Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, April 11, 2022

The UN refuses to reveal which Palestinian organizations it meets with - and strategizes with

In last month's UN Division for Palestinian Rights Bulletin on Action by UN System and Intergovernmental Organizations Relevant to the Question of Palestine, the first item was "Closed consultations with civil society organizations convened by the Palestinian Rights Committee."

This means that a series of Palestinian (and other) anti-Israel NGOs held a meeting with the UN - but unlike virtually all UN meetings, it was not open to the public.

The names of these organizations are not listed in the report on the meeting. All we see are how closely the UN works with unnamed Israel haters.

The report emphasizes how close the UN is to these organizations:

[T]he objective of the Committee's engagement with civil society was to harness their potential in the OPT, Israel and elsewhere to promote its mandate through strengthened cooperation, including joint activities and exchange of information.

Its mandate includes destroying the Jewish state via the "right to return."

These unnamed civil society organizations are heavily involved in making Sheikh Jarrah Judenrein. It also includes Orwellian lies:

Addressing the impact of the #Savesheikhjarrah campaign and local committees' activism, participants underlined the two layers of the Sheikh Jarrah issue. The first pertained to the neighbourhood itself, whereas another layer concerned the Old City of Jerusalem. Israel’s occupation here was characterized as “a story of resistance” that brought about new leaders and creative approaches to confront oppression. Furthermore, it was stressed that East Jerusalem belonged to everyone, and that Palestinians had always been very keen to protect its religious and cultural diversity.

Really? The 19 years that Palestinians and Jordanians controlled the Old City, and current statements by Palestinian leaders that all of "Al Aqsa" belongs to them including the Western Wall, and that the Jewish Quarter's residents are illegal settlers, seems to indicate the exact opposite.

Any claims that the UN is non-partisan are quite easily disproven here.

But beyond that, there is a clear desire by the UN to keep the names of the NGOs it partners with a secret. (And they did this before Israel declared several "civil society organizations" terrorist, so that isn't the reason.)

People who care about transparency in the UN should be asking why this is. If organizations are important enough to help decide UN policy, shouldn't everyone know who they are?

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04/11 Links Pt1: Vatican mulling historic Jerusalem meeting between pope, Russian patriarch; Joint Arab List chief in hot water for calling on Arab Israeli police officers to resign

From Ian:

Vatican mulling historic Jerusalem meeting between pope, Russian patriarch

The Vatican is studying the possibility of extending Pope Francis' trip to Lebanon in June so he can fly to Jerusalem to meet there the Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, who has backed Russia's war in Ukraine, two sources told Reuters on Monday.

It would be only their second meeting. Their first, in Cuba in 2016, was the first between a pope and a leader of the Russian Orthodox Church since the Great Schism that split Christianity into Eastern and Western branches in 1054.

Kirill, 75, has given his full-throated blessing for Russia's invasion of Ukraine, a position that has splintered the worldwide Orthodox Church and unleashed an internal rebellion that theologians and academics say is unprecedented.

The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the plan was for the 85-year-old pope, who is due in Lebanon on June 12-13, to fly to Amman, Jordan on the morning of June 14.

From there, he would board a helicopter to Jerusalem on the same day for the meeting with Kirill and then return to Rome from there, the sources said.

One source said the trip appeared to be almost certain, while the other said it was one possibility.

Returning from his trip to Malta last week, Francis said he hoped to meet Kirill somewhere in the Middle East this year but did not say where.

Kirill called on Russians on Sunday to rally around the authorities as Moscow pursues what it calls a "special military operation" in Ukraine.

The patriarch has previously made statements defending Moscow's actions in Ukraine and views the war as a bulwark against a liberal Western culture that he considers decadent.

Ukraine War Has Caused a Surge in Aliyah to Israel - from Russia

The number of immigrants and potential immigrants to Israel from Russia in the past two months far exceeds the number of immigrants and potential immigrants from Ukraine, Israel's National Security Council reported. From the start of the war on Feb. 24 to the first week in April, 8,371 immigrants and potential immigrants from Ukraine have landed in Israel. At the same time, 12,593 immigrants and potential immigrants from Russia have landed in Israel. In all of 2021, only 7,700 Russians made aliyah.

Israeli officials based in Russia have also reported a huge increase in aliyah files being opened there. The officials are reluctant to speak publicly for fear that Russian authorities might try to stop the large number of Jews fleeing the country. The exodus has been attributed to fears of economic hardship arising from the sanctions imposed on Russia.

At the same time, there has been a dramatic slowdown in the pace of aliyah from Ukraine, attributed to the fact that those Jews who wanted to leave Ukraine had already gotten out. Moreover, many of the refugees from Ukraine hope to return there as soon as possible, which makes Europe a better place to wait out the war. The number of Ukrainians who identify as Jewish is estimated at 43,000, with 200,000 eligible for aliyah under the Law of Return. The core Jewish population of Russia is estimated at 200,000, with 600,000 eligible.

The Haggadot of the fake "anti-Zionist" synagogue

Last week, the membership of Tzedek Chicago, a virtual synagogue that never seems to actually meet, voted to adopt anti-Zionism as a “core value.”

As I noted in January, the synagogue never seems to actually meet. They hold a biweekly Zoom Friday night service, alternating with a virtual candlelighting ceremony. They have a weekly virtual "Torah study" on Saturday morning, but no services. My guess is that it has more members from outside the Chicago area than from within.

Their website does have a "liturgy" section, and of course they have various versions of their anti-Zionist Haggadot.

Their virtual seder this year will be held on the fifth night of Passover, for some reason. Even though they are meeting on the first night of Passover for their Kabbalat Shabbat service (and there is no Kabbalat Shabbat on holiday nights, but Rabbi Brant Rosen must have his reasons...)

