Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, April 19, 2022

04/19 Links Pt1: How Palestinians Desecrate Everyone's Holy Sites, Including Their Own; A Revived Iran Deal Is Bad News for Democracy

From Ian:

How Palestinians Desecrate Everyone's Holy Sites, Including Their Own

"We salute every drop of blood spilled for the sake of Jerusalem. This blood is clean, pure blood, shed for the sake of Allah. Every martyr will be placed in Paradise, and all the wounded will be rewarded by Allah." — Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, MEMRI, September 16, 2015.

The small number of Jews who have peacefully toured the outdoor Temple Mount area in the past few years have never even set foot inside the Aqsa Mosque or on the nearby Dome of the Rock. The Jewish visitors do not go there to assault or humiliate Muslims. They go there as part of organized tours that are coordinated with the Israeli authorities.

Blinken's remarks show that he considers the construction of new homes for Jews more dangerous than the murder of Israelis on the streets of Israeli cities.

This is all happening while the Biden administration airily disregards endless Palestinian blood libels and vicious incitement against both Israel and the Jews.

Prominently, Blinken did not threaten to suspend US financial aid to the Palestinians over the payments to the families of terrorists who murdered Jews and the ongoing incitement to attack Israelis.

Take note: as long as Blinken considers the construction of apartments for Jews a greater threat than shooting and stabbing Israeli men and women at shopping malls and bars, the Palestinians will not cease their blood payments and murderous incitement.

Unless the US administration makes it unmistakably clear that the Palestinians will pay dearly for continuing to reward terrorists and their families, the Palestinians will not even slow down either desecrating holy sites or committing their terror attacks.

David Singer: Jew-hatred in Jerusalem

Jordan’s failure to promote interfaith relations between Muslims and Jews has once again witnessed rioting on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

More than 400 Arabs were arrested and more than 150 wounded by Israeli police – reacting to lethal rocks and other objects being stockpiled inside the Mosque and stones being thrown at Jews worshipping below at Judaism’s holiest site – the Western Wall.

Jordan and Israel committed to undertake the following obligations under the terms of article 9 of their 1994 Peace Treaty:

1.Each Party will provide freedom of access to places of religious and historical significance.

2.In this regard, in accordance with the Washington Declaration, Israel respects the present special role of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in Muslim Holy shrines in Jerusalem. When negotiations on the permanent status will take place, Israel will give high priority to the Jordanian historic role in these shrines.

3.The Parties will act together to promote interfaith relations among the three monotheistic religions, with the aim of working towards religious understanding, moral commitment, freedom of religious worship, and tolerance and peace.

Jordan has done little to promote interfaith relations with Jews – whilst actively promoting interfaith relations with Christians.

Hamas-Led Militant Groups Create Strife at Al-Aqsa Mosque

Having partially succeeded in creating a short-lived crisis on Friday, militant groups refrained from responding militarily after their self-imposed red lines were crossed by Israeli police activity on the grounds and inside Al-Aqsa Mosque.

It remains unclear if it was behind the scenes mediation, effective handling of the rioting or both that prevented the clashes from snowballing into a wider conflict.

However, a Western official who spoke to FDD’s Long War Journal cautioned there could be more violence in the coming days.

Hamas often exploits events in the West Bank and Israel. Added to the recent anti-terrorism operations by Israeli security forces that has claimed the lives of a number of militants, manufacturing a crisis at Al-Aqsa Mosque benefits Hamas by further destabilizing the already tense security situation left in the wake of four high-profile terrorist attacks inside of Israel.

Though Palestinian militant organizations seem to have been careful in not responding militarily from Gaza, it’s unlikely these conditions will remain if further violence continues.

Hamas official Zaher Jabarin echoed this assessment on Hezbollah-linked Al-Mayadeen on Sunday when he warned that if Israel continued to cross red lines at Al-Aqsa Mosque, the organization would respond militarily.

Zaher added the response would not necessarily come from Gaza or the West Bank, suggesting the Resistance Axis in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen or Iraq could also launch an assault.

I had read great things about this book, and they are all true.

Dara Horn, who is normally a novelist, put together a series of essays about today's antisemitism. She is an excellent writer, but more importantly, she has the ability to cut through the bull and point out what seems obvious in retrospect.

The title of "People Love Dead Jews" is its theme: Jews are adored when they are dead, and are not liked at all when they are still alive. The first essay is about Anne Frank and points out that her famous diary is loved because it makes non-Jews feel good about themselves. This paragraph is devastating:

The line most often quoted from Frank’s diary—“In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart”—is often called “inspiring,” by which we mean that it flatters us. It makes us feel forgiven for those lapses of our civilization that allow for piles of murdered girls—and if those words came from a murdered girl, well, then, we must be absolved, because they must be true. That gift of grace and absolution from a murdered Jew (exactly the gift, it is worth noting, at the heart of Christianity) is what millions of people are so eager to find in Frank’s hiding place, in her writings, in her “legacy.” It is far more gratifying to believe that an innocent dead girl has offered us grace than to recognize the obvious: Frank wrote about people being “truly good at heart” three weeks before she met people who weren’t.

That paragraph is worth the price of the book - and there are observations like that on every page.

Horn notes that this is not a unique issue with Holocaust memoirs. The ones that are popular in English have happy or inspiring messages, tied up in a neat bow. But the ones written in Hebrew and Yiddish are far more bleak and reflect the reality of the Holocaust more accurately. The gentile audience wants the inspiration, and the dead Jews provide it for them.

Chapter 2 is an amazing essay about Harbin, China. In three decades, the Jewish community lived a history of the exact trajectory that Jews have gone through over centuries in most other places that they went through in the Diaspora. They moved there when Russia needed Russian speakers who they could convince to move to a frozen wasteland in Manchuria to support the Trans-Siberian Railroad, and the opportunity to not be persecuted by Russian antisemites was enough to attract Jews. The Jews built the city from scratch and became successful. White Russian fascist antisemites and later Japanese occupiers decided they wanted the Jews' money, and the persecution started - extortion, kidnapping, murder, and finally the Soviets returned and sent Jews to the gulag and likely death.

But the microcosm of Jewish diaspora history doesn't end there. The Chinese who control Harbin now decided that they have a Jewish Heritage Site, and they built up a museum with mostly fake pieces that supposedly show the history of the Jews there - with the intention that rich Western Jews will visit and bring more prosperity to celebrate the dead Jews.

