Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, April 11, 2023

04/11 Links Pt1: Melanie Phillips: An unspeakable atrocity; Husband, father of three murdered Jewish women calls April 10 to be ‘Dees Day’; UN Rapporteur Plays the Victim Card

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: An unspeakable atrocity

The dead were from a British family. You might have thought the British government would be outraged at the murder of three of its citizens. You might have thought that it would seek to hold the Palestinian Arabs to account for their incitement and complicity.

But of course, the British government is itself complicit in this and in all the other attacks on Israelis. That’s because it connives at the incitement to murder Israeli Jews by continuing to insist falsely that Israel is in “illegal occupation”; it continues to sanitise or ignore fanatical Palestinian Arab Islamic incitement to murder Israeli Jews and steal their land; it continues to refuse to exert any pressure on the Palestinian Arabs to cease their war of extermination against the State of Israel. Instead, it calls on both sides to “de-escalate” — an obscene moral equivalence between terrorists and terrorised, which means in practice telling Israel not to take the action that’s necessary to protect its people.

In similar vein, the UN Special Rapporteur Occupied Palestinian Territory (sic) Francesca Albanese tweeted:
The loss of life in the oPt & Israel is devastating, especially at a time that should be of peace for all, Christians, Jews, Muslims. Israel has a right to defend itself, but can't claim it when it comes to the people it oppresses/whose lands it colonises.

The Jews are the only people with any legal, historical or moral claim to this land. That’s why in 1922 the international community enshrined in treaty law the pledge to settle the Jews alone in the whole of mandate Palestine — the land that is now Israel, the “West Bank” and Gaza. The would-be colonisers are not the Jews. The would-be colonisers are, as they have been for decades, the Arabs.

These comments by Albanese and the UK government were sick. Alas, this is what passes for conventional wisdom among so many in the west and is unchallengeable dogma in liberal and left-wing circles.

After the death of Lucy Dee, and doubtless aware of the gathering outrage over the British government’s initial response, the Foreign Secretary James Cleverly tweeted:
Tragic news that Leah Dee has also died following the abhorrent attacks in the West Bank. There can be no justification for the murder of Leah and her two daughters, Maia and Rina. We will continue to work with the Israeli authorities to end this senseless violence.

This was too little, too late, and still utterly vacuous. The attack on the Dee family wasn’t “senseless violence”. It was part of a century-old Arab strategy of extermination aimed at removing the Jewish presence from the entire land. Unless the UK government starts exerting pressure on the Palestinian Authority by reducing aid and diplomatic recognition until it stops its murderous incitement and rejectionism, all such protestations of sympathy for Israeli terrorist victims will remain merely nauseating hypocrisy.

And let’s not overlook as well the sly references by Lucy Winkett, Canon of St James Piccadilly, on BBC Today’s Thought for the Day slot on Good Friday (listen here on BBC Sounds at 1hr 50 minutes in) hours before the attack on the Dee family. Woven into rambling about being a good neighbour, Winkett — who has long-standing form as an Israel-basher — included lightly-coded trigger phrases about “an occupying army brutalised by its occupation” and the “killing of God”.

This was a veiled but unmistakable reference to the Crucifixion as a “deicide” — the lethal accusation against the Jews derived from medieval Christian supersessionsism, and which often provoked pogroms during Passover by precisely such sentiments voiced by the priests in inflammatory Good Friday sermons. Supersessionsism — aka replacement theology — was supposedly disowned by the church because of the thousands of Jews slaughtered across Europe as result by vengeful Christian mobs. It has, however, resurfaced in the Church of England and other “progressive” Christian denominations lightly disguised as support for the Palestinian Arab cause.

Husband, father of three murdered Jewish women calls April 10 to be ‘Dees Day’

In a video message, Rabbi Leo Dee—whose wife, Lucy, 48, and daughters, Maia, 20, and Rina, 15, were murdered in a terrorist attack—called for the observance of April 10 as “Dees Day.”

“Today, we differentiate between good and evil, right and wrong,” he said.

Dee described being unable to reach his wife and daughters, who were traveling in a different car, after hearing that there had been a terrorist attack. Then he saw a missed call from one of his daughters.

“The feeling that she called me during the attack, and I wasn’t able to speak to her, would come back and haunt me for a while,” he said.

After recognizing the family’s suitcases, with blood on them, and after authorities showed him an identification card for one of his girls, Dee learned that his two daughters were murdered and that his wife had been airlifted to a hospital with two bullets lodged in her body. Somehow, he managed to drive 90 minutes to be with her.

Rabbi Leo Dee and his remaining three children after two of his daughters, Maia and Rina, were killed on April 7 when their car was ambushed by terrorists in the Jordan Valley. The sisters were buried on April 9 at the Gush Etzion Regional Cemetery in Kfar Etzion, one day before their mother, Lucy Dee, succumbed to her wounds and died on April 10, 2023. Photo by Noam Revkin Fenton/Flash90.

“I went numb. I didn’t cry yet. I was highly rational,” he said.

There was cause for hope, but that turned out to be short-lived. “Alas, our family of seven is now a family of four,” he said.

Noting that it was the first time in 30 years that the holidays of Passover, Easter and Ramadan coincided, Dee stated that all three have to do with making the world a better place. He said humanity has lost the ability to differentiate between good and evil in recent years, as a “small minority” has peddled moral relativism.

“If you feel that it was wrong to shoot dead, at close range, three beautiful, innocent young ladies in the prime of their lives, then please post a picture of you, or your spouse, or your children with an Israeli flag,” he said. “Or just post a picture of an Israeli flag and share it on Facebook, Instagram or whatever social-media app you use.”

Social-media users post Israeli flags for ‘Dees Day’

They started popping up on social media one after another on Monday afternoon. Israeli flags blowing in the wind. Israeli flags with pictures of families hugging each other. Israeli flags with the image of a mother and her two daughters smiling, with the words “Am Yisrael chai”—Hebrew for “The nation of Israel lives.”

On Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, the images were posted within hours of Rabbi Leo Dee’s plea to post photos of Israeli flags to honor the memory of his wife, Lucy, and daughters Maia and Rina. The 22-year-old and 15-year-old were shot and killed by a terrorist during a car attack on April 7 during the holiday of Passover.

