Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, June 24, 2022

The UN "investigation" into Abu Akleh's death is even more ridiculous than the others

The UN High Commissioner of Human Rights pretended to investigate the death of Shireen Abu Akleh, and it came to its pre-ordained conclusion with a minimum of pretense that it was being objective.

In accordance with our global human rights monitoring methodology, our Office inspected photo, video and audio material, visited the scene, consulted experts, reviewed official communications and interviewed witnesses.

As with the other faux investigations, they never seriously considered that there were any Palestinian militants around, even though they were pointed out at the time.

The most obvious proof that the UN did not do any sort of serious investigation comes from this laughable lie:

At around 06h30, as four of the journalists turned into the street leading to the camp, wearing bulletproof helmets and flak jackets with “PRESS” markings, several single, seemingly well-aimed bullets were fired towards them from the direction of the Israeli Security Forces.

There are between 12 and 18 sounds of bullets audible on the videos of the scene. One hit Abu Akleh. One grazed the shoulder of Ali Samoudi. Three hit a tree. No one seems too interested in what happened to the rest of them - there has not been a word about the PA investigating it, and the scene was never closed off for any sort of investigation. (People visited the site immediately and created a shrine to Shireen with no interference from the Palestinian police, and indeed I have not seen a single photo of the Palestinian police at the site at all. Compare to any shooting scene in any other place in the world.)

So how, exactly, were these bullets "well-aimed"? Any shooter who hits a tree more often than a target would not be considered exactly a competent shot.

However, if you look at how Jenin terrorists shoot their weapons , their barely aiming at their targets (as this May 13 video below shows), it is far more consistent with the shooting pattern towards the journalists.

The words "well-aimed" for volleys of bullets that are anything but proves, as if we needed any more proof, that the UN "investigation" is a sham.

Which is why it is not at all surprising that the UN doesn't even mention that the PA is refusing to allow the bullet that killed Shireen be analyzed by anyone else. They don't mention it at all. If they really wanted a thorough investigation, they would demand the bullet be handed over to a competent authority.

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From Jewish News (UK):

Anti-occupation group Na’amod have claimed they are opening a “conversation on anti-Palestinian racism” within the UK Jewish community after publishing a series of testimonies that are alleged to shed light on the scale of the problem.

So what are examples of the "anti-Palestinian racism" that they are so horrified at? The article lists:

Among a series of 18 personal testimonies from young members of the community, is a claim that a peaceful pro-Palestine protest at Bristol University was disrupted by a group of students hailing from north west London who “stormed the peaceful protest, sporting large Israeli flags as they frantically ran through the crowds of protestors.”

Holding an Israeli flag is racist? I'm not sure of when this happened, but perhaps it was this incident, which shows who the racists are:

However, the protest attracted a degree of controversy from fellow students. One group of Zionist Jewish students objected to the protest and stood by the marchers holding an Israeli flag. They reported that marchers shouted at them saying, ‘you are murderers’.

Second-year Languages student, Talia Rack said, ‘No side is blameless but it didn’t feel appropriate to counter-protest this march on Nakba day, in light of what happened on Monday in Gaza’.

So holding an Israeli flag is racist, but holding Palestinian flags and calling British Jews "murderers" is perfectly fine!

Another example of so-called Jewish racism:

A further testimony includes a claim that pointing out the appalling treatment of LGBTQ+ people in Gaza by Hamas to people holding “Queers For Palestine” banners is “a deeply racist idea — and one that often goes unchallenged in our community.”

Telling "Queers for Palestine" that they would be murdered by Hamas is a "deeply racist idea"?

There were two other examples given that were so vague as to be meaningless:

Another account suggests there are “overt examples of anti-Palestinian racism in the wider British Jewish Community” including “the occasional outbursts of certain members of the Board of Deputies to come face to face with naked bigotry.”

Other examples detail alleged racist responses to the Palestinians, while another testimony from former JFS pupil “Josh” says teaching around Israel at the school meant that “Palestinians were only referenced as an obstacle, a safety threat and a thorn in the side of Jewish freedom and safety.”

This is a list of people being offended at any point of view not their own - but there is not a single example of racism, by any definition.

Meanwhile, in Bristol, the openminded pro-Palestinian crowd routinely burns Israeli flags. Imagine how racist that would be if Zionists did that to Palestinian flags in Bristol!

Maybe the report will have more examples, but from what we see so far, the only thing this proves is that British pro-Palestinian Jews call anyone who disagrees with them "racist" - and they act worse than their supposed tormentors.

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

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06/23 Links Pt2: Promotion of Apartheid Rhetoric and BDS at the UNHRC 50th Session; The Botched Hit That Sparked the First Lebanon War; Human Rights NGOs: "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?"

From Ian:

NGO Monitor: Promotion of Apartheid Rhetoric and BDS at the UNHRC 50th Session

The 50th Session of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), held in June 2022, perpetuated the bias and hypocrisy that has come to define the UNHRC specifically and the United Nations in general. NGO Monitor was present, speaking before the Council and documenting the false accusations made by self-proclaimed human rights non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

Several statements made during the session by NGO officials, many of which receive large portions of their funding from European governments, promoted the apartheid canard and advocated for BDS.

Item 2: Commission of Inquiry
In May 2021, the UNHRC established a permanent Commission of Inquiry (COI) tasked to “investigate” crimes allegedly committed by Israel since April 13, 2021. Fuelled by disinformation provided by NGOs, the COI is yet another UN body marred by secrecy and tainted by conflicts of interest, whose objective is to target Israel and disseminate false and antisemitic narratives about the conflict.

On June 14, the COI presented its first report to the UNHRC, perpetuating outright falsehoods and relying on information provided by terror-linked and anti-Israel NGOs.

During the debate, the Commissioners, who were appointed despite conflicts of interest and prejudicial backgrounds, made statements illustrating these biases. Navi Pillay, Chair of the COI, used her opening remarks to call for boycotting the State of Israel, claiming that the COI “will carefully assess the responsibilities of third states along with that of private and other actors in the continued violations and abuses of human rights law, and violations of international humanitarian law in Palestine and Israel. This includes, but is not limited to, the transfer of arms…” to Israel.

Commissioner Chris Sidoti attacked those who raised the concern of antisemitism, calling their statements an “outrage,” denigrating the IHRA definition internationally- recognized consensus definition of antisemitism, and accusing pro-Israel NGOs of being agents of the Israeli government: Even the definition of antisemitism promoted by the government of Israel and its GONGOs (government sponsored non-governmental organizations) acknowledges that criticism of Israel, similar to that leveled against any other country, cannot be regarded as antisemitic.” Rather than engage with Jewish and Israeli groups who expressed concern of antisemitism to try and understand, Sidoti instead belittled them, stating that “accusations of antisemitism are thrown around like rice at a wedding. That legitimizes antisemitism. Trivializes antisemitism. Defiles the memory of the 6 million victims of the Shoah.”

