Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, April 19, 2023

You just might be be an antisemite if....

If the Star of David on Israel's flag upsets you but the crescent, crosses and other religious symbols on more than 60 other flags doesn't bother you...you just might be an antisemite.

If you think that 21 Arab states isn't enough, and 1 Jewish state is too many, you just might be an antisemite.

If you show more sympathy towards the person who stabbed the Jew than for the Jew he stabbed, you just might be an antisemite.

If you have to jump through hoops to pretend to find apartheid in the Jewish state while ignoring everywhere it really is, you just might be an antisemite.

If every terrible event in world history prompts you to compare it with Israeli actions, you just might be an antisemite.

If you believe that the Palestinian Arabs, who never thought of themselves as a people until the mid-20th century, have more of a claim to nationhood than Jews who have been a nation for 3000 years, you just might be an antisemite.

If you think that Zionism is racist, but Palestinian Arab nationalism is justice, you just might be an antisemite.

If you claim that Zionism is incompatible with feminism, but have nothing bad to say about Islamism, you just might be an antisemite.

If Saudi ties to Israel upset you more than Saudi ties to Osama bin Laden did in 2001, you just might be an antisemite.

If the only democracy you want to see in the Middle East is one rigged for Jews to be in the minority, you just might be an antisemite.

If the only refugees from the 1940s that you insist "return" to where they lived previously are Palestinian Arabs, you just might be an antisemite.

If you believe that the only "settlers" in the world who must move out of their homes are all Jews, you just might be an antisemite.

If you think that the the very concept of a Jewish state is racist, but you are okay with an Arab or Muslim state, you just might be an antisemite.

If there are any parts of the world that you believe Jews should not be allowed to live, you just might be an antisemite.

If there are any historic Jewish holy places where you believe Jews have no right to pray, you just might be an antisemite.

If you call Jews who insist on praying in their holiest spot "extremists," you just might be an antisemite.

If you get a thrill comparing Israelis to Nazis, you just might be an antisemite.

If you are compelled to respond to any mention of the Holocaust with "nakba," you just might be an antisemite.

If you aren't Muslim but refer to Jewish shrines like the Temple Mount, Rachel's Tomb and the Cave of the Patriarchs by their Muslim names that came centuries later, you just might be an antisemite.

If you believe that it is a moral duty to boycott Israeli Jews but not Israeli Arabs, you just might be an antisemite.

If you need to believe that Ashkenazic Jews are descended from Khazars and have no Middle East ancestry, you just might be an antisemite.

If you claim that there is no archaeological proof for Jewish history in Jerusalem, you just might be an antisemite.

If you claim to be pro-Palestinian but ignore how Palestinians have been and continue to be mistreated by their fellow Arabs, you just might be an antisemite.

If you believe that "occupation" is one of the worst crimes but never said a word about any occupation that cannot be linked to Israel, you just might be an antisemite.

If you claim that the only reason Israel does anything progressive or moral is to cover up for its crimes, you just might be an antisemite.

If Jews must pass a test of being anti-Israel for you to allow them to speak publicly or join movements, you just might be an antisemite.

If you consider the word "Zionist" an insult, you just might be an antisemite.

If you are offended by the lyrics of Hatikva but have no problem with the Palestinian national anthem that extols violence and vengeance, you just might be an antisemite.

If you regard terrorists Leila Khaled, Rasmea Odeh and Dalal Mughrabi as feminist role models, you just might be an antisemite.

If your response to every terrorist attack that kills Jewish civilians is that they deserve it, you just might be an antisemite.

If you defend or excuse Arab antisemitism, you just might be an antisemite.

If you feel a burning desire to equate the Taliban with Orthodox Jews, you just might be an antisemite.

If you think putting on a hijab makes you a person of color but putting on a yarmulka makes you white, you just might be an antisemite.

If you are upset by scenes of Jews dancing in Jerusalem, you just might be an antisemite.

If you bitterly complain about how Israel's separation barrier inconveniences Palestinians, but don't mention how it has saved hundreds of Jewish lives, you just might be an antisemite.

If you go to a religious Jewish neighborhood to harass random Jews with "pro-Palestinian" slogans, you just may be an antisemite.

(This is an almost complete rewrite, expansion and revision to a 2020 post.)

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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

The Palestinian Press Agency Safa has an article whose own facts contradict its narrative. It is a good example of how media makes up a narrative and then pretends that even the facts that contradict it really support it.

With the approach of Eid Al-Fitr, the markets of the occupied city of Jerusalem are witnessing an active commercial movement, as a result of the revival of religious tourism, and the increase in the number of Palestinians, Christians, and tourists coming to the city, despite the continuous Israeli occupation attempts to stifle the Jerusalem economy.

And everyone who wanders in the markets of the Old City finds it crowded with shoppers, to buy Eid supplies and souvenirs from its shops, after it suffered from a commercial and economic stagnation, due to the occupation measures and its strict restrictions on the arrival of Palestinians to the occupied city.

Jerusalemite merchants are eagerly awaiting holidays and religious events in order to compensate for their losses that they incur due to the blockade and occupation measures, which aim to hit their commercial interests and increase the poverty rate in Jerusalem.

So Israel wants to hurt these Arab businesses and impoverish them - but somehow Israel is also allowing throngs of Arabs to go shopping there?

The word "despite" does a lot of heavy lifting here, similarly to the daily articles that show the Temple Mount filled with Muslims accompanied by articles that say this is "despite" Israeli restrictions.

Jerusalemite trader Habib Hroub, who owns a clothing store in Al-Wad Street in the Old City, tells Safa that the commercial activity is witnessing an economic boom with the approach of Eid Al-Fitr...He explains that the prices of clothes are commensurate with the economic conditions and capabilities of Jerusalemites, indicating that Israeli malls deliberately offer "attractive offers" to Arab shoppers, with the aim of hitting the Jerusalemite economy and influencing merchants and weakening purchasing power.

Yes, the horrible Jews offer sales to the Arabs they want to drive out of the city, just to hurt Arab businesses!

