In case you weren't certain that these are meant to recruit kids to be terrorists, here is a poster from the camp, showing the children with masked militants.
Friday, July 29, 2022
- Friday, July 29, 2022
- Elder of Ziyon
- Abu Mazen, AK-47, child soldier, Fatah, glorifying terror, Hebron, Mahmoud Abbas, Palestine, palestine media watch, palwatch, summer camp, terror training, Yasser Arafat
In case you weren't certain that these are meant to recruit kids to be terrorists, here is a poster from the camp, showing the children with masked militants.
Thursday, July 28, 2022
Half of All Jews Now Live in Israel and That Is a Source of Strength
A hundred years ago, in 1922, there were 14,400,000 Jews in the world. The centers of Judaism outside the U.S. were in central and eastern Europe - Berlin, Warsaw and Budapest. There seemed grounds for optimism. In 1922 the League of Nations awarded Britain the Palestine British mandate, which confirmed the legitimacy of Britain's promise in the Balfour Declaration of 1917 of a national home for the Jews. "The wandering Jews will at last have a home," the London Times declared in April 1920.
By 1939, the world Jewish population had increased to 17 million. But Jews on the Continent faced a precarious future with the spread of anti-Semitism and the rise of Hitler. Many sought to emigrate, but most countries closed their doors. And in 1939 the British government in its White Paper severely limited immigration into the national home, proposing to end it entirely.
In Chaim Weizmann's words, the world was now divided between countries in which Jews were not allowed to live and countries which they were not allowed to enter. By 1945, after the Holocaust the world's Jewish population had fallen to 11 million.
Today it is just over 15 million. Jews have not made up the losses of the Holocaust. Between 1939 and 2022, by contrast, the population of the world has increased by 250%. In the absence of the Holocaust, given a natural increase of population, there would perhaps have been a world Jewish population of 40 million.
Following the creation of Israel, the geographical balance of the world Jewish population has altered radically. In Palestine in 1939, there were only 450,000 Jews - 3% of the world's total. Today, nearly seven million Jews, almost 50% of the total, live in Israel. In 1948, Jews emerged from powerlessness to become authors of their own destiny.
Last night I met with Arieh Itamar a passenger of the Exodus ship sent back to Germany by the British. Arieh was 8. I was also honored to meet Hugh Kitson @joydmarshall @Colrichardkemp creators of documentary https://t.co/FZVvNXao3h which shares the facts and truth about Israel. pic.twitter.com/gIG7ALhiUu
— OshyEllman (@oshyellman1) July 28, 2022
Last night at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem we had the premier screening in Israel of the documentary we made a few years ago, Whose Land?, delayed until now by Covid. https://t.co/H1z78ixpal pic.twitter.com/UZ1mwIqw3a
— R?????? K??? ? (@COLRICHARDKEMP) July 28, 2022
Whose Land - Trailer
As the propaganda war against Israel's legitimacy as a modern nation state has increased in intensity and ferocity in recent years, so the need to challenge the misinformation and untruths has also intensified. Whose Land is a Two Part film, directed by Hugh Kitson, which considers the legal right of Israel to exist, under international law, as a reconstituted nation state, within the geographical boundaries of the ancient homeland of the Jewish People.
- Thursday, July 28, 2022
- Elder of Ziyon
- AIPAC, Comix, humor, Hypocrisy, Israel lobby
- Thursday, July 28, 2022
- Elder of Ziyon
- humor, Preoccupied
Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.
Check out their Facebook page.
Jerusalem, July 28 - Party leaders, campaign consultants, and aspiring legislators continued this week to prepare for parliamentary elections later this year, with some of the largest parties settling on the one message they must convey to voters, but one that they fear might not resonate with the electorate in a way that generates inspiration, a shared sense of purpose, or a compelling reason to vote for them in particular: just don't vote Binyamin Netanyahu back into the premiership.
