Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, June 12, 2022

Iran warns that Gulf ties to Israel could cause "instability"

A senior Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) commander has issued a stark warning to some neighboring Arab states about giving Israel a foothold in the Persian Gulf.

Commander of the IRGC Navy Force Rear Admiral Ali Reza Tangsiri has reiterated Iran’s longstanding concerns about the growing trend of normalization between Israel and some Persian Gulf’s Arab states. Speaking during a surprise visit to a strategic island just a hop from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Iranian general warned that bringing Israel to the Persian Gulf would result in instability in this strategically important region.

“Today, there is desirable security in the geographical area of the Persian Gulf thanks to cooperation and synergy among the neighboring countries. [But] if someone for any kind of reason brings the wretched, child-murdering, number-one-enemy Zionist regime to this region, he will destabilize, disturb and create insecurity for both himself and this region,” General Tangsiri said in a Saturday visit to the Greater Tunb Island.

He added, “We advise our friendly and brotherly neighbors in the Persian Gulf not to establish contact with the Zionist regime [Israel]. Because this will harm the security of the region.”

The entire article is framed as a friendly warning which is also a threat. After all, what specifically would harm the security of the region - if not Iran's reaction?

But as always, Arab and Muslim violence is "provoked" by Israel's existence, so by the strange logic of the Israel haters, Israel is responsible for anyone who attacks anyone, whether it is Arabs attacking Jews with an axe, or Palestinian men raping their wives, or terrorists murdering Jews in Mumbai.

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!

Lebanon's Naharnet reports:

The level of torture and sexual violence used by combatants against women and girls during the 15-year civil war in Lebanon shocked investigators, British newspaper The Guardian said.

A report by the human rights organization Legal Action Worldwide (LAW) gathered testimonies that detailed horrific experiences of violence, including gang-rape, electrocution and forced nudity used to persecute women and girls – some as young as nine – from opposing communities.

An amnesty law passed in Lebanon in 1991 granted immunity for crimes committed against civilians during the war, which has allowed a culture of impunity and lack of accountability to develop, the report noted.

The report itself, issued by LAW and UN Women, is horrific to read, with victim and eyewitness accounts of the most disgusting war crimes.

Yet the report doesn't say who performed these rapes and murders of women and girls. All it says are "state and non-state actors."

One has to read between the lines to understand that only Lebanese, Palestinian and Syrian armed forces, Christian and Muslim militias were responsible for these rapes, not the IDF in its forays into Lebanon during the civil war. The report mentions the 1991 amnesty law, and subsequent Lebanese amnesty laws, as the major reason that there has been no investigation or prosecution, and why the victims have had no recourse. Yet the amnesty law would not cover any crimes by Israeli troops.

There's one other way to be certain that Israelis weren't involved. Because if they were, this report would be worldwide news. Besides the Guardian article, this report is not mentioned in mainstream media at all.

Obviously, saying that Jewish soldiers don't wantonly rape women and children is not a high moral or legal bar. Yet the disinterest in this systematic sexual abuse over 15 years in Lebanon only makes sense when you understand that the world expects Muslims and Christians, Lebanese and Palestinians to act like subhumans in war - it is the proverbial dog bites man story.

Israel is routinely accused of being a human rights monster. It is the only state currently accused of apartheid by the international humanitarian community. NGOs issue report after report, vying with each other to find novel angles to accuse Israel of yet more violations of human rights. Yet when it comes to the most horrific war crimes done by Arabs - virtually nothing.

Of course this is antisemitism. The goal of story after story on Israeli human rights abuses, most of them fictional or exaggerated, is to demonize Israel to the average news consumer - and one reason why stories about Arab human rights abuses don't get coverage is because that detracts from and waters down the narrative from the obsessive anti-Israel coverage.

Watch this story over the next week. See if CNN or the New York Times cover it at all - so far they haven't even though the Guardian story was published Thursday. If they do, see how many minutes CNN chooses to use for the story, see how many column inches it gets in the New York Times and on which page.

And if you think that a story from decades ago doesn't deserve major media coverage, compare this week's reporting or lack of reporting of the rape of hundreds of women with last month's coverage of a movie about an alleged Israeli war crime in 1948, against soldiers, based on a poorly written academic research paper that has been retracted.

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!

Time magazine continues on its anti-Israel jihad, even saying Jews "storm Al Aqsa mosque" without scare quotes

Time magazine has an Israel problem.

It has managed to publish biased pieces against Israel in each of its last four biweekly print editions. I discussed two of them here and here.

The previous edition, dated June 6/13, included another piece on Shireen Abu Akleh where it emphasizes that Israel has refused to start a criminal investigation on her death. As we have noted, the IDF is performing an operational investigation into her death; a criminal investigation is only to be done if there is evidence of a criminal act on the part of Israelis. By saying that Israel is refusing a criminal investigation, Time is implying that it is trying to cover up a crime - when in fact it is evidence that there has been no crime at all.

Also in that issue was the Time list of most influential people, the Time 100. I looked up the Time 100 for last year, which would have covered the timeframe of the Abraham Accords, and no one involved in the most historic Middle East peace deal since the Israel-Egyptian treaty was mentioned.

Likewise, in the most recent Time edition, dated June 20/27, there is an article that mentions a historic Middle East story - only to downplay it.

Written by Mat Nashed of Al Jazeera, it tries to diminish the importance of a trade deal between Israel and the UAE:

Israel and the United Arab Emirates deepened ties on Tuesday with a historic free trade agreement—the first of its kind between Israel and an Arab country—at a time of growing criticism of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. Both Israel and the UAE are touting the major economic benefits that such a deal could bring. But experts tell TIME that it’s too early to assess the economic impact of the free trade agreement and that the main value of the agreement is political in nature.

Here is a free trade agreement between Israel and an Arab country - and instead of discussing why this is clearly a historic event, the entire article tries to detract from it.

That's bias.

Both Israel and the UAE are already predicting annual bilateral trade will reach $10 billion in five years, more than 10 times the figure recorded in 2021...However, experts are skeptical about the $10 billion figure. According to World Bank data, that amount would make the UAE one of Israel’s largest trading partners. A local Gulf expert, who asked TIME not to disclose his name out of fear that he could lose his livelihood for challenging the information of regional governments, says that the prediction is a stretch. “Look, if the governments are the source, then they usually exaggerate.”

Oh, an anonymous "expert" says $10 billion is unlikely - so is $6 billion not worth even talking about?

