Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, December 26, 2022

Arab hyperbole inflation: "The Zionist occupation is a threat to humanity"

A Palestinian environmentalist who loves his land

The problem with hyperbole is that it eventually loses its effectiveness - and to keep it going, one has to keep upping the ante.

The UK-based Al Araby, which publishes in English as "The New Arab," has an editorial whose headline declares that "The Zionist occupation is a threat to humanity."

Sounds ominous!

It starts off with the usual supposed crimes against Palestinians - "the ethnic liquidation of the people of Palestine," that somehow keeps growing; "destruction of the economy, cutting off livelihoods, and reducing job opportunities to a minimum" (even though record numbers of Palestinians have well-paying jobs in Israel,) "destroying the health sector and limiting the Palestinian’s access to appropriate and urgent medicine," even though it is the PA that no longer allows Palestinians to be treated in Israeli hospitals - except for their own VIPs.

But that's hardly enough for an op-ed. So the newspaper editors have to add that Israel is trying to eliminate Palestinians from existence by "destroying the Palestinian environment, by uprooting trees, confiscating lands, and polluting water and soil."

Given that Palestinians burn Israeli lands, burn tires in protests and ruin the groundwater, this is as absurd as the previous accusations. But here is where the editorial makes its leap:

It is clear that the disastrous repercussions of the Zionist project/occupation affect all human, animal, plant and environmental life, which represents a threat to all of humanity, which struggles to survive in light of other environmental threats. Therefore, it can be said that the liberation of Palestine from this cancerous project is a human necessity as much as it is a Palestinian necessity.

Whoa! So Israel's supposed crimes against the Palestinian environment is threatening to destroy the entire world! Therefore, this mainstream, moderate UK-based paper says, every country must work together to destroy Israel in order to save the world!

Now, that's a new take!

Every bizarre accusation against Israel starts off just as fringe and as untethered to truth as this one, but in a couple of decades, with enough Big Lie type repetition, it is entirely possible that Amnesty and Human Rights Watch will adopt this narrative as well.

It's happened before.

Of course, the English language edition did not publish this editorial. Arabs know when they are spewing nonsense that would make them lose their friends if they were reading themselves. It will take a couple of years of conditioning from SJP and JVP, and then the New York Times congratulating itself for publishing such a provocative op-ed. Only then will this new narrative of Jews trying to destroy the world be mainstream enough to spread it without fear of looking like idiots.

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Chanukah Music Video night 8: V'Kavu (TABC High School) plus Boys Town Jerusalem

Catchy.

Plus:

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"Death to Israel"

El Bashayer reports:

On Friday, a demonstration took place in the Sitra area of Bahrain, rejecting the holding of Hanukkah activities in the country, and all forms of normalization with the Israeli entity, and in support of the Palestinian cause.

"Chanukah is a Zionist project and normalization program"

Palestine Today reports that the demonstration was repeated today, and managed to cancel a Chanukah event tonight.

Sunday evening, a massive demonstration took place in Bahrain to condemn the normalization of Manama with the Israeli occupation.

Activists circulated on social media, video clips, the moment a mass demonstration began near Bab Al Bahrain, denouncing normalization and holding Hanukkah events in the country.

The participants raised banners denouncing the condemnation and slogans of "Death to Israel".

The demonstration led to the cancellation of the first Hanukkah activities scheduled to start this evening at Bab Al Bahrain.

Here's video with plenty of chants of "Death to Israel."

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12/25 Links: Melanie Phillips: Happy inclusive holidays!; Israel should terminate the Oslo Accords; Israeli mayor attends funeral of terrorist who wounded 3 policemen

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: Happy inclusive holidays!

What a minefield this whole identity thing is. Thank goodness Chanukah doesn’t present this problem, eh?

For many diaspora Jews, Chanukah is regarded as Christmas-lite with gifts, diet-destroying delicacies and a lighted menorah in place of a glittering tree.

And there can hardly be much danger of offending anyone with a card displaying a chanukiah, dreidel or doughnut, or standard anodyne message such as “Festival of lights”, “Love, light, latkes” or “Peace, love and miracles”.

Hold on a minute. Chanukah is not actually a festival of peace and love. It celebrates instead the victory of the Maccabees who went to war against both the Seleucid Greeks and the Hellenists, Jews who were themselves drawn to the pagan ways of their Greek overlords.

The Maccabees were not apostles of peace. They were more like resistance commandos, fierce and uncompromising warriors who fought their Greek oppressors.

Moreover, they also committed violent atrocities against the Hellenised Jews who had absorbed Greek universalism and as a result had taken aim at circumcision, Shabbat observance and Torah study.

The Maccabees regarded those overly-assimilated Jews as traitors to Judaism and dealt with them accordingly.

In the saccharine world of much Chanukah observance, the Maccabees are commonly presented as heroes fighting and defeating the tyrannical Greeks. This was undoubtedly true.

But other commentators equally plausibly describe them as zealots, violent religious extremists who forced Jews to conform to a strict interpretation of Judaism and expelled non-Jews from the land. To the Hellenised Jews, they were religious nuts.

Ring any bells? Today, many diaspora Jews (and liberal Israelis) are hyper-ventilating over the likely inclusion in the new Israeli government of three men whose agenda has distinct echoes of the Maccabees.