Horn's trenchant observations continue. She only touches upon anti-Zionism being antisemitism - it is obvious to her - but I was struck by her observation that German Nazis in 1935 would chant slogans as they publicly beat Jews - a leader saying a line and the crowd joyfully repeating it. Horn says this sounded like Christian liturgy, but the Nazis sound exactly like how anti-Zionists hold their own rallies today.

There are some dead Jews that people don't love, though. Horn notes that the news coverage of the murders of Jews in Jersey City and Monsey was completely different than that of any other attacks. The media justified the murders, by consistently pointing out that residents of Monsey and Jersey City resent religious Jews moving into their communities - even though the murderers weren't from those communities and they murders had nothing to do with the supposed gentrification that was their crime. (In the case of Jersey City, the Jews moved there from Williamsburg, Brooklyn to flee gentrification!)

Horn hits other topics that do not fit within the theme, but even those chapters are captivating. She researches Varian Fry, an unknown righteous Gentile who saved the most famous Jewish artists and philosophers from the Holocaust, yet was never thanked by these leading lights who transformed the West. She describes listening to an audiobook of the Merchant of Venice with her ten year old son who recognizes the play for what it is, and cuts down her apologetics for Shakespeare. She describes how she starts to study Daf Yomi, the page-a-day Talmud study.

Her writing is a joy to read.

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!

How "human rights groups" covered (or didn't cover) Friday's Temple Mount riots

According to Palestinian media, some 250 "civil service and human rights organizations' signed a statement condemning Israel's "attacks on worshipers at Al Aqsa Mosque" on Friday.

I could not find the list of these organizations anywhere.

But some anti-Israel human rights organizations have some credibility in the Western world, and try not to lie explicitly - just twist facts. How did they cover the Friday riots, that were clearly initiated by Palestinian Arabs who had been incited for a week to violence in pretense of "defending Al Aqsa" from a nonexistent threat?

For the most part, they were silent. Because they know that the facts are that the only desecration of Muslim holy sites was done by Muslims, not Israel.

Human Rights Watch said nothing, and neither did its head Ken Roth.

Amnesty International said nothing.

B'Tselem said nothing.

The Al Mezan Center for Human Rights only retweeted the Palestinian Red Crescent Society description of the injuries without describing the actual events.

If Israel attacked the Al Aqsa Mosque unprovoked, each of these organizations who obsessively cover everything Israel does would have been in the forefront of condemning Israel. Since they didn't want to be shown to be liars, for the most part they stayed silent and let the Arab and anti-Israel media spout their lies unopposed.

There was one exception: the Palestinian Center for Human Rights wrote up the incident on Friday. And if you read their condemnation of Israel carefully, you see that they admit that the Israeli police were forced to respond to being attacked first:

As per PCHR investigations, as al-Aqsa Mosque’s gates were opened and thousands of worshipers arrived for al-Fajir (dawn) prayers on Friday, 15 April 2022, the atmosphere was extremely tense due to the heavy IOF presence in the area, and on the rooftops near al-Silsila and al-Magharba gates. Thousands of worshippers gathered and prayed; after al-Fajir prayer, young men prepared wooden roadblocks around the al-Qibli prayer hall in anticipation of a possible IOF raid. They fired firecrackers towards al-Magharba gate where IOF stationed. Immediately, IOF raided the entire Mosque with hundreds of troops; the soldiers started shooting live bullets, tear gas canisters and stun grenades aggressively and randomly. As a result, dozens of worshipers and gathered civilians were wounded.

In the following paragraphs we learn that "live bullets" means rubber bullets. And the police didn't enter Al Aqsa "immediately," they waited hours until prayers were over and Palestinians barricaded themselves inside and threw stones - but to Palestinians, the entire Temple Mount is called "the Al Aqsa mosque" so PCHR is not technically lying if you know that little fact.

Several paragraphs later, they admit:

It should be noted that on Thursday afternoon, 14 April 2022, around 2000 worshippers performed I’tikaf in the Qibli Chapel in al-Aqsa Mosque despite IOF’s harassment and heavy deployment in the mosque yards, at its gates and around it to. This was upon national calls to mobilize on Friday dawn, 15 April 2022, against settlers’ attempts to hold sacrifices after calls from settlement organizations for the Jewish Passover holiday, which start today and continue for a week, provoking extensive outrage among Palestinians. Therefore, the Israeli authorities announced to stop any sacrifice attempts.

Reading between the lines, PCHR reluctantly admits the truth: there was no danger of Jewish "sacrifices" being held on Friday. The Palestinian "worshippers" were told to "mobilize" Thursday night and early Friday morning. The violence was started by Palestinians.

Of course, PCHR doesn't mention that fireworks and stones were stockpiled ahead of time and the violence was planned by the "worshippers."

PCHR tried to twist the facts into something where they could condemn Israel. The other ones decided to stay silent because ultimately they would be forced to admit that the only desecration of the Al Aqsa mosque came from Palestinians who turned it into a headquarters for attacking Israeli police.

You can learn a great deal from what rabid Israel haters who want to be accepted as credible in the West say - and what they don't report.

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!

Is Hamas shooting rockets to test out their anti-aircraft missiles when Israel responds?

On Monday, Gaza terror groups shot a missile towards Israel that was intercepted by Iron Dome.

While Hamas doesn't seem to have been directly responsible for the rocket attack, it seems likely that they gave the green light to another group to shoot it.

Why?

Because Hamas knows that Israel cannot just ignore the rockets, and will inevitably respond with a minor airstrike towards an empty weapons cache or similar target.

And knowing that, Hamas can test out its shoulder-mounted Strela anti-aircraft missiles.

Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem announced, “Congratulations to the men of the resistance who confronted the fighter jets with our anti-aircraft defense.” Qassem claimed it had been the first time that Hamas had used the surface-to-air missile.

In January, Gaza groups also fired anti-aircraft missiles at IDF helicopters that responded to "accidental" firing of rockets.

Hamas needs targets to practice using its weapons. What better target than Israeli planes and helicopters? Especially since they can be conjured up at will with a couple of cheap rockets.

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!