Nothing that Israel or Israelis do can just be normal economic activity - it is always aimed at hurting Palestinians (according to Palestinians.)

Jerusalem affairs researcher Fakhri Abu Diab confirms that the occupation is working by various means to stifle the economy in the city, especially its old town, given that it is the backbone of life, so it imposes taxes on Jerusalemite merchants, and tries to reduce the number of citizens coming to the city.

Do Jewish-owned businesses not have to pay taxes?

He added, "Although the occupation is working to empty the Palestinian presence from the Old City and the vicinity of Al-Aqsa Mosque, and does not want any commercial movement in it, and is trying to impede the arrival of goods to shops, religious events come to revive its economy."

The Jerusalem markets are witnessing an active commercial movement throughout the holy month of Ramadan, but it has greatly increased in the last two weeks of the holy month...

What disturbs the occupation - according to the Jerusalemite researcher - is the scene of the heavy Palestinian presence in the markets of Jerusalem, who flock to it from everywhere, to shop and buy sweets and gifts, and everything related to Ramadan and Eid requirements.

He asserts that revitalizing the tourism and commercial movement in the vicinity of Al-Aqsa has thwarted the plans of the occupation, which is working to empty the city of its people, strangle its economy, and increase poverty rates.

When business is bad, it is because of Israeli measures to empty Jerusalem of Arabs. When business is booming, it is despite Israeli measures to empty Jerusalem of Arabs. And this really upsets the Israelis, they claim with no evidence.

Israel could easily simply shut down these shops or block access to them, if that was really its aim.

Clearly Israel has no problem with throngs of customers in the Arab souq of Old City.

This is a pattern of anti-Israel media - make an assertion, claim that even the facts that contradict it back up that assertion, and know that most of the audience will not look at the article critically.

Israel is not trying to shut down Arab businesses. It is not trying to get rid of Jerusalem's Arabs, whose population has increased far more under Israeli rule than any time in history. It is not taxing Arab businesses specifically. Literally every assertion in this story is fiction.

But when the aim is to demonize the Jewish state, who cares about 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!

The latest Pegasus story shows yet again the double standards applied to Israel

The New York Times published an investigative report into how Mexico has been using the powerful spyware tool Pegasus against its political opponents.

Pegasus is a tool. Like a hammer, a gun or a woodchipper, it can be used legally or illegally.

But its Israeli origins have made people make it sound like Israel is more responsible for its illegal use than the people who are actually using it illegally.

As the NYT notes, Pegasus helped bring down El Chapo, and the Mexican authorities have been using it to take down other major Mexican drug cartels. This is the intended use of the spyware, and in all probability it is still being used for that purpose in Mexico.

But the Mexican government has also been using it in illegal ways using it to spy on political opponentsand other human rights abuses.

NSO Group is a business. While Israel's Defense Ministry must approve any exports of spyware, refusing to sell it to a country that uses it for both valid and invalid purpose is not a clear cut decision - refusal could create an international incident. It would be the exact equivalent of the US not allowing Mexico to buy any firearms from American manufacturers.

In fact, weapons from the US have not only been linked to Mexican security forces human rights abuses, but also to the murderous drug cartels themselves.

What is the moral difference between Mexico buying spyware from an Israeli company and Mexican human rights abusers and criminals buying weapons from US manufacturers?

By any yardstick, selling weapons is worse. Spyware cannot kill anyone.

So why has the world been obsessed with Israel's responsibility to block spyware sales to countries like Mexico but there are only sporadic articles about actual weapons sales to both Mexico and countries that are far worse?

While the New York Times article castigates Mexican authorities for their illegal use of spyware, it also prominently features Israel's very indirect role in those abuses nearly as much. In fact, the featured photo at the top of the article doesn't show the Mexican abusers or victims of the spyware - but the Israeli headquarters of NSO Group.

Can you imagine a news story about a person murdered with a Glock pistol featuring a photo of the factory in Austria that manufactured it? That is what the New York Times is doing here.

In yet more evidence that former Human Rights Watch head Ken Roth prioritizes attacking Israel over combating actual human rights abuses, his tweet about this article only blames Israel for Mexican crimes:

I'm not saying that Israel is blameless. One can argue that selling to Mexico is immoral - but one can easily argue the opposite, since NSO gets signed pledges from its buyers that they would not do what Mexico is indeed doing and Mexico is also using the spyware to save countless lives from drugs. Demanding that a nation that exports tools that can be used for both good and evil should proactively distrust and police countries it has diplomatic relationships with is quite an ask, and lightyears beyond what is expected in any other context.

This story's focus, and Ken Roth's takeaway from it, proves that no nation on Earth is expected to be as responsible for their actions - even the unintended, indirect results of their actions - as Israel is.

Which is as blatant a double standard as can be.

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!

04/18 Links Pt2: Netanyahu tells survivors: ‘You chose life. You believed in good. You helped others,’; Commemoration of the Holocaust Must Involve Knowledge of the Jews—and of Those Who Hate Them

From Ian:

Herzog urges Israelis to set disputes aside in ‘sacred days’ honoring survivors

“I appeal to you, citizens of Israel, with a simple prayer: Let us leave these sacred days, which begin tonight and end on Independence Day, above all dispute,” said Israeli President Isaac Herzog. “Let us all come together, as always, in partnership, in grief, in remembrance.”

Herzog spoke at the state opening ceremony for Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day 2023 at Yad Vashem on April 17.

He referred to the time, culminating with Israel’s 75th Independence Day next week, as one of “majesty, mercy and truth,” during which “we can truly hear the heartbeats of an entire nation, standing before their ‘Days of Awe.’ ”

He cited many of the Nazi atrocities, including the aim to create a museum in France of the extinct and inferior Jewish race. “My sisters and brothers, with human courage and divine assistance, the Allies overcame the forces of tyranny,” he said. “With human courage and Divine assistance, spirit triumphed; the spirit of our people, who raised themselves up with scarred wings from the gruesome depths of the Holocaust. It was this spirit that triumphed.”

