Friday, May 20, 2022

Ali al-Samoudi is the Jenin journalist who was next to Shireen abu Akleh in Jenin when she was shot. He was shot himself. As such, he has been the main source of information as to the circumstances of her death - insisting that IDF soldiers shot them, that the IDF knew they were there and that there were no Palestinian gunmen in the area, and how "We were in a place far from armed clashes with Palestinians, from where we couldn't reach that area as the Israeli forces sealed it off." (So why were they hanging in a place where they couldn't report on anything?)


Nearly 20 years ago, Pierre Rehov made a documentary, "The Road to Jenin," where he documented case after case of how Palestinian journalists create the news they want. 

CAMERA describes one section of the movie:

Underscoring the Palestinian penchant for inventing “news,” Rehov even manages to capture on film the manufacturing of a fictitious news story. On Jan. 25, 2003, he accompanies Palestinian journalist Ali Smoddi of the PA-controlled Jenin television station as he and his crew set out to interview a Palestinian man and his wife whose baby was just delivered by a doctor. In the car on the way there, Smoddi constructs a fictitious story in which the husband was forced to deliver the baby: “I want to emphasize certain elements. The husband has no experience in delivering and in spite of that he’s the one who delivers his wife. It’s the climax of all tragedy.” Smoddi then takes a call from the couple’s doctor, and asks: “You’re the one who delivered her? . . . No, don’t let them go.”

At the hospital, Smoddi’s crew does several “takes” of the father’s account of the birth, each with a different spin. In one version, the father claims that the ambulance they intended to meet was held up at a checkpoint for 15 minutes, and he was forced to deliver his infant son in the car, as the ambulance had not arrived. In another telling, the father says: “The soldiers took me down to the ambulance to check my identification and my wife gave birth in the ambulance and went to the hospital.” In each account, Smoddi prompts the father and makes suggestions about the events. Smoddi then prompts the new mother: “The tank stops you while giving birth. You’re alone in the car, talk about your feelings.”
Here is part of that section, captured in Richard Landes' "Pallywood I: 'According to Palestinian sources...'"


It appears that Ali Smoddi is Ali al-Samoudi: 




They both have a prominent widow's peak in their hairline, the same thick eyebrows, the same nose, both Palestinian journalists in Jenin with similar voices. (Arabic does not have vowels so both names are spelled identically in Arabic.)

Assuming they are the same person, the main witness being quoted in every article is known to have zero credibility and to deliberately make up whatever he wants people to hear that he thinks are best for the Palestinian cause. 

This isn't proof that he is lying now. But it is a strong indication that Ali al-Samoudi is, quite literally, a professional liar, and any real journalist - no matter how sympathetic they are to the death of a colleague - should treat him as one.

(Notice also in the 2003 video clip that the doctor is an enthusiastic participant in the Pallywood creation, directing the new mother to say what Samoudi wants her to say. Pallywood isn't only from journalists: it is part of Palestinian honor/shame culture to present to the West what makes them look as righteous ss possible. It isn't a conspiracy guided by a small group of people; it is a group of actors who know what their roles are when speaking to any Westerner.)

(h/t Irene)




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Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424. 

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Times of Israel reports:

The Iron Dome missile defense system shot down a “suspicious” aircraft flying over the Gaza Strip on Thursday, the Israel Defense Forces said.

According to the IDF, the device “was monitored throughout the entire incident” by the air force’s ground control. The military said the UAV did not enter Israeli airspace, adding that the interceptor missiles were fired at the device while it was over Gaza.
A few hours later, Islamic Jihad published photos of the areas around Gaza that they claim were taken by one of their drones.





The timing does not seem coincidental. When Israel announced downing the drone, Islamic Jihad wanted to show Gazans that it had accomplished a mission. 





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

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Thursday, May 19, 2022

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: The Holocaust memorial laundry project
The Chief Rabbi and the rest of the Jewish leadership are falling over themselves to declare that the Labour party is once again an acceptable repository of the British Jewish vote. In their desperation to prove to themselves that there is no serious problem for Jews in Britain, these leaders have told themselves that siting the Holocaust memorial next to Parliament would send a message that the British state supports the Jewish people. This assumption speaks volumes for their troubling proclivity to stick their heads deep into the sand.

For in endorsing this flawed memorial to Jewish victimhood in the Shoah, the Jewish leadership is thereby sanitising deeply troubling attitudes by the British state to Jewish victims today.

Not only did Britain’s betrayal of its Mandate undertaking in the last century to settle Jews throughout Palestine, and its consequent appeasement of murderous Arabs determined to destroy the reborn Jewish homeland, create the century-old Arab and Muslim war of annihilation against Israel that continues to this day. The British state even now undermines Israel by insisting on a tendentious and misleading interpretation of the Geneva Conventions to maintain that Israel is in “illegal occupation” of “Palestinian” land.

Through this falsehood, the British state helps incite murderous hatred of Israel which foments hatred of Jews. Yet the Jewish leadership never campaigns against this lethal untruth. Nor does it ever draw attention to the prevalent antisemitism in the Muslim world which has done so much to promote antisemitism in the Labour party. Instead it demonises as “extremists” those who do call out these things.

What the Chief Rabbi should have told Starmer is this: that there can be no question of rapprochement with the Labour party unless and until the party as a whole stops demonising Israel and promoting a Palestinian cause which writes Jews out of their own national story; and until it stops supporting Palestinians who, day in, day out, write the Jews out of their own history and from whom pours an unstoppable torrent of rabid antisemitism complete with Nazi tropes.

Rabbi Mirvis said none of this. Instead, he has helped launder the Labour party. He has sucked up to a movement that remains consumed by a deranged hatred of Israel based upon thinly concealed antisemitism — while he himself has cold-shouldered those objecting to a project that risks doing more harm to the Jewish people than good.

It is beyond dismaying that Jewish leaders in Britain should be set upon a project which will so dishonour the Shoah and launder Britain’s shameful bigotry. Their support for the Victoria Tower Gardens memorial reveals a Jewish leadership that has lost its way.
Priti Patel slams BDS as 'racist', declares her 'unflinching and unequivocal' support of Israel
Priti Patel has declared her “unflinching and unequivocal” support for Israel, describing her relationship to the country as “deeply personal” to her.

Speaking at a Conservative Friends of Israel reception on Monday, the Home Secretary also said that she is “quite unapologetic” about the proscription of the Hamas terror group last year, saying that it was “not just the right thing to do, [it was] a moral imperative”.

