Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, January 25, 2023

Unusually high amount of antisemitism in Arabic media yesterday

All of these articles were published on Tuesday.

From Turkey Al-Aan, the world's capitalist system is split between the British and the Jews.

The global capitalist system is supported by the dialectical relationship between two authoritarian powers, whose struggle sometimes takes the form of collusion.

The Cold War was just an invented fictional war. There were ostensible capitalist and socialist blocs, but the real battle was between two invisible actors. One of these actors was the Anglo-Saxons, whose masterminds were the British.

The second actor is the active elements in the Jewish power, who are known as the proponents of the globalization theory, and they are the founders and owners of the American establishment system.

Two important weekly magazines serve as spokespeople and watchdogs for the world order: The Economist and Time.

The Economist magazine is the mouthpiece for the interests of the British, that is, on behalf of the Anglo-Saxons. As for Time magazine, it is the voice of the Jewish power, which is centered in the United States, but this power also controls the economies of many countries such as Russia, Germany and France.

These are the two most powerful magazines that control and direct those who rule the world. It is essential to follow these two journals regularly to see where the world is heading, and what kind of calculations the masters of the world order follow.

From Al Raiah (Hizb ut-Tahrir) - the Jews are greedy:

The greed of the Jews, their greed that knows no bounds, and their loss of insight and political vision, is what confuses the West and raises their fears. The West realizes that the Jews have no acceptance of Muslims or a real struggle with them, and that all that keeps them in the region is conspiracies, betrayals, and colonial projects, not the power of the Jews and their own capabilities, in When Jewish leaders have been blinded by greed and hatred from seeing this fact, and now they think that they have the strength that enables them to achieve their greed and their biblical and Zionist aspirations.

From Sudan's Sudanile - the Jews control the world:

The Jews have sought for a long time and are still diligently striving to control the world, because their morals are on vacation, and they commit shameful things, evils and sins with coldness.Their own people and others can do anything of the atrocities that have no limits!!.. The strange thing is that Israel, which is part of its club that controls our poor world, presents itself to the beholder with the innocence of children in its eyes, and does not show any fuss about what its sinful and criminal hand has done. Rather, it remains silent like fish to manage its conspiracies and hatred against all!!
America deludes everyone that it is sitting on the top of the global polarity. In fact, it is a humiliated follower of the Jews, along with Europe and many countries of the world, and finally some Arab countries began to be dragged into the Tel Aviv club, and the story is going on, and Sudan, our beloved country, is a strong candidate to plunge into the Zionist mud and shame.

An op-ed in Ma'an says Zionist Jews are excavating in Jerusalem specifically to weaken the foundations of the Temple Mount so the Al Aqsa Mosque will collapse the next time there is an earthquake.

These excavations [near the Temple Mount] have revealed the foundations on which the mosque was built, so that it appears as if it is hanging without foundations or supports to support it, and this act is a preparation by the state of the entity [Israel] to be ready to collapse in the event of any strong natural disaster that may occur in the future, such as the occurrence of an earthquake, for example - Allah forbid! They are betting on the collapse of the mosque as a result of this, so that the reason becomes before the world that it collapsed as a result of natural factors, so that no one condemns them and the Islamic and international community does not turn against them.

None of these would have sounded unusual in 1930s Nazi Germany.

But in the 1930s, the Jews tried desperately to warn the world and the antisemitic outrages were mentioned in the media.

Today, no one wants to talk about endemic, systemic and often official Arab and Muslim 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!

In what has become a daily occurrence, a Palestinian man was shot and killed as he tried to stab Israelis.

Aref Abdel Nasser Aref Lahlouh attempted the attack at a checkpoint near Kedumim.

Palestinian media went through their usual ritual. At first, they claimed that he was shot for no reason.

Then they say that he was "allegedly" trying to stab a soldier but the Israelis killed him in cold blood. And that the heartless Israelis killed him in front of his mother and brother.

And then, when it becomes clear that he actually did try to stab people, they turn him from an innocent victim into a heroic martyr.

Here's video of the incident that appears to show that Lahlouh tried to go around the soldier to attack civilians at the checkpoint, who ran away as the soldier shot him.

Originally, the "Resistance News Network" tweeted, "In yet another cowardly act of cold-blooded execution, zionist forces shot the martyr Aref Abdelnasser Lahlouh (21) from Jenin the settlement of Kedumim, east of #Qalqilya after being forcibly removed from his car. Aref was shot in front of his mother and epileptic brother."

After the video evidence, there was a complete about face. They proudly show the video, saying "Martyr Aref Lahlouh attempted to carry out a stabbing operation on IOF soldiers in #Qalqilya before his ascendance to martyrdom."

Hamas also tries to have it both ways, but they choose to give one message in English to the West and another in Arabic.

In English:

The Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas mourns Palestinian citizen Aref Lahlouh, 20, who was extrajudicially killed by the Israeli occupation forces in the occupied West Bank city of Qalqilia.

In Arabic:

The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) mourns to the masses of our stationed Palestinian people, its fighter martyr: Aref Abdel Nasser Aref Lahlouh (20 years), from the Jenin refugee camp, who rose to fame while carrying out a heroic stabbing operation against the occupation forces near Qalqilya, this afternoon, Wednesday.
The choice of our people is to escalate the confrontation by igniting the land under the feet of the occupation and its settlers, and that the resistance will confront the crimes of the occupation and its aggression against the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque with sacrifices, lives, and all available means so that it remains purely Islamic, and a title for our people and our Arab and Islamic nation.

But the most unusual take comes from the socialist PFLP. The PFLP requires both narratives - from the socialist viewpoint, Palestinians are always victims and therefore always right, while from a Palestinian perspective, they love brave heroic "martyrs." Plus they need to add some antisemitism as well. So their statement includes all three:

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine mourned the death of Aref Abdel Nasser Aref Lahlouh (22 years old), who was shot dead by the occupation army near Qalqilya while trying to carry out a stabbing attack.

The PFLP considered that the Zionist enemy's continued commission of murders against Palestinian youth at checkpoints is at the heart of the killing doctrine rooted in the official Zionist institution, which is dominated by a fascist and bloody military character based on criminal Talmudic religious fatwas.

