Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, August 03, 2022

The Levin/Stevens race proves that hypocritical J-Street is way out of the mainstream for American Jews

Tuesday's primary is over, and in the closely watched Michigan congressional race between two incumbents, moderate Haley Stevens and "progressive" Andy Levin, Stevens trounded Levin by 20 percentage points.

The result is being painted by the far-Left crowd as AIPAC stealing the election by spending millions of dollars through their PAC, UDP, to pay for ads for Stevens. While AIPAC did spend the money, the margin of victory is not because of them - it is because Stevens was heavily backed by moderate Democrats.

One byproduct of the race, though, is that is exposed J-Street's hypocrisy.

J-Street went all out for Levin, no less than AIPAC did for Stevens. They falsely painted Levin as having mainstream positions in the American Jewish community.

The truth is quite the opposite, and it shows J-Street's extremism.

In their message after the race, J-Street wrote:

It is alarming that this race, like many other Democratic primaries this cycle, was heavily impacted by the aggressive outside spending of AIPAC and its SuperPAC, the United Democracy Project. They spent nearly $5 million to target and defeat Levin, far more than was spent by any other group. While Rep. Levin is a proudly pro-Israel Jewish-American, AIPAC smeared him as “anti-Israel,” “fringe” and “hostile.” They targeted him for holding principled, mainstream views about US diplomatic leadership in the Middle East, and for proposing legislation to help uphold Palestinian rights and secure Israel’s future as a democratic homeland for the Jewish people.
...

With their overwhelming spending, AIPAC hopes to send an intimidating message to others: Cross our red lines, and you could be next. While political space for open and healthy debate over US foreign policy has opened up considerably in recent years, they appear determined to close it down. Instead of building sustainable bipartisan support for Israel, AIPAC has harmfully turned Israel into one of the sharpest wedge issues in American politics.

To respond to this new challenge, Democratic Party leaders should make absolutely clear just how harmful and unwelcome AIPAC’s interventions in its primary contests are. Candidates in future primaries should disavow and decline the support of AIPAC and its SuperPAC – which have come as a surprise to at least some of them.

J Street remains committed to doing all that we can to represent the views of the majority of Jewish Americans and American voters. We will keep up our work to ensure that our national political and policy debate about foreign policy and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is rooted in honest fact, shared democratic values, and a commitment to lasting peace.

The hypocrisy shown here is off the charts.

Levin's positions are not mainstream in the Jewish community. His centerpiece "Two State Solution Act" has no traction and zero co-sponsors because it is abhorrent to pro-Israel Americans. It makes demands on Israel and none on Palestinians. It defines the Jewish Quarter and the Western Wall as "occupied territory." It also defines Gaza as "occupied" even though no Jews have lived there in nearly two decades.

J-Street's hand wringing over AIPAC's spending is also hypocritical because before AIPAC created their superPAC, the largest Jewish political PAC was JStreetPAC - by far.

But far more telling is what Haley Stevens positions on Israel are that J-Street opposes. From her campaign website section on Israel:

Chief among my priorities are safety and security, both here in the U.S. and abroad, and I believe that our strong and enduring partnership with the State of Israel is a cornerstone of maintaining these goals. The United States and Israel have maintained a steadfast partnership for over seven decades, bound by our shared commitment to common values. The U.S.-Israel partnership is one that must continue to thrive – and importantly, cannot become a partisan issue. I stand firm in my commitment to the U.S.-Israel alliance and will continue working in Congress to support policies that strengthen our strategic alliance.

I had the opportunity to visit Israel for the first time in 2019, where I experienced its deep history, cultures, and natural beauty. I was also able to learn more about the innovative technologies Israel has created that Americans depend upon for agriculture, energy, healthcare, commerce, transportation, and national security, among many others. I look forward to finding new ways to develop strategic plans to build on these technological successes.

I stand alongside Israel against the BDS movement, which seeks to undermine Israel’s economy and legitimacy. Its main goal is to delegitimize Israel’s existence and inflame tensions in communities and on college campuses, which undermines the prospects for peace. At a time when anti-Israel boycotts are prevalent around the country and globe, and the Anti-Defamation League is reporting a dramatic uptick in anti-Semitic hate crimes, it is now more important than ever to stand beside Israel and oppose state-sponsored BDS.

I believe in Israel’s fundamental right to self-defense. As the only democracy in the Middle East and our strongest ally in the region, Israel’s safety is paramount to our interests at home and abroad. Congress must continue to unconditionally support critical programs that help Israel upgrade its fleets in air, land, and sea, enhance the mobility of its ground forces, and continue to strengthen its missile defense capabilities. The landmark Memorandum of Understanding reached under the Obama Administration provided Israel with robust funding to accomplish these goals, and I will continue to support funding from this historic agreement, as I have each year. We must prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon and further destabilizing the region. Diplomacy must be the first option and is the best solution but all options must remain on the table.

I believe in the worth and value of every Palestinian and every Israeli and will work to support a negotiated solution resulting in two states—a democratic Jewish State of Israel, and a viable, democratic Palestinian state—living side-by-side in peace, security, and mutual recognition. This peace process should be settled by the parties directly.

Our countries share a commitment to justice and equality for all. From standing up for women’s rights to affirming our support for the worldwide LGBT community, our common values are what unite us. That deep sense of justice – born out of a shared commitment to repairing the world – is why we can always count on each other.

This statement says more positive things about Israel than J-Street has during its entire existence. Moreover, it is clearly within the mainstream of the American Jewish community - supporting a two state solution, supporting a strong US-Israel relationship, supporting Israel's right to self-defense, supporting Israel's liberal values, and opposing BDS.

These position are what J-Street opposes. Which makes J-Street an extremist group, not a moderate pro-Israel group.

One other Stevens statement:

I am deeply concerned by the persistent and growing effort to demonize Israel, the world's only Jewish state and a close American ally, on the international stage. Whether through the chronic bias displayed by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) or accusations put out by groups like Amnesty International, I stand opposed to efforts to unjustifiably brand Israel as an "apartheid state," and I will always work to mitigate the threat of delegitimization against our closest friends in the Middle East. Since its inception in 2006, the UNHRC has created 33 Commissions of Inquiry, out of which nine have dealt with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. There have been no UNHRC commissions of inquiry into Iranian or Chinese human rights violations. Israeli Arabs are represented in the Israeli Knesset, Supreme Court, Governing Coalition, and Defense Forces, in short. Instead of holding the world’s only Jewish state to a double standard, we should investigate why its adversaries are so keen on finding new methods to undercut its legitimacy as a vibrant, multi-ethnic democracy. This disastrous characterization of Israel will not serve to end the conflict and suffering in the region but will rather serve to incite violence and hatred toward the world's largest hub of Jewish life amid a time of overwhelming concern for the international Jewish community. I support good faith efforts to address the underlying causes of recurrent tensions and instability in the region in pursuit of peace, but I fervently condemn this campaign to vilify our close American ally with these displays of hateful discrimination.”