Seventy-five years ago, there was a “miracle” of rebirth and of light triumphing over darkness, said Herzog, calling Holocaust survivors heroes of resurrection who “serve us as a source of inspiration and hope. Every day, including now.”

The Jewish state provides a stable home for Jews, who no longer must depend on others for mercy, said Herzog. He added that the evil of the Nazis and the Holocaust was unique.

“Even in the grips of ferocious disagreements about fate, about destiny, about faith, about values, we must be careful to avoid any comparisons, any equivalences—not

with the Holocaust and not with the Nazis,” he warned.

“At the high point of this sacred day, it seems that even the obvious must be stated: for the Nazi monster, opinions within our nation made not the slightest difference,” he added. “None of the ideologies, beliefs or ways of life—none of the differences or varieties within our people—bore any meaning.”

‘You chose life. You believed in good. You helped others,’ Netanyahu tells survivors

A Hungarian Jew, whose whole family was killed in the Holocaust, was sent to various concentration camps. At Mauthausen in Austria, an SS officer would wake him and other prisoners up every day. “‘You dream of Jerusalem?’ the officer would yell at them. ‘You will never get to see Jerusalem. You will only see Jerusalem only through chimneys of the furnaces,’ ” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

But the Jewish man never gave up, survived the Holocaust and moved to Israel. He didn’t live in Jerusalem, but he never forgot that city. He started a large family, and as an older man, began working at the Western Wall (Kotel), as Netanyahu told it, speaking at the state opening ceremony for Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day 2023 at Yad Vashem on April 17.

“That was the greatest victory over the Nazis,” Netanyahu said. Working every day at the Kotel, the man, who passed away at 95 a year-and-a-half ago, felt there was a great turn from Holocaust to rebirth and resurrection.

“A true symbol of our triumph over our enemies,” said Netanyahu.

The scars of the pain of the Holocaust remain forever, he continued. But he also said to the survivors: “You chose life. You believed in good. You helped others.” Many started large families, he noted.

“The height of this victory is the independence of our 75-year-old country. Israel is a vibrant, free, democratic country, with so many achievements,” he said.

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!

I just found this newsreel of Jerusalem that was created in May, 1967. Here is the section showing the Temple Mount being visited by some dignitaries, and the empty Western Wall.

Notice that even then, the large number of weeds outside the Dome of the Rock, indicating that there were never big crowds there as there are today under Jewish sovereignty.

And then there is the Kotel, with its narrow sidewalk in front of it, completely empty. That is the "status quo" that Palestinians want to return to.

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!

04/18 Links Pt1: Even the Nazi’s didn’t pay a reward for murdering Jews; This is how they’ll shoot down Israel’s planes; Exiled Iranian Prince Reza Pahlavi Prays for Peace at Jerusalem’s Western Wall

From Ian:

JPost Editorial: Holocaust Remembrance Day: Finding new ways to never forget

In recent years, several individuals and groups have developed unique means of ensuring that we do not forget those who have been lost.

Memory in the Living Room (Zikaron Basalon) is a longstanding tradition in which individual Holocaust survivors address up to 50 people – some of whom have never met a Holocaust survivor – in private living rooms or community centers, telling their personal stories from the Holocaust.

The project has been around for several years, and while it continues to draw audiences across Israel and around the world, young people require other approaches.

Hasdei Naomi, an association that gives aid to Holocaust survivors, organized a hackathon that brought intelligence officer cadets and MKs together to develop special technologies that could help preserve Holocaust survivor Tovah Feder’s story. The cadets managed to turn Feder’s story into a WhatsApp conversation that is based on advanced artificial intelligence.

The goal, the organization said, was to develop an educational initiative that would “speak to the younger generation in its language.”

In another initiative, the Israel Police has, in recent years, begun adopting Holocaust survivors. Members of Jerusalem’s Border Police units sit down with survivors at least twice a month throughout the year, pushing toward ongoing communication and building connections.

The diplomatic corps has joined the effort as well. The German embassy in Tel Aviv, for instance, has launched a new photography exhibition titled “Humans of the Holocaust,” which takes a painful and artistic approach to Holocaust remembrance. It tells the extraordinary stories of 40 Holocaust survivors, as well as the second and third generations, engaging viewers with the human stories behind every photo and helping them imagine the millions of untold stories.

This Yom Hashoah, let us memorialize the past while creating frameworks to continue doing so in the future.

Ruthie Blum: Holocaust remembrance and inexcusable hyperbole

During his Holocaust Remembrance Day speech on Monday night at Yad Vashem, Israeli President Isaac Herzog admonished the public never to invoke the genocide of the Jews in any context other than the Shoah itself. This was a not-so-veiled reference to a practice that’s become frighteningly commonplace in the politically polarized country.

“The Nazi abomination is an unprecedented evil, unique by any measure,” he said. “We must remember, repeat and emphasize again and again: These, and only these, are Nazis. This, and only this, is the Holocaust. Even when we are in the midst of fierce disagreements on our destiny, calling, faith and values, we must be careful about and guard against making any comparison, any analogy, to the Holocaust and the Nazis.”

He went on to remind the citizens of Israel that the “Nazi monster” didn’t distinguish between one member of the tribe or another, regardless of their “views, beliefs or lifestyles.” Indeed, he stressed, such “nuances” were utterly meaningless to those who set out to annihilate every last Jew.

“For them,” he pointed out, “we were one people, scattered and separated among all the nations, with one sentence: death. And our victory over them, as well, which takes place every day, is a victory of one people.”

He concluded: “We are currently celebrating 75 years of Israeli independence—75 years of victory during which the Jewish and democratic State of Israel and its [proud] society are standing up and declaring to the Nazi monster and those who, even in this generation, are following in its path: ‘You cannot defeat us, because we are brothers and sisters; yes, siblings who know how to argue and dispute, but never hate one another, are never enemies.’ We are one people and we will remain one people, united not only by a painful history, but also by a shared destiny and a hopeful future.”