Interestingly, Ma'an has an analysis that says that Hamas is encouraging these "lone wolf" attacks in order to take IDF attention away from Gaza, and that many Palestinians are critical of these "martyrdom operations" because they often have to pay the price in being unable to go to their jobs in Israel.

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!

Donations to groups that encourage Palestinians murdering Jews are tax deductible in the US

Last year, a group of anti-Israel groups co-sponsored rallies in New York City titled "By Any Means Necessary."

The phrase isn't even a dog whistle, It literally is a call to murder Jews in Israel. it says that bus bombs, suicide bombings of pizza shops and Passover seders and murdering children via sniper are all legitimate "resistance." And if they thought that murdering Jews around the world would help their cause, then that is included in "any means necessary."

One would think that groups that literally call for murdering Jews would be banned. But not only are they legal - incitement to murder Jews is apparently free speech - but donations to these groups are tax deductible.

The Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network was founded and is led by members of the PFLP terror group. It proudly promotes the PFLP which recruits children to attack Jews. Yet donors to Samidoun get a tax deduction, as it launders the donations through the Alliance for Global Justice, which claims to support "peace, anti-war and liberation." But AGJ happily partners with a group that openly advocates terror.

"Within Our Lifetime" apparently coined the phrase "Globalize the Intifada," which they explicitly say means "to win liberation by any means necessary."

In this case, it sounds even more like a threat to Jews worldwide, not just in Israel.

Yet donations to Within Our Lifetime are also tax deductible, laundered through Wespac, which describes itself as wanting a more "just and peaceful world" - which apparently includes blowing up Jews.

The Palestinian Youth Movement, another co-sponsor of "By Any Means Necessary," also launders its donations through Wespac.

It seems to me that IRS rules against terrorist organizations are general enough to include any of these groups that say they support violence against civilians as a legitimate means of "resistance." The organizations that launder the money, Wespac and the Alliance for Global Justice, should be examined and put on notice - the contents of these groups' websites should be enough to make an initial determination that they support terror.

This is way overdue.

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!

01/24 Links Pt2: Exhibit Listing Millions of Holocaust Victims to Go on Display at UN Headquarters; Sorry, Not Sorry: The Disingenuous Or Sincere Public Apologies for Celebrity Antisemitism

From Ian:

The Magical Mossad Mystery Tour

Just East of Zar’it, Northern Israel
“You want to know a secret? Hezbollah is watching! They are usually up there with binoculars,” an Israeli soldier confided to me. She pointed north amid the green hills in the direction of Ramya, the Lebanese village which was the approximate starting point of the terrorist group’s flagship tunnel, named Wilderness Flower by the IDF but more commonly known as the Ramya Tunnel. We were standing amid a group of tourists at the tunnel’s mouth, now framed in concrete and with a metal door, nearly four years to the day that the Israel Defense Forces had exposed the assault passageway, one of six dug from inside southern Lebanon under Israeli territory. The IDF has blown up the other five.

If Hezbollah was indeed watching, it must have been a shaming experience for the surveillants. This marvel of military engineering, which would have enabled a flash mob of Shia fighters to emerge in the Upper Galilee to slaughter at will, was now entertaining a group of about 50 mostly elderly and Jewish tourists, some using walkers, many commenting on what schmucks the Hezbollahis must have been to invest so heavily in not one but six failed tunnels, as we moved on to Misgav Am for ice cream.

“It took the IDF four years to figure out all the tunnels,” said Major Nehemiah, another soldier who invited visitors to photograph anything except himself. “Hezbollah envisioned an elite force to surprise us through the tunnels. They would have surfaced here on the Old Northern Road. It would have a been a tactical, propaganda victory for them, against civilians.”

The Ramya Tunnel, he said, had taken Hezbollah about 10 years to build, and apart from Iranian funding, no foreign expertise or other role was evident in its creation. It ran for about a mile under Ramya into this area near the town of Zar’it, and the concluding section consisted of a circular cement staircase rising nearly 80 yards upward to this point. The steps were too steep for many tour members to explore, but some of our orange-helmeted number tried them out, noting that the damp dolomite walls sported power cables (labeled “Original Hezbollah Infrastructure” in Hebrew and English) but no handrails; presumably Hezbollah fighters would have been of a spryer demographic than us.

Hezbollah’s surveillance duties at this site must be light, because visits are rare—the tunnel is not open to the public. But we were not sightseers but fortunate members of the Ultimate Mossad Mission, a biannual tour sponsored by the Israel Law Center and Shurat HaDin (“Letter of the Law”).

The busload skewed mature, affluent, American, European, and Canadian, with a scattering of family ties to Israel—several would hang on after the tour to visit grandchildren or in-laws—and we could have passed for an extended family on the road with our uniform casual clothes, sturdy shoes, mobile phones, water bottles, and laminated IDs hanging from matching lanyards. Most men wore ball caps, with or without kippahs. Some women’s hair blew in the breeze, some sported snoods or bucket hats resembling the kova tembel or fool’s hat beloved of old-timey kibbutzniks.

We shared the élan of the security-conscious elect conversant with the Spy Museum in D.C., the NSA Museum, which is open to the public, or the CIA Museum, which is not. Our travel highlights would not be luxurious hotels or opulent buffets but coveted access to sites like this, and the high-level intelligence briefings we would judge and follow up with penetrating questions.

The connections between our weeklong jaunt and the Mossad were in fact rather modest. Retired and active Israeli security officers with various affiliations provided backgrounders on security matters, but they were often from the military or law enforcement sectors, which should not have been a surprise. The Mossad is a foreign intelligence organization unlikely to provide foreign visitors with information on bread-and-butter security issues. Someone apparently figured that an “Ultimate Border Police Mission Tour” would lack snap.

Shosh Amit: most proud of getting Jews out of Arab countries

It was only when Shosh Amit turned 90 that she agreed to be interviewed by Moshe Vistoch of Israel Hayom. As a girl in Baghdad, Shosh lived through the 1941 Farhud in Baghdad. She was active in the Zionist Underground in Iraq, and immigrated without her parents to Israel. She worked for the Mossad and helped, among other things, Jews escape Syria in the 1980s and 90s.

What eventually convinced her to come forward was the desire to help raise awareness of the contribution of Iraqi Jews to the construction of the State of Israel’s intelligence system, especially in its early years. Her apartment in the Polg estate, where we met on a warm winter’s day, indeed radiates peace and quiet, but does not betray the storms that were the tenant’s lot. Often there were also internal storms that accompanied her until the wee hours of the night and sometimes entered her dreams.