Patel praised the Israeli Ambassador to the UK, Tzipi Hotovely, also in attendance, thanking her for “who you are and what you do” and for the “wider support” that Israel gives to the UK.

Speaking to an audience of 140 CFI supporters, including 50 parliamentarians, Patel spoke of the “shared values” between the UK and Israel, adding that “everything we have seen around the BDS movement is racist”.

She said that the UK and Israel have an “unwavering belief in freedom, democracy and security”, saying that they are “united in speaking out and standing up against racism and antisemitism”.

The Home Secretary expressed her concern that antisemitism has “infiltrated our politics, our political dialogue and discourse”, adding: “It is utterly appalling that antisemitism has been on the increase”.

These comments follow a report by Tel Aviv University last month that found that antisemitism was on the rise around the world in 2021, with the UK experiencing a significant rise compared to both 2020 and 2019.

Patel also expressed her “sympathies and condolences” to the families of the 19 Israelis murdered in the latest wave of terror attacks.
NGO Monitor: After Ken Roth, Can Human Rights Watch Be Repaired?
Roth also showed a strong animus towards Israel, repeatedly joining the shrill voices demanding an end to American support and repeating false accusations of “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity.” HRW, in concert with Amnesty International and Palestinian groups, was central in reviving the Soviet-led effort to equate Zionism with South African apartheid. In 2001, HRW was among the leaders of the blatantly antisemitic NGO Forum of the UN Durban conference, ostensibly called to celebrate the end of South African apartheid. In responding to critics, including from within HRW, he declared that “Israeli racist practices are an appropriate topic.”

To support this agenda, Roth filled HRW’s Middle East and North Africa division with people who joined in disproportionately attacking Israel, with only token publications on Syria, Libya, Iran and other authoritarian regimes. Roth lobbied the UN Human Rights Council to create one-sided “investigations,” and pressed the International Criminal Court to adopt invented versions of international law to use against Israel, including a fictitious version of apartheid. He used the term “primitive” in the context of Jewish religion and tradition (2006), and blamed Jews for antisemitism. HRW’s April 2021 “report” claiming that Israel had “crossed the line into apartheid” is a reiteration of this 20-year campaign.

These activities were noted by Robert Bernstein, the founder of HRW, and although he had retired, was strongly opposed to the direction that Roth was taking the organization, specifically in demonizing Israel. (Full disclosure: I discussed these issues in meetings with Bernstein beginning in 2004.) In 2009, Bernstein took the unprecedented and painful step of denouncing HRW in a New York Times column and in a series of speeches, and many of HRW’s donors ended their support.

However, Roth is a very skilled fundraiser, and after getting $100 million from George Soros, he added other secret donors, such as a Saudi billionaire whose 2012 “contribution” (the existence of which was denied for many years) was only revealed in 2020.

Finding a qualified successor devoted to universal human rights who is not inherently hostile to the West and to Israel, and will not sell out to corrupt donors, is a major challenge. If successful, the difficult process of repairing the damage and restoring the credibility and universality of human rights principles envisioned by HRW’s founders can begin.

                                                       Interview with Arnold Roth



President Joe Biden met with King Abdullah of Jordan last week. We know what they talked about and what they didn’t talk about because the White House issued a statement outlining the points of discussion. Omitted from that statement is any mention of the failure of Jordan to honor its extradition treaty with the United States. Also missing from the White House statement is any mention of Ahlam al Tamimi, a terrorist, or of the American citizens in whose murder she played an instrumental role. Tamimi chose the venue for the massacre, a central Jerusalem pizzeria; the time the massacre would take place, lunch hour, when the restaurant was sure to be at peak capacity; and she drove the bomber to the location she had chosen, ensuring that all would go as planned.

Among the 15 civilians murdered that day in 2001 were Shoshana Greenbaum, a pregnant woman, and Malki Roth, a 15-year-old girl. Joe Biden would have been careful to refrain from mentioning their names to Abdullah, because the subject of extraditing Tamimi is a touchy one. Tamimi is popular in Jordan, famous for murdering Jewish children.

Tamimi enjoys celebrity status in Jordan. Here she brags on Jordanian television about the Sbarro terror attack in which she played an instrumental role

Tamimi was nonetheless the mastermind of a massacre of United States citizens, and it is clear that this should be the sitting US president’s first, and ultimate concern. That it is not Joe Biden’s first or ultimate concern, is a grave thing to contemplate. It is wrong. But not the only wrong.

Far worse, perhaps, is the fact that Tamimi is only living free in Jordan as a celebrity, because a prime minister of Israel arranged for her release to that country, directly from an Israeli prison. That prime minister was Benjamin Netanyahu.

In his 1995 book, “Fighting Terrorism,” Netanyahu wrote that prisoner exchanges were "a mistake that Israel made over and over again." and that refusing to release jailed terrorists was "among the most important policies that must be adopted in the face of terrorism."

The release of convicted terrorists before they have served their full sentences seems like an easy and tempting way of defusing blackmailed situations in which innocent people may lose their lives, but its utility is momentary at best," said Netanyahu. "Prisoner releases only embolden terrorists by giving them the feeling that even if they are caught, their punishment will be brief. Worse, by leading terrorists to think such demands are likely to be met, they encourage precisely the terrorist blackmail they are supposed to defuse.

Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL 17th District)

The former Israeli prime minister broke with his own philosophy to release 1,027 Arab terrorists for a
single Israeli captive, Gilad Shalit, in 2011. Ahlam Tamimi was one of the terrorists released on that black, black day, 11 years ago. Until now, the parents of Malki Roth, Arnold and Frimet Roth, have fought to get American officials and the mainstream media to take note of this travesty, and to act. Someone finally did, Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL 17th District), who has introduced a bill to limit US assistance to Jordan until the validity of 1995 extradition treaty between the two countries, is recognized.

Arnold Roth took the time to update us on efforts to extradite Tamimi from Jordan, and the much-appreciated active role Congressman Steube has taken in seeking #justiceforMalki:

Varda Epstein: Netanyahu broke with his own philosophy as outlined in his 1995 book, “Fighting Terrorism,” to release 1,027 Arab terrorists for a single Israeli captive in 2011. What do you know about what went into that decision? Is it possible that pressure was brought to bear on Netanyahu by the Obama Administration?

Arnold Roth: Netanyahu happens to have been in Melbourne, where both Malki and I were born, on that awful August day in 2001 when the Sbarro massacre happened and we lost a child. Friends who saw this happen say he was asked by Australian journalists to comment on a terror outrage since one of the victims, according to the reports just then coming in, was a Melbourne girl, a lovely, smiley teenager of 15 – my daughter.