It was an appropriate message with just the right tone. As is the case with all such pleas, however, the people who most needed to hear and heed it either weren’t listening or didn’t think it applied to them. Indeed, within minutes, Herzog’s social-media feed was filled with nasty remarks from both sides of the spectrum.

PMW: Even the Nazi’s didn’t pay a reward for murdering Jews

Today, on Israeli Holocaust Remembrance Day, Israel, the Jewish people around the world, and others mark the murder of 6,000,000 Jews by the Nazis. And still today, in 2023, there is an organization that rewards the murder of Jews and literally pays hundreds of millions of dollars every year in cash rewards, to people who participated in terror and murdered Jews, simply for being Jews. It is not the Nazis this time, but the PA.

Much has already been written about the Palestinian Authority’s terror-rewarding Pay-for-Slay policy, first exposed by Palestinian Media Watch in 2011, and it is doubtful whether there is an honest government in the world that could deny knowledge of its existence.

Nonetheless, ignoring the unequivocal fact that the PA uses substantial parts of its budget to reward terrorists for murdering Jews, European governments, the European Union, and others have continued to provide funding to the PA. In fact, the recently published “European Joint Strategy in support of Palestine” noted, that “Since 2008 the EU, EU Member States, Norway and Switzerland have disbursed around USD 1 billion annually in official development assistance to Palestine and the Palestinians.”

The PA is not oblivious to this reality. Rather, the PA rightly interprets the continued aid provided by the international community to the PA as nothing short of an endorsement of its heinous terror-rewarding policy. It is this feeling of empowerment that allows PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas – whose most important, if not only, legacy for the Palestinian people is the Pay-for-Slay policy – to brazenly and repeatedly declare that even if the PA is left with just one penny in its coffers, he will pay it first to the terrorists:

We never lost our #Hope, and we never will. pic.twitter.com/zw9ZkcIlkG
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) April 17, 2023

Iran, Where They Out-BDS the BDS Movement (Daled Amos)

The fight to undermine the IHRA definition of antisemitism continues.

This battle has been brought to the UN, where HRW and other self-proclaimed human rights groups insist that this particular definition of antisemitism is unfair because it puts a damper on free speech by holding those who demonize Israel and hold it to a double standard to account. Specifically, these groups claim the IHRA definition muzzles the free expression of "Palestinian rights" by preventing those kinds of "criticism" of Israeli government policies.

This attempt to claim to condemn hatred of Jews on the one hand while protecting outright demonization of Israel on the other is not something new. And it did not start with BDS.

An article in i24News quotes Ramin Parham, an Iranian writer living in France, who traces this attempt to differentiate between hatred of Jews and hatred of Israel to the Iranian regime and its propaganda:

Parham points out that the strategy of disassociating hatred of Israel from hatred of Jews is distinct from anti-Semitism was not invented by the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign (BDS) or the radical left, but was developed by the fathers of the Islamic revolution with the aim of reassuring the western world.

"The mullahs are above all good communicators, who quickly understood that the credibility of the regime on the international scene relied on its respect for the Jews and other minorities in the country. But it is only a question of saving appearances," Ramin Parham told i24NEWS. [emphasis added]

While this is not strictly true - Muslims in Arab lands have been claiming since at least 1947 that their opposition to Zionism had nothing to do with Jews, by falsely insisting that Jews had lived in peace and harmony with them for centuries before Zionism and conveniently forgetting events like 1033 Fez Massacre or the 1790 Tetuoan Pogrom - the Iranians have taken pains to give a public face to their supposed philosemitism.

This is a strategy that antisemites have picked up on, claiming that it is not Jews they oppose -- it is the evil Israeli regime. But it is also a strategy that cannot work effectively if the demonizing of Israel and the fabrication of accusations against the Jewish state are undercut by a definition that illustrates the association between demonizing Jews and demonizing Israel.

Thus the attempt to undercut the IHRA definition.

But the Iranians seem to have had success in keeping up appearances, and their claim to be opposed only to Israel and not Iranian Jews was accepted to an extent.

Years ago, New York Times journalist Roger Cohen accepted this claim and wrote about how well the Jews of Iran were treated -- and in 2009 boasted of his perceptiveness, "Perhaps I have a bias toward facts over words":

It’s important to decide what’s more significant: the annihilationist anti-Israel ranting, the Holocaust denial and other Iranian provocations or the fact of a Jewish community living, working and worshipping in relative tranquillity.

...I say the reality of Iranian civility toward Jews tells us more about Iran, its sophistication and culture, than all the inflammatory rhetoric.

Cohen was reassured. In fact, he was reassured to the extent that Cohen could write about the Iranian regime itself:

Totalitarian regimes require the complete subservience of the individual to the state and tolerate only one party to which all institutions are subordinated. Iran is an un-free society with a keen, intermittently brutal apparatus of repression, but it’s far from meeting these criteria. Significant margins of liberty, even democracy, exist. Anything but mad, the mullahs have proved malleable. [emphasis added]

Yet the evidence of what was really going on inside Iran was available.

In 2007, Ariela Ringel Hoffman wrote an article for the October 3 edition of Yedioth Achronot about the precarious situation of Iranian Jews, as described by Iranian Jews who managed to leave.

o One Iranian Jew interviewed by Hoffman said that Jews in Iran know they are sitting on a powder keg--at least half of them think that either Israel or the US will attack Iran's nuclear reactors. And when they do, the Jews of Iran will pay the price. Even without encouragement from the government, the Iranians on the street will take it out on the Jews.

o  Another Iranian Jew tells Hoffman that it was not the threat of war that brought him to Israel, but the desire to live as a Jew. "There, it is difficult to keep Mitzvot, to keep Kosher, to pray and to learn about Judaism. On Shabbat the children have to go to school--everything there is more difficult. [A 2021 article quotes Iranian Chief Rabbi Yehuda Gerami that in recent years Jewish schools are allowed to be closed for Shabbat]

o  He continues, saying that it is the Israeli government that Iran hates--and not the Israelis themselves. He believes that things are better than they were 10 years ago--when there was a water fountain in the marketplace in Tehran with 2 faucets: one for Muslims and one for Jews. If a Jew dared to drink from the faucet for Muslims he would be beaten up. Today it is different.