Despite the headline news, the UAE’s budding ties with Israel remain deeply controversial across much of the Arab world—particularly as tensions between Palestinians and Israelis mount. Three days ago, the UAE foreign ministry condemned what it called Israel’s “extremist settlers” for storming Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque, the third holiest site in Islam.

Tensions between Palestinians and Israelis have been "mounting" for 74 years.

But most of all, here we see the depth of Time's hate of Israel. Only Arab media uses the terminology of Jews "storming Al Aqsa mosque."

No Jews "storm al Aqsa mosque." No Jews even enter Al Aqsa Mosque. Only in recent years have Palestinians started to refer to the entire Temple Mount as "Al Aqsa Mosque" rather than just the silver domed building on the southern side of the Mount, but the actual mosque itself is off limits to Jews. Time is adopting the nomenclature of those who deny any Jewish connection to the Temple Mount, and it doesn't even use the normal formulation of "Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount," instead implicitly denying any Jewish connection to the site.

Jews walk peacefully around the perimeter of the Temple Mount, they aren't "storming."

Time also emphasizes that the mosque that the Jews don't enter is the "third holiest site in Islam" but somehow doesn't mention that the Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism - not second or third.

The print article is worse than the online version - the print article downplays all Israeli relations with the Arab world and claims that the Palestinian issue is a significant roadblock for the Gulf states, when the online article notes that this really isn't true. But both versions include the bias shown above, and together with the print items in the previous three editions at least, it shows that Time's anti-Israel bias is no accident.

It is an editorial decision.

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!

06/11 Links: Abraham Accords: Israel carves new influence, regional peace; How can the EU want closer ties with Israel while funding terror NGOs?; Three Basic Lies in the UN Commission’s Report

From Ian:

Seth Frantzman: Abraham Accords: Israel carves new influence, regional peace

AS WE survey the region two years after the accords, we can see many changes. The importance of the growing Israel-UAE-Bahrain relationship is clear. Also, Israel’s move to be within US Central Command’s area of operations is important because the accords enabled Washington to work closely with Jerusalem in the region, rather than doing so via European Command as in the past. Now Israel, the UAE, Bahrain and the US can train together in the Red Sea.

In addition, Israel’s close ties with Greece and Cyprus tie in with Athens working more closely with Egypt and the UAE.

Further afield, Egypt backs the Libyan forces that control eastern Libya, as the country continues to be divided as it has been since 2011. Turkey has backed the government in Tripoli, and rivals continue to clash in Libya.

The point is that the Israel-UAE-Bahrain relationship now ties into the operations of US Central Command’s naval component NAVCENT and this has huge ramifications for the region. USCENTCOM’s new head, Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla, was recently in Israel, where he saw the country’s large Chariots of Fire drill. That drill is all about preparing for possible confrontation with Iran and Iranian-backed proxies such as Hezbollah. Israel also did massive training in Cyprus as part of the drill.

Here we see how Israel has carved out a new depth of influence in the Eastern Mediterranean. This has Hezbollah so angry that it threatened attacks on June 5, as Lebanon complained about Israel gas exploration.

Suffice it to say that Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Yemen and Iraq – all the countries where Iran has proxies – will not be moving toward peace with Israel. Probably neither will Algeria, Libya or Tunisia. But Israel has had brief, recent ties with Oman, after then-prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s 2018 visit there.

It remains to be seen what will happen with Saudi Arabia, but overall the growth of ties appears to be running in a positive direction. Tensions over Jerusalem as well as Hamas attempts to sabotage Israel’s relations will continue. But many countries now understand that groups like Hamas exploit these tensions.

This is another major outcome of the peace deals as well. There is more positive coverage of Israel in the region. Most of the media in the countries Israel has peace with are pro-government, which is favorable to the accords because it means fewer governments are pumping out official anti-Israel propaganda. Considering that several decades ago this was not the case, that means a new generation can be raised with more amicable views of both Israel and Jews in general.

The official slogan of the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen is “Death to Israel, curse the Jews.” For years, Western diplomats and media would have accepted such hatred as the ways things work in the region. Today we can see, across a swath of the region, that open hatred for Jews and Israel has been reduced. Jerusalem’s ties with the Gulf matter greatly in this respect, helping to rewrite decades of antisemitism in the Middle East.

How can the EU want closer ties with Israel while funding terror NGOs? - opinion

How can this happen?
The NGOs in this network claim to promote human rights and provide humanitarian aid, while in practice they promote politicized partisan narratives, oftentimes coupled with antisemitic tropes, and inciteful content aimed at harming the legitimacy of Israel as a Jewish state. Over the years, NGO Monitor has identified – using only open sources! – more than 70 individuals who simultaneously held positions at the PFLP and with European-funded NGOs.

As these facts surfaced, many members of the European Parliament spoke about the need for better vetting and more careful processes in selecting NGO partners for EU-funded projects. In 2020, in response to revelations about involvement of NGO officials in the murder of Rina Shnerb, EU Commissioner Varhelyi ordered an internal investigation into potential diversion of EU funds to terror groups.

Others argued that the existing EU procedures were solid and provided enough safeguards, especially given that in 2019 the EU introduced a new restriction in all its contracts with NGOs prohibiting work with anyone who appears on “the lists of EU restrictive measures” (the official term for the EU terror list).

In practice, however, this made very little difference. The murder of Rina Shnerb happened after that. Part of the reason lies in the fact that the EU’s terror list includes entities like Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and PFLP, but it does not include any persons or organizations connected or identified with them.

It was actually Ursula von der Leyen who first officially clarified in June 2020 that EU vetting rules “make the participation of entities, individuals or groups of individuals affiliated, linked, or supporting terrorist organizations incompatible with any EU funding.” The word “affiliated” offered the missing specification that should have allowed the EU to impose the restrictions on all those who are in any way linked to a terror organization.

To be fair, shortly after Israel alerted them of the NGO officials involvement in the Rina Shnerb’s murder, the European Commission quietly froze its funding to Al-Haq and the Union of Agricultural Works Committees (UAWC), two of the designated NGOs pending final resolution. It was a welcome immediate reaction, but the EU is yet to make a definitive statement on its policy.

Eugene Kantorovich: Why Israel shouldn't join the Istanbul Convention

In recent weeks, Justice Minister Gideon Sa’ar, with the support of Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked, wisely decided to defer Israel’s joining the Istanbul Convention – a treaty that would subject Israel to the review of a hostile international commission and potentially tilt the scales in a wide variety of domestic policies from immigration to religious matters.