“My last position at the Mossad,” she shares, “involved the escape of Jews mainly from Syria between the years ’82 and ’90. The work accompanied me until I went to sleep. All the time thoughts ran through my head, how are they doing, how will they get out, will everything be alright, Will the smuggler arrive on time, is all the data I gave good enough. My head was working 24 hours a day, but I’m happy that I got to work in this position.”

She was born in 1933 in Baghdad, as the third daughter of a family of seven children. “Our home was a little different from the traditional Iraqi home,” she says, “Fathers in Iraq had a high status and they hardly spoke to their children, some of them did not remember the girls’ names. The status of women was very low, but in my home it was the opposite. My father , who was engaged in the purchase of land in the city of Kirkur, really shared his purchase considerations with us, and my mother was a graduate of the Alliance School, which was not acceptable in those days.

“The house where I grew up was Zionist. My grandmother on my mother’s side immigrated to the Land of Israel as early as 1926. We had a close connection with Israel. My sister, who is two years older than me, and I ,were also given Hebrew names – Uriah and Shoshana. I often hear Iraqi Jews talk longingly about Iraq. I never felt a sense of belonging in my life, maybe because of all the times my father talked about Israel and our intention to come to Israel.” In 1936, her family came to visit the Land of Israel, which only increased her attachment to the Holy Land. “When we returned to Iraq, the members of the Jewish community treated us as saints because we were in Israel, and the curiosity about Israel was great.”

University of Melbourne adopts IHRA definition

The University of Melbourne has become the first university in Australia to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism.

The adoption, along with all of the definition’s examples, forms part of a broader anti-racism commitment made by the university on Tuesday.

The announcement came just days before International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which is marked on January 27.

The Australasian Union of Jewish Students (AUJS) said in a statement it was “thrilled to hear” of the adoption.

“This sends a message to all Jewish students around the country that our voices are being heard. The University’s anti-racism commitment will go a long way to fostering an inclusive and thriving campus experience for all minority groups,” AUJS said.

“We are really looking forward to working with the University of Melbourne throughout the implementation process. Thank you to the University of Melbourne for taking the lead.”

Zionist Federation of Australia president Jeremy Leibler said, “This move is a strong step forward in the fight against antisemitism on campus and in society as a whole.

“By adopting the Working Definition, Melbourne University is taking a meaningful step to demonstrate to Jewish students that antisemitism on campus will not be tolerated.”

The University of Melbourne made headlines for the wrong reasons last year when its Student Union adopted an anti-resolution many deemed antisemitic.

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!

Arab media have been very excited at the doom and gloom articles in Israeli and Western media predicting civil war or a collapse of Israeli society. Haaretz articles are especially prized and translated.

But it's been a couple of months, and the audience is thirsting for more.

Awad Deif Allah Almalahimah writes in Jordanian news site Khaberni his own expert analysis of how Israeli society is irrevocably split in two, based on his first-hand observations - 20 years ago in the West Bank.

It is quite clear that he has no idea what he is talking about, but his audience doesn't know that.

The Ashkenazi Jews of European origin live in and around Tel Aviv. They are a morally decadent society, with addiction to alcohol and drugs, prostitution, moral decay, homosexuality, sexual transformation, and other perversions and reprehensible things.

As for the fanatics, most of them are concentrated in the West Bank, especially in the areas of Hebron, Jerusalem, and other places, and the enemy has a goal for their concentration there. Here I will tell you some manifestations of religious intolerance:

During my more than seven visits to the West Bank, about two decades ago, I witnessed the concentration of Falasha Jews in Jerusalem, and their residence is confined to certain places, and they do not work in any work or jobs at all. And they consider them as breeding machines, as it is common to see a woman and a man accompanied by 10 children or more, as they walk in the street. Their clothes are shrouded in black - as are their hearts - and their beards are very long, which may reach the knee, and they wear their headscarves that indicate their fanaticism, and their women wear the veil, and no part of their bodies or faces appear, as if they were a copy of the backward terrorist organization ISIS - which had not appeared yet, Perhaps ISIS copied it from the Falasha Jews - yes, ISIS, the organization of the killers, a creation of America and Zionism to distort the great Islam. And the majority of the Falasha Jews, as I mentioned earlier, are given remunerative and generous salaries and benefits, without doing any work, and their services to the entity are represented in breeding new Zionists.

In addition to what I mentioned above from my personal observations, I will tell you what happened to the religious fanatics of the entity. Imagine that about 50,000 Zionist girls do not leave their homes unless they wear the veil. The prohibition of eating, selling, or dealing with pork began to spread. Separation of men and women began to spread in all places. The prohibition of women from working, obliging them to stay at home, and preventing them from going out except accompanied by a mahram began to spread, and strictness began to prohibit doing any work on Saturdays at all.

Contrasting this strict society, the other section is the secularists who brought with them the life of the West with all its vices.

...Accordingly, they are not a people, but rather a population with diverse cultures, religions, languages, customs, traditions, values, morals, and concepts. Because it is a mixed society of immigrants from most, if not all parts of the world. Nothing binds them absolutely except the illusion of the motherland. Where they came from: Western Europe / Eastern Europe / North America / South America / and the Middle East, including some Arab countries / India / Russia / Canada / South Africa / Ethiopia / Britain, and others.

They are not a real, interdependent, cohesive society, with calling for intimacy, coexistence, unity, and rejection of division. Rather, the population of the entity spreads dissonance, division that reaches the point of conflict, and the rejection of the other who came from origins that are not homogeneous, but discordant in everything. God willing, the seeds of the collapse, annihilation, and disappearance of this artificial entity lie in it.

Not to belittle the real problems in Israeli society, but Arab "experts" have been making the claim that Israel is not a real country but a collection of people with nothing in common since 1948.

The last sentence makes it clear that there is a lot of wishful thinking going on here.

By the way, notice how this writer says that Zionism created ISIS. A similar mindset can be seen in this article from Yemen that says that Zionism was behind the burning of the Quran in Sweden.

If you don't like it - it is Jewish (or "Zionist.")

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!