I was told that when he responded, the former prime minister of Israel (who became prime minister once again eight years later) used the expression “my heart goes out to them”. He followed that with some reference to visiting us when he was back in Jerusalem. He of course didn’t visit us but the expression “my heart goes out to them” is etched into my memory because it happens to be one of the things he said when he addressed the nation in October 2011. The occasion was his announcing that he had a done a deal with Hamas to free an Israeli soldier held hostage by them for five years, Gilad Shalit.

It's worth dwelling for a moment on the key paragraph of a best-selling book from the 1990s entitled “Fighting Terrorism: How Democracies Can Defeat Domestic and International Terrorists”. In the edition I am looking at as I answer you, Varda, the one published by Farrar Straus Giroux* in 1995 at page 144, the acclaimed author writes:

“A government that seeks the defeat of the terrorists must refuse to release convicted terrorists from prisons… Releasing imprisoned terrorists emboldens them and their colleagues… By nurturing the belief that their demands are likely to be met in the future, you encourage terrorist blackmail of the very kind that you want to stop. Only the most unrelenting refusal to ever give in to such blackmail can prevent this.”

The words of that last sentence ring powerfully for me. But actually the whole quote makes solid sense. The person who wrote them is of course the Israeli leader did the deal with Hamas that served as my daughter’s murderer’s incomprehensible ticket to freedom.

“I keep wondering if he ever read it"

His name is Benjamin Netanyahu and I keep wondering if he ever read it. It’s disappeared of course, from bookstores everywhere now, and for good reason.

I don’t know what motivated him to transact a massive swap of 1,027 terrorists for a captive Israeli soldier, and to market it so heavily to the Israeli public that freeing Shalit at any price (“any price” is the term I remember being used freely when this was happening) had enormous support for a while.

It was of course, like so many things in political life, bogus, a lie wrapped around a tiny grain of truth. There are many, many things Israel would never have done to free Shalit. This one just seemed affordable to the shameless insiders who cooked it up.

Terrible acts of terror against Israelis were executed in the years after the deal was done, executed by people who were in prison right up until the day Shalit walked free, with many of them sentenced to stay there for the rest of their lives, like Ahlam Tamimi.

“His wife pressed him to do it”

But they were freed by Israel and have gone on to lead high-profile lives as terrorists. Yahya Sinwar, for instance, who took over the leadership of Hamas in the Gaza Strip in 2017 and has much blood on his hands.

Netanyahu once said publicly that he did the Shalit deal because his wife pressed him to do it. For some people, let’s say politicians for example, that’s as good a reason as any. I would feel a little less hostile to the man if he had ever taken the trouble to speak with us in the years he was prime minister, a job he lost in 2021. But he never did. And in fact his office remained locked and impervious for years to our efforts to appeal for Israeli help in the Tamimi extradition. Or more accurately, to stop interfering with it. [Emphasis added, V.E.]

Netanyahu won’t get invited to any of my family’s future celebrations. My heart doesn’t go out to him.

The Roth family at Malki's Bat Mitzvah

Varda Epstein: Considering the lack of any meaningful effort by successive US administrations to extradite Ahlam Tamimi from Jordan for the murder of two US citizens, is it possible that the US is bowing to pressure from Israel? What rationale would there be for Israel to quash these efforts?

Arnold Roth: I assume there are multiple factors at work but, yes, I have heard from sources in Washington that there is a view among government insiders that Israel is fine with Tamimi being left alone in Jordan. Whether or not it’s true, the consecutive US administrations of Obama, Trump and Biden have all praised good king Abdullah in ways that are hard for ordinary people to understand. There are compelling reasons why the US ought to be very wary of giving him the moral and political and – which may surprise some people – financial backing that he gets.

Abdullah wields significant power as the owner and operator of the family business – the Hashemite Kingdom. In the past two decades, this has been a profitable undertaking for its shareholders, not so much for its subjects. Jordan may be a basket-case economically, hugely dependent on handouts and with a population suffering from a badly-run economy. But this hasn’t prevented its free-cash flow from serving as the way its king has quietly (until this was exposed in a series of major global news investigations) and surreptitiously become a real estate tycoon in the United States.

“I know there are analysts and think-tank mavens far better informed than me who say it’s best not to endanger his or Jordan’s stability. But those are sentiments of the kind that make sense when they come with no price.”

He owns a much real estate and multiple private aircraft. A well-trained, lavishly equipped military force serves his needs. And since his country is now officially designated (in Freedom House’s most recent global survey) as unfree, it’s obvious he has little fear of his country’s media, parliament or mobs. The evidence is he has excellent connections in the US with powerful friends in Washington and a major US military presence based inside his kingdom’s borders. Less well known is that he spends a fortune on US lawyers and lobbyists.

I know there are analysts and think-tank mavens far better informed than me who say it’s best not to endanger his or Jordan’s stability. But those are sentiments of the kind that make sense when they come with no price.

But the reality is that the hypocrisy and double-talk comes at a high price. Jordan flagrantly breaches its most important treaty with the US and communicates to its people that it stands firmly with the fugitive bomber. It has never paid a price for its embrace of terror. That’s no way for foreign relations to be conducted. It gets noticed by others and in the end, especially in bad neighborhoods like the one where Jordan operates, it comes back to bite you. The way we think about Jordan is long overdue for a reality check.

Varda Epstein: How did Congressman Greg Steube become aware of your situation and the refusal of the US government to get tough with Jordan regarding the existing extradition treaty? Can you outline for us the steps Rep. Steube has taken to bring some justice to this situation? Why now?

Arnold Roth: To his credit, Congressman Steube, a Republican from Florida, has stepped up to the plate several times to press Jordan on this important matter of justice.

Two years ago, the excellent people of EMET Endowment for Middle East Truth led by Sarah Stern suggested that he be the key signatory on a letter from Congress about Tamimi directed at Jordan’s then and current ambassador to Washington. You might be interested to know the ambassador never bothered to respond.

Then in March 2022, Rep. Steube led ten Congressional colleagues in another letter, this one addressing Secretary of State Blinken That too has so far gone unanswered.

As to why now, that would be a good question to ask Steube’s staff. I could imagine him watching with rising fury as Jordan shows ever greater signs of developing into a totalitarian society, having an unfree media culture, providing a safe environment for hateful ideologies, educating its children to think antisemitically and all the while pocketing more foreign aid from US taxpayers than almost any other country – while trampling a strategic treaty with its largest and most important ally.