Itamar Ben-Gvir, the putative security minister, called in his younger days for the expulsion of the Arabs from Israel (although he says he has changed his views). Bezalel Smotrich, tipped as a finance minister, has said his ultimate aim is an Israeli theocracy.

And Avi Maoz, who is set to run an office of “Jewish identity”, has taken explicit aim at the “Hellenising Jews” of the Israeli left and progressive denominations whom he terms “the real darkness”.

Celebrating the Maccabees might therefore be seen as celebrating Ben-Gvir, Smotrich and Maoz.

Well that’s the end of Chanukah cards, then.

PMW: Jesus the Palestinian terrorist and his 72 dark-eyed virgins

One of the many ways in which the Palestinian Authority distorts history in order to invent a centuries-old Palestinian identity, is to turn Jesus the Judean (Jew), who promoted peace on earth, into a Palestinian terrorist who was murdered by the Israelis, thus becoming the first Palestinian “Martyr,” who is now reveling in heaven with Allah, in the arms of 72 dark-eyed virgins.

While the language the PA uses to describe Jesus as a terrorist and as someone enjoying his virgins is less direct, the meaning is the same.

When referring to Palestinian terrorists, the PA calls them “self-sacrificing fighters,” or “fidai”. So, when the PA and its officials use the same terms to describe Jesus, they are in fact saying he is a terrorist.

As Palestinian Media Watch has shown, here, here, here, here, and here, among other places, the definition of Jesus as a terrorist enjoying his virgins is not a fringe idea, but rather one expressed by the highest order in the PA.

Jesus the “Palestinian” terrorist murdered by the Jews

When PA Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh sought to declare Jesus a terrorist, and link him to Palestinian terror, he referred to him as a “Palestinian self-sacrificing fighter” who, similar to the PA descriptions of suicide bombers, “paid for his mission with his life” and whose birth takes place “at the same time as the anniversary of the outbreak of the Palestinian revolution” – i.e the anniversary of the first Fatah terror attack:
“The birthday of our lord Jesus, peace be upon him - the first Palestinian self-sacrificing fighter from whom we learned Martyrdom-death, and who paid for his mission with his life - takes place at the same time as the anniversary of the outbreak of the Palestinian revolution (i.e., the anniversary of “the Launch” of Fatah, counted from its first terror attack against Israel), for which thousands of Martyrs have paid with their lives so that we will live and remain, and so that our children will dream of a better future.”

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 28, 2020]

Muwaffaq Matar, a member of the Revolutionary Council of PA leader Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party and regular columnist for the official PA daily similarly adopted Jesus as a Palestinian and compared him to terrorists calling him a “self-sacrificing fighter”:

By Daled Amos

This week, America First Legal sued President Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken for violating the Taylor Force Act. The group represents Stuart and Robbi Force, the parents of Taylor Force who was murdered by Palestinian terrorists, Sarri Singer, a survivor of a 2003 terrorist attack, and US Congressman Ronny Jackson (R-TX).

Taylor Force was murdered on March 8, 2016, and despite the fact that he was neither Jewish nor Israeli, the Palestinian Authority repeatedly praised the terrorist who killed Taylor as a martyr:

Biden was Vice President at the time and was in Israel, in Tel Aviv where the attack took place.

“I don’t know exactly whether it was a hundred meters or a thousand meters,” Biden, on a visit to Israel, told reporters about Tuesday’s assault.

“It brings home that it can happen, it can happen anywhere, at any time,” he said, after meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem.

Meanwhile, Abbas offered condolences at the same time that the official PA News was praising the murderer.

The Taylor Force Act was signed into law in 2018 to stop Abbas and the PA from incentivizing terrorism. According to the summary of the bill:

(Sec. 4) This bill prohibits certain FY2018-FY2023 economic support assistance that directly benefits the Palestinian Authority (PA) from being made available for the West Bank and Gaza unless the Department of State certifies that the PA, the Palestine Liberation Organization, and any successor or affiliated organizations:

o  are taking steps to end acts of violence against U.S. and Israeli citizens perpetrated by individuals under their jurisdictional control, such as the March 2016 attack that killed former Army officer Taylor Force;

o have revoked any law, decree, or document authorizing or implementing a system of compensation for imprisoned individuals that uses the sentence or incarceration period to determine compensation;

o  have terminated payments for acts of terrorism against U.S. and Israeli citizens to any individual who has been fairly tried and imprisoned for such acts, to any individual who died committing such acts, and to family members of such an individual; and

o  are publicly condemning such acts of violence and are investigating such acts.

During the Trump administration, payments to the PA were frozen. When he first started resuming aid to the Palestinian Authority, Biden did more than simply undo Trump's policy -- he attempted to bypass the law passed by Congress. When it was announced in March 2021 that the Biden administration would renew funding of the PA despite their refusal to stop "pay for slay" payments to the families of terrorists, it was unclear how the administration intended to avoid the restrictions of the Taylor Force Act:

The State Department has yet to explain how it will resume U.S. aid without violating that law, known as the Taylor Force Act.

A State Department official familiar with the matter told the Washington Free Beacon that "any decisions related to resuming assistance to the West Bank and Gaza will be consistent with requirements under relevant U.S. law."

The question is how the Biden administration will attempt to explain away its violation of the Taylor Force Act.

