Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, December 15, 2022

12/15 Links Pt1: Europe is waking up and seeing NGO corruption; Francesca Albanese: Special Rapporteur to Demonize Israel; Irish UNIFIL peacekeeper killed by gunfire in Lebanon

From Ian:

Seth Frantzman: Why Qatar’s involvement in EU scandal may impact Middle East

This kind of bargaining, using money to get influence, appears to have now brought Qatar into scandal in Europe. But Doha has seen this happen before with controversy over the World Cup and also other controversies in the US, and it has generally sailed on without much effect on its overall relations.

The EU scandal seems to reveal that Qatar targeted members of the European Parliament from southern Europe and also people who are involved in human-rights and other left-leaning causes. This means that someone decided that the best people to target in influence peddling were left-leaning voices, those connected to socialist or other similar parties.

But why would these voices be open to dealing with Qatar, a state that openly suppresses gay rights and is authoritarian? This is one of the perplexing aspects of how Doha has portrayed itself over the last two decades, via media such as Al Jazeera, as being different than it is.

Even though Qatar is an authoritarian monarchy that not only backs far-right extremists in the Middle East, but also theocracy and suppresses workers’ rights, it is able to sell itself to left-leaning voices in the West through a complex blend of preying on Orientalist ideas and pretending that its suppression of rights is merely its “culture.”

Once Doha has pretended that its authoritarianism and support for extremists is “culture,” then it claims that any critique of its policies is “Islamophobia.” This tends to buy quiet from critics and also enables its influence to continue.

On the one hand, accusations that Qatar was involved in another corruption scandal are not unique. Many countries try to exploit Western democracy through media influence-peddling and corruption. For instance, for many years, countries sought to influence Washington’s foreign policy by plowing money into think tanks in and around DC. Then those countries would get the think tanks to hire former government officials and get the officials to help lobby for them. This would be passed off as merely “policy” discussions, but the discussions would always have an agenda.

For instance, when it came to Qatar, the goal would be to get think tanks to critique other Gulf states but never critique Qatar. This kind of lobbying isn’t always corruption, because sometimes it can be done openly. A country can plow money into a think tank, or it can have its supporters do this for it. It can also register its lobbyists.

NGO Monitor: Europe is waking up and seeing NGO corruption

What would've happened if they checked?

Had the EU officials checked (i.e., NGO due diligence), the officials and Brussels-based journalists, who also completely missed this story, would have found that the Sekunjalo Development Foundation (SDF) is based in South Africa, and has considerable baggage, including reports of Qatari funding. SDF is the “philanthropic division” of the powerful Sekunjalo Group’s investments and business deals, and related involvement should have raised numerous red flags in Brussels.

Among other entanglements, the group has worked with the Gupta family, which has been deeply implicated in the corruption cases against former South African president Jacob Zuma. And as the owner of Independent Newspapers & Media SA, Sekunjalo was accused of agreeing to Chinese censorship demands on reporting the mass internment of ethnic Uighurs. China is reportedly involved in numerous business arrangements with the South African firm.

ALL OF this information was readily available to the European officials involved with the NGO Fight Impunity, had they bothered to examine the details.

In contrast, as long as NGOs and their funder-enablers view “civil society” as a religion, complete with a halo effect protecting these groups and the funding process from critical analysis, the doors to corruption and abuse will continue to be wide open.

Perhaps this high-level scandal in the EU will finally result in a fundamental and overdue policy change, including regarding the wholesale funding of the small network of Palestinian and Israeli political NGOs, some of which are linked to terror groups. This change should begin with opening up the documents and meeting protocols in which NGO funding is decided, allowing for analysis of possible insider influence and corruption in the grant-making process involving tens of millions of euros.

In parallel, Europe needs to create mechanisms for NGO oversight, ending the free pass that allows these groups to exert political influence without accountability.

Like other major crises, the EU’s corruption scandal linking Qatar funding and the NGO facade is also an opportunity for repairing broken and dysfunctional mechanisms. The “weaponization of NGOs” is not limited to autocratic regimes far from Europe.

German ambassador to Israel praises anti-Israel NGO

In a series of tweets, Germany’s ambassador to Israel, Steffen Seibert, and its envoy to Ramallah, Oliver Owcza, lauded the anti-Israel NGO Ir Amim in comments regarding their tour with the group on Tuesday.

According to a 2021 report by the Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor, Ir Amim slammed Israel’s security barrier while “omit[ing] the context of Palestinian terror attacks and Israeli national security concerns.”

NGO Monitor noted that Ir Amim argues that the security barrier “extracts neighborhoods from the city [Jerusalem] with the goal of reducing the portion of Palestinians” and that the “barrier’s demographic rationale therefore outweighs its security rationale.”

“Ir Amim frequently accuses Israel of attempting to ‘Judaize’ Jerusalem and promotes the Palestinian narrative on the city, including claims that ‘government powers are being handed over to the settler organizations’ and archeological digs have become an important ‘tool in the fight for control’ over Jerusalem,” NGO Monitor said.

Berlin’s ambassador wrote on Twitter on Tuesday: “Accompanying @GerRepRamallah Oliver Owcza on an insightful tour with @IrArmin’s Judith Oppenheimer to focal points like [the eastern Jerusalem neighborhoods of] Silwan & Givat Hamatos.”

UN Human Rights Council claims to have a Code of Conduct -- and Francesca Albanese claims to follow it. They are both lying. (Daled Amos)

By Daled Amos

Francesca Albanese, the "UN Special Rapporteur Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territory Occupied Since 1967" observes the strictest standards of objectivity and impartiality.

We know this because Albanese tells us so herself on her Twitter account:

And this makes sense.

After all, that august body -- the UN Human Rights Council -- has a code of conduct that says explicitly that mandate-holders are expected to:

Uphold the highest standards of efficiency, competence and integrity, meaning, in particular, though not exclusively, probity, impartiality, equity, honesty and good faith; [emphasis added]

Going a step further, just take a look at Albanese's actual job application for the position of Special Rapporteur, helpfully dug up by Times of Israel (whose article is the basis of this post)

Case closed.

So what are we supposed to do when she herself openly admits that contrary to what she wrote on her application form, Albanese actually does hold prejudiced views:

10/ On her application, Albanese denied holding “any views or opinions that could prejudice the manner in which [she'd] discharge the mandate.”

Yet last year she said the opposite: that her “deeply held personal views” on the Palestinian issue “could compromise my objectivity.” pic.twitter.com/pseqLOYkoE
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) April 1, 2022

So, what are these prejudiced views that Albanese now admits to having before applying to be UN Special Rapporteur?