In response, Bar-Ilan University’s Rackman Center, which had long lobbied for the treaty and stands to gain financially from its adoption, has taken to the pages of this paper to accuse groups that pointed out the convention’s problems – of which the Kohelet Policy Forum has been proud to be among – as “liars” who actually support violence against women.

Why the Istanbul Convention is dangerous
We are not concerned about such ad hominem attacks, but it is important to explain why the Istanbul Convention is so dangerous. First, it does nothing to prevent violence against women in Israel. Only Israeli domestic legislation can do that. Violence against women should be dealt with by tougher penalties and better enforcement, not through international virtue signaling. Any useful ideas in the convention can and should be discussed and adopted on its own merit.

There is no evidence that joining the convention reduces violence. Indeed, sex offenses against women in some countries like Sweden have spiked rapidly since they joined.

Nor is there any diplomatic imperative to joining the treaty. Unlike UN bodies, which enjoy universal membership, this treaty was designed by and for a regional organization, the Council of Europe (CoE). Israel’s absence would not be noted as the CoE struggles to get or keep its own members on board.

Joining the treaty would expose a wide variety of Israeli social policies to scrutiny by the treaty’s monitoring arm, known by its acronym GREVIO. Anti-Israel bias has turned many international monitoring mechanisms, like the UN Human Rights Council, into yet another arena for condemning Israel for “the occupation.”

06/10 Links Pt2: 100 Years Ago This Month: When Congress Embraced Zionism—Unanimously; Biden Admin Takes Major Step To Roll Back Trump’s Jerusalem Embassy Move

From Ian:

100 Years Ago This Month: When Congress Embraced Zionism—Unanimously

One hundred years ago this week, the United States Congress unanimously embraced Zionism. The story of how that came about involves some surprising twists and turns, and a stormy debate about Jews and Arabs that could have been taken straight out of today’s headlines.

In the spring of 1922, the League of Nations—forerunner of the United Nations—was weighing Great Britain’s request to be granted the mandate over Palestine. The approval process was slowed as France and Italy jockeyed for regional influence and the Vatican sought to prevent Jews from gaining a “privileged” position or “preponderant influence” in the Holy Land.

In the wake of England’s 1917 Balfour Declaration, pledging to facilitate creation of a Jewish national home, American Zionists were eager to see the British receive the Palestine mandate. They hoped an endorsement of Zionism by President Warren Harding would accelerate the process. But Harding proved noncommittal, so Zionist activists turned to Congress.

Senators Henry Cabot Lodge, of Massachusetts, and Charles Curtis, of Kansas (a future vice president) and Rep. Hamilton Fish, Jr., of New York, all Republicans, agreed to take the lead on a pro-Zionist resolution. They were isolationists and immigration restrictionists—not exactly the Jewish community’s favorite kind of politicians. Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, head of the American Jewish Congress, had recently denounced Lodge as “un-American and anti-American” because he opposed U.S. participation in the League of Nations.

Successful lobbying, however, is the art of the possible. Many Jewish leaders may have been personally more comfortable with Democrats, but in 1922, the president was Republican and the GOP enjoyed large majorities in both the Senate and the House of Representatives. If three powerful Republican congressmen were ready to champion the Zionist cause, why should they be turned away?

The Lodge-Fish resolution, as it came to be known, declared that “the United States of America favors the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.” It added that “the civil and religious rights of Christian and all other non-Jewish communities in Palestine” and “the holy places and religious buildings and sites” should “be adequately protected.”

Hearings were held before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs over four days in April.

The testimony by Zionist officials emphasized both justice and rescue. The Jewish people were entitled to rebuild their biblical homeland, and European Jews urgently needed a haven; 100,000 Jews had been slaughtered in pogroms in Ukraine and Poland in 1918-1921. Moreover, Zionist development of the land would benefit Palestine’s Arab population. (h/t jzaik)

Biden Admin Takes Major Step To Roll Back Trump’s Jerusalem Embassy Move

Jason Greenblatt, former White House envoy to the Middle East and author of the book In the Path of Abraham, described the decision as a concession to the Palestinian government, which incites terrorism against Israel and pays salaries to convicted militants.

"Even more troubling is the reversal of the chain of command established by the Trump administration," Greenblatt told the Free Beacon. "It is extremely bad practice for reporting on Palestinian affairs to go directly to the State Department without being run through the U.S. ambassador to Israel. So many of the issues they are responsible for are intertwined, and so much can be missed, misconstrued, or manipulated when the chain of command is disrupted."

Greenblatt said his time in the White House showed him that separating this mission aided a "broken system" that appeased Palestinian leadership while harming U.S.-Israeli relations. "By trying to appease the Palestinian leadership with this empty gesture, we hurt our critical ally Israel and we hurt the United States—we hurt our national security, our diplomatic efforts and we waste precious U.S. taxpayer money," he said.

Arsen Ostrovsky, and Israeli human rights attorney who serves as chair and CEO of International Legal Forum, an advocacy group, said the creation of this office marks "a transparent attempt by the Biden Administration to go round the back door, with a de-facto consulate in clear attempt to water down the Trump Administration’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital." It also signals that the Biden administration is challenging Israel’s sovereignty over Jerusalem.

Republican foreign policy leaders also pushed back on the move.

Sen. Bill Hagerty (R., Tenn.), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the State Department is circumventing the Israeli government in order to create "an unofficial U.S. consulate" to the Palestinians, in violation of the law.

"I unequivocally oppose this plan for what appears to be a new unofficial U.S. diplomatic mission in Israel’s capital," Hagerty said. "This plan is inconsistent with the full and faithful implementation of the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995 and suggests that the administration is once again trying to undermine America’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s eternal and undivided capital."

Rep. Lee Zeldin (R., N.Y.), a House Foreign Affairs Committee member, said the 1995 Jerusalem Embassy Act was specifically created to prevent this situation.

"Palestinian Authority leadership has made it abundantly clear that their push for this action is for the purpose of dividing Jerusalem," Zeldin said. "The United States unilaterally making this concession to the Palestinian Authority in exchange for no concessions in return has been proven to be a failed policy time and again."

Boston BDS map of Jewish groups has ‘potential to incite violence,’ Auchincloss says

He said that the project carries echoes of “a very sinister vein of Western history” — efforts to identify and keep rosters of Jews, including, but not limited to, the Holocaust.

Auchincloss said he plans to raise the issue with colleagues and with groups in the area that have promoted the Mapping Project, and will urge his colleagues to do the same.

“I will give direct and stark feedback about how inappropriate and unacceptable this is,” he said.

Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA), tweeted on Wednesday that “Targeting the Jewish community like this is wrong and it is dangerous. It is irresponsible. This project is an anti-Semitic enemies list with a map attached.”

