Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, June 03, 2022

Arabs love Haaretz article saying Jews should go back into exile

Earlier this week, Haaretz published an op-ed by B. Michael which I still cannot tell if it is parody or not. Excerpts:

I’m a proud exilic Jew. I’m an internationalist and a cosmopolitan. I’m also devoid of any relationship to my geographic birthplace, and “land” to me is just the dirt in which food grows and people are buried. It doesn’t have a single milligram of sanctity, and it isn’t worth even a single drop of blood.
...
In our own day, we’ve learned that we owe our survival to being geographically dispersed rather than geographically concentrated. To diversity rather than unity. To communities rather than a state.

We’re really terrible at being a “nation.” We very quickly become as stupid, violent and greedy as most of the other nations of the world, and within a short time we brought destruction and exile on ourselves. Only there, in exile, do we regain the sense we lost and resume being a people that survives.

Apparently, being a majority doesn’t suit us – ruling, running an army and a state. We’re good at being a minority. Even a little persecution suits us. It brings out the best in us.

And now, we’re once again playing at being a “nation.” Ostensibly, that’s our eternal answer to the Holocaust that befell us. But in reality, it’s the continuation of the Holocaust. Not, heaven forbid, the burning of our bodies, only the crushing of our souls.

It’s the growth of another shoot from the Jewish tree that does harm to everyone around it. A rotten, poisonous brother of the Zealots, the Sicarii, Rabbi Akiva’s blind students and Simon bar Kochba’s foolish disciples. They ought to be called Jew-oids. They’re like Jews who took the trivial and wicked parts of Judaism and turned it into the essence.

... Consequently, there’s no choice but to admit that Zionism was a naïve mistake and to go into exile again to regain our strength and refresh our values.

B. Michael is the pen name of Michael Bryzon, a screenwriter and satirist. At first glance this seems like satire, but there is no punchline - and people with no sense of humor like Judith Butler also believe that the Diaspora is where Jews properly belong.

But satire or not, Arab media is reporting heavily about this article without the slightest doubt it is meant seriously. Many Haaretz articles excite Palestinians, but this one is being reproduced all over.

It reminds me of the interview last month where Ehud Barak expressed his worries about Israel making it successfully past its eighth decade. Arabic articles are still being published about the "curse of the eighth decade."

There is nothing wrong with self criticism, but the Arab world always misinterprets anyone asserting Israel has made mistakes as an indication of the demise of the Jewish state, rather than an indication of a thriving, open society.

The anti-Israel Arab world, humiliated at their inability to destroy Israel in 1948., pathetically grab onto any Jews who says that Jews will destroy the state themselves.

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06/02 Links Pt2: What if Israel treated America as America treats Israel?; Hamas-Loving, Israel-Hating Newspaper Publisher Successfully Lobbies Biden Admin To Create Muslim Outreach Post

From Ian:

What if Israel treated America as America treats Israel?

Israel enjoys a special relationship with the United States that dates back to its founding. That relationship, however, is sometimes a double-edged sword.

Most of the time, it works to Israel’s benefit. Still, the U.S. State Department, which opposed the creation of Israel, often treats Israel differently than any other democratic government by singling it out for criticism. If Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) behaved the same way towards the United States, news reports might sound something like this:
The MFA spokesperson said the Government of Israel expresses its condolences to the families of the massacre victims at the school in Uvalde, Texas. She also noted that the rate of gun deaths in Israel is about two per 100,000 residents compared to 12 per 100,000 in the United States, and the number of firearms per 100 Israelis is less than seven compared to more than 120 in the United States.

“In Israel, most Israeli men and women serve in the military, so they have been trained in the proper use of firearms,” she added. “Still, they cannot get permits for weapons until they are 21. Those without military training must wait until they are 27. Even then, applicants for licenses must typically work in security-related fields or live in a dangerous area.”

The spokesperson suggested the United States could learn from Israel’s experience, where applicants must go through a security check, take a shooting and gun safety course, and get a doctor to certify that they do not have a mental illness and are not taking it any medication that could impair alertness. In contrast to the ease of obtaining a gun in the U.S., 40% of all applications are rejected by the government.

Following a report of a U.S. drone strike that killed members of a wedding party in Somalia, the foreign minister called for a thorough investigation of the incident and said that military operations should be carried out with extreme care to avoid civilian casualties.

In response to President Joe Biden’s declaration that the United States would defend Taiwan against Chinese aggression, the MFA spokesperson said that China and the United States should “do everything possible to deescalate tensions.”

President Biden’s refusal to supply fighter jets to Ukraine prompted the MFA spokesperson to declare that this was a reminder of America’s failure to bomb the concentration camps during World War II when thousands of lives could have been saved.

After police shot yet another unarmed black man in the United States, the MFA spokesperson called on the United States to enact police reforms to prevent such tragedies.

Vivian Bercovici: On Being a Jewish Diplomat in Israel

I. The Middle
One evening, in the summer of 2015, I was invited along with ten or so European ambassadors to a dinner party in Herzliya. An affluent beach town just north of Tel Aviv, it was the favored location for many foreign diplomats’ residences.

The gathering was just what one would expect: canapes, fine wines, formal service, the sort of petit bourgeois fussiness that has become a hallmark of modern diplomacy. Diplomats, it is true, love to play fancy aristocrat.

At the time, Ayelet Shaked was Israel’s minister of justice, and she joined us for the first hour of the evening to discuss a hot topic in those days: the European Union’s plan to pass legislation requiring products made in the West Bank (those made by Jews, not Arabs) to be labelled as having originated in the Occupied Territories.

