Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Saturday, May 20, 2023

05/20 Links: Trashing nationalism isn’t a defense of the Jews; Anti-Israel Groups Push White House To Weaken Recognized Anti-Semitism Definition

From Ian:

Jonathan Tobin: Trashing nationalism isn’t a defense of the Jews

As with most coverage of the news in Israel or, for that matter, in the United States, the media’s bias is obvious. While any evidence of extremism, hate speech or even violent behavior at demonstrations opposing the Netanyahu government’s judicial reform legislation is ignored or rationalized, the opposite is true of “Jerusalem Day” celebrations. Most people who oppose judicial reform are peaceful and patriotic, and the same is true for all but a tiny minority of those who wave blue-and-white flags while streaming through Jerusalem. But any bad behavior is always emphasized as emblematic of the true spirit of the nationalist right while depicted as unrepresentative of the political left.

The same is true of events in the United States, which is why mainstream outlets could refer to the Black Lives Matter riots that took place in the summer of 2020 as “mostly peaceful,” even though they led to deaths, thousands of injured police officers and billions of dollars in damage done to public and private property. Meanwhile, any right-wing protest is always defined by its most extreme participants.

As insufferable as such media bias can seem, it is the contempt for nationalism and a willingness to treat any critique of globalism and cultural Marxism as akin to antisemitism that is the real problem in all of these discussions.

Lost amid all the huffing and puffing about supposedly antisemitic memes used by conservatives or about the bad taste of Jews who exercise their right to joyfully proclaim their sovereignty over their ancient city is something vitally important.

Those who would defend the assault on Western civilization and the culture of individual rights that is best defended by nationalism are doing more to harm the rights of Jews than to defend them. In that same way, the denigration of the right of Jews to national self-determination in their homeland is not something that will lead to mutual understanding with those who seek to erase the Jewish presence in Israel. To the contrary, such universalist arguments that demand that Jews retreat, concede and forebear from exercising their rights only encourage those who wish to deny them the most basic right to live and defend themselves.

The best way to defend Jewish rights in the Diaspora is by standing up against the universalist and Marxist war against the traditions of the West. And the best way to defend Jewish lives in Israel is to make it clear that those who wish to return to a situation when Jews were a despised, oppressed and powerless people must be reminded that they are on the wrong side of history. A liberalism that opposes nationalism is both a toxic ideology and fundamentally illiberal. The nationalism of the West and of Zionism is not just worth defending but something that should be actively and openly proclaimed, even if it makes some people uncomfortable.

Poland slams Noa Kirel for comments on Polish role in Holocaust

Noa Kirel, who represented Israel and achieved third place in the Eurovision Song Contest last week, has faced backlash from Poland after she commented on her performance’s connection to the Holocaust.

In an interview with Israeli news site Ynet, Kirel spoke about her experiences throughout Eurovision, and what it had been like to achieve so much success throughout the competition.

Commenting on the 12-point score (the highest possible) given to her by Poland’s jurors, the young pop sensation said that her “real victory was putting Israel on the map, leaving a mark and making my country proud of me. Also, to receive 12 points from Poland after almost the entire Kirel family was murdered there in the Holocaust is a great achievement.”

Polish parliament member Anna Maria Żukowska, directing her complaints at the Israeli Embassy in Poland via Twitter, asked : “Does this statement reflect the level of Holocaust education in Israel? Do young people in Israel think that the Holocaust was caused by Poland, over which a young Israeli citizen can achieve a moral victory after many decades, or what?”

In a follow-up tweet, she added that “perhaps [Kirel] has something to say about the points received from Germany,” in a reference to the fact that neither the German jury nor the public granted Israel any points during the final.

Ukraine President Calls Out Iran in Surprise Arab League Visit

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday called out Iran’s role in supporting the Russian invasion of Ukraine during a surprise visit to the Arab League summit in Saudi Arabia.

“Today is the four hundred and fiftieth day of the full-scale war waged against us by Russian invaders,” Zelensky said. “We do not have missiles as our enemy has. We have less air power. We do not possess numerous killer drones that Iran supplies to Russia. We do not have that much artillery. But, we do stay strong, because we do have truth on our side. Moreover, we are pushing the occupiers out of our land.”