The Knesset voted to disperse last month, triggering new elections scheduled for November 1. That contest brings back to prominence many of the phenomena that characterized the other four contests in the last five years. Chief among those phenomena, political rivals of Netanyahu failing to develop positive platforms of their own, to the point that the essence of several different parties' campaign messages have focused in the main on bringing down the man who has dominated Israeli politics for thirteen years, and not on any vision for Israel's future that differentiates each party from any other.
Polls show a familiar deadlock between the "will sit in a government under Bibi" and "will not sit in a government under Bibi" factions, neither of which can muster a parliamentary majority of 61 seats that allows a coalition to form. That stalemate prevailed through several previous contests after the last coalition under Netanyahu collapsed, but until last year when anti-Netanyahu factions cobbled together a diverse coalition just big enough, none could form a government to displace him. Mixed results from the current Bennett-Lapid government and associated political machinations reasserted the fractured and fractious nature of the polity the government purported to represent, restoring the status quo ante of Bibi vs. anti-Bibi factions not broad enough to secure governance, and neither faction with enough coherent positive vision that voters rally to them in sufficient numbers.
"In a word, inertia," explained one analyst. "Netanyahu sat at the top for so long that he entrenched himself in enough minds as the status quo, and others must convince voters of any necessity to change. Enough elected officials convinced themselves last time around that they had done so, and formed a Bibi-less coalition. But the folly of that effort has now become evident, and the anti-Netanyahu faction has also readopted the status quo ante: making everything about Bibi Bibi Bibi and refusing to articulate a word about what their parties actually stand for."
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! |
|
Jerusalem Slams UN Official Who Questioned Israel’s Membership, Railed at ‘Jewish Lobby’
The Israeli Mission to the United Nations (UN) in Geneva has expressed outrage following a UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) investigator’s comments about the undue influence of a so-called “Jewish lobby” on media, and whether Israel should be a member of the body at all.
“We are very disheartened by the social media that is controlled largely by whether it’s the Jewish lobby or it’s the specific NGOs. A lot of money is being thrown in to trying to discredit us,” Miloon Kothari — a member of the UNHRC’s “International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in Israel (COI)” — said on the latest episode of The Mondoweiss Podcast.
Formed by the UNHRC after the 2021 hostilities between Israel and Hamas, the COI was tasked with issuing annual reports on any human rights abuses committed during the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It has previously drawn scrutiny from Israeli and US officials for its unusually broad, open-ended focus.
“One of our mandates is to look at the role of both humanitarian law, human rights law, criminal law,” Kothari continued. “And on all three counts, Israel is in systematic violation of all the legislation. And in fact, I mean, I would go as far as to raise the question as why are they even a member of the United Nations, because they don’t respect — the Israeli government does not respect its own obligations as a UN member state. They, in fact, consistently, either directly or through the United States, try to undermine UN mechanisms.”
On Wednesday, Israel’s Permanent Mission in Geneva called the interview “disturbing,” and said that the Jewish state — recognized as a UN member in 1949 — will continue to participate in the body and “work with truly independent mechanisms and on promoting and protecting human rights for all.”
“Israel already questioned [Kothari’s] suitability for the role, given previous comments regarding Israel, and given the fact he is subject to a formal complaint for violating UN regulations and ethical standards,” the Mission said in a statement.
Mark Regev: The evolution of Israel-Greece ties, from enemies to allies - opinion
The Ottoman shadowIsrael and Morocco are rooted in justice - our relationship will only grow
Undoubtedly, Israeli-Hellenic ties have been affected by the behavior of Ankara’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose neo-Ottomanism and political Islam have exasperated Turkey’s neighbors and brought them closer together.
Of late, Turkey has been striving to improve its relations with regional players, the invitation to President Isaac Herzog to visit Ankara earlier this year is an indication of Erdogan’s desire for rapprochement with Israel.
The scope and pace of any improvement in Israeli-Turkish ties remains uncertain. What is clear is that the newly found partnerships between Israel, Greece, and Cyprus are here to stay.
Some believe that a threat to relations could come from an unexpected political victory for the radical Left in the coming Cypriot elections. Yet, in this context, Greece provides a reassuring example.