The intention, of course, was to pressure Israel to engage in what the EU considered to be serious talks to cede control over the West Bank in favor of Palestinian sovereignty. Sanctions targeting Israeli interests were one tool in their kit. This move also came at a time when the BDS movement was gaining momentum globally and presenting as a serious economic concern to Israel.

The EU ambassadors were—with few exceptions—enthusiastically supportive of the labelling initiative, but they restrained themselves with Shaked.

When the minister slipped away, we continued on to the main course, and the knives—literal and metaphorical—came out.

A robust discussion ensued, considering the merits and demerits of the “labelling” plan.

One ambassador turned to me, arms crossed, head atilt.

“Vivian, what are your personal views on the issue?”

At the time, I was serving as Canada’s ambassador to Israel.

“My personal views are no more relevant than those of anyone around this table,” I responded. “The views I represent are those of the Government of Canada.”

Clearly, the fact that I was Jewish was an issue for some.

“Why is it,” the ambassador continued to probe, “that 'you people' have such problems with labelling?”

Oh. My.

You people. Labelling. In Europe.

Hamas-Loving, Israel-Hating Newspaper Publisher Successfully Lobbies Biden Admin To Create Muslim Outreach Post

Homeland Security chief Alejandro Mayorkas created a Muslim community outreach position after meeting with an Arab-American activist who has cheered violence against Israel and praised the terrorist groups Hezbollah and Hamas.

Mayorkas met on March 18 with Arab American News publisher Osama Siblani, who has called Hamas and Hezbollah "freedom fighters," and other activists in Dearborn, Mich., over their concerns with racial profiling by the Department of Homeland Security. Siblani, who urged Arabs last month to fight Israel with "stones" and "guns," has lobbied DHS for years to appoint a liaison between the agency and Michigan’s robust Arab community. He praised Mayorkas after he announced the position on March 30.

"We were told to keep complaining," Siblani told his newspaper. "Mayorkas told us this time ‘we will do something about it' and he did."

The meeting emerges as Mayorkas faces scrutiny for a series of policy blunders. Republicans have called for Mayorkas's impeachment over his handling of a historic surge of illegal immigrants at the southern border. Republicans have also blasted him for forming a Disinformation Governance Board led by a Democratic activist who pushed disinformation about Hunter Biden’s infamous laptop.

The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to requests for comment about Mayokas’s meeting with Siblani and the other Arab-American leaders. Siblani’s inflammatory remarks were well documented before his sessions with Mayorkas.

The Anti-Defamation League has noted Siblani’s praise for Hamas and Hezbollah as "freedom fighters." He cheered when the the Iran-backed Hezbollah "delivered on its threat" to bomb Israel in September 2019. He reportedly praised Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, as the most "honorable man in the world."

Siblani has referred to Israel as "occupied Palestine" and claimed the "pro-Israeli lobby" owns Washington, D.C. Last year, he urged a boycott of a restaurant whose owner posted "Long Live Israel" on Facebook. His anti-Israel remarks last month were at a rally alongside Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.), the Washington Free Beacon reported. Siblani praised the fedayeen, or Islamic militants, fighting against Israel.

As President Biden prepares for his upcoming trip to Israel, the question of his promise to reopen the US Consulate in Jerusalem to serve the Palestinian population is coming up again.

Last year, Israeli officials suggested that while opening it up in Jerusalem is an affront to the Israeli claim to Jerusalem, they have no problem if the US opens it up in the de facto capital of the Palestinian Authority of Ramallah.

Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesman of Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas rejected the idea, saying, "We will only accept a U.S. consulate in Jerusalem, the capital of the Palestinian state."

But consulates aren't opened in capitals. They are opened in other important cities. Capitals usually host embassies, not consulates.

Meaning that if the Palestinian Authority insists that Jerusalem is their capital, they should insist that a US consulate be opened in Ramallah or Nablus or Hebron, and that eventually - in their hope - an embassy would be opened in Jerusalem.

As usual with Palestinians, facts are not a factor. Everything is about symbolism. Many of their "red lines" are symbolic and have nothing to do with their ostensible demand for a Palestinian state. Jerusalem isn't even mentioned in the PLO charter of 1968 - they created that demand to take Jerusalem away from Jews. Their insistence on Jerusalem being their capital is a completely different topic than statehood, and any links are imaginary.

And then we read this insanity:

The Palestinian Authority (PA) is considering suspending its recognition of Israel ahead of U.S. President Joe Biden's upcoming visit to Israel, Palestinian sources told Ynet on Thursday.

The Palestinian leadership has agreed on a tactic of gradually upping the ante against Jerusalem in a bid to stir international pressure and turn the screws on the White House in order to score lucrative overtures from the Americans.

As part of the measures, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is considering adopting the Palestinian Central Council's decision to suspend its 1994 recognition of Israel until the latter withdraws from territories it seized in the 1967 Six-Day War and recognizes a Palestinian state within their border. Ramallah is also considering suspending security ties with Jerusalem.

Normal countries are penalized for acting against American interests. The Palestinians are not only rewarded for bad behavior - they expect to be rewarded for acting irresponsibly!

The West needs to distinguish between Palestinian demands and reality, and insist that they will not negotiate fantasies.

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

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Iranian Hackers Take Crucial Step Toward Destroying Israel: Disabling Website Of Haifa-Area Dry Cleaner (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

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hacker Isfahan, Islamic Republic of Iran, June 2 - Online activists with skill in compromising the security of internet-connected remote computers celebrated a milestone today in the ongoing campaign to undo the Zionist project, now that they have succeeded in taking down the interface that a Kiryat Motzkin-based small laundry business uses to advertise its services, location, hours, and contact details.