In 2014, Albanese posted to her Facebook account, decrying the ~~"Israel Lobby"~~ "Jewish Lobby":

America and Europe, one of them subjugated by the Jewish lobby, and the other by the sense of guilt about the Holocaust, remain on the sidelines and continue to condemn the oppressed — the Palestinians — who defend themselves with the only means they have (deranged missiles), instead of making Israel face its international law responsibilities

In another post in 2014, Albanese wrote to the BBC that

The Israeli lobby is clearly inside your veins and system and you will be remembered to have been on the big brother's side of this orwellian nightmare caused once again by Israel's greed. [emphasis added]

She hid that last post after Times of Israel asked her about it.

Just last year, Albanese attacked both Jewish and Israel lobbies

It’s not so much the Jewish lobbies that influence the policies of European and North American states towards Israel. Rather it is the existence of pro-Israeli political-economic lobbies in France, England, Germany, Italy and the United States that defend the international business of security and arms sales to allow better explain the silence of Western governments during the last war in Gaza (as in the previous ones). [emphasis added]

Also, Albanese is a big fan of Hamas:

All this preceded her claiming on her application that she held no prejudices that would hamper her in fulfilling her position.

Clearly, Albanese was less than truthful when she denied her prejudice -- and she clearly is not abiding by the strictest levels of objectivity and impartiality.

This, of course, makes her the ideal Special Rapporteur for the UN.

And her lack of objectivity combined with her support for Hamas terrorists who murder innocent civilians has led her to claim that Israel has no legal claim to self-defense:

Israel cannot claim self-defense while illegally occupying and while directing an act of aggression against another country,” she said. “Those who have the right to self-defense are the Palestinians."

Here is the video:

On another occasion, she said:

There is a right to oppose this occupation....The occupier cannot say he is defending himself

We can expect Albanese to push these ideas -- that terrorist attacks on civilians are lawful and that Israel does not have the right to defend itself from terrorist attacks -- during her term as Special Rapporteur.

After all, as we have already seen, objectivity and impartiality will not stop Albanese from pushing her personal agenda.

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!

Here's some more mainstream Arab antisemitism, by Muhammad Kamel Al-Ayadi in Egyptian newspaper El Yom. But this one seems to have an undercurrent of admiration as well, for the Jewish tendency not to give up in the quest to control the planet.

Since Jews were captured by the Babylonian leader Nebuchadnezzar and Solomon's Temple was demolished, they have not surrendered, but keep thinking about how to control the entire world, and make the peoples of the world their slaves and servants.

They succeeded in returning to Palestine in 536 BC, after they helped the Persian king Cyrus, and he stipulated that they should help him in ruling. They were able to build the temple again, but they failed to restore the kingdom of David, before the birth of Christ, in whom they refused to believe, and tried to kill him, but God saved him from them and raised him up.

The Jews do not give up, but rather do the impossible in order to reach their goal. They do not get tired of the long period and do not care about any sums spent. Here we notice how different the Jewish thought is from the Arab thought. The Jew only thinks about his cause and the survival of his people and their sovereignty over the world, so they orchestrated and managed revolutions in the world, and worked to keep people in wars and destruction that never enjoy peace, ravaged by poverty, high prices, and poor living, and dispersed by chaos, and the establishment of secret organizations that serve their goals. Their devilish plans, which they are so good at, haunt the world into darkness.

The Jews spare no effort to win what benefits their cause and include those they see as loyal to them and benefit their cause to their side, as they did with [Illuminati founder] Adam Weishaupt who left Christianity and embraced Satanism in 1770 AD. They used Jewish moneylenders who organized the Rothschild Foundation, to work on revising the old protocols on modern bases, as a prelude to world domination, after the coming catastrophe, which is the Third World War, and the involvement of countries in disputes and wars, as in the ongoing war between Ukraine and Russia....

Jews are weakening the world by reducing the sources of foodstuffs, impoverishing them, causing a major famine, especially in the Arab world, and destroying all existing governments and religions, and then the peoples are divided into warring camps, and the struggle between them remains forever, after the collapse of the economy, the spread of racism, and political problems. The Zionist community has pledged with the Illuminati to reach the world government under the leadership of the Zionists, under the leadership of their expected king, the “Antichrist”.

The Jews from before the birth of Christ, peace be upon him, and they plan tirelessly, generation after generation, and when the bearer of the copy of the Weishaupt plan died, he sent it to his supporters who orchestrated the French Revolution, while he was on his way to France, and the document reached the Bavarian government, it revealed the defects of the Jews, and issued its orders after it studied the document to occupy the Great East Lodge in 1785 AD, and considered the Noorani group outside the law, and despite that the group did not surrender, but rather penetrated the ranks of the Blue Freemasonry Association, and they formed a secret group within it, and it was later transformed into an organization exclusive to them, instead of the organization of the Illuminati, so that the Masonic organization can become Jewish Zionist.

Global Zionism was working in secret to become public one day, and now they are working in the eyes of the world without fear, because they have captured the world, and the Arabs are still in a deep slumber, preoccupied by sectarian differences and tribal conflicts, education has been lost, industry has ended, agriculture has declined, and they will remain until they return to their religion and be free from thinking about what is below the navel.

Arab antisemitism is this common. One never sees pushback on these sorts of articles.

And it continues to be ignored by people who swear they are against antisemitism.

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!

The Palestinian Authority is helping Russia bypass sanctions on their competing in sports.

It has given Palestinian citizenship to several of the top Russian equestrian team members, so they will have a chance to compete in the 2024 Paris Olympics as Palestinians.

Eurodressage describes more:

Russian Olympic Grand Prix team rider Aleksandra Maksakova has declared for Palestine.

The 25-year old Dutch based Aleksandra Dmitriyevna Maksakova has been competing internationally for her native country Russia since 2017.

"Due to current political situation and the decision by international sport federations – including the FEI – to ban Russian athletes from international competitions, I was no longer allowed to take part in international dressage events due to my Russian nationality, even though I am a permanent resident in Lithuania," Aleksandra told Eurodressage. "Under those difficult circumstances, I had the great chance and honour to be authorised to compete for Palestine, thanks to the support of Palestinian sporting bodies, and in compliance with the FEI regulations."

Both (her husband) Egor and Aleksandra have now been declared for Palestine and are eligible again to compete at international horse shows, putting them back in the running for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.

"I am looking forward to resuming international dressage competitions under the Palestinian flag," Aleksandra added.

Maksokova is the third Grand Prix rider to have declared for Palestine. The other two are Russian born Diana al Shaer (since 2018) and the German born Christian Brühe/Zimmermann (since 2011).

Palestinian Arabs have allied with the worst human rights abusers in the world from the 1930s to today.

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!