01/24 Links Pt1: The continuing lie of the “Gaza blockade”; As Billions Flow to Jordan, US Remains Mum on Extradition of Palestinian Terrorist Ahlam Tamimi; Who will celebrate World Hijab Day this year?

From Ian:

Palestinians are playing the long game on world stage – Israel could lose

The United Nations General Assembly recently approved a resolution calling on the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to render an opinion on whether the continuing Israeli occupation of the territories has become permanent, and in fact an annexation of the territories. In principle, the Court’s opinions are not binding, and its decisions cannot be directly translated into steps against Israel. However, in practice, the petition of the case to the ICJ is part of a broader Palestinian strategy, and in the present international climate is liable to have significant implications.

In recent years, the Palestinians have adopted the practice of involving international institutions in their conflict with Israel. These efforts include their appeal to the ICJ on the legality of the separation fence, a push for the establishment of international commissions of inquiry after every military operation in Gaza, complaints to the International Criminal Court that led to a pending investigation of Israeli actions related to the conflict, and a drive to have Palestine admitted as a member state of various international organizations.

The Palestinian activity in international organizations is coordinated and aggregate. For example, the General Assembly’s recognition of the State of Palestine in 2012 provided the basis for the determination that the International Criminal Court has the authority to investigate Israeli actions related to the conflict. An ICJ decision that the Israeli occupation is illegal would serve as the basis for additional proceedings against Israel.

Developments in Israeli law are also liable to affect the legal ramifications of the ICJ proceeding. In 2004, it published an opinion that the construction of the separation fence in the territories was a violation of international law. In practice, no steps were taken against Israel as a result of that ruling. A significant factor in Israel’s ability to fend off the opinion was the fact that the Supreme Court had looked into the issue and concluded that the fence was legal under international law. In several places, the Supreme Court even intervened and ordered that its location be modified in order to comply with international law.

However, it seems that the Supreme Court’s willingness to impose international law on Israel’s activities in the territories is no longer as resolute as in the past. In recent years, the court has refrained from intervening in issues related to international law. If the Override Clause is enacted, the Court’s authority to review Israeli actions in the territories will be weakened even more, and the Knesset will be able to pass legislation such as the Settlement Regulation Law, which the Court struck down in 2020. In this situation, it is quite likely that international tribunals will pay no attention to proceedings in the Israeli Supreme Court and not view them as a reason to refrain from investigating the issues.

PMW: The continuing lie of the “Gaza blockade”

In 2022, United Nations officials and reports, many countries and their representatives, and the Palestinian Authority continued to perpetuate the lie alleging that Israel has applied a “blockade” on the “besieged Gaza Strip.”

While the lie was commonplace and even often embellished by claiming that “Gaza is the biggest prison in the world,” statistics released by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the so-called “occupied Palestinian territory” (OCHA) reveal the truth.

According to the OCHA statistics, in 2022 there were 424,417 exits via the Erez crossing from Gaza into Israel. 14,909 exits were for Gazan patients, who were accompanied by 10,930 people, entering Israel to receive medical treatment. There were also 573 entries into Israel to visit imprisoned terrorists.

Alongside the entry of the Gazans into Israel, OCHA also reported that 74,096 truckloads of commodities entered Gaza from Israel via the Kerem Shalom crossing in 2022. According to the statistics, only 5% of the truckloads were carrying humanitarian products.

In addition to the 74,096 truckloads of commodities, thousands of trucks entered Gaza from Israel carrying fuel:

While statistics released by the Israeli Defense Ministry showed that from 2017-2021 Israel - incredibly - allowed 11,499 new vehicles into Gaza, the number of new cars that entered Gaza from Israel in 2022 has not yet been released.

The OCHA website further revealed that in 2022, in addition to the 424,417 exits from Gaza into Israel, there were an additional 245,145 exits from Gaza, via the Rafah crossing, into Egypt.

In addition to the movement of people, 32,353 truckloads of commodities also entered Gaza from Egypt through the Rafah crossing. All the commodities that entered Gaza from Egypt were for commercial use. No humanitarian goods entered Gaza from Egypt.

A child of Oslo watches the Tel Aviv protests

Yet as a child of Oslo, born and raised in the dark years of rampant terror in which parents lost friends and friends lost parents, in which the obituary sections drove home realities that were decades premature, I have to ask myself: Does the Supreme Court really fulfill these functions in the name of protecting democracy and civil liberties? If so, shouldn't its decisions to rein in government policies be devoid of political bias?

In Oct. 1995, then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's government pushed the Oslo B agreement through the Knesset by a 61-59 majority. It did so by promising members of Knesset, from a right-wing party, positions in the government in exchange for their votes. Where were the calls for reining in majority rule back then?

At the time, the left was perfectly happy to win by the slimmest of majorities, however it was achieved. This was the case even though the ramifications of the vote were severe. They did not only threaten civil rights but the physical lives and safety of hundreds of thousands if not millions of Israelis.

Ten years later, I spent the summer of 2005 in Gush Katif in the Gaza Strip. I witnessed firsthand what it was like for the people there when Ariel Sharon turned his back on everyone who voted for him and rammed the disengagement plan through, firing anyone in his government who dissented.

Yet for some reason, the Supreme Court, sans Justice Edmond Levy, decided that it was not its place to interfere. It stood by as the government sent soldiers to expel citizens from their homes, crushing any semblance of their civil liberties.

Sadly, we are still paying for this decision to this day, with Hamas now ruling the dunes where once our hothouses bloomed.

This two-faced approach proves that we should not blindly accept the rhetoric employed by the protestors. This controversy is not really about civil rights or the strength of Israel's democracy. It's about power. Political power and judicial power. It is about people who want influence over the future of the State of Israel even when the majority of the people chose not to elect them.

It's hard to contain the feelings that bubble up when I hear friends on the left who supported Oslo and then the disengagement talk about how the Supreme Court is the defender of civil rights in this country. The Supreme Court proved otherwise when it abandoned the people of Gush Katif. They proved that their own politics supersede their supposed commitment to upholding the civil rights of all Israelis, making this argument against the reform null and void.

Globes reports:

Sources familiar with the matter have told "Globes" that Saudi Arabia will allow Israelis to vacation on the Red Sea islands of Tiran and Sanafir, which it purchased from Egypt in 2016. Saudi Arabia plans building a bridge linking the islands to Egypt.