“If you feel that it was wrong to shoot dead, at close range, three beautiful, innocent young ladies in the prime of their lives, then please post a picture of you, or your spouse, or your children with an Israeli flag,” he said in a press conference three days later, on April 10, the day his 48-year-old wife succumbed to her wounds. “Or just post a picture of an Israeli flag and share it on Facebook, Instagram or whatever social-media app you use.”

The Israel-education organization StandWithUs was among those heeding Dee’s call. “We are standing with the Dee family, who lost their beloved wife and mother, Lucy, and teenage daughters, Maia and Rina, to Palestinian terrorism,” the nonprofit, nonpartisan group tweeted. “We’re joining Rabbi Leo Dee’s call and asking our supporters—share and post an Israeli flag in their memory.”

The Twitter handle @Israel, which Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs maintains, also highlighted the campaign and asked followers to post photos of themselves with an Israeli flag. “We hope you join us and use #DeesDay,” it posted.

'I am paralyzed by the pain': Hundreds accompany funeral of Lucy Dee

Hundreds of people gathered for the funeral of Lucy (Leah) Dee in Kfar Etzion on Tuesday afternoon, just two days after Dee's daughters were buried at the cemetery.

Lucy and her daughters, Maia and Rina, were murdered in a shooting attack near Hamra in the Jordan Valley on Friday. After extensive efforts to save Lucy's life at Hadassah Medical Center, she succumbed to her wounds on Monday.

Residents of Efrat and Gush Etzion gathered with Israeli flags along the roads where the funeral procession passed.

Lucy's daughter, Karen, eulogized her mother, saying "yesterday, beside the grave of Maia and Rina, I closed my eyes and prayed that you would wake up, so that we wouldn't need to go through this pain twice. My heart is already so full of pain, I am paralyzed by all the pain. To lose your mother is like losing your life. I don't want to move on."

"Everyone will move on, and just us will remain behind with this hole that cannot be filled. Even in a thousand words, I cannot summarize you," added Karen.

"Who will accompany me to the wedding canopy? I cannot return to routine. I cannot accept that it is over. I do not know how to end the eulogy, because no matter how I end it I will never succeed in fitting in everything."

Lucy's husband, Rabbi Leo Dee, eulogized his wife, saying "We literally traveled the world together, we made aliyah together. We built a new life for ourselves in the promised land. You would frequently say that you couldn't imagine living anywhere else, nor could I, even now, especially now."

#HappeningNow: Hundreds of mourners have gathered in Gush Etzion, south of Jerusalem, to pay their last respects to Leah (Lucy) Dee, one of three victims killed in the Jordan Valley terrorist shooting attack last Friday. pic.twitter.com/6fgFqkD3AS
— Israel National News - Arutz Sheva (@ArutzSheva_En) April 11, 2023

The Tunisian Jewish Historical Society (Paris) In collaboration with the French Center for Tunisian Judaism is sponsoring a conference in Paris next week, entitled "The Jews and the law in Tunisia From protectorate to independence (1881-1956) - Between historical progress and religious resilience."

Some Tunisian researchers will be attending - but they are trying to hide their identities from Tunisians who want to stop them.

The conference will also host some Israeli researchers, so Tunisians are in a tizzy.

Two Tunisians who are listed in the programme have already been subject to on-line abuse from Tunisian antisemites and political parties.

The Executive Office of the General University for Higher Education and Scientific Research in Tunisia stated that it was aware of this conference, so it felt compelled to state that it is still very pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel.

It also said that it would not publicize the names of the Tunisian attendees - presumably to protect them from threats as the two speakers are already getting.

The Executive Office is not saying that no Tunisians should attend, but it does warn that no Tunisian researcher should partner with any Israeli institution that might fall under the rubric of "normalization."

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!

As my Twitter account gains followers (over 1500 in the past month), it is also attracting a new breed of antisemite - one that many other Zionist social media stars have seen for years.

It is not only that these people cannot stand any posts that are pro-Israel. But they also cannot stand posts that mourn dead Jews - they predictably respond with mentions of dead Arabs or other alleged Israeli atrocities, as a kind of justification for murdering Jews.

But there is another class of people who respond to pro-Israel posts. These are the ones who cite "experts."

They quote UN resolutions, or book authors, or articles that have footnotes, or NGOs, as proof positive that Israel is in the wrong, every time.

These are the people who say that international law allows Palestinians to murder Jews as "resistance."

They quote Shlomo Sand saying there is no such thing as a Jewish people. They quote Amnesty and Human Rights Watch saying Israel is guilty of "apartheid." They love Ilan Pappe's history of 1948. They claim that there was no Arab antisemitism before Zionism. They call Zionism "colonialism." They claim that Zionists tried to stop Jews from being saved in the Holocaust if they weren't going to Israel and they colluded with the Nazis. They toss off terms like "Jewish supremacy" the exact same way Germans used to but it is OK because "human rights" experts say it, too. They claim that Israel has scores of laws that discriminate against Arab citizens. They insist that Israel has "Jewish-only roads" in the territories.

All of these claims have one thing in common: they are easily debunked, as my links here show.

The mindset of the modern antisemite is that Israel and Zionist Jews are evil ab initio. But they don't want to be tarred as antisemites, because antisemitism is bad and something that only the far-Right is guilty of. Therefore, when they see articles that seem to have a sheen of validity that confirm their pre-existing hate, they are happy to accept them and spread them without any skepticism.

We have a small set of intellectual antisemites - many of them Jewish themselves - who craft opinions that carefully choose the facts that support their bigoted positions, and hide the much larger set of facts that shred their arguments. Then there is a much larger set of antisemites who enthusiastically accept this core of intellectual antisemitism as gospel, and shut their ears to any proof that they are fraudulent.

These new antisemites pretend that they are basing their hate on facts when the reality is that they choose their facts to justify their hate.

There is no greater proof than watching how they seethe so much at anyone condemning the murder of Jewish civilians in Israel that they feel they must bury any possible sympathy for the families of the victims with an avalanche of propaganda.