The third Commissioner, Miloon Kothari, drew false equivalencies between Russia/Ukraine and Israel. Kothari addressed the alleged “double standards,” affirming that “The question needs to be asked why in the case of Ukraine the international community is rightly appalled in the face of aggression and occupation and has correctly moved to act swiftly and forcefully to ensure compliance with international law, while in the case of Israel and Palestine there has been inaction for decades. Are these glaring double standards? The answer has to be yes.”

It’s Time to Stop the UN Human Rights Council’s Downward Spiral

In this backwards reality – where the world’s worst abusers of human rights hold the power at the UNHRC – it comes as no surprise when a monstrous amount of time, effort, and money is spent in an endless, coordinated effort to condemn a single country – the Jew in the room – rather than allow attention to be drawn to their own regimes’ crimes.

This strategy works quite well for the human rights abusers, with the UNHRC funneling significant resources into attacking Israel. Israel has had more resolutions condemning it than all other countries in the world combined, more Commissioners of Inquiry (COI) into its actions, and it is the only country with an entire regular debate on the Council’s agenda dedicated to it. Nowhere near this level of scrutiny is placed on countries actively committing genocide, such as China.

In its latest endeavour, the UNHRC has embarked on an unprecedented journey prompted by the 2021 Gaza war and led by China, Venezuela, and Russia (while it was still a member of the Council) to investigate Israel – and only Israel –for alleged crimes committed for the entirety of the conflict, its “root causes,” and in perpetuity. With such an outrageously broad mandate, which omits mention of any Palestinian terror groups, comes an outrageous budget, provided by the UNHRC’s donor states, including Canada, which contributed $4.5 million to the UNHRC in 2022.

The COI is led by actors who hold well-documented anti-Israel biases, a choice that contravenes the UN’s own guideline that Commissioners have a “proven record of independence and impartiality.” It is no surprise that, in its first report to the UNHRC published on June 7, the COI’s focus was disproportionately on Israel, mentioning it 157 times, while mentioning Hamas – despite its targeting of Israeli civilians with over 4,000 rockets – just three times. During the presentation of the report to the UNHRC, Chair of the Commission Navi Pillay further emphasized alleged crimes committed by Israel while minimizing the role of Palestinian terrorist organizations, with Syria intervening to accuse Israel of committing “war crimes” and Russia to note it would be a suitable partner to facilitate peace negotiations.

Something must be done to stop the UNHRC’s downward spiral. The answer is not incremental votes by the UN General Assembly to kick members off the Council, with the red line being outright invasion and war crimes. Democracies, including Canada and its allies, should use the leverage they have – diplomatic pressure, public statements, and, if necessary, withholding funds – to ensure that the UNHRC operates as it was intended: as a Council of the world’s human rights role models who act for the benefit of all populations. As the great rabbinic sage, Hillel the Elder, said, “if not now, when?”

UNRWA's Teachers of Hate: Hillel Neuer on i24 TV News

UN Watch's Hillel Neuer on i24 News.

Background: As the U.S. and other Western states gather today at the United Nations in the presence of Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to pledge funding for the UN agency that runs schools and social services for Palestinians, a watchdog group urged them to stop funding hundreds of UNRWA teachers and other employees who call to murder Jews.

Over 120 UNRWA educators and staff have been found to promote violence and antisemitism on social media, according to the latest report in a series published by the non-governmental organization UN Watch, an independent human rights monitoring group based in Geneva.

Entitled “UNRWA’s Teachers of Hate,” today’s report uncovers 20 new cases of virulent UNRWA staff incitement which violate the agency’s rules and stated values of zero tolerance for racism, discrimination or antisemitism. June 23, 2022

Elliot Abrams: Human Rights NGOs: "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?"

But the very large size of Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch raises several problems, starting with the threat to the “pluralism” that Thomas Melia mentioned and the “democratic gap” that van Boven said NGOs might fill. When two gigantic NGOs dominate the field, their voices can drown out those of many other, far smaller organizations. What’s more, NGOs and their leadership are not immune from harboring prejudices and political biases.

Both organizations have been deeply critical of Israel and have attracted accusations of bias against that country. In February 2022, Amnesty issued a report entitled “Israel’s apartheid against Palestinians: a cruel system of domination and a crime against humanity.” The UK foreign ministry rejected the use of this terminology, and the German foreign ministry said "We reject expressions like apartheid or a one-sided focusing of criticism on Israel.” The spokesman for the U.S. State Department said "I reject the view that Israel's actions constitute apartheid….we must ensure there isn't a double standard being applied."

The attitude of Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International toward Israel presents at least two problems. The first is simply the merits of the argument: are these two organizations biased against Israel, engaging in “one-sided focusing of criticism on Israel?” What other biases might they have, with respect to particular countries or on particular issues? Are they playing some matters down and playing others up in ways that would be controversial if fully understood outside the organization?

That the U.S., U.K., and German governments felt compelled to respond to the Amnesty report is a measure of Amnesty’s influence and of the attention that its reports receive—far more than is typical for the scores of NGOs active on Middle East or human rights/democracy issues. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty also have a considerable ability to affect press coverage and the views of other NGOs, setting the agenda for debate for the media and campuses as well as for foreign ministries.

Moreover, when two such NGOs dominate the field, questions may arise as to their own internal “democratic gap.” Such large and rich organizations report to no one, nor of course are they democratically run internally. Their top officials theoretically report to boards of trustees, but the boards are themselves self-perpetuating and independent from any oversight. The very independence of NGOs, one of their greatest strengths, can become an issue when two organizations so dominate the field.

The ancient question Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? or "Who will guard the guards themselves?" arises here—and is difficult to answer. Others in the field of democracy promotion may be reluctant to criticize such powerful players—in part because anyone in the field may think he or she might one day seek employment as part of their large (and at the top very well-paid) staffs, and in part because they do not wish to tangle with organizations having such influence.

NGOs are critical participants in promoting democracy and human rights around the world. They play roles that cannot be filled by governments, and their many and varied voices provide perspectives and information that would otherwise be unavailable. The dominance of the two largest organizations is at the same time worth careful attention, especially given how controversial have been some of their activities. The independence of NGOs is invaluable, but the issues of oversight, governance, and bias at the two largest NGOs, which dominate the field globally, cannot be overlooked.

Miracle at Al Aqsa: Only Israeli excavations endanger it, not Muslim underground destruction

A couple of weeks ago, a stone fell out of the wall in the Al Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount.

Naturally, the Jews are being blamed.