12/14 Links Pt2: No, Zionism isn’t out of date: Why the US arrests some terrorists but ignores others; Professor reveals pervasive antisemitism at University of Toronto Medical School

From Ian:

No, Zionism isn’t out of date

Ha’aretz columnist Anshel Pfeffer does not believe in Zionism. He doesn’t oppose it, he just thinks talking about it is a category mistake:

You cannot be either a Zionist or an anti-Zionist, he says, just as you cannot be a veteran of Iwo Jima unless you were born at least 90 years ago and fought in that battle. Zionism isn’t an ideology. It’s a program, or an ideological plan, to establish a state for Jews in the biblical homeland. And that program was fulfilled on May 14, 1948, when David Ben-Gurion declared Israel’s independence at the old Tel Aviv Museum. That’s it. Done.

"…believing that on the whole, founding the State of Israel was the right thing to do, doesn’t make you a Zionist any more than thinking that Oliver Cromwell was right to overthrow King Charles, makes you a Roundhead. It simply doesn’t matter what you think about long-ago events you didn’t take part in. Israel is a reality and it’s not going anywhere."

He’s wrong. There absolutely is such a thing as Zionist ideology, a set of basic principles that Zionists believe. And here they are:
-There is an am Yehudi, a Jewish people. You might think this is obvious, but Mahmoud Abbas denies it, and so do the “[insert nationality here] of the Mosaic persuasion” crowd, which includes the American Reform Movement.

-The survival of the Jewish people requires the Jewish state, a state that is more than just a state with a Jewish majority. The precise meaning of “more” differs according to the faction of the Zionist movement to which one belongs, but the Nation-State Law that was passed by the Knesset in 2018 is an example of a secular attempt to explicate that.

-Only in the Jewish state can a person fully realize his Jewish identity. You can still be a Zionist if you don’t believe that all Jews ought to live in the Jewish state, but Zionism includes the idea that diaspora life is sub-optimal even when it is not actively dangerous.

-One needn’t be a Jew to be a Zionist. Agree with the principles above and you are a Zionist, regardless of your own religion or ethnicity.

Pfeffer points out that there were religious and secular, socialist and revisionist Zionisms. This was true before 1948, and it’s still true today. But all of them affirm the principles above. The existence of factions doesn’t negate the truth behind an ideology. After all, these are Jews we are talking about!

Tom Stoppard and the Failure of ‘Diasporism’

As much as the contributions of Diaspora Jews should inspire pride and celebration, it has become clear that there has emerged no serious alternative other than Israel for those who would sustainably perpetuate specifically Jewish achievement and inquiry. Those of us in the Diaspora will not all move there—although Stoppard is here to remind us that Jews will always require a refuge from the forces of hatred that now seek Israel’s destruction. But we are called upon to support the Zionist project not only as a form of self-defense but also to continue providing the wider world with the fruits of Jewish labors. Leopoldstadt’s invocation of a potential Jewish state at the play’s beginning, and Israel’s existence at its end as the tiny remnant of the Merz and Jacobowicz families gathers in the once-grand apartment of assimilation in 1955, mark it as one of the most profoundly Zionist documents of our time.

It is a reflection of the durability and power of anti-Semitism that, even if the playwright had uncovered the facts of his own Jewish past in 1955 the way his young British character does, rather than in the 1980s, he would have risked a great deal by writing Leopoldstadt as a young man in the wake of his career-making success with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead in 1966. He likely would have become known as a Jewish, rather than a British, playwright—a dramatist making a special pleading due to the tragedy visited upon his own family. No, it was his established reputation as the greatest living English dramatist that has enabled this unlikely production—among other things, Leopoldstadt has a cast of 38, the largest any play on Broadway has seen in generations. Therein lies yet another lesson about the limits of Diasporism.

The Hanukkah Queen Who Saved the Jews

A generation after the Hanukkah miracle, in the midst of great turmoil, Salome Alexandra defended Judaism and restored Jewish practice.

The story of Hanukkah is one of the best-known in Jewish history: how a small group of faithful Jews, led by the Maccabees, revolted against their Hellenist Greek rulers during the years 167-160 BCE, and restored the Temple in Jerusalem to Jewish worship once again.

Their unlikely military victory and the miracle of a single jug of oil burning in the Temple’s golden Menorah for eight days are celebrated during the holiday of Hanukkah. Less known is what came next.

The “Maccabee” brothers (named after one brother, Judas Maccabeus) established the Hasmonean royal dynasty that ruled the Jewish kingdom of Judea for over 200 years. Far from presiding over a peaceful nation, the Hasmonean rulers were mercurial, autocratic, and ruled a land continually on the brink of civil war. It fell to Queen Salome Alexandra - also known as Shlomit Alexandra and as Shlomzion - to stand up to some of the most terrifying dictators imaginable, champion traditional Judaism, and restore peace to Judea.

A key fact that’s often ignored in telling the Hanukkah story is that many Jews at the time embraced a Hellenist lifestyle, worshiping Greek deities and embracing Greek values. Within a generation of the Hanukkah miracle, the Jewish community was again riven into factions, most notably the Sadducees, who rejected the Talmud and many Jewish elements of a traditional Jewish lifestyle and who dominated the ruling classes, and the Pharisees who clung to Jewish traditions and lifestyles.

Queen Salome and her Wicked Husband
Queen Salome was born into a prominent scholarly family and married into royalty. She possessed incredible courage and calmness. Salome’s brother was Shimon ben Shetach, one of Judea’s most renowned rabbis and a champion of the Pharisee cause. When it became too dangerous for her brother to remain in Judea because of Sadducee persecution, Queen Salome hid him, as well as other rabbinic allies of traditional Judaism.

Professor Cyrille Cohen sounds as though he’d be the perfect person to call on if you’ve got questions to ask about vaccine effectiveness against COVID-19. Cohen is head of the Laboratory of Immunotherapy and vice dean of Life Sciences at Israel’s Bar Ilan University. But instead of asking him about the virus, the host of a French television show berated Cohen, his invited guest, for wearing a yarmulke. A second panelist, French-Jewish journalist Elisabeth Levy, seemed to take special umbrage at Cohen’s religious apparel, telling the eminent scientist that covering one’s head with a skullcap is “indiscreet.”

In other words, what happened here on French TV is that a Jew was put on trial. It began with a question bearing no relationship to the topic at hand. “I will ask a question because a lot of people are asking and it has nothing to do with medicine,” said the CNews host to Prof. Cohen. a lot of people are asking why the professor is wearing a religious symbol in the studio?”

Confused at being asked about his attire rather than his specialty, Cohen replied that wearing a cap on his head wasn’t any kind of special statement for the viewers. It’s just what he does. "Why?" said Cohen, "Because I wear it every day."

That is when Levy jumped into the conversation. “I also asked him this when we went to the coffee machine."

And in that moment, the gig was up.

There were not “a lot of people” asking why Cohen wears what he wears. It was a single person, Elisabeth Levy, who had inspired this coup that made for some remarkable television. Remarkably hateful, that is. Hateful in that a Jew was put on trial for following his beliefs. And if that’s not antisemitic, what is?