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!

Terrorist Mothers (poster)

I saw that Islamic Jihad's news media had made a poster of the poor mothers who are in Israeli prisons, separated from their families.

So sad!

I looked up what these sweet mothers had done to be placed into prison, and modified the poster to show the truth.

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!

04/10 Links Pt2: The Real ‘Palestinian Territory’? New York Times-Land; 60 groups urge UN to avoid IHRA antisemitism definition; Israel's Ben-Gurion Airport records busiest-ever month

From Ian:

Invention of the Christian Jesus by Renaissance Art, Hollywood, and Historians Proved Lethal for Jews

In the film “Resistance,” the character who plays the French mime and Jewish resistance fighter Marcel Marceau gives his answer to the question of why people hate Jews: “Because for centuries, they were told we killed Jesus.”

But to make the Christ killers charge justify violence and genocide, another falsification of Biblical history had to be added: Jesus had to be Christian.

Consider that the Sanhedrin, the ruling body over Jewish affairs, charged Jesus for committing blasphemies against Judaism. Christians later altered the fabricated indictment to “the Jews killed the Christian Jesus.” That “crime” then became the launching pad for rage, hatred, and unrestrained violence against Jews.

The invention of the Christian Jesus thus emerged as one of the most deadly lies in history. It weaponized the Christ killers charge.

While a consensus of Christian and Jewish Biblical scholars affirm that Jesus lived and died as a dedicated practicing Jew, Renaissance artworks invented a different narrative. In countless artworks spanning centuries, Jesus displays a cross, thus sending the false message that he is a Christian, despite the fact that Christianity did not exist even as a word or concept in Jesus’ lifetime.

Worse, the image of Jesus proudly displaying a cross is bizarre. If Jesus were to see these artworks, he would likely consider them mockery or extremely bad jokes. Particularly for Jews, the cross represented Roman torture, murder, and genocide.

The Real ‘Palestinian Territory’? New York Times-Land

Most egregious of all, though, is the phrase “siding with Israel on its claims over Palestinian territory in the West Bank.” That makes it sound like the Times itself is taking sides in the territorial dispute, asserting that the land actually is “Palestinian territory.”

The Israeli view was that it is Israeli territory. This is especially so because the land Israel was considering annexing wasn’t the entire West Bank, but only selected portions of it that were either strategically crucial or that were already heavily populated by Jewish residents. For the Times to describe those lands as “Palestinian territory” rather than as disputed territory is to adopt the Palestine Liberation Organization negotiating position as New York Times news department editorial policy. These are lands to which the Jewish people has extensive religious and historical connections, lands that were controlled most recently by the Ottoman and British empires, then by the Kingdom of Jordan, and then, after the Six Day War of 1967, by Israel.

A newspaper editor I knew once banned the term “news analysis,” mockingly suggesting that instead the rest of the newspaper’s columns be uniformly labeled as “analysis free.” At the Times, even the “news analysis” columns seem, sadly, to be bereft of the genuinely analytical and independent thinking necessary to distinguish reality from Palestinian propaganda. For turf more genuinely described as “Palestinian territory,” look not to the Jerusalem suburbs, but rather, to the columns and newsrooms of the New York Times itself.

60 groups urge UN to avoid IHRA antisemitism definition

Sixty groups that often oppose Israel urged the United Nations to reject the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism.

The definition—adopted by 39 countries, including the United States and Israel—“has often been used to wrongly label criticism of Israel as antisemitic,” the groups stated.

Signatories include the U.S. Presbyterian Church, which has some 1.19 million members, and the global ministry arm of the United Methodist Church, which has a membership of more than 12 million, as well as the American Civil Liberties Union, B’Tselem, Human Rights Watch and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights.

Three Israeli-designated terror organizations—Al-Haq, Addameer Prisoner Support, and Human Rights Association and Defense for Children International-Palestine—also signed the letter.

“Antisemitism is a pernicious ideology that poses real harm to Jewish communities around the world and requires meaningful action to combat it,” the groups wrote. But, they added, many scholars and other experts “have challenged the definition, arguing that it restricts legitimate criticism of Israel and harms the fight against antisemitism.”

The signatories claim that by the IHRA definition’s logic, “a person dedicated to defending the rights of Tibetans could be accused of anti-Chinese racism, or a group dedicated to promoting democracy and minority rights in Saudi Arabia could be accused of Islamophobia.”

“If the U.N. endorses the IHRA definition in any shape or form, U.N. officials working on issues related to Israel and Palestine may find themselves unjustly accused of antisemitism based on the IHRA definition,” added the groups.

Latest EoZ memes

Here are some of my latest memes:

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 a highly unusual press release, the Palestinian foreign ministry warned that Israel was about to embark on a war against Gaza, and asked foreign countries to pressure Israel not to do it.

The statement, released Sunday, says:

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates warns of the results and repercussions of any imminent Israeli military aggression against our people in the Gaza Strip, as Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu believes that the military aggression on the Gaza Strip is his political savior, given that the opposition will stand with him in that military confrontation, which will weaken or even stop the opposition campaign against him.

The Ministry warns the international community of the danger of what Netanyahu will do after the end of the Jewish holidays, and calls for proactive international positions to prevent these crimes from being committed against the innocent Palestinian people, particularly in the Gaza Strip, including restoring the policy of assassinations against Palestinian leaders there.

The Ministry affirms that the Palestinian people will not accept, this time, the bias of some countries to the position of the occupying and apartheid state on this upcoming aggression in favor of the occupying state, and to give the occupying state unacceptable protection by claiming its right to self-defense despite it being a country of aggression, occupation, crime and siege.

Does the foreign minister have access to some information that Israeli media does not? Or is it trying to engage in psychological warfare?

Perhaps it is trying to take credit if no war takes place in the next month, telling the world that its pressure stymied Israeli plans.

Notice the threat that they will not accept any nation taking Israel's side and saying that Israel has a right to self-defense. What exactly does that mean? Are they threatening diplomatic action - or are they threatening terror attacks?