The team of Iranian hackers exchanged high-fives and virtual congratulations upon crashing the website of Levi Dry Cleaning, run by local resident and second-generation proprietor Yehoshua Levi and his wife Nitza. Temporary neutralization of the enterprise's site marks one more important step in the generations-long effort to eliminate Jewish sovereignty on land that Islam once dominated; the existence of Israel represents a never-ending source of shame for those who associate Islamic superiority with everything good in the world. As soon as anyone notices the site not functioning, they will realize the enormity of Iran's capacity to penetrate Israel's cybernetworks.

Experts differ on when, if ever, the breach will gain the proprietors' attention. "Most of the online interface with customers takes place via WhatsApp and the business's Facebook Page," argued cybersecurity and defense commentator Moshe Sharatt. "I'm not sure they've even checked their website this year at all."

"It's bound to happen soon," countered network specialist Laura Itti. "They're going to have to change the banner about COVID-related policies, which haven't been relevant in months."

The hackers plan not to rest on their laurels after this accomplishment. "We've already identified a dozen other prime targets, of immense strategic value," boasted a hacker calling himself Chow Khamein. "There's a 24-hour billiards hall in Jerusalem that has lousy cybersecurity on its site - should be a cinch to hack that one and put up a message glorifying the Ayatollah and promising the demise of the Zionist Entity. That will bring our victory even closer."

Chow Khamein and his associates already envision the decoration they expect to receive from Tehran. "Medals, and maybe a computer-shaped trophy," suggested the hacker calling himself 4Chinzz. "Remember, we also took down that arrogant site advertising a two-for-one special at a family restaurant in Modi'in. Neutralizing evil of that magnitude deserves recognition, and maybe we can parlay this into more permanent work for the government. I could use a steady job. Maybe overseeing cybersecurity for a government ministry or two. But if the money's right I might consider selling secrets to the Mossad."

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

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06/02 Links Pt1: Israel, Saudi Arabia agree: Security arrangements in Straits of Tiran for flyover rights; How Can the Mere Presence of a Jew "Defile" the Al Aqsa Mosque?

From Ian:

Israel, Saudi Arabia agree: Security arrangements in Straits of Tiran for flyover rights

Israel is set to agree to new security arrangements allowing Egypt to transfer control of two islands in the Straits of Tiran to Saudi Arabia, which US President Joe Biden is expected to announce on his trip to the region at the end of the month.

There is currently a multinational force on the islands of Tiran and Sanafir, which Saudi Arabia does not want present once they control the islands.

Under a soon-to-be-announced deal, Israel will agree to have the forces stationed on what will remain Egyptian soil, several kilometers away.

In return, Saudi Arabia will allow Israeli airlines to fly over its airspace. Currently, only Israeli flights to the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain can fly over Saudi Arabia, as well as Air India flights to and from Israel.

Background
The multinational force has patrolled the islands, strategically located at the opening of the Red Sea and the only shipping route to Eilat, since Israel and Egypt signed a peace treaty in 1979. That condition came about because former Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser blocked the Straits of Tiran in the lead-up to the 1967 Six Day War.

Saudi Arabia had originally given Egypt control of the islands in the 1950s, and Egypt agreed to return them in recent years. Israel also agreed, in principle, in 2016, but alternate security arrangements were not finalized.

The Biden administration has been working to bring about an agreement between the sides, as first reported in Axios last month.

No public meeting between Israel and Saudi officials is planned to announce the agreement, but Biden will present it as his administration’s achievement during his trip to the region, in which he is expected to visit Jerusalem and Riyadh, at the end of the month.

While not denying the negotiations, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan made that diplomatic relations with Israel are not on the immediate horizon.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week, bin Farhan said: “We have always seen normalization as the end result for a path [to peace],” with the Palestinians.

Similarly, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid told the Magazine, in an interview to be published Friday, that norm

HRH the CP and PM #Salman_bin_Hamad meets with Israel’s Director General at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, HE Alon Ushpiz @AlonUshpiz #Bahrain #Israel pic.twitter.com/R0abzRk1JI
— ????? ??? ??? ????? (@BahrainCPnews) June 2, 2022

JPost Editorial: Israel UAE trade agreement is a big deal

It’s a big deal for several reasons. First and foremost, it will boost economic ties between the two regional powerhouses, with trade already at an estimated $2.5 billion since ties were normalized. Marri, who forecasts that bilateral trade will hit more than $1 trillion over the next decade, declared that the deal “will create a new paradigm in the region.”

The agreement also serves as a model accord for future FTAs between Israel and Arab countries. Barbivay was spot-on when she hailed the historic importance of the “groundbreaking move,” saying it will serve as an “inspiration for the region” and “generate unlimited opportunities for business, for entrepreneurs from both countries.”

“Together we will remove barriers and promote comprehensive trade and new technologies, which will form a solid base for our joint path, will benefit citizens, and make it easier to do business,” she said, adding that it “can prove to nations and governments around the world that collaboration and dialogue are the best ways to turn challenges into opportunities.”

The Israel-UAE free trade agreement covers everything from regulation and customs to e-commerce and intellectual property rights. Some 96% of products traded between the countries – from food and agriculture to cosmetics and medication – will be exempt from customs duty, many immediately and others gradually.

In a significant step toward sealing the deal in January, Israel’s cabinet approved a joint Israel-UAE R&D fund to support tech projects involving Israeli and Emirati companies. Emirati Minister of State for Foreign Trade Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, who flew to Jerusalem last month to finalize the terms of the agreement and forecast that bilateral trade could double to $5b. by 2024, said it constituted “a new chapter in the history of the Middle East.”