Concerns were already raised back in 2020 on how they would do this. Yossi Kuperwasser, a senior intelligence and security expert, expected the PA to continue its claim that the payments were based merely on financial considerations. He expected that the Biden administration would pull the same trick as the Obama administration in 2014, when it asked the PA to move the agency in charge of the payments from the PA to the PLO. On that basis alone, the State Department then claimed that the PA was making efforts and that things were moving in the right direction.

But nothing really changed and no action to prevent the payments was taken.

Instead, in April 2021, a package was put together for the Palestinian Arabs that was supposed to avoid circumventing the Taylor Force Act:

o $150 million went to UNRWA
o $75 went to economic development programs in the West Bank and Gaza
o $10 million went to "peace building" initiatives.

According to Blinken at the time, the money would not violate the Taylor Force Act because it would not go directly to the PA. Instead, the money would go to agencies that are independent of both the Abbas government and Hamas.

Jonathan Tobin notes that according to a Government Accounting Office report that preceded Trump's cutoff of funds, money given to the Palestinian government by US officials was not closely monitored and wound up in the hands of terrorists. While the report indicated that better oversight could solve the problem, it remains unclear how the Biden White House and the usual bureaucracy are going to succeed what they have previously failed to do.

Another issue is that Palestinian NGOs receiving the funding are not really independent of the Palestinian governments, whether these groups deal with Abbas and Fatah in the West Bank or Hamas in Gaza.

An additional point Tobin makes is that the money itself is fungible. The money received by the NGOs is money that the Abbas government might otherwise have had to spend for those non-government purposes. The money from the US thus allows Abbas to divert the money it saves due to US largesse on other purposes, including those that are terror-related.

The State Department itself acknowledged that there is a problem of Abbas funneling money to terrorists. In a March 18 non-public report in 2021,

The State Department admitted it was "unable to certify" to Congress that the Palestinian Authority and Palestine Liberation Organization are complying with the Taylor Force Act, primarily because they have "not terminated payments for acts of terrorism to any individual, after being fairly tried, who has been imprisoned for such acts of terrorism and to any individual who died committing such acts of terrorism, including to a family member of such individuals," according to the report. [emphasis added]

In a separate memo, the State Department also admitted that the PA had "not taken proactive steps to counter incitement to violence against Israel." In other words, they could not certify for Congress that the PA had fulfilled repeated promises to end incitement and recommit itself to peace negotiations.

There is a problem of Abbas encouraging terrorist attacks.
The State Department admits there is a problem.
The Biden Administration has failed to present a clear plan on how provide funding for Palestinian Arabs without it being used for encouraging the murder of Israelis.

Maybe its time to let the Taylor Force Act do the job it was intended for.

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The "UN Special Rapporteur on Occupied Palestinian Territories" has shown, yet again, how little she cares about the truth - and about Jewish lives - in this Twitter thread about the lung cancer death of arch-terrorist Nasir Abu Hmeid (Hamid).

Abu Hamid, Palestinian refugee from Al-Amar Camp, West Bank, was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2002, for alleged involvement in attacks against Israeli forces during the 2nd Intifada. His detention appeared to violate basic human rights standards, including denial of family visits.

Lie #1: He was not a "Palestinian refugee." By definition, a refugee cannot live in the same country they are supposedly refugees from. The definition of refugee is very clear in the UN Refugee Convention.

Lie #2: He was not sentenced for "alleged involvement in attacks against Israeli forces." He was sentenced to multiple life sentences for his involvement in murdering seven Israeli civilians, not soldiers.

And there is nothing alleged about it. Palestinians openly brag about his so-called "resistance."

Lie #3: While Israel may have sometimes denied family visits for specific technical reasons, but they certainly allowed them. Not only did the family get to visit Abu Hamid and his three terrorist brothers in prison - they would all get together in a single group, with no glass wall between them, laughing and having fun together. I have seen two separate visits documented in photos:

That's only one tweet.

Albanese links to a letter she co-write about Abu Hmeid in October, that shows how little she cares about fairness and truth. Even though she tries to ensure that no one can call her a liar because she liberally sprinkles her spurious accusations of Israeli mistreatment of Abu Hmeid with "allegedly" and "reportedly," she still manages to show her contempt for Israel and for Israeli civilians, and the lies still shine through:

* She again makes the false accusation that his arrest was for "attacks against Israeli forces." This shows that she believes Palestinian propaganda, where every Israeli civilian is considered a legitimate military target.

* She repeats the lie by saying "On 19 September 2022, the Board postponed the date of the hearing for Mr. Abu Hamid’s case until 6 October 2022, allegedly in light of objections to his release by the families of Israeli soldiers allegedly killed by Mr. Abu Hamid."

This is not a mistake - she repeats the lie that he did not kill civilians, only "soldiers."

* She writes, "Mr. Abu Hamid has served most of his sentence in Askalan Prison, where he was reportedly subject to detention conditions that do not respect the minimum safety, hygiene or health standards. He was placed in a narrow and overcrowded cell without proper ventilation and deprived of adequate health care."

First of all, the prison name is Ashkelon, not Askalan. Even if you use the Arab name of the city, the prison does not have that name. This shows that Albanese simply does not accept any information from Israel as truth, while she believes Palestinian lies implicitly.