This is mainstream American Zionist and Jewish opinion. But I cannot find a single J-Street statement opposing the UN Commission of Inquiry.They issued no condemnation of the antisemitic statements of its member Miloon Kothari that the "Jewish lobby" controls social media.

J-Street's opposition to Stevens proves that they are not pro-Israel at all.

Moreover, I cannot find a single statement from Andy Levin decrying those who call Israel an "apartheid state." His silence is tacit support. J-Street says it is against that specific term - but they fully support the anti-Israel reports from HRW and Amnesty that make that accusation.

There is a further hypocrisy from J-Street in their letter. They pretend to be upset that AIPAC is turning Israel into a wedge issue - yet that is J-Street's entire purpose, to divide the American Jewish community and to promote the ideas and candidates whose opinions are anathema to most American Jews.

And their self-righteous posturing that billionaire money corrupts democracy is even more hypocritical. J-Street was formed with the early support (within six months of its founding) of billionaire George Soros, a fact that they tried to hide.

All you need to know about J-Street can be seen in this one campaign. And it proves that J-Street holds fringe opinions on Israel that they try to obscure behind their mantras of "pro-Israel, pro-peace, two states."

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!

08/02 Links Pt2: Col. Kemp: Teens Stand Against Jew Haters; How the Stasi and KGB Fostered Germany’s Neo-Nazi Movement; There are no losers in sport - except BDS

From Ian:

Richard Kemp: 'Here I Am; Send Me': Teens Stand Against Jew Haters

As every commander knows, you do not train a soldier to fight when he is in the middle of a battle, you do it before he gets anywhere near the combat zone.

Victimhood culture, too often the corrosive first resort of those who face injustice or feel wronged, is not in Club Z's creed. Students are taught that an individual's character is defined not by what obstacles are thrown in their path but by how they have overcome those obstacles and turned them to advantage.

Club Z teens are not aggrieved victims but active and proud defenders. They know that weakness incites while strength deters, that keeping quiet about antisemitism, meeting the bullies half way or compromising with calumnies does not protect them, does not make the problem go away and does not diminish the diatribe against them.

Courage cannot be taught but it can be fortified, and that is fundamentally what Club Z does. It is what empowers these teens to say, as the finest soldiers say when there's a perilous task to be done: "Here I am; send me".

How the Stasi and KGB Fostered Germany’s Neo-Nazi Movement

Born in the East German city of Dresden in 1955, Rainer Sonntag spent most of his early adulthood in and out of prison until, in 1986, he received permission to leave for West Germany. Two years later, he entered the inner circle of Michael Kühnen, the country’s leading neo-Nazi, and succeeded Kühnen after the latter’s death in April 1991—only to die in a violent confrontation a month later. Leigh Baldwin and Sean Williams delve into Sonntag’s bizarre backstory, and the “dark secret” his comrades didn’t know when he joined their organization:

The Stasi had a rich history of exploiting the far right for its own ends. When Adolf Eichmann stood trial in Jerusalem, the Stasi funneled cash to a campaign to defend the captured war criminal and forged letters from “veterans of the Waffen-SS” urging comrades to join the “struggle against Jewish Bolshevism,” all in an effort to humiliate the West German government. With the same goal in mind, in the late fifties and early sixties, Stasi agents smeared swastikas on Jewish graves across the country. Later, in the 1980s, the Stasi recruited Odfried Hepp, one of West Germany’s most wanted neo-Nazi terrorists, to report on far-right activity on his side of the Berlin Wall. When it appeared that Hepp’s arrest was imminent, he fled to East Germany and was smuggled to Syria under a new identity.

Author Regine Igel, who has studied extremism in modern Germany, believes that the East German intelligence apparatus was engaged in “massive and long-term support and direction of German and international terrorism,” exploiting extremists on both right and left to destabilize the West. By Sonntag’s time, however, the authorities’ approach to the far right may have become more pragmatic, concerned with heading off neo-Nazi attacks against border installations and countering the spread of the ideology in East Germany. “Following the logic of ‘my enemy’s enemy is my friend,’ there was a basis for cooperation,” historian Bernhard Blumenau said. “This was realpolitik at its best.”

Unleashing Sonntag in West Germany was a gamble. He was a loner, with few personal relationships to ground him. There was a good chance that, once free, he would simply vanish. But he was about to surprise his handlers.

New podcast spotlights the exodus stories of Middle Eastern Jews

Soon after the establishment of the State of Israel, author André Aciman’s family made a desperate flight from Egypt, where they lived under the threat of growing antisemitism worsened by the Nasser regime. For the family of memoirist Carol Isaacs, it was antisemitism demonstrated in the 1941 Farhud, or pogrom, that eventually uprooted them from their Iraqi homeland. And two generations after his family was spirited out of Yemen in Operation Magic Carpet in 1949, Israeli windsurfer Shahar Tzubari took home a bronze medal in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Stories like these, which document the little-known plight of some of the 800,000 Jews who were forced out of their long-thriving communities in Middle Eastern capitals such as Cairo, Baghdad and Sana’a shortly before and after Israel’s creation, are part of a new limited podcast series by American Jewish Committee titled “The Forgotten Exodus,” which premieres today.

“We often view the Jewish world through an Ashkenazi lens; we talk about the Holocaust but not the Farhud in Iraq,” Manya Brachear Pashman, a religion writer and the host of AJC’s podcasts, told eJewishPhilanthorpy. “When we talk about Jews in the Middle East, we often talk about Israel. But for thousands of years Jews lived all over the Middle East with rich vibrant cultures.”

The six-part series, which opens with a segment on Isaacs, deliberately focuses on the stories of acclaimed writers, athletes and others whose stories, organizers believe, will resonate with the wider Jewish community. “I wanted to illustrate that these people are making contributions to art, culture, diplomacy and athletics, among many fields,” Brachear Pashman said. “They yielded these wonderful contributions to society.”

Aciman detailed his family’s perilous escape from the growing antisemitism during Gamal Abdel Nasser’s presidency in his 1995 book Out of Egypt: A Memoir. “In Egypt you had a group of Jews who were native and were made stateless when Nasser came to power,” said Brachear Pashman, describing the situation for some Jewish communities in Egypt at the time. “They didn’t see the value of citizenship until it was too late. When they finally applied they were denied. Thankfully Israel existed by then; it was a haven for people who were stateless and had nowhere else to go.”