Iran has supplied Russia with hundreds of so-called kamikaze drones that fly into their target and detonate. The White House on Monday said Iran has given Russia more than 400 of these drones since August and has used most of them, but is looking to buy more.

In his speech, Zelensky highlighted Ukraine’s ties to the Arab and Muslim worlds, including Ukraine’s native Crimean Tatar people. He also thanked Saudi Arabia and the “majority” of the summit’s attendees “for supporting firm international positions and the UN Charter.”

Saudi Arabia has faced extensive criticism, particularly from the United States, for being insufficiently supportive of Ukraine. In October, Saudi Arabia voted to cut OPEC+ oil production, a move opposed by the Biden administration because of the resulting increased oil revenue for Russia and for its impact on US domestic gasoline prices.

Since then, Saudi Arabia has attempted to mend relations with its erstwhile rivals. In April, the Saudis and Iran agreed to a diplomatic normalization deal negotiated by the Chinese that ended a seven-year rift between the two regional powers.

On Friday, Saudi Arabia also welcomed Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad to the summit after Syria’s readmission to Arab League earlier in May.

05/19 Links Pt2: Christiane Amanpour and the institutionalization of media bias; The Guardian is addicted to insulting Jews; Gal Gadot: ‘Israel is My Heart and My Home’

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: Soros, antisemitism and the progressive assault on language

Soros’s Open Society Foundations have given tens of millions of dollars to non-governmental organizations involved in waging political warfare and lawfare against Israel. Soros’s groups reject the Jewish state’s right to exist and its right to defend itself. They have sought to undermine its relations with foreign governments and subvert its legal system in order to prevent it from enforcing its laws against Palestinian terrorists and Arab Israelis who break the laws of their country.

Two Soros-funded organizations, Al-Haq and Al-Mezan, have been identified as fronts for the PFLP terrorist organization. The U.S., the E.U., Canada and Israel all designate the PFLP as a terror group. Israel’s Defense Ministry outed Al-Haq and Al-Mezan as PFLP fronts in Oct. 2021. Rather than abandon their support for the terrorist groups, 20 other Soros-funded organizations signed a declaration attacking the government’s move.

Soros-funded international, U.S., Israeli and Palestinian groups defame Israel and its supporters by, among other things, falsely accusing the Jewish state of “apartheid.” They wage economic and cultural warfare against Israel and its Jewish supporters around the world through boycott, divestment and sanctions campaigns. Directed against Israel’s Jewish supporters abroad, particularly on college campuses, BDS campaigns aim to deny Jews their civil right to stand with the Jewish state or express support for its existence. These campaigns employ social ostracism, humiliation and harassment. Soros-funded groups were the primary engine behind the E.U.’s antisemitic labelling law, which requires Israeli exporters to place warning labels on goods produced by Jews beyond the 1949 armistice lines.

Soros has spearheaded and funds organizations whose job is to drive a wedge through the American Jewish community. In 2007, he published an article in The New York Review of Books demonizing AIPAC, which he attacked with language redolent of antisemitism. The next year, Soros founded J Street by providing a three-year grant of $750,000. The pro-Palestinian progressive Jewish group supports placing restrictions on U.S. military assistance to Israel. It backs some of the most anti-Israel members of Congress. It advocates on behalf of U.S. appeasement of the Iranian regime, including by facilitating its nuclear weapons program.

J Street U, J Street’s student group, is anti-Israel. IfNotNow is a BDS group and a spin-off of J Street U. J Street and its aligned groups routinely demonize pro-Israel groups, including AIPAC and the Jewish Federations for their support for Israel. They also seek to subvert Jewish institutions, including day schools and summer camps, by compelling their leaders to accept the dissemination of anti-Zionist curricula and propaganda to their students and campers.

Soros-funded Palestinian media routinely broadcast antisemitic propaganda.

In short, Soros funds groups that demonize the Jewish state and Jewish people worldwide who support it. He has split the American Jewish community and supports organizations that oppose the right of Jewish people in the United States to defend and support the Jewish state and its right to exist.

Rabbi Prof. Dov Fischer: It Is a mitzvah to condemn George Soros

If it is not “anti-Catholic” to condemn disastrous policies advocated by such Catholics as President Joe Biden and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, it is not anti-Semitic to condemn the pernicious Soros, who most significantly finances campaigns to elect such lawless DAs.