Had a discussion on vaccines been on the table at all? Or was it all about luring Cohen onto the show to lambaste him on air for wearing a Jewish beanie on his head? It’s not such a crazy idea, really. Attacking a guy for his visibly Jewish appearance is bound to be a heckuva lot more exciting than talking about COVID-19--makes for MUCH better television.

We will never know whether the ambush of Prof. Cohen was coincidental or by design. But we do know that Elisabeth Levy saw an opening to divert attention away from Cohen, and toward herself, that all might see how woke she is for playing the role of Jew in name only (JINO).

Cohen understood now that he had been invited not to discussed vaccines, but to be mocked and reviled for being visibly Jewish on French soil.

“Full disclosure,” said Cohen of the thin piece of cloth on his head, “I wear it every day. I did not put it on especially for this show,” and yet here he was, being forced to defend his religious practice without warning, while live on TV. As opposed to doing what he’d been invited to do: talk about the effectiveness of vaccines. Something that actually falls within the purview of his special expertise.

Levy, naturally, was unsympathetic. She didn't care. She wanted the spotlight on her, Levy. So she took over from the host completely, lecturing Cohen about the French concept of “laicite,” secularism, as the host sat back to enjoy the show. “You understand, don’t you?” said Levy, as if Cohen were a five-year-old. “To us, secularism is the standard. This is not against religion, but you should try to observe your religion to yourself. Do you understand?”

It is unfortunate that someone forgot to tell Levy that in the scheme of things—in the hierarchy of Jewish tribal affiliations, that is—Cohen trumps Levy. Even when it comes to French daytime television fodder. This Cohen knew what to say.

“They call me ‘Cohen,’” said the immunologist, shouting and gesturing to the heavens. “[It’s] my name! Why would you want me to keep my religion to myself? I come from Israel.”

Simple logic. Professor Cohen doesn’t live in France. He is not bound by the illiberal and immoral French laws that forbid Yidden to show their fear of God at swimming pools and public schools.

Elisabeth Levy, however, cares nothing for logic and even less about science, ostensibly the topic under discussion. Levy is like a dog with a bone. She simply won’t let go. She knows what her audience likes as well as what they don’t like: Jews that look, well, JEWY. Levy was playing to the crowd and darned if she wouldn't exploit that for all it's worth.

“There are [other] people here who call themselves ‘Cohen’ and they do not wear a yarmulke. So do like them and not like you,” said Levy to Cohen, whom she believes to be not only clueless, but obstreperous for his unwillingness to adopt secular French group-think. Indignant now (or more likely pretending to be), she begins “Do you not understand that in France . . .”

But Cohen wasn’t having any more of these "lessons." He understood what this was about: Jews and Jew-hate. As such he did not fear to inform Levy, the show’s host, and French television viewers at large, that the jig was up: he was on to them. Still, as a man of science, he tried reason:

“If a priest were to arrive here, or the pope—would you ask him to remove his cross or his head covering?” asks Cohen.

"קוראים לי כהן, אני מישראל, אני עם כיפה"

הבנתי שהקטע הזה וויראלי למדיי בצרפת, הנה תרגום לעברית: פרופ' סיריל כהן הישראלי בא להתראיין בערוץ צרפתי כרופא, ונשאל מה פתאום הגיע לאולפן עם כיפה... pic.twitter.com/6v0YM7ZnS5
— סיון רהב מאיר Sivan Rahav Meir (@SivanRahav) December 7, 2022

“The truth is, said the show's host, "that if the pope were to arrive at my morning show, we would leave it,” he said, laughing, and scratching his head, a gesture meant to be impish, charming, and human. Fodder for his viewers. A bit of candy.

A gentleman to the end in this unwitting comedy of manners, Cohen notes that it was never his intention to cause offense. The wearing of a skullcap, he said, was not meant to “insult any of your viewers.”

Because, duh. It wasn't. Cohen hadn't done anything weird or offensive. He hadn't done anything wrong He had only exercised his freedom of religion. Something he had come to expect and appreciate as an Israeli citizen.

Not only did Cohen do nothing wrong, he did everything right. He is a hero: zealous to serve his God, and unafraid to call out vain idiots like Elisabeth Levy.

We may never know whether Levy colluded with the host of this show to produce this very public, antisemitic ambush of an eminent scientist. But someone ought to tell her (probably more than once, slowly) that in the Jewish scheme of things, Cohen trumps Levy.

Every. Single. Time.

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!

Pallywood: Hamas introduces a "tank"

Today, Hamas members escorted this "tank" through Gaza. Presumably this was meant to impress the audience for Hamas' 35th anniversary celebration today.

It is pretty obvious that this is no tank. The treads are not moving, for one. It is merely a truck with a covering - essentially, a parade float. It might be made of papier-mâché.

This isn't the first time Hamas tried to pull this stunt. In 2016, Hamas spokesman Abu Obeida tried to impress Gazans when he delivered a speech from a "tank" that they claimed they captured from Israel, but everyone could see the rubber tires underneath 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!

12/14 Links Pt1: IDF Reveals Rocket Sites next to Gazan Schools; UN rapporteur said ‘Jewish lobby’ controls US, compared Israelis to Nazi; Iran kicked out of UN Women's Commission in 29-8 vote

From Ian:

IDF Reveals New Terrorist Rocket Launch Sites next to Gazan Schools

Hamas exposed: This is how the Hamas terrorist organization uses schools and education to promote its terrorist agenda. Additional instances of Hamas deliberately using children as human shields are now being exposed. Here are a number of instances that showcase how Hamas endangers the civilians of Gaza.

This exposure comes approximately two weeks after UNRWA reported that the ground of one of its schools had collapsed. The collapse was caused by the construction of a Hamas terrorist tunnel.

Hamas Rocket Launch Site Stationed Adjacent to the Mo'ath Bin Jabal School
Hamas stationed a rocket launch site adjacent to the Mo'ath Bin Jabal school in the Shejaiya neighborhood of Gaza City. Near the school, which is used by UNRWA as a shelter during emergencies, is a Hamas rocket launch site. Prior to Operation Guardian of the Walls, the school’s principal, Mehammed Abu Oun, maintained contact with an operative in the Hamas rocket array, Jalal Abu Aoun, who it appears enabled this shooting.

The cynical exploitation of schools proves once again that the terrorist organization consciously chooses to endanger Gazan civilians and use them as 'human shields' in benefit of their terrorist agendas.

Hamas Rocket Launch Site Stationed Adjacent to the Khalil Al Nobani School
Hamas stationed a rocket launch site near the Khalil Al Nobani school in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City.

The school is a completely innocent public building that was intended to provide a secure environment for the children in the Gaza Strip, but in reality, Hamas used it to launch rockets.

Rocket Launch Sites Stationed Adjacent to the Al-Furqan School
Terrorist organizations stationed rocket launch sites near the Al-Furqan elementary school located in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City. Terrorist organizations launched rockets from the sites near the school throughout Operations Guardian of the Walls and Breaking Dawn, thereby endangering the lives of the students and residents of the Gaza Strip.