From Yemen's Saba news site:

The Council of Ministers approves its plan for the [Islamic] year 1444 AH and renews its condemnation of the desecration of the Holy Land by Jews

But it turns out they are really condemning Saudi Arabia, and Jews are an excuse:

The Council of Ministers renewed its condemnation of the Zionist Jews’ violation and desecration of sacred lands and feelings in light of the Saudi regime’s complicity and neglect of sacred things, as part of its continuous approach of neglecting Palestine and Al-Aqsa Mosque, and the founder’s approval to give it to the Jews, as stated in the historical document that was widely circulated in various media.

I haven't seen this but there must have been some rumor in Yemeni media that Saudi Arabia agreed that Israel should control Al Aqsa.

He pointed out that compromising Islamic sanctities confirms that the Saudi regime is dishonest in managing the holy sites in Makkah and Madinah.. He called on the entire Islamic nation to confront the practices of normalization with the Jews, and allow them to enter the holy lands and sites in Makkah and Madinah, and to roam in such a way that provokes feelings of Muslims.

The Council pointed out that this condemned act by all the sons of the Islamic nation confirms the existence of an aggressive scheme targeting religious sanctities and feelings in Mecca and Medina.

This is about the Israeli reporter who sneaked into Mecca. The consporacy-theory addicted Yemenis are convinced that it was done in collusio with the evilSudis, just to upset Muslims.

It doesn't have to make sense.

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!

ISGAP, the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy, held its conference this week in Cambridge, England. The theme of the conference is "Global Antisemitism, ‎A Crisis of Modernity Revisited."

I gave a short talk (virtually) on the topic of "A modest proposal for a new definition of antisemitism" based on the definition I came up with last year.

Here it is.

I didn't capture the Q&A, hopefully ISGAP will make those available soon.

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!

08/02 Links Pt1: U.S. kills Al Qaeda emir Ayman al Zawahiri in drone strike; A New Low for Antisemitism at the UN; Iran Is About to Murder Another Journalist

From Ian:

U.S. kills Al Qaeda emir Ayman al Zawahiri in drone strike

Just weeks before Zawahiri’s demise, the United Nations stated that Al Qaeda’s “leadership reportedly plays an advisory role with the Taliban, and the groups remain close.” Zawahiri’s presence in Kabul’s posh Sherpur neighborhood, where an explosion was reported to have taken place on July 31, would have allowed him to be in close contact with top Taliban leaders.

Previous news of Zawahiri’s demise had been greatly exaggerated. As recently as 2020, Zawahiri was reported to be killed. That has given Al Qaeda plenty of time to consider Zawahiri’s successor.

Who will it be? Last month’s UN report provided insight on Al Qaeda’s line of succession. Saif al Adel, the longtime Al Qaeda leader and veteran, is second behind Zawahiri. Next in line are Abdal-Rahman al-Maghrebi, a top Al Qaeda leader, Yazid Mebrak, the emir of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, and Ahmed Diriye, the leader of Shabaab, which is Al Qaeda’s branch in East Africa.

Al Adel has long been a top leader in Al Qaeda, and he is known to have sheltered in Iran along with other key terrorist leaders. He is now also believed to be inside Afghanistan.

Maghrebi, a native Moroccan, is Zawahiri’s son-in-law, and has served in a number of senior roles within Al Qaeda. The State Department has described him as the “longtime director” of As Sahab, Al Qaeda’s central media arm and the “head” of the group’s “External Communications Office,” where he “coordinates activities with” Al Qaeda’s “affiliates.” Maghrebi has also been Al Qaeda’s “general manager in Afghanistan and Pakistan since 2012,” a key role as top Al Qaeda leaders shelter in the region.

The presence of Mebrak and Diriye in the chain of succession should come as no surprise. Al Qaeda began diversifying its leadership and giving key leadership roles to its branch leaders as the U.S. stepped up its targeted killing of top Al Qaeda leaders in Afghanistan and Pakistan beginning in the mid-2000s. For instance, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula emir Nasir al Wuhayshi served as Al Qaeda’s general manager before he was killed in a drone strike in Yemen in 2015. Nasser bin Ali al Ansi, another key AQAP leader, served as Al Qaeda’s deputy general manager before he was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Yemen in 2015. And Mebrak’s predecessor, Abdelmalek Droukdel, was Al Qaeda’s third in command before he was killed in a French raid in Mali in 2020.

Seth Frantzman: The killing of Zawahiri: Twenty years too late

It’s worth recalling that many Al Qaeda planners had this same jet-set access in the 1990s. With the Cold War over, the US was a global hegemon, it didn’t concern itself with these smaller pesky terrorists. Therefore they could easily transit via countries like Pakistan, which backed Al Qaeda and the Taliban. They also had support in the Gulf, and key writers in Saudi Arabia and the West found them to be romantic. Reports from May 1988 say that Jamal Khashoggi went to Afghanistan and met with members of Al Qaeda. In 1993 a headline in the Independent described Bin Laden as an “anti-Soviet warrior [who] puts his army on the road to peace.”

But these were not peaceful men. These were murderers who were antisemitic and sought to massacre innocent people all over the world. This Al Qaeda was a far-right organization, with an ideology no different from fascism and Nazism. Yet in the 1990s it was still being coddled even as it planned the bombing of US embassies in 1998 and then the attack on the USS Cole in Yemen in 2000.

At the time, the US saw the terror group as a law enforcement problem. Although there were some efforts to go after Al Qaeda, any real attempts to neutralize it before 9/11 came to naught. As such, these men enjoyed their privileges and jet-set life planning wars all over the world, up until the attacks on New York and Washington.

In the end, Zawahiri and his brand of terror changed in the 2000s. After 9/11 he became hunted, to some extent. The crown of terror extremism moved to new groups, such as ISIS and younger Al Qaeda cadres in Iraq. This new generation of killers didn’t care as much about large symbolic attacks, such as targeting embassies or tourist sites in Egypt, or world leaders.

Indeed, Zawahiri was believed to have been behind plots against Egyptian leaders as well as the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. The new generation of terrorists were more sectarian than Al Qaeda and more interested in the total ethnic cleansing of minorities in places like Iraq. The Gulf countries also shifted from giving some succor to the extremists to turning against the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Qaeda.

Without cash from the Gulf and with extremism drying up in the Middle East, the new generation of extremists are more likely to come from Europe, Africa or Asia. The fraternity that former Al Qaeda would likely not exist today because the world has changed. Unfortunately, many people paid the price for that change, especially minorities such as the Yazidis in Iraq.