Secondly, she doesn't couch her accusations of prison conditions with any "allegedly." Albanese states, as fact, that the prison is overcrowded and has improper ventilation. Has the Red Cross said that there is no proper ventilation there? Has she read any Israeli inspection reports? Of course not.

Palestinians lie about the prison conditions all the time...and yet, when they go on strike for better conditions, we can see the truth. This extensive list of demands in 2004, during the height of the second intifada, asks for things like allowing second cousins to visit and "to allow all cells to have access to a computer and not only students." But it doesn't demand basic things like better ventilation or less crowded conditions!

Why not? Because that wasn't a problem even in 2004, let alone today!

Here is more proof, as if any is needed, that Francesca Albanese is a liar. And her refusal to believe a word that Jewish Israelis say while believing the accusations of murderers and their supporters shows, yet again, that her railing against the "Jewish lobby" was not a mistake, but antisemitism is part and parcel of who she is.

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Palestinians still repeating the "flood libel"

In 2015, mainstream media did what it does best - parrot ridiculous Palestinian claims without checking - and reported that Israel opened dams to flood Gaza. Social media user made fun of AFP for being so stupid, and for once, AFP actually checked the facts and retracted its story, acknowledging that there were no "dams" in the Negev that Israel could open up to flood Gaza.

AFP said that its reporting was "shattering a long-held Palestinian myth."

Someone should tell the Palestinians that.

The mayor of Zawaida in Gaza, Sami Abu Muhaisen, said that "the occupation" deliberately flooded the eastern regions in the center of Gaza by opening dams and opening water and sewage culverts, which caused the flooding of agricultural lands, damage to crops, and the accumulation of water in large quantities in Salah al-Din Street.

There was also heavy flooding in Mecca this weekend, but Israel has not been blamed for that.

Yet.

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12/24 Links: “Rabbi” Who Said Kaddish for Hamas Threatens to Boycott Israeli Government; Police release body cam footage from Kfar Qassem terror attack

From Ian:

Far-right MKs said to agree not to impede Netanyahu efforts to normalize with Saudis

The far-right elements of Israel’s incoming government have agreed not to hinder any efforts by incoming prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reach a normalization agreement with Saudi Arabia, according to a Saturday report.

Such a deal has been one of Netanyahu’s greatest goals since signing the historic Abraham Accords with Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates in September 2020, as he has stated several times since.

While Morocco and Sudan also joined the accords later, Saudi Arabia has been reluctant.

The Saudis have been widely reported to maintain clandestine ties with Jerusalem. Though Netanyahu himself is reported to have flown to the country in secret to meet with Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, Riyadh has continued to insist publicly that a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians was a “requirement” for any normalization agreement.

Still, Netanyahu is optimistic that such a deal can be reached with the Gulf state and his political partners understand this, according to Channel 12.

The report said there was an understanding between Netanyahu and far-right lawmakers Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich to not sabotage any effort to normalize relations with the Saudis.

As one example, the unsourced report cited the vague wording of Netanyahu’s agreement in principle to advance annexation of West Bank land as part of the coalition deal with Smotrich, head of the far-right Religious Zionism party.

The agreement was worded in a way that could allow Netanyahu to make no movement on the issue if he chooses. And the report said Smotrich understands that such a scenario is dependent on US approval, which would only be feasible under a Republican president. It hinted he may remain quiet on the matter for the time being to allow Netanyahu to make overtures to Riyadh.

A second example given was Ben Gvir’s statement that though he wants to advance bills providing security forces with immunity from prosecution and looser open-fire rules, he has also agreed to adhere to international law — another apparent agreement not to rock the boat.

Ron Dermer meets Netanyahu, will only join gov’t if made foreign minister — report

Incoming prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly met this week with Ron Dermer, a close confidant and a former Israeli ambassador to the US, to continue talks on bringing Dermer into the government in a top role.

Netanyahu is said to have been considering appointing Dermer as foreign minister, an idea that has been contested by senior Likud members who, in recent weeks, have seen a number of key cabinet portfolios handed over to the Likud’s far-right and ultra-Orthodox coalition partners as the Likud leader has tried to cobble together a coalition. As the number of top jobs dwindled for lawmakers within his own party, Netanyahu has faced tough criticism for such decisions.

Netanyahu announced Wednesday that he has finally come to agreements with his coalition partners to form Israel’s 37th government. The Likud leader has yet to finalize coalition agreements with any of his party’s intended partners, however. Knesset Speaker Yariv Levin will announce the development during Monday’s legislative session. Netanyahu will then have until January 2 to swear in his coalition.

On Friday, Channel 12 reported that Dermer and Netanyahu met a day prior and that the ex-envoy expressed a strong willingness to be part of the incoming government but only in the position of foreign minister. The unsourced report also said Netanyahu was pitched the idea of appointing two foreign ministers, Dermer and a senior member of the Likud, but this move was deemed unlikely.

The report said Netanyahu sees Dermer as very closely aligned with his right-wing ideology and a future part of the Likud. Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition

Palestinians slam Israeli coalition deals, warn of Middle East ‘explosion’

Palestinians have expressed deep concern over the agreements signed between Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right coalition partners, especially Otzma Yehudit head MK Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich of the Religious Zionists Party (RZP).

They warned that the policies of the incoming government will lead to an “explosion” and urged the Palestinian Authority and the international community to prepare for the worst scenarios.