The other members of Massachusetts’ congressional delegation — including Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Ed Markey (D-MA), who are named in the Mapping Project — did not respond to requests for comment.

Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) has been endorsed by the advocacy group Peace Action, whose local chapter, Massachusetts Peace Action, has amplified the Mapping Project.

Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) also called out the project, saying that it “accuses Jewish and ‘Zionist’ institutions of various evils in American society,” adding, “Scapegoating is a common symptom of antisemitism, which at its core is a conspiracy theory.”

The project has caught the attention of Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, whose spokesperson, Lior Haiat, tweeted earlier this week, “This whole project is reminiscent of a dangerous antisemitic pattern of activity known from antiquity through the horrors of the 20th century: a pattern which has led to violence against Jews and their institutions.”

Jeremy Burton, director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Boston, told JI, “We see this as an explicit effort name and identify and put a target on physical Jewish spaces in Greater Boston, with the purpose, explicitly in their own words, of dismantling our Jewish community here in Boston,” which could “inspire others to dangerous action.”

Burton urged lawmakers with ties to groups like Massachusetts Peace Action that have amplified the project to enact “consequences in those relationships.”

It's a BDS project but she has to throw in 'violent white supremacy' just to bothsides/alllivesmatter this stuff as usual. Some cowardice is just sad, but some cowardice is dangerous to the rest of us https://t.co/awhXA4yzhm
— Seth Mandel (@SethAMandel) June 10, 2022

My letter of complaint to IMPRESS regarding Bellingcat's flawed investigation of Shireen Abu Akleh's death

The wild snipers of Jenin and the likely location of Shireen Abu Akleh's killer

The purpose of the yellow star in Nazi Germany was EXACTLY the same as that of BDS today

16th century Islamic history book describes the strong Jewish attachment to Jerusalem

Left wing and Right-wing antisemites agree: Jews are the center of all evil (and America is not far behind)

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!

Study: Only Your Opponents Defined By Extremists On Their Side (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Check out their Facebook page.

Tel Aviv, June 9 - New research suggests that whereas your political fellow-travelers represent myriad, diverse views, and that fringe elements attract only ridicule and criticism from the overwhelming, decent majority, the other political camp kowtows to the radicals in its midst who have hijacked the agenda at that end of the political spectrum and as a consequence, voting for anyone from that half of the political map effectively places the government under the control of dangerous fanatics who will destroy everything of value.

Scientists studying political phenomenology have discovered evidence that only your opponents get defined by the most extreme among them; you and your close allies, however, know how to distance yourself from unhinged, racist, violent, or otherwise objectionable voices that overlap with parts of your vision, and only dishonesty could account for those who associate you with those objectionable elements. Your invocation of the other side's extremists, however, captures the essence of that entire camp's ideology.

"It's uncanny," remarked lead study author Tenn Denschuss of the Statistics Department at Tel Aviv University, the study's lead author. Your positions, rhetoric, and behavior, he confirmed, remain "beyond reproach, untainted by coincidental association with unsavory fanatics whose tactics and bigotry give them more in common with the thugs on the other side," whereas your opponents' positions "grow out of suspicious closeness to, and sympathy for, some of the most destructive forces and movements of the last two centuries, which they fail to denounce with sufficiently convincing vigor."

Denschuss observed that the phenomenon holds across multiple angles of political difference: disputes over policy or vision in the realms of public health, democratic processes, security, bodily autonomy, criminal justice, racial tensions, separation of religion and state, the environment, regulation, taxation, income inequality, international relations, military policy, infrastructure, free enterprise, freedom of expression, and what restrictions, if any, apply to individual liberties, among other areas.

"This looks like a pretty robust phenomenon," he noted. When you hold a certain position, "it inevitably stems from a well-reasoned, coherent analysis of data, using supportable assumptions and the right mix of empathy and incentive." On the other hand, when those who disagree with you espouse their positions on any of these issues, their analysis, if even worthy of the term, "suffers the fatal flaw of ulterior considerations, distorted ethics, and undue influence from radicals whose extreme agenda will inevitably generate larger and more problems than their favored policies ostensibly aim to solve, while in fact in they were honest, those fanatics would admit they aim not to address the issue but to seize power and impose their agenda while suppressing dissent."

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!

06/10 Links Pt1: Melanie Phillips: The anti-Israel travesty of Pillay’s kangaroo court; Ruthie Blum: Navi Pillay’s revitalized anti-Israel career; The Iran Crisis Is Here

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: The anti-Israel travesty of Pillay’s kangaroo court

If this is to have any meaning at all, the United States must ensure Pillay’s removal. After all, her appointment contradicted the U.N.’s own guidelines which, as UN Watch said in its request for Pillay to recuse herself, make clear that members of commissions of inquiry must have “a proven record of independence and impartiality.”

Even Pillay’s removal, however, wouldn’t address the core problem—the institutionalized bias of the United Nations itself. For it acts as the crucible of the campaign to delegitimize and destroy Israel.

Since 2015, the U.N. General Assembly has passed 125 resolutions condemning Israel, compared with six against Iran; seven against North Korea; nine against Syria; 18 against Russia; eight against the United States; and none against China, Cuba, Libya, Turkey, Pakistan or Venezuela.

Last September, the U.N. Economic and Social Council condemned Israel alone for allegedly violating women’s rights, even though Israel is the only upholder of women’s rights in the Middle East.

All this reflects the fundamental flaw at the heart of the United Nations itself. Committed to promoting freedom, justice and human rights for everyone, it is dominated by countries that stand for the negation of those things. So it betrays its core commitment virtually every day.

The fact that it singles out Israel for condemnation as a human-rights abuser when it is in fact the sole democracy in the Middle East and deeply committed to human rights is a travesty. The fact that it has now put in charge of this onslaught a woman who has endorsed the anti-Jewish lynch mob at the United Nations’ own disgusting Durban conference is obscene.

Yet America and the rest of the free world continue to treat it as the legitimate arbiter of global peace and justice.

The United Nations is the most conspicuous example of the fundamental mistake the free world makes over and over again. This is that, by refusing to acknowledge the true and unique characteristics of anti-Semitism, it fails to understand that the world’s oldest and most enduring hatred doesn’t just affect the Jewish people. It also signals the corrosion and eventual destruction of the culture that spawns it.

The continuing support by the free world of the fundamentally corrupted United Nations is a major factor behind the destruction of the west’s moral compass and its current spiral of decline.