The Islamic Information issued a press release:

According to the chairman of the Palestinian Legislative Council’s al-Quds and al-Aqsa Committee, Mohammed Abu Halabiya, the Israeli underground tunnels, and diggings beneath the Aqsa Mosque pose a real threat to the future of the mosque.

MP Abu Halabiya announced on Monday that stones recently fell from an Aqsa Mosque wall as the result of Israeli digging underneath the area called the Umayyad Palaces, which stretches over 800 meters between Ein Silwan and the Buraq Wall.

As a result of Israel’s refusal to allow the Islamic Awqaf to perform renovation works in al-Quds, the recurring fissures and cave-ins at the Aqsa Mosque endanger the entire holy site.

Palestine Today adds:

Sheikh Ikrima Sabri, the preacher of Al-Aqsa Mosque, confirmed today, Thursday, that the foundations of Al-Aqsa Mosque have become exposed as a result of the excavations of the Israeli occupation, explaining that “any strong earthquake will destroy these foundations after the occupation removes the surrounding soil.”

Sabri said, in a press statement: "The excavations carried out by the occupation in the vicinity of Al-Aqsa Mosque are ancient and modern excavations under the pretext of searching for traces of the Jews.

The preacher of Al-Aqsa added, "The Israeli occupation soldiers and settlers excavate and search and yet did not find a single piece of evidence related to Hebrew Jewish history."

Have you ever noticed that the Muslims always blame the Jews for causing damage at the Temple Mount due to digs in the surrounding areas - but they never mention that they do illegal digs directly under the Mount itself?

In the 1990s, the Waqf oversaw the conversion of "Solomon's Stables" into the huge Marwani Mosque and then dug a large tunnel to be an underground exit, throwing out hundreds of tons of priceless artifacts from the times of the First and Second Temples. But their wholesale destruction didn't end there.

When the Temple Mount was closed for Covid-19, the Waqf published photos of Muslims taking advantage of the lack of Israeli oversight as they started digging another hole on the site.

In September 2020, a hole opened up on the Mount and the Waqf, instead of allowing archaeologists and experts to explore and carefully repair the hole, dumped concrete on it to ensure that any Jewish treasures would not be found.

It seems that Allah does not let excavations of tons of material nearly directly under Al Aqsa to damage the mosque. He only lets the damage be done by the Jews from scores of meters away.

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Germany Declares Day Following V-E Day 'Nakba Day' - 'It's What You Do After Genocide Attempt Against Jews' (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

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Berlin, June 23 - German government officials announced today that henceforth, the country will observe the ninth of May to highlight the displacement and suffering of Germans that occurred in the aftermath of German surrender to the Allies in the Second World War and of the Holocaust, following the Palestinian model of a national day of grief and vengefulness on the day after the anniversary of Israel's declaration of statehood in 1948 that also resulted in massive displacement amid a regional effort to exterminate Jews.

The Federal Republic's Minister of Interior Affairs Krei Bulli convened a press conference to inform journalists and the public of German Nakba Day. "We have deemed it appropriate to emulate the reaction of others who have undergone similar experiences," he stated. "Others have brought calamity on themselves by attempting to eliminate Jewry, even if those others did not succeed in making the impact that the Third Reich did manage to achieve in that respect. Palestinian Arabs, with whom Nazi Germany allied during the war, and whose other Arab allies enjoyed close ties and training with the Nazi military apparatus, underwent experience that resonates with us as perpetrators of such a genocide; the Palestinian Arab reaction has inspired us to cope with our legacy of suffering in the same way."

"Palestinian leaders selected the fifteenth of May for their Nakba Day," he continued, "because it immediately follows the date of the Jewish State's founding, and they tie their suffering to that event, suffering that came about because of failed Arab attempts to commit genocide against the Jews. We, too, note Germany's surrender on the eighth of May, 1945, precipitated by an ideology that demanded geocide of Jews, and the consequent German suffering that grew out of that genocide, and declare 9 May 'German Nakba Day.'"

Historians noted that in both cases, the flight and permanent displacement of Palestinians and Germans began well before the symbolic date of the observance. "Ethnic Germans started fleeing where they lived outside Germany as the Red Army advanced" in 1944-5, explained WWII historian David Glantz. "The displacement continued for several years afterwards, as well, ultimately affecting tens of millions of Germans. As for Palestinians, many of them began heeding Arab leaders' advice to get out of the way of the ostensible Arab military juggernaut that would cleanse 'Southern Syria' of Jews, long before May 14, 1948. May 9 and May 15 are symbolic, not literal." Glantz also noted the parallels between displaced Palestinians who hoped to claim the property of ethnically-cleansed Jews in Palestine and eventual German refugees who had settled in ethnically-cleansed properties in Poland.

Minister Bulli also floated the idea of a United Nations agency that could keep the descendants of those WWII refugees stateless until they reclaim the places they had lived beforehand, like the one the Palestinians have.

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06/23 Links Pt1: US antisemitism envoy travel to Israel, Saudi Arabia and the UAE; Biden Ambassador Pick Under Fire for Anti-Semitic Tirade; Iranian kidnapping of Israeli diplomats foiled

From Ian:

JPost Editorial: US-Israel relations boosted by Biden refusal to delay visit

Despite the turmoil, uncertainty and instability caused by the current political crisis in Jerusalem, it’s encouraging that US President Joe Biden is still planning to visit Israel next month.

Biden’s trip to the region – scheduled for July 13-16 and including visits to the Palestinian Authority and Saudi Arabia – had already been postponed by a month, due to domestic considerations. Back then, the Biden administration expected to be meeting with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who visited the White House once as prime minister last August.

With the process of dissolving the Knesset and declaring new elections well underway, it wouldn’t have been surprising for the White House to decide to postpone the July trip. All indications are that Biden will be greeted in Jerusalem by caretaker prime minister Yair Lapid who would serve as Israel’s leader until the next elections, likely in October.

However, as a National Security Council spokesperson said this week, “Israel is a strategic partner and fellow democracy. We respect its democratic processes. We have a strategic relationship with Israel that goes beyond any one government. The president looks forward to the visit next month.”

Former US ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro told The Jerusalem Post’s Omri Nahmias on Tuesday that the impending Israeli election will have little impact on the substance of Biden’s visit.

Jonathan Tobin: The fatal contradictions of Biden's Middle East trip

The decision of an American president to visit the Middle East has always been seen primarily through the lens of its impact on efforts to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. That is not the case with President Joe Biden's planned trip next month to Israel, the Palestinian territories and Saudi Arabia. With inflation and the price of gasoline skyrocketing in recent months, Biden's priority should be to increase Middle East oil production, not resurrecting the failed policies of the past and pressuring Israel to appease the Palestinians.