When you view it that way, the real question might be this: where does the over-the-top warm reception extended last week to King Abdullah by Congressional lawmakers and the President of the United States come from?

Varda Epstein: There has to be a sense of betrayal that Israel released your daughter’s murderer from prison, especially since you threw in your lot with the Jewish State by making Aliyah. Your wife is American. Does she feel a sense of betrayal as an American citizen at the lack of will to push for extradition? How does it feel to be doubly betrayed, so to speak?

Arnold Roth: That’s a hard question to answer. Not because I don’t feel those things but because complaining of being betrayed doesn’t go down well or get you far in the court of public opinion. People have a hard enough time with their own problems.

So first about Israel. Yes, we have certainly been betrayed. That’s the right word: we had rights and they were and are being cruelly trampled and with no regard to what this does to our values as a society. Or to people like us.

“Watching as the convicts walked triumphantly free”

In this, we are not alone. The same thing can be said by all the other families who experienced the murder or maiming of loved ones by terrorists who were sentenced to long prison terms by judges applying very respectable judicial criteria and then watching as the convicts walked triumphantly free.

That should never have happened. Those who argue differently need to review what they think they know about justice and Jewish values.

But it’s clear to us that Israel as a nation didn’t betray us. It was politicians. There’s much more I would want to say about that aspect but not now. We remain as Zionist as the day we arrived in Israel, passionate and proud to be raising our children and grandchildren in the Jewish homeland.

“Did the US betray us? No, and this is a good moment to say that we get gratifying support from wide parts of American society.”

I’m not an American. But Malki was and so are my wife and children.

Did the US betray us? No, and this is a good moment to say that we get gratifying support from wide parts of American society. But as with Israel, the politicians – except for those who have shown a distinct sense of morality and honor – do what politicians do and hurt us in heartless ways. 

From conversations with US government officials, we have the sense – never said to us in this way – that there’s more interest in seeing Ahlam Tamimi slip away and somehow disappear into the desert than in having her stand trial in Washington.

This is not a partisan political thing; we are almost, though not quite, as infuriated by how the GOP has pushed past the Jordan/Tamimi issue as we are by the Democrats. Again, this isn’t about which side of the US divide you stand on.

Much of America’s Jewish community leadership has been unhelpful and cold. Having said that, it’s an exceptionally painful subject that I don’t want to address here. At some point we will because there’s much we have learned on this that we would have preferred never to know. And people ought to know.

Here’s what I want to say about the US government. Other than at the political leadership level, the Justice Department and the FBI have always given us the sense of being with us and wanting the same result we want – Tamimi in a federal court on trial for her terrorism and the deaths she caused. We sincerely appreciate the hard work that has kept the pursuit of the Sbarro bomber going all these years.

“He/she skipped the briefing.”

This is relevant to something that happened some weeks ago when Frimet and I met with a significant US government figure (hereafter SUSGF). And here’s the only part of it worth raising in today’s interview. We were told ahead of time by our own sources that SUSGF was going to receive a briefing before our sit-down from well-connected officials in Washington. But in speaking with us for an hour or so, SUSGF volunteered half-way through that he/she skipped the briefing. Hence our mild hope of getting some insight into why we have been treated as pariahs for so long by the government of which our murdered child was a national was misplaced. We learned nothing. The experience was a waste of everyone’s time.

There’s no point in sharing my feelings about the governments of the past. But here’s a thought about the current administration.

Speaking in July 2021 during the first of the three official visits to the US made by King Abdullah in the past ten months, President Biden called Jordan “loyal and decent friend… We’ve been hanging out together for a long time. It’s good to have him back in the White House.”

“What’s decent about an ally shirking a treaty to appease popular bigotry?”

The same day those comments were reported in the New York Times, Frimet and I wrote an open letter to President Biden. It was published prominently in the Wall Street Journal:

The president, a grieving parent himself, pledged during his inauguration speech to write “an American story of decency and dignity.” Is anything more dignified than doing justice? What’s decent about an ally shirking a treaty to appease popular bigotry?

That question is still on my mind. And again, no response has ever come from the White House.

We also wrote a private letter to Secretary of State Blinken six weeks earlier, in July 2021. He has never answered.

Varda Epstein: On March 20, 2017, the Jordanian Court of Cassation ruled the extradition treaty invalid. Yet we know the US has requested extradition and received fugitive terrorists from Jordan on multiple occasions. Why does Jordan not honor the treaty in practice, if not by law, in the case of Tamimi?

Arnold Roth: Though Abdullah has given various explanations for why Jordan cannot extradite Tamimi, these have all been behind closed doors. He has never publicly addressed the issue. But we do know that Tamimi is a popular Jordanian folk hero.


Varda Epstein: Why do you think that your family was not forewarned before Tamimi was released in the Shalit Deal? Was it an oversight?

Arnold Roth: Not an oversight in any sense. In the eyes of the Israeli government, the need was urgent and the relevant officials had no intention of letting messy citizen actions get in the way. I also think some of them, at least, were aware of how morally and strategically wrong the Shalit Deal was in every respect. So why take chances? Rush it through and let history work out who was right and who wrong.

Murdered Israelis did not get to vote.

Varda Epstein: We know that President Biden met with King Abdullah on Friday. Have you had any information regarding the contents of their conversation? Do you know if the subject of Tamimi’s extradition was raised?

Arnold Roth: America gives tremendous influence to its appointed spokespersons. We have fought to see US justice done since 2012 – a decade. We have come up against spokespersons in the White House and the State Department several times and been deeply embittered by how that process works. With a handful of notable exceptions, there’s no one in the ranks of the media who attend those briefings who has the interest or skill to go head-to-head with them.

So the last time, a year ago, that King Abdullah paid official calls in Washington, the spokespersons in both the White House and the State Department were asked by, as it happens, Associated Press journalists in each place whether the Tamimi issue had come up. The answers they got are a disgrace to the White House and the State Department. They were evasive, unclear and essentially meaningless. There is a serious game being played by these US government employees and it doesn’t get exposed often enough.