“Our agreement will accelerate growth, create jobs and lead to a new era of peace, stability and prosperity across the region,” he tweeted. “Throughout the last 18 months, we have proven what can be achieved when disputes and differences are set aside.”

Israel’s Economy and Industry Ministry said bilateral trade with the UAE reached almost $900 million in 2021 – including products ranging from diamonds and minerals to electrical equipment and transportation materials.

Seth Frantzman: Israel and India Pledge to Strengthen Defense Cooperation

Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz began his official visit to India on Thursday by paying tribute to fallen soldiers at the National War Memorial in New Delhi.

Gantz was then greeted by his Indian counterpart, Shri Rajnath Singh, as the two countries mark the 30th anniversary of their formal diplomatic relations and defense cooperation.

The ministers discussed global strategic challenges, military cooperation, defense industrial cooperation and joint R&D.

They also discussed a cooperation agreement signed between the Indian DRDO (Defense Research and Development Organization) and Israel’s Defense R&D Directorate, which will allow the expansion of technological collaboration between the countries by putting the focus on drones and defensive capabilities.

During the bilateral discussion, the ministers declared their intention to exploit Israel’s technological advancement and operational experience, as well as India’s extraordinary development and production capabilities.

In January, The New York Times wrote a story about a new documentary about the discovery and preservation of a remarkable color home movie.

Glenn Kurtz found the film reel in a corner of his parents’ closet in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., in 2009. It was in a dented aluminum canister.

Florida’s heat and humidity had nearly solidified the celluloid into a mass “like a hockey puck,” Kurtz said. But someone had transferred part of it onto VHS tape in the 1980s, so Kurtz could see what it contained: a home movie titled “Our Trip to Holland, Belgium, Poland, Switzerland, France and England, 1938.”

The 16-millimeter film, made by his grandfather, David Kurtz, on the eve of World War II, showed the Alps, quaint Dutch villages and three minutes of footage of a vibrant Jewish community in a Polish town.

Old men in yarmulkes, skinny boys in caps, girls with long braids. Smiling and joking. People pour through the large doors of a synagogue. There’s some shoving in a cafe and then, that’s it. The footage ends abruptly.

Kurtz, nevertheless, understood the value of the material as evidence of Jewish life in Poland just before the Holocaust. It would take him nearly a year to figure it out, but he discovered that the footage depicted Nasielsk, his grandfather’s birthplace, a town about 30 miles northwest of Warsaw that some 3,000 Jews called home before the war.

Fewer than 100 would survive it.

Now, the Dutch filmmaker Bianca Stigter has used the fragmentary, ephemeral footage to create “Three Minutes: A Lengthening,” a 70-minute feature film that helps to further define what and who were lost.

It isn't so easy to find the actual footage as a whole, but I found a lower-resolution version with some added background music.

The kids are excited, making faces, jumping into the view, even hitting each other. Men and women help their elderly parents down the stairs of the synagogue. It is all utterly unremarkable except that nearly all of them would be gone within a few years.

This is a rare view of how dynamic and alive the Jews of pre-war Europe were, and how many distinct worlds were lost in the Holocaust.

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"Jewish Voice for Peace" espouses the blood libel - literally

The ADL tweeted this image from Jewish Voice for Peace's social media:

Yes, this is a literal blood libel, accusing Jews of drinking Palestinian blood.

It doesn't get more antisemitic than this.

Actually, maybe it does. At least one of the corpses wears a striped uniform that evokes Holocaust victims.

The Jews in the cartoon aren't just killing Palestinians for no reason - they are celebrating murdering people to steal their land.

Many of the comments to the ADL tweet double down on the antisemitism, or say that the ADL is distracting from supposed Israeli crimes. One even claims the blood libel was true.

When "anti-Zionists" excuse antisemitism, it tells you all you need to know about "anti-Zionists."

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

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"The Roots of Violence Among the Jews from the Torah and the Talmud"

On Tuesday, in Egypt, The Karama Party organized a symposium on the topic "The Roots of Violence Among the Jews," about a book with that name, wth the author Dr. Saher Rafea.

It turns out the book was written in 2008. Here's its blurb:

The importance of the Torah, the Talmud, and the sayings of the rabbis in shaping the Jews' mindsets and cultural identities lies in the absence of geography for the Jewish community on which history is built and fabricated. Thus, what is left under their hands to fabricate and make their own history they can, through its events and tales, to shape the Jewish mind, are the written religious texts and its rabbinical explanations. Therefore reading the book directly and also reading between the lines should drive us to change our policies against the other / Jews so that we can achieve what we set for under the light of an explicit religious text which calls for the necessity of killing and extermination of the other - meaning Arabs, Muslims and Christians, all foreigners in their homes and their livestock: Total elimination of the other, physically and spiritually.

Yes, Jews are violent because that is what they are taught in the Torah and Talmud.

In case you cannot quite grasp the antisemitism, here is the cover:

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!

06/01 Links Pt2: A Palestinian Celebration of ‘Empress of Terror’ Fusako Shigenobu; On woke political indoctrination and antisemitism; U. Chicago SJP Condemns Pro-Israel Newsletter as 'Hate Speech'

From Ian:

Ruthie Blum: A Palestinian Celebration of ‘Empress of Terror’ Fusako Shigenobu

Her champions, some of whom were waiting outside the jailhouse to cheer her newfound freedom, disagree. They don’t think that she has anything to regret.