That will require the president to abandon his much-publicized hostility to the Saudi regime. In recent years, many Democrats have become ardent opponents of the US-Saudi alliance, finding Riyadh's admittedly egregious human-rights record to be intolerable even as they downplayed or ignored the equally terrible if not worse actions of Iran. But with the American economy teetering towards recession as a result of Biden's overspending and Washington needing the Saudis to help offset the impact of sanctions on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, Biden is going to have to swallow his pride. Though he had vowed to make Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman – the country's de facto ruler – an international pariah, the president will now have to resurrect what's left of his old glad-handing skills to get the Saudis to help him out of this fix.

The fact that the international sanctions on Russia seem to have hurt the United States more than the authoritarian government of Vladimir Putin is ironic but no joke. Despite military setbacks and Europe uniting to cut Moscow off from the international economy, Putin has doubled down on his determination to continue his illegal and brutal aggression, meaning that no end to the fighting and the rising toll of civilian casualties seems to be in sight. What's worse, Russia appears to not have suffered too badly from the sanctions with the ruble becoming the best-performing currency, gaining value against both the Euro and the US dollar, during the course of the war. While the world has been hoping that the embarrassing performance of the Russian military and economic isolation would lead to Putin's fall, that much-desired outcome doesn't appear to be a possibility.

That means that America's Ukraine policy, while rooted in a justified desire to oppose aggression, seems to be turning out to be as much of a disaster as Biden's catastrophic retreat from Afghanistan or his inability to curb inflation or deal with supply chain crises.

Jonathan Tobin: Biden will do everything he can to help Lapid and sabotage Netanyahu

The latest developments in Israeli politics provided President Joe Biden with a good excuse to postpone his visit to Israel next month. With the collapse of Israel’s coalition government this week, the country is saddled with an interim government headed by an unelected prime minister in Yair Lapid who is about to launch his campaign to hold onto the office. Scheduling a visit by the leader of Israel’s sole superpower ally at the start of what promises to be a bitterly fought election campaign will make it clear that Washington is far from neutral when it comes to the outcome.

And that is exactly the impression that Biden is hoping to leave when he goes to the Jewish state in July.

Far from being an unwelcome development, the exit of Naftali Bennett from the prime minister’s office is good news for the Biden administration. It viewed Bennett—the leader of a small party that was actually to the right of the Likud and former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu—as a necessary evil. Since his decision to throw in with Lapid and the ragtag coalition of parties from the left, right, center and one Arab Islamist faction was the only reason that Netanyahu was ousted, Biden and his foreign-policy team treated him with kid gloves over the course of his year in Israel’s top job.

The administration was itching to bash the Jewish state over every new home built in Jerusalem or Judea and Samaria, as well as for every ginned-up dispute about the Palestinian Arabs involving Israeli self-defense against terrorism. It was also less than enthused over Jerusalem’s ongoing campaign to sabotage Iran’s nuclear program that was being conducted even as the Americans were desperately trying to convince Tehran to cut a new and even weaker deal. But they passed on every opportunity to do so, signaling that their preference was for the Bennett-Lapid coalition to somehow cling to power.

Bennett repaid their courtesy by declining to push openly for Americans to speak up against the new push for appeasement of Iran, thereby undermining critics of Biden’s feckless policy among both Democrats and Republicans.

Should someone tell him what the purpose of a green screen is?

The editor of Ma'an, Nasser Al-Lahham, recently took ill. Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas called him up to wish him a full recovery. Ma'an, while independent, is largely aligned with Fatah.

And two recent editorials by al-Lahham are quite insane.

In one rant where he says that all Israeli natural gas is really Palestinian, he starts off saying that Israel is erasing the name "Yafo" (Jaffa) from the map and replacing it with Tel Aviv.

When the Zionist gangs occupied Jaffa in 1948, the name of the city remained Jaffa until now, but Israel continued to expand its settlement construction in Tel Aviv , to the point of saying that it is the city of Tel Aviv in order to cancel the name of the Arab coastal city, which is Jaffa.

Tel Aviv merged with Jaffa (Yafo) in 1950, and over seven decades later, the official name of the city remains Tel Aviv Yafo.

That's not a very good erasure.

Al-Lahham wrote something even more bizarre recently, claiming there is a "Palestinian curse" that is destroying the United States:

I am convinced that Palestine has a stronger curse than the curse of the Pharaohs. And that everyone who attacked the people of Palestine and their just cause became an example for those who are considered.

And after the United States failed to create any moral or political balance in the world and oppressed the people of Palestine. It began to crumble like dominoes, at the gates of the ancient East.

And after it failed in Jerusalem and embodied its injustice in the Trump deal, the youth tore the pictures of US President Trump and trampled on them with slippers. The era of America's defeat has begun to appear everywhere in the world, in Venezuela, Cuba, Colombia, Brazil and even Iran.

Here is an editor of a newspaper, a newspaper that is quoted worldwide and considered moderate - and he thinks that the US is in decline because Palestinian youths ripped up photos of Donald Trump.

I'd like to say that al-Lahham's mental faculties have been affected by his mystery illness, but he's been writing crazy things for years.

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

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From JTA:

A US federal appeals court upheld an Arkansas state law requiring all public contractors to promise they won’t boycott Israel in a Wednesday ruling, overturning an earlier decision that had said the contract violates the First Amendment.

The ruling by the St. Louis-based US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit was a major victory for pro-Israel activists who have pushed around 30 states to adopt so-called “anti-BDS” laws — intended to strike back against the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement targeting Israel — in recent years. The plaintiffs say they plan to appeal to the US Supreme Court, a process that could result in a nationwide showdown over the constitutionality of all anti-boycott laws.

It was the first time a federal appeals court ruled in favor of laws forbidding public contractors from being involved in any Israel boycott movements.

Such laws have been heavily opposed by civil liberties groups and press freedom advocates, who say they violate free speech. Federal courts have previously ruled that similar anti-boycott state laws in Georgia, Arizona, Kansas and Texas are unconstitutional.

But the Eighth Circuit, minus one dissenting judge, found that an anti-boycott contract provision does not infringe on the signer’s free speech rights because it “does not require them to publicly endorse or disseminate a message.” Instead, the court said, the clause requests “compliance” with a financial regulation — which the court says is a form of “noncommunicative” speech not protected by the First Amendment.

The case that was brought up is a perfect example of why anti-boycott laws have nothing to do with free speech.

A state-funded school, the Pulaski Technical College of the University of Arizona, stopped advertising in the alt-weekly Arkansas Times unless the paper signed the anti-BDS pledge. The newspaper sued, saying that this impeded its rights to free speech. (It seems to me that suing to force the school to spend money on advertising in the paper is a bit more of a violation of free speech than refusing to advertise is, but I'm no lawyer....)