Yes, it would be anti-Semitic if a cartoon depicted Soros with a Jewish religious symbol like a yarmulke because Judaism as a religion and George Soros do not intersect. Even in a cartoon, a kipah of any style or size would not fit on Soros’s head.

In Israel, too, his evil and toxic hand poisons everything he touches. He has heavily funded J Street — no surprise there — an organization that works closely with boycott, divestment, sanctions advocates and that honors Israel-haters as invited guest speakers at J Street annual conferences. In Israel, Soros’s Open Society Foundation has donated to organizations accusing Israel of human rights violations and war crimes, such as “Breaking the Silence” and “Adalah.” In a 2016 leak of OSF emails, staffers said they sought to weaken ties between Israel and the EU and sow doubt about Israeli democracy. He is noxious.

Soros is working to destroy foundational principles and democratic institutions in both America and Israel. I am a rabbi with a lifelong career of Jewish commitment and devotion, and I cannot be more clear: It is not only patriotic but a mitzvah to stand up and condemn this enemy of all we as Jews hold dear.

Jonathan Tobin: Christiane Amanpour and the institutionalization of media bias

In the early days of Amanpour’s long career, few, if any, journalists openly boasted of their partisanship in the way that she now does. That changed in the wake of the rise of former President Donald Trump and the Black Lives Matter summer of 2020 in which a press corps that everyone knew was overwhelmingly liberal shucked off any pretense that they were not partisans.

That made itself felt in the coverage of the 2016 presidential election and subsequent promotion of the Russia collusion hoax that dogged Trump during his first three years in office. It was shown in the willingness of almost every mainstream outlet—with the active cooperation of Big Tech companies and social-media platforms—to shut down coverage of the New York Post’s scoop about Hunter Biden’s laptop and its damning evidence about the corrupt business dealings of the 2020 Democratic presidential candidate’s family in the waning days of that campaign.

And, most recently, it was manifest in the coverage of the report by special counsel John Durham about the origins of the Russia collusion hoax by corporate outlets like CNN and The New York Times, in which they ignored the findings that the entire investigation was the work of the Hillary Clinton campaign and then initiated by the FBI without any actual evidence.

Of course, bias exists on the right, too. But the monolithic nature of so much of the mainstream media makes it particularly problematic.

We are now at the point where anyone who gets their news solely from those supposedly reliable sources, like CNN and the Times, are among the least informed people on the planet. That is nothing less than a tragedy since democracy is imperiled if there isn’t a mainstream press that can be relied upon to at least try to tell the truth.

Anti-Israel media bias was always terrible, but it was long thought of as an aberration caused by particular factors, such as ignorance of the history of the Middle East conflict by editors and reporters, as well as the failure of the Jewish state to make its case in an easily digested and compelling manner.

We are now at the point when the sort of bias exhibited by the likes of Amanpour against Israel is routine in just about everything that is produced by corporate liberal outlets. Biased journalism has become not so much a lamentable exception to the rule as it has been institutionalized.

Israel is particularly vulnerable to this phenomenon, and the consequences are deeply troubling. The unfair treatment of the Jewish state such as that committed by Amanpour is a factor in the rising tide of antisemitism that masquerades as mere criticism of Israel. The fact that such lies and distortions are now routine occurrences in the mainstream press is a symptom of a sickness in journalism that goes beyond the way her conduct is abetting Jew-hatred.

How CNN Continues to Promote Anti-Israel Views

The passive voice, however, was used for the deliberate murders of Lucy Dee and her two daughters: “There was a shooting incident.” Not a “killing.” A “shooting incident.” And “a car received a bullet shot.”What a bizarre construction. And then that car that “received a [presumably single] bullet shot” just happened to have “the [Dee] family in it.” The way the account was phrased leaves one with the impression that the mother emerged unscathed, because she is not mentioned as a victim; Pleitgen says only that “the two daughters were killed in that crash.” Nor were the daughters “killed” in a car crash. Their car crashed after they had been shot to to death by a Palestinian terrorist, armed with a Kalashnikov assault rifle. After the crash, he kept firing; the victims were reportedly shot a total of 22 times. That does justice, unflinchingly, to the event. Pleitgen’s account was a travesty of the truth.