On the contrary, the PFLP stated that the “Palestinian people will never forget the sacrifices of this freedom fighter and her comrades in the Japanese Red Army for Palestine and the cause. Their revolutionary and humane principles, and their anti-imperialist sentiment, led them to join the ranks of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and fight alongside its freedom fighters.”

The PFLP also lauded the JRA for committing the Lod Airport massacre.

Hamas joined the rhetorical festivities, with spokesperson Jihad Taha saying that “Shigenobu’s support for Palestine will forever be recorded alongside all the honorable and free people of the world that supported the just Palestinian cause and the rights of the downtrodden Palestinian people against the fascist, racist and criminal occupation.”

Then there’s the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM). The self-described “transnational, independent, grassroots movement of young Palestinians in Palestine and in exile worldwide” only rues the fact that Shigenobu is unable to continue her life’s work, as she is ill with cancer and says that she wishes to devote her time to her treatments.

“On this glorious occasion for Shigenobu and her loved ones, we uplift her as a shining example of the power of international solidarity and anti-imperialism to unite our struggles and defeat our oppressors, no matter where in the world they may be,” PYM tweeted.

The Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network chimed in, “express[ing] its strongest support and solidarity to Fusako Shigenobu, internationalist prisoner of the Palestinian liberation struggle.”

There is nothing novel about radical Palestinians heaping kudos on fellow killers. It won’t be long before the head dispatchers in Ramallah and Gaza start naming schools and sports arenas after this one. The only question is whether they’ll need to do it in Kanji.

BBC News erases PFLP from Lod airport massacre

On May 28th the BBC News website’s ‘Asia’ and ‘Middle East’ pages carried a report tagged ‘Israel’ and titled ‘Japanese Red Army founder Shigenobu freed after 20 years’ which was illustrated with a photograph of its topic draped in a keffiyeh.

No explanation of Shigenobu’s sartorial choice was provided and unlike other media outlets, the BBC did not report that some of those waiting for her outside the Tokyo prison were “waving Palestinian flags” or that Palestinian NGOs celebrated her release.

A caption to one of the other photographs in the BBC’s report informs readers that Shigenobu “spent 30 years living in the Middle East”. The report itself tells readers that:
“Her once-feared group had aimed to provoke a global socialist revolution through high-profile terror acts.

They carried out a series of hostage-takings and hijackings, as well as a deadly attack on an Israeli airport. […]

She has previously expressed regret for 26 deaths caused by an attack on Tel Aviv’s Lod Airport in 1972.”

At no point does the BBC’s report mention that the May 1972 terror attack at Israel’s international airport was carried out by Japanese Red Army members recruited by the PFLP. However archive material shows that the corporation is well aware of that fact:
“The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine said they had recruited the gunmen from the Japanese Red Army and said they “came from thousands of miles away to join the Palestinian people in their struggle”.”

“The gunmen were hired by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, who said they had recruited the trio from Japan’s Red Army terror group, to carry out the attack, in revenge for the killing of two Arab hijackers earlier in May.”

“It is 40 years since Japanese gunmen attacked the Lod airport in Tel Aviv, Israel. They were left-wing militants working for a Palestinian organisation.”

Indeed, just two days after this article was published, on the 50th anniversary of that terror attack, BBC World Service radio’s ‘Witness History’ aired a programme with the following synopsis:
“In May 1972, Japanese gunmen attacked Lod airport in Tel Aviv, Israel. They were left-wing militants working for a Palestinian organisation. Twenty-six people were killed that day and more than 70 others were injured.”

Terrorist attacks not surprising given Palestinian suffering, says EU envoy

Terrorist attacks against Israelis should not be surprising given the depth of Palestinian suffering from the 74 years of conflict with Israel, according to European Union Representative Sven Kühn von Burgsdorff.

“When you are a Palestinian child living next to the separation wall, what do you think this child will grow up with,” he said Tuesday at an Alliance for Middle East Peace conference in Jerusalem.

“What do you think a child who sees the houses of their parents, their brothers and sisters demolished because he or she was a suspected or real terrorist” will feel? he asked. “What kind of hatred will burn in this child? What do you think will happen?”

Burgsdorff cited the spate of terrorist attacks that have rocked the country since the start of the year.

“We saw, a few months ago and the last few weeks, terrible terror attacks perpetrated on Israeli territory,” he said. “Twenty Israeli innocents lost their lives. But don’t be surprised, because there is hatred burning in many of these young Palestinians.”

Burgsdorff gave a brief but impassioned speech about the overall toll the Israel-Palestinian conflict has taken on the lives of Palestinians and the particular danger that exists now, given the absence of any peace process.

He spoke to a gathering of diplomats and activists who gathered to explore the role civil society can have in ending the conflict.

Holocaust Survivor Lillian Riess Widess left Europe behind just two years before becoming an entrant in the 1948 Queen of the Palestine Emergency Show pageant. Both her parents were murdered in the Holocaust along with her older brother Alfred. The story goes that they were murdered in the streets during a Nazi-sponsored pogrom in Taurogge, Lithuania. Of the other members of the family, only Lillian’s sister Hilda escaped death, having married and moved to South America with her husband’s family in 1933.

Lillian, my husband’s paternal first cousin once removed, survived the Kovno Ghetto and two labor camps, before landing in a DP camp south of Munich, in Landsberg. In 1946, sponsored by her aunt and uncle, she was at last able to leave the blood-soaked ground of Europe for Chicago. She came with nothing—bereft even of the comfort of a family photo. Surviving relatives and friends embraced Lillian by gathering up and sending her all the pre-war family photos they could find. Because of this, Lillian was at least in part, able to recover a portion of her collection: faces to go with the memories of loved ones stolen by Hitler.