The long-range vision of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is to develop his country and open it up to the world including huge tourism ventures along the Red Sea coast right up to the Gulf of Eilat. The Saudis also plan to make the islands of Tiran and Sanafir into busy tourist destinations with hotels and casinos.

...a solution is emerging that will leave Egypt with a vestige of sovereignty, thus achieving two goals: firstly, Egypt will have a veto on what happens on the islands; secondly, maintaining the peace agreement and giving Israelis the opportunity to vacation on the islands. Israeli passport holders entering Egypt from Taba or Sharm el-Sheikh airport, will be able to spend time in the hotels and casinos operated by Saudi companies on the islands.

The planned tourist spots will be specifically geared towards in international audience. For Saudi Arabia, this includes unprecedented freedoms for tourists:

Saudi Arabia’s giga-project, Red Sea Destination is set to welcome visitors in 2023, ahead of their opening RSG’s senior travel trade director Loredana Pettinati announced that women will be allowed to wear bikinis at the destination.
Pettinati when asked about the current regulations in the kingdom, said at a press conference in Dubai that no restrictions will be imposed on women and there will be no specific gender rules in place at the destination.
Pettinati also explained that as a European expat, she feels comfortable and said that “across Saudi Arabia, we do not have to wear an abaya, women are allowed to drive. There will be no distinction between women and men entering any facility, anywhere.”
She also explained that a man and woman booking a hotel will not be asked if they are married or not.

Saudi Arabia is still a huge violator of human rights, but its modernization is highly significant and pushes it in the right direction. These moves should be celebrated.

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!

Yesterday, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas announced that every Palestinian with a mobile or landline phone will have to pay an extra shekel every month "to support Jerusalem."

Palestinians received a message on their mobile phones saying, "In compliance with President Abbas' decision, one shekel will be added to your bill every month for a period of 12 months as part of an initiative to support the steadfastness of our people in Jerusalem."

The tax would raise about 60 million shekels ($18M) annually.

The reaction was immediate and fierce. Absolutely no one believes that the money would go to Jerusalem Arabs and nearly everyone assumes it would enrich Abbas and his Fatah friends.

Palestinians ridiculed the decision on social media, many saying that they refuse to pay or that they would rather cancel their phones. Some called in "theft in broad daylight."

Others noted that the earmarking of funds to "Jerusalem" was incredibly vague and could be used for anything.

Some Jerusalem Arabs said that they don't need any money, but rather an army to "liberate" them.

Still others pointed out that imposing such a tax without official approval from the Legislative Council is illegal under Palestinian law.

Many Palestinians recalled a previous fundraising initiative by Abbas. In 2016, he announced a project to build the "Khaled Al-Hassan" cancer hospital on 20 dunams of land in Ramallah, at an approximate cost of $140 million, not including medical equipment costs. Tens of millions of dollars were raised, but the hospital was never built, while the government claims that the money raised was put in a "special fund."

This prompted many to jokingly say that the phone tax will pay for the Jerusalem branch of the Khaled al-Hassan hospital.

This episode proves that there is absolutely no trust in Mahmoud Abbas' government. A majority of Palestinians consider both the PA and Hamas to be corrupt.

Beyond that, it shows how out of touch Abbas is from the people. The reaction was predictable, even as he probably thought that no one would care about such a small increase in their phone bill.

The story shows how precarious and corrupt the PA is.

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!

Antisemitism at Cairo International Book Fair

Here is the cover of a book called "History of the Zionist Movement and its Organizations," by , being shown at the Cairo International Book Fair this week.

Of course.

Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement: “We are concerned about the continued presence of signs of antisemitism in Egyptian society, as this is reflected in the books that are published and also presented at the Cairo International Book Fair. We are determined to continue our efforts in strengthening cooperation with our interlocutors In Egypt, in a way that promotes peace, stability and security, and at the same time combating anti-Semitism."

Notably, however, there are a number of books about Jews at the fair that appear to try at least to be real histories of Jews in Egypt.

(h/t Roi Kais)

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01/23 Links Pt2: Arsen Ostrovsky: Does Harvard’s ‘Veritas’ apply to Israel?; Why is the Reform movement defending an antisemite?; Col. Kemp: Club Z: A titanium dome for Jewish youth

From Ian:

Arsen Ostrovsky: Does Harvard’s ‘Veritas’ apply to Israel?

As far back as 2009, Roth’s obsession and bias with Israel had become so intolerable, it led to HRW founder Bob Bernstein to publicly excoriate the very organization he founded, writing in the New York Times that, under Roth’s leadership, “Human Rights Watch has lost critical perspective.” Instead of heeding Bernstein’s advice, in the years that followed, Roth’s obsession with Israel only intensified, to the point of fixation.

Writing for The Guardian, Roth claimed that the initial decision to refuse him a fellowship was due to his “criticism of Israel” and “donor reaction,” adding that HRW recognized that “we would never attract donors who wanted to exempt their favorite country from the objective application of international human rights principles. That is the price of respecting principles.”

Israel of course is not above the law or fair criticism, however, the undeniable fact is that Roth has systematically denied Israel equal treatment, taking his criticism to an obsessive and obscene level, refusing to accept the Jewish state has legitimate security concerns and denying it the same rights as afforded to other democracies.

In reversing his decision, Kennedy School Dean Elmendorf said he made an “error” in his initial refusal to appoint Roth, which was not influenced by any donor pressure, but rather had been guided based on his evaluation of Roth’s potential contribution to the school. Elmendorf ought to have stuck to his initial assessment.

Instead, there can be no other way to look at this reversal other than as a cowardly and pitiful caving in to Roth’s pressure campaign. One may be forgiven for asking if Harvard now has any red lines at all in the hallowed pursuit of “open debate”? What next? Maybe a fellowship to Vladimir Putin to teach modern warfare, or Ayatollah Ali Khamenei a fellowship in gender studies?

At a time of antisemitism surging to unprecedented levels on campuses across the United States, instead of taking a principled stand, Harvard has just normalized and rewarded Jew-hatred with a prestigious Fellowship.