Ruthie Blum: Navi Pillay’s revitalized anti-Israel career

A month before the end of her dubious tenure as human-rights high commissioner, for instance, she issued a particularly egregious parting hurrah. The timing was perfect for a tirade from the retiring radical, as Israel was in the throes of the 2014 Gaza war.

Referring to what she called the “same pattern of [Israeli] attacks on homes, schools, hospitals [and] UN premises” as in past military campaigns,” she said that “none of it appears to me to be accidental.”

She failed to mention the extensive Hamas tunnel network that Israel was in Gaza to destroy. That the underground passageways were equipped with weapons, handcuffs, IDF uniforms and anesthetic-filled syringes for the express purpose of kidnapping and killing Jews didn’t make it into her condemnation.

She ignored, as well, Hamas’s use of its population as human shields, and didn’t give the slightest nod to Israeli Air Force pilots, who not only dropped leaflets to warn Gazans of imminent shelling in specific areas, but aborted missions when they spotted women and children in their crosshairs. What she stressed, instead, was that the United States “provided almost $1 billion in providing the Iron Domes [sic] to protect the Israelis from rocket attacks; [yet] no such protection has been provided to Gazans against the shelling.”

This egregious inversion of defense and offense is quintessential Pillay, so the remark wasn’t surprising. Greater astonishment was due the self-proclaimed feminist a few months earlier, during an address to the UNHRC.

Dusting off an old libel lodged in 2005 by then-UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women Yakin Erturk, she blamed Israel for Palestinian men’s abuse of Palestinian women. The “occupation,” she suggested, robs Palestinians of their manhood. Feeling castrated by big bad Israel, these emasculated males take out their frustration on their wives, mothers, sisters and daughters.

George Orwell is chuckling in his grave. Still, the rest of us shouldn’t be laughing.

As Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust director Anne Bayefsky cautioned this week in JNS: “Although this charade [of a commission] is obviously tainted and flawed, indifference to it would be a grave mistake. The ‘inquiry’ has no end date and is being financed in perpetuity. Now on the UN schedule are two reports every year, a perpetual drumbeat of modern antisemitism — the delegitimization of the Jewish state. Report No. 1 is all the evidence that decent people and democratic states need to tear down this wall of hate and intolerance.”

UN Watch: The Pillay Report Under Scrutiny — UN Watch Side Event, June 13, 2022

On June 13, 2022, as the United Nations in Geneva debates the Pillay Report, the controversial new document will come under scrutiny by a panel of renowned experts at a UN Watch event to be held on the sidelines of the Human Rights Council, to be streamed live here on this page.

The Pillay Report, released this week, offers a blueprint of what is to come from the U.N. Commission of Inquiry, chaired by Navi Pillay, which was granted a perpetual mandate to report annually in Geneva and New York on alleged war crimes and discrimination in wake of last year’s Hamas-Israel war.

The report turns a blind eye to Palestinian terrorism and embraces the Hamas narrative that Israel is the root cause of all conflict.

Many expected a biased report given that commission chair Navi Pillay has a record of lobbying governments to ‘sanction apartheid Israel’. In addition, she declared Israel guilty in the very conflict of last year that she is meant to investigate. To read UN Watch’s request for Navi Pillay to recuse herself, click here (pdf).

16th century Islamic history book describes the strong Jewish attachment to Jerusalem

Zubdat-al Tawarikh is a 16th century Islamic history book that is filled with color, miniature illustrations. It is in the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts in Istanbul.

Here is one of its illustrations, depicting Jonah, Ezra and Jeremiah.

The description of this artwork shows that Muslims not only were well aware of the Jewish ties to Jerusalem, but they created legends about how strong they are:

Still another miniature depicts the stories of three different prophets (fig. 9). In the upper section is found the story of Jonah and the fish. Jonah, the text tells tried to avoid his mission by sailing away but was caught by a violent storm. He was then swallowed by a fish and after three days left on shore. In the miniature Prophet Jonah is shown trying to hide nis nakedness in the midst of bushes. Below him is a brook full of brightly colored fish. On the upper left hand corner, another prophet is represented. Sitting among trees and animals according, to the text, Prophet Jeremiah, grieving over the destruction of Jerusalem by Babylonians, hid in a wild forest. A similar story is narrated in the text for Prophet Uzeyr [Ezra], depicted in the lower section of the miniatures, who also grieved over the destruction of the Holy City but his grief was so deep that God took his soul and gave him life, years after Jerusalem was reconstructed. The building on the lower right hand corner undoubtedly symbolises the rebuilt city of Jerusalem, yet it is the accurate rendering of a typical sixteenth century Ottoman building with a dome and an arched portico. The ruins of the once destroyed city, on the other hand, are indicated by broken arches and columns on the left.

Before the 20th century, no Muslim doubted that Jerusalem has a Jewish history. The idea that Jerusalem has nothing to do with Judaism - which was one of the themes of a speech by Mahmoud Abbas yesterday - is just one of many Palestinian lies that is widely believed by dint of repetition.

See also here for another early Muslim work about the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem.

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This curdles David Miller's blood

David Miller, the disgraced academic whose attacks on Jewish students got him fired from the University of Bristol last year, wrote a follow-up to his antisemitic thread last month that doubles down on his hate of Jews.

Even though he was heavily criticized for saying in that thread that Chabad Lubavitch was an extremist group that had "occupied" and built "settlements" in Palestine as early as 1777, he responded that Chabad is behind virtually all "price tag" attacks and has advocated murdering non-Jews - both of which are absurd lies. Miller's out of context and cherry picked examples (like "The King's Torah" controversy) are of people whose links to Chabad are either nonexistent or tenuous.

One of his tweets defending calling Chabad a violent, extremist and racist group includes a link to a video of the late Lubavitcher Rebbe launching a youth group, "Tzivos Hashem." Miller describes this video as "blood-curdling" and proof that the group is "dedicated to waging war against non-Judaism."

Blood-curdling? Only if the sight of Jews in beards and Jewish children singing makes you blanch.

The video explains exactly what Tzivos Hashem is and why it has that name - in its own words to children, "You see, this Army is very special! You children are its soldiers and officers, and the Commander-in-Chief is G-d Himself. That’s why it’s called the Army of Hashem. By learning the Torah and keeping its Mitzvos, you are fighting the battle against the Yetzer Horah (the Evil Inclination) to bring peace and light into the world."