The lesson of people like Zawahiri is that we should confront extremists early in their careers. Zawahiri enjoyed immense privileges most of his life. He was a globetrotter, and even as people were saying “never again” about the Holocaust, they were willing to romanticize or excuse the Al Qaeda “war on the Jews and Crusaders.”

Two decades too late
Zawahiri was killed two decades too late, he should have been neutralized long ago, but he kept getting away with his deeds; whether it was leaving prison in Egypt in the 1980s, or getting away from Russia in the 1990s; he evaded capture and containment.

He was hoping to live out the life of an honored terrorist Emeritus with his friends in Afghanistan, marveling at how the Taliban had returned to power with even more international backing than in the 1990s. Indeed the Taliban live the high life in Doha, and they likely are backed by Iran, Russia, Pakistan and several other states today.

Zawahiri must have found it all a bit comical, a most wanted man living near the embassies of foreign countries in Kabul, having seen his friends return to power after 20 years of fighting the Americans and others. He met his end without really facing justice; it was easier to kill him quickly than have him answer for his crimes, to quickly sweep a part of history under the carpet so we can have closure to that era.

Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri has been killed in a US drone strike.

Ex British Forces commander in Afghanistan Colonel Richard Kemp: "It's extremely good news. It's time he met justice."

"There will be handwringing. But it was a lawful killing"@JuliaHB1 | @colrichardkemp pic.twitter.com/d5qUVyLSO6
— TalkTV (@TalkTV) August 2, 2022

The US attack on #alZawahiri was both just and legal (he was in leadership role of terror group that presented direct security threat to US).

Same principle applies when #Israel goes after terror leaders in Hamas, PIJ or if need, Hezbollah. https://t.co/ZltbL684Ro
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) August 2, 2022

I have a personal account to close with al-Qaeda, more so with al-Zawahiri the "ideologist", than with bin-Laden or Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the executioners of our son, Daniel. Today I feel an inch closer to closure. Angels in heaven tell me they feel that way too. https://t.co/yIyLWH7BN5
— Judea Pearl (@yudapearl) August 2, 2022

“Blinken says Taliban 'grossly' violated Doha agreement by sheltering al Qaeda's Zawahiri.” Yes, they’re terrorists, dishonesty is the least of their negative traits. https://t.co/TocxAI2dIG
— R?????? K??? ? (@COLRICHARDKEMP) August 2, 2022

US Jewish leaders commend killing of Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri

American Jewish leaders on Monday praised U.S. President Joe Biden for authorizing the drone strike that killed Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri a day earlier.

In a statement posted on social media, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations commends the president for green-lighting the “decisive” strike, and “salutes the troops who brought to justice one of the world’s most dangerous terrorists, responsible for the death of many American soldiers, civilians, and those of our allies.”

Biden announced al-Zawahiri’s death on Monday evening during a live television broadcast.

“Al-Zawahri’s death is a serious blow to al-Qaeda and its malevolent ambitions. His death will inevitably save lives, prevent future suffering, and sends an unmistakable message of American resolve to protect its citizens and the world from terrorism,” the Conference statement continued.

“We hope this brings some comfort to the families of victims of terrorism, particularly those who perished in the September 11 terrorist attacks, and the fallen members of our military, and their families. We remind Jewish communal leaders and institutions to remain vigilant against the ever-present threat of new acts of terrorist violence inspired by his death,” it added.

Latest Iranian claims of Zionist spies more absurd than the last one (update)

Last week I noted that Iran's claim that a Zionist spy ring that they supposedly caught had been in contact with the head of the Mossad was quite ridiculous, and it makes one think that many of their claims of catching spies are more for the sake of honor than the truth.

Their latest claim of catching "Zionist spies" is even more ridiculous.

Iran's Mehr News says:

The Ministry of Security said in a statement today, Monday: "The cadres of the Ministry of Security arrested a number of members of the central cell of the Baha'i Espionage Party," and added: "The arrested suspects were directly connected to the Zionist center called 'House of Justice', which is based in occupied Palestine." .

The statement continued: "The results of the intelligence documents indicate that the aforementioned center has conveyed to the detained network the strategy of reviving the deviant Baha'i sect organization in Iran ..."

He added: "They were also assigned the tasks of spreading the teachings of Bahai-made colonialism on a large scale and infiltrating educational environments at various levels, especially kindergartens throughout the country. In addition to that, the arrested cell members had several meetings with the central staff of the Zionist Party abroad and were presenting periodic reports on the above-mentioned missions, especially the organized promotion of the fight against the veil in Iran, to the conspiracy center in occupied Palestine."

The Baha'i are persecuted mercilessly in Iran.The Baha'i International Community website says:

Baha’is, who are Iran’s largest non-Muslim religious minority, are routinely arrested, detained, and imprisoned. They are barred from holding government jobs, and their shops and other enterprises are routinely closed or discriminated against by officials at all levels. Young Baha’is are prevented from attending university, and those volunteer Baha’i educators who have sought to fill that gap have been arrested and imprisoned.

Israel provides refuge for the Baha'i, whose beautiful headquarters is in Haifa. But if someone wanted to spy against Iran, Baha'i would be the last people one would recruit! A good spy is invisible, not a member of a hated minority.

Iran's credibility has always hovered around zero. To use Israel as an excuse to persecute the Baha'i is pretty low, though.

UPDATE: Baha'i news sources are reporting that there is a huge escalation of persecution against them. The "Zionist spy" story seems to be an attempt to cover it 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!

Palestinian media is celebrating terrorist Abbas Al-Sayed receiving his master's degree in regional studies - from prison.

Al-Sayed is one of the most senior Hamas terrorists in prison, having been the mastermind of the HaSharon Mall suicide bombing in 2001 that murdered five Israelis and the Park Hotel Passover Seder massacre in 2002 that killed 30.

Both of those attacks were in Netanya, the coastal city that is only nine miles from the Green Line.

Al-Sayed's wife sent a message to the media: "At the mercy of the injustice of the prison and the warden, our prisoners innovate in bringing children into the world behind bars (through sperm smuggling), in education and obtaining the highest level of degrees, thanks to their patience, courage, steadfastness and strong will.

"On my behalf, my children and my family, we extend our congratulations and blessings from my captive husband, Engineer Abbas Al-Sayed, on the occasion of receiving a master's degree in regional studies from Al-Quds University (Abu Dis) with a very good grade, and we ask God that the doctorate will be in an atmosphere of freedom."