The Palestinian Authority called on the international community, the US administration, and the European Union to link their relationship with the Netanyahu government “to the extent of its commitment to international law, international legitimacy decisions, and human rights principles.”

The Palestinian foreign affairs ministry said that it views “with great seriousness” reports in the Israeli media regarding Netanyahu’s “ill-fated agreements with his far-right fascist coalition partners.”

Palestinians fear move giving West Bank control to Smotrich
KAN News reported Friday that as part of the coalition agreement with RZP, Netanyahu has agreed to relinquish significant control over the approval process for settlement construction to Smotrich.

Netanyahu reportedly agreed to hand authority over the two key bodies responsible for Israeli control in the West Bank – the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) and the Civil Administration – to Smotrich’s party.

The Palestinians fear the move would pave the way for the new government to extend Israeli law to large portions of the West Bank, especially Area C, which is exclusively controlled by Israel.

The Palestinians, in addition, are concerned about Ben-Gvir’s insistence on including a clause in the coalition agreement that imposes a death sentence on convicted terrorists.

“Rabbi” Who Said Kaddish for Hamas Threatens to Boycott Israeli Government

Israel has a new conservative government and its enemies, and by that, I mean anti-Israel leftists, couldn’t be angrier. Ron Kampeas at the JTA has another anti-Israel press release disguised as a news story promoting a push by anti-Israel activists to boycott members of the incoming Israeli government.

“More than 330 American rabbis, including some who occupy prominent roles in major cities, are pledging to block members of the Religious Zionist bloc in Benjamin Netanyahu’s new government from speaking at their synagogues,” Kampeas gushes.

The list largely consists of anti-Israel clergy, many, if not most of them, also members of the ‘Rabbis for Hamas”. This was a list that Annie of Boker Tov Boulder put together back in the day of leftist clergy who signed a letter urging “constructive engagement” with Hamas.

Over the years I’ve noted the same bunch of names on assorted anti-Israel letters as the ‘Rabbis for Hamas’.

Sure enough, Melanie Aron, a speaker at the Islamic Networks Group, has signed both letters. As did Elliot Baskin, James Bennett, Phil Bentley, Leila Berner, Jonathan Biatch, Rena Blumenthal and Jonathan Brumberg-Kraus. And that’s just the A’s and B’s.

That’s impressive considering that a number of these people must have died or retired since then.

While I won’t bother going through the list, a few names do pop out. Most notably, Sharon Kleinbaum.

Sharon Kleinbaum, the girlfriend of teachers’ union boss Randi Weingarten, is infamous for her role at a gay temple in New York City where her hatred of Israel was so extreme that it drove the members away.

Chanukah Music Video Night 7: Yoely Weiss - Haneiros Haluli (Yiddish)

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12/23 Links Pt2: The top 10 Jewish stories of 2022; A startup nation for Zionist causes; Norway’s huge sovereign wealth fund said weighing divesting from Israel

From Ian:

Jonathan S. Tobin: The top 10 Jewish stories of 2022

It’s been a difficult decade. 2020 was the year of coronavirus-pandemic panic and the general collapse of established norms. This was compounded by the Black Lives Matter riots that set off a moral panic about race, with the mainstreaming of fringe ideas and intersectionality.

2021 was a little better, as the world gradually shook off its COVID paranoia. But it was notable mainly for the Jan. 6 Capitol riot that has roiled American politics ever since, the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan and the creation of an Israeli government that combined members of the right, the left and even Islamist parliamentarians.

2022 has been something of a challenge, with war and antisemitism dominating Jewish news just as much, if not more, than in the previous two years. As it comes to an end, here’s a look back at the year with my list—in reverse order—of the top 10 stories and how they’ve shaped the Jewish world.

For good or for ill, JNS has covered them all. Stick with us in 2023, as we continue to give you the best in Jewish journalism with news, analysis and opinion you can’t find anywhere else.

10-The U.N.’s and ‘human rights’ groups’ war on Israel escalates
The report of the U.N. Human Rights Council’s Commission of Inquiry (COI) on the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, published in June, was a textbook case of antisemitic incitement. In its view, there is no Palestinian incitement, no Palestinian terrorism, no Palestinian rejection of peace. Led by open antisemites like Navi Pillay, the document denied Jewish history and the truth about the century-old war that Palestinian Arabs and their enablers have been waging on Zionism.

Like the rest of the hatred directed at Israel from the world body and so-called “human rights” NGOs, this campaign is often downplayed or ignored by the Jewish world. That’s a mistake, since efforts such as those apparent in the COI report serve as the foundation for the ongoing “lawfare” endeavor to isolate and turn Israel into a pariah state. Far from being insignificant enough to warrant a lack of attention, these undertakings legitimize antisemitism throughout the world and undermine otherwise successful normalization moves between the Jewish state and its Arab neighbors.

9-Normalization with the Arab world continues
The second year since the signing of the 2020 Abraham Accords, which led to the normalization of relations between Israel and four Arab and Muslim countries, saw those ties strengthened, with tourism and economic activity continuing to expand in 2022. But, while progress towards full acceptance is slow, the steady rise in trade and the growing signs of security cooperation testify to the Arab world’s belief that it can no longer be held hostage by Palestinian intransigence.