o  Another Iranian Jew describes how most of his friends at the university were Muslims--some of whom expressed the wish to visit Israel. He draws a distinction between the Iranian on the street and those in the university, where instructors openly question Iran's need for a nuclear reactor. He believes that Anti-Semitism is something encountered only on the street, where calling someone a Jew is the equivalent to someone in Israel calling someone a Nazi. Yet he admits that Jews cannot hold government posts.

o In Iran, serving in the army is mandatory. Many Jews avoid service by paying someone off -- something that is not limited to the Jews alone. One who ended up serving in the army recounts how the Iranians who served were religious and treated him like someone impure, and gave him the hardest jobs. Though service is for 24 months, after 20 months he got disgusted and deserted.

o One Iranian Jew told Hoffman:
I can tell you, based both on personal experience and on what I hear from friends, that there are places [in Iran] where Muslims have already divided among themselves the homes and property of their Jewish neighbors. They say that if there will be a war, the first thing they will do is slaughter the Jews.

Keep in mind that just 3 months after the Iranian Revolution brought Ayatollah Khomeini to power on February 11, 1979, Habib Elghanian -- a prominent Jewish Iranian businessman -- was executed by firing squad after being accused of being a spy. He was a prominent Jewish leader and philanthropist. His death led to over three-quarters of Iran’s 80,000 Jews fleeing the country.

Eventually, Cohen begrudgingly admitted he was wrong about Iran:

I’ve also argued that, although repressive, the Islamic Republic offers significant margins of freedom by regional standards. I erred in underestimating the brutality and cynicism of a regime that understands the uses of ruthlessness.

Better late than never?

Now and then, the media has reported on the status of Jews in Iran as second-class citizens under the regime. VOA reported in 2021 that Jews are treated like other Iranian minorities, such as Christians and Zoroastrians -- which isn't saying much:

But Iran’s Jews and other recognized minorities are barred by law from serving in the judiciary and security services. They also cannot hold authority over Muslims in the armed forces.

When Jews and other recognized minorities seek “blood money” as restitution for various crimes, Iranian law reduces the value of that blood money to half of what a Muslim is entitled to.

But it's more than that. The previous year, in May 2020, a fire broke out at the burial site of Esther and Mordechai. The only thing more suspicious than the fire was the way the report was disappeared:

An investigation has revealed that a person was caught in CCTV footage trying to enter the holy site through an adjacent bank and “perform a series of actions” but “failed,” opposition news sites said, citing a report in the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA).

The report said the cameras had registered the person’s face, but “information about the person’s motives and identity cannot be provided until they are arrested.”

The IRNA report was deleted from its website two hours after its publication Saturday morning, the Radio Farda and Iran International websites said.

And that brings us to Pesach this year and reports that the Iranian regime pressured Jews not to celebrate the last days of Passover (actually a Mimouna-type festival the day after Passover celebrated by Persian and Kurdish Jews) so they could participate in the annual al-Quds Day demonstration calling for the destruction of Israel. The Jerusalem Post reports:

Iran’s Jewish community announced on Monday on its social media platform Telegram to its estimated 9,000 members: “Please do not go for picnics or enjoyable activities on al-Quds Day.”

The Jewish community said that Iranian Jews should “care about Muslim sensitivity” and celebrate Passover a week later. [emphasis added]

There was a second message, inviting the Jewish community to participate in al-Quds Day demonstration:

According to our holy bible, every Jew has to stand against oppression against human beings. When we are approaching al-Quds Day, the Jewish community of Iran will participate in demonstrations against the Zionist regime and will declare their disgust with the Zionist policies against human beings. The Iranian Jewish community is separated from the Zionists. We are with Iranians and Muslims.

Beni Sabti, an expert on Iran at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security is quoted in the article, saying that some Iranian Jews "really are against Israel," a phenomenon we see among some left-wing groups Jews in the US.

Antisemitic pressure on the Jewish community takes a toll.

By the same token, not all Iranians are being swept up in their leaders' hatred of Israel, let alone of Jews. Here is a video from 2020, where the vast majority of Iranian students went out of their way to avoid stepping on the images of the flags of both the US and Israel, which had been painted on the ground to encourage them to dishonor both countries.

And just this week, Reza Pahlavi, the oldest son of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran -- who was overthrown during the Islamic Revolution in 1979 -- became the most senior Iranian figure to make a public visit to Israel.

He announced that the purpose was to "deliver a message of friendship from the Iranian people," adding:

I want the people of Israel to know that the Islamic Republic does not represent the Iranian people. The ancient bond between our people can be rekindled for the benefit of both nations...Millions of my compatriots still remember living alongside their Jewish-Iranian friends and neighbors, before the Islamic Revolution tore the fabric of our society apart.

Considering the courage of the Iranian people in opposing the regime, it is not surprising that the government has not been able turn the entire population against the Jews.

It still remains to be seen in the US if Jews will find support among the general population as antisemitic attacks increase.

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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

The Nazi idea of "Judah" is identical to the anti-Zionist conception of "Israel"

Yom HaShoah is not only about remembrance, but about ensuring that such atrocities will never again happen.

Yet we are seeing the groundwork for it happening in front of our eyes.

Nazi antisemitism did not only rely on racism against individual Jews as untermenschen. They also railed against Jews as a nation.

And their propaganda against the nation of "Judah" bears a chilling resemblance to the anti-Israel rhetoric that is becoming mainstream today.

From United Press, December 1938:

Is this any different from current accusations that the "Israel Lobby" controls America?

The "Judah" terminology was used in the earliest days of the Nazi regime. And some of those exactly mirror the anti-Israel rhetoric of today.

In 1933, Hitler partially justified boycotting Jews - by accusing "Judah" of racism against Germans! (Dayton Daily News, 31 Mar 1933):

There is no difference between saying "Judah is racist" and "Zionism is racism." The modern antisemites may pretend they are anti-Nazi, but they sure mimic Nazi rhetoric.