Palestinian media and pundits are puzzled over this statement as well. But no one seriously thinks that the MOFA has inside information.

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!

04/10 Links Pt1: Lucy Dee, mother of Maia and Rina, passes away from terror attack injuries; The EU/UN Bureaucratic War Against Israeli Control of 'Area C'

From Ian:

Rabbi Leo Dee’s wife and daughters were murdered but his faith remains so deep

On Friday afternoon, following the second seder night, we heard the horrific news. The previous rebbetzin of our Radlett United Synagogue community, Rebbetzin Lucy Dee and her two daughters, Maia and Rina, had been shot by Palestinian gunmen while on their way to a family trip in Tiberias. Maia and Rina were killed immediately while tragically, the news came today that Lucy had also died in hospital.

Rabbi Leo and his wife Rebbetzin Lucy led Radlett United Synagogue from 2011 until 2014 when they immigrated to Israel and my husband and I took over their roles. Both were Oxbridge educated, quietly confident and accomplished by the time they took up their Rabbinic positions.

Having left their lives in finance behind them, they spent time travelling before studying in yeshivah in Israel and coming to the UK to share their inspiration, first in Hendon and then Radlett United Synagogues.

On Pesach, my husband read an excerpt of Rabbi Dee’s book on Judaism's impact on modernity to the community. His passion, shared by his wife, was to make Judaism relevant and accessible to the modern Jew.

The Radlett community got to know Rabbi Dee as kind, gentle and highly intelligent. Rebbetzin Lucy was creative, insightful and a real doer. Their strong friendship and mutual admiration as a couple shone through. Many from both Hendon and Radlett have remained in touch with the family, which is testament to their relatable personalities.

As has become clear over the past few days, the Dees were deeply and fiercely idealistic, people of strong faith, belief in the good of others and steadfast in their religious values.

Lucy Dee, mother of Maia and Rina, passes away from terror attack injuries

Lucy (Leah) Dee, who was critically wounded in the terror attack that claimed the lives of her two daughters, Maia and Rina Dee on Friday, has passed away from her injuries, Hadassah-University Medical Center reported on Monday afternoon.

"48-year-old Lucy Dee was evacuated by helicopter to Hadassah Ein Kerem in critical condition, where the teams fought for her life over the past few days, in the trauma unit, the operating room and the intensive care unit where she was treated," the hospital's announcement stated.

"Unfortunately, despite intensive and unceasing efforts, due to her fatal injury, the team had to determine her death today."

The hospital added that the Dee family has decided to donate Lucy's organs in order to save the lives of others.

"On behalf of all the citizens of Israel, I send my heartfelt condolences to the Dee family on the death of the mother, Lucy z"l," wrote Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a statement on Monday, "who was murdered in the attack last Friday, along with her two daughters Maia and Rina z"l."

"On behalf of the entire people of Israel," wrote Israel's President Isaac Herzog, "I send my deepest condolences to the Dee family and pray that they will know no more sorrow. May her memory be blessed."

Shlomo Ne'eman, head of the Gush Etzion Council, said:
"After a persistent fight for her life, Lucy (Leah) Dee joined her holy daughters, may God avenge their blood...We are left with the demand that the government restore security and punish those who committed this murderous and barbaric act of terrorism...Dee family, there are no words to comfort you after the difficult funeral yesterday. Bereavement is knocking on your door again. May you be comforted in the rebuilding of Jerusalem."

Thousands attend funeral of Israeli sisters killed in Jordan Valley terror attack

Thousands of mourners attended the funeral on Sunday of sisters Maia Dee, 20, and Rina Dee, 15, who were killed in a Palestinian terror attack last week in the Jordan Valley.

The attack, which also killed the sisters’ mother, Lucy, took place Friday on the Route 57 highway near the Hamra Junction.

According to a military probe, terrorists opened fire on the Dees’ passing vehicle, causing it to crash into the road’s shoulder. The terrorists then approached the car and riddled it with nearly two dozen bullets.

“How will I explain to Lucy what happened to her two precious gifts when she wakes up from her coma?” asked Rabbi Leo Dee while eulogising his daughters.

“The formula for faith is always to focus on what you do have and not what you do not have. I still have three wonderful children and a wonderful wife,” he said.

“Today, the Jewish people have proven that we are one. When a family in Efrat hurts, we all hurt. There is no clearer proof of our unity, Am Yisrael Chai [the people of Israel lives],” added Dee.

In tribute to his “beautiful and perfect” daughter Maya, who had wanted to sign up for another year of national service in the IDF, Dee called her “an angel, that will always be our guardian angel.”

Rina, the heartbroken father said, was always “such a great student. Such a great friend. You dreamed of travelling the world, now you are travelling to heaven.”

Several government officials paid their respects at the funeral, including National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.

Rabbi Leo Dee, husband of Lucy Dee, father of Maia and Rina Dee, who were murdered in a Palestinian shooting attack, shows such courage in the face of unimaginable tragedy. This brought me to tears.

Wishing this family only love and strength after this horrific tragedy pic.twitter.com/EJjzx6tXXd
— Emily Schrader - ????? ?????? ????? ????? (@emilykschrader) April 10, 2023

A short catalogue of Arab intolerance of Jews in Palestine before both Zionism and the Balfour Declaration

I have recently seen this article used as proof that Muslims, Christians and Jews celebrated each others' holidays in Jerusalem before Zionism:

The Jawhariyyeh diaries invite the reader to share a world of ceremonial syncretism and cultural hybridity that is difficult to trace in today‘s prevailing atmosphere of ethnic exclusivity and religious fundamentalism. It was a pre-nationalist era in which religious identity embraced the Other in its festivals and rituals. Jawhariyyeh narrates the feast of Easter/Pessah as an occasion for Muslim-Christian-Jewish celebrations. He details the Muslim processions of Palm Sunday (which proceeded from the Abrahamic Mosque in Hebron towards Jerusalem). The festival of al-Nabi Musa is recalled here as a Muslim popular celebration that merges with the Christian Orthodox Easter. The fantasia of Sabt al-Nur (Fire Saturday, commemorating the resurrection of Christ) is seen as the greatest popular Christian celebration in Palestine—closely coordinated with Muslim folk festivals. Purim was celebrated by Christian and Muslim youth in Jewish neighborhoods. Wasif describes in detail the costumes they wore on this occasion. Twice a year Muslim and Christian families—including the Jawhariyyeh family—joined the Jewish celebrations at the shrine of Simon the Just in Sheikh Jarrah (at the event known as ‘shathat al-Yahudiyya), where "Haim the ‘oud player and Zaki the tambourine player would sing to the accompaniment of Andalusian melodies."

