Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Saturday, May 07, 2022

05/07 Links: Dershowitz: The Harvard Crimson Normalizes Growing Campus Antisemitism; Israel-bashing is this generation's existential threat to Judaism; Israel and India mark 30 years of deepening friendship

From Ian:

Alan Dershowitz: The Harvard Crimson Normalizes Growing Campus Antisemitism

On April 30, I submitted to the Harvard Crimson a detailed op-ed refuting its recently-published blood libel against Israel. Over the next several days, the Crimson first said they were “reviewing” my submission; then that they were “interested in running it;” and, on May 4, that they would run my piece “probably tonight,” promising to “reach out with edits later today if needed.” As a result of these assurances, I withdrew my op-ed from any other publications. Then, on May 4, they “decided not to publish” my piece, using the phony excuse of “very high number of submissions … combined with our currently limited production schedule.”

When I protested their breach of journalistic ethics, they changed their minds again and agreed to run it in the form of a much-shortened letter to the editor. They asked me to eliminate the accusation that their editorial encouraged the current form of antisemitism; I refused. Then they demanded documentary proof of my opinions — something they did not provide for their own egregiously false statements. When I provided the documentation, they finally ran out of excuses, and reluctantly published the shortened letter. This bait and switch compounded their unethical action in knowingly publishing defamatory lies about Israel. Here is the full op-ed they accepted and then rejected:

In one of the most historically ignorant, religiously discriminatory and factually deceptive editorials ever published by the Harvard Crimson, its editorial board engages in and “call[s] on everyone” to promote the current form of antisemitism.

Let’s be clear that criticism of Israel and/or its policies is not antisemitic. I and other supporters of Israel around the world routinely criticize policies of the nation state of the Jewish people, just as we criticize policies of our own nation. This editorial, however, is not merely about Israeli policies: it implicitly supports the end of Israel and its replacement by a Palestinian state “from the river to the sea.” That is the goal of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement as described by its founder, Omar Barghouti.

Tom Friedman, the Pulitzer Prize winner and New York Times columnist who is often critical of Israeli policies, put it this way: “singling out Israel for opprobrium and international sanctions — out of all proportion to any other party in the Middle East — is antisemitic, and not saying so is dishonest.”

That is precisely what the Crimson editorial is guilty of. It “condemn[s] antisemitism in every and all forms,” while practicing its newest form. Are the editors even aware that the founders of the BDS movement apply it only to Israelis who are Jewish? Are the editors aware that Barghouti refused to debate me at the Oxford Union precisely because I am an American Jew who supports Israel’s existence? Are the editors aware that BDS singles out only one nation from among the many with serious human rights issues, namely the nation state of the Jewish people? That is antisemitism pure and simple. Shame on the Crimson editors for calling on everyone to promote it. The Crimson’s megaphone will surely spread and increase the already high rate of antisemitism on campuses throughout the world.

Israel-bashing is this generation's existential threat to Judaism

At this point in 2022, the danger of Israel-bashing becoming the ideology for the political destruction of the Jewish state seems as absurd as the threat of antisemitism becoming the ideology for genocide of European Jews was in the 1890s during Herzl’s time. Friendly governments would not fulfill the threat.

But as Herzl argued, governments are subject to the will of the people, and those people today are indoctrinated with occupationalism and Israel-bashing. “Even if we were as near to the hearts of princes… they could not protect us. They would only feel popular hatred by showing us too much favor,” Herzl wrote.

Moreover, political situations can change. One of the lessons of the 1973 Yom Kippur War is to threat-analyze capabilities, not just intentions. Indeed, the capabilities to eradicate Judaism are now in place.

So how to deal with it? Indeed, look to Herzl.

Until now, the primary response to Israel-bashing has been hasbara (public diplomacy). Herzl mocked such efforts.

In his time, hasbara was done through “committees against antisemitism.” Herzl argued that they are futile since one cannot convince people who use dogmatic thinking. Hence, a radical solution was needed – the establishment of a Jewish state.

Today, Israel-bashing is too dogmatic in mainstream Western societies for rational arguments to be effective. Once again, a radical approach is needed to deal with this threat: the change of global consciousness of what is Judaism. As discussed in this column, Zionism is becoming the primary conduit through which both Jews and non-Jews relate to Judaism – through positive and negative connections alike.

Once there is a broad recognition that Judaism has transformed and Zionism is now its organizing principle, then Israel-bashing becomes Jew-bashing, and this in-turn dramatically alters the nature of the existential threat to Judaism of our generation.

London Centre Study of Contemporary Antisemitism: Jeffrey Herf talked about his book "Israel's Moment" at a London Centre for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism event.

...2. Russian propaganda says Ukraine is not a real nation, not authentic, a Nazi, racist, pro-imperialist entity that should be dismantled by force.

3. Remember the antisemitic myth of the 'Khazars'? It says that 'white' Jews from Europe are not authentically Jews at all...
— David Hirsh (@DavidHirsh) May 6, 2022

05/06 Links Pt2: Can you imagine a world without Israel?; Progressively Sliding into Antisemitism; JVP: Memorial days for Holocaust, independence are 'harmful Zionist' propaganda; Vidal Sassoon in Combat

From Ian:

Jonathan Tobin: Can you imagine a world without Israel?

Diving into this counterfactual world in which the Jews of Israel somehow lost the ability to defend their state, it's not difficult to imagine what would ensure.

Contrary to those who predict that a binational state would bring peace and justice to the land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, the Jews of Israel would be in the gravest possible danger without a Jewish government and an army to defend them. Some leftist Jews have made a fetish of powerlessness. But the lessons of 20 centuries of Jewish history prior to Israel's founding tell us exactly what happens when Jews allow their safety to depend on the kindness of strangers.