When the Rebbe says that the "army" would wage war against "non-Judaism ['nit Yiddishkeit'] and the Evil Inclination," Miller absurdly interprets "non-Judaism" as meaning a war against all Gentiles. (He doesn't quote the "evil inclination" part.) The purpose of the group is to instill pride in Judaism and to strengthen Jewish children's education and observance, and the Rebbe's phrase was obviously meant that it will help children withstand secular influences as they grow up - not to fight non-Jews!

Only a true, dyed in the wool antisemite can watch that video, take that phrase out of context, and then claim that this youth group is "dedicated to waging war against non-Judaism."

I can't wait to hear how Miller interprets Chabad's "Mitzvah Tanks."

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EU drafting deal to obtain natural gas from Israel and Egypt instead of Russia

From EUObserver:

The European Union is negotiating a gas supply agreement with Egypt and Israel, according to internal documents dated 7 June and seen by EUobserver.

A draft memorandum of understanding with the two countries, still subject to changes, is part of its efforts to reduce its dependence on Russian fossil fuels in the wake of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

"Security of gas supply is a common major concern. Egypt and the EU will work together on the stable delivery of gas to the EU," reads another internal document mentioning the trilateral collaboration deal.

The proposed agreement highlights that natural gas will be shipped to the EU from Egypt, Israel or any other source in the East Mediterranean region, including EU member states in the region.

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen is due to travel to Cairo next week, but it is currently unclear whether the memorandum will be signed during her visit.

Egypt has increasingly become a regional gas hub, with its two liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities even before the Russian invasion of Ukraine. But Israel has also become a key regional gas supplier in recent years.

Under the draft deal, imports from Israel would involve gas being processed at Egypt's liquefaction plants before being shipped to Europe as LNG.

Mediterranean natural gas has been a game changer for Israel - not as earthshaking as the Abraham Accords, but it is redrawing the regional balance in ways that couldn't have been predicted.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah's Hassan Nasrallah is threatening Israel - and a Greek ship - for exploring in gas fields that the UN said belongs to Israel but Lebanon disputes:

Lebanon should block Israel from extracting gas from the disputed offshore field, Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said Thursday, warning a hydrocarbon exploration company hired by Israel against proceeding with its activities.
"The immediate objective should be to prevent the enemy from extracting oil and gas from the Karish gas field," part of which is claimed by Lebanon, Nasrallah said in a televised speech.
Hizbullah will not "stand by and do nothing in the face of (Israel's) looting of Lebanon's natural wealth... which is the only hope for the salvation of the Lebanese people," he warned.
The company "should pull out its ship immediately and avoid getting involved in this aggression and provocation against Lebanon," the head of the powerful Iran-backed movement said, adding that Energean must assume "full responsibility" for its involvement.
“The resistance has the technical ability to prevent the enemy from extracting gas from Karish and I will not say how,” Nasrallah added.
“All of the enemy's measures will not be able to protect the Greek ship or the Karish field,” he warned.

If Lebanon had crafted a maritime border agreement with Israel years ago, it could have been selling gas to Europe by now. Instead it is a country on the verge of failure, in large part because of people like Nasrallah.

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06/09 Links Pt2: Liberating our Jerusalem; The Soviet origins of left-wing anti-Zionism; Israel’s Destruction Is Championed at the University of Chicago

From Ian:

Mark Regev: Shireen Abu Akleh, Palestinians, Al Jazeera and press freedom - opinion

The accusation of a willful murder is made when among the nations of the Middle East it is in Israel alone that a free and critical press thrives. Israel’s famously boisterous and pugnacious media is always ready to expose a misbehaving politician, government wrongdoing and the IDF’s mistakes. This while the practice in the PA and Al Jazeera falls into a very different category.

Press freedom in the PA, Qatar
Although a PA basic law theoretically guarantees a free press, in reality such freedom is nonexistent: the media is severely constrained, critical platforms are shut down and journalists arrested when the authorities object to their work. Reporters have been beaten while in custody, blogger Nizar Banat ended up dead. When Abbas was angered by an Al Jazeera story, he ordered the closure of the network’s Ramallah offices.

The Palestinian president might have championed the deceased Abu Akleh as a martyr, but live Palestinian journalists know what may happen if they incur the wrath of the PA.

For its part, Al Jazeera likes to present its reporting as hard-hitting independent journalism, but the Qatari government-funded channel’s hundreds of employees never report about matters that could embarrass their patron.

Consequently, Qatar’s ongoing systematic mistreatment of the country’s migrant worker population of more than two million (similar in size to the entire population of Gaza) does not make it to Al Jazeera’s newsroom. The network has been equally silent on the kingdom’s discriminatory sexist male guardianship laws, on the criminalization of criticism against the emir’s leadership and on the lack of press freedom.

Even more problematic, following last year’s war in Gaza, the channel was presented with an award from Hamas for its reporting of the conflict. Hamas acclaim for Al Jazeera is not new, the network has a history of glorifying the perpetrators of terror attacks and broadcasting material that incites violence; its recent regurgitation of erroneous claims that the Jews somehow threaten al-Aqsa Mosque just the latest example.

Ultimately, like with its Kremlin-controlled sister channel RT, the Qatari state furnishes a television news station with a highly tendentious agenda.

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the European democracies banned RT broadcasts deeming them a “direct threat” to the “public order and security” of the EU. Yet, despite Al Jazeera’s record of affinity with a terrorist organization sworn to Israel’s destruction, Jerusalem takes no analogous action, media freedom being sacrosanct.

While Shireen Abu Akleh’s untimely death warrants thorough examination, allegations that Israel deliberately targets the press deserve no credence. They are cheap propaganda and should be dismissed as such.

Daniel Greenfield: Liberating our Jerusalem

In 1966, Jerusalem was a city sundered in two, divided by barbed wire and the bullets of Muslim snipers. Diplomacy did not reunite it. Israel pursued diplomacy nearly to its bitter end until it understood that it had no choice at all but to fight. Israel did not swoop into the fight, its leaders did their best to avoid the conflict, asking the international community to intervene and stop Egypt from going to war. Read back the headlines for the last five years on Israel and Iran, and you will get a sense of the courage and determination of the Israeli leaders of the day.

When Israel went to war, its leaders did not want to liberate Jerusalem, they wanted Jordan to stay out of the war. Even when Jordan entered the war, they did not want to liberate the city. Divine Providence and Muslim hostility forced them to liberate Jerusalem and forced them to keep it. Now some of them would like to give it back, another sacrifice to the bloody deity of diplomacy whose altar flows with blood and burnt sacrifices.