Over 1,000 innocent students attend these schools that Hamas uses for terrorist activities. Hamas purposefully puts both civilians and pupils in danger by using them as human shields.

Hamas is only interested in its own terrorist agenda, and students in Gaza constantly find themselves in danger from being used as human shields.

Israel: impunity for UN officials speaking of the Jewish Lobby must end

Israel called on the United Nations to end its impunity for UN officials who use the antisemitic phrase the Jewish Lobby.

"The lack of accountability and impunity for comments made by UN officials only works to legitimize antisemitism and endangers the Jewish people," it said.

Israel's mission to the UN in Geneva spoke out after an Israeli English website The Times of Israel reported that "UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967" Francesca Albanese had used the phrase the Jewish Lobby.

Albanese is tasked with reporting on alleged Israeli human rights abuses to the UN Human Rights Council and the General Assembly. Other reports of the use of the antisemitic phrase

Earlier this year, The Jerusalem Post reported Miloon Kothari, one of three members of the UNHRC's Commission of Inquiry on Israel, had said in a public interview that social media was largely controlled by the “Jewish lobby.” He later retracted that statement due to its antisemitic connotations.

Albanese's comment "that surfaced today are yet another stain on the credibility of this body and yet another example of the impunity that exists today regarding antisemitism and antisemitic comments made by UN officials."

It referenced a Facebook post she wrote in 2014, prior to entering the post of special UN rapporteur in which she wrote that, "America and Europe, one of them subjugated by the Jewish Lobby, and the other by the sense of guilt about the Holocaust remain on the sidelines..”

UN rapporteur said ‘Jewish lobby’ controls US, compared Israelis to Nazis

The individual tasked by the United Nations Human Rights Council with probing alleged Israeli violations against the Palestinians had previously said that the “Jewish lobby” controls the United States and compared Israelis to Nazis, The Times of Israel reported on Wednesday.

Francesca Albanese, the UNHRC’s Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967, made the comment in 2014 during the 50-day conflict between Israel and the Hamas terrorist group.

“America and Europe, one of them subjugated by the Jewish lobby, and the other by the sense of guilt about the Holocaust, remain on the sidelines and continue to condemn the oppressed—the Palestinians—who defend themselves with the only means they have (deranged missiles), instead of making Israel face its international law responsibilities,” Albanese wrote on Facebook at the time.

TOI also found that Albanese had sympathized with terror organizations, dismissed Israel’s security concerns and accused the Jewish state of potential war crimes.

Last month, Albanese spoke at a conference in Gaza attended by senior members of the U.S.- and E.U.-designated terror groups Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

In her speech, translated into Arabic in real time, Albanese told the crowd: “You have a right to resist this [Israeli] occupation.”

Francesca Albanese also cheered the removal of Hamas from a terror list, endorses their "right to resist," and writes “The Israeli lobby is clearly inside your veins and system” and speaks of “Israel’s greed.”

Source: @luketress @TimesofIsrael https://t.co/BtBeZNioxd /2
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) December 14, 2022

Israel condemns the comments made by Francesca Albanese. The term “Jewish Lobby” is a millennia-old antisemitic trope that has been used to direct hatred toward the Jewish people with horrific consequences. The UN must take action.

Full Statement ?? https://t.co/FxvtLeOs1C pic.twitter.com/ua3wzv2kv8
— Israel in UN/Geneva???????? (@IsraelinGeneva) December 14, 2022

Iran kicked out of UN Women's Commission in 29-8 vote

Iran was ousted from the United Nation's Commission on the Status of Women on Wednesday evening in a vote of 29-8.

Some 16 countries abstained from the vote. The eight countries to vote against the decision were Bolivia, China, Kazakhstan, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Oman, Russia and Zimbabwe.

The decision comes as Iranians continue to protest against the Islamic Republic throughout Iran for a 12th week. The protests were sparked after the killing of Mahsa Amini by Tehran "morality police" in September but has since expanded to cover more issues than just hijab, with many protesters calling for regime change.

One of the central slogans of the ongoing protests is "women, life, freedom."

An Iranian representative to the United Nations stated that the Islamic Republic "categorically rejects" the decision, calling the claims of women's rights abuses against Iran "baseless and fabricated."

The representative claimed that the US was "undermining" the principles of the UN charter and attacking the core principles of democracy.

"Our efforts to promote and protect women's rights are driven by our rich culture and well established constitution and is based on our cultural and ethical values. Just a cursory look at the advancement of Iranian women and girls and their status in various fields...can lead you to perceive Iran - away from prejudice - as a progressive society that takes into consideration their needs and listen to the voices of its women and girls eagerly."

VICTORY! ??
By a vote of 29 to 8, with 16 abstentions, the Islamic Republic of Iran was just expelled from the U.N. Women's Rights Commission. First time in United Nations history that any member state was removed from this body. Bravo to all who helped to make this happen! ?? pic.twitter.com/LDMBKTPWMO
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) December 14, 2022

"Jewish academics" write an open letter against the IHRA working definition of antisemitism. Another larger group responds.

From the EU Observer, November 3:

Israel is trying to gag its critics by formally labelling them as antisemites in the UN, Jewish academics have warned, but the EU Commission says there's no cause for alarm.

Some 128 scholars of Jewish history and Holocaust studies from around the world raised the red flag in a letter published in EUobserver on Thursday (3 November) entitled: "Don't trap the United Nations in a vague and weaponised definition of antisemitism".

Yes, once again Israel haters have written a letter.

And once again, it is meaningless to have 128 academics sign anything because there are millions of academics worldwide, and one can find a few hundred to sign any fringe opinion.

And once again, the criticism of IHRA has nothing to do with what it actually says.

Yet once again, the letter - since it comes from Jews and supposedly (but not really) scholars of Jewish subjects - gains an outsized amount of publicity.

It is all a game, and one where the media plays its part to inflate issues it agrees with.

But without the pro-Israel side countering the meaningless letter, it appears to be the consensus among Jewish academics.

So other Jewish academics who support the IHRA definition wrote their own letter - and gathered more signatures than the anti-Israel academics did. The effort was spearheaded by the Jewish Studies Zionist Network, which was organized this year.

JSZN co-coordinator, Adam Fuller, Associate Professor of Politics and International Relations at Youngstown State University, said, “This isn’t about criticizing Israel. You can criticize Israel’s government all you want like you can criticize any other government in the world. But the hostility toward Israel rises to something well beyond mere criticism. It’s demonization of Israel’s very existence as a Jewish state. The demonization parallels any other antisemitic trope that paints the Jewish people as thieving and conniving.”