Left at the mercy of Palestinian terror organizations, in addition to Islamist and nationalist Arab and Muslims who have never stopped preaching revenge for their past defeats at the hands of the Zionists, the Jews in the land of Israel (approximately 7 million souls today) would be decimated and subjected to pogroms and discrimination. The descendants of Jews who had survived the Holocaust in Europe or had been driven out of their homes in Arab and Muslim lands would again be forced to again flee for their lives.

As Dara Horn wrote in her recent book, the world loves dead Jews. A new generation of Jewish victims – as if the 6 million dead of the Holocaust and the many others who have been killed, wounded or otherwise traumatized by anti-Semitic attacks and terrorism since the end of the Nazi regime were not enough – might be viewed sympathetically by the world. But if the Jews lose the ability to defend themselves, it's a stretch to think that even the friendliest of foreign powers would do it for them.

Nor would the suffering be confined to the Jews of Israel. If there is anything we should have learned from the last century of Jewish history, it is that the establishment of a Jewish state allowed every Jew in the world – whether or not they were Zionists, religious or in any way affiliated with the Jewish community – to stand up taller and be more respected by their neighbors. The collapse or destruction of Israel would have a devastating impact on the security of Jews elsewhere, leaving them more vulnerable than ever to a rising tide of anti-Semitic hate. Even those who are indifferent to or unaware of how much Israel has strengthened their position and pumped life into Jewish communities would soon understand that this would strip them of the pride and the security that a Jewish state had offered them. The end of Israel would set off a new dark age for world Jewry whose consequences are unimaginable to those who grew up in the last 74 years when Jews no longer thought of themselves primarily as victims or the objects of hate and scorn.

That is a nightmare scenario and one that will hopefully never come to pass. But we should keep it in mind whenever we encounter those who speak up for Israel's elimination or for a BDS movement that seeks that end. Those who preach the end of Israel may think they are supporting human rights, but a proper understanding of their goal would force us to see that what they are doing is advocating for mass murder and the dispossession of the largest Jewish community in the world. A world without Israel would be one of Jewish suffering and victimhood and anyone who seeks that objective – be they on the left or the right, non-Jewish or Jewish – should be labeled as a would-be accomplice to genocide.

Yisrael Medad: Did the Deir Yasin massacre actually happen? New book investigates

WE HAVE now The Massacre That Never Was, Prof. Eliezer Tauber’s book, which, incidentally, itself has a back story in that no academic press would agree to publish it, as, seemingly, it goes against the accepted narrative.

There are three main elements to the narrative of Deir Yasin as well as several minor ones.

The first is the term “massacre,” as the AP communiqué of April 11 termed the events, or as the Deir Yassin Remembered website has it, the villagers “had been systematically murdered.” Is it justified, and what was its role in the flight of Palestine’s Arabs?

The second is the downplaying of Deir Yasin’s own history within the context of the terrorist campaign of Palestine’s Arabs against their Jewish neighbors.

The third is the defamation campaign waged by the Mapai elite against the Revisionist dissidents, against the backdrop of their responsibility for massacres.

The reader will learn that, according to Tauber, there was no preplanned massacre. As for the numbers, while on April 10, the day after the battle, The New York Times reported: “In house-to-house fighting, the Jews killed more than 200 Arabs, half of them women and children,” Tauber actually lists each and every one of the 101 Arab fatalities. Furthermore, on page 207, Tauber concludes that “most of the [Arabs] killed in the village were killed during the battle and under battle conditions and not in a subsequent deliberate massacre.”

In other words, while noncombatants were indeed killed, according to his research, only a very few were purposely murdered outside the framework of actual combat. None of this justifies Israel’s fighters’ conduct during that period in instances when there were violations, like those of many other armed forces. And there were certainly differences in many parts of the war between the Hagana and the other forces. But Tauber’s research puts the incident in a new light, especially compared to some Palestinian conduct during the war, and it reveals how the Hagana may also have had an interest in allowing the Palestinians to frame its Jewish rival groups for worse violations than what actually occurred.

Tauber adds historical depth to the incident. Did Deir Yasin live in peace with its Jewish neighbors? Many did. Yet in March 1914, some made an assault on the Jews residing in nearby Givat Shaul, throwing stones at the Jews praying in the synagogue and beating them. Police intervention rescued them.

Bernard Wasserstein, in his The British in Palestine: The Mandatory Government and the Arab-Jewish Conflict 1917-1929, page 69, missing from Tauber’s bibliography, quotes British documents that the village served as a center of weapons trafficking during the violent 1920 riot. Indeed, throughout the Mandate period, Jews suffered from attacks of Deir Yasinites, especially during 1929 and the 1936-1939 wave of anti-Jewish terrorism.

On April 2, 1948, sniping from Deir Yasin was directed at the Jewish neighborhoods of Bet Hakerem and Yefeh Nof. According to reports by the Shai (Hagana Intelligence), fortifications were being constructed in the village, and a large number of arms were being stockpiled. Men of Deir Yasin took an active part in the battle for Castel, had dug trenches at the entry to the village, and many of the villagers were armed. As Tauber makes clear, the residents planned for a battle and, mistakenly, presumed the attacking Jewish force had planned for just a raid.

Ruthie Blum: Israeli ‘unity’ lies in Zionism

THE QUIP “two Jews, three opinions” is funny precisely because it’s true. In his Yom Hazikaron address at the Western Wall in Jerusalem on Tuesday, Bennett himself described the very infighting that has characterized Jewish history.