As we remember Yom Yerushalayim, Jerusalem Day, it is important to remember that the city is united and free because diplomacy failed. The greatest triumph of the modern state happened only because diplomacy proved hopeless and useless in deterring Muslim genocidal ambitions. Had Israel succumbed to international pressure and had Nasser been as subtle as Sadat, then the Six-Day War would have looked like the Yom Kippur War fought with 1948 borders– and Israel very likely would not exist today.

Even as Jews remember the great triumph of Yom Yerushalayim, the ethnic cleansers and their accomplices are busy searching for ways to drive Jews out of Jerusalem, out of towns, villages and cities. This isn’t about the Muslim residents of Jerusalem, who have repeatedly asserted that they want to remain part of Israel. It’s not about peace, which did not come from any previous round of concessions, and will not come from this one either. It’s about solving the Jewish problem.

As long as Jews allow themselves to be defined as the problem, there will be plenty of those offering solutions. And the solutions invariably involve doing something about the Jews. It only stands to reason that if Jews are the problem, then moving them or getting rid of them is the solution. There is less friction in defining Jews as the problem, than in defining Muslims as the problem. The numbers alone mean that is so.

Yom Yerushalayim is a reminder of what the real problem is and what the real solution is. Muslim occupation of Israel is the problem. The Islamization of Jerusalem is the problem. Muslim violence in support of the Muslim occupation of Israel and of everywhere else is the problem. Israel is the solution. Only when we liberate ourselves from the lies, when we stop believing that we are the problem and recognize that we are the solution. Only then will the liberation that began in 1967 be complete.

Only then will we have liberated our Jerusalem. The Jerusalem of the soul. It is incumbent on all of us to liberate that little Jerusalem within. The holy city that lives in all of us. To clean the dross off its golden gates, wash the filth from its stones and expel the invaders gnawing away at our hearts until we look proudly upon a shining city. Then to help others liberate their own Jerusalems. Only then will we truly be free.

The Soviet origins of left-wing anti-Zionism

Ironically, Soviet anti-Zionism itself drew extensively from Nazi rhetoric and imagery. Many prominent contributors of propaganda material, such as Trofim Kichko, Yuri Ivanov, Lev Korneev and others unabashedly recycled ideas directly from The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and Mein Kampf. They even blamed the Jews for the extermination of both Jews and non-Jews during World War II. Today, anti-Zionist groups keep that legacy alive by routinely comparing Zionism to the Nazis. For example, Shahd Abusalama, a professor at Sheffield University in the United Kingdom, found it acceptable for a first-year student to compare an Israeli operation in Gaza to the Holocaust.

One of the Soviet propaganda machine’s greatest victories was the United Nations’ 1975 adoption of the “Zionism is Racism” resolution. Its revocation in 1991 had little effect on the U.N.’s stance on Israel. Statistics from 2020 are particularly illustrative: Israel was targeted by 17 U.N. resolutions, while all other countries combined, including regimes like Iran and North Korea, received six. On campus, Israel is frequently attacked in the same language. For example, at a Cornell SJP poetry reading, one participant designated Israel a “racist, exclusivist, supremacist state.”

Throughout their entire anti-Zionist campaign, the official Soviet line was that anti-Zionism was not anti-Semitism. A 1979 article in TheWashington Post noted, “Although the number of anti-Semitic books and denunciations has grown continuously [in the Soviet Union] since the Six-Day War in 1967, recent months have brought remarkable new additions to this genre. Officially, they are labeled ‘anti-Zionist.’ Soviet bureaucrats vehemently reject suggestions that ‘anti-Zionism’ means ‘anti-Semitism.’ To many Soviet Jews, it is a distinction without a difference.”

Today, this is one of the most popular talking points among left-wing anti-Zionists and anti-Semites. Indeed, it is telling that anti-Israel groups have repeatedly attempted to block universities and municipalities from adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s Working Definition of Anti-Semitism, which defines certain kinds of anti-Israel rhetoric as anti-Semitic. At the City University of New York (CUNY), for example, former president of CUNY’s SJP chapter Nerdeen Kiswani tweeted: “#IHRAoutofCUNY we know all too well that this purposeful conflation of anti-Semitism with anti-Zionism is used against Palestinians and organizers for Palestine. We must protect our right to organize and speak out against oppression.”

There is no doubt that today’s left-wing anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism can be directly traced to the Soviets’ anti-Zionist propaganda campaign. Knowing this is the first and perhaps most important step toward creating a more balanced and honest dialogue on the issue.

Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas gave a speech via telephone to the "Property Documents and the Historical Status of the Blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque" conference at Al-Bireh.

He started off by directly attacking the fundamentals of Judaism, denying Jewish history and Judaism's connection to Jerusalem, accusing Jews of having a "false narrative" that has "no basis, neither in history, nor in reality, nor in international law."

"All the historical evidence and documents confirm the identity of Al-Quds and Al-Aqsa Mosque and all the Islamic and Christian holy sites in our holy capital," he said, after denying any Jewish connection to the city.

But don't worry - he assured everyone that he isn't antisemitic.

He went on to say, "Our struggle with the occupation is essentially a political struggle and not a struggle against a particular religion."

Good to know that he is really a tolerant person.

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In 1960, Life magazine published small excerpts of transcripts of tapes from a fellow Nazi interviewing Adolf Eichmann in Argentina in the 1950s.

This excerpt explains the similarities between Nazis in the 1930s and the fanatic Israel haters today.

We did not devise the yellow star to put pressure on the Jews themselves. On the contrary, its purpose was to control the natural tendency of our German people to come to the aid of someone in trouble. The marking was intended to hinder any such assistance to Jews who were being harassed. We wanted Germans to feel embarrassed, to feel afraid of having any contact with Jews. So our administration was quite happy to distribute these bolts of yellow cloth and to regulate the time limit by which the stars would have to be worn.

The yellow star was not to punish the Jews, but to make it difficult for non-Jews to express sympathy with them.

Today, the people who advocate boycotts of Israel aren't primarily trying to hurt Israel. They are trying to make it difficult for other people to be pro-Israel.

Those who accuse Israel of "apartheid" or "ethnic cleansing" or "genocide" aren't trying to get Israel to treat Palestinians better. They are trying to make tar anyone who supports Israel's right to exist as supporting war crimes themselves.

"We wanted Germans to feel embarrassed, to feel afraid of having any contact with Jews. " Is there any better description of the purpose of BDS and anti-Zionism? Just look at how celebrities who visit Israel are treated by the "woke" crowd.

It is exactly the same.

Only exceptional people could stand up to the social pressure to ostracize Jews in Germany. And only exceptional people can stand up for Israel in Leftist circles. The weaker ones in both cases cower, and then it is but a small step to claim that their cowardice is really a moral, righteous position.