Al Quds University has campuses in Abu Dis, Ramallah, the Old City of Jerusalem (in the Souq Al Qattanin next to Al Aqsa) and Sheikh Jarrah. The latter two are within the Jerusalem Municipality under full Israeli control.

Matan Peleg, CEO of Im Tirtzu and Maor Zemach, Chairman of Lech Yerushalayim, responded to this news with a statement: ''The fact that Al-Quds University operates within the territory of sovereign Jerusalem and allows itself to distribute titles to abominable terrorists and murderers is a disgrace for the State of Israel. Just as the Minister of Education acts to close schools that incite violence, she must act immediately to close this institution that incites murder. The principals should be sent to prison immediately."

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!

Al Quds News says that the Russians are quite justified in closing down the Jewish Agency there, because it is just a front for the usual evil Jewish plots:

The basis of the crisis is neither Ukraine nor the bombing of Damascus airport, but rather the work of the Jewish Agency itself in Russia, an act of sabotage that other countries do not dare, as this agency operates freely, to look at it objectively and effectively....

The Russian direct accusation to the Jewish Agency is that it collects information on Russian citizens, as it does in all the countries in which it operates, and chooses among them those who are qualified to immigrate to the entity, according to its requirements and needs. The Jewish Agency, with all its branches, considers the countries of the world to be a human reservoir for the growth of the Zionist entity, without regard to the affiliation of these Jewish people to their countries and society, because it basically considers that the Jew is not capable of assimilation and that he must emigrate. A recent study on the work of the Jewish Agency in the world states that its employees approach them in the places where they live, and begin to teach about the entity and settlement and the benefits of their immigration.

The Russian authorities accuse the agency of encouraging “brain drain” from their countries, as they were educated in their schools and universities, and benefited from the scientific development there, and where their emigration abroad (the Zionist entity) represents a human and scientific loss to their motherland. In addition, Russian officials accuse the Jewish Agency of keeping the data it collected about its citizens outside the country, meaning that it has come into the hands of other countries, especially the Zionist entity.

Regardless of the fact that the work of the Jewish Agency is a criminal act against the Palestinian people because it facilitates the migration of Jews from countries of the world to settle in Palestine, kill its people, destroy its civilization, Judaize its sanctities, and distort its Arab and Islamic landmarks, the work of this Agency can be considered an act of sabotage to the societies of the world, because it separates the Jews and spreads hatred and discrimination against other citizens who do not belong to the Jewish religion.

See? Not only is the Jewish Agency antisemitic, but everything Jews do is meant to hurt Palestinians!

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!

08/01 Links Pt2: In Israel, the Idea of Apartheid Is Laughable; Spinster Sisters Versus Nazis; How Israel and Its Neighbors Are Fighting to Save the Environment Together

From Ian:

In Israel, the Idea of Apartheid Is Laughable

Although signs on city buses in St. John's, Newfoundland, calling Israel an "apartheid" state were shocking to many Canadians, in Israel, the ad drew only laughs. In the Israeli city of Karmiel on July 27, an Arab-Israeli leader laughed in hysterics when I asked him about apartheid. He outlined his own success in Israel, having completed a graduate degree at an Israeli university, then having the freedom to travel to Jordan to earn a doctorate and to pursue a successful career as an educator and media personality.

Many of his friends are professionals like him and enjoy the benefits of being Israeli citizens. In fact, he ran in the last national election. Indeed, hardly anyone in Israel actually believes it is an apartheid state. Co-existence and peace is the language of most political and community leaders in Israel today.

The wasted energy and resources on negative ad campaigns that achieve nothing except hate and discord sadly misrepresents the seismic shift that's now underway in the entire region. A lie told enough times can become a truth if unopposed. We have a responsibility to stand up for Israel, because the right thing to do is to support the development of peace and friendship in the region.

Eldad Beck: 'Germany cannot be blamed for the Munich massacre'

Shaul Ladany's life was saved twice on German soil. The first time, at the age of eight, when he survived the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, and again in 1972, at the age of 36, when he managed to escape the Palestinian terrorists who took over the Olympic building where the Israeli team was staying, killing two and taking nine hostage.

The two memories will be united in September, when 86-year-old Ladany, who holds the world record in the 50-mile walk, will participate in a ceremony marking the 77th anniversary of the liberation of Bergen-Belsen, followed by a ceremony commemorating the Munich massacre the next day.

In an interview with Israel Hayom, Ladany recalled the horrifying events.

"I was staying at an apartment on the ground floor. Each apartment had two floors connected by a spiral staircase. I shared with swimmer Avraham Melamed. The [sports] shooter Zelig Shtroch, who was on the upper floor of my apartment, woke me up and told me that Arabs had murdered the wrestler Moshe Weinberg.

"I put on my walking shoes, went to the main entrance door of the apartment, opened it and saw four meters away who I later found out to be the leader of the terrorist group – 'Issa'. I heard the conversation between him and the village guards, who tried to convince him to allow the Red Cross to enter and provide aid to the hostages. When he refused, they told him: 'Be humane', and he replied: 'The Jews are not humane either.'

Ladany continued, "I went back into the apartment and went up to the second floor, where everyone was already dressed. When I asked what was going on, they pulled back the curtain from the front window and pointed to the blood stain at the entrance, and said: 'It's Weinberg's blood, they've already taken his body.'

"Then someone said, 'The Arabs might try to kidnap us, let's get out of here.' We all went down to the ground floor of the apartment, to my bedroom, someone opened the sliding door to the garden, got out, and started running in zigzags along the lawn. I put my training suit over my pajamas. When I finished everyone had already run away, then instead of running away I went to warn the head of the delegation in the back of the building and together with him I left the building."

1948 newspaper warned of dire plight of Jews in Arab countries

On 12 November 1948, Avraham Elmaleh filed this report on the increasingly desperate situation of Jews in Arab countries for the weekly newspaper Had Hamizrah (The Echo of the Orient), warning of the dire consequences if nothing was done to save them. They were hostages to the war instigated by Arab countries against the new state of Israel, a war which the Arab League intended to finance with assets stolen from its Jewish citizens or extorted from them. These measures were contrary to resolutions passed by the recently-created UN. This extract is from page 12 and appears in the digital archives of the National Library of Israel and Tel Aviv University.