As the court decision states,

[T]he certification requirement here is markedly different from other compelled speech cases. Although it requires contractors to agree to a contract provision they would otherwise not include, it does not require them to publicly endorse or disseminate a message. ....We are not aware of any cases where a court has held that a certification requirement concerning unprotected, nondiscriminatory conduct is unconstitutionally compelled speech. A factual disclosure of this kind, aimed at verifying compliance with unexpressive conduct-based regulations, is not the kind of compelled speech prohibited by the First Amendment.

The newspaper was not being asked to adopt a pro-Israel editorial position - which would be an obvious violation of free speech. They could have a banner headline telling readers to boycott Israel.

The irony is that the law is meant to uphold equal treatment for Israel. The only people who want to discriminate are those who want to single out Israel for boycott. Such a law would be unnecessary without people singling out Israeli Jews (and only Jews) as objects of attack.

Boycotting Israeli businesses as a policy is as immoral and reprehensible as boycotting businesses that are owned by people of color or women. Individuals can choose who they will or will not do business with, but a state has every right not to do business with those who pro-actively discriminate against companies owned by those with a specific national origin.

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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

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US women's magazine lionizes Palestinian female terrorists

Jezebel had an article recently about Palestinian female prisoners and how awful their lives supposedly are behind bars.

Written by Wafa Aludaini, a Gaza activist, the entire article praises these prisoners as it describes their supposed plight. And they are all wonderful people:

Far from the eye of international media, 32 Palestinian women are currently political prisoners languishing in Israeli occupation prisons, according to Addameer, a Palestinian NGO that monitors the treatment of Palestinian prisoners and offers legal support. Behind the walls of Hasharon and Damon in Israel wait mothers, students, journalists, teachers.

Oh, they also happen to be terrorists.

The article never describes the crimes that put them in prison to begin with. They are innocent lambs, all 32 of them.

There is one exception, which shows how little Jezebel cares about fact checking- the story of Israa Jaabis:

On October 11, 2015, Israa was transporting some household items to her new home near her place of work in Jerusalem. On that fateful day, she was carrying a gas cylinder in the car, according to her sister Mona Jaabis. As she headed down the road towards an Israeli checkpoint, the gas canister burst into flames. The car’s airbag activated, causing an explosion. Israa ran out of the car, calling for help from the Israeli police manning the checkpoint. But the police summoned more security, and asked Israa to enter the burning car, causing her to suffer severe burns that have greatly affected her mobility. She was arrested and given an 11-year sentence for attempted murder; Israeli authorities claimed she intended to explode the car. No evidence was presented, and she vehemently denied the charges.

Here's what really happened:

On Oct. 11, 2015, Israa Jaabis, 31, was en route to her home in Jerusalem, about 500 meters away from the A-Zaim checkpoint in Jerusalem's eastern suburbs on the road from Ma'aleh Adumim. Stopped by a police office for suspicious driving, she exited the vehicle.

"The driver then shouted 'Allah Hu Akbar' and detonated an explosive device," a police spokeswoman said. The rigged cooking gas cylinder inside the car caused the vehicle to burst into flames.

Security forces found hand-written notes in her possession that contained messages of support for "martyrs," a euphemism for those killed in the commission of a terrorist act.

Her cousin was involved in a tractor attack the year before.

The police officer who stopped her was burned by the explosion.

These women are terrorists and Wafa Aludaini knows it. This is a propaganda piece. Aludaini's Twitter feed includes conspiracy theories that have no basis, like Israel is planning to build a synagogue on Al Aqsa or that Israel shoots "acid bullets" to further hurt the people they shoot.

She is so extreme that she bragged three times that she was tweeting to support Al Aqsa with one hand while taking care of her sick child with her other:

holding my son who is feverish,while still tweeting 4Al Aqsa.2prove tha AlAqsa is no less precious 2me than my son #SaveAlaqsa

nursing my son,who is feverish and tweeting for Al Aqsa in the same time, Alaqsa is no less precious to me than my son #SaveAlAqsa

nursing my son &tweeting 4Al Aqsa in thsametime,2prove tha AlAqsa is noless precious 2me than myson #Alaqsamosque

Anyone who thinks that tweeting is equally important to caring for a sick child is despicable. Her tweets aren't "saving Al Aqsa." This is demonstrative garbage to make her feel righteous while ignoring her kid.

And the idiots at Jezebel eat this stuff up.

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!

06/22 Links Pt2: The BDS Mapping Project targets every Jew in the US; Polish man who risked life to save Jews dies at 102; Official Postcards Of The First Zionist Congresses

From Ian:

The BDS Mapping Project targets every Jew in the US

Alarm bells recently went off among American Jews when Boston BDS, a shadowy group that has no identified members, published a detailed, interactive Mapping Project report online.

The report is a roadmap to anti-Jewish violence: The Mapping Project brazenly and openly maps and promotes “dismantling” and “disrupting” long lists of Boston-area Jewish institutions across the political spectrum, synagogues throughout Massachusetts, staff members, Jewish family foundations, schools and numerous other entities that allegedly have some sort of connection, past or present, real or imagined, to American Jews, Judaism, Jewish charities, Jewish education, Jewish donors or Israel.

Congressman Seth Moulton (D-MA) aptly called the Mapping Project a dangerous “antisemitic enemies list with a map attached.” The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) sent a detailed letter to the US attorney-general and FBI director, urging them to investigate, monitor and where appropriate, prosecute the Mapping Project and other groups, such as Within Our Lifetime (WOL), which are mapping, promoting and inciting violence against American Jews and Jewish organizations.

WOL mapped and threatened Jewish organizations in New York City, and calls for “globalizing the Intifada” – meaning, expanding to the United States and the rest of the world the horror of the Intifada terror wars, in which Arab terrorists murdered or maimed 10,000 Jews in Israel.

Notably, the Mapping Project’s targets include hostile-to-Israel groups, such as J Street – whose many anti-Israel activities include promoting anti-Israel UN resolutions. Jewish foundations that give donations to hostile-to-Israel groups were also targeted.

Ironically, the Mapping Project is even targeting the left-wing Jewish group New Israel Fund (NIF), which funded the initial Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) target list. That target list is the foundation for the BDS movement’s antisemitic economic warfare campaigns.

Link to the ruling https://t.co/NhfO1BVoX5
— Eugene Kontorovich (@EVKontorovich) June 22, 2022

Norway’s new labeling policy is a double standard against Jews

The EU regulation is not a decision that Norway, a non-EU member, is obliged to follow, and a number of EU countries have chosen not to take the decision into account. It is strange that the Center Party, which is so opposed to EU policy in Norway, has agreed to introduce one of the most grotesque EU decisions from recent years.