One of the early Nazi slogans, which was enthusiastically taken up by Western antisemites, was "Perish Judah." It spread quickly from 1935 in Berlin:

...to 1936 in London:

The British Fascists used the "Perish Judah" phrase so much that they began marking Jewish houses and shops with the initials "P.J." to encourage others to smash the marked doors and windows as late as 1943.

"Perish Judah" has morphed into today's "Death to Israel."

The connection between "Judah" and Israel is seen even more explicitly in this report from 1935:

There is a clear line between Nazi railing against "Judah" and today's obsessive hate of Israel. Boycotts of Jews in the 1930s are now called BDS.

Then, Jews were accused of controlling Western nations politically; today Zionists are accused of the same thing.

Mobs screaming "Perish Judah" in Berlin have become mobs screaming "Death to Israel" and "Death to Jews" - still in Berlin.

No, we are not at the death camp stage. We are merely at the stage where Jews are being murdered for being Jews in Israel and some Westerners are justifying those terror attacks as well as laying the ideological groundwork to make such attacks appear legal and moral. The Western antisemites of the 1930s didn't need to convince the larger British and US populations to hate Jews - they only needed to to associate Jews with theft and malice and Jewish supremacy enough so that casual observers would start to believe a little of it. They were able to sow enough doubt as to whether Jews were worth the effort of defending - when public defense of Jews could subject one to attacks. They wanted to sow some doubt as to whether Jews were worth the effort of saving.

Today's anti-Zionists insist that they are not antisemitic. You know who else made that claim in 1933?

Nazis.

Just because the analogy isn't perfect doesn't mean it isn't valid. As the expression goes, history doesn't repeat itself - but it does rhyme. The parallels between classic antisemitism and today's obsessive hate to Israel is obvious to anyone who opens their eyes. If Israel wasn't filled with Jews, it would get roughly the same worldwide criticism that Belgium does.

We might not be at 1939 yet, but we are in the same decade. And while today's antisemites might not be building death camps, some of them are building a nuclear bomb - with the same lack of response by the West as during the Holocaust, partially because of the constant stream of antisemitic propaganda that ends up affecting national leaders enough to favor inaction over action.

Never Again shouldn't be an empty slogan. So far, it has been.

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!

Last week, I reported (in an English-language exclusive) that Tunisians were upset at some of their scholars planning to attend a Paris conference called "The Jews and the law in Tunisia From protectorate to independence (1881-1956) - Between historical progress and religious resilience."

The reason? Because some Israelis are giving talks.

Last Monday, a protest took place in front of the headquarters of Tunisia's Ministry of Higher Education, expressing the protesters' rejection of “academic normalization with Israel.” They called on authorities to criminalize normalization, and others denouncing the “normalizers” with the Jewish state.

One of the participants in the conference is a former dean and distinguished professor at La Manouba University, Habib Kazdaghli. The Scientific Council of the Faculty of Letters, Arts and Humanities of that university held an extraordinary session to strip Kazdaghli of his "distinguished " professor status because of is supposed "normalization."

Professors, academics and intellectuals in France signed a letter of support for Kazdaghli.

For his part, the professor denied supporting normalization with Israel, and says he is "against the racist and colonial policy of the Israeli occupation state."

This has turned into a major story in Tunisia, with the professor going on multiple TV shows to defend his position and reiterate his opposition to Israel.

No one would ever boycott a conference with participants of any other country but Israel. The entire episode is yet another example of how anti-Zionism is just an obsessive modern formulation of antisemitism.

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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

04/17 Links Pt2: Dani Dayan: The power of human spirit; ‘Anti-racist’ Yale hosts a cheerleader for Jew-killing and racial hatred; Visibly identifiable Jews most targeted by antisemites in West

From Ian:

Dani Dayan: The power of human spirit

The central theme of Holocaust Remembrance Day this year is "Jewish Resistance during the Holocaust: Marking 80 Years since the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising."

Resistance encompasses a wide range of actions and, contrary to popular belief, does not necessarily involve taking up arms. Jewish resistance during the Holocaust could be a Shabbat Kiddush, staging a play in the ghetto, or even applying a little rouge to the cheeks – any action, simple or complex, that preserved the human spirit in the face of the Nazi German extermination plan that sought to destroy the Jewish people and its culture.

Eighty years later, the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising remains a symbol. It was a popular insurrection: While the fighters of the Jewish Fighting Organization and the Jewish Military Union fought the Nazis in the streets of the ghetto, the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto barricaded themselves in bunkers and fought for their lives for a whole long month. Many perished in the flames and smoke of the Nazi siege. News of the uprising spread quickly and reached the free world; it became a symbol of the battle of the few against the many, a symbol of the freedom and power of the human spirit.

During the Holocaust, there were other uprisings in the camps and ghettos, while thousands of Jewish partisans fought in the forests of Eastern Europe and were a significant force in the battle against the Germans and they also saved thousands of Jews who fled to the forests. There were many other cases where Jews rescued other Jews, even though they themselves were being pursued.

Other forms of resistance during the Holocaust included documenting the terrible events in secret, forging papers, hiding Jews, operating an education system, maintaining cultural life with performances, art, and underground libraries – all of which were acts of resistance that could not be taken for granted in the horrific reality of persecution and destruction.

These acts of resistance fueled a hope among the Jews, albeit desperate, that they would live to see the end of the war. Although the widespread resistance was not able to save the millions of Jews, its scale and diversity bequeathed a Jewish legacy for generations, symbolizing the power of the human spirit and humanity's fundamental values.

As Elie Wiesel wrote, "The Jewish soul was a target of the enemy. He sought to corrupt it, even as he strove to destroy us physically. But despite his destructive force, despite his corrupting power, the Jewish soul remained beyond his reach."