Lillian was a beauty. Even the war had not robbed her of that. No one knows how she ended up a contestant in the Queen of the Palestine Emergency Show pageant or even whether she won. But everyone acknowledges that she had what it took to compete.

Lillian Riess, circa 1946-1948, Chicago

Little could be found by this writer of the Palestine Emergency Show that featured the beauty pageant. The competition for "queen" was an obvious draw for residents of local Jewish neighborhoods, a way to encourage attendance at the rally, to be held in Chicago Stadium. Lillian Riess competed as a representative of the Southwest Side of Chicago.

Lillian Riess, at bottom right

What did the new Jewish State mean to someone like Lily Riess, who was caught and treated like vermin to be crushed, her family murdered in the streets, only because they were Jews? Was her participation in the pageant a statement of survival against all odds--her contribution to ensuring that her people could and would be restored to their homeland, never to be at the mercy of evil again? From this distance, we can only guess at Lillian's reasons for taking part in a 1948 beauty contest in Chicago. But there is no doubt that she once again felt a part of a community, and was glad to play an active role in local Jewish life.

After the tragedy in Europe, Lillian went on to have a full life in America. On her honeymoon in Carmel, 1948

Lillian, 1956

Late 1960s

At home with her daughter Karen, circa 1972.

As we can see in this full page ad from the Chicago Sentinel, the rally was definitely a big deal, with a slated appearance by renowned tenor Jan Pierce, a “gigantic” symphony orchestra, and not less than 50 cantors “in ceremonial dress.” The purpose of the event? Among other things, to protest against Britain’s furnishing of arms to the Arabs in their war of aggression against the Jews; to force the US to lift its embargo on supplying munitions to Israel; to raise funds for “the defense of the new Jewish State,” and to “unmask the sinister underlings in the State Department who defy the will of the American people."

The advertisement for the event refers to “Palestine” rather than Israel, possibly out of long habit and perhaps to ensure that prospective attendees understood what the demonstration was all about. Headed by a most frightening prediction, “A massacre is coming—unless . . ” followed by a list of dire possibilities threatening the fledgling nation state of the Jewish people, the advertisement could not fail to catch the eye. It was expected that tens of thousands would attend.

Did the event live up to the hype? It is difficult to say. I could find nothing more in the Sentinel archives, and nothing in the Chicago Tribune—nothing about the number of attendees, the amount of money raised, or who won the beauty pageant.* But there are still facts to be gleaned from an old newspaper clipping about a beauty pageant and a full-page ad for a rally held just one month before the end of Israel’s War of Independence, when things did not look so good for the Jews or their state:

Fact one: American Jews understood the ominous threat to the Jewish State and felt a deep kinship to their brethren there, to the point they were willing to go to bat for them against the State Department, Britain, Bevin, the Mufti, and anyone else who stood in their way.

Fact two: American Jews understood that Palestine was really Israel, indigenous Jewish territory; that the Jews had a right to self-determination in their homeland; and that the Arabs, and not the Jews, were the occupiers and aggressors.

Fact three: The Jews of Chicagoland didn’t just talk the talk but proved their devotion to their people through action, organizing a massive, logistically complicated, and likely expensive demonstration in Chicago Stadium.

Fact four: The organizers of the Palestine Emergency Show fully believed they could easily draw tens of thousands of attendees who cared enough about Israel and the Jews who were living and dying there, to buy a ticket and represent.

It could never happen today.

*Hoping my readers will uncover further details

In memory of Lillian Widess, 1927-2005. Her birthday would have been this week.

(All photos courtesy of Karen Widess)

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Everyone knows about Turkeys' occupation of Northern Cyprus.

But Turkey also occupied large swaths of territory in northern Syria, and the people who scream about the evil of Israeli "occupation" are silent.

Not only that, but Turkey is threatening to invade Syria, and - again - the people who are upset about countries like Russia invading their neighbors seem to not have much of a problem with this.

From AP:

Turkey's president told journalists that Ankara remains committed to rooting out a Syrian Kurdish militia from northern Syria.

"Like I always say, we'll come down on them suddenly one night. And we must," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on his plane following his Saturday visit to Azerbaijan, according to daily Hurriyet newspaper and other media.

Without giving a specific timeline, Erdogan said that Turkey would launch a cross-border operation against the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units, or YPG, which it considers a terrorist group linked to an outlawed Kurdish group that has led an insurgency against Turkey since 1984. That conflict with the Kurdistan Workers' Party, PKK, has killed tens of thousands of people.

However, the YPG forms the backbone of U.S.-led forces in the fight against the Islamic State group. American support for the group has infuriated Ankara and remains a major issue in their relations.

Ankara has launched four cross-border operations into Syria since 2016 and controls some territories in the north with the goal of pushing away the YPG and establishing a 30-kilometer (19-mile) deep safe zone where Erdogan hopes to "voluntarily" return Syrian refugees.

In 2019, an incursion into northeast Syria against the YPG drew widespread international condemnation, prompting Finland, Sweden and others to restrict arms sales to Turkey. Now Turkey is blocking the two Nordic countries' historic bid to join NATO because of the weapons ban and their alleged support for the Kurdish groups.

Oh, and Turkey is building settlements, too, to move Syrian refugees to areas under its control

The media seems strangely uninterested.

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06/01 Links Pt1: Why Is Israeli-Palestinian Violence Returning to Jenin?; Caroline Glick: Where were Hamas rockets on Jerusalem Day?; UN names Palestinian media program for slain Al Jazeera reporter

From Ian:

Joe Truzman: Why Is Israeli-Palestinian Violence Returning to Jenin?