Of course, their Haggadah must eliminate all mentions of Israel. In fact, the main text shaves down the Haggadah to a mere three pages.

So we see in the beginning, for Ha Lachma Anya, instead of saying that next year we should be in Israel, we should be in a "just land."

Dayenu cuts out nearly everything, especially its climax about going to Israel, and leaves only three stanzas:

The Hamotzi blessing somehow manages to misspell the last two words:

Perhaps fittingly, the entire handout ends abruptly with the blessing on the bitter herbs.

Obviously, "Next Year in Jerusalem!" is cut out altogether, although rabbi Brant did include it in his 2010 additional readings, to include "Next year in Al Quds!"

The 2018 "haggadah" did add one section, to equate today's Palestinians to the Canaanites:

Too bad there is no new Haggadah published this year. The last one was a pandemic-themed one from 2020.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

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When partisans attempt to justify the actions of those they support, they almost invariably need to exaggerate the support of their political opponents of abhorrent positions.

Yes, there are neo-Nazis in the Ukraine (and around the world,) but people who support Russia vastly exaggerate their importance. Yes, there is child sexual abuse in the US (and around the world), but the far-Right exaggerate it in order to achieve their own political goals. In both cases, virtually no one actually supports neo-Nazis or sexual abuse of children; the vast majority of people on all sides of the political spectrum abhor both.

However, Palestinians really support murdering Jews.

Not just Jewish "settlers," not just IDF soldiers - Jewish civilians.

Not just a tiny minority of Palestinians, but the vast majority.

Over the years, most public opinion polls of Palestinians ask, in the abstract, whether they support "armed struggle," the euphemism for terror attacks. The support levels for that abstract question always hovers around 50%. That is really bad. But it doesn't reflect the real opinions that Palestinians have towards terror.

Because over the years, when they have been asked about specific attacks that targeted Jews, their level of support doesn't diminish - it almost invariably skyrockets.

In 2003, 75% supported the Maxim restaurant suicide bombing in Haifa that murdered 21 including four children.

In 2008, 84% supported the Mercaz HaRav massacre, killing 8 including 4 children.

In 2009, 71% of Palestinians said naming a soccer championship after the suicide bomber who murdered 30 Israelis at the Passover seder in the Park Hotel was a "good thing."

In 2015, 67% supported stabbing attacks against Jews during the "knife intifada."

61% of Palestinians supported the murder of 17-year old Rina Shnerb in 2019.

Last year, 72% of Palestinians believed that the thousands of Gaza rockets fired towards Israeli communities were "in defense of Jerusalem" and 68% said they would support launching rockets at Jewish communities in Israel in retaliation if residents of Sheikh Jarrah were evicted.

Not in defense. The vast majority support targeting random Jews in revenge.

The polls about the current wave of attacks against Jews within the Green Line have not been released yet, but the public support for the attacks has been loud and strong, with pro-terror rallies in Jenin and elsewhere. You cannot find a single Palestinian op-ed that condemns, or even mildly criticizes, any of the recent attacks. Empathy towards Jewish victims of terror is literally nonexistent in Palestinian media.

Have you ever seen a Palestinian rally against murdering Jews?

Just today, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas re-affirmed that payments to terrorists and their families are a top priority, saying, "What we are doing is our duty towards the orphans of martyrs and the prisoners and their families, who need all our help."

There is no exaggeration necessary. Palestinians really do enthusiastically and overwhelmingly support the murder of Jewish civilians. It is a consistent pattern over 20 years of polling.

That is the fundamental fact that the media refuses to report. They will say that "both sides" have "extremists." They will find an Israeli Jew who supports Baruch Goldstein and pretend that he represents a large constituency. They will report on the few hotheads who really do attack Palestinian farmers and give the impression that they are what most "settlers" are like.

The media invariably exaggerate Israeli extremists - and minimize the Palestinian mainstream support of murdering Jews.

There is no comparison, and pretending that there is a parity there is itself justification for Palestinian depravity.

Almost alone among world conflicts, the vast majority of Palestinians really do actively support the most heinous crimes. And while no one will justify child sex abuse or neo-Nazis, there are plenty of people who openly justify the Palestinian bloodlust of murdering Jews.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

Palestinian media is saying that a young man killed by Israel on Sunday night, Mohammad Ali Ghneim, was a soccer player for the Al-Khader club in Bethlehem.

They are saying that "this crime comes as a continuation of the crimes of the Israeli occupation against Palestinian sports that have been killing their players and destroying their facilities for years, in violation of the international standards and laws of the International Football Association FIFA."

What exactly happened? Times of Israel reports:

According to the Israeli army, soldiers who were carrying out an ambush near al-Khader identified a person throwing firebombs at an Israeli vehicle on the road that links the Etzion Bloc of settlements with Jerusalem.
“The soldiers shot at the suspect. A hit was identified,” the Israeli military said, adding that the firebombs endangered the occupants of the vehicle.

A Palestinian quoted in the article says that Ghneim was too far away to have thrown any firebombs. But other Palestinian media say that he was killed while "confronting Zionist forces."

Ghneim was also a former prisoner, meaning that he had participated in terror activities in the past.

The crowd outside his house after his death, carrying his body, don't look like they are mourning. They act like he was a military hero.

Put it all together, and - as in virtually all cases - the IDF version of events is much more plausible than that of Palestinians.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

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Lakewood and Brooklyn attacks show, again, that we need to directly confront Black antisemitism

On Friday, a man in Lakewood NJ went on a string of attacks against identifiably Orthodox Jews, nearly killing at least one of them.