Jonathan Tobin: Where Holocaust commemoration succeeded and where it failed

Contrary to the universalizers, who feared that the Shoah would be marooned in history if it was not enlisted in the laudable cause of making everyone nicer to each other, Jew-hatred is not an ordinary form of prejudice. It is, as the Holocaust and the current campaign against Israel illustrate, a way of organizing intolerance for a political cause. Stripped of this context, Holocaust education becomes just one more anodyne call for civility. As such it not only fails to counter garden-variety bias but actually winds up ignoring actual antisemitism when it appears in the guise of appeals on behalf of “human rights” that deny Jewish rights and the right of Jews to defend themselves.

The popularization of Holocaust education became so embedded in Western culture that it morphed into more of a metaphor about something awful than a specific crime whose purpose was to rid the world of the Jews. The “anyone I don’t like is Hitler” rule even applied to many liberal Jews, who were quick to label American political opponents like former President Donald Trump as the moral equivalent of the Nazis. Some on the right are also willing to play the same game, comparing anything they don’t like to the Holocaust. Such analogies are always wrong even though few on either side of the political aisle are willing to condemn them when they are spread by their allies.

Even many of those who were contributing to the demonization of Israel and using the tropes of traditional antisemitic discourse to do so thought that they, too, were entitled to speak reverently about the Holocaust. Nothing illustrates the absurdity of this trend more than the devotion of a United Nations that is a cesspool of antisemitism to Holocaust memorialization. That Jew-haters like Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) have no shame talking about the need to remember the Shoah is shocking but nevertheless tolerated, even by many Jews who ought to know better. As writer Dara Horn memorably articulated it in the title of her book, People Love Dead Jews. It’s the living ones, especially those who are willing to defend themselves and the sole Jewish state on the planet, who are not so popular.

The attention on Holocaust memorialization also often failed to acknowledge the way Israel and its supporters had become the stand-in for traditional antisemitic scapegoats. Indeed, the resistance, even among some Jews on the left, to the adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism centered on its acknowledgement of the way that falsely smearing Israel, especially by accusing it of Nazi-like crimes, had become one of the principal expressions of Jew-hatred in our era.

Those who labored to create and fund all the museums, archives and ceremonies deserve our gratitude. They are important in and of themselves. But it turns out they don’t do much to answer contemporary threats, even when it concerns issues like Iran’s quest for nuclear weapons to create a new Shoah.

The way many Jews view the Holocaust as the sum total of the Jewish experience in a way that ignores or downplays the richness, beauty and joy of our heritage, has had the unintended consequence of undermining communal life. This has also had the effect of legitimizing those who think that remembering the Shoah should have nothing to do with the fight to preserve today’s Jews.

This Yom Hashoah as we honor the victims, we need to remember that the only proper memorial to the Six Million is a thriving Jewish state that was created too late to save them. Now that we’ve ensured that the past is not forgotten, it’s time for Jews to concentrate their efforts on defending live Jews with as much fervor and dedication as was demonstrated on behalf of the memory of the Holocaust.

Daniel Gordis: Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Memorial Day) before there was a state

Tonight, in Israel and throughout the world, begins the observance of Yom HaShoah, technically called Yom Ha-Shoah ve-ha-Gevurah, which roughly translates as Memorial Day for Victims of the Holocaust and their Bravery.

Yom HaShoah has been part of the Jewish calendar for so long that we often forget that it wasn’t always there. It did not even follow immediately after the war. The date was officially selected by the Knesset in 1951, while the law that made the holiday “official” was passed in 1953.

The selection of the date was actually a complicated process. The rabbinate wanted the Knesset to choose the date of the Tenth of Tevet, which was already a general “day of mourning” in the traditional Jewish calendar. But the survivors, understandably, wanted a unique date—so the Knesset chose a date tied to the Warsaw Ghetto uprising.

That, itself, is significant, as the yishuv (the pre-state Jewish community in Palestine) and the citizens of early Israel struggled to honor the Holocaust victims, many of whom live today in Israel under the poverty line. In those early days of Israel, the victims were seen as weak and passive, precisely the opposite of the “new Jew” the yishuv was trying to fashion. So the Knesset chose a date tied to resistance, not to death—it fit better with the Jewish narrative Israel was seeking to transmit.

Tommy Lapid, the father of the now central Yair Lapid and a survivor of the Budapest ghetto who ultimately became a well-known Israeli journalist and successful politician, recalled years after he’d come to Israel how veteran members of the yishuv essentially accused the survivors for what they had endured. “‘Why didn’t you fight back?’ they would ask. ‘Why did you go like sheep to the slaughter?’ They were First-Class Jews who took up arms and fought, while we were Second-Class Yids whom the Germans could annihilate without encountering resistance.”

"Thousands of Jews massacred. Story on page 3."

Here is a sample of newspaper articles that show that the scope of the Holocaust was quite well known in 1942 - but newspapers hardly ever put the stories of mass murder on the front pages.

Boston Globe, September 19, 1942, page 2:

Kansas City Times, October 23, 1942, bottom of page 3:

Great Falls Tribune, November 25, 1942, page 4:

Daily Telegraph, December 4, 1942, page 5:

Liverpool Echo, December 19, 1942, page 3:

I found exactly one front page story about the Holocaust (looking for the words "Massacre" and "Jews") in hundreds of newspapers from 1939-1943 (outside of Jewish newspapers.)

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!

A way to remember the victims of the Shoah

The number six million is simply unimaginable.

But there is something that you can do to make the Shoah feel a lot more personal to you.

If you are Jewish, or have a Jewish last name, you can search the Yad Vashem Shoah Victims Database and look for someone with a name identical, or similar to, yours. Chances are very high that anyone's Hebrew name will generate a match, or several.

To give an example, I searched for David Schwimmer, the actor from "Friends." Even though it is not exactly a common name, there were dozens of matches with various variants of the name.

Find your own doppelganger. For most victims, the details are sparse but you can usually find out their birthdates, their relatives' names and where they lived.

It is even more emotional to enter in the name of a loved one and see the people with that name that were murdered.

You may be the only living being who cares about or remembers those specific people. So many entire families were wiped out by the Germans that there are many victims who have no living relatives.