An official readout was issued by the White House after President Biden’s tête-à-tête with Abdullah this past Friday. Here’s what it says about Tamimi:

[The two heads of state] reaffirmed the close and enduring nature of the friendship between the United States and Jordan.  Jordan is a critical ally and force for stability in the Middle East, and the President confirmed unwavering U.S. support for Jordan and His Majesty’s leadership.  The leaders consulted on recent events in the region and discussed urgent mechanisms to stem violence, calm rhetoric and reduce tensions in Israel and the West Bank. The President affirmed his strong support for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and cited the need to preserve the historic status quo at the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount. The President also recognized the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan’s crucial role as the custodian of Muslim holy places in Jerusalem. The leaders discussed the political and economic benefits of further regional integration in infrastructure, energy, water, and climate projects, with Jordan a critical hub for such cooperation and investment.  They agreed to remain in regular touch and further enhance the historic ties between our countries.

In other words, zero. [Emphasis added. V.E.]

Jordan’s trampling of the 1995 treaty continues and America’s chief executive is fine with it. That’s a showstopper in my opinion. And completely at odds with what he declared in his inauguration speech.

Varda Epstein: Presumably Malki was also an Australian citizen? Australia appears to have signed an extradition treaty with Jordan in 2017, but it is not yet enforced. Can you tell us a bit about this? Why has the proposed extradition treaty not yet been enforced? Are you in touch with authorities on this score? What efforts are you making on the Australian front?

Arnold Roth: Not so. Yes, Malki was born in Australia. Australia spent years negotiating an extradition treaty with Jordan but it pulled out of the negotiations a year or two ago. Australia, for good historical reasons, has warm relations with the Hashemite kingdom.

That's what brought me to write an op-ed in The Australian, five years ago this week in fact. In it I called on then-prime minister Malcolm Turnbull to in effect have a quiet word with his mate King Abdullah. Turnbull's answer was a welcome one, but the follow up by others in his government was not. The initiative ended up falling by the wayside.

For the past two years I made similar efforts with the current Australian leadership via the prime minister's team and his foreign ministry - with frustratingly disappointing outcomes. At this point, Frimet and I have stopped knocking on their doors.

“Justice, Tamimi, Jordan cannot possibly be partisan issues. But there you are. It’s galling.”

Varda Epstein: Is there any US official other than Rep. Steube who has taken an interest in your plight? Is there something American citizens can do to get their own representatives to act? What makes this a propitious time to press for extradition?

Arnold Roth: There is a small handful of lawmakers who have consistently given us their support. But rather than dwell on their identities, the larger point is that we get far less support – almost none -- from the Democrat side. Justice, Tamimi, Jordan cannot possibly be partisan issues. But there you are. It’s galling.

Varda Epstein: Has what happened affected you at the polls, and if so, how? Would you, could you ever support the man who released Tamimi from an Israeli prison?

Arnold Roth: Well phrased. The Shalit Deal cured me of any lingering confusion about politicians capable of doing what Netanyahu and the many who followed him into the catastrophe did. I’m no zealot and am perfectly aware that Bibi has a large following. I don’t preach against him but I have no hesitation in sharing my views of the man and what in my opinion he represents.

Varda Epstein: Let’s say your efforts are rewarded, that Tamimi is extradited to the US and tried in an American court of law. Let’s imagine that she is found guilty and punished. What would that mean for the world, for Jordan, and for your family?

Arnold Roth: It will be an essential affirmation that terrorism is outside the boundaries of what society can tolerate. The failure to adhere to this principle is a catastrophe wherever it happens. And leaders who bring catastrophes on their people ought to suffer rejection and marginalization.

Until that happens, it’s clear to us that in fighting for the principle, we are the ones rejected and marginalized.

*Slightly different than the passage cited in my introduction to this interview, from Background: In book, PM warned not to release terrorists. I chose to include both excerpts for greater clarity of intent. 



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  • Thursday, May 19, 2022
  • Elder of Ziyon
You know how the UN, EU and many nations like to claim that the 1949 armistice lines (the "Green Line") are the internationally recognized borders of Israel?

I just found the 1960 annual report of UNRWA which shows maps of its fields of operations. 

Look at Israel.



13 years after it was rejected by the Arabs, UNRWA was still drawing the 1947 partition lines on top of the "present demarcation line." The only reason that the partition lines could be relevant is if UNRWA felt that they were the "real" borders of Israel.

So the Green Line was never the "internationally recognized border" of Israel. The 1949-drawn line only became sacred after 1967.

It is one of those magical things that happen in the Middle East, like how "occupied Jordanian lands" turned into "occupied Palestinian lands."




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

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From Ian:

What’s to become of the Palestinians? We need to talk about Khaybar.
What about the Palestinians’ friends in the west and elsewhere, who amplify all those same slurs? They do matter, but not because they can deliver Israel bound & gagged. They can’t. They matter because they bear a good share of responsibility for leading the Palestinians into the quicksand and keeping them there, prolonging everyone’s misery. By encouraging them to keep fighting a war they’ve long since lost and by adopting every malformed phantasm of Palestinian resentment, they’ve walked with them hand in hand. The difference of course, is that it’s the Palestinians that are paying the price. Israelis are often lectured that it’s the duty of a friend to put them straight when they are going wrong. Where was the tough love for the Palestinians?

When the army of the Prophet swept through the Khaybar oasis, hate put the spur to his horses and sharpened the edge on his swords, and set the relationship between Muslims and Jews for the next millennium and a half, but impotent hate only clarifies its target’s vision and hardens his resolve. The Palestinians can see that what power they have is trickling away, it’s obvious in their panicky response to the Abraham Accords and any other sign of Arab “betrayal”, and even their fury at the suggestion that UNRWA might outsource some of its activities to other agencies. Hate on top of powerlessness weakens their position, but in defeat they can’t give it up.

So what is the future for the Palestinians? Where does all this leave the two-state solution, first of all? It leaves it dead. Israel has been told endlessly that it mustn’t do certain things because they will destroy the prospects for two-states, but nobody thought to tell the Palestinians that they mustn’t hate for the same reason. People who want to will put the blame on Israel, but the end result will be the same: Nations don’t choose suicide willingly and while would-be murderers of Israel may be plenty their means are insufficient. Beyond that, predicting the future is for fools but there’s little sign that Palestinian dreams will come true. Israel has been getting stronger, not weaker. More and more Arab countries, quietly or in public, are deciding that they can’t subordinate their own interests to Palestinian ones forever. Even Arab-Israelis are gradually starting to integrate more, joining the economy and the army and embracing politics that aren’t zero-sum dead ends. If Israel responds thoughtfully those numbers will only grow. If the Arab world moves on without the Palestinians there’s little reason for Europe and America not to follow suit. Do the Palestinians understand their bind? I doubt it, but they can’t leave their cage by either possible exit and I can’t see how anyone else can get them out. I truly wish they could; I don’t enjoy their suffering and a perpetually bitter and hopeless Palestinian enclave is going to continue lashing out at Israel forever. But not all stories have happy endings.