These positive trends might have been even stronger by now, had the administration in Washington prioritized the quest to build on its predecessor’s achievement and expand the circle of peace, especially with Saudi Arabia. But President Joe Biden has botched relations with Riyadh. And though he doesn’t oppose the accords brokered by former President Donald Trump, his foreign-policy team is still more interested in appeasing Iran and the Palestinian Authority.

The European Genizah

The term “European Genizah” refers to thousands of individual pages that were torn out of Hebrew manuscripts centuries ago, and then used to bind books and cover archival files. Sometimes these pages were discovered by chance, and sometimes as a result of a systematic search. They were discovered mainly in Central Europe, in dozens of libraries, archives, and monasteries, and even among private possessions.

The European Genizah is not limited to Hebrew manuscripts. Tens of thousands of manuscripts in Latin, Greek, and other local languages were discarded as worthless throughout Europe, mainly in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, but also during the medieval era. They were then used by bookbinders and notaries in bindings, to cover files, and occasionally for other uses as well. An unwanted manuscript—whether because the ideas and opinions they contained had been invalidated, because better versions of the works had been published, or because newer and more beautiful manuscripts (or printed books) had been obtained—was removed from the shelves and sold to bookbinders. It goes without saying that ordinary folks had no interest in preserving manuscripts for which they no longer had any use, but even esteemed university libraries did not hesitate to discard thousands of manuscripts, some of which were purchased by craftsmen who used the parchment in bindings and to cover archival files. Parchment is a valuable material, easy to cut but hard to tear, and light (especially in comparison to the heavy wooden bindings that were common then). Therefore, bookbinders found much use for passé manuscripts that no one wished to read any longer. A handful of scholars understood by the middle of the sixteenth century that bookbinders were in possession of ancient manuscripts that should be rescued from their blades, but the phenomenon continued unabated for a long time and throughout Europe. Tens of thousands of such pages have been discovered recently in various countries, some in old bindings, and some in the covers of archival documents.

I will not presently address non-Hebrew manuscripts that have been discovered in book bindings, but I nevertheless note that even these contain, albeit infrequently, information of importance for Jewish history or the history of the Hebrew book. I cite three examples: The first is the remnant of a very old Hebrew manuscript that was discovered by chance within a Latin fragment used in a binding. The second is from a Marseille notary who bound his archival files in the early 1320s with a Latin document that he had written himself a short time before. By then, he no longer needed that document, so he excised and repurposed the parchment. The document contains the account of an investigation conducted by the Inquisition in Toulon, a city near Marseille, against a Jew suspected of helping an apostate Jew return to his original faith. It provides important information about the history of the Jews of that community during this period. The third consists of strips of outdated bills in Latin, which were used in England to bind newer bills. These strips contain information on loans made by English Jews to their Christian neighbors in the thirteenth century.

A startup nation for Zionist causes

Israel is rightly appreciated as a fount of innovation in a vast array of technologies and industries. Being a startup nation demands a mindset that looks at matters afresh, without being constrained by the way things have always been done.

To have a startup nation mindset is to have vision, see the big picture and move towards the fulfillment of that vision. It also entails the willingness to create something new and possibly unprecedented, rather than await approval or direction from others.

Happily, this mindset is not only prevalent in the private sphere, but also – though less visibly – in the realm of organizations seeking to strengthen and defend Zionist values and policies in Israel.

There is a growing coterie of individuals and organizations who understand that the blessings of Zionism, Jewish sovereignty and control of our own land cannot be taken for granted. As Herzl knew, Zionism and its logical extension, the State of Israel, had to be willed into being – "im tirtzu."

But the willing of Zionism and Israel is a constant process, always facing new problems and seeking new opportunities.

The new Zionist NGOs have proven themselves an essential part of Israeli society. Think of the amazing contribution made by groups like Regavim, which call attention to illegal construction. Ad Kan points out the lies of certain Israeli "human rights" organizations. Im Tirtzu and NGO Monitor address foreign government funding of anti-Zionist Israeli organizations. Organizations like B'yadenu have relentlessly pressed for Jewish civil rights on the Temple Mount.

Realistically, if these organizations were not front and center, it is quite likely that the problems they have raised would have gone unaddressed.

These NGOs did not simply emerge fully-formed. They too were willed into existence. In part, this was done by a small fund that has been instrumental in identifying nascent organizations worthy of support and incubating them with seed funding, organizational advice and networking opportunities.

This small fund is the Israel Independence Fund, which since 2007 has had conspicuous success in identifying fledgling organizations with the potential to make a difference in Israeli society.

Chanukah music video night 6: Dovid Pearlman - Greatest Gift

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The New York Times reported:

Over the past three decades, a handful of products like Netscape’s web browser, Google’s search engine and Apple’s iPhone have truly upended the tech industry and made what came before them look like lumbering dinosaurs.

Three weeks ago, an experimental chat bot called ChatGPT made its case to be the industry’s next big disrupter. It can serve up information in clear, simple sentences, rather than just a list of internet links. It can explain concepts in ways people can easily understand. It can even generate ideas from scratch, including business strategies, Christmas gift suggestions, blog topics and vacation plans.

Although ChatGPT still has plenty of room for improvement, its release led Google’s management to declare a “code red.” For Google, this was akin to pulling the fire alarm. Some fear the company may be approaching a moment that the biggest Silicon Valley outfits dread — the arrival of an enormous technological change that could upend the business.