Norway’s Foreign Ministry claims that “Norway considers the Israeli settlements in the occupied territories to be contrary to international law.” If international law is applied fairly, there is no basis for saying that the settlements are illegal. Facts show that the Israeli settlements are not the biggest obstacle to peace either, as the Israeli residential and agricultural areas in Judea and Samaria cover only 2.7 percent of the area.

“The settlements are not the whole and not the main cause of the conflict – of course, they are not. Nor can you say that if they were moved, you would have peace without a more comprehensive agreement – you would not…” said John Kerry, President Barack Obama’s Secretary of State, in 2016. If Norwegian and other European leaders had echoed this sentiment, they would have contributed to peace. Now, with this double standard labeling, they are just fueling the conflict further.

The Palestinian leadership, according to the still-valid 1995 Interim Agreement (also known as Oslo 2), agreed to Israel’s continued presence in Judea and Samaria pending final status negotiations, without any restrictions on either party in planning, zoning, or building homes and communities, showing that the allegations that Israel’s presence in the area is illegal have no legal basis.

So, let’s put the right label on Norway’s new policy: This is a double standard directed only at Jews living in places the government in Oslo does not like to see them live and thrive.

Where Was the Media When an Independent Investigation Found Amnesty Int’l to Be ‘Institutionally Racist’?

When Amnesty International issued its libelous anti-Israel report in February, falsely charging the country with maintaining a “cruel system of apartheid” since its creation in 1948, media were all too eager to parrot the NGO’s assertions. In the months following the publication of “Israel’s Apartheid Against Palestinians. Cruel System of Domination and Crime Against Humanity,” major English-language news outlets produced over 30 articles giving credence to an organization that has peddled terms like “Jewish domination” and accused the only Jewish state of being “racist.”

According to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism, claiming that Israel’s existence is a racist endeavor can constitute antisemitism.

However, despite criticism by many Jewish organizations, CNN, the Associated Press, Agence France-Presse (AFP) and others continue to provide Amnesty with ample room to claim that its crusade against Israel is not motivated at least in part by Judeophobia.

Earlier this month, the group’s secretary-general, Agnès Callamard, went so far as to accuse Jews and Israelis of “weaponizing antisemitism.” Yet such gaslighting did not generate headlines in any of the widely-read new publications.

And now these same outlets have effectively buried an independent inquiry concluding that Amnesty’s UK branch, at least in part responsible for the contents of the ‘apartheid report,’ has an “institutional racism” problem within its ranks.

Why are journalists reluctant to subject Amnesty’s human rights credentials to scrutiny?

Naftaly Yeffet, also known as Jachnun Supremacist or @JachnunEmpire, is one of a select group of pro-Israel advocates using their skills in their free time, to fight against the lies about Israel. Some of us share important content about Israel that regular people might otherwise not see. Others write blogs, covering what the media will not, at least not with any objectivity. Then there are those on Twitter, who hunt and expose anti-Israel propaganda and attitudes for what they are. Naftaly Yeffet, a resident of Toronto and a dual citizen of Canada and Israel, would be in this latter category.

Photos are a primary vehicle for antisemites to spread lies about Israel. Images work because they have emotional impact. A tweeted photo of an Iraqi soldier holding a gun to the head of an elderly Kuwaiti woman in a jalabiya, for example, can be presented as cruel IDF soldier about to shoot old woman from the Dheisheh refugee camp. Yeffet, a former IDF combat soldier, finds the haters and their photos, and uncovers them both for what they are. The format Yeffet has settled upon is tweeting their photos alongside the originals, captioned “shot” and “chaser.”

There is a whole underworld of haters out there, who will use any means toward their work of driving the Jews into the sea. Poisoning minds is one step in that direction. Picture, if you will, a hater at his work, late at night, sorting through images on the ‘net wondering which one to pick to advance his narrative of evil. Imagine him setting out to lie, knowing that his hate has no basis, it just is, and knowing too, that the Jews are innocent of the “crimes” he recites.

Yeffet then, is his exact opposite. He is a hero for truth, using his free time and his skills, to do good in the world. We all do what we can for our people and for Israel. This is how Naftaly Yeffet does it:

Lol pic.twitter.com/w5V5qfzXAj
— ~Jachnun Supremacist~ נפתלי בן מתתיהו (@JachnunEmpire) June 20, 2022

Varda Epstein: How did you find that tweet with the Israeli flag? Do you follow his account? What made you look closer at the photo?

Naftaly Yeffet: I don’t follow the account. I can across it because someone I followed wound up quote tweeting it but missing the part about the flags. The flags stood out right away to be honest, the two stripes especially made me look closer and saw the faint image of the Magen David.

Varda Epstein: Do you follow other, similar accounts? How can you stand to read their lies??

Naftaly Yeffet: I do follow accounts that I don’t necessarily agree with (mainly news accounts like Quds News Network and Shehab agency as an example) which you can find some really vile responses on occasion, but usually in Arabic. Some of the stuff I see is so ridiculous though, you can’t help but laugh. I’ve served in the IDF, so seeing virulent hatred and rhetoric isn’t new to me, never mind what I saw on campus in Toronto, Canada when I went to university after my service. And I’ve been combatting this rhetoric online for a few years on this app [Twitter, V.E.].

I’ve been blocked by the Free Gaza movement (the ones who organized those headline-making flotillas) on here after they claimed security cam footage of a priest being stabbed in Bethlehem was fake, then proceeded to call my mom an evangelical Christian (she’s Jewish). I’ve had Hadi Nasrallah claim I’m just a convert Arab from Yemen (along with all Yemeni Jews). At this point I just laugh it off because I hope that any sensible person coming across their rhetoric will see how absolutely bonkers their opinions are.

Varda Epstein: Are there other people keeping tabs on this stuff along with you?

Naftaly Yeffet: Yes I’m in a few group chats where we exchange ideas and share info.

Varda Epstein: Do you get any response from the haters when you catch them out like this, spreading lies?

Naftaly Yeffet: Most of the responses I get are either mockery or to be blocked, which is why I’ve shifted to taking screenshots and sharing those, over directly quote tweeting the account.

“It’s our people on the line.”

Varda Epstein: Do you think it has any effect, this work? Do you change minds?

Naftaly Yeffet: I’ve had someone from Kuwait, and even a Palestinian who lives in Jordan, reach out and say how much they appreciate seeing someone who actually knows their history, sharing information. I’m a two-stater and not a fanatic, but I won’t sugarcoat the facts and I’ve spent quite a bit of time reading through old UN archives (the personal testimonies to UNSCOP are really eye opening). I’m not necessarily looking to change someone’s mind directly or achieve any sort of credit, what I do isn’t a job, I share what I can on my free time as it’s our people on the line and even if someone comes across a discussion and winds up with a different perspective out of it that’s a win.

Varda Epstein Do you happen to have other examples of tweets or photos or items you exposed as lies or distortions?