All this started coming apart with the pandemic lockdowns in 2020 and the burgeoning internal rivalries of various Palestinian armed factions gearing up for an inevitable succession battle in the Palestinian Authority, as Abbas rounds out his ninth decade and begins the eighteenth year of a four-year term in office.

The Gaza conflict in May last year accelerated the return to violence. The escape of six militants (most of whom are members of PIJ) from a prison in northern Israel, just across the line from Jenin, also rallied fighters across the Palestinian territories. Lastly, IDF operations in the West Bank throughout 2021 resulted in an unusually high number of militant deaths.

These deaths prompted terrorist organizations in Jenin to reorganize and establish a joint operations room to respond to IDF incursions more effectively. The result was a marked increase in clashes with IDF troops.

Exacerbating the problem in Jenin was a wave of high-profile terrorist attacks deep inside Israeli territory beginning in late March this year. In some cases, the attackers were identified as residents of Jenin, which intensified both the almost daily IDF operations in the city and the militant’s response to the added incursions.

Though investigations are ongoing, the daytime raids by the IDF were a possible contributing factor in casualties, as the IDF usually operates at night, when fewer pedestrians are around. On several occasions, including when Aqleh and an Israeli counter-terrorism officer, Noam Raz were killed, the IDF operated in Jenin during the day.

At the extremes of violence and of (relative) quiet, Jenin, a city with little religious or symbolic importance to either Jews or Arabs, told its own story of conflict.

Once the nest of suicide bombers and Israel’s most aggressive military action in the West Bank, it became an island of calm. The combination of foreign training for Palestinian police, the evacuation of nearby Israeli settlements, and the continued presence of the IDF was something of an experiment in “managing the conflict.” Two months into a renewed wave of violence centered around Jenin again, that experiment might be nearing its end.

MEMRI: Palestinians Slam Hamas's Lack Of Response To Jerusalem Flag March: All You Do Is Sell Empty Slogans And Spew Baseless Threats

The Flag March held in Jerusalem on May 29, 2022 on the occasion of Israel's Jerusalem Day, passed with relatively little incident, despite concerns that it would result in an escalation of violence on the ground. These concerns were sparked by statements made in advance of the march by Hamas and other Palestinian elements, who threatened to carry out attacks during the march, to renew the rocket fire from Gaza and even to launch a "second Sword of Jerusalem" campaign that would be a continuation of the May 2021 round of Hamas-Israel conflict, which Hamas calls the "Sword of Jerusalem" campaign.[1]

Already in the evening of May 29 and on the morning after, many Palestinian elements in Gaza, the West bank and Jerusalem began voicing anger and criticizing Hamas and the other Palestinian resistance factions for failing to respond to the Flag March as they had threatened and promised to do. This criticism was expressed on social media, and later also in articles in the Palestinian and Arab press. The critics – including Palestinian journalists, analysts, citizens and an activist of the Murabitat organization at Al-Aqsa[2] – expressed disappointment with the Hamas leaders who, they said, had spewed slogans, made bombastic and boastful threats and created large expectations – and did nothing at all. Many of the responses specifically mentioned the statements made by Hamas' leader in Gaza, Yahya Al-Sinwar, in an April 30, 2022 speech, in which he called on the Palestinians to prepare for a large-scale campaign against Israel and even promised that this campaign would begin with a salvo of 1,111 rockets fired into Israel.[3]

The Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar, which is close to Hizbullah, published a large article about the flagging of the Gazans' morale and about the Palestinians' disappointment and anger with Hamas for its failure to respond to the Flag March. In fact, the article criticized not only Hamas but the entire resistance axis, which includes Iran, Syria and Hizbullah, for "failing to lift a finger" in defense of Jerusalem, and this despite the fact that this axis has recently begun calling itself "the Jerusalem axis" and even promised to launch a regional war against Israel if it continued its actions.[4]

The Al-Hayat Al-Jadida daily, the mouthpiece of the Palestinian Authority, naturally joined the criticism of Hamas, and accused it, in its May 31 editorial, of making empty threats while coordinating and cooperating with Israel.

Caroline Glick: Where were Hamas rockets on Jerusalem Day?

In this week’s episode of the Caroline Glick Mideast News Hour, Caroline was joined by historian Gadi Taub. They discussed the successful Flag Parade in Jerusalem in the context of the Muslim Brotherhood-dominated Israeli government, and the previous Netanyahu-led government’s decision to cancel last year’s parade in the face of mass Arab Israeli violence and Hamas’s missile offensive. Caroline and Gadi talked about the increasingly palpable atmosphere of rebellion among Arab Israelis in the face of Israel’s elites who refuse to defend the country.

Palestinian cartoons inciting to violence

As mentioned, before Palestinian terror groups decided not to start a promised war to stop the Flag March on Yom Yerushalayim, Palestinian media was inciting to violence and psyching up the people for another war.

Here are some cartoons from Felesteen that are self-explanatory.

After the Palestinian terror group decision not to start a war, this cartoon expresses frustration over the lack of response by the rest of the Arab world towards Israel's actions in Jerusalem because of normalization:

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

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Hamas, Islamic Jihad spinning their decision not to attack Israel on Jerusalem Day

I noted last week that for a week before Yom Yerushalayim, Palestinian terror groups and media were in a frenzy anticipating a massive terror response to the Flag March, threatening a religious war if Jews would march through Jerusalem and all but promising that Gaza rockets would be fired and a new terror wave begun.