For more than 20 years, the Google search engine has served as the world’s primary gateway to the internet. But with a new kind of chat bot technology poised to reinvent or even replace traditional search engines, Google could face the first serious threat to its main search business. One Google executive described the efforts as make or break for Google’s future.

Imagine a future where you ask a question to a website and you get a well-formatted, professional looking answer - and it is all wrong.

ChatGPT is an amazing technology, but it bases its answers on, well, no one is really sure. I asked it to write a blog post about torture in Palestinian jails, and it mentioned a couple of specific examples of people tortured to death - and they were both completely wrong. But there was no link to where it got its information from, and it all sounded authoritative.

This problem already exists to some extent even in popular search engines. Google and others will try to put a summary of the answer they think you want on top of the search page results, often but not always citing Wikipedia, which has its own issues with reliability.

But if AI replaces search, people will implicitly trust what they read as if it is engraved in stone.

Give that AI typically takes its knowledge from the Internet, and that antisemites outnumber Jews by far online, the chances that an AI chatbot answering questions about Israel accurately are not too high.

I asked, "After the UN partition vote in 1947, which side attacked the other first?"

ChatGPT gave a generic "both sides" answer: "After the United Nations voted in favor of the partition of Palestine in 1947, tensions between Jewish and Palestinian communities in the region escalated, eventually leading to the outbreak of violence and armed conflict. There were attacks by both sides, with Palestinian Arab militants and Jewish militant groups engaging in acts of violence and terrorism against one another. The conflict eventually escalated into full-scale war in 1948, with the newly formed state of Israel being invaded by several Arab countries. The war ended in 1949 with a series of armistice agreements, but the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians continued to flare up periodically in the ensuing decades."

It isn't exactly lying, but it didn't tell the truth either, that Arabs attacked Jews within hours of the vote.

When I asked, "Who are the most notorious terrorists in the Arab/Israeli conflict?", it answered:

Terrorism has been a significant factor in the Arab-Israeli conflict, with various groups and individuals on both sides of the conflict carrying out acts of terrorism against the other side. Some of the most well-known terrorists in the conflict include:

Yasser Arafat: Palestinian leader and founder of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which was involved in numerous acts of terrorism against Israel.

Menachem Begin: Israeli politician and former Prime Minister of Israel, who was a member of the Irgun, a Jewish militant group that carried out numerous acts of terrorism against the British and Arabs during the 1940s.

Ahmed Yassin: Palestinian cleric and co-founder of Hamas, a Palestinian Islamist organization that has carried out numerous suicide bombings and other terrorist attacks against Israel.

Shimon Peres: Israeli politician and former Prime Minister of Israel, who was involved in the Stern Gang, a Jewish militant group that carried out numerous acts of terrorism against the British during the 1940s.

Abu Nidal: Palestinian militant and founder of the Abu Nidal Organization, which carried out numerous terrorist attacks against Israel and other Western countries.

It is important to note that terrorism is a highly controversial and inflammatory term, and different people may have different definitions of what constitutes terrorism. It is also important to recognize that the actions of individual terrorists do not represent the views or beliefs of all members of the group or community to which they belong.

This is again an attempt to "both sides" the question. Even worse, Shimon Peres was never a member of the Stern Gang. Where did it get that from? We have no idea. And the last paragraph seems meant to blunt the idea of Hamas and Fatah as still promoting terror, even though they do, today.

There is a mindset, so to speak, that makes the AIs so seemingly human-like - but as we see, it ultimately reflects the thinking of the programmers as well as the data set that is chosen to be authoritative. Real objectivity is impossible, so naturally we will be seeing opinions that align with the overwhelmingly progressive thinking of most employees working on AI.

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12/23 Links Pt1: Report by UN Middle East envoy ignores Israeli terror victims; Showing gratitude to the IDF, the modern-day Maccabees; Omnibus Bill Would Let U.S. Rejoin Antisemitic UNESCO

From Ian:

Report by UN Middle East envoy ignores Israeli terror victims

UN coordinator to the Middle East Tor Wennesland, reported to the Security Council on Thursday that more than 20 Israeli victims have been killed as a result of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since the beginning of 2022 – a number lower than Israeli estimations.

The Envoy reported 150 Palestinian casualties during the same time span, the largest number in recent years.

According to the Foreign Ministry, Wennesland relied on data taken from the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which only recognized 19 Israeli victims in terror attacks in 2022.

According to Israeli estimations, 31 Israelis and foreign workers were killed as a result of terror attacks, while the UN claimed the cause of the additional 12 fatalities were inconclusive or their perpetrators remained at large.

The Foreign Ministry said the UN’s report ignored terror attack victims including Aryeh Shchupak and Tadese Tashume who were killed in a bombing attack in Jerusalem last November, Shulamit Rachel Ovadia who was killed by a Palestinian terrorist in September, Victor Sorokopot and Dima Mitrik who were killed in a terror attack in Bnei Brak last March.

Also not mentioned were Ivan Tarnovksy who was killed in a stabbing attack in Jerusalem in March, Rabbi Moshe Kravitsky, Laura Itzhak, Doris Yahbas, and Meha and Menach Yehezkel who were killed in a terror attack in Be’er Sheva also in March, and Border Police officers Shirel Abukarat and Yezen Falah who were killed in a terror attack in Hadera that same month.