“[This] is the third time that there has been a sovereign Jewish state here in the land of Israel. The previous two times, we did not succeed at reaching the eighth decade in peace,” he said. “This is the most important lesson in our history, and I do not tire of repeating it. In the first instance, our first state, in the days of David and Solomon, survived 80 years as a united and sovereign kingdom. In its 81st year, because of internal conflicts, the country split in two, and we lost forever most of our people, the 10 tribes.”

He went on: “In the second instance, during the Second Temple period, the Hasmonean kingdom existed for about 77 years as a united and sovereign state. Towards the end of that period, there was again a severe internal conflict within us and it was the Jews themselves who invited the Romans inside Israel. We lost our independence and became a humiliated protectorate of the Romans. And we also lost this protectorate, at the end of the Second Temple. In the heat of purism and hostility, Jews burned each other’s food reserves, inflicting defeat on themselves. What a terrible price we paid: 2,000 years in exile, because we succumbed to hatred between brothers.”

Today, he added that “we have won a third chance; there will not be another [one]. We are now in the eighth decade of the state [that] we have not yet succeeded in as a united nation. We have been given an opportunity to correct the sin of our ancestral brotherly hatred and to get rid of the tendency toward sectarianism that destroyed our people.”

HE WAS right about the past. Yet his description of contemporary Israel as having “not yet succeeded as a united nation” was both inaccurate and inappropriate in the context of mourning the dead before celebrating the establishment of the modern state.

With all its warts, among them an electoral system that enabled Bennett to become premier with very few seats, Israel is a paradise of coexistence. Despite being pummeled physically by foes in and around its borders, relentlessly delegitimized abroad and under the threat of a nuclear Iran, it is miraculously vibrant.

It is simultaneously Western and Middle Eastern; provincial and cosmopolitan; religious and secular; conservative and progressive; entrepreneurial and old-fashioned; empathic and brash; exorbitantly expensive and a haven for tourists. Above all, it is a fantastic place to live, which is why even some of its heavy-duty detractors in the foreign press covet the Israel beat.

WE ISRAELIS deserve leaders who remind us of how great we are to have achieved such a feat, not warn us that we’re headed for implosion as a result of internecine strife. If anything needs emphasizing as Israel turns 74, it is patriotic Zionism, the core around which we actually can and should unite.

From TheJC:

The Israeli army has appointed the first female Muslim-Arab major in the country’s history.

Ella Waweya was promoted last week, eight years after joining the IDF (Israel Defence Forces).

Telling the JC of her “joy” over her promotion, the 31-year-old major said that she had kept it secret when she first joined the military.

She said: “It took some of my family time to accept, but they are now proud of me.”

Major Waweya is deputy commander of the military’s Arabic-language spokespersons’ unit.

She joined up after studying communications at university, determined to help the IDF communicate and explain its actions through Arabic-language media.

She said: “When I saw Arabic media I thought someone needs to give a different perspective on this, and that’s exactly what I’m trying to do today.

“I’m showing that the IDF looks after all residents of Israel, not just one people.”

(h/t Irene)

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!

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!

05/06 Links Pt1: Three fathers named as victims of Elad attack, leave behind 16 children; Biden Taps Anti-Israel Activist White House Press Sec; Phillips: Why Russia has once again turned on the Jews

From Ian:

Three fathers named as victims of Elad attack, leave behind 16 children

The three victims of the deadly terror attack in Elad were named early Friday as Yonatan Havakuk, Boaz Gol and Oren Ben Yiftah, all young fathers who leave behind 16 children.

The men were slain in the attack that came at the end of Israel’s Independence Day, and followed a wave of terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank in recent weeks, and repeated threats by Palestinian terror groups over the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

According to eyewitnesses, two terrorists attacked several people with an axe and a knife at a central park and a nearby road in the largely ultra-Orthodox city. At least one of the wounded was in critical condition, and up to seven were hurt in the attack.

Neighbors and friends describe Yonatan Havakuk, a man in his 40s, as someone who always had a smile on his face.

Havakuk, a father of five, worked as a car mechanic in the ultra-Orthodox town.

“He was a wonderful person,” local resident Yaakov Bar Noi told the Haaretz website, describing how he was known to all as “our brother,” because of his habit of addressing everyone as “our brother.”

“He always had a smile on his face,” Bar Noi said, recounting that Havakuk would sometimes fix people’s vehicles for free if they had financial difficulties.

Havakuk’s neighbor, Amir Mizrahi, told the Walla news site that he was killed when he went outside to search for his son.

The second victim of the deadly terror attack in Elad was named as Boaz Gol.

Gol, in his 40’s, was also a father of five.

The third victim of the Elad attack was named as Oren Ben Yiftah, a 37-year-old father of 6.

Widow of Elad terror victim says he fought attacker, enabling others to escape

The widow of Yonatan Havakuk, one of three men killed in a terror attack in Elad on Thursday evening, said her husband fought one of the attackers, enabling others to flee to safety.

“My heart refuses to believe that I was left alone with five orphans. My heart burns that my tender child saw his father in his last moments,” wrote Linor Havakuk in a post in a Facebook group for residents of Elad.

“My husband fought against them with great heroism and saved many lives. He fought with them for long minutes, which allowed many to flee the scene,” she wrote. “God bless you, dear and beloved husband. We will miss you very much.”

Galit Gol, the widow of Boaz Gol, another one of the victims of the attack, decried her family’s loss.

“How did I lose him? God, why did this happen to us? Why do we deserve this?” she shouted outside the family’s home in Elad, according to the Ynet news site.