Jarrod Tanny, Associate Professor of Jewish History at University of North Carolina Wilmington, and founder of JSZN, said, “Contrary to what the IHRA WDA’s opponents think, this document is not some sort of legal code intended as a weapon to silence critics of Israel. It is a working definition, a tool to offer guidance to those who need to grapple with antisemitism but are unfamiliar with the issues at hand. Our critics maintain that the JDA {Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism) is a far superior definition of antisemitism, but upon careful examination it is obvious that it is intended as a get out of jail free card for the demonization of Israel.”

“Unlike the JDA,” Tanny added, “the IHRA ensures that Israel is treated like any normal internationally recognized independent state and its supporters are afforded the same rights as anyone else."

Indeed, the JDA definition spends as many paragraphs on what they claim antisemitism isn't - obsessive criticism of Israel - than on what it is.

Hate for Israel is no less antisemitic as hate for Jews. There is a clear distinction between demanding a boycott of the world's only Jewish state - which includes silencing Zionists - and mere criticism of Israel.

It is a shame that these "open letters" force others to respond, but the game has to be played.

On another note, I really need to get hold of the JSZN to see if they want to hold a seminar on my (IMHO, superior) definition of antisemitism.

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 prime minister Mohammed Shtayyeh met with Palestinian filmmakers on Tuesday and gave them one message: produce pro-Palestinian propaganda.

He stated, "The strength of our narrative in the face of poisonous funding lies in its sincerity, and every Palestinian has a narrative that must be told, and supporting the cinema sector in Palestine is one form of steadfastness. The private sector and society must participate in it alongside the government."

Shtayyeh stressed the importance of film as propaganda, in "highlighting our Palestinian cause and its justice, and communicating it to the world through cinematic and documentary works, because it leaves a great impact on the hearts of peoples around the world ."

The PA ministry of culture intends to create a committee to regulate the film industry - meaning, not to allow any films that do not adhere to the Palestinian, anti-Israel narrative.

If there was any independence in Palestinian cinema to date, it is certainly gone now. Not that Palestinian filmmakers ever showed a desire to create films that counter their narrative: their smiling faces above show that they have no problem whatsoever with being told what kinds of films they will be allowed to make.

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

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On this day in 1998, President Bill Clinton was bamboozled by Yasir Arafat into believing that the PLO had changed its charter.

The very moment of the sham was captured in the photo above, as a roomful of Palestinians in Gaza pretended to vote to rescind the articles of the charter that called for the destruction of Israel.

We know that the charter never changed. The 1968 Palestinian National Charter calling for the destruction of Israel is still on the PLO website. It is still on the official Palestinian Authority press agency site. And no charter without those clauses has ever been published.

It still says, "The partition of Palestine in 1947 and the establishment of the state of Israel are entirely illegal, regardless of the passage of time." It still says, "Palestine, with the boundaries it had during the British Mandate, is an indivisible territorial unit." It still insists on the "liberation of Palestine" including the destruction of Israel.

There is another way to know that there was no vote on December 14, 1998.

Heba Beydoun researched the incident in 2020, and compared the "vote" with what the PLO's own rules say are needed. She proves beyond a doubt that the entire roomful of people were play-acting for Clinton.

The only entity that can change the charter is the Palestinian National Council, in an official meeting.

That 1998 gathering is not counted as an official meeting of the Palestinian National Council, which didn't meet between 1996 and 2009.

The official invitation to the meeting didn't indicate that it was anything other than a gathering to listen to Clinton speak. It never claimed to be a Palestinian National Council meeting. Unlike official meetings, there was no opening session, no count of a quorum, no agenda, the president and vice presidents of the National Council did not attend as they must, the secretary didn't lead the session, there was no final statement at the end of the meeting, and it was never recorded among the records of official National Council meetings.

Many of the people who did attend and "voted" were not even members of the PNC - Arafat handed out invitations to members of terror groups and others to fill the room to make it look more impressive for Clinton.

Moreover, many of the other requirements for amending the charter never happened. The Palestinian National Council didn't form a committee to amend the Charter, and the proposed charter was never referred to the Legal Committee in the Council for consideration, and the Palestinian Central Council had not met for to discuss the issue, even though Arafat claimed that it had before the sham vote.

It was no accident. It was theatre, clearly planned by Arafat to deceive the President of the United States. And boy, was Clinton deceived. He said in his speech immediately afterwards:

I know the way is often difficult and frustrating, but you have come to this point through a commitment to peace and negotiations. You reaffirmed that commitment today. I believe it is the only way to fulfill the aspirations of your people and I am profoundly grateful to have had the opportunity to work with Chairman Arafat for the cause of peace, to come here as a friend of peace and a friend of your future, and to witness you raising your hands, standing up tall -- standing up not only against what you believe is wrong, but for what you believe is right in the future.

...I thank you for your rejection -- fully, finally and forever -- of the passages in the Palestinian Charter calling for the destruction of Israel. For they were the ideological underpinnings of a struggle renounced at Oslo. By revoking them once and for all, you have sent, I say again, a powerful message not to the government, but to the people of Israel. You will touch people on the street there. You will reach their hearts there.

Palestinian leaders think that they can say one thing in Arabic and another in English, they can lie with impunity to the West, and they will get away with it, with no real consequences. They even believe that they can create an entire fictional drama, complete with actors, to fool the entire world into believing a fiction.

History shows that they are correct. They did it with Clinton, they did it with Al Dura, they do it with "Pallywood," even today the English pages of their media portrays them as innocent victims while the Arabic pages say they are mighty soldiers planning to annihilate the Jews.

The West keeps getting fooled because they want to be fooled. The Palestinians have learned this lesson well.

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!

12/13 Links Pt2: Landes on Why Leftists Embrace Islamist Ideas about the West; The history of the media intifada against Israel; Brandeis Center: FBI Report Grossly Understated Antisemitic Crimes

From Ian:

Richard Landes on Why Leftists Embrace Islamist Ideas about the West

Richard Landes, chair of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (SPME) and author of Can the "Whole World" Be Wrong? Lethal Journalism, Antisemitism, and Global Jihad, was interviewed in a December 5th Middle East Forum Webinar (video) by Dexter Van Zile, editor of the Middle East Forum's Focus on Western Islamism (FWI), regarding the left's embrace of Islamist ideas about the West.

Landes said Edward Said's 1978 book, Orientalism, had "pretty much taken over academia" with its premise that any criticism of Islam was a form of "Western racism." By 2000, said Landes, Said's ideas had "crystallized into a basic feature of the Western public sphere." In 2001, a further significant watershed in this process was the U.N.-sponsored Durban conference, an international forum purportedly held to fight racism. At the conference, "You had the NGOs ... their sacred theme was human rights ... lining up with and joining forces with some of the most regressive groups on the planet. And so as a result ... And the key thing in that unification was the adoption by both sides .... They had already both more or less developed this thought, but they jointly targeted Israel and the United States as, in millennial terms, the Antichrist. Or in Muslim terms, the Dajjal."