When it Comes to Hating Jews, Academic Freedom is in Full Bloom

If Ken Roth was responsible for such an epic libel and historical distortion, then just maybe he doesn’t belong anywhere near a university, most especially Harvard. After all, colleges are supposedly dedicated to objective truth, intellectual inquiry, and moral constancy. Given the woke war that has been waged on the campus green for some time now, aren’t there already enough Israel haters spreading propaganda and poisoning minds?

What about academic freedom, which ultimately guided the decision to welcome Roth to the Kennedy School? That’s all well and good on a two-way street. But academic freedom when it comes to Israel offers freedom in one direction alone: the freedom to deny its legitimacy. Viewpoint diversity about Israel, or on any number of topics on campus these days, is nonexistent.

No college in America has any plans to adopt the new definition of antisemitism proposed by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, and embraced by over 30 countries, which updates antisemitic invective to include: depriving Jews of their right to self-determination, referring to Israel as a racist endeavor or comparing Israelis to Nazis, and blaming Jews for Israel’s policies.

Evidently, the joys of campus life, and the freedoms of the academy, would be shattered if professors and students were obliged to refrain from such antisemitic rhetoric.

Ironically, it has often been stated that Roth, the Israel basher, also has Jewish blood. In fact, his father fled Nazi Germany. It’s not the first time that Israel’s enemies have trotted out their list of Jews who have discovered the career benefits of betrayal, and who have completely abandoned moral clarity and an allegiance to their people. Jewish history is littered with fellow travelers in self-hatred who would do anything to become a fellow at Harvard.

In the case of Roth, however, it is worth remembering that the organization that he once led was begun by Jews (no surprise there), and that its founder, Robert Bernstein, distanced himself from, and openly criticized, the direction Roth had taken HWR in the Middle East.

It’s time for universities to start recruiting, and handing out fellowships, to the Bernsteins of the world, too.

History will remember @KenRoth for two main contributions: (1) The first to use "Apartheid" to demonize a people. (2) The first to use "criticizing Israel" to seek sainthood. @Ostrov_A https://t.co/bs2TUyV1LX
— Judea Pearl (@yudapearl) January 22, 2023

Guardian buries the lede that ((donors)) didn't nix Roth's fellowship

The Guardian’s McGreal then published a follow-up (“Harvard reverses decision on role for Israel critic after outcry”, Jan. 19), which included this:
Roth had accused Elmendorf of withdrawing the fellowship under pressure, direct or implied, from donors who are strong supporters of Israel. The dean denied it.

“Donors do not affect our consideration of academic matters,” he said in his statement. “My decision was also not made to limit debate at the Kennedy School about human rights in any country.”

Indeed, The Chronicle of Higher Education previously reported that Ermendorf told colleagues that his original decision was based conversations he had with people who mattered to him did. Who, specifically, asked Ken Roth, was Ermendorf referring to?

Well, Judea Pearl, whose son Daniel, a journalist for the Wall Street Journal, was kidnapped and beheaded by Islamic terrorists in Pakistan over 20 years ago, tweeted this on Jan. 19th:
OK, no point keeping it secret any longer -- it was I who advised Dean Douglas Elmendorf to block your fellowship at Harvard. Blame me, not the "Israeli lobby" and, you know what, resign gracefully, before Harvard students discover what you really stand for. @GeraldNGOM https://t.co/tyT0oXWsdn
— Judea Pearl (@yudapearl) January 19, 2023

In addition to being an academic who has received awards for his work on artificial intelligence, the widely respected Pearl is president of the Daniel Pearl Foundation, which works to continue his son’s life-work of East-West understanding, and is a co-recipient of the 2006 Purpose Prize for launching the Daniel Pearl Dialogue for Muslim-Jewish understanding.

So, contrary to the smears peddled about the row, it wasn’t wealthy Jewish donors who pressured Dean Elmendorf – a fact alluded to but ultimately buried due to Guardian’s insistence on never learning any lessons about the profound dangers of antisemitic dog whistles.

Why is the Reform movement defending an antisemite?

A rather remarkable document was recently issued by a group of left-wing Jewish organizations, in which the task of defending a confirmed antisemite was undertaken.

This open letter, issued by Ameinu, Americans for Peace Now, Bend the Arc: Jewish Action, Habonim Dror North America, J Street, the New Israel Fund, the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism and T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, sought to defend Rep. Ilhan Omar and deride House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s stated purpose (now fulfilled) of removing Omar from the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

“As Jewish American organizations, we oppose Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy’s pledge to strip Representative Ilhan Omar of her House Foreign Affairs Committee seat based on false accusations that she is antisemitic or anti-Israel,” the organizations stated.

When I read this missive, I was initially put in mind of French historian Pierre Vidal-Naquet’s remark upon reading a statement by Holocaust deniers: “Epithets came to my pen.”

I shall eschew obscenity, but epithets seem in order, because this letter is a quite monstrous document.

The reason is that its assertion that the accusations against Omar are “false” is a lie. With the best will in the world, Omar’s claims that American Jews buy control of Congress via their “benjamins” and that support for Israel constitutes loyalty to a foreign country cannot be viewed as anything other than explicitly antisemitic.

Omar has never repudiated or apologized for these statements. She clearly believes that she is merely speaking truth to power—which in this context can only be viewed as “Jewish” power.

This is barely an exaggeration.

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01/23 Links Pt1: From the River to the Sea, Palestine is already free; Kontorovich: Israel’s Supreme Court Claims a Veto on Political Appointments; UN Personnel Pose in Front of Taliban Flag

From Ian:

From the River to the Sea, Palestine is already free

As Herodotus knew, the Philistines occupied a relatively small portion of the Land of Israel consisting of five city states: Gaza, Ashkelon and Ashdod on the Mediterranean coast, and Gath and Ekron a bit further east. And In fact, the area occupied by the Philistines was collectively termed Philistia. But Herodotus applied the name Palaestina to the entire region he described as being located between Phoenicia in the north and Egypt in the south, and which he referred to as the “land of the circumcised” (which the Philistines notably were not). In short, Herodotus applied the name Palaestina to the entire land of Israel.

One would expect that Herodotus had a compelling reason to call the entire Land of Israel by the term “Palaestina”. And, indeed, there was a compelling reason, and that reason wonderfully and absolutely confirms the Jewish connection to the Land of Israel.