04/18 Links Pt2: Meir Y. Soloveichik: Second Passover; In Every Generation They Rise Up to Destroy Us; White House seder makes a mockery of Passover and Jews

From Ian:

Meir Y. Soloveichik: Second Passover

Though the day is not named in the Bible, it was Jewish tradition that lovingly bestowed the phrase “Second Passover” upon it, capturing how it symbolized a second chance to celebrate freedom, the potential for a second opportunity for celebration when the first was lost.

And this, in turn, reflects the nature of Jewish history itself. When Menachem Begin was told by Jimmy Carter that he faced Israel’s last chance to make peace, Begin told the press, “This, of course, is one of the important events of our time.” He added: “If people say this is a fateful meeting, we disagree. The fate of our people should not depend on any meeting—this meeting or any other. Our people lived thousands of years before Camp David and shall continue to exist thousands of years after.” For the Jews, Begin continued, “there are no last opportunities or chances.” Centuries after the Temple was destroyed, Jews would mark “Second Passover” by eating a bit of the matzah left over from the month before, pondering when the next chance of celebrating freedom would occur in Jewish history.

It is therefore no coincidence that Schacter, looking back at that moment in Buchenwald, called it a “Second Passover.” It was not yet a month after the festival, as Schacter acknowledged, but “it was Pesach Sheni in the most meaningful sense for these Jews, who were unable to have an actual Pesach.” And that ingestion of matzah in a Nazi movie theater allows us to understand the sublime symbolism of the day itself. Is there a better parallel to the origin of Second Passover—those defiled by the dead ultimately celebrating freedom—than a liberation celebration of survivors following an encounter with the ultimate embodiment of death? And is there a biblical day, established so many millennia ago, whose symbolism more strikingly joins together all the modern markings this month, of the Holocaust and the birth of Israel, of Jewish life after Jewish death?

Two weeks after the first service in Buchenwald, another was held on April 27, which happened to be “Second Passover” itself. This time, the chaplain had prepared enough matzah for all. Schacter’s assistant, Hyman Schulman, explained the service in a letter to his wife: “Yesterday was Pesach Schanee, you know,” adding about the survivors, that “the miraculous thing about it was that not one of them ate a piece of matzah until the chaplain said the blessing over the Matzoh.” One participant, Avraham Schneur, told Medoff that up till that point in the camps he had been incapable of faith. Suddenly, the chaplain intoned the memorial prayer for those who had been murdered, and he realized that this included “my father my mother, and my brother, and perhaps also my sisters.…When I heard the prayer, the knowledge that they were gone took on a different character; it became absolute.” And “from then on I knew I had to recite a prayer for them. When I recovered, I noted that two lines were forming; at the front of one line the rabbi was handing out matzo to everyone, and in the other line they were handing out prayer books. I received a prayer book and knew that I was resuming being a Jew.”

Thus did Schneur come to terms with Jewish death, and embrace Jewish life, thereby embodying Jewish history in its totality. It is safe to say that for most reading this article, a “Pesach Sheni” will not be central to their celebrations this year. But if we take pains to mark it, it will render our more modern commemorations more profound, reminding us of what it means to be part of a nation that has no last chance, and will never die.

In Every Generation They Rise Up to Destroy Us

The recent murderous attacks in Israel had no specific political objective other than to murder Jews. They followed the general objective issued in countless public statements and enshrined in the Hamas charter: the eradication of the Jewish state and the elimination of Jews from every inch of Israel.

There is a word for violent, unprovoked attacks against innocent Jews going about their ordinary lives: pogrom. But unlike the situation in late 19th-century Russia, when Jews relied on the czar's good graces for protection, today we can defend ourselves, thank God. These terrorists are modern-day Cossacks, and they are not perpetrating terrorist attacks with clear political objectives but pogroms.

Theodor Herzl, who helped form the modern Zionist movement, believed that if Jews, the only nation in Europe without a country of their own, could only have their state, it would end the hatred. But it didn't. The bitter irony is that the Jewish state has become the new focus of anti-Semitic hatred.

How is it possible that this country, on a sliver of land smaller than New Jersey, has been the target of more UN Human Rights Council resolutions than the rest of the world combined? The only country in the world with a global movement denying its right to exist. How can it be that within living memory of the Holocaust, there is a new credible threat to obliterate another six million Jews, only this time with a single detonation?

For generations, Jews have understood the biblical prediction: "Vehi sheamda" - "In every generation they rise up to destroy us" - which we recall every year on Passover. We must sing those words on Seder night not with fear or sadness or bitterness. Instead, we should feel the pride of the generations of brave Jews who came before us, and hand these truths to our children so they will know who they are, so they will know our enemies and not fear them.

Lost in Germany

In an interview with Deutschlandfunk (Broadcast Germany), Blume fabricated that there are “right-wing extremists” within the Jewish community who react with “hatred” toward his German Muslim wife. I know of no one in the Jewish communities to whom the accusation applies. Blume provided no evidence.

Why Blume defames Jews, of all people, in the interview is quite disconcerting for an antisemitism official. His inclusion in the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s “Global Antisemitism Top Ten” list of people committing the worst antisemitic incidents in 2021 is no coincidence.

THUS, AS a Jew in Germany, one obviously has to come to terms with the fact that the position of an antisemitism commissioner is in most cases cosmetic, in order to soothe the German conscience, but in reality can hardly make a difference.

Now, as is well known, the fish stinks from the head first.

During her recent visit to Israel, Germany’s new foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, one day after visiting Yad Vashem, assured Palestinian Authority head, Mahmoud Abbas, that Germany would be his reliable partner.

This means that Palestinian terror pensions will continue to be indirectly financed by German taxpayers, and that UNRWA will not have to worry about printing anti-Israel hate textbooks.

The show must go on.

Israel is currently experiencing one of the worst waves of terror in recent years, with 14 dead in just over two weeks.

In its statement, the federal foreign office uses the boilerplate language that is already familiar from the bad times of the previous foreign minister, Heiko Maas. It speaks of a possible “spiral of violence” between Jews, Muslims and Christians. The fact that it is a matter of Islamist terror is not mentioned. Thank God, they do not call for “moderation on all sides.”

It seems as though Germany’s politicians want to ignore the fact that the Islamists who commit terror attacks against “infidels” in Germany have the same mindset as the Islamists who attack Israelis. It’s no use mourning the dead terror victims in Israel, if the money keeps flowing to the Palestinians, and Germany indirectly co-finances “terror pensions” paid to the families of Palestinian terrorists.