“In one day my life ended. In one day everything turned upside down.” Israeli security and rescue personnel work at the scene of a terror attack in Elad, May 5, 2022. (Yossi Aloni/Flash90)

Boaz Gol’s sister-in-law said he was walking to a Torah lesson when he was killed.

“His daughters, may they be healthy, said they can’t be without him. His wife also… I told the girls that dad went to get the messiah. I believe wholeheartedly he went to get the messiah,” Rozie Levy told Ynet.

‘Impossible to comprehend’: Thousands at funerals for 3 killed in Elad terror attack

Yonatan Havakuk, Oren Ben Yiftah and Boaz Gol, the three victims of the terrorist attack in Elad, were laid to rest on Friday afternoon.

A joint funeral procession began at 12:30 p.m. at the site of the deadly attack the night before at Ibn Gabirol Square in the central city.

Ben Yiftah, 35, a driver who was working in Elad for an event at the time of the attack, was buried in Lod. Havakuk, 44, a resident of Elad, was buried in Petah Tikva while Gol, 49, also from Elad, was laid to rest in Jerusalem.

The three men were murdered Thursday evening by two Palestinian terrorists who attacked a crowd of people with an axe and a knife near a park in the religious city of Elad towards the end of Israel’s Independence Day. At least seven others were wounded in the attack, including three seriously.

The deaths bring to 19 the number of people killed in terror attacks against Israeli targets since March, in the worst spate of terrorism for years.

The two terrorists — identified by police as As’ad Yousef As’ad al-Rifa’i, 19, and Subhi Emad Subhi Abu Shqeir, 20 — remained at large as of Friday afternoon.

Thousands of mourners turned out to pay their final respects to the three men, who left behind 16 children between them — six to Ben Yiftah and five each to Gol and Havakuk.

Funerals for victims of Elad terror attack

Heartbreaking scenes from the central Israeli city of Elad on Friday afternoon as the funeral for the victims of Thursday night's terrorist attack took place. A manhunt is underway for the two Palestinian terrorists from Jenin.

The grandfather of one of the alleged terrorists who murdered three Jews yesterday with an axe describes his grandson as having "high morals."

The man said that his grandson, Subhi Emad Subhi Abu Shqeir, does not belong to any organization, and that he is religiously committed and has good relations with all the residents of the village. He said that he worked as an electrician in Elad.

The grandfather then justified the murders, saying that while his grandson did not have any political inclinations, he, "like any Palestinian under occupation, cannot bear the pressures and continuous aggression against Al-Aqsa and the Palestinian people."

He clearly does not see any contradiction between being murdering Jews and having "high morals."

What this means is that the steady diet of incitement from the Palestinian Authority, Hamas and Palestinian media has murderous consequences. Jews show infinitely more respect for the Temple Mount than Palestinians do, but constant incitement that Jews peacefully touring the area are "storming" and "desecrating Al Aqsa" has a cumulative effect that can result in murder.

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!

On Thursday, the government of Kuwait said that Jews are the only people on Earth whose very existence violates international law - when they quietly walk on the Temple Mount.

The Kuwaiti Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed the State of Kuwait's strong condemnation and denunciation of the Israeli occupation authority's allowing extremists to storm Al-Aqsa Mosque under the protection of the occupation forces.

The ministry warned in a statement today, Thursday, of the consequences of the continuation of such serious violations, which constitute a flagrant violation of the rules of international law and the Geneva Conventions and cause to stoke the spirit of violence and tension and a threat to international peace and security.

The ministry called on the Security Council to assume its responsibilities to curb these violations.

This statement is nothing less than a justification of ethnic cleansing of an entire people. After all, if Jews cannot exist in their holiest spot because it offends bigoted Muslims, they they cannot exist anywhere that offends bigoted Muslims - which includes all of Israel and possibly the entire Middle East. Hamas has famously declared, with no one arguing, that all of Palestine is holy Islamic waqf land - Jews existing in Israel is just as offensive as Jews existing on the Temple Mount.

Jews must know their place.

Jews, by existing, violate international law.

Jews, by existing, stoke violence.

Jews, by existing, are a threat to international peace and security.

What is left unsaid is that Jews, by existing, offend antisemitic Muslims who are therefore somehow compelled to act violently. Antisemitic Muslims who use Jews' very existence as an excuse to murder Jews.

This statement was released before the murders in Elad yesterday, but the murders are a direct result of this kind of officially sanctioned antisemitism and incitement that is still endemic in much of the Arab world.

According to the antisemites. killing Jews isn't against international law. Murder is a natural consequence of the offensiveness of Jews existing and living their lives in their historic homeland.

This statement does not only justify ethnic cleansing. It justifies genocide.

Such thoroughly offensive statements by a sovereign nation don't even elicit the tiniest of protests from the nations of the world, nor from the "human rights" community, nor from the people who claim to be against all forms of racism and hate.

It is so easy to dismiss this. Kuwait is not important, their rantings aren't worth getting upset over, they are playing to their citizens, they don't really mean it - there is no shortage of justifications for hate. But it should not be dismissed. It is part of the normalization of antisemitism in the international arena. It is part of the rewriting of international law specifically to limit Jewish rights - a process that started decades ago.

It means that Jew-haters are the ones who decide where and when Jews can exist, and they can also decide when and where Jews must be destroyed.

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!

Contemptible If Not Now antisemites justify the murder of Jews

IfNotNow didn't ignore the terror attack that killed three Jews yesterday. They justified it, while pretending to "grieve."

They tweeted:

We are grieving the loss of life today from an attack in the city of Elad, where three Israelis were killed and four were injured.

Each of these lives is sacred, each one a whole world no longer with us.

And we grieve the power imbalance fueling this violence – Israel’s apartheid system, where walls and weapons create a daily nightmare for all Palestinians.

Where Israeli gov. has nuclear arms and intl support, while Palestinians lack rights to self-defense + self-determination.

They pointedly don't condemn the murders. After their perfunctory "grief" at the loss of life, they then also "grieve" the circumstances that forced Palestinians to murder Jews. That would be the "power imbalance" where Jews have power so therefore Palestinians, having no sense of free will or morality according to INN logic, have little choice but to murder random Jews.

You see, the only reason Jews are dead is because of that Jews do. Palestinians, as always, have no agency. This was merely self defense, a right that Israel doesn't give them so they must take it.

Israel has nuclear arms. So, naturally, Palestinians have to kill Jews. This is the pathetic logic of rabid Israel haters who use their ostensible Judaism for the sole purpose of saying Jews are pure evil.

If Jews being powerful is reason for them to be murdered, then what was the excuse of the Cossacks and Crusaders and Nazis and pre-1948 Arabs who attacked Jews when they were weak?

Anti-Zionist Jews who justify these sorts of attacks are reprehensible.

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!

05/05 Links Pt2: 3 dead, 4 injured in terror attack in Elad in central Israel; Israel is not a shtetl, Messrs. Putin and Lavrov; An American-illustrated declaration of the Zionist dream

From Ian:

Israel is not a shtetl, Messrs. Putin and Lavrov

What happened?

Well, something happens to some people when things go wrong. They revert to old labels and libels. Many of us have had this experience on a personal level when a trusted friend, suffering a setback, goes, shockingly, to a dark place, and thus reveals a hidden, ugly truth about himself. Amazing how this happens to you and me and…throughout history.

Until the present day…a period in which Israel celebrates its Independence, won by a miracle or two and by the heroism of its sons and daughters.

Out of the ashes, Israel is a strong, vibrant country, world-class in science, technology, agriculture, medicine, literature, and certainly as a model in democracy.

All it took was 74 years, when other nations are still learning to tie their shoelaces.

Therefore, Israel is not a shtetl that can be pushed around, as it was in the good old days.

Enter Lavrov. It’s tempting to signify his comments as beyond the pale…as we speak of any insinuation beyond reason.

Just as likely, we’re talking about the Pale of Settlement, a region designated as places of confinement for Russia’s Jews between the mid-1700s until 1917.

Thus it was under the tsars, and likewise under Stalin and his purges.

Somehow the instinct persists. Which has it that Jews are to be marked as separate and unequal and always to be subject to the whims of these or those tyrannical overlords.

Not this time.

Israel is a beacon of liberty, so much so that every citizen has a say, and if its politics occasionally runs wild, as is the case in a freedom-loving nation whose literacy rate in extremely high… this much Lavrov achieved through his slander; he united the (political) tribes. All sides, left, right, the middle, all in one voice denounced his reckless smear.

Hands off, Messrs. Putin and Lavrov. Those shtetl days are finished. Israel has arrived.

Putin apologizes for Russian envoy’s ‘Jewish Hitler’ comments, Bennett’s office says

In a phone call Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin apologized to Prime Minister Naftali Bennett for incendiary comments made by the Kremlin’s top envoy earlier this week, the prime minister’s office said.

The comments by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov claiming that Adolf Hitler had “Jewish blood,” and the following back-and-forth between Israel and Russia, marked the worst flare-up between the countries since Russia invaded Ukraine.

“The prime minister accepted the apology of President Putin for comments by Lavrov and thanked him for clarifying the president’s view of the Jewish people and the memory of the Holocaust,” Bennett’s office said.

The Kremlin said Putin spoke with Bennett about “historic memory,” the Holocaust and the situation in Ukraine, without mentioning an apology.

Bennett also requested Putin “examine humanitarian options” for evacuating the Ukrainian city of Mariupol. “The request came following Bennett’s conversation with the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, yesterday,” Bennett’s office said.

Putin said Russian forces will allow the evacuation of civilians, the prime minister’s office said.

Earlier Thursday, Putin sent a message to President Isaac Herzog to “congratulate” him on Israel’s Independence Day.

History of US State Department Shows ‘Jewish White Privilege’ Is a Myth

One State Department official even has ties to an organization that propagates antisemitism. As the Washington Free Beacon reported in February 2021, the then-nominee for the post of Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy and Human Rights, Uzra Zeya, had previously worked for the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs (WRMEA). As a WRMEA staffer, Zeya had helped compile research for a book that argues that “the Israel lobby has subverted the American political process to take control of US Middle East policy.”

Accusations of undue and pernicious Jewish power meet the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, which has been adopted by numerous governments and entities—including the US State Department. She was later confirmed to her position.

As CAMERA highlighted, WRMEA has, among other things, implied that Israel was connected to the JFK assassination and the Sept. 11, 2001, Al-Qaeda terrorist attacks, and has published books with chapters that warn about “Jewish Power in the Formulation of US Middle East Policy.”

WRMEA has also accused Israel of profiting from the sale of human organs — a modern-day incarnation of the antisemitic blood libel.

As the historian and Israeli official Michael Oren chronicled in his 2007 book “Power, Faith, and Fantasy,” there is a long history of State Department officials holding anti-Zionist and even antisemitic views. For example, Paul Knabenshue, the consul general in Jerusalem in the 1920s, blamed Jews for the violence perpetrated against them.

After the 1929 pogroms that left hundreds of Jews dead and many more wounded, Knabenshue said that “the Jews are always responsible, for they generally bring their troubles upon themselves.” Knabenshue dismissed attempts by the US Congress to protect Jews as the product of “Jewish financial influence.” The foreign service official, Oren writes, was “archetypal of those State Department officials later known collectively — and often derisively — as Arabists, a diplomat who had spent many years in the Middle East, knew Arabic, and despised the Zionist movement.”

This phenomenon was ably documented by Robert Kaplan in his book “The Arabists,” with one former State Department official telling the author that the “powerful, vested interest of a certain group of people, concentrated in the big cities in big states, determines our Middle East policy.”

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!

Boy Shocked To Learn He Becomes Bar Mitzva Even If Event Not On TikTok (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Check out their Facebook page.

: Peter van der Sluijs via Wikipedia.

Jerusalem, May 5 - A local tweenager whose family and community will mark his transition into Jewish adulthood on the Jewish Sabbath voiced his surprise and dismay that neither the ceremony nor the celebratory buffet to follow will enjoy preservation on video, and his further emotional upheaval at his discovery that despite the lack of uploaded content associated with the transition, his status as an adult Jew will nevertheless have the same validity as any other.

Asaf Ganz, 12, will become a bar mitzva - literally, "subject to commandment" - on the ninth of the Jewish month of Iyar, which this year coincides with Tuesday, May 10. Among other changes, he will then count as one of the ten adult Jewish men who constitute the minimum number for a minyan, or ceremonial quorum that represents the community in spiritual matters. His customary reading from the Torah will take place that Saturday, when Jewish law prohibits the wielding of electronic devices. That prospect frightened the social-media-addicted youth into believing the entire affair might not count, since no one on Tiktok, Instagram, or other networks will get to see it. His devastation gave way to horror when his mother informed him that the validity of his thirteenth birthday, and thus of his passage into maturity, does not depend on its potential for online validation.

"I was stunned," admitted Asaf. "My life is online. All my communication, all my entertainment, all my social interactions - if it's not on my phone, tablet, or, occasionally, a desktop, it doesn't exist. That's just where the world exists. This makes no sense. So of course I was disappointed that I wouldn't be livestreaming anything - I should have realized a long time ago that this would happen, I know, since I never use my devices on Shabbat as it is, but somehow this detail escaped me. I'm still having trouble wrapping my head around the idea that something happens if it hasn't been recorded and uploaded to the cloud."

"Not as much trouble as wrapping the t'fillin, though," he acknowledged, referring to the straps of the phylacteries he must now don every weekday. "But at least I got some likes and snarky comments when I shared the videos and stills of putting them on for the first time a month ago."

His mother Sigal, a journalist, expressed some apprehension today at the thought that the festive dinner, which the family will hold the next day for out-of-town guests and extended family, might suffer the same questionable status because no one will live-tweet it.

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05/05 Links Pt1: Hippocratic Israel Magnifies Kevod Shamayim in a Hypocritical World; It Is NOT Israel Independence Day But Israel REESTABLISHMENT Day

From Ian:

Israel Rings in 74th Independence Day With Jerusalem Torch-Lighting Ceremony

After a mournful day commemorating its fallen soldiers and victims of terror, Israel kicked off its 74th Independence Day celebrations on Wednesday evening, with a festive ceremony on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem attended by government leaders, military brass, and representatives of swaths of Israeli society.

The festivities included performances from military flag-bearers, as well as star singers Raviv Kaner, Sarit Hadded, Idan Amedi, and Valerie Hamati, before thousands of audience members, among them Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi, Knesset Speaker Mickey Levy, and government ministers.

In line with annual tradition, the event featured a ceremonial torch-lighting honoring citizens who hail from various segments of Israeli society. This year’s torchbearers included activists focused on disability rights, sexual violence, and troubled youth, as well as a masked, unnamed commander of the Israeli police’s counter-terrorism unit.

One of the selected torchbearers — Elizabetha Sherstock, head of the Jewish community in the Ukrainian city of Sumy — dedicated her lighting to Jewish organizations worldwide. Asael Shabo, who was injured in a Palestinian terrorist attack that killed his mother and three siblings in 2002, and who later competed on Israel’s national wheelchair basketball team, lit his in honor of paralympic athletes.

Other participants included Munir Mahdi, the head of a pre-military preparatory school for Druze and Jewish youth; Angel Alon, who raised 217 children in foster care over nearly three decades; the parents of Shira Banki, who was fatally stabbed during the 2015 gay pride parade in Jerusalem; and renowned Israeli singer Rita.

In lieu of customary fireworks, this year’s ceremony incorporated a light show powered by drones — a move emulated by various Israeli cities, out of concern for combat veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

PM Naftali Bennett: The 5 Israeli senses

Sound
There are two sounds that in my opinion are the essence of what it means to be an Israeli and a Jew, and every time I hear them, they move me all over again. The first is the song of penitence. The sound of this sacred bond that the song of penitence allows us to experience, swaying from side to side in unison, some with tears in their eyes, others with their eyes closed, in a moment of prayer and supplication before the Creator of the World.

The second is the siren that is sounded on Memorial Day for the Fallen Soldiers of Israel and Victims of Terrorism. Every year, whether it be the evening or morning siren, the sound immediately connects me to the young faces of fellow soldiers and commanders who fell defending our beloved country, and whose loss we feel so strongly.

Scent
There is one scent I find to be the most Israeli and every time I feel its aroma it transports me back to my childhood. I am referring to the scent of pine trees and the sight of oak trees in the Carmel forest, next to which I grew up. This Israeli scent automatically evokes the memories of my childhood, during which I fell in love with the land of Israel. It mesmerizes me every time and makes me long for that bygone era.

Longing
I miss the heart-to-heart talks I used to have with my friend Emmanuel Moreno, who was like a brother to me. The general public knows very little about him, almost nothing really, except his name and rank. Even his photographs are still banned from publication, but in my memory, his face remains engraved, especially his personality, kind treatment of others, and special worldview.

Before he was killed in the 2006 Lebanon War, Moreno and I were kindred spirits. He was the first person I turned to in times of need. To this day, I often think to myself about what advice Emanuel would give me in a particular situation. I miss him every day.

Place
Although I grew up in Haifa, I also have fond memories of Jerusalem as every summer my family had a tradition to exchange apartments and spend one week in the capital, which would become our home during summer break. Thanks to this, I got to know Jerusalem well – by walking its streets. To this day, I miss the walks my father, mother, and brothers took together, exploring the city's magical alleys.

A beautiful message of hope and inspiration from #Israel’s Prime Minister, @naftalibennett, on the occasion on #YomHaatzmaut Independence Day! ????????????pic.twitter.com/jzggdSKB9c
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) May 4, 2022

It Is NOT Israel Independence Day But Israel REESTABLISHMENT Day

The Jewish calendar runs at a different pace than the Gregorian or other calendars. Based on the cycles of the moon, it starts with the creation of the world which correlates to the year 3761 BCE. That means that the year 2022 CE is the year 5782 in the Jewish calendar.

In the Hebrew Bible, the first monotheist and forefather of the Jewish people is Abraham. Born as Abram in the year 1948 in the Jewish calendar, he lived his early years in present day southern Iraq in Ur-Kasim and then Haran. At 75 years old, in the year 2023, he heard the voice of God tell him to move to Canaan, present day Israel. It was there that God told him that the land was an ever-lasting inheritance to his descendants Isaac, Jacob (later Israel) and all of the Children of Israel.

Judaism is not like other religions or even the other monotheistic faiths of Christianity and Islam. Judaism is a particular religion for a particular group of people. It does not have designs to spread to the corners of the Earth in an effort to make others convert. It was designed to be local – to the land of Israel – for the Jewish people. That is why the Bible commands the Jews to visit Jerusalem THREE TIMES EVERY YEAR – Pesach, Shavuot and Sukkot – while Islam asks of its adherents to visit Mecca only once in a lifetime. Jews were supposed to stay in the land (certainly before planes and automobiles) while Islam knew that Muslims would live thousands of miles away from its holy city.

From 722BCE onward, many invaders and colonists forced Jews out of land of their inheritance. Assyrians, Babylonians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs and others came into the Jewish holy land, killing or hauling Jews to foreign lands, and planting their own flag in Jewish soil.

Yet some Jews remained in the land, and a greater influx of world Jewry commenced during the 19th century. By the late 1860’s CE, Jerusalem was majority Jewish.

Khaled Abu Toameh reports in Gatestone that the Palestinian Authority is considering a new law that not only restricts what local Palestinian media can report, but is meant to stop even foreign media from reporting anything critical about the PA or Palestinians altogether.

The law would grant the Minister of Information the right to block any Palestinian or foreign media from operating in territory administered by the PA if they don't "respect Palestinian identity and history:" or if they produce "any material that would prejudice the Palestinian identity or prejudice the Palestinian narrative."

Which means that the PA would be able to take away the media licenses of anyone who is even mildly critical of the corrupt PA and its fake narratives.

Abu Toameh notes:

The timing of the proposed bill is not coincidental.

It comes on the eve of the meeting in a few weeks of the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee, a committee consisting of donor countries that serves as the main policy-level coordination mechanism for development assistance to the Palestinian people.

The PA leadership is hoping that the committee will approve additional and unconditional funding for the Palestinians.

That is why it is critical for PA leader Mahmoud Abbas and his senior officials in Ramallah, the de facto capital of the Palestinians, to ensure that the media remains muzzled about rampant corruption and other issues related to bad governance, and human rights violations by the Palestinian security forces.

Palestinians on the street are saying that instead of working towards guaranteeing a free media and freedom of expression, the PA is seeking to tighten its grip on Palestinian media outlets as part of an effort to prevent the publication of stories that reflect negatively on the PA leadership.

The bill has not been passed yet, and it remains to be seen if the journalists who would be affected will say anything negative about it. Given the history of Palestinian censorship and suppression of the local media that has been ignored in the West, it seems more likely that the international media already has adopted all of these standards in reporting on the Palestinian Authority and has no problem whatsoever in it being codified into law.

Ironically, only Palestinian media organizations are protesting this proposed legislation so far.

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Even though Jews displayed Israeli flags and sang Hatikva on Temple Mount, Palestinians declared victory (videos)

This week's events on the Temple Mount were significantly different from what has been the pattern lately.

In the run up to Israeli police allowing Jews to resume visiting the holy site, one Temple Mount group called on visitors to unfurl the Israeli flag and sing songs during their visit. This caused huge headlines in the Palestinian and Jordanian media, with Hamas and Fatah threatening major repercussions - including a religious war - if something like that was allowed.

The Israeli police issued a statement saying that the status quo will be respected.

In the April riots, violence was instigated by the Palestinians against the police, Israeli police responded, and the response was used as an excuse for inciting the Arab world.

Today, the opposite occurred.

There were some incidents of Palestinians attacking the police and some response. It did not escalate.

Muslims jeered the Jews, chanting, "With our souls and our blood, we will redeem you, Al Aqsa" and "Allah hu Abkar" as police kept them away.

But more than that, the Temple groups did exactly what they said they would. At least two Israeli flags were unfurled, both apparently immediately confiscated by police. The Israeli national anthem Hatikva was sung.

This video shows the young man escorted out of the Mount as those with him sing Hatikva.

In a second incident, this video shows a man taking out a small flag and displaying it. The group then sings Hatikva without apparent police interference as they tour.

These are widely shared on Palestinian media.

Yet instead of declaring the promised jihad, the usual incendiary Palestinian Islamist officials are declaring victory.

The preacher of Al-Aqsa Mosque, Sheikh Ikrima Sabri, claimed that the Jews were unable to raise any Israeli flags due to the brave chanters. He said: "The intruders entered Al-Aqsa Mosque but they were afraid and changed the course of their incursions and shortened them because the occupation forces are unable to control Al-Aqsa despite the intensity of their presence."

Sabri added: "The Al-Mourabitoun in Al-Aqsa foiled their attempts at sacrifices on Passover, and they are now failing in the issue of flags and were not able to bring them to Al-Aqsa."

Leading Hamas official Mahmoud Al-Zahar, a member of the Hamas politburo, said, "It is clear that the occupation security services have controlled the matter and do not want to escalate because the experience of Saif Al-Quds [last year's Gaza war] is clear and present to them....It is clear that the occupation is not interested in the recurrence of the experience of Saif Al-Quds, because its consequences were devastating for it."

Last month, the Palestinian leaders instigated violence by pretending that Jews did something they didn't. Today, they seem to be tamping down violence by claiming the Jews were not successful in something they actually did.

Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount who usually sing after exiting the area get more coverage than the ones who actually sang on the Mount today.

It appears that either the Israeli authorities managed to get a message out to the usual inciters behind the scenes, or the Islamists are not as interested in starting a holy war as they claim.

Either way, what could have easily devolved into more serious violence has been treated with the indifference that should go with Jews waving flags or singing their national anthem in their holiest site.

UPDATE: A third incident:

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I wrote the original essay around 2002 and I have been modifying it every year since then. This year's version is largely rewritten.

========================

To antisemites, Israel can do no right.

It can be more liberal than the US. It can be more tolerant of Muslims than Western Europe. It can be more friendly to gays than New York City. It can send more medical aid to disaster areas than nations that are 50 times larger. It can quietly spend untild amounts of money to ensure that its defenses don't hurt innocent people.

It doesn't matter - not only does it get no credit for this, the haters claim that Israel is doing this in order to whitewash its crimes. Meaning that even its altruism and progressiveness is twisted against it.

A normal reaction to this would be to say, "why bother?" Why do the right thing when the world will still treat you as a criminal?

But Israel doesn't do what it does to gather praise. It does what it does because it is the right thing to do, and what other people say has nothing at all to do with that.

That is a ethical level that most professional ethicists or religious leaders will never reach.

I am a Zionist and I am proud of it.

I know that Israel has the absolute right to exist in peace and security, at least as much as any other country. Given Israel's unique history and the resurgence of antisemitism worldwide, Israel arguably has more moral legitimacy than any other nation on Earth.

As Israel has grown, grown successful and become an economic power, it has been faced with new challenges. Doing the right thing is not so straightforward any more. Its friends are sometimes at odds with each other. Sometimes realpolitik enters the picture. Any decision it makes can be - and is - framed by modern antisemites as immoral, no matter what it is.

Every nation has the same conflicts. Every liberal nation has relations with illiberal nations. But none of them are under the microscope that the world dedicates to Israel.

Even so, with these competing pressures, Israel tries to always do the greater good. And in the end, that is why Israel now has more friends on a national level than ever before. The chattering, nattering antisemites are fuming while Israel goes from strength to strength. In the end, Israel's remaining enemies are the worst human rights abusers on Earth - and Israel's opponents find themselves pretending to be moral while tacitly supporting a rogues' gallery of dictators and despots.

In the past two years we have seen "militant" and "intransigent" Israel is far more interested in peace with its Arab neighbors than any of Israel's many critics, who often belong to groups with "human rights" and "peace" in their names.

There seems to be no limit to what difficult problems Israel can solve. I am proud of how Israel responds to so many seemingly intractable problems. In the early days of the intifada there seemed to be no solution - but the IDF found one, managing to bring deadly suicide attacks from 60 in 2002 down to practically none today. The new wave of attacks is a new challenge, and it is heartbreaking to have so many more innocent lives lost, but we know that Israel is working hard to stop the latest attacks before they happen. For every "successful" attack (if you can use such a term) there have been many failed attempts, and these are truly miraculous. There are always new challenges, but each one is met and solved with brains and creativity.

The Palestinian issue is truly unsolvable today, because the Palestinian leadership was never interested in peace, but in destroying Israel. There can be no compromise with a party whose primary aim is ethnic cleansing their opponent. But even given those facts, Israel does everything possible to make the lives of Palestinians as good as possible without compromising the security of Israelis.

If Israel had a real Palestinian partner for peace, there would be peace.

Israel has succeeded and continues to succeed in its many accomplishments in building up a desert wasteland into a thriving and vibrant modern country, with its countless scientific achievements, incredible leadership in high-tech and the environment, world class universities and culture. Practically every computer and mobile phone being built today includes technology and innovations from a single small Middle Eastern country. A tiny nation, under constant siege, with few natural resources besides breathtaking beauty, has used its smarts and strength to build a modern success story.

Zionists have every reason to be proud of the incredible achievements of the Jewish national movement.

The word "Zionist" is not an epithet - it is a compliment.

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