As a historian and geographer, Herodotus was very familiar with the inhabitants of the Land of Israel, and their stories and history. And a key story is that of the Patriarch Jacob wrestling a man/angel all night, before encountering his brother Esau. Jacob emerged from that wrestling match victorious, and the man/angel gave Jacob a new name – Yisrael (Israel) – “because you strove with G-d and man and prevailed”, and he blessed Jacob/Israel (Genesis 32:25 – 30). Yisrael/Israel means the one who wrestled/strove with G-d.

That wrestling match and subsequent new name were so pivotal that they redefined Jewish identity forever. From then on, the Jacob’s descendants would be known as Bnei Yisrael -- the Children of Israel; and the promised land became known as Eretz Yisrael – the Land of Israel.

(Even today, as we merit to see the ongoing ingathering of the Jewish exiles as promised by G-d, the name chosen for the new Jewish state is Medinat Yisrael - the State of Israel.)

The importance and meaning of that biblical event was not lost on Herodotus, and is the key to his coining the name now devolved to “Palestine”:

The Greek word for wrestler is Palaistis, and Herodotus called Eretz Yisrael “Palaistine” – the Land of the Wrestler (Jacob/Yisrael/Israel). Palaistine is simply a Greek translation of the Hebrew name “Eretz Yisrael”, the Land of Israel.

It is time to set the record straight and jettison the false linkage between Palestine and the Philistine invaders. Palestine is an ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew name Eretz Yisrael. It actually constitutes an ancient acknowledgement that the Land of Israel belonged to its Jewish inhabitants; that it never contained an ancient so-called “Palestinian” people. The so-called 'Palestinians' of today are merely Arab invaders who came not so long ago.

And, ironically, every time the anti-Israel world uses the term “Palestine” they are unwittingly confirming the connection of the Jews to the Land of the Wrestler, to the Land of Israel.

From the river to the sea Palestine is already free, and with G-d’s help may we soon merit to see the return of the rest of the Land of Israel that lies on the other side of the Jordan river.

Eugene Kontorovich: Israel’s Supreme Court Claims a Veto on Political Appointments

Israel’s Supreme Court last week invalidated the ministerial appointment of Aryeh Deri, leader of one party in the new governing coalition. The ruling didn’t even pretend to be interpreting Israel’s Basic Laws, which lay out the basic structure of government. The Knesset had specifically passed a law authorizing someone in Mr. Deri’s situation (he had pleaded guilty to criminal charges) to hold cabinet office. But the court said it would be “unreasonable” for Mr. Deri to be a minister.

In other words, it canceled the prime minister’s appointment of a cabinet member on grounds that it was technically legal, but gross—a kind of impeachment by judiciary.

The new government’s proposed judiciary reform has provoked pushback from the Biden administration and others on the ground that it threatens the rule of law. This case is a timely illustration that the opposite is true. No judiciary in the world has as far-reaching powers over government as Israel’s. The court assumed these powers in recent decades without authorization from lawmakers or a national consensus, and there is no reason they should be unalterable.

Judicial review—the ability of a court to declare that a law violates a country’s constitution—is an American invention. Israel doesn’t have a constitution. The court assumed that power in 1995, when it proclaimed that the Knesset had given it the power to strike down laws. The 1992 law under which the court claimed that authority passed 32-21. A majority of the 120-member Knesset didn’t show up to vote, not having known the court would later claim the law as a quasi-constitution.

This was only one step in the court’s power grab. It gradually eliminated all restrictions on justiciability and standing, allowing it to rule on any issues in public life whenever it chooses, without the constraint of lower-court proceedings or fact-finding. It employed the doctrine of “reasonableness” as a free-standing basis to block government action, including the government’s makeup. And the court has claimed authority to decide whether any new Basic Laws, or amendments to old ones, are valid, ending the charade that it is subordinate to law.

Lapid calls for presidential committee to shape ‘balanced’ judicial reforms

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid has called on President Isaac Herzog to set up a committee that will recommend a “balanced” plan to reform the judiciary.

“I proposed to President Herzog that he form a presidential committee to offer a reasonable recommendation to improve the judicial system and find the proper balance between the legislative and judicial branches,” said Lapid on Monday. “President Herzog is considering the proposal. I hope and believe the committee will be formed and will prevent the destruction of our democracy and the terrible division among the people of Israel.”

The comments come against the background of a political battle around the government’s judicial reform plan, which aims to curtail what it says is judicial overreach. The plan would give the Knesset the ability to overturn court decisions that cancel laws, allow elected officials greater influence in selecting judges, and reduce the power of legal advisers attached to government ministries.

Lapid earlier this month described the prospective judicial reforms as an “extreme regime change” and vowed to continue fighting in streets across the country in “a war over our home.”

If this is such a good idea, why wasn’t it offered by Lapid when he was PM? And if commissions with balanced recommendations are a prerequisite of changes to judicial system, doesn’t show that the Court’s power grab totally ilegit? https://t.co/haRd4ciLXZ
— Eugene Kontorovich (@EVKontorovich) January 23, 2023

Jerome Marcus: A 'democratic revolution' against a court with unlimited power?

By Daled Amos

There are any number of issues that are raised in an effort to demonize Israel these days. Maybe because there is no shortage of ways to attack the Jewish state, another set of claims are not seen as often.

There used to be people claiming to offer Israel some "friendly" advice.

They would helpfully suggest that Israel had to change its policies or risk being isolated in the world. These days, of course, we have the Abraham Accords and the Negev Forum that grew out of that. There are alliances that Israel has formed with some countries in the EU, such as Hungary and the Czech Republic, which have prevented EU condemnations of Israel from being unanimous. There is also the growing relationship between India and Israel.

A second piece of helpful advice would have it that Israel was in a race against time to make a two-state solution a reality in order to prevent the Jewish State from being overrun by the larger Muslim birth rate. I had not seen this mentioned for a while, till I saw it brought up in a RAND Corporation report from 2021 that warned about:

the demographic shift that has been gradually unfolding because the population growth rates of Israeli Arabs and Palestinians have far outpaced Israeli Jews. [p. 2]

The report bases itself on the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, which -- contrary to what the RAND Corporation would have us believe -- does not mean that the conclusion is accepted on its face. Yoram Ettinger has challenged the numbers, and the conclusions being drawn from them, for years.

And before Ettinger, there was Ben Wattenberg.