The suspect first assaulted a driver and stole his car before hitting a pedestrian with it. He then stabbed a male Jewish victim in the chest and about two hours later, hit another pedestrian with the same vehicle.
Marsh was charged with three counts of bias intimidation, three counts of attempted murder, carjacking, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose and unlawful possession of a weapon.
According to the Shore News Network, Bryan Huntingburg, spokesperson for the Prosecutor’s Office, stated that the bias intimidation charges arose over statements Marsh made to detectives.

In other words, suspect Dion Marsh told detectives he was specifically attacking Jews. And he attacked four, not three - and three of them remain hospitalized, two in critical condition.

Marsh's Facebook page shows nothing antisemitic, although one disturbing video on the site includes brief scenes of him holding an automatic weapon and of him flipping off the camera.

Black antisemitism is the third rail for the media and politicians. No one wants to talk about it even as we see multiple attacks a week by Black people against Orthodox Jews in New York and elsewhere This is not the first such attack in Lakewood. It's been happening in Chicago as well.

Black attackers of Jews are not white supremacists. They are usually not Muslims. They don't pretend to be mere anti-Zionists. It is an entirely different category of attacker, The motives are different. The solutions would be different.

But from reading the articles about attacks, the media is reluctant to identify anything about the perpetrator unless he (or she) is a white supremacist. Journalists and politicians are afraid that pointing out the motivation will be flipped around and they will be labeled racist or Islamophobic.

What exactly did Marsh tell the detectives about Jews? Shouldn't this be publicized as a first step in determining how to fight this flavor of antisemitism?

Unless it is defined, no one can do anything to combat it. We have some ideas of why Black antisemitism existed in the past, but how do we know this is the same thing? Is it influence from Nation of Islam along with their lies that Jews controlled the slave trade? Is it an outgrowth of the idea that Blacks are the real Jews and Jews are imposters, as Nick Cannon and his guests have claimed?

Sweeping this under the rug does no one any favors, including the Black people that the largely white media are trying to mollify.

Let's hear exactly what Dion Marsh believes. I bet it is not unique to him, and if 20% of Black people believe the same thing, it needs to be exposed and debunked - forthrightly and honestly.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

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04/10 Links: The racism in US Mideast policy; We progress, the Palestinians regress, and so the world turns; NJ Man Charged With Attempted Murder After Antisemitic Stabbing, Hit-and-Runs

From Ian:

The racism in US Mideast policy

Considering how overused the accusation of racism has become in recent years, I hesitate to bring it into a discussion of U.S.-Israel relations. Yet there does seem to be a kind of bigotry underlying a certain attitude among some senior U.S. State Department officials. And that is deeply troubling.

This concerns the State Department’s silence with regard to how the Palestinian Authority responded to the recent deaths of three Arab terrorists. On April 2, three members of Palestinian Islamic Jihad—the terror group that murdered my daughter Alisa, in 1995—set out to massacre more Jews. They were intercepted by Israeli security forces, opened fire on the Israelis and were killed in the shootout.

As we all know, the P.A. signed a peace agreement with Israel in 1993, called the Oslo Accords, which obligates the Palestinian leadership to fight terrorism. If the P.A. was genuinely opposed to terrorism—as the media, the State Department and the Jewish left are constantly telling us—then it would have been delighted that Israel eliminated three terrorists.

Instead, Nail Abu Rudeineh, the official spokesman for P.A. leader Mahmoud Abbas, accused Israel of “carrying out this premeditated attack, which led to the killing of three civilians.” He said Israel’s elimination of the terrorists is “a dangerous practice,” “a dangerous escalation,” and “a threat and a flagrant challenge to international law.”

P.A. Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh denounced the action of the Israeli security forces as “a horrific crime” and “extrajudicial murder.” And the P.A. Ministry of Foreign Affairs demanded that the Israeli soldiers be handed over to the International Criminal Court for prosecution.

Why didn’t the U.S. State Department challenge the P.A.’s outrageous support for the terrorists? The answer, I’m afraid, involves a kind of racism. Or, to be more precise, the “soft bigotry of low expectations,” a phrase coined by Michael Gerson, a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush.

In the 21st century, anti-Zionism means antisemitism

How many deadly terrorist attacks must take place inside of Israel before it starts being called another intifada? Thursday's incident in which a Palestinian gunman killed three and wounded several others in downtown Tel Aviv left Israelis wondering about whether the fourth such atrocity in the last few weeks is merely the beginning of a new security crisis. But what this series of murders is called is less important than whether the world reacts as it always has to violence against Israel with more sympathy for the killers than their victims.

Yet even at times such as these, some American Jews neither empathize with the people of Israel nor support their right to self-determination or self-defense. The publicity given to the decision of a Chicago synagogue to officially declare its house of worship to be dedicated to the cause of anti-Zionism might have made it an outlier to the more than 80% of American Jewry that polls say thinks that "caring about Israel" is essential to being Jewish. But the attention given Tzedek Chicago, as the synagogue is named, is just the latest instance in which the hostility of Jews on the far-left to Israel's existence has been illustrated.

Its members and those who share their views claim that the existence of Israel is an injustice. They subscribe to a version of Judaism that doesn't merely discard some of the religious beliefs and practices that most Jews have long held sacred – as is the case with the majority of American Jews who identify with the liberal denominations. Both Reform and Conservative Judaism officially subscribe to Zionism. But portions of the Reconstructionist movement and other offshoots of non-Orthodoxy Jewry go further and fetishize the Diaspora. Theirs is a Judaism stripped of its particularity and its roots in the Land of Israel and Jewish peoplehood, and which consists solely of universalist beliefs that bizarrely seem to hold that all peoples have basic rights but the Jews.