Shot: Chaser: pic.twitter.com/jCpkDjC2Qc
— ~Jachnun Supremacist~ נפתלי בן מתתיהו (@JachnunEmpire) July 11, 2020

Shot: Chaser: pic.twitter.com/sZ5YdDgy2R
— ~Jachnun Supremacist~ נפתלי בן מתתיהו (@JachnunEmpire) July 19, 2020

Shot: Chaser: pic.twitter.com/0gngM4xAFU
— ~Jachnun Supremacist~ נפתלי בן מתתיהו (@JachnunEmpire) August 21, 2020

Shot: Chaser: pic.twitter.com/V7Vv4FwcGa
— ~Jachnun Supremacist~ נפתלי בן מתתיהו (@JachnunEmpire) February 14, 2020

Shot: Chaser: pic.twitter.com/5pbA8owBAF
— ~Jachnun Supremacist~ נפתלי בן מתתיהו (@JachnunEmpire) March 10, 2021

Shot: Chaser: pic.twitter.com/jEgwtE5Hnt
— ~Jachnun Supremacist~ נפתלי בן מתתיהו (@JachnunEmpire) June 2, 2022

And this one got me blocked by the notorious “Syrian girl.”

Propaganda account spreads image from the holocaust as Deir Yassin massacre.

Look how many retweets after just a few minutes even though the proof it’s not from there is in the replies. pic.twitter.com/Gor94yld3w
— ~Jachnun Supremacist~ נפתלי בן מתתיהו (@JachnunEmpire) September 14, 2019

So the account wound up deleting the tweets (after it had already gotten plenty of retweets) and then blocked me.

Can’t have people debunking it the next time she wants to post it right? 🙃 pic.twitter.com/VlAlZutjws
— ~Jachnun Supremacist~ נפתלי בן מתתיהו (@JachnunEmpire) September 14, 2019

Varda Epstein: Someone has to be doing this stuff intentionally, right? And then I guess others help them disseminate what they find. But first comes some guy cooking up lies, deliberately.

Naftaly Yeffet: The other side is definitely well organized. One thing they do much better than us (in my personal opinion) is support one another irrespective of political or ideological differences. Meanwhile our side seems to be, in general, much more fractured. We’ve always been an argumentative people though, so I guess it’s just something we have to find a way to push through. The beauty is that push comes to shove we will wind up having each other’s backs, and I still believe that. Just it has to mean someone’s life is on the line (see all the physical wars we won when our efforts were combined versus how we’re essentially still playing catch-up in the social media aspect.)

Varda Epstein: Can you tell us a bit about your background?

Naftaly Yeffet: Sure I don’t mind.

My paternal grandparents fled Yemen in the early 1930s, my father being born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia as a result, while they were on their way to Israel (then the British Mandate). They settled in Tel Aviv and opened up one of the first falafel shops in the city.

My maternal grandfather was the only member of his family to survive after the Nazis invaded Poland. When he went back after the war to find out if any of his family remained he was recognized by their old neighbor and told him, in detail, how his family was rounded up and shot in the street. His father (my great grandfather) was the head rabbi of Darachow, a small town that is currently part of Ukraine and had approximately 100 Jews living there before the Nazi invasion. My mother was born in Poland a few years after the war ended, and her family wound up immigrating to Israel in 1957. They lived in a ma’abara [refugee absorption camp] for 2 years, in a tin shack in Kiryat Gat, before they finally were able to move into an apartment there.

Varda Epstein: Are you in Israel? Is your family still there?

Naftaly Yeffet: I’m a dual Canadian and Israeli citizen. I was a paratrooper in the IDF, and am in the process of moving back to Israel (hopefully within the next few years). I have plenty of family still in Israel. The only family I have in Canada are my mother and half-sister from my mother’s first marriage.

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!

Next month, for the first time, the Maccabiah Games - a sort of Jewish Olympics - will be held in Jerusalem, along with Haifa and Netanya.

Even though the Games have been held in Jerusalem before (2001, 2013, 2017), Israel haters are trying to frame this is a new horrible Judaization of Jerusalem.

Palestinian news site Daf interviews an "expert" to describe how awful this is:

In this regard, Jerusalem researcher Fakhri Abu Diab says that this Judaization event will be attended by 10,000 Jewish athletes from 60 countries around the world.

In his interview with Safa Agency, he explained that this marathon differs from the previous flag marches because the last marches were attended by settlers from inside historical Palestine only.

He added, "According to the path and plan specified by the occupation municipality, this march or marathon will not enter the Islamic Quarter and the Old City in order to avoid the anger and reaction of the Jerusalemites and to convey a message to the Jewish arrivals that Jerusalem lives in peace and security."

You get that? When Jews march through Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem, it is "provocative" and meant to insult local Arabs. But when Jews avoid marching through Arab neighborhoods, it is because they are lying schemer who want to give a false impression of the city.

In short, no matter what Israel does, it is doing it to hurt Arabs.

Which is what this "expert" goes on to say:

Abu Diab asserts that the aim of this event is purely political but with a sports cover, and it is an attempt to march new flags with the aim of demonstrating Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem and raising the Israeli flag.

The researcher considers that the occupation clearly uses culture for political and Judaizing purposes.

And he continues, that the occupation municipality claims that the aim of the event is to revive the tourism industry and benefit the economy, but in its essence it is a Judaization work to promote the Israeli narrative that Jerusalem lives in security, peace and stability and an attempt to bring more Jews in from the world.

Abu Diab expects this event to create an angry reaction and confrontations. "Because any Israeli provocative action must be followed by a reaction from the Jerusalemites."

Just a call for violence, in a mainstream (non-Islamist) news site, to disrupt a sporting event. Nothing to see here.

The Maccabiah Games have been going on since 1932. This year some 10,000 athletes are expected, making it the third largest sporting event in the world.

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!

06/22 Links Pt1: The fatal contradictions of Biden's Middle East trip; Terrorist Behavior: How the Virtual “Pack” Stirs Lone Wolves to Action; UN’s anti-Israel special rapporteur again excuses Palestinian violence

From Ian:

Jonathan Tobin: The fatal contradictions of Biden's Middle East trip

If the administration was really committed to stopping Iran, then it would be increasing its efforts to expand former President Donald Trump's Abraham Accords to other Arab and Islamic countries to shore up a regional alliance against Tehran.

Hopes that the Saudis will swap their under-the-table alliance with Israel for a full-fledged normalization are probably misplaced. As the self-styled guardians of the Muslim holy places, the odds that the Saudi regime – whose legitimacy is rooted in its own peculiar brand of religious extremism – would ever fully embrace the Jewish state are slim and none. But as they did in 2020 when the Trump foreign-policy team made the first real breakthrough for peace in a generation, their acquiescence to other countries normalizing relations with Israel is key.

