in isolating and vilifying Jews.”

Op-Ed in The @australian:https://t.co/LHHEMaHE9m pic.twitter.com/um1PTFQHpt
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) January 9, 2022

90 years ago: A Jew is executed in Persia

From JTA, December 31, 1931:

After being kept in prison for more than five years, Dr. Shmuel Yeheskel Haim, who was the Jewish representative in the (Medjlis) Persian Parliament, (The Jews are entitled under the Persian Constitution to have one Deputy in Parliament) has been executed this week, it is learned to-day, on a charge of having been implicated in a conspiracy against the life of the Shah.

Deputy Haim was first arrested in May 1926; he was soon after released, but he was rearrested in October of the same year, and had been kept in prison till his execution now, in spite of repeated intervention made on his behalf by the Zionist Executive, who had in May 1926 appointed him on the nomination of the Zionists of Teheran as the representative of the Zionist Organisation in Persia in matters relating to Jewish immigration to Palestine.

It was explained by competent Jewish personages in these places who had been in touch with Mr. Haim that he was an ardent Jewish politician, who had been constantly protecting as a Jew against the Government’s persecution of the Persian Jews, and that he was also an active Zionist, and it was argued that it was probably more on account of his activities in these directions that he had been arrested. The Persian Jews contended that he was innocent of the crime with which he was charged, and that the Government was only anxious to get him out of the way because of his stand on behalf of the Jews of the country.

It has been stated that Mr. Haim’s real offence was that as a member of the Persian Parliament he had addressed a letter to the League of Nations complaining bitterly of the treatment of the Jews in Persia. The League of Nations, it was said, had addressed an enquiry on the subject to the Persian Government, whereupon the Shah sent for Deputy Haim and demanded that he should write to the League of Nations and state that everything had been put right. Deputy Haim agreed to do this on two conditions. The first was that the Chief of Police should be dismissed, and the second that the oppression of the Jews in Persia should really be stopped. The Shah resented these demands, especially, it was stated, as the Chief of Police is a close relative of His Majesty, and Deputy Haim was thrown into prison and sentenced to death for conspiracy.

Jews in Persia, 1918

The article then goes on to describe the official antisemitism in Persia:

He was put into Parliament by the Jews of Persia in place of Dr. Loghman, a Teheran physiclan, who was the first Jewish representative in the Medjlis, after the proclamation of the Constituion. One Jew among 120 Moslem Deputies, it was complained, he sat down and made no attempt to raise the Jewish question, to protest against the unlawful taxation imposed upon the Jews in the Provinces, to demand that murderers of Jews who are time and again allowed to go free should be punished, that the laws which have at various times been passed in favour of Jews should not be allowed to remain a dead letters. Finally, the Jews deposed him and put Deputy Haim into his place, and Deputy Haim started a vigorous reorganisation campaign of the Jewish Communities, school committees, relief committees and the Zionist Committee.

After his arrest, a prominent Persian Jew wrote of the position of his fellow-Jews in Persia – “oppressed, persecuted, treated with contempt and ignored in their own country, the Jews of Persia have been almost forgotten by the Jewries of the world, and left to their fate. No one knows of them, or cares for them, and they themselves have lost the power and the energy to do anything for themselves. Pensian Jewry has become a backwater in Jewish life”.

Numbering all told about 60,000 souls, the Jewish community in Persia leads a life of continual harassment and affliction, he wrote. Surrounded by a vast ocean of Mohamedanism, the Jews are looked down upon as something inferior and second rate.

The standard of Jewish education is low. There are no Jewish religious schools and no Medrashim in Persia. The only Jewish religious knowledge is what is taught in the elementary schools – a little reading of the Torah and the study of Rashi for a few hours in the week, including oral translation into Persian, he continued.

The article says that things had been improving in more recent years, but this execution indicates that Jews were tolerated as long as they didn't make too much noise.

When the utopian vision of a one-state socialist "Palestine" crashes into Palestinian Islamism

Both Western Leftists and Palestinian Arabs agree that they would love to see a single state from the river to the sea.

Neither of them admit aloud how different their visions of such a state are.

When speaking to Western audiences, the Left - whether they are Jews like Peter Beinart or prominent Palestinian Leftists like Leila Khaled - describe a socialist utopia where Jews would ostensibly be treated equally with Arabs under the law, but the state would be strictly secular.

Palestinian Arabs, however, favor an Islamist state run by Sharia law. To them, the Palestinian Authority is too secular already.

The last time Pew did a survey of Muslims worldwide, it found that 89% of Palestinians would want Islamic law - Sharia - to be the law of the land. This was the third highest in the world, behind only Afghanistan and Iraq.