While Reform's 1885 "Pittsburgh Platform" was officially anti-Zionist, the movement evolved in the 20th century, and the two greatest leaders of American Zionism in the first half of the 20th century were Reform rabbis – Abba Hillel Silver and Stephen Wise (who is unfortunately better remembered for his silence and opposition to efforts to rescue European Jews during the Holocaust).

Anti-Zionism had considerable support until 1948 because many Jews feared that the creation of a Jewish state would undermine their right to equal citizenship. But the Holocaust proved the need for a Jewish state, and rather than undermine Jewish rights, Israel's creation made all Jews stand up taller while also inspiring most Americans to greater respect for their Jewish neighbors.

We progress, the Palestinians regress, and so the world turns

This is essentially the crux of the problem. After all, the terrorist acted alone. But he has parents who quickly praised and boasted of his actions and relatives who have flocked to the family's mourning tent to glorify and laud his deeds. The terrorist hails from a village or neighborhood where children hand out candy to celebrate murders and youths who drive around in organized convoys, honking their horns in solidarity. This, therefore, is the cycle of murder, starting with incitement, even if relatively understated and polished, and continuing with support, even if indirect and tactful, for murderers. To be sure, anyone who calls for carrying on the struggle against Israel knows very well that someone, and likely more than a few people, will interpret his calls as inspiration to commit murder. As for those who label terrorists as shahids (holy martyrs) and pay salaries to their families – they legitimize their actions, even if they occasionally declare they oppose terror.

Is there another way? Of course there is. It is the way of Zionism – which has never sanctified the murder of innocents, and which never made terrorism and armed struggle its entire purpose and reason for existence. Israel's heroes are not shahids; they are people who fought to ensure its existence, and they are those who have advanced science and technology, education, culture and society, and have built the land.

Thus we continue on our journey, paying a painful price for every single step and benchmark, yet, nevertheless, assuredly marching from victory to victory, for the past 74 years of our independence. The Palestinians, meanwhile, fall farther and farther behind, their national objective growing ever more distant.

Terrorist attacks against civilians seek to divert us from our path and destroy us by instilling dread and undermining our national resilience. Unity, self-restraint, and steadfastness, through our gritted teeth, were always Zionism's path to victory. This doesn't mean projecting helplessness and haplessness in the face of terror, quite the opposite. But before everything else, we must cultivate our sense of solidarity at home.

We must admit, sadly, that the Israeli media, in what is probably an honest desire to lend a hand, is nevertheless motivated by ratings and actually serves as a detriment by propagating panic and fear. The Israeli people, however, are stronger and tougher than how they are portrayed by the press – which, it seems, isn't likely to change any time soon.

Zio-cows wreak havoc again on Arab grass

Palestinian media report:

Settlers' cows grazed, today, Sunday, rain-fed crops for citizens in the Marmalah area in the northern Jordan Valley.
And human rights activist Aref Daraghmeh said, "The settlers let off their cows in the rain-fed crops that the citizens planted in the agricultural lands in Marmalah, which led to the destruction of areas. "

This is strikingly similar to a February report:

Over the past two weeks, the settlers have relied on releasing their cows to the citizens' rain-fed crops in several areas of the northern Jordan Valley, especially Al Hadidiya, Makhoul and Samra.

Note that the articles don't say that the cows ate or damaged wheat or barley fields. Just "rain-fed crops."

What, exactly, are these "rain-fed crops"?

If this photo accompanying the story is accurate, "rain-fed crops" are otherwise known as ....grass.

Doesn't sound quite so menacing, does it?

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

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In the 1830s, William Cooke Taylor visited Joseph's Tomb in Shechem (Nablus) and described it as being recognized as a holy place by Jews, Christians and Muslims.

In recent decades, though, Palestinians have said that it is not the tomb of the Biblical Joseph at all, but the tomb of a Muslim coincidentally named Yūsuf Dawiqat, a sheikh. Apparently, Jewish interest in the site has retroactively changed Muslim history.

But whether or not Muslims venerate the site today as the tomb of the Biblical Joseph or of their newly discovered sheikh, their respect for the site seems not to be very deep. Yesterday, a group of Muslim youths broke into the site, broke the marker of the grave and tried to burn the entire site down in a case of major vandalism.

On Ramadan.

Here's video:

This is barely mentioned in Palestinian Arab media, and the one mention I found justified it as a "response to the crimes of the occupation."

Yet no one seems bothered at an attack on a holy place specifically on Ramadan.

Which is interesting, because anything that Jews do that upsets Palestinians are magnified as much, much worse when it happens during Ramadan.

For example, Palestinian Arab media are reporting on a Jerusalem food festival next to Jaffa Gate today, the sort of thing that happens every day in Jerusalem. They are calling it a "Judaization Festival" that "de-sanctifies Jerusalem." And then they add:

Holding the Judaization festival in the blessed month of Ramadan constitutes a provocation and an insult to the feelings of Muslims and Jerusalemites, and a violation of the sanctity of the holy month, says the specialist in Jerusalem affairs, Fakhri Abu Diab.

He adds that "the occupation deliberately organized the festival in the holy month" specifically to provoke Muslims.

Meanwhile, the awful "occupation" allowed 75,000 Muslims to ascend to Judaism's holiest site on Friday, for Ramadan, even though their daily presence there is an unspeakable desecration under Jewish law.

Ramadan is a wonderful thing: it is a reason for Muslims to murder Jews and vandalize Jewish holy sites, and it is also a reason for outrage at anything Jews do.

To Palestinians, Ramadan's holiness is in its unique ability to be as hypocritical as they are.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

Linda Sarsour claims Geico is Islamophobic for canceling her hate speech on Ramadan

Insurance company Geico invited bigot Linda Sarsour to speak during an internal Middle East Heritage Month meeting set up by their Diversity and Inclusion department.