Landes described the alliance formed at Durban, followed three days later by the jihad against America on 9/11, as a "red-green alliance" between the "progressive left and jihadis." He referred to it as a "marriage between post-modern sadism and post-modern masochism." The poisonous seeds of that merger account for the Islamists' marching in lockstep with the left, targeting both Israel and the U.S.

Landes said their joint strategy to undermine the West is "demopathy," i.e., using democracy to destroy democracy. Both groups used their platforms to channel their hostility, often publicized at anti-U.S. and anti-Israel protests in the form of symbolic imagery on placards linking swastikas with the American flag and the Jewish star. Landes noted that Islamist propagandists have grown "bolder and bolder. Initially, they didn't think they could get away with saying the things that they say now, so they couched it in human rights terms." He said that "what's happened over the last 20 years is that they've just seen how foolish Western leaders are and that they can get away with just about anything. But I think they still, by and large, don't openly say in English what they say in Arabic."

Phyllis Chesler: The history of the media intifada against Israel

From the moment Yasser Arafat launched his long-planned second intifada against Israel in 2000, the most brazen lies about both Jews and Israel were relentlessly told and widely believed. For years, master propagandists in cyberspace, the Western media and academia managed to diabolically invert reality. The entire world believed an utterly false narrative.

Richard Landes’s new work Can the Whole World Be Wrong?: Lethal Journalism, Antisemitism and Global Jihad fearlessly, carefully, relentlessly and brilliantly documents this history.

Landes is a historian and a scholar of apocalyptic movements. He is the author of eight books and countless articles. He maintains a formidable website, The Augean Stables. He is also a consummate wordsmith. For example, he coined the phrase “Pallywood” (Palestinian Hollywood) to describe the Palestinians’ tactic of staging theatrical productions in war zones in order to create anti-Israel propaganda disguised as news.

In his book, Landes proceeds blood libel by blood libel, beginning with the iconic death of Mohammed al-Dura, a Gazan child allegedly murdered with malice aforethought by cruel Israeli soldiers. With his death caught on video and immediately blamed on Israel, even though the video proved no such thing, al-Dura became the boy whose image has graced a thousand mugs and t-shirts, inflamed the entire world and led to countless Muslim atrocities, including suicide bombings, shootings, knife attacks and car-rammings against Israeli civilians.

As Landes notes, the initial reporting on the incident was malicious and incendiary: “The (flawed) footage and its accompanying narrative immediately went viral, then mythical. The footage was spectacular, as emotionally powerful as the dogs attacking Black protesters in Birmingham (1963), and the terrified Vietnamese girl running down the road naked, aflame with napalm (1972). … Despite extensive problems with the footage … journalists piled on the story. … It became the icon of hatred for the 21st century. One cannot overestimate its impact.”

“The role of al-Dura as incitement is clear,” Landes writes, “and if the damage was less than the old European pogroms, it’s only because the Israelis could defend themselves as the Jews of Kishinev could not.”

Landes also reminds us that Osama bin Laden used al-Dura in a recruiting video for global jihad and that the first Palestinian suicide bombers featured al-Dura in the videos they left behind.

EU source says anti-Israel measure 'tainted' in wake of Qatar corruption scandal

A source that has been privy to the European Parliament's behind-the-scenes deliberations over an anti-Israel resolution has told Israel Hayom it was problematic to have this measure come up for a vote at this time in light of the recent revelation that Qatar allegedly bribed senior officials in the legislative body in exchange for treating it with kid gloves over human rights.

"This corruption case involving the parliament raises the question of whether this is the right time to vote on this [anti-Israel resolution]," the source said.

The parliament's subcommittee on human rights has been at the center of the scandal and its chair Maria Arena has had to step down due to possible involvement (it is unclear if she is among the four being charged, who include EU Parliament's Vice President Eva Kaili, who was arrested).

Arena, who has initiated the anti-Israel motion, has stepped aside as chairperson in the wake of the investigation and her office has been sealed off, but the subcommittee has continued working on the draft. "This is the same subcommittee that has initiated the effort to hold the vote on the Israel resolution," the source said. "Considering this, perhaps it would be inappropriate to have these measures stay on the subcommittee's docket; perhaps they should be shelved for the time being until the picture becomes clearer."

On Monday, the various elements in the parliament tried to reach an agreed language, but all the drafts currently being circulated are not good for Israel, with some outright hostile. All call for the adoption of the two-state solution. The most pro-Israel draft has been sponsored by the right-wing parties, as it condemns Palestinian terrorism and demands it come to an end. The other resolutions call on Israel to avoid approving new communities in Judea and Samaria and voice criticism over the Abraham Accords, while also coming out against the adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition of antisemitism.

NGO Monitor: Report: Potential Abuse of German Development Resources by Terror Affiliated Palestinian NGOs

Development and cooperation aid is seen as one of the most effective strategies for promoting democracy and fundamental rights, as well as building sustainable and inclusive societies, particularly in places where these processes are in their initial phases. To be sure, the path to building a democratic society is a political process, traversing existing ideological and social rifts, and subject to passionate debates between different political camps.

Especially in conflict ridden areas, politicization can result in development aid lending a platform to radical voices and amplifying inflammatory, hateful narratives. Such aid is particularly susceptible to abuse by groups that promote radical political narratives.

This is even more pronounced in the Palestinian-controlled areas, including Gaza, where many of the political factions are designated as terror groups by Europe (Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine [PFLP]).

This paper provides a case study that examines the ways that political actors propagate and legitimize radicalized narratives – namely, local Palestinian civil society organizations affiliated with the PFLP terror group, which receive European and more specifically German development aid.

The PFLP is multifaceted, consisting of overlapping functions including militant operations, local partisan political activity, and international advocacy via a “human rights” NGO network. These aspects are complementary, all contributing to the broadening of the PFLP’s sphere of influence and to achieving its goals.

The overlapping character of PFLP activities was illustrated acutely when several senior NGO employees (including those in financial leadership positions) were arrested for a PFLP terror attack in 2019, in which Rina Shnerb, a 17-year-old Israeli, was murdered. A subsequent investigation run by the Israeli Ministry of Defense (MoD) concluded that six PFLP-affiliated NGOs had diverted public funds. Ultimately, all six were designated as terror entities.

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!

The Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research has released a new survey of Palestinians. It was taken between December 7-10.

The most notable finding was that a huge majority of Palestinians support the formation of terror groups like "The Lion's Den."

72% of Palestinians (84% in the Gaza Strip and 65% in the West Bank) say they are in favor of forming terror groups such as the “Lions’ Den,” which do not take orders from the PA and are not part of the PA security services; 22% are against that.

Even more, 79%, are against members of that group surrendering to the PA, and 87% say the PA does not have the right to arrest members of those groups to prevent them from carrying out attacks against Israelis.