It appears that Israel contacted their Arab friends and those states pressured Hamas not to respond. It worked, and here is a case where the Abraham Accords - derided by "experts" as a meaningless agreement that doesn't affect the core conflict - actually helped avert a war.

However, Hamas and Islamic Jihad now have to explain to their audiences why they didn't attack after a week of inciting them to war.

And that is exactly what they are doing.

From Islamic Jihad:

Muhammad Al-Hindi, a member of the Political Bureau of the Islamic Jihad Movement and official in the political department, confirmed today, Sunday, that the battle with the enemy is open and long and takes different forms, and the resistance is the one who determines the appropriate time for its intervention.

Hamas' Al Resalah has a column directly addressing why Hamas didn't attack:

Whoever is aware of politics knows that the resistance in the Gaza Strip operates according to its assessments of the situation, and is not tempted or dragged behind passion or what the occupation plans.

The resistance didn't respond for considerations that it is more aware of than those who watch from the outside. The occupation forces were ready for the confrontation, through which they wanted to restore deterrence power, but the resistance ...is proceeding according to an integrated and extended plan, and it has its information and estimates, and if its assessment is otherwise. , the decision would have been different, because the scenes [of the Flag Msrch] were enough to make them rain the lava of the occupation’s rapists with their rockets, and turn Tel Aviv into a mass of flames.

I've also seen other articles spinning the fact that Hamas didn't attack: articles with pride that Israel was forced to keep planes in the air over Gaza based on only threats, stories pointing out that there were still lots of minor terror attacks over the weekend, pointing out that Israel had to deploy so many police to protect the Flag March which proves that it doesn't control Jerusalem, and saying that Israel begged Hamas not to attack so Hamas was the stronger party.

In honor/shame societies, backing down from a promised fight is a huge humiliation, and lots of ink is being spilled to turn this humiliation into a victory.

Which brings up another factor that helped convince Hamas not to launch an attack: Hamas leaders really liked getting all these phone calls from Arab national leaders asking them not to attack. This increased their prestige considerably, at the expense of Mahmoud Abbas, who was reportedly fuming at being left out of the loop. This pro-Hamas cartoon summarizes this:

The honor at being treated like the national leader of Palestinians outweighed the shame at not attacking Israel as promised.

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Eyewitnesses to Shireen Abu Aklehs''s death initially said she was shot by SNIPERS IN BUILDINGS. (The IDF wasn't shooting from buildings.)

More evidence keeps pouring in that Shireen Abu Akleh was killed by Palestinian terrorists, not by the IDF, as my comprehensive video showed. The latest ones confirm what I have been saying and showing, that she was killed by Palestinian snipers on and in buildings to her southeast. More interestingly, they come from eyewitnesses - which Ap and CNN consider credible as to explain what happened.

This video from Abu Akleh's colleague, Shatha Hanaysha, who was next to her as she died, says it all:

Reporter: "Did you see the sniper who was shooting at you?"
Shatha Hanaysha: "We saw the crowd pointing at the building where the snipers were. What happened is that we were standing across from a building with snipers."

There were no IDF troops shooting from buildings. But as we have seen, some of the witnesses on the scene pointed out "shebab" snipers on and in buildings to the southeast of where Shireen was shot. The only buildings "across" from Shireen and Shatha are to the east and southeast.

In the full interview, she makes other references to the snipers/"soldiers" being opposite her, saying that "the soldiers were right across from us, they could see us" - not down the street but "across" - and "we were between a wall and the sniper" - the wall was parallel to the IDF convoy, the Islamist snipers were in the buildings across the street to the southeast.

Hanaysha was widely quoted after the killing as saying that Israel was responsible. She probably thought that there were Israeli snipers in buildings on the other side of the cemetery, between a hundred and two hundred meters away.

The second witness to see snipers in buildings is none other than Ali al-Samoudi, the first person shot, who was widely interviewed from his hospital bed:

We, the crew of Al-Jazeera TV, went to Jenin on May 6, 2022 [sic], after receiving news of the intention of the Israeli army to storm the camp. ...As soon as we reached the place of the event, we got out of the car after we took security and safety precautions, put the [flak jackets] and helmets bearing the word "PRESS" in Arabic and English. After a few minutes, we heard the sound of bullets raining down on us from the side of the occupation soldiers who were on the roofs of the buildings opposite us , amid the screams of Palestinian citizens who call out to us: Get down on the ground, snipers are targeting you. . I was hit in the lower back, and Shireen screamed: Ali was wounded, Ali was wounded.

I believe both of these interviews were on the same day as the shootings.

The next day, both of these eyewitnesses stopped talking about snipers in buildings.

These are actual witnesses seeing the Palestinian snipers in the buildings shooting directly at them - but they thought the snipers were Israeli so they told the truth. When they found out that there were no Israelis there, they changed their stories to being shot from the armored vehicles to the south.

The snipers they saw were, by definition, in line of sight to the reporters. Some easily could have beene the distance away from Shireen that the bullet acoustic analysis suggest the killers would be.

The fact that CNN and AP have ignored this evidence is damning to them. And they still refuse to correct their reports that say there were no militants in the area, let alone that they are the likely killers.

Keep in mind that if the snipers were far enough from the reporters not be be easily identified as Jenin militants, the helmet-wearing reporters may have been far enough from the snipers not to be easily identified as press. They were nearly two football fields away from each other.

If I had to guess which buildings the sniper who killed Abu Akleh was in, I think it would be one of these two, probably the more southern one. Both are tall enough, both roughly the right distance from Abu Akleh, and both "across" from the reporters.