But Biden's disinterest in widening the circle of peace is painfully obvious. His priority is keeping Israel and the Saudis from taking any actions that will undermine his hopes of a new deal with Iran, which means that it would be extremely foolish for either Jerusalem or Riyadh to place much trust in any assurances the president offers to them.

That is a painful dilemma because as much as the Saudis can flirt with trying to come to some sort of arrangement with Iran and its terrorist proxies, that isn't a viable option since Tehran will never be satisfied until the Saud dynasty and its allies are overthrown. Nor can Israel look elsewhere for help. Both an isolated Russia and a China bent on expanding its own malign influence in the Middle East are bad actors that have no real sympathy or common interests with the Jewish state.

So, while the Israelis and the Saudis combine to present an Iran still seeking regional hegemony as well as nuclear status with a formidable foe, having the United States led by a president that cannot be relied upon to oppose the deadliest threat to stability in the region creates a problem to which there is no obvious solution.

Nor can Americans feel good about an administration that, for all of its high-flown talk about standing by allies when it speaks of Ukraine, still seems intent on discarding its real friends in the Middle East. Expecting Israel and the Saudis to have America's back while also attempting to betray them by embracing Iran is a contradiction that may lead to yet another Biden disaster, which may be even more costly than the ones he has already blundered into.

Khaled Abu Toameh: Arabs to Biden: Shut Down Iran's 'Expansionist Project'

Ahead of Biden's visit, the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, in a clear message to the US administration and other Western powers, affirmed that any nuclear agreement or future negotiations with Iran must address the Iranians' "destabilizing behavior in the region, their support for terrorist militias, and their missile program."

"Western countries prefer to talk about upcoming measures, preparing us for their failure to stop Iran's nuclear ambitions, but the truth is that we are in a race against time, and it is still possible to force Iran to abandon its secret plans to acquire nuclear weapons. The problem is that the entire international community does not seem serious and resolute in dealing with this issue and deterring Iran." — Dr. Abdulaziz Sager, founder and chairman of the Gulf Research Center, alanba.com.kw, June 14, 2022.

Iran thinks with the "mentality of an empire" and that is why it is continuing its efforts to extend its control to several Arab countries. — Dr. Abdulaziz Sager, alanba.com.kw, June 14, 2022

Washington's Arab allies have repeatedly warned that the US against complacency with the Iranian threat, "specifically after the instructions of the administration of former President Barack Obama to build a partnership with the Tehran regime under the roof of the nuclear agreement that contributed to Iran's pervasiveness, and gave it free rein, allowing it to increase its hostile activities against the countries of the region without being held accountable for the consequences of its reckless policies." — Khaled Al-Yemany, former foreign minister of Yemen, independentarabia.com, January 26, 2022.

[T]he Arab countries have always preferred dialogue with Iran, but this was seen by the mullahs as a sign of weakness. — Khaled Al-Yemany, independentarabia.com, January 26, 2022.

Tehran is using negotiation diplomacy to achieve more military gains and develop its arsenal in the nuclear and missile fields and missile technology," he said. "The reports of the International Atomic Energy Agency confirm that Iran is far from the commitments it made in the nuclear agreement, and it is progressing to build a nuclear bomb. A nuclear Iran, its expansionist project that destabilizes regional and international security and stability will be more ferocious and its ambitions will transcend all borders, and it must be deterred before it is too late." — Khaled Al-Yemany, independentarabia.com, January 26, 2022.

[T]he Arab and Western media have remained silent about the Iranian people's protests against the corruption of the regime, which spent its wealth to destroy four Arab countries (Lebanon, Yemen, Syria and Iraq). — Abdul Jalil Al-Saeid, Syrian author, al-ain.com, June 7, 2022.

The Arabs are saying that they expect the Biden administration to reverse its stance on the mullahs and act in accordance with reality: that Tehran poses a catastrophic threat to America's allies – all of its allies, Arab and Israeli alike – in the Middle East.

Russia Still a Threat Even if Putin Dies, Says Renowned Holocaust Investigator Now Probing War Crimes in Ukraine

Russia will continue to pose a deadly threat to Ukraine even if current President Vladimir Putin dies, according to the French Catholic priest who built an international reputation documenting the mass slaughter of the country’s Jewish community during the Holocaust.

In a wide-ranging interview on Wednesday with the Pravda Ukraine news outlet, Fr. Patrick Desbois, who is actively documenting Russian war crimes against Ukrainian civilians, argued that the Russian threat would outlast Putin, the principal architect of the invasion of Ukraine in late February.

“You have to understand that even if Putin dies, they will still be deadly,” Desbois said. “It is your great misfortune that you have such neighbors.”

The founder of Yahad-In Unum, a French NGO dedicated to researching what he calls the “Holocaust by bullets,” Desbois has devoted much of his career to investigating the mass graves of Jews murdered by Nazi mobile killing squads across occupied eastern Europe. In an interview with The Algemeiner in March, Desbois — who has assembled a team of investigators in Ukraine — emphasized that the responsibility for war crimes during the current conflict was not Putin’s alone.

“Remember that the excuse of the people on the ground is always that they were just obeying orders,” he said.

In his latest interview, Desbois also expressed pessimism about the prospects of Putin ever facing trial for war crimes.

Caroline Glick: The U.S. and NATO are losing catastrophically in Ukraine | Mideast News Hour

In this week’s episode of "Middle East News Hour," Caroline Glick is joined by David Goldman from Asia Times and the Claremont Institute to discuss why the United States and NATO are the real losers of the Ukraine war. They look at:
- The situation on the ground
- U.S. options for managing the war going forward
- The global economic implications of the Western sanctions on Russia
- What this all means for Israel

The real Israel and the Israel that is being broadcast to the world

From Israel21c:

More than 300 Arab and Jewish Israeli children recently joined forces to create a sustainable garden at the Al-Hayat School in the Arab town of Kfar Qassem in central Israel. The Kfar Qassem kids were joined in the project by children from the nearby Jewish community of Kfar Saba.

The “Green Roofs” project, under the auspices of the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation, was funded by USAID.

For several months leading up to the planting of vegetables, spices, perennials and hydroponic plants, the seventh-graders learned about sustainability, environmental responsibility, climate crisis and consumer culture.

The program also served to connect the two neighboring communities, create understanding among the youth and encourage activism to promote coexistence.

The shared garden, which is open to the public, “deepens the connection between Kfar Qassem and Kfar Saba residents even further,” says Kfar Qassem Mayor Adel Badir.

Countering the negative images in the media, the mayor said the garden “symbolizes both cooperation and shared existence.”

This isn't the image of Israel in most Arab media (although a couple of websites did cover this story.) More often, you see stories like this from Hizb Ut-Tahrir: