Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, September 11, 2022

09/11 Links: Anti-Israel boycotts masquerade as social justice; The unlearned lessons of 9/11; Will King Charles III change course on Israel?

From Ian:

Anti-Israel boycotts masquerade as social justice - opinion

Nineteen US states sent Morningstar, the financial services giant, a clear message last month: its attempts to sweep its anti-Israel bias under the rug are not fooling anyone.

On August 17, Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt announced that 18 states had joined Missouri in investigating the Chicago-based corporation’s apparent support for Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) against Israel. Schmitt promised to investigate whether Morningstar’s Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) tools amounted to “consumer fraud or unfair trade practices.”

ESG investment is a huge industry, accounting for $17 trillion in assets in the US alone. While ESG is designed to incorporate ethical considerations into investment, the industry’s subjective standards have allowed anti-Israel activists to impose their agenda on unwitting investors. Former US State Department special envoy for monitoring and combating antisemitism Elan Carr has called it “BDS dressed up as social-justice investing.”

Matters only got worse on August 25, when top financial authorities from 17 states called on Morningstar to reverse course on Israel. This followed Arizona State Treasurer Kimberly Yee’s warning to Morningstar’s CEO that he had 30 days to prove his company was not violating Arizona’s anti-BDS law. Otherwise, Arizona would add the company to the state’s prohibited investments list. Morningstar uses “anti-Israel and antisemitic sources to negatively impact companies doing business in Israel and Israeli-controlled territories,” Yee wrote.

Arizona’s threat may only be the tip of the iceberg: ESG firms must contend with anti-BDS statutes on the books in more than 30 states. These laws have created real consequences, including prohibitions on investing state funds, for companies engaging in discriminatory boycotts of Israel.

The Use of False NGO Apartheid Claims to Support BDS Resolutions

Over the past few years, a network of anti-Israel, pro-BDS non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have been promoting artificial definitions of apartheid in their ongoing efforts to delegitimize and demonize Israel. By deploying emotionally-charged rhetoric related to one of the worst manifestations of racism in modern history, NGOs seek to deny the legitimacy of the Jewish State, and advance BDS and lawfare against Israel.

In order to gauge the salience of the NGO apartheid campaign, NGO Monitor examined 28 divestment resolutions by student groups, trade unions, churches, and other institutions since September 2020 (see table below). We found that, in order to support their demands for BDS, 25 of the 28 resolutions mention apartheid. Eighteen explicitly quote or cite politicized NGOs and their manufactured claims of apartheid.

The “apartheid” rhetoric was accompanied by accusations of genocide and ethnic cleansing, as well as fundamental opposition to Zionism. Some call for the end of Israel’s existence as a Jewish state. A number also referenced the UN BDS “blacklist” of businesses operating across the 1949 Armistice line, another initiative resulting from NGO lobbying.

Apartheid Rhetoric
As noted, the vast majority of the examined BDS resolutions invoked a variety of terms and phrases associated with the NGO network’s apartheid campaign. Many resolutions made direct reference to NGO apartheid reports, including those by Human Rights Watch (HRW), Amnesty International, and Israeli NGO B’Tselem.

Jewish Agency chairman Doron Almog returns to Ethiopia

During the visit, Almog will visit the historic sites where Ethiopian Jews walked in the 1980s on their pilgrimage to Israel. He will also review the preparation activities for the aliyah process carried out by representatives of the Jewish Agency in community centers in Gondar and Addis Ababa and will meet with the immigrants before they immigrate to Israel.

Almog will arrive in Ethiopia together with a senior delegation of leaders of the Jewish communities in North America, on behalf of the Jewish Federations of North America.

“The true heroes of the Ethiopian aliyah are the olim themselves who have waited so long for this moment, yet never lost ‘hatikvah’ – the hope – that they would one day reach the Land of Israel,” The organization’s president and CEO Eric Fingerhut said.

“It is a tremendous privilege to know that for decades, our federation system has played an instrumental role in the aliyah journey of these men, women and children, as well as in supporting their first steps in Israel.”

Operation “Tzur Israel” operates by virtue of a government decision led by Aliyah and Integration Minister Pnina Tamano-Shata.

In the first phase of the operation, which began in December 2020 and ended in March 2021, about 2,000 olim arrived in Israel. The second phase was launched in June 2021, when the government decided to bring an additional 3,000 more immigrants.

So far, about 1,250 immigrants from Ethiopia have immigrated to Israel during the second phase of the operation. Of the 200 immigrants on the upcoming flight this week, 40 are children and toddlers who will be integrated into the Israeli education system upon arrival.

Most of the olim aren’t considered to be entitled to aliyah according to Israel’s Right of Return law, but are instead offered citizenship as first degree relatives of Israeli citizens. Many will begin a process of conversion to Judaism after arriving in the Jewish state.

This video shows, for a painful 100 seconds, how happy Palestinians were upon hearing that thousands of Americans had been murdered by Al Qaeda 21 years ago today.

But Palestinian support for Al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden and suicide bombings remained high even as Arab countries turned against them.

This Pew Research graphic shows that Palestinians were more enthusiastic about Al Qaeda than citizens of any Arab country, and while their support waned over the years, they continued to be the most extreme supporters of terror among Arabs in the decade following 9/11.

In 2014, the most recent poll I can find, Palestinian Arabs were most supportive among world Muslims towards suicide bombings - by far.

And even then, three years after Osama Bin Laden was killed, a huge proportion of Palestinians continued to support Al Qaeda - more than any other Muslims:

One doesn't see questions about suicide bombings and support for Bin Laden being asked by international pollsters any more, possibly because they make Palestinians look so bad. But even this year, a majority of Palestinians support "armed attacks" against Israeli civilians, and there is little reason to think that they distinguish between "martyrdom operations" and any other attacks on Jewish civilians.

Bin Laden lives on - in 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!

Another Fatah West Bank terrorist "martyr:" What, exactly, is the difference between Fatah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad again?

This morning, 24 year old Hamad Abu Jildah died of wounds he received from IDF fire a few days ago in Jenin during a firefight.

The Palestinian Information Center in English published photos of him on his motorcycle and of his funeral:

The article humanized him and painted him as an innocent victim of Israeli aggression, saying that "Martyr Abu Jildah was an ex-detainee who spent two and a half years in Israeli jails. He got married recently and his wife is pregnant with their first child."

In Arabic, the same publication looked and sounded quite different.

The Islamic Resistance Movement "Hamas" mourned the martyr Hamad Abu Jildah, who died this morning of wounds he sustained a few days ago, stressing that "the occupation will not undermine the resolve of our people and our resistance."

The movement offered condolences to the martyr's family and lovers, stressing that "the battle that our Palestinian people are waging and their resistance against the criminal Zionist enemy continues unabated, and that the blood of the martyrs will not be in vain."

The messages are completely different depending on the audience. For the gullible West, Abu Jildah is an innocent victim, a newlywed cut down in the prime of his life. To a Palestinian Arab audience, he is a valiant fighter whose death is a celebration of "resistance' and who should be emulated.

But this isn't the only difference in how these events are tailored differently between the West and the Arab world.

Abu Jildah was not Hamas. He wasn't even Islamic Jihad, which dominates Jenin's militants. He was a field commander of Fatah's Al Aqsa Brigades.

His death was mourned equally by Fatah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

The fiction that Fatah is a secular, peace-seeking political party - the "good guys" to the West as compared to the other terror groups - is increasingly shown to be a lie. There is no difference between Fatah and the other terror groups, and there never was. They disagree about tactics sometimes, and Fatah is not as explicitly Islamist - although it certainly never disagrees publicly with the Muslim Brotherhood-influenced Hamas.

That logo of the Al Aqsa Brigades above is the real Fatah - machine guns and grenades, centering on a theme of a Judenfrei Jerusalem, not peaceful protests and boycotts and secularism.

The West wants so badly to believe that peace is possible between the "moderate" Mahmoud Abbas and Israel that the media will consciously and enthusiastically overlook the copious evidence to the contrary, from Abbas' own antisemitic and terror supporting statements to the incitement in daily media.

There can be no peace without truth. The media, the world's diplomats and national leaders, and the "expert" pundits spend more time hiding the truth than they do admitting it. And then when Israel defends itself from Fatah terrorists that are just as lethal as Islamic Jihad's, the audience is not aware of the facts and assumes Israel is the aggressor.

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!

On August 30, five religious Jews stupids tries to visit Joseph's tomb without coordinating their visit with the Israeli army.

The result was predictable: they were almost lynched, two of them including a child were shot, their car was burned.

They were not armed and couldn't defend themselves.

Right after the incident, Fatah's Al Aqsa Brigades took responsibility for the shootings and burning their car.

What was unusual was that Fatah itself took credit. Instead of pretending that the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade are a separate and unofficial offshoot of the party headed by Mahmoud Abbas, their violence was celebrated as a Fatah victory on the official Fatah Facebook page - to attack five civilians whose only "crime" was being Jewish.

Palestinian Media Watch translated their music video and poster:

In the video gunshots are heard, apparently from the shooting attack targeting Jews visiting Joseph’s Tomb, and a car is seen going up in flames, while a song is played in the background.

Lyrics: “Shake them and burn them, O knights of the night.”

Text on screen: “The Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, Fatah’s military wing, target a car of settlers. As a result, 5 Zionists were wounded (sic.).”
Posted text: “🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸✌️✌️✌️”
The image shows a masked terrorist holding an assault rifle.
Text on image: “Urgent:

The enemy admits the wounding of 5 Zionist settlers (sic.) in a shooting operation carried out by a squad of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, the Fatah Movement’s military wing against their car as they attempted to infiltrate Nablus early this morning [Aug. 30, 2022].”

Fatah is literally inciting Palestinians to burn religious Jews.

Mahmoud Abbas Fatah's leader, is a war criminal.

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!

09/10 Links: Australian Lawmakers Call For Holocaust Education; Sotomayor Rules Yeshiva U Can Disregard NYS Court Ruling on LGBTQ Student Club

From Ian:

Australian Lawmakers Call For Holocaust Education

An Australian parliamentarian has proposed a motion to require students throughout the commonwealth to be educated about the Holocaust.

Labor Party MP Josh Burns proposed the measure on September 5. According to The Australian Jewish News, it was co-sponsored by MPs from several parties.

The motion denounces antisemitism, including Holocaust denial and equating covid restrictions with anti-Jewish legislation in Nazi Germany, and implores “all states and territories to follow the lead of Victoria and New South Wales and make Holocaust education a mandatory aspect of their school curriculum.”

Holocaust education became mandatory in Victoria in 2020 after the state’s education minister James Merlino set out to address bigotry in its schools.

During a speech on the motion, its co-sponsor Labor MP Mark Dreyfus noted that the Holocaust “is only recent history.”

“I acknowledge that there are other members in this place, on both sides of the chamber, who, like me, owe their lives to the fact that one or more of their family members managed to escape the Nazis and find refuge in Australia,” he said.

Mark Regev: Flying from Israel to Australia: The geopolitics of visiting family

Abraham Accords opens Arab skies to Israeli flights
Unprecedentedly, in March 2018, an international carrier, Air India, received permission to transit the air space of Saudi Arabia and Oman on all its flights to and from Ben-Gurion Airport.

This breakthrough gave Air India a distinct competitive advantage over the Israeli carriers. For while El Al’s pre-COVID Tel Aviv-Delhi flight (involving the Gulf of Aden detour) took close to eight hours, Air India flew it in under six.

In 2020, the signing of the Abraham Accords with the UAE and Bahrain revolutionized Asian travel for Israelis. Dubai International Airport is a major hub for destinations across Asia and beyond, and the Gulf airlines, Emirates and Etihad, enjoy a strong global presence. Not only was it possible to fly directly over Arab airspace, but the traveling public was given multiple choices of carriers and routes.

US PRESIDENT Joe Biden’s July 2022 visit to Israel and Saudi Arabia brought further progress. Riyadh announced a policy change that enables Israeli airliners to fly over Saudi airspace to destinations in Asia. If Oman follows suit, as many now expect, El Al will be able to utilize the direct flight paths that had hitherto been reserved for international carriers.

For Israelis visiting Australia, this was especially welcome news. El Al revealed that the opening of Arab airspace made feasible a direct 15-hour Tel Aviv-Melbourne route. If there were once two prerequisite stops, and more recently a single transit point, flying to Melbourne may soon involve a zero-stopover journey.

I first visited Israel from Australia as a teenager in the 1970s. Back then, my three-leg journey had me flying from Melbourne to Hong Kong, Hong Kong to Tehran, and Tehran to Tel Aviv. The last section of the trip had me departing the Iranian capital for Israel on El Al’s regular LY112 flight (the 1979 Islamic Revolution shut that route down).

El Al will not be starting flights to the Imam Khomeini International Airport anytime soon, but the geopolitical changes have progressively made visiting Australia easier. And given the pace of Arab-Israel normalization, who knows how I will fly next year to Melbourne for my mother’s 90th birthday?

Sotomayor Rules Yeshiva U Can Disregard NYS Court Ruling on LGBTQ Student Club

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor ruled Friday (Sept. 9) that Yeshiva University can continue to live out its religious mission without threat of government interference.

Sotomayor, who has jurisdiction over the lower court, wrote in her order that “the injunction of the New York trial court, case No. 154010/2021, is hereby stayed pending further order of the undersigned or of the Court.”

Unless Sotomayor rules otherwise in a future order – or the Supreme Court decides to take up the case – her ruling means that Yeshiva University can disregard a state court ruling ordering the school to recognize an LGBTQ student club.

Yeshiva is the country’s most prominent Modern Orthodox Jewish institution of higher learning.

This past June, the lower court found the university was incorporated as an educational institution, rather than as a religious institution – and thus required to comply with New York City’s human rights law barring discrimination based on sexual preference.

After a struggle more than a year long, the university had asked the court in an appeal of the lower court ruling to vindicate its religious identity and First Amendment rights through an emergency application.

“We are pleased with Justice Sotomayor’s ruling which protects our religious liberty and identity as a leading faith-based academic institution,” said Rabbi Ari Berman, president of Yeshiva University.

“But make no mistake, we will continue to strive to create an environment that welcomes all students, including those of our LGBTQ community.

“We remain committed to engaging in meaningful dialogue with our students, Rabbis and faculty about how best to ensure an inclusive campus for all students in accordance with our Torah values.”

09/09 Links Pt2: Melanie Phillips: A devastating loss; The intersectionality of antisemitism; Murals Around the World Will Honor Heroes Who Saved Jews During Holocaust

From Ian:

Dr. Miriam Adelson: Our differences make us adaptable and strong

Two Hebrew words come to mind when a native Israeli like me gazes around at the charming Swiss town of Basel where Theodor Herzl established the Jewish state.

Those words are: "Ma HaKesher??" What's the connection? What links these things – that seem so unrelated and uncanny? Why did Herzl have to come to Basel, of all places, so that we, the Jewish people, could return to Zion? What do these elegant cafés and churches have to do with the souks and synagogues of the Middle East? The cool River Rhine with the blazing Mediterranean coast?

And if you think the contrast is stark today, when Israel is booming and blooming – just imagine how things seemed 125 years ago, when it was a sleepy desert corner of the Ottoman empire. But the contrast is the point. Herzl worked a miracle in this town. And miracles are all about contrast – because they defy and transform reality.

Herzl himself was a study in contrasts: A secular Jew doubling as a bearded prophet. A playwright, taking center-stage in an epic drama without a script. A statesman for a state not yet created. A troubled soul with rock–solid commitment to the cause. A visionary and a pragmatist. That kaleidoscope of traits helped Herzl win over world leaders – as well as the Jewish philanthropists and chief rabbis who resisted his Zionist designs.

And it is a kaleidoscope of traits that makes the modern State of Israel a miracle, each and every day: Its optimism against the odds; its fight for peace; its profoundly diverse people, united by profound destiny; its pride in being so self-critical, its traditions and innovations.

The intersectionality of antisemitism - opinion

Fiamma Nirenstein’s latest book, Jewish Lives Matter, paints an aptly bleak portrait of the way in which Jew-hatred has had a happy resurgence in the West under the guise of human rights.

The term, which represents a genuinely high value, is so abused by the people who earn their livelihoods promoting it through various progressive movements and heavily funded NGOs, as well as by many of the very groups it aims to protect that its original meaning is all but a hologram.

As Nirenstein adeptly illustrates, this inversion of good and evil was given a serious push by champions of the Palestinian cause, whose false claims against the Zionist enterprise provided the perfect cloak for any antisemitism that was dormant, or at least kept under wraps, in the aftermath of the Holocaust. Indeed, while it was no longer acceptable to admit to a desire to annihilate the Jews, Israel became an acceptable target for what Natan Sharansky dubbed the three Ds: demonization, double standards and delegitimization.

“Today’s pro-Palestinian movements have found, especially in America, but also in France through the Islamic nexus, a conceptual link with the themes of racial injustice, colonial racism, and the persecution of blacks and women throughout history,” she writes. “Although Jews could only be identified by a very manipulative observer as the white oppressor or masculinist, this is precisely what has happened. The so-called intersectionality purportedly aimed at realizing human rights for all has become the catalyst for the current wave of antisemitism.”

The Purpose of ANTISEMITISM

Why is there so much hatred towards Jews, throughout time and across borders? How does it function? Why does it grow? Are Jews bound to just always being rejected and scapegoated?

It’s time to spark the conversation and to really address the issue. No generation should ever be just looking to manage or survive through the waves of antisemitism, nor should we ever expect the world to solve Jewish problems for Jews.

If one wants to solve a problem they must understand the formula, but before anything they must first believe they can calculate. If you do not believe antisemitism can be understood or solved, then that means it is supernatural, and if it is, then the formula concluded in this video ends up being the same.

Jews carry so much generational trauma that even talking about solving antisemitism or trying to understand why it happens triggers many. However, every chapter of Jewish history, many of which are memorialized through Jewish holidays, is looked through that lens. The Hebrew way of understanding our past is seeing ourselves as our ancestors and understanding what went wrong, where we messed up, what we did to make it out, and the lessons we must pass down from that experience for the future generations not to repeat it.

Antisemitism is not our creation, but it’s our responsibility to prevent its fruition of Jewish annihilation.

"Jewish settlers storming Al Aqsa" have been upgraded to "terrorist settlers"

Every weekday from Sunday through Thursday, Arab media has articles that sound roughly the same: "This morning, groups of settlers stormed the courtyards of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque in the occupied city of Jerusalem. Dozens of settlers stormed the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque, toured it and performed Talmudic rituals, under heavy guard from the Israeli occupation police."

I imagine it gets boring after a while, trying to incite violence against Jews when all they do is quietly walk around and, sometimes, silently pray.

Now some Palestinian media are upping the ante, and referring to the Jews visiting the holy spot as "terrorist settlers."

It's rhetoric inflation!

The earliest I can find the phrase "terrorist settlers" referring to Jews visiting the Temple Mount is from Al Shabab Radio, last year.

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!

09/09 Links Pt1: Maybe Israel should review its rules of engagement with US; Lapid - no guts, no vision on the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine

From Ian:

David Singer: Lapid - no guts, no vision on the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine

It beggars belief that not 1 of the 120 members of Israel’s current Parliament has uttered one word that I can find anywhere supporting or rejecting the Saudi Plan.

The Saudi Plan’s author – Ali Shihabi – a confidant of Saudi Arabia’s next King - Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman – expressed his own feelings to me at this veil of silence that had descended over every one of Israel’s politicians:

"Israel is the key factor. It holds most of the cards and its military, economic and political success since 1948 has made its leaders arrogant and contemptuous of the Arabs generally since the Israelis have imposed their terms on the region despite all Arab efforts and noise made in decades past. This arrogance is clouding Israeli judgement and blinding them to the opportunity that presents itself today for them to drive a sustainable peace process.

"They can get a lot of what they want but have to give a bit to get a sustainable solution that will integrate them into the region permanently, but this will require an Israeli De Gaulle with guts and vision, and I don’t see one on the horizon unfortunately"

Confident I could meet Shihabi’s challenge – I asked Lapid, Defence Minister Gantz and Opposition Leader Netanyahu the following questions:
-When he first became aware of the Saudi plan?
-Has he commented on the Saudi plan since its release on 8 June 2022?
-If so - when and where were such comments published?
-If he has made no comment - would he like to make any comment on the Saudi plan that I can publish verbatim and attribute to him?
-Is he prepared to promise Israeli voters that he will use his best endeavours to implement the Saudi plan if he becomes Israel's next Prime Minister?

Lapid – like Gantz –failed to respond.

Netanyahu told Ben Shapiro that he wants an assurance of complete Israeli security control west of the Jordan River – not presently promised in Shihabi’s plan.

Over to you for your considered response Mr. Shihabi

JPost Editorial: Israel doesn't need to be told how to defend itself

In their eyes, the battle didn’t take place in a war zone but rather in a civilian neighborhood in a territory that most of the world considers occupied and under military control.

They don’t know the IDF Code of Ethics, nor that our soldiers dedicate a considerable amount of time during basic training to learn how to think long and hard before pulling the trigger. They also don’t know that IDF soldiers are taught at the very beginning of their service that they have the right – and the obligation – to refuse an order that would lead to the harming of innocent people.

What happened with Abu Akleh was tragic and devastating. A journalist should not be killed, even in a combat zone.

The IDF must draw lessons from the investigation and see how to avoid such outcomes in the future.

Unfortunately, such incidents happen, especially in complicated places like Judea and Samaria. And while the American criticism – especially when considering that Abu Akleh held US citizenship – is expected, the IDF does not need intervention when it comes to its rules of engagement.

No military in the world goes to the lengths that Israel does to spare civilian casualties. Look at recent Gaza operations when Israel called homes and buildings and gave known Hamas operatives time to evacuate before attacking.

Look at the way the IDF has prosecuted soldiers in the past for violating these rules and look at the way this country sanctifies lives – whether by opening a field hospital for Syrians or in Ukraine.

This is the Israeli way of fighting. We have a conflict and we need to do better. What we don’t need is to be told how to defend ourselves.

Melanie Phillips: Maybe Israel should review its rules of engagement with US

For America's ambassador to Israel, Thomas Nides, this wasn't enough. He declared that he had "aggressively engaged" with Israel over these draft rules since February and would continue to press for them to be further loosened up in coordination with "key stakeholders," including the PA

Yet Nides is not "aggressively engaged" with the PA over the rapidly rising radicalization and terrorist violence in the areas under its control. Instead, he is pressuring Israel to relax the restrictions it imposes purely to keep its citizens safe.

America is not "aggressively engaged" with Iran over its terrorist proxies that are now taking over those Palestinian areas. On the contrary, it is bending every sinew to empower Iran through a deal that would funnel billions of dollars into Tehran to boost those terrorist activities.

Many have bought the Bennett/Lapid claim that former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's bullhorn diplomacy, loudly protesting at the policies of former President Barack Obama, harmed Israel by turning Obama against it.

That was always absurd. Netanyahu was reacting to the fact that Obama was already throwing Israel under the Iranian bus.

Stuffed with Obama retreads, the Biden administration has continued with that policy. Most Americans are unaware of the depths of this perfidy—because Israel has chosen not to tell them. If the American public doesn't know, it won't create any political pressure to stop the administration from undermining its key ally in the Middle East.

Silence has been a disaster. Israel must now protest loudly about America's Abu Akleh travesty and its appeasement of Iran.

It is essential to inform the American public about what its own government is doing to weaken the defenses of both Israel and the west against the enemies of civilization—an evil being perpetrated in America's name.

See how differently University of Wisconsin-Madison responds to racist and antisemitic graffiti on campus

In recent years, there have been a number of antisemitic incidents at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The most recent one was this week, where messages of hate towards Jewish student groups were chalked on campus sidewalks.

Here is the entire statement from the very same two people this week (emphasis mine):

It was a wonderful first day of classes on Wednesday in so many ways, from the sunshine to the great energy on Library Mall and Bascom Hill. We love seeing our students back on campus.

However, we were disappointed that this was marred by multiple sidewalk chalkings appearing around campus, targeting several Jewish student groups labeling them as “racist,” “genocidal,” and “having blood on their hands.” These labels are antisemitic: they attribute broad actions or beliefs to Jewish student groups.

OK, now that we have established that they are antisemitic, what should be done?

Nothing.

To those Jewish students and others affected, we are sorry for the impact this had on your first day of class at UW. We truly strive to create a campus where every student feels they belong, and this kind of messaging harms that goal and aspiration.

Our job as leaders is not to respond every time a controversial or offensive incident happens on our campus. However, these chalkings provide us a timely opportunity to express our expectations for civil engagement for the campus this fall and as we move forward together.

Here at UW, we believe in sifting and winnowing and a robust commitment to free speech. That can be difficult and uncomfortable at times. While we do not know who created these chalkings, and acknowledge the impact they had, nonetheless we also acknowledge they represent free speech which is a core value at UW. Just because something isn’t prohibited doesn’t make it a good idea. Our expectation is that we engage across differences and discuss varying views and ideas with civility and respect and that did not happen here.

We strongly believe that we learn best in environments that are inclusive and where people feel listened to and heard. Statements targeting students or other student groups, while not against the law or campus policy, violate our norms and actively work against the culture of belonging for which we are striving.

To our entire community, we hope you hear our calls for civility and kindness while at the same time, embracing vigorous, honest debate. Please use this semester to respectfully engage with one another while deepening our culture of belonging.

The university admits that this was an antisemitic message. But instead of expressing a zero-tolerance policy towards antisemitism, UWM says that it is merely disappointing and an example of free speech - a core value!

Can anyone imagine a similar reaction to an anti-Black message on campus? You don't have to imagine.

In 2020, racist graffiti was sprayed on campus. And here was the reaction:

University of Wisconsin–Madison was alerted Thursday to racist graffiti that was spray painted on multiple buildings in the Library Mall area.

These racist and white supremacist messages run counter to university values. UW–Madison does not tolerate racist behaviors. We value a diverse community where all members feel welcome, safe and supported.

UW–Madison responds to all reported bias incidents. ...

Those in need of support for this or any other reason are encouraged to contact the Dean of Students Office, the Division of Diversity, Equity, and Educational Achievement, University Health Services , the Multicultural Student Center or the Employee Assistance Office.

Look how different the two messages are!

For racism, the university does not tolerate the behavior, for antisemitism, there is no such message.

For racism, it says it responds to every such incident but for antisemitism, it cannot.

It tries to protect students who are victims of racism by providing support services but doesn't offer anything like that to Jewish students here.

There is no call for "vigorous and honest debate" about racism but there is about antisemitism.

This is about ss egregious a double standard as can be imagined. And Jewish students on campus are hearing the message, loud and clear.

(h/t StopAntisemitism)

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!

Abdullah Al-Ashaal is a former Egyptian presidential candidate and former assistant to the Egyptian Foreign Minister. He calls himself an "ambassador" although I am not sure if he ever held such a position.

His anti-Zionist credentials are impeccable - he argues, today, that Egypt should abrogate the 1977 peace treaty with Israel.

It is no surprise that he is also a raging antisemite, the type of antisemite that the media and the Left doesn't want to acknowledge because it comes from Arabs.

In Rai Al Youm, he starts off an article with a list of "facts" that is as good a summary of mainstream Arab antisemitic beliefs as any I've seen:

1. Israel was built on myths and lies, and its relationship with Palestine is based on falsifying history and the Torah. Therefore, supporting Israel became a biblical duty for them.

2. The Jews control minds by monopolizing news sources and the media, as the Zionist project tamed the Arab media so as not to reveal the facts, benefiting from the fact that the Arab media is the media of the Arab regimes and governments, and when the Arab countries are divided over Israel, the Arab media is divided, as is electronic media. This is why websites spread and Israel agrees with the Arab regimes in silencing the Arab voice, chasing down and blocking websites. It has become a struggle between those who struggle for freedom of expression and Israel who blurs the facts and spreads lies and fraud.

3. The Zionist project monopolized the media, including social media, and imposed on it the prevention of awakening European and Arab public opinion to Israel's crimes.

4. European politicians and media are subject to Zionist blackmail and that the center of Zionist activity is in Britain, due to Britain's central role in the creation of Israel. Therefore, criticism of Israel is considered anti-Semitic, even if the criticism is directed by a Palestinian victim of the Zionist project.

This is daily antisemitic incitement in Arab media. And Al-Ashaal is not a marginal figure; he publishes in popular websites and is seen on TV.

The scandal isn't endemic Arab antisemitism. The scandal is that the Western media ignores it.

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!

Sheikh Waheed Abdul Salam Bali is an Egyptian preacher who is an expert on Muslim sorcery, magic and jinn (demons.)

He wrote the book (translated to English) "Sword Against Black Magic and Evil Magicians."

He recently created a video where he describes everything you need to know about jinn/demons.

Something this important must be widely publicized! So here is a summary.

The world of the jinn is exactly like the world of humans. Just we can't see them.

Muslim jinn are obligated in Islamic law, so they must pray, give to charity, and study. They have their own scholars in Sharia and judges. I'm not sure how they make money to go to charity, perhaps they have their own stores and services. But most of them seem to delight in following humans around.

When entering your house, there is a group of demons who want to enter with you to cause trouble. If you don't mention Allah upon entering, thousands of them will enter with you, and they will stay in all parts of the house, causing hatred between a husband and his wife, and between a man and his children.

If your child forgets, and brings in the thousands of jinn along with him, then you take him outside and have him return properly into the house mentioning Allah.

Jinn might see your nakedness when you take off your clothes. You must say "in the name of Allah" before undressing which will blind the peeping Jinns.

When you leave the house, there is another small army of jinn waiting to give you bad luck, so there is a Quranic formula that takes care of that.

Let's see...Jinn are just like humans, and there appear to be a lot of them. They live in a parallel universe with real people, inhabiting the same spaces, but neither humans nor jinn understand each other. They have their own spaces where they study. They try to mess up family lives. They are very interested in interfering in the lives of humans and violating their privacy. They don't seem to work but love to spend their time harassing normal people. And mentioning God scares them away.

Sounds like far-Left "progressives."

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09/08 Links Pt2: Queen Elizabeth II dies at 96; After the ADL gets caught spreading woke ideology, Greenblatt must go; UK Jewish group Na’amod helped a Holocaust denier

From Ian:

Queen Elizabeth II dies at 96 - Buckingham Palace

Queen Elizabeth, Britain's longest-reigning monarch and the nation's figurehead for seven decades, has died aged 96, Buckingham Palace said on Thursday.

"The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon," Buckingham Palace said in a statement.

"The King and The Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow."

Her eldest son Charles, 73, automatically becomes king of the United Kingdom and the head of state of 14 other realms including Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

Former British Prime Minister John Major called Queen Elizabeth "selfless and wise, with a wonderful generosity of spirit," reacting to news that the monarch has died.

"For 70 years Her Majesty The Queen devoted her life to the service of our nation and its wellbeing," he said in a statement on Thursday. "In her public duties, she was selfless and wise, with a wonderful generosity of spirit. That is how she lived – and how she led."

"For millions of people – across the Commonwealth and the wider world – she embodied the heart and soul of our nation, and was admired and respected around the globe," he added.

All of Queen Elizabeth's four children including daughter Princess Anne and youngest son Prince Edward were at Balmoral Castle in Scotland with the British monarch, ITV reported. Prince Harry arrived as well.

Queen Elizabeth II: The life of the UK's longest reigning monarch - obituary

Despite the struggles, the queen fought for the royal family and took her role as queen very seriously.

She understood the changes she needed to make to the royal family to keep it current. In 1970, she allowed cameras into Buckingham Palace to film the royal family's domestic life in response to the demands of the public.

In 1978, the queen condoned the divorce of her sister, Princess Margaret. This was significant because divorce was still considered taboo in the monarchy.

Throughout her reign, the queen made many official trips to the various countries of the commonwealth as well as other locations around the world.

In 2017, Prince Phillip stepped out of public life, and in that same year, the queen began to delegate her duties to Prince Charles and Prince William.

In 2015, the queen became the longest-reigning monarch of the UK, surpassing Queen Victoria who reigned for nearly 64 years.

Her reign spanned 15 prime ministers beginning with Winston Churchill who was in office when she was coronated in 1953 and ending with Liz Truss who she appointed on Wednesday.

Jewish community expresses condolences as Queen Elizabeth II’s reign comes to an end

Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom Ephraim Mirvis released a video message on Twitter praising the queen, saying she “embodied the most noble values of British society.”

“Throughout her extraordinary reign, she conducted herself with grace, dignity and humility and was a global role model for distinguished leadership and selfless devotion to society. In an ever-changing world, she was a rock of stability and a champion of timeless values,” he added. “Every week in synagogue we have prayed for her welfare, wellbeing and wisdom and she never let us down.”

He applauded her “warm relationship” with the Jewish community, adding that she had a particular commitment to “interfaith relations and Holocaust memorial.”

“I recall how, on one occasion, she showed me and my wife items of Jewish interest and value in her private collection in Windsor Castle, including a Torah scroll rescued from Czechoslovakia during the Holocaust. Her affection for the Jewish people ran deep, and her respect for our values was palpable,” he said.
“She never let us down.” The Chief Rabbi responds to the passing of Her Majesty The Queen. pic.twitter.com/Y3zfw9VEdC
— Chief Rabbi Mirvis (@chiefrabbi) September 8, 2022

“…grant Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II perfect rest for evermore under the protective cover of your Divine wings.”

The Chief Rabbi has composed a special prayer to mark the passing of The Queen. pic.twitter.com/yryG2SvtrV
— Chief Rabbi Mirvis (@chiefrabbi) September 8, 2022

The Conference of European Rabbis released a statement saying, “Together, Chief Rabbi Mirvis and the U.K. and the U.K. Jewish community, the Conference of European Rabbis (CER), its President Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt and the chairman of its Standing Committee Dayan Menachem Gelley join in mourning the passing of HM Queen Elizabeth II. Her dignified, devoted leadership will endure as an exemplar model for all. May her family find comfort.”

Michael Goldstein, president of the United Synagogue, the largest synagogue body in Europe, called the Queen “a constant for generations of United Synagogue members, the wider Jewish community and the nation at large.”

Palestinians funding illegal settlements -- in Kurdistan

You know how Palestinians say that occupation and settlements are the worst human rights abuses in world history?

It appears that they mean "only if done by Jews."

From Kurdistan 24:

A delegation of Kurds from Afrin visited the Palestinian Consul in Erbil, Nazmi Hazouri, and handed over a letter of protest of a Palestinian foundation building housing units for displaced Syrians in Afrin.

Levant 24 reported that the Palestinian organization Wafaa al-Mohsenin Charitable Foundation delivered 34 housing units to displaced Syrian Arabs in Jindires, in Afrin.

The organization says the project is funded by “the donation of the people of Al-Zaeem village in the city of Jerusalem”

Turkish-backed factions have occupied Afrin since March 2018, when the Turkish Army launched a cross-border offensive against the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG).

Kurds used to make up 96 percent of Afrin's population, but now represent only 25 percent after 2018, over two dozen organizations said in a letter last year.

In a letter, handed over to the Palestinian Consul, the delegation complained over the fact that the demography of Afrin have been changed since 2018, and the orignal people of Afrin have been replaced by Arabs and Turkmens, with the aim of Arabizing the region.

Also two years ago, there were reports that said a Palestinian NGO called “Association for Living with Dignity for the 48 Palestinians” funded Turkish NGO Beyaz Eller to construct a mosque in the Tal Tawil village in Afrin.

In a report released on 6 May 2021, the Syria Justice and Accountability Center, focuses on the role of "Kuwait and other regional governments in financing Turkish-led reconstruction efforts on land in Afrin belonging to displaced Kurdish populations."

The Syria Justice and Accountability Center said the "foreign-funded housing projects are desperately needed to meet the humanitarian needs of IDPS currently residing in the area."

But it noted that the "the manner of their implementation means that they are also contributing to processes of demographic change that many have seen as the explicit intent of Turkey and its proxies."

"By funding the construction of settlements that hinder the return of the original residents displaced by Turkish-backed forces, foreign donors may be complicit in the forced transfer of populations – a crime against humanity under international criminal law," the report concluded.

Yes, Palestinians are helping to build illegal settlements on occupied territory.

(h/t Tomer Ilan)

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Quick, Find A New Alarmist Buzzword To Call Israel - 'Apartheid' Isn't Working by Linda Sarsour (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

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Quick, Find A New Alarmist Buzzword To Call Israel - 'Apartheid' Isn't Working

by Linda Sarsour

Linda Sarsour New York, September 8 - I just returned from a solidarity visit to our Palestinian brethren under occupation, and I have both good news and bad news. The good news: our brothers and sisters facing the brutal colonialist policies of Zionism expressed as much resolve as ever when it comes to demanding historical justice. The bad news: few important-enough people and entities seem to care, and the ever-evolving list of charged epithets we throw at the Zionists seems to be losing whatever power it once had, including what many of us considered a carefully-crafted ace-in-the-hole, using a single word to paint the Jewish State as just another incarnation of white-minority-ruled South Africa. But even that rhetorical trick has produced disappointing results, and we desperately need new epithets to play on gullible Western emotions, ignorance, and knee-jerk antisemitism if we are to keep Palestine on the front page and in the trending topics.

Simpleminded activists might feel tempted to attribute the fizzling of the "Apartheid!" label to sinister (((Zionist))) manipulation or media, or suppression of the accusations. But an honest look at media reveals no shortage of mainstream outlets willing to legitimize the term as referring to Israel, especially since Amnesty International worked so hard to develop a redefinition of the term to apply only to Israel. All that hard work amounting to... not much, in terms of policy outcomes, will prompt some to imagine dark forces at play, but we mustn't rush into that mentality when more mundane factors explain the failure.

Chief among them: rhetorical fatigue. The fact that we've been yelling ourselves hoarse over so many spurious "massacres" by Israel might, just might, have eroded our credibility. Our tendency to call everything associated with Jewish sovereignty and security "Nazism" has diluted the impact of our work.

It also doesn't help that we call for boycotting, divesting, and sanctioning Israel, while registering no notable successes and quite a few embarrassing instances of hypocrisy on our part. For example, I was just there, enjoying places where Jews and Arabs live under Israeli rule more or less peacefully. Certainly more peaceful than the streets of Brooklyn. Who knows how many of us use Wix as the backbone of our websites? And don't even get me started on the technology that runs our smartphones and computers. If we don't take our demands and rhetoric seriously, how can we expect anyone else to?

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go hijack a progressive movement and make it about Palestine, thus running it into the ground.

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09/08 Links Pt1: America’s Regional Integration Scheme Benefits Iran; Glick: Abu Akleh and Biden’s pro-Iran realignment; Palestinian terrorist caught with pipe bombs, gun in Jaffa

From Ian:

America’s Regional Integration Scheme Benefits Iran

Barack Obama’s realignment doctrine in the Middle East was predicated on recognizing what he dubbed Iranian “equities” and buttressing them supposedly so as to create strategic parity or “balance” between America’s onetime foes and its regional allies. In doing so, Obama’s theory went, America would no longer be drawn into Middle Eastern wars to defend allies or to deter enemies—since the very concept of friends and foes would have been turned on its head. Without the burden of a regional security alliance structure, America would be free to redefine its role and posture in the region—which, as Obama saw it, was to force an accommodation with a nuclear-armed Iran on a nuclear-armed Israel and presumably a nuclear-armed Saudi Arabia, and make them work out their own security arrangements in a no-doubt rational fashion.

The fact that every element of Obama’s realignment has been shown to have little or no grounding in the geopolitical and physical realities of the Middle East has done little to deter the former president’s Mideast team, which is also Biden’s Mideast team, from seeking to restore the tarnished luster of what was supposed to be Obama’s signature policy achievement. By paying any price to get the Iranians to resurrect a Frankenstein agreement, the Obama-Biden team will now seek to once again demonstrate that, in their version of the Middle East, mullahs fly on carpets that run forever on a drop of rosewater. And if they can’t, it will be the fault of the Israelis, the Saudis, and whoever dared to question the beauty of the emperor’s new clothes.

And so, as the Biden administration readies to revive Obama’s agreement with Iran, the terminology for the realignment has been duly updated. Ahead of his trip to the Jeddah Security and Development Summit in July, an op-ed published in The Washington Post under Biden’s byline emphasized, no less than three times, what it called an “integrated” Middle East as a core element of the administration’s regional policy. While Biden’s trip included a stop in Israel, which fostered the belief that the strategy of integration was about furthering Israeli-Arab relations within the Trump administration’s Abraham Accords framework, nothing was further from the truth—the strategic concept of the accords being antithetical to realignment, which is why the Biden administration and its various spokespeople uniformly downgrade and slight the accords at every possible turn.

As a concept within the realignment framework, “integration,” as a term of art (much like “de-escalation,” in an earlier phase), is about Iran, as the Biden op-ed makes clear: “A more secure and integrated Middle East benefits Americans in many ways. … a region that’s coming together through diplomacy and cooperation—rather than coming apart through conflict—is less likely to give rise to violent extremism that threatens our homeland or new wars that could place new burdens on U.S. military forces and their families.” Any attempt by America’s old allies to counter Iran’s subversiveness and expansionism, let alone its nuclear weapons program, threatens the United States by generating terrorism and embroils America in Israeli and Saudi Arabian wars, into which American boys would be dragged to fight. The only acceptable option is to “integrate” Iran.

The term is an elaboration on Obama’s remark that U.S. allies, namely the Saudis, needed to “find an effective way to share the neighborhood” with Iran. Put differently, in Obama’s language, integration means fostering Arab investment in Iran’s U.S.-recognized regional “equities”—meaning strong-arming Arab states to pay for Iran’s tottering Middle Eastern empire.

Caroline Glick: Abu Akleh and Biden’s pro-Iran realignment

The current state of play with the administration vis-à-vis the nuclear deal is a disaster because the deal itself poses an existential threat to Israel in three ways: First, it enables Iran to become a nuclear-armed state. Second, it provides Iran with a massive financial windfall—$275 billion in the first year of the deal alone and $1 trillion by 2030—which will give Iran the resources to fund a war between Israel and Iran’s Palestinian and Lebanese proxies that Israel will be hard-pressed to contend with.

Finally, the deal endangers Israel’s survival because it is a testament to the Biden administration’s betrayal of the U.S.-Israel alliance on behalf of Iran.

On Tuesday, Lapid went to an F-35 squadron to deliver a message to Iran. Lapid said, “It is still too early to know if we have indeed succeeded in stopping the nuclear agreement, but Israel is prepared for every threat and every scenario. If Iran continues to test us, it will discover Israel’s long arm and capabilities. We will continue to act on all fronts against terrorism and against those who seek to harm us. As President Biden and I agree, Israel has full freedom to act as we see fit to prevent the possibility of Iran becoming a nuclear threat.”

Lapid obviously inserted Biden into his statement in the hopes of persuading Iran that the Biden administration has Israel’s back. Unfortunately, since administration policies across all fronts communicate the opposite message, rather than projecting strength, Lapid projected weakness.

At this point, for Israel to restore its deterrence against Iran, it must stop bowing to the Biden administration’s pressure. It must reinforce its refusal to accept culpability for Abu Akleh’s death and reject U.S. pressure to change its rules of engagement. Indeed, it should refuse to discuss the issue with administration officials.

Likewise, Israel should walk away from the maritime economic zone talks with Lebanon/Hezbollah. And it should dramatically scale back its intelligence sharing in light of the Biden administration’s pro-Iran policies.

The majority of Americans do not support these policies. Israel’s best move given this state of affairs is to stop enabling the administration to claim that it has Israel’s back when Biden’s actual policy is to stab Israel in the back, exposing it to existential peril.

Khaled Abu Toameh: What Iran's Terrorist Proxies Will Do with Biden's Concessions and Billions

Hezbollah and its patrons in Tehran have done nothing to help end the disastrous economic crisis in Lebanon, where nearly 80% of the people live below the poverty line. The World Bank has warned that the crisis ranks as one of the three most severe the world has seen since the mid-19th century.

Hezbollah does not pose a threat just to Israel, but also to the Lebanese people, America's Arab allies, including Saudi Arabia, and to America itself, especially from Cuba and Venezuela. " Iran's outreach to Venezuela, Asia Times notes, " is partly driven by economic interests and partly a desire to gain a foothold in 'America's backyard,' as the government parlance asserts. That explains the increasing appetite of the Islamic revolutionary God corps for building up ties in Latin America and even entertaining the idea of a military presence in Venezuela's waters....

"The problem for each of the states," according to Richard Hanania, president of the Center for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology at the University of Texas, this July "is lack of access to global capital." It is a problem that the promised billions from the Biden administration would immediately fix.

Yet, instead of working to alleviate the suffering of the Lebanese people, Hezbollah is continuing to gin up for war with Israel, a move that will bring still more disaster on Lebanon.

"What is happening in Lebanon today is an organized terrorist threat by Iran and its militias, especially the terrorist Hezbollah. Hezbollah wants to destroy Lebanon and turn it into a state similar to Iran. We appeal to all the Arabs to help Lebanon before it drowns in the sea of Iran." — Rami Naeem, Lebanese political analyst, Twitter, August 29, 2022.

"Who cares about a country such as Lebanon that has no water, electricity, university, school, hospital, and banks? Lebanon has no Arab, Gulf or international relations. Forty years have passed since Lebanon was brought into the [Iranian-led] axis of conflicts, wars, misery, bankruptcy and the collapse of the state." — Dr. Charbel Azar, member of the Sovereign Front for Lebanon, Akhbar Al-Yawm, August 25, 2022.