When Jewish groups protested, Geico backed down, with this statement:

Given Sarsour's record - supporting antisemite Louis Farrakhan, invoking "Jewish supremacy," saying Zionists cannot be feminists, and supporting Palestinian terrorist Rasmea Odeh, this is an accurate representation of her views. Beyond that, she has publicly praised a misogynist and anti-gay Muslim cleric, Imam Siraj Wahhaj, as her mentor.

Sarsour is no role model for Muslims. She is filled with hate, and Geico was correct in uninviting her.

But now she is very upset, and her disingenuous argument is that Geico is effectively Islamophobic for this cancellation, placing herself as being synonymous with Islam itself. Here's most of an email she sent out to her MPower Change mailing list: (A shorter version demanding Geico apologize is here.)

I’m sending this message to you with a heavy heart, shortly after beginning my daily fast for Ramadan.
Just before Ramadan began, GEICO Insurance invited me to meet and talk with their Diversity, Equity and Inclusion team. I was happy to discuss Arab-American heritage, especially during the holy month of Ramadan.
Then, yesterday, in the middle of my fast for Ramadan two things happened that shocked me — and broke my heart.
I got the news that GEICO — the world-famous insurance company worth tens of billions of dollars — had decided to abruptly cancel the event with me.
Then, GEICO publicly justified their decision by smearing my work advocating for marginalized communities as “hatred” across their social media accounts.
All during Ramadan.
Let GEICO know you demand they do the right thing and rescind their statement & apologize to their Muslim, Arab, and Palestinian employees and customers. This is an all-hands-on-deck moment to push back against anti-Arab and Islamophobic hate.
On Twitter? Tweet at GEICO to let them know that we won’t back down from anti-Arab, anti-Muslim discrimination.
If one of the largest companies in the world can get away with smearing advocacy for U.S. Muslims, Arab Americans and Palestinian-Americans as “hatred,” all in the midst of Ramadan, then we are in very, very big trouble.
GEICO decided they were more comfortable publicly vilifying and dehumanizing a prominent advocate for Arab Americans, U.S. Muslims, Palestinians and other marginalized communities — caving at the first sign of disapproval from anti-Muslim, anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian voices — than simply having a conversation with me.
GEICO thought they could silence me from talking to their staff about fighting bigotry, racism and Islamophobia.
They were wrong about that.
But if we want GEICO to realize that there’s a real price to be paid for ignoring or antagonizing millions of people — U.S. Muslims, Arab-Americans, and the righteous allies who organize alongside us — then we need to be as loud as possible, right now.
P.S. This latest attack on the Muslim community reminds me of how important our Muslim-led organizing work with marginalized communities is...

Of course Geico didn't say or imply anything negative about Muslims. There are plenty of wonderful non-bigoted Muslims they can invite to speak to them - and they probably did exactly that after this incident.

Sarsour is so full of herself that she is pretending that she represents Islam itself. And her repeated references to Ramadan are meant to imply that Geico deliberately chose to disrespect a Muslim "leader" during their holy month.

Funny, I didn't hear her say anything about Muslims attacking Jews in Israel during the "holy month of Ramadan." Her interest in Ramadan's holiness is more that a little self-serving.

And who exactly does she lead, anyway?

Sarsour is saying that Geico, by canceling the speech of someone who supports Islamic antisemitism, homophobia and hate for women, is really attacking Islam.

If that's true, Linda Sarsour is Islamophobic herself.

Sarsour's supporters of course are circling around and mimicking her absurd charges. CAIR and other hate groups issued a statement saying, "GEICO’s defamatory attack on Linda Sarsour is an attack on all Americans who dare to criticize the Israeli government and other human rights violators." One of her fans said that the cancellation is a "violation of human rights."

Nothing is too absurd for supporters of terror to say.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

04/09 Links: Bennett wants US to lean on Abbas to cut payments to terrorist’s father; Actress who played the ‘girl in the red coat’ in 'Schindler’s List' becomes real-life hero

From Ian:

Iran is Willing to Fight to the Last Israeli Arab

Iran, it has often been said, is willing to fight to the last Arab. The Islamic Republic’s long-standing policy of using Arabs to fight its proxy wars is, it seems, being extended to the Jewish state. And Israeli Arabs are paying the price.

Many of Israel’s Arab communities have seen a spike in violent crime in recent months and years. In 2013, for example, there were 58 homicides. But by 2020, that number stood at 97 – an astounding increase. That year, the Times of Israel observed, was for Israeli Arabs officially “their deadliest year in recent memory.”

The epidemic of violence attracted considerable coverage from news outlets, both foreign and domestic. The New York Times and The Washington Post, among others, have devoted news and editorial space to the crime spree. Much of the press attention, however, has focused on the supposed social inequities – both real and imagined – which are allegedly fueling the violence.

“The wave of violence,” The Washington Post claimed in an October 2019 report, “has prompted outrage in the country’s Arab communities, near-daily protests and accusations that law enforcement protects some Israelis more than others.” Two years later, an October 2021 New York Times dispatch warned that “killing of Arabs by Arabs has soared,” but “the prevailing assumption, an official said, was ‘as long as they are killing each other, that’s their problem.’”

The news media narrative is clear: even when Israeli Arabs are shooting each other, it is somehow and someway, still the fault of the Jewish state.

But another, more credible culprit exists: Iran.

Bennett wants US to lean on Abbas to cut payments to terrorist’s father — report

Officials from the Prime Minister’s Office have reportedly asked the US to pressure the Palestinian Authority and its leader Mahmoud Abbas to cut payments to the father of the terrorist who carried out Thursday’s attack in Tel Aviv.

Ra’ad Hazem, a Palestinian from the West Bank, killed three people at a Tel Aviv bar before being killed in a shootout with Israeli forces.