In 2002, he wrote Parents of Arabia, which appeared in the Wall Street Journal. Wattenberg wrote:

Truth is, fertility rates in Arab and Muslim countries have been falling rapidly in recent decades. Indeed, it would be remarkable were they not; it’s been happening everywhere else.

...The bottom line is that the demographic situation for the Jews of Israel is not nearly as bleak as it is sometimes portrayed. The Jewish Israeli TFR [total fertility rate -- the number of children per woman] is about 2.7 children per woman. It has come down some but it remains the highest of any modern country, the only one seriously above the replacement rate, and about twice the rate for Jews in the rest of the world.

But this issue of demographics is more than a cudgel in the hands of Israel's friends to encourage a change in policy. It is an issue that concerned Zionists even before 1948.

Dr. Ariel Zellman, a lecturer in the Department of Political Studies at Bar-Ilan University, wrote a blog post describing an interview he had with Ettinger. In it, he described how earlier Zionists addressed the issue of demographics.

He goes back to the time of Theodor Herzl and the First World Zionist Congress, when Simon Dubnow, the Jewish historian argued that Jews could not become a majority in then-Palestine. Instead, he preferred the idea of Jewish self-rule in Europe, autonomism, stressing Yiddish culture and assuming the rejection of assimilation.

In March 1898, he published a public letter which projected that by the year 2000, at best, the Jewish population in the land of Israel could be no more than 500,000, which was more or less the population of Kiev at the time. Condemning Herzl as a hallucinating messianic visionary, he felt it was much better to focus on autonomy in Europe.

Zellman notes that "with 5.5 million Jews in the land by that year [2000], clearly his projection was flawed."

Later, in the years prior to Israeli independence, Professor Roberto Baki, a statistician and demographer at Hebrew University, told Ben Gurion and other Zionist leaders that the 600,000 Jews at the time were not enough to create the critical mass needed for maintaining a state.

Then in 1944, Baki offered a projection that indicated that at best, one could expect 1 million Jews to make aliyah from 1944 to 2001. Jews were doomed to becoming a minority there based on the expected low Jewish birthrate (which was typical in Western Europe at the time) and the much higher Arab birthrate of 6 to 7 births per woman that was expected to continue.

Zellman writes, "In fact, 2.3 million made aliyah in that period, two and a half times what Baki expected."

In the 1970s, the Central Bureau of Statistics claimed there were no prospects for further large waves of immigration. The dual problem was that Jews in the West did not want to make aliyah, while Jews in the communist countries who did want to make aliyah were unable to.

But as it turned out, around 300,000 Jews ended up immigrating from the communist bloc.

In the 1980s, demographers argued that no substantial aliyah from the then-Soviet Union was possible. They insisted that even if they were allowed to leave, Soviet Jews would prefer emigrating to the US, Canada or Western Europe.

Instead, more than one million Jews made aliyah to Israel.

This was due in large part to Yitzchak Shamir. Zellman writes that

In the early years when Mikhail Gorbachev began to open the USSR’s borders to Jewish emigration, some 90% of emigrants went to Europe and the United States. In response (and much to the chagrin of the American Jewish community), Shamir pressured the United States in particular to limit the issuing of refugee certificates to Soviet Jews and lobbied Gorbachev to switch from a policy of allowing almost no flights to Tel Aviv to that of directing all Jewish emigrants to fly through Israel.

Yet, in 1987, Prof. Arnon Sofer, of Israel's National College of Defense, insisted that "by 2000 Israel will no longer be Jewish." Israel Harel notes that Sofer influenced generations of members of the defense establishment to perpetuate his pessimism.

Harel writes about a talk he once gave at that college, where he was part of the minority who believed in the power of aliyah to build up the Jewish majority in Israel:

I stated that had the founders of Zionism been directed by purely rational considerations, as these two [Baki and Dubnow"] were, the state would not have been born.
...Zionism was a movement that changed reality, I reminded them. Instead of fighting and changing demographic reality, I told them, you’re willing to give in to it.
...Fertility reflects optimism and faith in the future. What demographer had predicted such a turn of events?

In a post last year, Ettinger traced what he sees as Israel’s growing Jewish fertility rate to "optimism, patriotism, attachment to roots, communal solidarity, a frontier mentality..."

One more difference between Israeli Jews and the Jews in the Diaspora.

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Israel admits it mistakenly killed one Palestinian - the exception that proves the rule

Last week, at an impromptu checkpoint, IDF soldiers pulled a young man out of his car. His father, Ahmed Kahla, leaped out of the car (Haaretz' words) towards the soldiers. Fearful that they were being attacked, the soldiers shot the father, killing him.

The IDF investigated and determined that lethal force was not necessary, and that the soldiers' stories about what happened - that Kahla tried to grab one of their guns, or tried to stab them - were not accurate.

So far this year, there have been 18 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank. In nearly all of the cases, the person killed was actively involved in hostilities when killed and/or was a member of a terror group. (Given that there are millions of Palestinians and, at most, only several thousand members of terror groups in the West Bank, the chances that terror group members were not involved in hostilities and were coincidentally killed is quite small.)

Here is what most of those killed looked like:

Adin Haykin has been keeping track of the deaths and the circumstances/affiliations.

Notice that two of those pictured here are children (#1 and #8.) There have been four child terrorists killed this year, three of them PFLP and one Fatah Al Aqsa Brigades. That story, that terror groups are actively recruiting and training children, is simply not reported anywhere.

The case of Ahmed Kahla is the exception that proves the rule - the IDF tries as much as possible to only kill those who are directly attacking at the time, which is the vast majority of those killed. Moreover, the deaths are investigated, the investigations are done by high level authorities and the IDF will admit when their soldiers violate policies and kill without enough justification. (The last time the IDF admitted to have made a mistake was in December.)

Soldiers are under intense pressure, knowing that they are targets 24/7. They often have to make split second decisions as to whether they are being attacked and from where. And, crucially, they know that if they make a wrong decision, not only could they be responsible for the death of an innocent person, but they may face investigations.

The media typically does not report on most of these cases of actual gunmen attacking soldiers; far more often they will just report a tally of those killed and imply that most of them were uninvolved civilians.

But as we have seen, well over 90% of those killed are very involved and active in hostilities when killed. And in Arabic, their "heroism" is celebrated.

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