When, in the 2015 Greek election, Alexis Tsipras and his militantly socialist Syriza Party assumed power, there were initial fears that a Corbynist-Melenchonist type anti-Israelism could undermine ties. But not only did the Athens-Jerusalem relationship continue to flourish under Tsipras, it also expanded to include a strengthened trilateral framework with Cyprus. And Israel’s ties with Greece continued to prosper after the election in 2019 of the moderate-right New Democracy Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
All this demonstrates the remarkable resilience of the new Hellenic-Israel partnership. Perhaps next time the Hanukkah candles are lit, we should also celebrate that.
With the founding of the State of Israel, cooperation between the two countries was natural. We maintained close security relations that continued and strengthened under the reign of His Majesty, King Mohammed VI (even without maintaining public relations, due to the general Arab-state boycott of Israel). Yet, even the boycott of Israel did not prevent Morocco from serving as a major contributor in brokering the peace agreement between Israel and Egypt.Gideon Sa'ar speaks to i24NEWS from Morocco
In 1977, King Hassan brought Israel’s defense minister Moshe Dayan to meet with Egyptian president Sadat’s emissary and personal advisor. This enabled a diplomatic breakthrough, ultimately leading to direct contact between Israel and Egypt, culminating in president Sadat’s historic visit to Israel.
The diplomatic relations between Israel and Morocco between the years 1994-2000, following the peace agreement between Israel and Jordan, were extremely warm. In 2022, we now see amongst our nation a strong desire to fill these relations with content and to give them shape and form.
These warm and deep relations are based on mutual respect, a common understanding of the world and shared interests. These relations and the warm welcome Israeli tourists receive have brought forth an abundance of Israeli tourism in Morocco.
These two countries share a core common goal: to partake in the international community and its core values. Together, they take a stand on the side of maintaining regional peace and stability, and the fight against extremism and terror.
Above all, the place that Judaism and the Jewish community have had in Morocco, over such a long period, facilitates good relations with Israel and warm ties between the peoples themselves, and not just between the leadership and governments.
- Thursday, July 28, 2022
- Elder of Ziyon
- iran, Iranian Labour News Agency, Mossad, spy ring, Times of Israel, TOI
An alleged Israeli spy network made up of five individuals has been arrested in Iran, an Iranian media outlet claimed Thursday, the second such group detention announced within a week.The semi-official Iranian Labour News Agency said the five suspects were the leader of the cell and four associates, all of whom were “affiliated with the Israeli regime” and had allegedly been in contact with the head of Israel’s Mossad.The report said Iran claimed the alleged spies had told the chief of the Israeli spy agency that they would “collect information from important and vital areas.”
Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon! Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424. Read all about it here! |
|
- Thursday, July 28, 2022
- Elder of Ziyon
- AI, Amnesty, antisemitism, apartheid, gaza, Jewish supremacy, NGO, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, propaganda, psychological projection, victimhood
People believe that facts are essential for earning the respect of political adversaries, but our research shows that this belief is wrong. We find that sharing personal experiences about a political issue—especially experiences involving harm—help to foster respect via increased perceptions of rationality. This research provides a straightforward pathway for increasing moral understanding and decreasing political intolerance. ....In moral and political disagreements, everyday people treat subjective experiences as truer than objective facts.The paper makes the assumption of goodwill; if you want to convince someone of the truth of your position, enhance your facts with personal experience. The authors suggest that narratives can increase political tolerance.