How good it is that in the worst of all cases for us Jews, there is Israel.

I have no idea where non-Jewish Germans can flee.

100 years ago: "Al Aqsa is in danger!!!!"

In the light of the stupidity of this past weekend, where masses of Israel haters all chose to believe the same absurd lie that Jews planned to take over the Temple Mount, I found this article quoting Herbert Samuel refuting the exact same lie - in 1922.

Then, as now, the rumors are spread by antisemites - in that case, by the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem whose Jew-hatred was explicit and cannot be denied. Today, it is by the Palestinian Authority, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Jordanian lawmakers and others whose equally obvious antisemitism is routinely denied by the oh-so-woke people of today.

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!

Jews in the Old City of Jerusalem, walking to prayers, being attacked by Arabs on Sunday.

With a soundtrack made by another Arab who is thrilled to see attacks like this.

Which gets about as much coverage as when we see similar attacks in Brooklyn.

And with the exact same motivation: pure hatred of Jews.

Here is another video from Sunday. It was taken at the dawn prayer inside Al Aqsa mosque - when there are no police on the Temple Mount.

And Muslims are praying right next to them, not seeing any contradiction between a place of prayer and a weapons cache.

Both these videos are taken by proud Palestinian Arabs. The same ones who say that Ramadan is holy and it is terrible for anyone to attack Muslims during that month are bragging about planning to attack, and actually attacking, Jews on Passover.

I don't think Mehdi Hassan or Ayman Mohyeldin will mention this in their incendiary, lying depictions of recent events as Jews attacking Arabs.

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!

04/18 Links Pt1: How Congress Can Nix Biden’s Iran Deal; Jordan ‘salutes’ Palestinian rioters on Temple Mt., summons Israeli envoy for rebuke

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: Complicit in depravity

I have written many times — as here, here, and here — about the astonishing desperation of the Biden administration to make a deal with Iran over its nuclear programme.

If the Obama administration had some of us scratching our heads in horror over its 2015 deal which guaranteed an Iranian path to nuclear weapons with at best only a few years’ delay, the successor deal on the verge of being agreed by the Biden team was shaping up to be very much worse.

This would reportedly not only guarantee an Iranian nuclear bomb within a much shorter timescale, not only funnel tens of billions of dollars in sanctions relief into the coffers of a US-designated terrorist state already responsible for killing scores of Americans and other westerners, but even worse was poised to lift the designation of “Foreign Terrorist Organisation” from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Iran’s de facto army that’s responsible for countless global atrocities.

At the last hurdle, however, progress towards a deal recently ground to a halt. With even some Democrats in the US Congress as well as otherwise lily-livered western countries expressing consternation and disbelief that America might be about to give an effective green light to the IRGC, this suddenly seemed to become a sticking point for the Biden team, too. Suddenly, the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he was “not overly optimistic” it would be concluded.

Here, however, is where an already deeply troubling and scarcely believable US policy becomes simply depraved. As Andrew Parasiliti and Elizabeth Hagedorn reported earlier this month on Al Monitor:
The Biden administration was ready to de-list the IRGC if Iran would agree not to target Americans implicated in the killing of IRGC-Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani by a US armed drone in January 2020.

- The US Justice Department is reportedly investigating an IRGC plot to kill former US national security adviser John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

- “It is politically impossible for the Iranians to publicly close the file on taking revenge for Soleimani,” Ali Vaez of the International Crisis Group told Al-Monitor. “That proposal has been rejected by the Iranians. Iran has come up with a counterproposal that the US is now considering [my emphasis]”.

Just consider the implications of this. The killing of Soleimani was a welcome and long overdue lethal counter-strike by the US against the man who had the blood of countless Americans and others on his hands and who was the Iranian regime’s most important strategist of mass murder.

How Congress Can Nix Biden’s Iran Deal

Even if Malley steps aside or is forced out, Biden is essentially required by the new law to submit a candidate for the top Iran position to the Senate, which will finally force a reckoning of the administration’s Iran policy. If Biden ever wants his nominee confirmed, it will also require his administration to provide real answers to the dozens of congressional oversight letters that have so far been brushed aside or ignored entirely. This confirmation process and the rigor it would entail would provide Biden with a fair opportunity to pivot away from the unpopular path of appeasement and concessions which he, Obama, Blinken, and Malley have blazed in favor of a sturdier strategy of sanctions and military containment that could obtain political buy-in from both parties.

American policy toward Iran would benefit greatly from a steady, long-term approach that might gain the backing of a significant number of members from both parties, and which might endure beyond 2023. Having served in both Congress and the State Department, I am certain that transparency and predictability will not be forthcoming from the executive branch. But for too long, Congress has relegated its responsibilities to the executive branch when it can’t make up its mind or develop a compromise. Real leadership is needed to reach across the aisle and fashion a policy that can stand the test of time.

Ideally, Democrats and Republicans should work together to develop a hard-nosed strategy to contain Iran’s radical ambitions of nuclear extortion, hostage-taking, and regional aggression. Then both parties could equally share the responsibility for dealing with the regime’s destructive agenda—sharing the blame when things get hard, and reaping the credit when prospects improve.

If that all seems a little fanciful, I can at least report that a new Iran policy is coming soon—and neither the Biden administration nor the Iranian regime will be happy with it.

Jordan ‘salutes’ Palestinian rioters on Temple Mt., summons Israeli envoy for rebuke

Jordan’s prime minister on Monday lashed out at Israel over the ongoing clashes at Jerusalem’s Temple Mount compound between Israeli security forces and Muslim worshipers.

Addressing a session of the Jordanian parliament, Bisher al-Khasawneh hailed Palestinian rioters and used notably hostile language to condemn “Zionists” and what he called Israel’s “occupation government.”

“I salute every Palestinian and member of the Jordanian Waqf [the Muslim organization that oversees the holy site] who stands proud as a lighthouse and hurls floods of stones at all the Zionists who defile Al-Aqsa with the protection of the Israeli occupation government,” said Khasawneh.

Earlier on Sunday, Jordan’s Foreign Ministry summoned the Israeli envoy in the kingdom to reprimand him over the entrance of over Israeli security forces into the Al-Aqsa compound on Sunday in order to allow Jewish visitors to visit the site.

Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi’s office said he would present deputy ambassador Sami Abu Janeb with a letter demanding that Israel stop all “violations” at the mosque immediately.

Safadi intends to convene a meeting in the coming days attended by representatives of Arab League members Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Qatar, Tunisia, and Algeria for an emergency discussion regarding the situation in Jerusalem and Israel’s “aggression.” Jordan’s Prime Minister Bisher al-Khasawneh addresses parliament in Amman on April 18, 2022 (Channel 12 screenshot)

Following the summoning of Abu Janeb, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid on Monday held a situational assessment at his office with diplomatic officials on possible actions to take in response, which were said to include “severe measures,” according to the Ynet news site.

Israeli political sources quoted in the report said that Safadi’s conduct only further raises tensions in Jerusalem, claiming it was “life-threatening.”

Yisrael Medad: A Perfidious Jordanian

We read that Jordan's King stresses need for Israel to cease provocative measures in Al Aqsa Mosque, calling for the respecting of the historical, legal status quo in Jerusalem

And he "reiterated that protecting Jerusalem and its holy sites will remain a priority for Jordan, directing the government to dedicate all capacities to safeguard these sites, as well as the historical and legal status quo in the holy city and its Arab, Islamic and Christian identity."

So, what have we?

A. An accusation that it is Israel that engages in provocative behavior. ot the Jordanian-funded Waqf, not the Isalmic clerics, the Palestinian Authority inciting violent behavior, the youngsters and some others throwing rocks, shooting off fireworks.

B. A complete ignoring a Jerusalem's Jewish identity.

C. A refusal to fulfill the country's obligations to Article 9 of the Jordan-Israel Peace Treaty, that
Each Party will provide freedom of access to places of religious and historical significance [and] The Parties will act together to promote interfaith relations among the three monotheistic religions, with the aim of working towards religious understanding, moral commitment, freedom of religious worship, and tolerance and peace.

A reminder @KingAbdullahII, when Jordan illegally occupied eastern #Jerusalem, incl. Old City, between 1948-67, you banned access for Jews to all our Holy Sites. First thing #Israel did in 1967 after liberating the City, is make it free and open to all. https://t.co/lr0Ih78dNr
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) April 17, 2022

73% of Palestinians believe Quranic "prophecy" that Israel will be destroyed by June

Haaretz reports that a recent poll shows that 73% of Palestinians believe the Quran includes a prophecy regarding the demise of the state of Israel between March and June 2022.

I could not find the source of the poll, so I don't know if it was from a respected pollster or an online Internet survey.

The so-called prophecy was created by Sheikh Dr. Bassam Jarrar, a Hamas preacher, who wrote a book in 1996 making this prediction.

He says he was inspired to look for the prophecy after hearing a third hand story about an old Jewish woman in Iraq who told a Muslim friend in May, 1948 that Israel would not last longer than 76 years.

A Muslim Brotherhood leader in Iraq heard this story from his mother, and Jarrar heard it from him. So the provenance is rock-solid, because old anonymous Jewish women are clearly prophets.

Basing his calculations on the Islamic calendar, Jarrar finds some truly ridiculous reasons that all point to 2022, by counting verses in various sections of the Koran. The number 19 is prominent, as 76 is 19 x 4. He also claims that there were 19 kings in Judea and 19 kings in Israel, and 19 Knessets - I'm not sure where the fourth 19 is. (We are currently in the 24th Knesset.)

He also claims that Menachem Begin said in 1982, during the invasion of Lebanon, that this will herald 40 years of peace. A footnote says, "I do not know what he meant by the forty years of peace, as his statement contradicts reality. Perhaps it has a hidden purpose that only the Jews know."

Yes, that's it!

There's more: Halley's Comet is associated with Jews and comes around every 76 years, and reaches its aphelion point in 2022. Sure, 76 solar years is not 76 Hijra (lunar) years, and no one associates Halley's Comet with Jews, but don't worry about that.

The Haaretz writer, Ori Nir, who works at Americans for Peace Now, says:

Palestinians are not uneducated. Youth literacy in the West Bank and Gaza Strip is almost 100 percent. Enrollment ratio in higher education is among the highest in the world. It is not a society governed by irrational notions or sentiments. And Jarrar is no yahoo. I spoke with him several times in the mid-1990s, after his return from being briefly deported by Israel to Lebanon together with 414 other Palestinian extremists. He is a highly educated, compelling, charismatic interlocutor.

So why do they believe this stupidity? Nir says:

Palestinians are attracted to these notions because their society and polity are so weak in comparison to powerful Israel, because they are in deep despair, having lost hope for liberating themselves from Israel’s rule and have lost hope for achieving political independence, and because they seek retribution for what they view as injustice.

This is a refraction of the truth.

This isn't the first prophecy of Israel's demise. These predictions have been part of Palestinian culture since it began.

The West said that Israel would not last. Arab nations said they would destroy Israel. Arafat put a plan forward to destroy Israel. So did Qaddafi, and Iran, and BDS, and the Israeli far-Left. Any news that hints that Israel is in trouble gets amplified and any news about Israel being successful is quashed in Palestinian media.

Palestinians have been told from birth that Israel is a temporary anomaly, not a hard fact. That is why they don't work towards peace or consider compromise - why give up any advantage when time is on their side and Israel's demise is inevitable?

This is the magical thinking of Palestinians. It is the same magical thinking that claims that Palestinian solidarity protected Al Aqsa Mosque from being invaded by Jews who otherwise would have offered the Paschal sacrifice on Friday.

Nir thinks that Israel can provide the hope that Palestinians need to feel like they have a horizon for peace. Nonsense - they could read Israeli media and see that most Israelis would love to live next to an Arab state that doesn't threaten them with destruction. But Palestinians are against Israel existing in any form, and this has been proven again and again, from statements by their leaders to public opinion polls. Israeli concessions don't make them want to accept Israel more - they look at concessions by Israel as weakness and as evidence that the inevitable destruction of Israel has begun. When other polls say that they support a two-state solution, what they really mean (the few times they are asked) is that is a temporary measure and merely a stage towards Israel's inevitable destruction.