His father, Fathi, is a former security prisoner who previously served as an officer in the Palestinian Authority’s security services in Jenin, and therefore already receives a stipend from the PA.

He is also expected to receive an additional stipend over the death of his son. Earlier Friday, he hailed his son’s deadly shooting spree and encouraged further such acts.

“Your eyes will see the victory soon. You will see the change. You will achieve your freedom… God, liberate the Al-Aqsa Mosque from the desecration of the occupiers,” Fathi said, according to footage from the scene.

Channel 12 said Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s office contacted officials in the US to pressure Abbas to cut the existing and future payments to Fathi’s following those remarks.

Gunman Who Carried Out Tel Aviv Attack Claimed as ‘Senior Member’ Of Fatah-Affiliated Terror Organization

Just hours after Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas condemned Thursday night’s terrorist attack in Tel Aviv that killed three Israelis and wounded seven more, a senior official from his own Fatah faction claimed that the gunman, 29-year-old Ra’ed Hazem, was a member of the Fatah-affiliated Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade (AMB) terror organization.

Speaking on Friday morning outside Hazem’s residence in the West Bank city of Jenin, Atta Abu Rumailah — the secretary-general of Fatah in Jenin — described the slain terrorist as a “senior member” of the AMB, which has engaged in hundreds of deadly attacks against Israelis since its foundation in 2002. Hazem’s father also spoke, lauding his sons’ actions and promising that “victory will come soon, in the coming days you will see the change.”

The atrocity in Tel Aviv was the second of the four terror attacks in Israel during the last several weeks to have been associated with the AMB. Diaa Hamarsheh — a 27-year-old from the village of Yabad near Jenin who carried out a gun attack in Bnei Brak on March 30, killing five people — was also reportedly linked to the AMB, which praised his shooting spree as “a natural response to the crimes of the occupation.”

In the wake of Thursday’s attack on a popular bar located on Dizengoff Street, in the heart of Tel Aviv, Abbas declared that the “killing of Palestinian and Israeli civilians only leads to a further deterioration of the situation, as we are all striving for stability, especially during the holy month of Ramadan and the upcoming Christian and Jewish holidays.”

Other Fatah officials were less nuanced. Munir al-Jaghoub, who heads Fatah’s information department, stated “the continued occupation of the lands of the State of Palestine” and the “double standards” supposedly demonstrated by the rest of the world towards the Palestinians had provoked the attack.

“The only solution is to end the occupation of the Palestinian territories and realize the Palestinian state on the ground,” Jaghoub said.

04/08 Links Pt2: Caroline Glick: The nuclear deal is not unavoidable; Republican Senators Push Bill to Cut Federal Funding to Amnesty International

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: The nuclear deal is not unavoidable

While the anti-Israel camp has long been the minority camp in the US, it has always been a powerful minority. And facing the divisions in US views of their country, Israelis have also divided themselves into two opposing camps with competing views of how to safeguard and expand the US alliance with Israel.

Former Prime Minister and Opposition Leader Benjamin Netanyahu has led the first camp for the past 30 years. Lapid, Gantz, and Bennett, (who follows their lead), are today the outstanding representatives of the opposing camp.

The first camp, which we can call the American camp, recognizes that Israel cannot influence members of the anti-Israel camp in any of its various factions. But it also recognizes that this camp is the minority in the US and while it is the dominant camp in the Democrat Party, it isn't the only faction in the party. Members of the American camp believe that the way to preserve and expand US support for Israel is to support and strengthen Israel's supporters on both sides of the partisan aisle. The American camp advances this goal by speaking straightforwardly and unapologetically about Israel's interests and actions, and how both advance US interests and values. Members of this camp believe that by drawing clear lines for Israel's American allies, whether on Iran or the Palestinians or other key issues, Israel empowers its allies, puts its opponents on the defensive, strengthens Israel's standing in the US, and attracts the attention of its regional neighbors and states around the world who see in Israel a regional power that they ought to work with – for their own benefit.

The second camp, which we can all the elitist camp, begins from a very different basic assumption about the nature of US support for Israel and the best way to preserve it. Members of elitist camp believe that the anti-Israel camp, particularly its Arabist and progressive factions is all-powerful. In their view, the State Department is the beginning and the end of U. foreign policymaking. Under these circumstances, Israel's job is to foster good relations with the anti-Israel camp and seek to appease it, even if that appeasement undermines the credibility of Israel's supporters.

Israel's radical left supports the elitist approach because its members share the US anti-Israel camp's hostile ideological convictions about their country. The Lapid camp is a major faction of the elites' camp because its members are elitists. Lapid and his supporters prefer the company of progressives and Arabs, who share their habits and personal preferences to the company of security hawks and Evangelicals. The Gantz camp adopts the submissive approach of the elitist school because its members simply do not understand US politics or the complex way that foreign policy is crafted in America.

Initially, 15 Democrats were scheduled to participate in the news conference on Wednesday, but only five showed up. Those who attended communicated a message that tracked with the weak opposition Bennett, Gantz and Lapid have communicated. Like Bennett, Lapid and Gantz, the Democrat lawmakers didn't object to the administration's nuclear appeasement of Iran per se. Instead, they said they want a better deal and that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps should not be removed from the State Department's list of foreign terrorist groups.

As lawmakers defying their president and party leadership, the five lawmakers could not be more critical on this issue than Israel is. There is good reason to believe that the Bennett-Lapid-Gantz government's tepid criticism of the administration's betrayal of Israel vis-à-vis Iran played a role in the decision by the ten lawmakers who were scheduled to attend the conference not to show up. If Israel doesn't view Biden's nuclear deal as a source for urgent concern and a cause for outspoken opposition, then why should Israel's Democrat supporters?