In my review of the situation of Jewry in the Middle East and North Africa, I used to refer to these countries as “rare islands of tranquillity in a stormy sea”. Compared to the situation of Jews scattered around Central Europe, these Jews lived in security. They were not persecuted because of their Jewishness and race, and enjoyed equal rights with the rest of the country’s citizens. However, it was enough for a slight change to take place between Israel and the Arab countries, for the situation of their Jews to change for the worst from one end of the region to the other, and become worse than the situation of their brothers in pre-peace Poland, in Hitler’s Germany, in fascist France and in Nazi Central Europe during World War II. Approximately one million Jews in the Islamic countries spanning Asia and Africa – from Morocco to Persia – are now targeted by Arab nationalism, which has taken on a threatening and aggressive form and turned the Jewish minorities in Arab countries not only into second-class citizens, but into dispensable elements that can be permitted to be abused and persecuted to the point that they are boycotted, rioted against, hunted down and hanged for no reason, just to rob them of their wealth and property.

An iron curtain separates us from these brothers, and the little news that filters up to us is sparse. However, even from the little information that has reached us, we have learned that the Jews of the Islamic countries are now living in a huge prison, under a tyrannical, oppressive and insulting regime of terror, headed by dark and fanatical feudal lords who oppress unique, ancient communities. The captives live in disgraceful conditions, in great distress and in danger of being killed. About a million Jews in Arab countries moan and groan under the yoke of the oppressor, at the mercy of incendiary mobs, and of bloodthirsty outlaws who seek robbery and plunder, who steal their property under the pretext of donations to Arab jihad: hundreds of thousands of them are expected to be exterminated and massacred, condemned to slow physical and spiritual degeneration if measures are not taken to save them, because the stranglehold around their necks is getting tighter and tighter day by day, and they live in terror while others are put in concentration camps. Others still live in destitution and are deprived of their livelihoods; part of their property was stolen, and the other part was seized. According to the UN partition plan of November 29,1947 it was clear to all who knew about the affairs of the Arab countries that there was a danger to their Jews, their property and rights.

Yes, @NYTimes, photographs can mislead. And you have published lots of them yourself.

The New York Times has an interesting article about the revelation that Herman Heukels, who took most of the famous photographs of Jews getting ready to be transported from Amsterdam to work or death camps, was a Nazi.

With this knowledge, we now understand that he intended to demean the Jews whose photos he was taking. He didn't take any photos of the police rounding them up, for example.

In some images, the Jews' dignity shine through anyway.

But this changes the interpretation of the photos.

Janina Struk, author of the 2005 book “Photographing the Holocaust: Interpretations of the Evidence,” said that in the postwar period, photos taken by bystanders, perpetrators and victims were “all kind of mixed together,” and hardly anyone asked who had shot the photos or for what purposes.

In recent years, she added, there has been a greater emphasis on contextualizing the images, explaining how they were made, so that viewers have a better understanding of what they’re looking at — and so people can make better ethical choices about how to present them.

I wish the New York Times cared this much about the context of photos from Gaza taken by modern antisemites.

Here are two photos from last year's war in Gaza that are obviously staged, as I pointed out then:

The New York Times also hires freelance photographers in Gaza who have every incentive to show Israel in a bad light and ignore Hamas war crimes like shooting rockets from populated areas. The NYT is highlighting obviously staged photos as well, like this one, with a bassinet that somehow landed right side up, meters away from the demolished building that supposedly housed it - and without a speck of dust on it. The photographer was also amazingly lucky to find a photogenic, sad boy who just happened to be walking right in front of it, but to the side, so we could see both.

Or this one, where elderly women climbed over dangerous rubble where they could fall and break their hips so they could sit (one on a convenient plastic chair) and look sad in this supposedly candid shot:

Seeing the beach in the background, this airstrike may have been at the Shati camp, where Israel said Hamas leaders were meeting - but the New York Times won't mention that.

Context is everything. Photographers stage their photos and direct the subjects as actors when they won't get caught. They gather ahead of time in likely trouble spots but ensure that the other dozens of photographers crowding around are never in the shot. They choose the ones that tell the story they want to tell and don't submit the ones that contradict them. The freelancers provide the background information that is believed implicitly by the editors.

Is there any moral difference between publishing context-free photos from people who hated Jews in the 1940s and those from people who hate Jews today?

The last paragraph of the article about the Nazi photos is the best summary of the topic, and one that fair media would be attuned to if they cared about context and objectivity.

Struk added, “We need to move away from the idea that a photograph is just a window on the world. It isn’t. It’s a very edited version of what the photographer chose to photograph.”

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

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Israel provides more electricity to Gaza than you think - but Egypt has been providing more fuel

The monthly UN OCHA report on Gaza for July has been released, and they added some graphics I hadn't seen before.

This one shows that Israel provides Gaza with no less than ten separate electricity feeds, three of which are split off in Gaza itself. Israel provides far more electricity to Gaza than the Gaza power plant does,

But I was surprised to see that even though Israel has built large pipelines to securely transfer fuel to Gaza at Kerem Shalom, the Hamas government prefers to obtain most of its fuel from Egypt. Industrial fuel is exclusively from Israel but everything else is mostly from Egyptian sources.

Egyptian fuel imports:

Israeli fuel imports:

My guess is that Egyptian fuel is cheaper, and perhaps Hamas can more easily tax and redirect the Egyptian fuel for their own purposes.

However, in May and June, Israeli exports of cooking gas went much higher while Egyptian exports plummeted. Apparently, the cost of Egyptian cooking gas soared (some blame Hamas, Hamas blames new regulations) and it seems Israeli gas became more affordable by contrast. Gazans were very angry at Hamas when someone published the raw costs of cooking gas from Egypt and the Gaza costs were double that amount.

As usual, what we see in the media is only a tiny portion of what open sources can tell us, and the open sources are only a tiny portion of what is really going on. So-called experts are working with very limited information yet they confidently tell everyone else their analyses as if it is based on all the information - and it never is.

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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

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08/01 Links Pt1: The UN Human Rights Council's "Commission of Inquiry" Goes Openly Antisemitic; Why Economic Carrots Won't Appease Iran

From Ian:

Prof. Anne Bayefsky: The UN Human Rights Council's "Commission of Inquiry" Goes Openly Antisemitic

In May 2021, after an 11-day conflict between Palestinian terrorists in Gaza and Israelis, the UN established a "Commission of Inquiry" on Israel with a permanent "ongoing" mandate to ferret out "systematic discrimination and repression."

Three well-known biased actors were appointed as members of the inquiry who could be counted on to manufacture a guilty verdict: Navi Pillay as chair (former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights), Miloon Kothari (a former UN "expert"), and Chris Sidoti (a close associate of a top Palestinian organization and of Israel-bashing NGOs).

While UN rules specifically require that UN human rights "experts" are independent, impartial, and objective, each one was on record promoting the libel of apartheid and crimes against humanity regarding Israel and a proven anti-Israel zealot. In June 2022, the inquiry members presented their first report, which concluded that the actions of "Jewish Israelis" were the "root cause" of the conflict.