The power that story has over facts to capture the imagination and create respect for an individual’s position is easily exploited. ...Narratives are easily weaponized by propagandists and other bad actors. From this perspective, Kubin et al. may not have uncovered a feature in human discourse that might bridge moral divides but rather a bug that could be easily exploited. While presenting facts garners more respect than claims with no backing at all, these studies still find that narratives beat out facts in creating a greater perception of rationality and even perceived truth. Yet, a position backed by one personal anecdote is no more objectively true than one backed by no anecdote or facts at all. More crucially, a position backed by a personal narrative is not more true than a position backed by facts.While both narratives and facts can be cherry-picked to support a position, personal narratives, as the authors point out, are unimpugnable. A conclusion drawn from facts, on the other hand, can be disputed and disproven and, thus, science and society should prefer fact-based positions. Yet, when it comes to respect, feelings are prioritized over facts. As these studies show, what is true gains less respect than what one might feel to be true.Are we to get into a battle of cherry-picked narratives of harm to promote our policy positions, amplified by social media and the ease with which these narratives can spread? How can such narratives be combated? The counter to a story of harm is, by definition, a story of lack of harm (e.g., a vaccine that reduces future infection). However, the larger problem is that the real counternarrative for any anecdotal evidence is found in the data (e.g., a peer-reviewed paper showing the benefits of vaccination for the treatment condition). As such, a troublesome implication of this work is that a false personal story will have more power to create respect than facts, including those facts that would serve to correct the narrative.
Amnesty reports |
Israel/WB |
Syria/Yarmouk |
Title of report |
|
Squeezing the life out of Yarmouk
|
Number of pages in the report |
87 |
39 |
Number of civilians killed according to Amnesty |
22 |
194 |
Time period covered |
12 months |
8 months |
Circumstances of their deaths |
Mostly while participating in or near violent
acts |
Starvation, sniper fire, bombings |
Number of extensive personal stories given for
victims |
At least 18, some three pages long |
Zero |
Number of photos of victims (dead and injured) |
At least 14 |
Zero |
Video produced to support report? |
Yes, 4 minutes |
No |
Placement on Amnesty webpage |
Linked from front page two weeks after report
issued |
On front page only the day it was released |
Palestinians are humanized and their stories are told. Those stories are detailed and centered on showing how they were harmed and at creating empathy for them.
- Thursday, July 28, 2022
- Elder of Ziyon
- 2022, American Jews, crime, hate crimes, Jewish privilege, Jews, new york city, USA
Wednesday, July 27, 2022
Israel as a Precious Gift to Shabby Regimes and Conditions
The fact is that terms like traitor, spy, and collaborator have long been outdated. They now indicate nothing but the existence of a project for crude domination and that this project is in crisis and has no choice but to say things it should not in the hope that this extends its lifespan.Both UK Conservative leadership candidates have pro-Israel records
However, what Freud called sublimation is at play here. This concept, which was originally formulated by Fredrich Nietzsche, denotes a process through which socially unacceptable desires and instincts are redirected to ends that are not only socially acceptable, but also noble ends glorified by society. Creative works, for example, replace taboo cravings, and impeccable moral behavior that invokes veneration replace belligerent desires.
In our case, the crude instinct to hold on to power turns into a conflict with Israel or striving to liberate Palestine. The instinct is condemned, no one defends it, and not even those acting on it dare to speak about it openly; as for the conflict, a broad segment of society sees it as a glorious endeavor.
However, the major difference is that with the authoritarians, the desire merely hides, while the noble end is a pure lie that brings neither innovation nor moral excellence.
“Israel’s conspiracies” alone can justify “filling our squares with the corpses of traitors and spies,” as Salah Omar Al-Ali once put it. (h/t Zvi)
With the Conservative Party leadership contest in the UK down to two candidates, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss and former chancellor of the exchequer Rishi Sunak, whoever wins will move into 10 Downing Street in September with a pro-Israel record.Are social media algorithms to blame for rise in antisemitic hate speech?
As one British political insider said this week, from an Israeli perspective, the two finalists were probably the best candidates of all those who announced they were running earlier this month.
Lord Stuart Polak, honorary president of Conservative Friends of Israel, said: “I have worked for 30 years on the UK-Israel political relationship and I am very confident that the golden era that we have will continue under either leadership.”
“[Prime Minister] Boris Johnson is an outstanding friend of Israel and has been for a long period, but these two will continue that tradition,” he added.
What can be done about it?
To combat antisemitism on social media, strategies need to be evidence based. But neither social media companies nor researchers have devoted enough time and resources to this issue so far.
The study of antisemitism on social media poses unique challenges to researchers: They need access to the data and funding to be able to help develop effective counterstrategies. So far, scholars depend on the cooperation of the social media companies to access the data, which is mostly unregulated.