That paper describes friendships between Wasif Jawhariyyeh's family and some Jewish families in the beginning of the 20th century. The Jawhariyyeh family was Christian.

There is no doubt that there were some friendships between some Jews and Arabs in Jerusalem and throughout the Arab world, but to use them as evidence of widespread acceptance of Jews as equals or near-equals is not only flawed reasoning but utterly false.

The evidence that Jews were treated horribly is irrefutable.

Here are just some examples from my own articles here over the years.

W. B. Lewis, 1824:

The Jews at Jerusalem, (I speak even of European Jews) are liable to be stopped by the lowest of the country, who, if he pleases, may demand money of them as a right due to the mussulman ; and this extortion may be practised on the same poor Jew over and over again in the space of ten minutes.

The Jews are fond of frequenting the tombs of their forefathers, especially on particular days, to read their prayers of remembrance of the dead. Here advantage is taken of them again. They are rudely accosted and pilfered, and if resistance is made, they are beat almost to death, and this not by common highwaymen or Bedouin Arabs, but by men they may have been in the habit of seeing and talking with every day.

The book "Stirring Times: Or, Records from Jerusalem Consular Chronicles of 1853 to 1856" by James Finn, British consul to Jerusalem, describes the financial extortion Muslims practiced on Jews:

In times gone by these native Jews had their full share of suffering from the general tyrannical conduct of the Moslems, and, having no resources for maintenance in the Holy Land, they were sustained, though barely, by contributions from synagogues all over the world. This mode of supply being understood by the Moslems, they were subjected to exactions and plunder on its account from generation to generation (individuals among them, however, holding occasionally lucrative offices for a tune). This oppression proved one of the causes which have entailed on the community a frightful incubus of debt, the payment of interest on which is a heavy charge upon the income derived from abroad.

…Notwithstanding these glimpses of honorary distinction the Jews are humiliated by the payment, through the Chief Rabbi, of pensions to Moslem local exactors, for instance the sum of 300£. a year to the Effendi whose house adjoins the ' wailing place,' or fragment of the western wall of the Temple enclosure, for permission to pray there; 100£. a year to the villagers of Siloam for not disturbing the graves on the slope of the Mount of Olives ; 50£ a year to the Ta'amra Arabs for not injuring the Sepulchre of Rachel near Bethlehem, and about 10£ a year to Sheikh Abu Gosh for not molesting their people on the high road to Jaffa...

From Remarks on the present condition and future prospects of the Jews in Palestine, by Arthur George Harper Hollingsworth, 1852:

This Jewish population is poor beyond any adequate word ; it is degraded in its social and political condition, to a state of misery, so great, that it possesses no rights. It can shew no wealth even if possessed of it, because to display riches would secure robbery from the Mahometan population, the Turkish officials, or the Bedouin Arab. ... He creeps along that soil, where his forefathers proudly strode in the fulness of a wonderful prosperity, as an alien, an outcast, a creature less than a dog, and below the oppressed Christian beggar in his own ancestral plains and cities. No harvest ripens for his hand, for he cannot tell whether he will be permitted to gather it. Land occupied by a Jew is exposed to robbery and waste. A most peevish jealousy exists against the landed prosperity, or commercial wealth, or trading advancement of the Jew. Hindrances exist to the settlement of a British Christian in that country, but a thousand petty obstructions are created to prevent the establishment of a Jew on waste land, or to the purchase and rental of land by a Jew. “
...What security exists, that a Jewish emigrant settling in Palestine, could receive a fair remuneration for his capital and labour? None whatever. He might toil, but his harvests would be reaped by others; the Arab robber can rush in and carry off his flocks and herds. If he appeals for redress to the nearest Pasha, the taint of his Jewish blood fills the air, and darkens the brows of his oppressors ; if he turns to his neighbour Christian, he encounters prejudice and spite ; if he claims a Turkish guard, he is insolently repulsed and scorned.
,,,Now, how is this poor, despised, and powerless child of Abraham to obtain redress, or make his voice heard at the Sublime Porte? The more numerous the cases of oppression, (and they are many), the more clamorous their appeals for justice, the more unwillingly will the government of the Sultan,—partly from inherent and increasing weakness, partly from disinclination,—act on the side of the Jew. They despise them as an execrated race ; they hate them as the literal descendants of the original possessors of the country. ...

From "Sir Moses Montefiore's Report to the Board of Deputies of British Jews," 1867:

On Saturday, April 14th [1866], after the morning service, I took a walk round the garden, and was much pleased with the improvement of the place since my last visit to Jerusalem.
I regret, however, not being able to report the same of the land at Jaffa, which has been unfortunately let to persons who, being unable to resist the threatened attacks of the neighboring Arabs, deserted the place altogether. The consequence is, that the houses are completely demolished and the trees destroyed.

From the book The Rob Roy on the Jordan, Nile, Red sea, & Gennesareth, published in 1870 by John MacGregor:

From Narrative of a Modern Pilgrimage Through Palestine on Horseback, and with Tents By Alfred Charles Smith, 1871:

The Jews at Jerusalem were singularly forbearing with strangers, and—considering their general antipathy to all Gentiles—were almost civil and obliging. This unnatural good-will might perhaps be due in part to my escort, the well-known Yakoob ; perhaps, too, in part to their own despised condition, for, scarcely tolerated and often persecuted as they are by their Muslim rulers, they dare not show an illiberal spirit, or display any tokens of religious hostility or rancour through fear of retaliation

I list other examples of attacks on Jews, including pogroms, here.