Israel cannot extricate Palestinians from their fantasies. Only real Palestinian leadership, telling their people the truth that Israel isn't going away, teaching in their schools that Israel exists, and that Israel wants peace and will not accept terrorism against their people - only when they are taught the truth from their own leaders and teachers will Palestinians begin to rid themselves of their magical thinking.

Like everything else, it is up to them. And the Western Leftists who believe that Israel can solve Palestinian inability to recognize reality are the ones who encourage Palestinians to continue to act like infants who allow the world to do all their work for them.

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Joods Actueel reports that VRT, the public Flemish-language broadcaster of Belgium, featured in its satirical program The Ideal World (“De Ideale Wereld”) a spoof using footage from Schindler's List making fun of the anticipated shortage of Cent Wafers, manufactured in Ukraine.

In the parody broadcast on April 7, called "Schindler's Shopping List," Oskar Schindler, who during World War II saved more than a thousand Jews in his factory in Poland, is presented as the founder of a biscuit factory where Cent Wafers are produced by his Jewish employees. Instead of despairing over saving lives, Schindler in the spoof despairs over saving cookies. He curses the doomed Jewish child as having taken the last pack of the wafers.

In the final scene, instead of placing stones on Schindler's grave, the Jews in Israel place Cent Wafers.

Christian and Jewish groups in Belgium denounced the video.

VRT has attacked Jews before.

This is an outrageous trivialization of the Holocaust, done with Belgian tax money.

UPDATE: VRT has apologized and removed the video from their social media blog but left the full program including the Schindler parody on their site. (h/t Rudi)

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Haaretz and the NY Times agree: Passover is the time to say that Judaism is awful

Both the New York Times and Haaretz think Passover is a great time to insult Judaism.

In the NYT, we see Shalom Auslander, whose credentials to write this article about Judaism are stellar indeed. After all, as this 2007 article notes:

His father was an alcoholic, violent with his two sons. His mother was a sad character, trying to keep up appearances of a normal home life. Incessantly reading decorating magazines, she harbored the hope that if she rearranged their furniture well, they would have a peaceful home.

As a young boy, Auslander began sneaking out of the house on Shabbat afternoon; a first transgression was to ride his bike to a local store, but then he couldn't get himself to step on the electronic pad to open the door, which would have been another transgression. But soon after, he was taking taxis to the mall, shoplifting small items and sneaking non-kosher foods. By the time he was in high school, the Manhattan Talmudic Academy, he was shoplifting the kinds of expensive clothing his classmates wore, smoking dope and skipping classes to go to museums, bookstores and porn shops.

Of course a person whose entire view of Judaism was warped from the start is the perfect person to say in the New York Times that we really need to get rid of the cruel Jewish God:

God, it seems, paints with a wide brush. He paints with a roller. In Egypt, said our rabbi, he even killed first-born cattle. He killed cows. If he were mortal, the God of Jews, Christians and Muslims would be dragged to The Hague. And yet we praise him. We emulate him. We implore our children to be like him.

Because a thief whose main concept of Judaism comes from his third grade Hebrew teacher is obviously an expert in theology. Even if he claims in the fact-challenged NYT article that the Hebrew chumash is the Old Testament - something any bright eight year old in any yeshiva knows is not true.

The illustration of the NYT article says it all: it depicts (the Jewish) God as a combination of Zeus and Godzilla, holding his lightning bolt as he wantonly terrorizes innocents.

Meanwhile, Haaretz publishes Dr. Ofri Ilany - a professor - who says that the Exodus story is really a colonialist myth. Instead of being upset over God's treatment of Egyptians, Ilany is upset at the Jews' treatment of Canaanites.

The brilliant professor says that the Torah, which is literally the basis for all Western morality, falls short of his moral standards:

The story of the Exodus would truly constitute a positive political myth if Moses had demanded that Pharaoh grant the Israelites equal rights in Egypt – exactly like those of his subjects who worshiped the gods Horus and Seth. Alternatively, a scenario can be conjured up in which the slaves and their descendants would have been integrated into another kingdom – Babylon, say, or the Hittite kingdom. But that’s not what happened. The Israelites embarked on a journey rife with wars and killing, in which they inflicted deaths on every people they came across along the way.

Except that Moses did demand rights - the right to worship God. Pharaoh refused, repeatedly. To Ilany, the evil of Jews remaining stateless slaves is far better than their returning to the land they came from and that the Creator of the universe promised to them.

And nearly every war (Amalek, Ammon, Bashan, Canaan) was self defense, the possible exception being Midian which was punishment in their role in trying to destroy Israel spiritually.

Jewish nationalism is the real crime. The Hittites and Ammonites and Moabites and Amalekites and Jebusites and Girgashites and all the other nation states of the time could all fight and invade and take land from others with nary a negative word from today's woke scholars. Only when Jews did does it become a retroactive war crime.

Only Jews of 3500 years ago are judged by the woke standards of the 21st century.

In both the New York Times and Haaretz there is an unmistakable whiff of self-congratulations, that these newspapers are so brave as to attack Judaism and Jewish belief on the holiday of Jewish national liberation from slavery. Of speaking "truth to power." In both these cases, the editors would no doubt argue that religion is fair game for criticism. Indeed, it is.

Yet I don't recall seeing any anti-Christian op-eds on Christmas or Easter, or any anti-Islam op-eds on Eid at-Fitr or during Ramadan, in either of these newspapers. There are no cartoons of Jesus or Mohammed doing anything unsavory. In fact, these newspapers would not lampoon any deeply held religious belief besides that of Jews.

Only Jews are fair game for vitriol and insults.

One can recall Slate's "Blogging the Bible" where a non-religious Jewish writer read the entire Bible and offered insulting and snarky commentary - but he only blogged the Hebrew Bible. Why didn't he read and comment on the New Testament, or the Koran? Or why didn't Slate hire a lapsed Christian or Muslim to do the job? Nope, only the Jewish scripture is subject to popular ridicule of that level by major media.

Jews are prohibited from drawing God no less than Muslims are prohibited from drawing their prophet. But Jews aren't going to firebomb the NYT offices or threaten to assassinate the writers. The newspaper of record isn't that brave.

That is the proof that this isn't legitimate criticism. This is antisemitism.

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04/17 Links: How the US perpetuates Palestinian violence; Israel cannot allow rioters to desecrate Temple Mount; After Ukraine, can Israel trust US against Iran?