On July 25, 2022, an interview with commission member Miloon Kothari appeared on the anti-Israel website Mondoweiss where, referring to Israel, he said: "I would go so far as to raise the question as why are they even a member of the United Nations." He referred to social media reaction to the inquiry controlled by "the Jewish lobby."

Human Rights Council President Federico Villegas of Argentina called Kothari's remarks "unfortunate" and said they "could reasonably be interpreted as the stigmatization of the Jewish people." He suggested Kothari "consider the possibility" of "publicly clarifying" his comments. In a letter to Villegas, Israel's Prime Minister Yair Lapid wrote, "The fight against antisemitism cannot be waged with words alone. It requires action. This is the time for action; it is time to disband the Commission. This Commission does not just endorse antisemitism - it fuels it."

The Biden administration has officially and repeatedly objected to the UN "inquiry." On June 29, the House Appropriations Committee adopted an amendment prohibiting the use of any American funds for the inquiry. Defunding would be entirely consistent with current American legislation prohibiting the use of taxpayer dollars for other anti-Israel UN bodies.

JPost Editorial: UN bias toward Israel does nothing to achieve peace

The comments by the UN’s Miloon Kothari last week were shocking but not surprising. Kothari is on a three-member panel appointed by the UN last year to conduct an unprecedented open-ended war-crimes probe against Israel. Along with Kothari, the panel comprises chairwoman Navi Pillay, a former UN high commissioner for Human Rights, who in the past has supported calls to boycott and sanction Israel, and Australian legal expert Chris Sidoti, who has also made disturbing remarks recently.

The “UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including east Jerusalem, and in Israel” was initially approved in May 2021 by the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council. It followed in the wake of the 11-day war that started when Hamas in Gaza launched thousands of rockets on Israel, starting with Jerusalem, and Israel in response launched Operation Guardian of the Walls.

The creation of the commission of inquiry (COI) to investigate Israel – and not Hamas – in perpetuity, is itself shameful. That the panel is composed of three people known to have voiced negative views about Israel, the subject of their investigation, compounds the problems. Nothing the commission or its members have done or said in the meantime even partially mitigates concerns of the built-in bias against Israel. Sidoti rejected criticism when the first report was published in June saying some Jews were throwing around accusations of antisemitism “like rice at a wedding.”

Last week, however, Kothari raised the rhetoric and did away with the last vestiges of pretense of impartiality. Upset by criticism of the COI, including by some governments, Kothari said in an interview with the Mondoweiss website: “We are very disheartened by the social media that is controlled largely by – whether it is the Jewish lobby or specific NGOs – a lot of money is being thrown into trying to discredit us.” The Indian lawyer, in addition, said “I would go as far as to raise the question of why Israel is even a member of the United Nations.”

Kothari’s comments combine the abhorrent but frequently heard antisemitic tropes of Jewish control of the media backed by Jewish money. For good measure, he also clearly questions Israel’s right to exist along with its membership in the 193-member United Nations.

Sign Our Petition: Help End UN-Backed Hate Campaign Against Israel and the Jewish People (with VIDEO)

On July 25, a UN expert tasked with investigating the Jewish state told an anti-Israel website that the “Jewish lobby” controls social media.

“We are very disheartened by the social media that is controlled largely by — whether it is the Jewish lobby or specific NGOs… A lot of money is being thrown into trying to discredit us,” Miloon Kothari said in an interview with Mondoweiss’ David Kattenburg. A long-time pro-Palestinian activist, Kattenburg once asserted that “the Nazis would have been impressed” with what he described as the Israeli “terrorist apartheid regime.”

Miloon Kothari is one of three members of the controversial ‘UN Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in Israel’ (COI), which is currently carrying out an unprecedented open-ended probe into Israel’s treatment of Palestinians, set up following 2021’s 11-day Hamas-initiated conflict.

The COI’s first 18-page report, published on June 7 of this year, charged the government in Jerusalem with everything from “gender-based violence” to hindering “Palestinian democratic processes.”

At the time, leading news organizations were all too eager to parrot the UN’s slanted conclusions. Yet these same outlets have refused to univocally condemn the antisemitic tropes in Kothari’s most recent statements, even as they fall within the widely-adopted IHRA working definition of antisemitism.

Over the past months, the media have also failed to note that the commission’s head, Navi Pillay, has expressed support for the BDS movement, which according to its leaders is meant to put an end to the Jewish state. Pillay has furthermore advocated for the blacklisting of companies that do business with Jewish communities located over the Green Line, and went on record as saying that Israel has “enforced segregation on racial lines.”

Similarly, mainstream journalists did not report that COI member Chris Sidoti on June 14 at the UN Human Rights Council downplayed modern-day Judeophobia, claiming that some Jews throw around “accusations of antisemitism” like “rice at a wedding.” Before his stint at the UN, Sidoti worked closely with Palestinian NGOs for over 15 years.

Notably, Pillay defended Kothari’s anti-Jewish remarks in a letter to UN Human Rights Council President Federico Villegas, falsely asserting that the quotes about the “Jewish lobby” were taken out of context.

Indonesian books on Jews are uniformly filled with hate

An Iranian news agency said that the Indonesian International Book Fair was being held in Jakarta this week. As far as I could tell, it is being held in November.

Either way, since Indonesia is the largest Muslim country, I was curious as to what their books say about Jews.

A cursory look at the top search results for books in Indonesian about Jews shows nothing but pure antisemitism.

History of Judaism's blurb includes:

What kind of events happened until today we witness how Jews dominate almost all aspects of life? The dominance that makes them act as they please; seized the land of the Muslims by force, houses were demolished with barbarism, children, women and the elderly were brutally killed, their possessions greedily robbed. What's worse, they don't even feel ashamed or guilty, instead they become proud and arrogant. Before the end of the world, a great war will occur between the Muslims and the Jews. This book will be very helpful in providing knowledge and understanding about the religion so we understand who is really the enemy and who is the friend.

Jewish Red Reports Throughout History:

Lots of rottenness, cunning, tyranny, and all the crimes committed by the Jews, all have been described in the Qur'an. Where the Qur'an shows us about the opposition of the Jews to the Prophets, their denial of the Apostles, their defilement of Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala, and much more.

Alhamdulillah, this book unpacks and explains the Jewish red report cards, which are explained in 30 chapters throughout history, based on the Qur'anic sources which are explained clearly and are easy to understand. I hope this book is useful.