Social media companies have implemented guidelines on reporting antisemitism on social media, and civil society organizations have been demanding action against algorithmic antisemitism. However, the measures taken so far are woefully inadequate, if not dangerous. For example, counterspeech, which is often promoted as a possible strategy, tends to amplify hateful content.
To meaningfully address antisemitic hate speech, social media companies would need to change the algorithms that collect and curate user data for advertisement companies, which make up a large part of their revenue.
There is a global, borderless spread of antisemitic posts on social media happening on an unprecedented scale. We believe it will require the collective efforts of social media companies, researchers and civil society to combat this problem.
- Wednesday, July 27, 2022
- Varda Meyers Epstein (Judean Rose)
- 1982, interview, Isser Coopersmith, Judean Rose, land for peace, Sinai, Varda, Yamit
Interview with Isser Coopersmith
Yamit was the first expulsion of Jews by Jews in the Jewish State. That is what a lot of people forget when they point to Gush Katif and say that at least now we have proof that the land for peace formula doesn’t work. Gush Katif, it is true, was a massive, outsized event, with 8,600 Jews expelled from their homes, while “only” 2,500 Jews had been forced from their homes in Yamit, 23 years earlier. Expulsion in either case proved traumatic, resulting in spiraling statistics for suicide, divorce, and bankruptcy.
Isser Coopersmith |
Just as right wing Israelis flocked to Gush Katif to
strengthen the people in the run-up to Disengagement, so too, they came to Yamit
in 1982, ready to fight. One of those who rushed to join the 2,500 Israeli Jews
of Yamit was Isser Coopersmith, an American immigrant to Israel who had settled
in Shilo. He was ready to do anything to help prevent the evacuation.
Coopersmith was 25, and no stranger to showing his loyalty to the Jewish State. After making Aliyah in 1979, Isser helped to build a settlement and a kibbutz, then joined the IDF in 1980, serving in a combat unit. After the evacuation of Yamit, Coopersmith went on to serve in the reserves during the First Lebanon War.
Isser has worn many hats in his professional life: shepherd, goldsmith, chef, house painter. It’s the way of many of us expats. You do whatever is in your capacity to make things work and be part of the project that is Israel, the first Jewish state in the Holy Land. Today, forty years after Yamit, Coopersmith has a 33-year-old son, and is married and living in Maale Adumim.
Ruti and Isser Coopersmith |
Here is the story of the evacuation of Yamit, as experienced by Isser Coopersmith:
Coopersmith as a young reservist based on Yamit, 6 months prior to the evacuation. |
Varda Epstein: How did you come to live in Yamit? When did you settle there?
Isser Coopersmith: The year was 1982. I had just finished my army service and there was turmoil in the country because the government was going to return Sinai to the Egyptians and destroy the settlements. Most of the residents took compensation and left. A number of people from around the country organized fishing boats to try and break the naval blockade and reach Yamit. We left in the middle of the night from Michlelet Herzog near Massuot Yitzchak and drove to the Tel Aviv Marina where we set sail on a number of vessels. We were followed and hounded by the navy along the way but reached the shore and descended into Zodiacs and paddled to the beach where hundreds of residents and the army waited. It was like out of a scene from the movie Exodus. We mixed in with the people so the army couldn’t nab us.
"We rented a fishing boat and 6 or 7 pleasure boats and met at the Tel Aviv Marina, hoping to get into Yamit." |
“We labeled one of the boats ‘Al tefanena,’ [“Don’t evacuate
us,” V.E.] which of course is an
allusion to the Altalena.”
|
Varda Epstein: What
was it like, being part of Yamit during that time? Can you describe a typical
day?
Isser Coopersmith: In one way it felt like we were on a holy
mission to keep our land. In another way it felt tense because we knew the
government was going to try and evict us any day. A typical day was eating
sleeping, davening [praying, V.E.], setting up barricades, and going to the
beach.