The American Jewish Yearbook of 1914-1915 describes all these incidents in Palestine:

August. Bedouins attack colony of Rehobot, killing one colonist and wounding several others. --Rehobot vineyards penetrated by villagers from Zernuka, who kill Jewish student.

November. At colony of Kinneret two Jewish watchmen murdered by Arabs.

December. Near Tiberias, two colonists killed and several injured by Arabs.

January. At Hebron, Jewish storekeepers are boycotted by Mohammedan women.

April. Minister of Interior removes Governor of Tiberias on complaint of Chief Rabbi of his laxity in protecting the Jews against Arab attacks.

May. Minister of Interior orders officiais in Palestine to repress all anti-Jewish manifestations.—Chief Rabbi waits on Minister of Interior and reads to him two violent articles in Arab journal Palestine, and warns him that any disorders that might result therefrom would create bad impression abroad.

Many more listed here, including in 1911: September 23: Arabs assault about sixty worshippers at religious service on Rosh Hashanah at Wailing Wall.

Widespread persecution of Jews by Palestinian Arabs - both Muslim and Christian - is undeniable. A few counterexamples cannot counter the overwhelming evidence of antisemitism and abuse. And saying otherwise is not scholarship - it is cherry picking propaganda points.

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!

Back in January, Haaretz published "The American Billionaires Behind the Far-right Attempt to Destroy Liberal Israel." It highlighted the fact that the Kohelet Forum, a think tank that has influenced the judicial reform plan in Israel, is heavily funded by right-wing American billionaires which, of course, taints the entire organization.

After all, why should Americans influence Israeli policy? Clearly something isn't kosher here.

Today, Haaretz has an article about another Israeli think tank, the Israel Democracy Institute, which it calls "The Think Tank on the Front Lines of the Battle for Israel's Democracy." It admiringly describes how the IDI has been working hard to fight judicial reform.

It doesn't mention that the Israel Democracy Institute's main funder and international chairman is also an American billionaire, Bernard Marcus. In fact, his Marcus Foundation and an anonymous American entity are listed as the organization's founders, and the majority of its major funders are from the USA, not Israel.

Where are the outraged articles that the think tank behind fighting judicial reform is founded and funded by American billionaires? Where are the intrepid reporters who are working to identify who the anonymous wealthy American co-founders of IDI is and paint them as nefarious opponents of all that is good and right?

I have nothing against the IDI. It is an important part of the debate. It is an undeniably Zionist organization. Its funding sources are exactly as important as Kohelet's. Its budget is roughly the same as Kohelet's. And in both cases, the funders are American Zionists who care deeply about Israel's future.

Neither Kohelet nor IDI are anti-democracy. Neither of them are an enemy of Israel.

Those who demonize either one of these are the real enemies of Israel's democracy. To them, partisanship and division are more important than having a fair debate about a crucial topic. Instead of encouraging people to read the articles authored by each think tank, they want to drown the opposing voices out. They want to replace reasoned debate with drama and protests.

There is plenty of blame on both sides, but the stark difference between how the media treats Kohelet and how it treats IDI show that the media itself is often part of the problem, when its primary job should be to be part of the solution.

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!

World Islamic Congress in Jerusalem, 1931

In the Winter 2022 edition of the Institute of Palestine Studies journal, pseudo-historian Ilan Pappe puts forth a theory:

This article asks, why was there no Arab university in Mandatory Palestine (while there were two Jewish universities). Apparently, the colonial mentality of the British authorities who deemed the Palestinians yet another colonized people who had to be oppressed, while regarding the Zionist settlers as fellow colonialists, feared that such a university would enhance the Palestinian national movement. At the same time, Zionist pressure, British anti-Arab racism, and lack of resources also combined to undermine the emergence of a proper Palestinian higher education system.

According to Pappe's abstract, the main reason an Arab university was not established was British racism. Yet even he admits that the British allowed other Arab institutions of higher learning to be established in Palestine.

The truth is only partially mentioned in the article:

After the Buraq disturbances, some members of the Palestinian political leadership and most notably Mufti Hajj Amin al-Husayni attempted a different path. It was in the wake of the All-Islamic Congress convened in Jerusalem in 1931 that the real efforts to open such a university began in earnest in 1932. The coordinating committee of the All-Islamic Congress sent delegations to Egypt, Iraq, Afghanistan, and India for fundraising for an Islamic University in Jerusalem.

... [British] opposition was not the only reason that the idea of the Islamic university in Jerusalem petered out. Unfortunately, these fundraising missions, particularly the mufti’s long fundraising trip to Iraq and India in 1933, were not successful in raising the funds necessary to establish a university in Jerusalem. Nor was there enough interest among activists in convening a second congress in the city, and that led to the collapse of the organizational capacity of the World Islamic Congress by the end of 1934.48 Although the local press constantly mentioned the idea of reviving the university project and holding another congress in Jerusalem in the years that followed, those plans came to nothing and were soon forgotten. As mentioned, even after the mufti’s escape from Palestine in 1937, he was still involved in the efforts until 1940; soon after he also lost interest in the project.

The antisemitic Mufti of Jerusalem couldn't galvanize nearly enough interest in the Arab world to build the "Islamic University in Jerusalem." He couldn't raise the funds and he lost interest himself. It doesn't appear that British opposition had much if anything to do with this - the Mufti certainly didn't consider that an obstacle.

Which means that Pappe is not telling the truth.

Other sources fill in more gaps. Pappe touches on this, but this article notes Egyptian opposition to the university:

The news that the [Islamic] conference would support the creation of an Islamic university in Jerusalem was seen as a direct threat to the dominating status of al-Azhar as the most prestigious university in the Islamic world. Thus, for example, Muhammad Bakhit, former Mufti of Egypt, in his public statement against the conference, also criticised the 'dreams' of those who pretended to establish a new university which would become the new scientific centre of the Muslim world. The loud opposition of al-Azhar to the conference must have also affected the cautious reaction of the opposition parties in Egypt. Although they might have been eager to use it as a stage to attack Sidqi's regime, Wafdist and Liberal leaders, being Egyptian nationalists, could not accept the eventuality that a non-Egyptian caliph would be nominated at the conference. Similarly, these leaders opposed any alleged attempt to erode the prestige of al-Azhar as the most respected centre of Islamic teaching. Even Egyptian advocates of the Palestinian Arab cause, such as Muhammad Ali Alluba and Ahmad Zaki, called for its postponement.