Across the generations, and most notably in recent years, the American camp has been responsible for the greatest leaps forward in US-Israel ties. As is the case today, over the same period, the elitist school has strengthened the anti-Israel camp in Washington and across America by refusing to stand up for Israel's interests and to support Israel's friends when they want to voice their support.

Call Me Back: A conversation with Ambassador Ron Dermer

The security situation continues to deteriorate in Israel — tragic developments, including right in the heart of Tel Aviv. We continue to monitor developments and stay in close touch with Israeli family and friends. While Israel is a major focus of today’s conversation, the security crisis is not. We focus on the political impasse in Israel, which may be connected to the security crisis.

Today we sit down with Ambassador Ron Dermer, who served as Israel’s chief envoy to the United States from 2013 to 2021 – working closely with the Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations. During that time, he was widely regarded as one of the most consequential ambassadors from any country.

Ambassador Dermer was one of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s closest advisers and played a key role in what led to the US relocation of our embassy to Jerusalem, U.S. recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, implementation of the maximum pressure campaign against Iran, and the historic breakthrough that led to the Abraham Accords. He is a graduate of the Wharton School and completed a degree at Oxford.

In this episode, we focus on three topics:
What to make of the current Israeli political crisis? (Will the Government fall?
Will Netanyahu return to power?)
What are the real prospects for a new Iran nuclear deal? And what to make of America’s role in the Russia-Ukraine crisis?

Melanie Phillips: Ill-conceived Holocaust memorial halted

Wow! A London court today halted the Holocaust memorial that was to be constructed in a small park near the Houses of Parliament.

This is excellent news and a really tremendous victory for those who have protested against this ill-conceived plan in the teeth of ministerial pressure, character assassination and bullying of objectors by some members of the Jewish community.

As I have repeatedly written, here, here and here, the plan was badly flawed on grounds of both environmental concerns and ideological purpose.

The proposed location, Victoria Tower Gardens, is a small green oasis in which the proposed memorial and “learning centre”, with its 23 tall, bronze fins, would be an eyesore. As a tourist attraction, it would be submerged by people and traffic. And as Lord Carlile, the government’s former reviewer of terrorism legislation, told the planning inquiry, its location would turn it into a terrorist target.

A more profound objection was that the project would undermine the uniqueness of the Holocaust as the intended genocide of the Jewish people by equating their fate with the horrific but different persecution of others, including “the victims of subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur”. In other words, it would relativise, and thus diminish, the extermination of the Jews.

In an address in 2020 to the Oxford Jewish community of which she is a member, Baroness Deech, the lawyer and former head of St Anne’s College, Oxford and one of the project’s principal objectors, observed that Holocaust memorials were increasingly being used to promote “a self-congratulatory and sometimes self-exculpatory image of the country that erects them”. She said:
The more the national Holocaust Remembrance Day events are packed out, the more the calls for sanctions on Israel that would result in her destruction, and the more the Holocaust is turned against the Jews. I hear it in parliament — “after all you people went through, look what you are doing to the Palestinians; have you learned nothing” etc.

Wikipedia describes the 1934 Constantine pogrom:

The 1934 Constantine riots was an anti-Jewish riot that erupted in the Algerian city of Constantine.
The general consensus is that the initial cause of the conflict was a confrontation between Eliahou Khalifa, a Jewish Zouave, and Muslim worshippers in a mosque next to his home. The Muslims said that Khalifa was drunk, and insulted Islam. A report by the Jewish authorities claimed he was not intoxicated, and that after getting into an argument with them, the Muslims had cursed Khalifa's faith and he cursed them and their faith back.
JTA reported on August 8, 1934:
A scene of utter desolation and horror, of Jewish girls with their breasts cut off, of little children with numerous knife wounds and of whole families locked in their homes and burned to death, was described by a Jewish Telegraphic Agency correspondent, who succeeded in reaching this city today.
"It will take days before the world will obtain a true picture of all the atrocities committed by the Arabs during the pogrom on the Jewish quarter," the correspondent wired.
"The only comparison I can think of is the Palestine riots of 1929. I found Jewish girls with their breasts cut off, greybearded Jews stabbed to death, little Jewish children dead of numerous knife wounds and whole families locked in their homes and burned to death by the rioters."
"Just as in Palestine in 1929, the lists of the dead and injured run into the hundreds with no official estimates available. The hospitals are filled with Jewish victims and the doors of the hospitals are besieged with half-crazed wives and mothers seeking to ascertain whether their loved ones are among the dead or injured, or whether they succeeded in escaping the pogrom bands".

I've seen estimates of Jews killed from 24 to over 100.

Algerian newspaper Echorouk Online gives a completely different description of the events in an article this week about the "butcher's neighborhood" of Constantine:

The young butcher Ben Amira, telling us about the splendor of the place and its historical charm, spoke about his grandfather who was the first to defend the worshipers in the Constantine catastrophe that occurred in 1934, when a Jew from the Rahbat Al-Souf neighborhood provoked the Muslims by urinating in the courtyard of the Green Mosque. His grandfather quickly responded, planting a dagger in the neck of this Jew, before the great battle between Jews and the Muslims of the city of Constantine broke out, in which knives and machetes of Algerian meat shops were used.
The butchers’ neighborhood was witness to the battle of glory
The spark of events ignited in the mosque, in which Ben Badis was giving his lessons, and it is the Green Mosque in Constantine, located in the neighborhood of butchers, in which Jews and Arabs share the profession of butcher, when a drunk Jew broke into it on a Friday night during the evening prayer, and started cursing the worshipers and claiming that he saw their nakedness, He described them as villains, and it was said, according to what was narrated by Al-Shorouk daily, Sayyid bin Omairah on the authority of his grandfather, that this Jew urinated in the courtyard of the mosque, so they tried to restrain him, but the drunken state of this Jew called Eliyahu Khleifi gave him the freedom to release what was in his heart of hatred, and he began to curse the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace And blessings.
Despite the lawsuit filed by the worshipers with the police services, the Jew refused to comply with the summons, and continued to provoke everyone, accompanied by his wife, in the Rahbat Al-Soof neighborhood and stir up sedition in the Butchers neighborhood, where no sound is louder than the sound of knives, so people gathered at night and some began calling to attack the house of this Jew And they burned it, so the policemen resorted to guarding the Jew's house, so that the rest of the Jews joined the verbal battle and turned it into action, by throwing stones at the Muslims.
The butchers’ neighborhood witnessed the fierce battle, which was announcing the beginning of the end of the Jews in Constantine...
A French policeman asked the Sheikh to extinguish the fire of sedition, and Sheikh Ben Badis replied to him saying that Muslims cannot be patient...