There is an entire book that is the transcript of a 2006 interview between a pastor and a fake Jew who called himself "Rabbi Abe Finkelstein" who "admits" that Jews made up the Holocaust and kill Christian children for Passover matzoh. This is a popular audio on American antisemitic sites today.

The Zamzam Illustrated Encyclopedia of Judaism Book of Religion by Dr. Tariq As-Suwaidan is described this way: "The Jews always instill hatred and hostility towards the Muslims, both openly and hidden. Thus, understanding the causes of hostilities, their history, and the methods they use requires in-depth and careful research; includes history, creed, system, and all things related to Judaism. So we will be alert and know where their strengths and weaknesses are. Furthermore, we will be able to deal with them by focusing attacks on those weaknesses. Because, how can we be able to face an enemy that we do not know? ...So, this book is very important and deserves to be owned by every Muslim in order to know the true nature of the enemy.

These are the first four books I found. The next one, another encyclopedia, looked like a somewhat more objective history but it still claims that Freemasons and Lions Clubs are Jewish organizations and Jews killed all the prophets.

This is what a quarter of a billion Muslims are being taught about Jews, today.

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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

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Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid wrote an excellent letter to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres in response to the statements by one of the members of the Commission of Inquiry, Miloon Kothari, that were antisemitic, claiming that the "Jewish lobby" controlled social media.

Significantly, Lapid's letter does not only call out the antisemitism of that statement. It also points out that Kothari's suggestion that Israel does not belong in the United Nations altogether is also an example of antisemitism - according to the words of Antonio Guterres himself!

But more than that, he points out that the commission itself was biased from the start, and its reaction to this episode only solidifies how biased it is.

As is often the case, the Prime Minister's Office stupidly did not release the letter in a way that is could be easily copied and pasted - it only released a photograph of the letter. This is simply unforgivable. The basics of public relations are ignored and only people who make a great effort to view the letter and quote it can do so.

So I am reproducing it here.

Your Excellency,

I am writing to you to demand the immediate removal of all three members of the COI tasked with investigating Israel, and the disbanding of the Commission. The COI has been fundamentally tainted by the publicly expressed prejudices of its leadership, who do not meet the basic standards of neutrality, independence and impartiality required by the United Nations.

In a recent interview (July 25th), one of the commissioners, Mr. Miloon Kothari, made several outrageous comments, including some which are clearly antisemitic.

During the interview, Mr. Kothari said, “We are very disheartened by the social media that is controlled largely by- whether it is the Jewish lobby or specific NGOs, a lot of money is being thrown in to try to discredit us.” He further questioned Israel’s right to exist as an equal member of the community of nations, in an unacceptable and cynical attempt to discredit the very legitimacy of the one and only Jewish state. He stated, “I would go as far as to raise the question as why they are even a member of the United Nations.”

These antisemitic remarks are a stain on the entire United Nations and are not befitting of a person with such a position of responsibility. As such, they were firmly condemned by representatives of the United States, France, Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Austria, the European Union and others.

Instead of taking a moral stance and repudiating these comments, Ms. Navi Pillay, who chairs the COI, chose to defend and excuse them, in a public letter sent to the President of the Human Rights Council on July 28th. She doubled down on the Commission’s support for Mr. Kothari’s comments. Pillay’s claim that the comments were taken out of context are false and were even rejected by the President of the UN Human Rights Council. I urge you to listen to Mr. Kothari’s interview and judge for yourself.

I recall your principled comments at a New York conference in 2017, that “a modern form of antisemitism is the denial of the right of the State of Israel to exist.” Furthermore, you pledged to take a stand “in the front line of the struggle against antisemitism, and to make sure the United Nations is able to take all possible actions for antisemitism to be condemned, and if possible, eradicated from the face of the earth.” You stressed that "Israel needs to be treated as any other state, with exactly the same rules."

Excellency, I call on you today to honor your word in this egregious case, to set the record straight. This cannot stand. Slurs about a “Jewish lobby” that acts to “control” the media, are reminiscent of the darkest days of modern history.

The fundamentally flawed nature of the COI has been widely discussed, and a group of 22 nations, led by the United States, issued a joint statement during the June HRC session expressing their deep concern about this. This latest shameful episode is a further example of its flawed and biased nature.

The fight against antisemitism cannot be waged with words alone, it requires action. This is the time for action; it is time to disband the Commission. From Mr. Kothari’s outrageous slurs to Ms. Pillay’s defense of the indefensible, this Commission does not just endorse antisemitism — it fuels it.

I therefore ask you to take all necessary measures to bring about the immediate resignation of Ms. Pillay and the other commissioners, and the disbanding of the Commission.

Sincerely,
Yair Lapid

I cannot find the full text of Antonio Gutteres' 2017 speech to the World Jewish Congress where he said “a modern form of antisemitism is the denial of the right of the State of Israel to exist.” Arguably, the more important statement was where he said "Israel needs to be treated as any other state, with exactly the same rules." This commission, by its very existence and the fact that it is the only open-ended commission in UN history, violates that rule and is prima facie evidence of the UN's inherent antisemitism.

Gutteres has also said, “You can be absolutely sure, as secretary-general of the United Nations, I will be in the front line of the struggle against antisemitism, and to make sure the United Nations is able to to take all possible actions for antisemitism to be condemned, and if possible, eradicated from the face of the earth.”

It is past time to turn these words into action.

If the fight against antisemitism is to have any meaning at all, this commission of inquiry must be disbanded. But there is no procedural method to accomplish that - antisemitism is baked into the UN and in its rules allowing something like this to begin with. All we have left is to expose the hypocrisy of a commission that is supposedly meant to advance human rights when the UN's leader has said, explicitly, that "Antisemitism threatens all people’s human rights. It is a menace to democratic values, to social peace and stability. "

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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

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Abdel Wahab El-Messiri is an Egyptian academic who is more famed in the Arab world for writing an eight-volume "Encyclopedia of Jews, Judaism and Zionism."

Ever since the Abraham Accords, a quote from him from decades ago has been making the rounds of op-ed writers, most recently this past weekend.

About twenty years ago, he wrote, "From now on we will find Jews in Muslim clothes, the functional Jew, a Muslim who prays with us in the mosque, but he plays the same role as the Jewish general, and therefore this phenomenon must be analyzed so that many of us do not turn into Jews without realizing."

Notice that he doesn't say "Zionist" but "Jew," showing that even the biggest supposed expert on Judaism in the Arab world saw no distinction between the two - the Jew was a danger to Islam.

And now, to these pundits, the worst thing about the Abraham Accords is not the Arab turning into a Zionist - but the Muslim turning into a Jew.

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!