Bunker in Yamit |
"Here you see, from right to left, Baruch Marzel, Rav Ariel,
andAvi Farhan, standing outside the bunker. Avi Farhan
was one of the original inhabitants of Yamit, and one of the ones who refused
to leave." |
"Here you have the chief rabbis, Ovadia Yosef and Shlomo
Goren, trying to talk the Kachnikim [followers of Rabbi Meir Kahane, V.E.] out
of the suicide
bunker. I was guarding the doors of the bunker for a while, so Geula Cohen and my rav [rabbi,
V.E.], Rav Elhanan Bin Nun from Shilo, tried to talk me out of there. "At some point, a reporter from the NY Times asked me a question: Do I have anything to tell the world? "I said, 'Tell Laura I love her,' and I heard people saying, 'Who’s Laura?' "Like, nobody got
it." |
An evacuation soldier outside the bunker. Soldiers attempted to pry open the bunker door with a wooden board, at center |
The "suicide bunker." The army tried to get in with an acetylene torch. |
"From guarding the bunker I went to a rooftop of a villa, which we barricaded. We put all kinds of like, fencing and things down the staircase, so people couldn’t get to us. I was in the villa with Levi Hazan and Misha Mishkan who tried to self-immolate, which we prevented him from doing. Baruch Marzel was on the second floor, fighting off like ten or 12 soldiers by himself—he weighed like twice as much in those days."
|
"When I was cuffed I kept my wrists facing up so it was wider. When I twisted my wrists together I was able to slip out of the cuffs, opened a window on the bus and escaped to another rooftop. I was arrested again. They sent us to Kela Ashkelon [Ashkelon Prison, V.E.]. I managed to escape from the bus the first time, but they caught me again. Other people, there were some famous people who went to Kela Ashkelon, but because they were famous, they got out early. Benny Katsover and Hanan Porat and Rav Kahane, but we were stuck in jail for a few days." |
Varda Epstein: What was the demographic makeup of Yamit? What was the flavor of the neighborhood? Did you feel comfortable with the people you met there?
Isser Coopersmith: By the time I settled in, most of the
people were Dati Leumi [National Religious, V.E.]. There were lots of settlers
from other settlements and also yeshiva boys. We gave each other strength.
Varda Epstein: Can
you tell us about some of the hardships you experienced while on Yamit during
the evacuation?
Isser Coopersmith: Well, as a single guy I relied on the families
for food. We slept in vacated apartments. All the municipal systems were turned
off. Water wasn’t flowing to the local flora of the city.
Varda Epstein: What
is your best memory of Yamit?
Isser Coopersmith: The camaraderie of the people, the
natural beauty of the area.
Typical street scene, Yamit |
Varda Epstein: Most
of the Gush Katif settlers refused to believe the expulsion would happen. They
didn’t pack or otherwise plan for the eventuality. They believed until the end
that a miracle would happen and that they could stay. How was the purge of
Yamit similar to and how did it differ from the banishment of the residents of Gush
Katif?
Isser Coopersmith: Well, we
didn’t believe it would happen. When it did, we thought it would be so painful
that the government wouldn’t ever do it again. Of course, the people in power
have no heart.
Varda Epstein: Did
you do anything to fight against being evicted from Yamit?
Isser Coopersmith: We set up barricades, stocked up on food,
and fought the soldiers who came to take us.
Varda Epstein: Where
did you go after Yamit? What was your emotional state? How long did it take for
you to get back to normal?
Isser Coopersmith: I returned to Shilo. I was emotionally
depressed, but two months later I was called up for the war in Lebanon so I had
to readjust to the new situation.
Varda Epstein:
Looking back, is there anything anyone could have done to stop the evacuation
of Yamit? What would you personally have done differently? Conversely, what are
you most proud of in relation to your part in the Yamit story?
Isser Coopersmith: I doubt there is anything we could have
done to prevent the destruction of Yamit. Maybe if tens of thousands of people had
joined us, the army wouldn’t have had the manpower to make it happen. I was
proud that I made a stand for my beliefs.
Varda Epstein: What
can we learn from Yamit?
Isser Coopersmith: Never trust the government.
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! |
|