In medicine there exists something known as a sequestrum. A piece of tissue dies and, instead of the usual process of breakdown and resorption, it mummifies in place. It has no future role in the surrounding body except as a source of inflammation and pain. Is that what the Palestinian people have to look forward to, to be a permanent, irreducible focus of inflammation and hurt in the Middle East? How do we spare them and the Israelis that?

POSTSCRIPT
This piece was written before the death of the Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in Jenin, but if I’d started writing it today it would have come out exactly the same. From the shrieks of Murder! by everyone from Mahmoud Abbas to Rashida Tlaib to the right-on Susan Sarandon; from the forthright libels of Al Jazeera, the “news” source to which Abu Akleh lent her services for 25 years, to the more veiled insinuations of once-reputable outlets like the BBC and Associated Press, it’s the proof you didn’t need. The Palestinians demonstrate their enduring ability to bruise and blacken Israel, and they get … nowhere. It couldn’t be clearer that the PA, never mind Hamas, is not thinking about coexistence. For all their talk of fairness, justice and rights, the West’s thought leaders’ stampede toward verdict before trial shows again how flexible their principles are in service of their politics. In the process, they make any thinking Jew wonder what future there is for the diaspora. And so we go on, hate and pointless violence that serves only to take the Palestinians further from a future worth having. The pain they inflict and suffer has become their substitute.
JPost Editorial: Israel cannot abandon the two state solution
Due to the loss of hope that there is a viable solution, some people on both the Israeli and the Palestinian sides are starting to believe that their side should be in control, while the other should be deported or eliminated.

It is true that it is not possible to make peace with the aging and intransigent Mahmoud Abbas, who barely controls the West Bank, and without Israel’s help would be toppled by Hamas that wishes to wipe out the State of Israel.

But one day, Abbas will depart from this world, and what then?

Does Israel want to maintain a situation in which millions of people live under the control of its military while being refused citizenship? Or does it want to make those people citizens and lose the Jewish majority?

For over a decade, Israel made great efforts to weaken the Palestinian Authority and to strengthen Hamas. At the same time, it allowed Hamas to develop military capabilities that could terrorize the country.

It is time for Israel to strengthen its ties with moderate Palestinians and keep cooperating with pragmatic Israeli-Arabs.

Having Ra’am in the coalition is a huge and historic step in that direction.

Its leader, Mansour Abbas, has said multiple times that he recognizes Israel as a Jewish State, and that “it will stay like this.”

It is time to start talking again about solutions to the ongoing conflict with the Palestinians. Ignoring it does not serve Israel’s interests of remaining a Jewish and democratic state.
Haaretz has what can only be described as an intentionally misleading story:


The Israeli army's Military Police Criminal Investigation Division does not plan to investigate the fatal shooting of Shireen Abu Akleh. The Palestinian-American journalist for Al Jazeera was killed during clashes between Israel Defense Forces soldiers and Palestinian gunmen in Jenin on May 11. 
At the end of the second intifada, then-Military Advocate General, Maj. Gen. Avichai Mendelblit, instituted a protocol whereby in most cases in which Palestinian civilians were killed in the West Bank and there was a suspicion that it was caused by Israeli gunfire, a probe by the Military Police Criminal Investigation Division – better known by its Hebrew acronym, Metzah – was opened.

The nonprofit organization Yesh Din said the decision not to authorize the military police to investigate the incident showed that “the army law enforcement mechanisms no longer even bother to give the appearance of investigating. Eighty percent of the complaints that are submitted are dismissed without a criminal investigation. It appears that politics and image count for more than truth and justice. An army that investigates itself in such a serious case as this again proves that it is incapable or unwilling to undertake a fair and effective probe.”
At first glance, it sure sounds like Israel is trying to do a coverup.

Until you start to focus on the word "criminal" in "criminal investigation." At this point in time, without the forensics data from the bullet and based on the testimony of the soldiers who were there - verified from open sources - they were only shooting at nearby terrorists.

That is not a crime unless there is gross negligence, which there is no evidence of.

Buried in the article is this paragraph:

The Israel Defense Forces spokesman said in response: “During arrests undertaken on the Jenin refugee camp, heavy and uncontrolled fire was directed at IDF forces, as were more accurate shooting and the detonation of explosives that damaged army vehicles and occurred close to troops. The circumstances in which the incident occurred will be studied in an operational investigation being conducted by the head of the commando unit."
There is an ongoing investigation in the circumstances. If that investigation uncovers evidence of a crime, then a criminal investigation will follow. 

And this is implied in the IDF statement to the Jerusalem Post:
In view of the nature of the operational activity, which included intense fighting and extensive exchanges of fire, it was decided that there was no need to open a Military Police investigation at this stage. The decision was made in accordance with the Judea and Samaria investigative policy, as approved by the Supreme Court, according to which it does [not] require the opening of a criminal investigation into the death of a Palestinian during operational activity with real combat, unless there is real suspicion of a criminal offence.
If the investigation points to criminal conduct, then a criminal investigation will be opened. Which is pretty much how every criminal investigation worldwide is done.

This misleading headline is already prompting Israel haters to scream that the IDF is covering up for its "murder" of Shireen Abu Akleh. Israel-haters in the media and anti-Israel activists are going crazy. 


This is deliberate deception on the part of Haaretz.

UPDATE: And, proof that the investigation is going on:
The Israeli military has identified a soldier’s rifle that may have killed Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, but says it cannot be certain unless the Palestinians turn over the bullet for analysis, a military official says 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!

 

 

  • Thursday, May 19, 2022
  • Elder of Ziyon
Home demolished in Ofra in 2017


Haaretz writes:
Israel carried out eight times as many demolition orders in the West Bank against new structures built by Palestinians compared to settlers between May 2019 and the end of 2021.

During that period, the Civil Administration – Israel's governing body in the West Bank – issued removal orders against 285 new Palestinian structures and razed 200. For settlers, by contrast, these figures were 84 and 25, respectively.

The demolition orders were issued in accordance with the Removal of New Structures Order, which took effect in 2019 and was upheld by the High Court of Justice. It requires residents to present a building permit within 96 hours, after which Civil Administration inspectors are permitted to demolish the structure without holding a hearing.

The order has attracted harsh criticism from both Palestinians and Jews, because unlike ordinary demolition orders, it provides a brief time frame until the demolition is carried out, and eliminates the hearing and appeal process entirely.

The Civil Administration also gave Lasky data on the number of movable structures that Israel confiscated in Areas C, including mobile homes and other structures whose transportation within the West Bank requires a permit.

Between 2017-2021, four times as many movable structures were confiscated from Palestinians (3,201) than from settlers (736).
Haaretz and the Meretz lawmaker who is publicizing this emphasize that far more Arab-owned homes are demolished and more Arab-owned caravans are confiscated than those owned by Jews.

The numbers themselves do not prove discrimination on their own, despite how they are presented. There could be many reasons that illegal Arab structures are more often demolished and confiscated, and bias is only one possible explanation. For example, if Arabs illegally build far more homes than Jews, that would explain it as well. We don't know how many illegal structures are not demolished on either side.  Based on these numbers in the article alone, we do not have enough information to determine whether there are any double standards. 

What we can definitely see from this story, however, is that Jews are subject to the same building laws as Arabs in Area C.

How many articles have you ever read about Israel demolishing or confiscating Jewish owned homes in the territories? Outside of highly publicized demolition of illegal outposts, the impression one gets from the media is that Jews can build with impunity wherever they want, and the state will look the other way in nearly all cases. 

Haaretz, without intending to, is showing that Jews are subject to the same laws as Arabs when it comes to constructing or transporting structures. Even if the law is enforced unevenly, as Haaretz asserts, there is no "apartheid" in the laws themselves.  Jews have to be just as concerned about having their illegally-erected homes taken away as Arabs do.

Every single demolition of an Arab home is written about and protested in the media and on anti-Israel websites and social media. Yet the hundreds of identical actions against Jewish-owned homes are not, as far as I know, reported at all. This gives the world the impression that laws against illegal structures are only for Palestinians, not Jews.

The media is hiding the truth, and you have to dig to find it.



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!

 

 

Malki Roth, z"l
Later today, there will be an extensive interview with Arnold Roth on this site by columnist Varda Epstein. Roth is the father of Malki Roth, a 15 year old girl with American citizenship who was one of 15 civilians killed, including six other children and a pregnant American woman, at the Sbarro Restaurant massacre of August 9, 2001.

One of the terrorists who engineered the attack is Ahlam Tamimi, who was released from Israeli prison in 2011 in a prisoner swap and now lives as a celebrity in Jordan.

Even though Jordan has an extradition treaty with the United States it has refused to honor that treaty to have Tamimi tried in the US and brought to justice. 

Arnold Roth, along with his wife Frimet, have been very frustrated these last few days. Last week, Jordan's King abdullah visited the US for the third time since Joe Biden became president. Yet not only was the topic of Ahlam Tamimi not brought up by any US government official, but not one mainstream media outlet even mentioned this ongoing travesty - no questions in any White House or State Department briefings about what the US is doing.

I was reminded of this seeming conspiracy of silence as I read this book review of  Jeffrey Herf's  Israel’s Moment: International Support for and Opposition to Establishing the Jewish State, 1945–1949 by Sol Stern in Quilette.

Herf notes that the notorious Nazi collaborator and Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj Amin al-Husseini, was under house arrest in Paris after World War II. Yugoslavia requested extradition of the Mufti to try him for war crimes he committed in the Balkans for the Nazis. 

 French Foreign Ministry documents unearthed by Herf explain why this was never going to happen. A diplomatic memo put the matter quite directly: If the French government complied with the extradition request from Yugoslavia, or indeed from any other allied government, “we would unleash a new wave of hostility against us in all the Arab countries, and would also deprive ourselves of the interesting and fruitful contacts that the Mufti maintains with important figures from the Arab world.”

In June 1946, French security forces guarding the house where Husseini was detained conveniently left the door open and he “escaped” to Egypt. The Mufti was granted asylum by King Farouk and received a rapturous reception upon his return. In Cairo, he was greeted as a conquering hero by the founder of the islamofascist Muslim Brotherhood, Hassan al-Banna. The Mufti, al-Banna declared, was a great leader who “challenged an empire and fought Zionism with the help of Hitler and Germany. Germany and Hitler are gone, but Amin al-Husseini will continue the struggle.”
Doing the right thing takes a back seat to pretending that monsters can be useful, directly or indirectly.

Like the Mufti, Ahlam Tamimi is popular in the Arab world. The US wants to maintain friendly relations with Jordan. Instead of acting like a superpower, giving a message to the world that the US will pursue justice, the Biden administration is continuing the policy of sending hundreds of millions of dollars annually to Jordan to prop up its "moderate" king. 

Like post WWII France, the US has decided that a murderous war criminal is an ally in achieving its foreign policy aims.

There is one significant difference between the Mufti and Ahlam Tamimi, though.
American progressives and leftists who later pushed for Israel’s independence first came together to launch a public campaign to bring the Mufti to justice for his collaboration with the Nazis and for possible war crimes. But Husseini was shielded from prosecution by high-level government officials in the US and France who were determined to protect Western influence in the Arab world. In Washington, the sudden concern for the Mufti’s safety came from the same anti-Zionist faction within the Truman administration that later tried to block the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine.
The people fighting for justice in the 1940s were progressives and liberals. The people who are fighting against justice today are progressives and liberals. 

The media in 1946 were aghast at how the allies allowed the Mufti to escape to freedom.


But the media today has erected a wall of silence to protect the murderer of Jews and Americans. 

Even though the Roths and others have tirelessly contacted media outlets and fought for coverage of the Tamimi case, the people who pretend to care so much about "justice" in other contexts have decided to bury this story.

And the people who are shielding the criminals then and now happen to also be the people who are the most critical of Israel in the name of the same "justice" they trample.






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!

 

 

Wednesday, May 18, 2022

From Ian:

Denying Jewish Identity Is the Epitome of Anti-Semitism
The far-right nationalist tells me I’m not white. The progressive liberal tells me I am. The former explicitly wants me dead; the latter wants me to strip away any allegiance to myself as a Jew in favor of claiming a privilege that goes only so far.

So which is more sinister? In People Love Dead Jews, Dara Horn makes a distinction between two kinds of anti-Semitism, represented by two major Jewish holidays: Purim and Hanukkah. With Purim anti-Semitism, Horn explains, “the goal is openly stated and unambiguous: Kill all the Jews.” This is the anti-Semitism you can see clearly. It’s the anti-Semitism of Haman and is similar in content to what the Nazis advanced: “We want to kill you because you are Jewish.” That kind of anti-Semitism is indeed terrifying, and it has led to millennia-long trauma, including the Holocaust and numerous pogroms. More recently, we see it among the white nationalists and in the sharp rise in anti-Semitic violence, including the 2018 mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh.

But the other type of Jew-hatred—“Hanukkah anti-Semitism”—is less overt and harder to parse. “The goal is still to eliminate Jewish civilization,” Horn writes. But it may be achieved “while leaving the warm, de-Jewed bodies of its former practitioners intact.” Today, Hanukkah anti-Semitism is couched in nominally noble pursuits such as social justice, civil rights, freedom of the oppressed, and the intersectional movement. This kind of anti-Semitism, promoted by the Hanukkah villain Antiochus, doesn’t outwardly encourage Jew-killing. Instead, it tells Jews to hide or erase their Jewishness by disavowing their practices, history, unique identity—and, especially in recent years, Israel—in favor of assimilating into a larger culture. It’s the anti-Semitism that says, “Go ahead and be Jewish, but don’t make a fuss about it.” As Hellenistic Jews tried to integrate elements of Greek culture into their lives, traditional Jews pushed back, leading to the eventual Maccabean revolt against the Seleucid Empire, from 167 to 160 B.C.E.

But the desire to blend into the surrounding population can be seen at various points in Jewish history. There is perhaps no example more illustrative of this than the practice of foreskin restoration—or epispasm. In ancient Greco-Roman culture, intact genitals were seen as beautiful, masculine, and ideal. In the first century C.E., under Roman rule, Jewish men in the gymnasia—where exercise was done in the nude—felt an enormous pressure to reverse their ritual circumcisions to avoid stigma in a society that viewed an exposed glans as vulgar and indecent. Roughly 2,000 years later, some European Jews sought foreskin restoration to avoid Nazi persecution. And in Russia during the Soviet Union, the practice of circumcision was forbidden—as were most religious practices—leading most Russian Jews at the time to forgo the tradition to avoid discrimination, or to risk the procedure by way of clandestine underground networks of mohels.

Hanukkah anti-Semitism continues to be problematic for today’s Jews, especially those living in the United States. While most American Jews espouse liberal values, their access to those circles where such values are championed has come at a cost. No longer do we feel pressured to reverse circumcisions, but we are more insistently being told to whitewash ourselves or be whitewashed by society without our consent. With progressives increasingly conflating the Jewish people with whiteness in their postmodern power rubric, American Jews find themselves stuck with nowhere to turn when faced with white supremacists who want them dead.
Double Standard Against Jews
A controversy erupted in the White House earlier this year when it was reported that Vice President Kamala Harris’ newly-hired communications director, Jamal Simmons, had posted statements on social media several years earlier that were offensive to undocumented immigrants. After criticism from progressive and Latino activists about his decade-old tweets, Simmons offered a tepid apology and met with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus to explain his thinking on immigration-related policy. The tempest blew over quickly because Simmons made it clear that he was a strong supporter of immigration reform and that his online comments did not reflect his true beliefs.

Contrast Simmons’ situation with that of Karine Jean-Pierre, the new White House press secretary, who authored an article for Newsweek magazine a few years back in which she attacked the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) for what she calls “severely racist, Islamophobic rhetoric.” In the article, she accused Israel of potentially committing war crimes in its attacks on Gaza, and charged AIPAC with “trafficking in anti-Muslim and anti-Arab rhetoric while lifting up Islamophobic voices and attitudes.”

When Jean-Pierre assumed her new role as chief presidential spokesperson this week, there was no similar outcry such as that which Simmons had faced. Nor has she explained or apologized for her condemnations of both Israel and its primary advocacy group. Joe Biden is not an anti-Zionist or an antisemite, not in the least, any more than Kamala Harris is anti-immigrant. But the very different responses to their advisors’ transgressions is yet another reminder that denigration of the Jewish state and its people is more commonly accepted than equally bigoted attacks on other marginalized targets.

In the days after last weekend’s racist massacre in Buffalo, New York, we don’t need a reminder that anti-Jewish hatred thrives on both extreme ends of the political spectrum. The deranged gunman who cited abhorrent “replacement theory” as his motivation for killing ten people is a direct ideological descendant of the ultra-conservatives who caused such mayhem in Poway, Pittsburgh and Charlottesville. Nor is this column an attempt to equate Jean-Pierre’s noxious statements with much uglier acts of violence, bloodshed and murder.

But just as the new White House spokesperson accuses AIPAC of fomenting violence with language that she finds objectionable, her brand of anti-Zionist bias provides false comfort to those who engage in violence against Israel and Jews. Issue-based differences are an entirely legitimate and necessary part of political debate. But the vilification of an entire people has no place in the public square, and those who engage in such behavior should not be speaking on behalf of the leader of the free world. (Jean-Pierre’s defenders can argue that her disparagement of Israel is based on legitimate policy difference, but the fact that Simmons’ postings represented an opposing belief on U.S. immigration policy did not protect him from either criticism or from the need to apologize.)
Calling Obama administration ‘cowardly,’ Danny Danon releases book on UN tenure
In December 2016, less than a month before US president Barack Obama left the White House, the UN passed Security Council Resolution 2334. The resolution blasted Israel for building West Bank and East Jerusalem settlements, which, according to the resolution, have “no legal validity” and are “a flagrant violation under international law and a major obstacle to the achievement of the two-state solution and a just, lasting and comprehensive peace.”

Washington stunned Israel by abstaining on the resolution, amid a nadir in ties between the countries under Obama and then-prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, allowing it to pass and drawing the ire of Israeli officials.

Danny Danon was Israel’s ambassador at the UN when the vote was passed, a job he calls “the most intense and demanding position in the Israeli diplomatic world” in his new book, “In the Lion’s Den: Israel and the World,” released on Tuesday.

Danon tells the story of the infamous resolution from his perch at the UN, lambasting Obama and then-US secretary of state John Kerry for “working diligently behind the scenes to make the resolution and its passage a reality before they left office.

“I had hoped [Obama’s] thinking would be stronger than his emotions, but it was not the case,” Danon writes. “He wanted to conclude his term with a UN resolution that would define the legacy of his Middle East policy.”

Danon also reveals the roles Ukraine and Russia, who are now fighting a bitter war in Europe, played in the lead-up to the vote. Kyiv wanted to abstain, according to Danon, and was under pressure from Israel and the incoming Donald Trump administration to do so.

“At the end, they decided to support the resolution,” writes Danon, “because they were afraid that President Obama would take measures, even at the eleventh hour of his administration, to hurt them.”

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