Yes, to Muslims it was a "battle of glory."

Much more about the real story at the Point of No Return blog.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

04/08 Links Pt1: Tel Aviv terror victims named as 27-year-olds Tomer Morad, Eytam Magini; Barak Lufan, 35, dies of wounds, bringing toll to 3

From Ian:

Barak Lufan, 35, dies of wounds from Tel Aviv terror attack, bringing toll to 3

Barak Lufan, a 35-year-old father of three, died on Friday from wounds sustained in the previous night’s terror attack in Tel Aviv, bringing the shooting’s death toll to three.

Lufan was one of several people who was seriously injured in the Thursday night attack, and succumbed on Friday evening at Ichilov Medical Center in Tel Aviv, the hospital said.

The attack on the Ilka bar on Dizengoff Street injured over 10 other people. The terrorist, 28-year-old Jenin resident Ra’ad Hazem, was shot dead after being discovered by security forces early Friday following a massive manhunt overnight.

Lufan was a resident of the central city of Givat Shmuel and grew up in Kibbutz Ginosar in northern Israel. He was a coach on Israel’s Paralympic team and the head coach of the Israeli national kayak team.

“Our beloved Barak, the grandson of the founders of Kibbutz Ginosar, an exemplary husband and father, an athlete with every fiber of his being, a member of the Olympic kayaking team staff, and an educator of the future generation in the field, has left us prematurely,” his family said in a statement.

Lufan was brought to the hospital in critical condition following the attack. On Friday morning, the hospital said he was in a “life-threatening” condition.

“Barak was critically wounded in the murderous attack last night and despite the doctors’ efforts, he was pronounced dead,” the hospital said in a statement on Friday.

“On such a heartbreaking day, we share in the grief of all the families of those murdered and wish for the recovery of the wounded,” Kibbutz Ginosar said.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennet said, “The entire nation of Israel shares the family’s heavy grief.”

Tel Aviv terror victims named as 27-year-olds Tomer Morad, Eytam Magini

The two victims of the terrorist shooting attack in Tel Aviv were named on Friday as Tomer Morad and Eytam Magini, two friends both aged 27 and originally from Kfar Saba.

The pair were at the Ilka bar on Dizengoff Street Thursday evening when a Palestinian terrorist opened fire at the crowded venue. Numerous others were wounded in the attack.

The terrorist, 28-year-old Jenin resident Ra’ad Hazem, was shot dead after being discovered by security forces early Friday following a massive manhunt overnight.

“Our city is in deep mourning,” Kfar Saba Mayor Rafi Sa’ar said, adding that the pair were childhood friends. “My heart is with the families of the victims.”

The two’s funerals were set to take place Sunday afternoon at Kfar Saba’s Pardes Haim cemetery.

“We knew that if we didn’t get an answer after 45 minutes, then it was them,” their friend Avi Benvenisti told the Haaretz newspaper.

He said that Morad and Magini had planned to meet up with some friends at Ilka and got there early.

“When you don’t get an answer after two or three hours, you put two and two together,” the friend said.

Throughout Friday morning, people arrived at the site of the attack to pay their respects, lighting candles and placing flowers.

Another friend, Alon Grossman, eulogized the pair and noted the deep friendship and bond the two had.

Tel Aviv Terrorist Found, Shot Dead in Firefight After Manhunt by Israeli Forces

The Palestinian terrorist who killed two people and wounded eight in a Tel Aviv bar was found and shot dead by Israeli security forces Friday, after an hours-long manhunt through the city.

The bar attack was the latest in a string of deadly street assaults that have killed 13 people and shaken the country.

Defense Minister Benny Gantz said Israel would broaden its operations against the “wave of terror” and that the attackers and those who send them would pay a “heavy price.”

The officers found the shooter hiding near a mosque in Jaffa, just south of Tel Aviv, Israel’s Shin Bet security agency said. During an exchange of fire, the attacker was killed, the agency said.

Shin Bet identified the gunman as a 28-year-old Palestinian from Jenin, a city in the West Bank, who was in Israel illegally.

Late on Thursday, at the start of the weekend in Israel, the attacker entered a pub on a crowded main street of Tel Aviv and began shooting, killing two 27-year-olds, Tomer Morad and Eytam Magini, and wounding several others before fleeing.

Residents were warned not to leave their homes as hundreds of Israeli security officers, assisted by a helicopter with a spotlight, combed the streets.

Based on population numbers from Wikipedia, Israel now has official relations with countries that represent 49.93% of the population of all Arab countries.

If you add the countries that Israel has indirect relations with, like Saudi Arabia, Oman and Qatar, this rises to at least 60.13% - nearly a quarter of a billion Arabs!

Of course many of the Arabs within those countries still hate Israel, but this is truly an astounding statistic, one that could not have been dreamed in years past.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!