From Ian:

Ruthie Blum: How the US perpetuates Palestinian violence

Willful blindness to the real root of the wider “conflict”—the desire to eliminate the Jewish state—was and still is at play, however. And no number of condolence tweets to the victims can make up for Team Biden’s simultaneous bolstering of the forces inciting them to commit mass murder in the name of Allah.

The inevitable result of the constant calls for “calm” during the current holidays was a carefully planned riot on the Temple Mount on Friday, mere hours before Israel’s Jews sat down to enjoy their seders. Early that morning, Palestinians and similarly radical Arab citizens of Israel barricaded themselves in the mosque with piles of rocks and firebombs with which to assault police stationed there to keep the peace.

Such was the scene on the second Friday of Ramadan. Rather than recite their solemn prayers, worshipers were pummeling Israelis in uniform, and civilians praying at the Western Wall below, with stones. Security forces responded appropriately, using tear gas and stun grenades, and arresting hundreds of perpetrators.

The vilification of Israel promptly followed.

“We condemn the barbaric aggression of the occupation soldiers against the worshipers in Al-Aqsa,” Hamas declared. “Our brothers in Jerusalem are not alone in the fight for Al-Aqsa. We call on the masses in the West Bank and inside the Green Line to stand by our brothers in Jerusalem.”

P.A. leader Mahmoud Abbas’s office accused Israel of launching a religious war, and Palestinian officials warned counterparts in the United States and Jordan of the “consequences of Israel’s actions.”

Decrying the “invasion of the Al-Aqsa mosque” and “harm” to Muslims at prayer, the Jordanian Foreign Ministry demanded that Israel immediately withdraw its forces from the Temple Mount. This was to be expected, as fabricating Israeli aggression on the holy site, whose ancient connection to Judaism is something that the Palestinians deny, is key to riling up young radicals and sparking an Israeli reaction.

The Biden administration buys the ploy, hook, line and sinker. Instead of directing its denunciations where they belong, it perpetuates the anti-Semitic deception by insinuating that Israel really is on the verge of taking over the mosque, thus spurring Muslim rage.

“The United States is deeply concerned by the violence in Jerusalem … on the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount,” said State Department spokesman Ned Price on Friday.

“We call on all sides to exercise restraint, avoid provocative actions and rhetoric, and preserve the historic status quo on the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount,” he went on, again using the Islamic term before the Jewish one. “We urge Palestinian and Israeli officials to work cooperatively to lower tensions and ensure the safety of everyone.”

The trouble is in the equation. Indeed, while Israel has been trying to appease the Palestinians, the feeling is anything but mutual.

On the contrary, as Biden’s boys don’t care to grasp, it is not in the interest of the honchos in Ramallah and Gaza to “lower tensions.” If it were, they wouldn’t be instigating the bloodshed in the first place.

JPost Editorial: Israel cannot allow rioters to desecrate Temple Mount

Tension on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount isn’t new. The site of both the First and Second Temples in ancient times and al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock shrine today has the potential for friction built-in.

But what we are increasingly seeing are cynical attempts to exploit the holy site for a different purpose, for narrative rather than peaceful religion. The Palestinian rioters who desecrated the site by throwing rocks and firecrackers at police and on the Jewish worshipers gathered at the Western Wall below the Mount, did not go to the area Muslims call al-Haram al-Sharif (the Noble Sanctuary) or al-Aqsa compound for a spiritual Ramadan experience.

Video footage of clashes between Israeli police and security forces and Palestinian rioters at the site have gone viral and are often difficult to watch. There certainly seem to be cases of police overreacting and attacking Palestinians who appear to be unconnected to the violence. Nonetheless, what needs to be kept in mind is cause and effect.

The Muslims who stockpiled stones, rocks, logs and firecrackers in al-Aqsa did not do so for religious purposes. They prepared for a riot – to attack police and Jewish worshipers – not for prayers. Police did not storm al-Aqsa Mosque to “conquer” it. They broke in to arrest the rock throwers who had barricaded themselves inside after Friday prayers. Some of the masked Palestinians waved Hamas flags and praised arch-terrorist Muhammed Deif as they tried to bombard the Jewish worshipers who had come to pray at the Western Wall at the start of the Passover holiday.

With their unholy actions, the rioters are disturbing the freedom of prayer of everyone, including other Muslims. The vast majority of the 50,000 or so Muslim worshipers in the al-Aqsa area on Friday came with the peaceful intention of prayer at Islam’s third holiest site. The fact that so many thousands were able to gather there shows that Israel is intent on protecting freedom of worship for the Muslims.

It is Jewish worship that is limited at Judaism’s holiest site. The Muslim extremists object to any Jewish presence on Temple Mount and now refer to the entire area as “al-Aqsa” and yesterday they threw rocks at buses traveling to the Western Wall. Jews who ascend Temple Mount note, however, that part of the area serves as a soccer field, far from serving religious needs.

Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Palestinian Authority have all accused Israel of carrying out “provocations” and an “assault” at the site. They are hoping to turn it into a battle cry. It is easy to rally Muslims everywhere around the lie that al-Aqsa is in danger and needs defending. The terrorist organizations are hoping that this becomes as self-fulfilling prophesy.

After Ukraine, can Israel trust US against Iran?

PRESIDENT JOE Biden may have unintentionally set a precedent through his dealings with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin that might carry over to Israel, should Iran, God forbid, attack Israel. If so, is Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s stated commitment to guarantee Israel that Iran will never acquire nuclear weapons, worthless?

Having endured unfair tragedies that were thrust upon Jews throughout the ages, at the end of the day, will we find ourselves regarded as “suckers?” I sincerely hope not, as the fates of both great nations are tied at the hip.

Has the above potential of an air missile/drone adversarial action combined with a coordinated land and naval threat, ever been considered by President Biden and Secretary of State Blinken as a legitimate risk of the Iranian “sanctions relief” demand; if not, why not? I cannot imagine the president and secretary Blinken forgetting the Afghanistan debacle.

In all fairness, Israel has earned the right to never let its guard down. and for its own good must repeatedly assess the reliability of President Biden’s sincerity and understood commitments. The existential threats, including the ones stemming from sanction relief, cannot be counted upon to disappear of their own accord.