The yellow star was not meant to hurt Jews. It represents the original cancel culture.

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06/09 Links Pt1: Feeding Palestinian delusions; Fatal blow to JCPOA if Iran doesn’t restore access within 3-4 weeks - IAEA; U.S. Aid to Israel Is a Boon to American Taxpayers

From Ian:

Feeding Palestinian delusions

If the administration were consistent about its claim to be concerned with human rights, it would refuse to provide a nickel to the Palestinians until they ended their abuses, which include paying salaries to terrorists who have murdered Americans, continuing to incite violence, denying their people civil and political rights, and being so corrupt and inept that the overwhelming majority want Abbas to resign.

Then again, Biden is also going to grovel when he arrives in Saudi Arabia as part of a scheduled trip next month. After making a point of criticizing the Saudis’ human-rights violations and shunning Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for his role in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, the president now believes, like his predecessors, that it is more important to be solicitous of the Saudis. He needs Saudi goodwill to increase the flow of oil to lower gas prices and perhaps save his presidency.

The difference is the United States does not need anything from the Palestinians and has no reason to care about their feelings.

Sadly, the Europeans, the United Nations, and the Palestinians’ cheerleaders in America and elsewhere continue to feed Palestinian fantasies that they can achieve their goals through petulance and claims of victimhood.

Instead of returning to the old, failed policy of making unilateral concessions, the administration should be putting the screws on Abbas. Alas, as we’ve seen in the administration’s negotiations with Iran, appeasement seems to be Biden’s modus operandi.

Other than the progressives sabotaging his domestic agenda and impeding his foreign policy, and the Arabist hacks he brought back into the government, what constituency does Biden think he is serving with his policy towards the Palestinians? His policies towards both the Palestinians and Iran are entirely out of step with the views of our regional allies.

On this one occasion, Biden should channel Donald Trump and read the riot act to Abbas. Instead of showering him with gifts and promises of pressuring Israel and opening a Jerusalem consulate, the president should lay down the law that the Palestinians won’t get economic or diplomatic support until they fall in line with American values and interests; stop the corruption and human-rights abuses; halt payments to terrorists; end incitement; and accept the reality that Israel is here to stay.

Oh, and I believe the words you’re looking for Mr. Abbas, are “Thank you.”

Why Biden Needs to Fight, Not Appease, the Enemies of Peace

While Hamas and the Houthis target Israel, the Palestinian Authority (PA) leadership, in addition to that, continues to act against the interests of its own people. PA President Mahmoud Abbas appears to be encouraged by the unconditional support he is receiving from the Biden administration, to the point where he feels free to continue denying his people good governance and judicial due process.

All signs now indicate that most people in the region are fed up with the anti-peace camp in the Arab and Muslim world, especially with Iran's proxies Hamas, the Houthis and Hizbollah, all of which have offered the region, including the Palestinians, nothing but violence and bloodshed.

Whenever Abbas feels encouraged by the US, he sees that support as a green light, this time from the Biden administration, to impose more suppression on his people and to whip up violence in the region.

Does the Biden administration really want as its legacy that it backed, encouraged and funded unscrupulous, violent regimes – the Taliban in Afghanistan, the Chinese Communist Party, the state sponsor of terrorism Iran, the illegitimate rule of Venezuela's Maduro – and the corrupt government of Mahmoud Abbas?

Meanwhile, Iran's proxy, Hamas -- whose charter calls not only for the elimination of peace but also of all Jews -- continues to urge Arabs and Muslims not to normalize their ties with Israel.

Iran, among other atrocities, imprisons attorneys for defending human rights, executes minors, and criminalizes human rights activism. If that is how Iran's regime treats its own people, what makes anyone think it will treat other countries -- in the region or in Europe -- any better?

And in a rare occurrence, according to the veteran Iranian journalist Amir Taheri, demonstrators in Iran have recently been publicly calling for regime change.

The Pakistani minister, however, is mistaken if she thinks that firing a journalist will support the rights of the Palestinians. Such myopic measures only support and embolden the enemies of peace, stability and human rights in the Middle East: Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Houthis, the Muslim Brotherhood, Turkey and Iran.

Stop worrying about international opinion

It's a lesson Israelis should have learned long ago. Still, the experience of the last 12 months should have reminded them of it again. Those who bash Israel as an oppressor or embrace the big lie that it is an "apartheid state" aren't interested in what it does. They hate it because of what it is: a Jewish state.

That's once again relevant because of the end of an experiment that should have conclusively proved that the calumnies about apartheid and oppression are absurd. The presence of Mansour Abbas's Ra'am Party – an Arab faction that is, in principle, opposed to Israel's existence and believes in the institution of an Islamist regime in its place – in the government of Israel should have put an end to discussions about apartheid. It was a decisive piece of evidence (though hardly the only one) that showed that the Jewish state is a lively democracy based on equality under the law for all its citizens, both Jewish and non-Jewish.

Yet throughout the last year, the vituperation against Israel not only failed to be quieted. It actually increased with the BDS movement in the United States continuing to promote hate while retaining support from influential leaders of the intersectional element that dominates the left-wing of the Democratic Party.

Nor did the nest of Israel-haters and anti-Semites of the UN Human Rights Council stand down from its obsession with attacking the Jewish state. Its open-ended "Commission of Inquiry" is still pushing the apartheid lie as part of a campaign to delegitimize Israel and isolate Israel as a pariah state.

Instead, the likely fall of the government in which Abbas and Ra'am have served as a destabilizing factor will be seized upon as fodder for more "criticism" of Israel than is merely thinly veiled anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism.

After the events of the last few days, it appears more than likely that Israel's experiment in a multi-party coalition that spanned the ideological spectrum is about to come to an end. Defections from the government led by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid have created a situation in which it cannot pass vital legislation. While it is still fighting for life and engaging in desperate maneuvering to hold onto power, few observers believe that it can survive much longer.

The Caroline Glick show: Iran crosses nuclear threshold as Israel, US fight amongst themselves | Mideast News Hour

In this week’s episode of “Mideast News Hour,” Caroline Glick is joined by Dr. David Wurmser, a senior Middle East policy advisor in both the Bush and Trump administrations. They discuss: - Why the International Atomic Energy Agency’s announcement that Iran has crossed the nuclear threshold has gone virtually unremarked by Israeli and American media? - How both the US and Israel are now governed by post-nationalist governments. - American domestic struggles, as parents are not able to feed their children. - The unheralded world-changing legacy of the First Lebanon War.