A vast majority of Palestinians would like to see corporal punishment for crimes like theft and stoning as a punishment for adultery. A majority would like their state to give the death penalty for those who leave Islam. Most Palestinians say that it is a bad thing that their current laws do not adhere closely to sharia law.

There is nothing in common between these two views of what a single Palestine would be. The majority of Palestinians have no interest in the secular paradise that you see described in the pages of Open Democracy and The Guardian and Jacobin. Most Palestinians say that their end goal is not one state with equal rights for Jews but one Palestinian state from the river to the sea where Jews are, at best, tolerated second class citizens - and many openly advocate for deporting any Zionist from the country altogether.

Polls show that a mere 10% of Palestinians want a state with equal rights between Jews and Muslims. The latest political polls show that socialist parties like the PFLP and DFLP would only get 2% of the vote in any election held now.

Palestinians hate socialism. They prefer Islamism.

Palestinians do not want equal rights for Arabs and Jews. They want an Islamic state.

Everything written about a one-state solution in the pages of the Washington Post and the New York Times is fiction. The Western Leftists will trot out people with Arabic-sounding names who write passionately about a single state with equal rights for all as if they represent Palestinian public opinion.

Only rarely does the Left admit that the idea of equal rights for Jews in a majority Arab state is problematic. Edward Said, the intellectual father of the one state idea, admitted in 2000 that he couldn't see how Jews would be treated equally in his solution. "It worries me a great deal. The question of what is going to be the fate of the Jews is very difficult for me. I really don't know."

The socialist fantasy and Palestinian reality cannot co-exist. A single state would become a nightmare for Jews. Everyone knows it.

Which goes to prove that the Leftists who make their one-state argument in the West - and who do not make the same argument in Arabic-language media - are only paying lip service to equal rights for Jews. They want to see Israel destroyed, and they are willing to partner with their Islamist ideological opponents to make that happen. They paper over their differences and hoping that no one notices that they are supporting a Muslim ethnostate where Jews are tolerated if they behave like good dhimmits and persecuted if they demand their own rights.

There is only one reason the socialist Left and the Palestinian Right support each other: their shared antisemitism.

The Moroccan Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs has a lengthy article on its official government website praising an Arabic version of the antisemitic forgery the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

The article, which has been on the site since at least 2017, describes an edition of the book that was written by Ajaj Nuwaihid, a Lebanese historian who moved to Jerusalem in the 1920s. There, he became a close colleague of the infamous Jew-hating Mufti of Jerusalem and helped him start a political party in 1932.

The Waqf site summarizes the book:

Global Judaism is a demonic force with a secret organization, which likens itself to a snake, and this snake has a 9-stage scheme.

This plan started from the time of the Babylonian captivity 24-25 centuries ago, and the end of the last phase was at the end of this twentieth century, and in Palestine.

“Strength” in global Judaism is its ability to conceal its attributes from the world, and spread the mist around itself so that the world remains confused about the Jewish truth.

The most skilled thieves in the world, and if they mastered the technical trick of stealing, piercing walls, manipulating iron locks, acrobatic climbing in the dark, speed of movement, surprising with the barrel of a pistol, using drugs and covering their palms with gloves and paint.

Nuwaihid's book is not merely a translation of the Russian forgery, but it is an expansion of it, where he warns the Arab world about the plots of the Jews that can be seen in the Talmud and even back to how they destroyed the Amalekite "hero," Haman.

Nuwaihid ties the Jewish plot to modern Zionism, as most Arab writings about the Protocols do. According to him, they were disseminated in the First Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland:

In that conference, which included the most notorious demons and heads of demons, its members and sects competed, individually or in collaborators, in devising the most dangerous plan to destroy and exclude the world. The conferees studied a criminal plan to enable the Jews to control the world.

The article goes on to say the Russian secret police got hold of the Protocols by starting a fire that forced the Jews out of the meeting hall and allowed the Russians to grab the secret papers.

This Arabicized version of the Protocols says that the "satanic Jewish thinking reaches the domination of the world by a Jewish government after the sabotage of Christian Orthodox Russia, Catholic Europe, the Pope and then Islam."

(The theme that the Protocols were connected to Zionism is quite popular in the Arab world. This Egyptian writer claims that the Protocols were written by early Zionist pioneer Ahad Ha'am.)

This article is pure antisemitism and pure anti-Zionism, and it does not even pretend to distinguish between the two. It says "the undoubted truth is that one of the Jewish fingers lies behind every call that disparages moral values and aims to destroy the rules upon which human society has been based for all time." It gives examples of Communism (Marx) and existentialism (Sartre, whom it claims was half-Jewish.)

Morocco may have signed a peace treaty with Israel and it may be the most philosemitic Arab country, but that is not saying much when these sorts of slanders and lies can be published on an official Moroccan government website.

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.

Wake up to fresh gains everyday with Brain Gains. Try 30 days free on iOS

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.