The entire purpose of the university was to help the Mufti's power base as well as to oppose the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, which had attracted prestige very quickly. But it was also a means to make land unavailable for Jews to buy, as Pappe notes:

Some funding did come through. The nizam (ruler) of Hyderabad donated one million rupees. ...That sum of money was used to buy land in the Tulkarm district that was endowed as a waqf for the future university. At least in this respect, the mufti could have been satisfied; he prevented the sale of the land coveted by the Zionist movement and ensured a future investment for the university. Alas, it was a short-lived victory as the village (Raml Zayta/Khirbat Qazaza) was destroyed in 1948 and on its ruins Jewish settlements were built and the university was not established.

This nexus between endowment, struggling against Zionist purchase of land, and the university enthused also Christian activists in the national movement. Members of the Christian Orthodox community were prepared to do more than send words of congratulations. Most notable in this respect was ‘Isa al-‘Isa, the editor of Filastin, who sent the World Islamic Congress a proposal outlining a scheme for saving Palestinian lands from the Zionists by creating endowments on the coveted land...

The proposed Islamic University of Jerusalem was not conceived as a positive way for Palestinian Arab youth to improve themselves, but as a way to counter Jewish progress.

As with Palestinian nationalism itself, it wasn't pro-Palestinian. It was anti-Jew.

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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

Some TikTok guy makes Arabic anti-Israel videos as "General Moshe", and Arabs believe he's a real Israeli general

Some Arab got a black yarmulka and a mail order IDF uniform and set himself up on TikTok pretending to be "General Moshe," a dissident Israeli general who for some reason only sends his disparaging messages to the Israeli government in Arabic.

Some of his rants have over a million views!

Many Arabs actually believe this is a real Israeli general, including Jordan's Al Ghad news site.

This account claims that he is a Palestinian actor and "it is part of the media war with which we are fighting this usurping occupation!"

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!

04/09 Links: How Will Israel Confront the Iranian Regime’s Multi-Front Assault?; Iran plans to attack Israeli-owned vessels to avenge advisers killed in Syria

From Ian:

Cary Nelson: Lara Sheehi’s Joyous Rage: Antisemitic Anti-Zionism, Advocacy Academia and Jewish Students’ Nightmares at GWU

Fathom Editor’s Introductory Note. Sometimes it is hard to know what is the more alarming: the state of the humanities and social sciences in US higher education or the failure of mainstream America, including its foundations and donors, to do anything about it. Perhaps this will wake some people up. Cary Nelson is a former president of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP). His exhaustively detailed case study of the tweeting, teaching and scholarship of GWU’s Lara Sheehi documents the impact of faculty anti-Zionist, and arguably antisemitic, social media, publication, and classroom practice on Jewish and other Zionist students. The issues at stake are relevant to the increasing antisemitic anti-Zionism found at universities worldwide. The astonishing material evidence presented here, plus the fact of documented student complaints, mean the case is exemplary, not least regarding the shameful victim-blaming of the GWU administration and of some professional bodies. Nelson’s argument should be studied throughout Higher Education, and not just in the USA. Finally, perhaps the case forces a question many of us have been avoiding: without fundamental change, is an alternative network of educational institutions now needed? How much longer can academics with intellectual integrity, students with independence and curiosity, parents who care for the quality of their children’s educational experience and donors who do not want their money to be spent on political indoctrination and antisemitic anti-Zionist pedagogy continue to support what many universities are becoming? (Alan Johnson, Editor of Fathom)
And that’s why I open the first class of the first semester reminding my doctoral clinical students that psychology and psychiatry are white supremacist fields that works alongside capitalism to *create* debility and we’re implicated if this is disavowed (4/6/2021, 8:41:34 PM) Lara Sheehi

The militant revolutionary struggle not only disrupts, but also has the potential to overturn coloniality entirely—when the struggle is an individualistic practice, the structure is not disrupted; when it becomes a social program, a militant struggle for a new social order, all forms of oppression are intimately implicated. DISRUPT

Lara Sheehi, ‘Writing on the Wall’ (261)
Even before Lara Sheehi’s Fall 2022 required first-year graduate course in the George Washington University Professional Psychology Program began, some students had a hint of what might be in store for them.[1] They had watched several of the YouTube videos she made with her husband Stephen that summarise their shared goals as professionals and their dedication to unqualified condemnation of the Jewish state. The Sheehis had coauthored a 2022 book, Psychoanalysis Under Occupation: Practicing Resistance in Palestine, and had given a number of recorded interviews summarising and introducing the book upon its publication. The book presents case histories to demonstrate Israel’s destructive impact on Palestinian psychology, mounts a fierce attack on the Jewish state, and urges that psychoanalytic practice worldwide devote itself to political liberation.

For Lara Sheehi, that commitment encompasses not only substantial revisions of psychoanalytic theory but also a revolution in both how therapists are trained and how patients are treated. That is a large step from recognising the distinctive impact of social and political conditions on individual patients’ lives, a responsibility that much therapeutic training now endorses. As she urges in a book review, we must resist ‘the centrifugal force of normativity, of white supremacy, and of liberal humanism that works to shore up the individual at the expense of the collective’ (1392). As she declares in their joint ‘Against Alienation’ interview, you ‘cannot be objective’ as a clinician; you should ‘join the motherfucking struggle.’

Once the course was under way, students also accessed some of Lara Sheehi’s Instagram messages and her numerous tweets (her tag line was @blackflaghag). Uneasiness about the course began to spread. But even the Jewish students maintained an open mind and a positive attitude, hoping that Sheehi’s politics and prejudices would prove irrelevant and that their first experiences of the program would be beneficial. Unfortunately, the very first class session included an unsettling incident. Following widespread practice, the students took turns offering capsule biographies, with Sheehi making brief supportive comments on each. When it came to the student from Israel, she identified her country, and Sheehi responded ‘It’s not your fault you were born in Israel.’ From Sheehi’s perspective, this was both an instinctive rejection of the Jewish state and a humiliating form of kindness: the student would not be held personally responsible for her citizenship.