Jewish history, as recently recounted in the Book of Esther, poses a series of all too familiar threats. Purim (lots), commemorates the saving of Jews from Haman, an evil “Achaemenid Persian empire official,” who covertly planned to exterminate all the Jews within Persia (subsequently, to become Iran).

Were it not for Esther – the wife of the Persian king who became a reluctant heroine, ultimately choosing to risk her life to save fellow Jews from the king’s adviser, Haman – who would have stood against the evil one?

Are there equivalents of Esther to stand against those who issued threats from within Iran of “Death to Israel” and “Death to America?” Once again, our fates are indeed tied to each other, even if President Biden closes his eyes and ears to this.

Chag sameach!

May everyone have a meaningful Seder (or two) and a wonderful Passover!

I will not be online until Sunday night at the earliest.

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04/15 Links Pt2: This Passover, Israel has much to be thankful for; New report exposes SJP’s methods of intimidating Jewish students at Cornell; Liev Schreiber to star in Keshet, Disney's Holocaust series

From Ian:

JPost Editorial: This Passover we remember that not all are free

At a time when Jews are focusing on the freedom we struggled to obtain, it is a time for us to remember the hardships and lack of freedoms that others are facing. Russia is depriving the Ukrainian people of their most basic right – the right to live.

Ukrainians aren’t the only people facing massive threats to their freedoms. At any given moment in 2016, an estimated 40.3 million people were held as slaves, according to the International Labor Organization, with “24.9 million people trapped in forced labour, 16 million people exploited in the private sector such as domestic work, construction or agriculture; 4.8 million persons in forced sexual exploitation; and four million persons in forced labor imposed by state authorities.”

Meanwhile, the people of North Korea are starving to death under one of the world’s most oppressive regimes. People there are forced into unpaid labor under threat of detention or execution. The dictatorial regime attempts to stop anyone from leaving the state, blocking their communication with the outside world.

Much like the Jews in Egypt, they are slaves to an oppressive ruler who does not care if they live or die.

In China, more than a million Uighurs have reportedly been detained in “reeducation camps,” as the state calls them. Those who have survived their imprisonment say they were tortured and sexually assaulted. Others are used as forced labor and some women are being forcibly sterilized.

When we gather with our families tonight, let us rejoice as we recount the Exodus from Egypt. But let us also remember and tell everyone at our Seder about those who are less fortunate than we are. And let’s hope that by next year, they will have also escaped the yoke of oppression.

This Passover, Israel has much to be thankful for

Had the heavens gifted Israel with success, strength and self-assuredness that comes from faith, but not with a happy society with a high birth rate that enjoys a vibrant arts and culture scene, gourmet food and wine, verdant mountaintop getaway sites, and the most exciting intellectual institutions in the Jewish world – dayenu.

Had the heavens gifted Israel with energy and enthusiasm, but not with multiple Jewish organizations in the Diaspora that work hard every day (the vast majority of them) to back Israel politically and support its cultural and educational institutions – dayenu.

Of course, dayenu does not mean that Israel is satisfied and sitting on its laurels. It aspires to more.

Israel still needs more triumphs, including victory over Iranian revolutionaries, various radical Islamic enemies and Palestinian rejectionists. Israel desires region-wide peace – with the Iranians and Palestinians, too. Also, Israel aims to better integrate its Arab and haredi (ultra-Orthodox) Jewish populations, bring down the very high cost of living, and narrow income gaps. And there is much to be done to help stem Diaspora Jewish assimilation and disaffiliation.

But in grand perspective, kama maalot tovot la-Makom aleinu – see how many benefits and blessings the heavens have showered upon Israel! It enjoys a strong economy, coronavirus and political stability (at least for the past year), diplomatic and security heft, renewed aliyah, national resilience that stems from faith, and global Jewish support.

Consider how far the people of Israel and the State of Israel have come in just 75 years, look at what has been achieved, and feel the Divine warmth. Dayenu! There is more than enough to give thanks for – and more than enough to inspire confidence about Israel’s future.

Rabbi who fled Moscow: ‘Jewish life in Russia as I knew it was coming to an end’

On the morning of February 24, 2022, Motl Gordon woke up to the news that Russia had invaded Ukraine.

“It dawned on me that it’s another epoch now,” Gordon told The Times of Israel in a recent interview in Jerusalem. Within two hours he, his wife, and their two kids had airline tickets, and within 10 hours they were on a plane to Warsaw.

Gordon had spent the last five years leading an independent Jewish community in Moscow, Sredi Svoih (Among Our Own). Just minutes after deciding to leave, Gordon went to the synagogue to lead a Torah lesson and morning prayers. He didn’t tell his congregants about his plans — it wasn’t clear to him yet that he would succeed in actually boarding the flight.

It wasn’t a simple journey in terms of official documents: The family was traveling through Warsaw and not all of them had visas, Israel hadn’t lifted coronavirus restrictions, and the children weren’t vaccinated. They applied for special permission to circumvent the restrictions and enter Israel, but as the war had started on a Thursday, the approval came too late to make it to Jerusalem before the Sabbath. They ended up staying in Warsaw until Saturday night, when they boarded a flight to Ben Gurion Airport. On Sunday morning they arrived in Israel.

“Sixty hours,” Gordon says, “in which I could think of nothing else but getting to Jerusalem.”

The decision to leave was not easy since Seredi Svoih had flourished under Gordon’s leadership. But it wasn’t made in a vacuum. As he tells it, Russian Jews had begun leaving before February 24.

The first sign of things to come, he says, were the elections for the Duma — Russia’s lower parliamentary house — in 2021, during which Gordon saw the pre-election repression as too harsh to be reversed.

“It felt like a purge,” he says.

According to the Hamas site Felesteen:

The Russian Foreign Ministry stated that Israel is trying to take advantage of the situation in Ukraine in order to divert the attention of the international community from the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

It said Israel is violating many resolutions of the Security Council and the General Assembly of the United Nations, and continues its illegal occupation and annexation of Palestinian lands.

The Russian Foreign Ministry stressed that the Israeli occupation of Palestine comes from the tacit complicity of Western countries and with the actual support of the United States of America.

Israel is truly amazing. Everything it does is either a horrible human rights crime, or an attempt to divert attention from horrible human rights crimes. Every citizens spends every waking moment coming up with ways to distract the international community.

The paragon of human rights itself, Russia, has spoken.

It sounds a lot like Jewish Voice for Peace.

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