Wennesland did not mention that out of the 150 Palestinians who were killed since the beginning of 2022, at least 80% were what the ministry called "terrorists," describing them as Palestinian civilians.

Israel’s ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan’s appeals to the OCHA for the reevaluation of the data presented, have so far, remained unanswered.

Want to know why a @UN Special Rapporteur is advocating on behalf of a terrorist who murdered 7 people?

It's because she is a JEW HATER who believes that Palestinian terrorists have the right tto murder Jews!

She is a stain on the already tainted UN!https://t.co/8TWouT5djw
— Maurice Hirsch, Adv. ???? ??''? ????? ???? (@MauriceHirsch4) December 23, 2022

Showing gratitude to the IDF, the modern-day Maccabees

As we reflect on the joyous holiday of Hanukkah, a commemoration of the notable and valiant fighting prowess of the Jewish people in ancient times, we also celebrate the unyielding resilience and determination of the Jewish people and our homeland.

From Maccabees to modern miracles
For this year’s Festival of Lights, Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (FIDF) organized a “Live the Miracle” campaign. On each night of Hanukkah, Jewish celebrities and influencers welcomed soldiers from the IDF into their homes to light candles together in a symbolic act of solidarity with Israel and the never-ending fight against the darkness that is antisemitism.

The candle lighting took place at the homes of Lizzy Savetsky, a social media influencer, matchmaker and unabashed Zionist activist; Alexei and Loren Brovarnik, stars of the hit series 90 Day Fiancé; Modi Rosenfeld, a stand-up comedian and actor; Tova Friedman, an 86-year-old Holocaust survivor and recent TikTok sensation; Ashley Waxman Bakshi, a beauty, travel and fashion creator; Cathy Heller, an author and podcast host; Kosha Dillz, a rapper; and Noa Tishby, an Israeli actress, writer and activist.

In the face of social media attacks, these nine brave individuals stood up for morality, for dignity and for the young men and young women who are literally at the front line of humanity.

Hanukkah is the celebration of miracles, of right over might: of the small yet fearless Maccabee army’s defeat over the formidable Greco-Syrian forces and a tiny vessel of oil, enough to light the menorah in Jerusalem’s Temple Mount for 12 hours, that burned instead for eight days.

A group of educators, the Maccabees fought to defend the religious freedom and basic human rights of the Jewish people. Their victory over their imposing enemy ultimately emancipated the Jewish people so that they could live freely and exult each day in their fundamental humanity.

It’s time to light the candles—for Shabbat and the 6th night of Hanukkah!

Shabbat Shalom and Happy Holidays from the IDF ????? pic.twitter.com/hdcCLQeX67
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) December 23, 2022

Even I am sometimes amazed at the level of paranoia by some Palestinians.

Earlier this month, there was a report that Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Morocco have held meetings to discuss setting up a common cyber defense platform.

Salim Younis Al-Zari'i, columnist at Palestinian news site Amad, says this can only mean one thing: the Abraham Accords countries are anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab.

His logic?

Doesn't this meeting reveal that the family systems of some Arabs continued to identify themselves with the policy of the Zionist entity hostile to the Arab peoples, at the forefront of which is the Palestinian issue? Moreover, does this not reveal that those countries joined the Zionist entity and adopted its hostile position against the Arab countries and peoples? Who else are the common enemies of the Zionist entity and those countries? Does it mean that in light of this, those countries will confront the enemies of the Zionist entity, who are the Palestinian people and its armed forces, Syria, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and every free Arab people that refuses to be subordinate to the imperialist powers? Are these states ready to be tools in the service of the Zionist project in Palestine and the region? Isn't that what it looks like in the light of the behavior of those countries?

He's saying that the only enemy that the four countries have in common must be only Israel's enemies, meaning the Palestinians and their allies.

It's bizarre. The biggest hacking powers today that are trying to infiltrate most other countries would be China, Russia and Iran, all of which are threats to all the Abraham Accords countries. What on Earth do Palestinians have to do with this?

They really think the whole world revolves around them.

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Every week, the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People publishes a newsletter, NGO Action News, where they list out and summarize all of the NGO reports and articles about Palestinians they can find that were published that week. The newsletter is filled with references to reports from Amnesty, Al Haq, Gisha, B'Tselem and lots of other anti-Israel NGOs.

The UN committee routinely and reflexively links to every Amnesty article and report criticizing Israel. However, every once in a while Amnesty issues a rare report criticizing Palestinian leaders. Does the UN report mention those?

On November 2, Amnesty wrote an article about the Palestinian Authority and its torture policies. The NGO Action News that week didn't mention it.

In June of 2021 and again a year later, Amnesty demanded an investigation into the death of Palestinian Nizar Banat apparently at the hands of Palestinian police. NGO Action News ignored both of them.

On March 18, 2019, Amnesty issued a report on Hamas attacking protesters. That week's NGO Action News didn't mention that, either.

Apparently, supporting "Palestinian rights" doesn't include Palestinian human rights under their own leadership. When Palestinians are oppressed by their own leaders, the UN doesn't care.

Or to put it another way, the UN Committee doesn't care about Palestinian rights. It is wholly about attacking Israel.

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

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