In general, the Palestinians are more negative about Abbas than they had been in previous polls. Only 23% of Palestinians are satisfied with Abbas' leadership.

Support for terror increased: 55% support a return to "armed confrontations and intifada" to break the current deadlock. Given a choice of the best way to obtain an independent state, 51% choose terror, an increase of 10 percentage points in three months; only 21% choose negotiations, and 23% choose "popular resistance. "

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!

12/13 Links Pt1: Jonathan Tobin: The Triumph of Trump’s Amateurs; Ruthie Blum: The making of a Palestinian martyr; Would Iran give a nuclear bomb to al-Qaeda?

From Ian:

Jonathan Tobin: The Triumph of Trump’s Amateurs

And yet the conflict served an unexpectedly creative purpose. It provided the leverage the United Arab Emirates needed to justify its decision to normalize relations with Israel. In the Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot, Yousef al-Otaiba, the UAE ambassador to the United Nations, published an op-ed blasting the annexation idea. But while ostensibly critical of Israel, the column offered the possibility that the Arab world would open its arms to the Jewish state—because putting off annexation indefinitely would provide a rationale for normalization by Arab nations that were eager for an excuse to ditch the Palestinians.

Kushner and his chief aide, Avi Berkowitz, with the enthusiastic support of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (who had replaced Tillerson in 2018), went to work securing what would become the Abraham Accords. The UAE went first, but the Kushner-Berkowitz team also got Bahrain and then Morocco (at the cost of American recognition for its occupation of the former Spanish Sahara) to join in.

The establishment of Israeli diplomatic relations with these countries was by any objective standard a historic achievement. It added to the total of Arab nations that recognized Israel after more than seven decades of the Jewish state’s existence; only Egypt and Jordan, both former direct combatants in the wars against Israel, had normalized relations before this point. Even more important, as Kushner’s book makes clear, the normalization was also done with the acquiescence of Saudi Arabia. The accords demolished the claims that peace with the Arab world could only follow a resolution of the conflict with the Palestinians.

Trump’s amateurs proved that John Kerry’s notorious 2015 answer of “no, no, no, no,” when he was asked about the possibility of a wider peace, had been a function of the foreign-policy establishment’s tunnel vision and not a reflection of diplomatic reality. It provided the template for future peace agreements along the same lines with other Arab nations and could, in theory, prod a new generation of Palestinian leaders to seek an agreement with Israel and the United States that would be similar to the Peace Through Prosperity formula.

That the amateurs had arrived at this point by an indirect route, and only after years of struggle both inside the U.S. government and in futile attempts to engage the Palestinians, doesn’t detract from their achievement. But so deep is the contempt for Trump and Netanyahu within the ranks of the Washington establishment, and so entrenched are their preconceived notions about the Middle East, that not even the reality of the Abraham Accords and their significance are enough to change minds.

With the same cast of characters who so conspicuously failed in the Middle East under Bill Clinton and especially Barack Obama now back in control of American foreign policy, the familiar refrains about Israel needing to make concessions to encourage the Palestinians are once again in vogue. Though the Palestinian reputation for intransigence has made it difficult for even President Joe Biden’s team to find any meaningful way to appease Abbas and Company, Trump’s successor has failed to follow up on the Abraham Accords, thus squandering the opportunity for more peace deals and a united front against Iranian aggression and nuclear threats.

That is why the four books by Trump’s amateurs deserve to be read—and, despite their pedestrian renderings of everyday diplomacy (and Kushner’s deeply unattractive efforts at revenge and score-settling), understood as a useful guide to how Washington can break its addiction to policies that have been tried and proven to fail. Their authors may suffer from the opprobrium that the educated classes attach to anyone connected to Trump. But their successes deserve to be remembered and honored, and they stand as a lesson to all who will follow in their footsteps.

Ruthie Blum: The making of a Palestinian martyr

Her grieving uncle’s contradictory accounts of the night in question were just as big a giveaway, albeit unintentional. He told one outlet that his niece had been at home minding her own business when the sound of gunshots overhead spurred her to race to the roof. He was quoted on Twitter as claiming that she had gone to the roof to find her missing cat.

Both stories are revealing; most young girls would have responded to the noise of gunfire, all-too-familiar in Jenin, by cowering under their beds, not rushing to get in on the action. It’s puzzling that no adult blocked her exit from the apartment under the circumstances.

As Israeli soldiers and Border Police were in pursuit of terrorists, three of whom were known to be plotting imminent attacks, residents of the area hurled rocks, Molotov cocktails and explosives at them. Experience has taught both the murderers and those seeking to arrest them that rooftops are the best perch for this. IDF snipers were thus appropriately positioned.

The one who ended up shooting Zakarneh was simply doing his extremely difficult, dangerous job—in pitch darkness, no less. Had the young woman not been next to the targeted terrorist, filming the exchange to post on social media for propaganda purposes, she would still be alive and well.

But, then, mobs of hate-filled Palestinians would have been robbed of the ritual of carrying her flag-draped body through the streets of the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) city that has become a key base for arms-hoarding and terrorist activity against the “Zionists.” It’s par for the making of a martyr, whose family will be rewarded with a generous monthly stipend from the P.A.

That’s a given, as is the vile way in which the whole scenario will be depicted in Gamba’s report.

Amb. Alan Baker: The Annual UN General Assembly Resolution Calling on Israel to Give Up Nuclear Weapons – “Much Ado about Nothing”

As part of the annual three-month “Israel-bashing” festival at the United Nations General Assembly, an automatic majority of 146 states adopted, on 7 December 2022, one of its annual resolutions calling upon Israel to renounce possession of nuclear weapons and to place its nuclear facilities under international supervision. Only six states voted against the resolution – Canada, the U.S., Palau, Micronesia, Liberia and Israel.

Anyone familiar with the annual ruminations and musings of the UN General Assembly should not be surprised or even bothered by the automatic repetition of old, archaic resolutions, year after year, singling out Israel for all the various ills of the world.

Apart from elements within Israeli media seeking to sensationalize and dramatize such resolutions, as well as some politicians and officials unfamiliar with the machinations of the UN, no one gets excited or bothered by such resolutions.

Even within the UN itself, the annual festival in the General Assembly of “Israel-bashing” resolutions based on an automatic, politically driven majority has for decades become a routine and unavoidable annoyance and irritant for all except the Arab and African states that sponsor them. Such resolutions certainly do not and are not intended to advance the cause of Middle East peace. Nor do they achieve anything other than stain the reputation of the organization.

They are endured by most states that, out of political correctness and fear of Muslim backlash, simply go along with them and even support them, knowing that they are meaningless.

Substantively and legally speaking, such resolutions, like all General Assembly resolutions, have no binding legal authority and represent nothing more than the collective, partisan political viewpoint of the automatic majority of states that regularly vote against Israel, no matter what the subject.