Elliott Abrams: Israeli sovereignty and American intervention

Finally, it must be said that American intervention has been invited by many Israelis fighting against the judicial reform. They’ve invited it through their rhetoric, by saying that this American friend and ally was on the verge of fascism.

When President Isaac Herzog proposed a compromise, Ehud Barak infamously tweeted the old photo of Hitler and Neville Chamberlain with Herzog’s face substituted for Chamberlain’s. Ehud Olmert and a thousand other commentators used the word “coup” while yet more spoke of a “blitzkrieg.” Opposition leader Yair Lapid spoke of a “journey towards destroying Israeli democracy.” All of them spoke in English to U.S. audiences, and in the demonstrations in Israel many signs were in English as well—all to appeal for the intervention of American Jews and the United States government. In private, numerous Israeli leaders and commentators explicitly asked for American intervention, arguing that Israelis had reached a dead end and had to be saved from themselves. Such conversations, and the picture of an Israel about to collapse into a dark tyranny, no doubt had their effect on Biden and his administration.

And those invitations fell on fertile American ground for all the reasons mentioned previously. Take for example the words of Rabbi Eric Yoffie, long-time leader of the Reform movement. Writing in Haaretz on March 2, he said “I have never once lobbied against an Israeli government. But Netanyahu’s judicial coup, his offensive against democracy, must be stopped. That means U.S. Jews must do the unthinkable, and urge a strong American hand with Israel.”

This is a dangerous precedent. When Clinton intervened (twice) in Israeli elections he tried to hide his actions; he knew they were indefensible if exposed. Now there’s a new model that justifies and indeed idealizes foreign interference—demanding that the United States intervene in domestic matters in Israel in a way that never happens with respect to any other democracy.

Those on the left—whether Israelis opposing the judicial reforms or Americans wanting to throw Washington’s weight around because their side didn’t win Israel’s most recent elections—should realize first that two can play the same game. It isn’t hard to imagine a conservative Republican president in the United States and a left-of-center prime minister in Israel serving at the same time. Will conservative Americans henceforth demand intervention in Knesset votes, or in Israeli elections, because some proposed policies are strongly opposed on the right?

Judicial reform is about the most “domestic” or “internal” issue one can imagine. If outside interference is legitimate on that issue, are there any issues where foreign intervention, whether by diaspora communities or foreign governments, should be considered illegitimate?

As Israel approaches its 75th birthday in just a few weeks, one must wonder what those who cultivate American interference think of the Zionist project. Are Israelis to be “masters of their own fate” (in Ben Gurion’s words) except when election losers can coax the United States government to jump into the fray? Is Israel to have a kind of compromised sovereignty that is subject to American whims?

The current struggle over judicial reform has many aspects. The decision of those who oppose reform to invite, indeed to plead for, American intervention in this complex and fateful internal contest damages Israeli sovereignty and self-government. One can only hope that when the dust has settled, Israelis will—whatever their views on the Supreme Court—come to agree that the appeal to foreign intervention over the Jewish State’s internal political structures was a damaging mistake and a dangerous precedent.

Elliott Abrams: Progress and Pain in the Promised Land

As Israel reaches its 75th anniversary on May 14, a spate of books is appearing to celebrate—or at least commemorate—the occasion. Daniel Gordis, a professor and prolific author born and raised in the United States, made aliyah to Israel in 1998 and has been teaching and writing there ever since. His new book Impossible Takes Longer asks how Israel is doing: "Has Israel fulfilled its founders’ dreams?"

Pretty well, Gordis answers in a well-written and thoughtful examination of the challenges Israel has overcome and those it still faces. One way of measuring is the simple concept of happiness: How do Israelis feel? The "World Happiness Report," which rates every country, finds that Israel comes in 4th out of 146 countries, behind a few northern Europeans but ahead of Australia, Canada, Sweden, Switzerland—and the United States. And Israel now has the highest birth rate of any OECD country, another measure of its people’s confidence in their society and its future.

But the goal of Zionism wasn’t happiness; it was survival. Israel’s Declaration of Independence states that it is "the natural right of the Jewish people to be masters of their own fate, like all other nations, in their own sovereign state." As Gordis writes, "we begin with an extraordinary fact—extraordinary in part because it now seems entirely natural—that the Jewish people can defend itself." This is a complete inversion of the historic reality Jews had faced for 2,000 years. As Gordis says, "Power has done what it was meant to do: Jews are no longer victims on call."

Beyond survival, the list of Israeli achievements is long, and Gordis takes us through it. The revival of Hebrew is itself a sort of miracle. Turning a poor foreign aid recipient into the "start-up nation" has spawned innumerable articles and books, and Israelis now enjoy European levels of GDP per capita. Maintaining democracy through a series of brutal wars is remarkable enough, but as Gordis writes, the Israeli case is unique—Golda Meir was the only founder of Israel who had grown up in a democratic country.

Jordan's Foreign Ministry reiterates that the Temple Mount - and the Kotel - must be Judenrein

The Jordanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement today saying that the holiest site in Judaism must never have Jews.

The Ministry condemned the "storming of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque / Al-Haram Al-Sharif." which it says "constitutes a violation of the historical and legal status quo existing in the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque and a violation of the sanctity of the holy places."

The official spokesman for the ministry, Ambassador Sinan Al-Majali, stressed that Al-Aqsa Mosque, with its entire area of 144 dunums, is "a place of worship for Muslims only."

Majali added "the Israeli government bears responsibility for the escalation in Jerusalem and in all the occupied Palestinian territories, and for the deterioration that will worsen, if it does not stop these incursions into Al-Aqsa."

What are the boundaries of Al Aqsa? Well, they include the Kotel. The Jordanian government considers the Kotel to be a part of Al Aqsa Mosque, and therefore they are saying that Jews have no right to be there, either, except perhaps for very limited times that the Ottoman Empire allowed Jews to visit since 1852, which they consider the beginning of the "status quo."