Light a candle for them.

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!

04/17 Links Pt1: What articles on Israel's 'one-state reality' get wrong; Islamic dictatorships are trying to buy the UN agencies; Reza Pahlavi, son of Iranian Shah, to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day in Israel

From Ian:

Seth Frantzman: What articles on Israel's 'one-state reality' get wrong

A recent article at Foreign Affairs argued that Israel and the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza are living under a ‘one-state reality’ and that ‘it is time to give up on the two-state solution.’

This argument has been gaining traction among some human rights groups and commentators over the past few years, though the overall theory advocating for one state does go back many decades, to the last century.

What is the premise behind Israel's 'one-state reality'?
The premise behind it is that Israeli rule has gone on for so long that the two-state solution seems too far-fetched; “one state” is what exists now. But the argument is predicated on a basic flaw thematic of all the proposals: Those advocating “one state” claim that Israel continues to occupy the Gaza Strip to portray Israel as controlling millions of Palestinians who are denied rights in Israel – this completely ignores the fact that Gaza is run by Hamas and that there is little to no evidence that Palestinians, under Palestinian Authority or Hamas, want to be integrated into Israel.

The bait and switch of the “one state” story are to force Israel to re-invade Gaza, control it and extend Israeli rule back into Palestinian cities, despite decades in which Palestinians governed cities in Gaza and the West Bank themselves. It’s unclear why anyone thinks this would work, considering that Israel can’t even fully control parts of Jerusalem when it comes to violence. Is there anything to the theory?

In January 2021, B’Tselem published a report claiming that a “regime of Jewish supremacy” exists “from the Jordan river to the Mediterranean sea,” calling it “apartheid.” The report said that “more than 14 million people, roughly half of them Jews and the other half Palestinians, live between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea under a single rule.”

It added that “the entire area between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River is organized under a single principle: advancing and cementing the supremacy of one group – Jews – over another – Palestinians.” It said that even though Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005, Israel continues to control “nearly every aspect of life in Gaza from outside.” It also noted that “Palestinians from Gaza must go through Egyptian-controlled Rafah Crossing – provided it is open, the Egyptian authorities let them through, and they can undertake the long journey through Egyptian territory.”

The War on Terror: Offense or Defense?

Islamic and Palestinian terrorists consider Israel to be a critical beachhead—and proxy—of the United States in the Middle East, and a significant collaborator with the pro-US Arab regimes. They perceive the war on “the infidel Jewish state” as a preview of their more significant war on “the infidel West” and attempts to topple all pro-US Sunni Arab regimes.

Therefore, Islamic and Palestinian terrorists have been engaged in intra-Arab subversion, while systematically collaborating with enemies and rivals of the United States and the West (e.g., Nazi Germany, the Soviet Bloc, Ayatollah Khomeini, Latin American, European, African and Asian terror organizations, North Korea, Venezuela and Cuba). The more robust Israel’s war on terrorism, the more deterred the terrorists in their attempts to bring the “infidel” West to submission.

Islamic and Palestinian terrorism has targeted Jewish communities in the Land of Israel since the late 19th century, adhering to an annihilationist vision as detailed by the Fatah and PLO charters of 1959 and 1964 (eight and three years before 1967), as well as by the hate-education system installed by Palestinian Authority head Mahmoud Abbas in 1993 following the signing of the Oslo Accord.

Neither Palestinian (Hamas and the PA) nor Islamic terrorism (Iran and Hezbollah), are preoccupied with Israel’s size, but rather object to its very existence; they seek to erase the “infidel” Jewish state from “the abode of Islam.”

Both Palestinian and Islamic terrorism are inspired by 1,400-year-old Islamic values, still being spread today via K-12 hate education, mosque incitement and official and public idolization of terrorists.

Islamic dictatorships are trying to buy the UN agencies

Testimonies collected by the New York Times within the International Labor Organization (the UN labor agency) speak of a payment of 25 million dollars by the Doha government into the agency's coffers, which would have led to a softer attitude on workers' rights in the emirate, in view of the football World Cup. The agency denied that.

In 2021, Saudi Arabia - another flagship country of workers' rights - was elected to the executive committee of the International Labor Organization.

Wonderful news can be read on the websites of UN agencies. Like this one: “The director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Ghada Waly, and the chairman of the Saudi Arabian Anti-Corruption and Control Authority, Mazin bin Ibrahim Al-Kahmous, signed an agreement of 10 millions of dollars to fight against corruption”.

In fact, the Saudis know how to fight drug trafficking: they behead it.

In 2018, Qatar promised 500 million dollars to UN agencies.

The truth is that Islamic dictatorships are buying up the UN agencies. What interest do some of the world's least populated and most repressive countries, from Qatar to Saudi Arabia, have in becoming the world's largest donors to humanitarian causes? This was explained to Le Figaro by the distinguished philosopher Pierre Manent, director of the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales. He quotes Brexit and a great scholar of Machiavelli: "We have allowed the establishment of a discipline of words and feelings which forbids us to defend and, so to speak, to love what we are, the form of life which is our own, but which , on the other hand, imperiously commands us to welcome with avidity everything that accuses us, everything that disturbs us, everything that offends us. We were a people who claimed to govern themselves and to be part of history. We have given up on this ambition and declared it unjust. Our nation separates us from humanity, it is urgent to dissolve it in humanity, such is our new political religion”.

In the same hours that the New York Times accused the labor agency of corruption by Qatar, the head of the UN refugee agency, Filippo Grandi, was in Qatar to sign an agreement with the emirate worth 18 million dollars. The UN secretary, Antonio Guterres, was also in Qatar to inaugurate the "House of the United Nations". The Emir of Qatar is funding numerous UN agencies, from Unicef to WHO to FAO. One of the smallest states in the world is among the top ten international donors to UN agencies. Saudi Arabia is the third largest donor in the world. What was the UNWTO, the UN agency for tourism, doing in Saudi Arabia?

A report by the Adenauer Foundation tells how Gulf countries use humanitarian donations to promote political Islam.