Here is how CNN”s Frederik Pleitgen ought to have reported the story: “A Palestinian terrorist with a Kalashnikov shot and killed an Israeli mother, Lucy Dee, and two of her daughters, Maina and Rina, as they drove through the West Bank on April 7.”

Christine Amanpour has quite a history of anti-Israel animus. This past January, she interviewed an Israeli documentary film maker, Dror Moreh. Toward the end, Amanpour asked Moreh:

“You are an Israeli. I don’t know whether you were in Israel at the time, but you said that this red line in the neighboring country of Syria, where all these atrocities were being committed really, really made you angry and upset. Many will want to know, you know, do you feel equally angry about the horrible situation that’s going on in your own country, and the human rights attacks, killings of Palestinians. Obviously, we know Israelis are also attacked, but what is your perspective, as an Israeli, given the whole “never again” paradigm in which you place this investigation?”

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!

Latest @YouGov / @ArabNews survey that claims Palestinians want a two-state solution twisted the poll to make Palestinians look moderate

A new survey by YouGov and ArabNews of Palestinians has a result that is quite at odds with other recent polls:

Among the highlights of the findings were that more than half (51 percent) said that they saw a two-state solution as the best one to resolve the conflict, followed by 21 percent considering a federal state as the ideal solution. Only 4 percent said that the best solution would be Gaza going to Egypt and the West Bank going to Jordan, with Palestinians carrying either Egyptian or Jordanian passports.

This seems quite strange. The most recent PCPSR poll in March found that only 27% of Palestinians supported a two state solution with 71% opposed.

A hint to explain this difference could perhaps be seen in the YouGov methodology: "The survey results were rebased, in line with accepted industry standards, to remove 'don’t know' or 'can’t say' answers to compare only relevant answers. "

Which means that the respondents had to choose from among the choices given, and if they preferred another answer we don't know about it.

Here were the choices given:

What do you think is the best solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict?

Accept that Gaza goes to Egypt and the West Bank goes to Jordan, and Palestinians carry either Egyptian or Jordanian passports - 4%
Return to live under full Israeli occupation, but without Israeli citizenship nor a Palestinian Authority - 11%
Integrate both sides into one state (Palestinians become Israeli citizens) - 13%
Create a federal state - 21%
Two state solution - 51%

The "binational" choice wasn't what Palestinians normally consider binational. To them, binational means a majority Arab state with Jews as a minority but with (some) rights. That was not an option here.

And there is one clear choice that many, if not most, Palestinians insist upon, one that they are force-fed in their media and schools all the time: a single Palestinian state with no Israel at all. That was not an option here.

And if anyone did give one of those options on their own, the methodology does not count those answers.

Evidence that a significant number would choose a single Palestinian state or a majority Arab state comes from the most recent JMCC poll in 2022. They asked a similar question with much different choices as answers:

Nearly a quarter of the respondents rejected the potential answers given and said proactively that they want a Palestinian state, full stop, presumably one where Jews are a barely tolerated minority or simply not there. Imagine if that was one of the given options!

Similarly, the binational state option given here does not say "Palestinians become Israeli citizens."

Both the PCPSR and JMCC surveys put the number of Palestinians against a two-state solution at about 70%.

The Arab News/YouGov poll did not give Palestinians the chance to answer the question as they wanted to. Between their limiting the allowed responses and their discarding other responses, this was rigged to make Palestinians look far more supportive of peace than they really are.

Further evidence comes from another Arab News question that, for some reason, did not discard the "Other" answers.

That 64% with "none of the above" is saying that they simply cannot accept a Jerusalem where Israel has any control - even only over the western side. They want it all, period.

Just as they want everything from the river to the sea.

Clearly the Palestinians are just as intransigent as they were in the other polls. But this poll cooked the books to make them seem more reasonable.

And to anyone who cares about the truth, that is a scandal, both for the Arab News and for YouGov.

(h/t Nathan)

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!

05/19 Links Pt1: Dore Gold: One state or two: What will Israel's future look like?; Tlaib’s shameful weaponization of the Elie Wiesel Genocide Act against Israel

From Ian:

Dore Gold: One state or two: What will Israel's future look like?

The latest issue of Foreign Affairs (May-June, 2023) features an article provocatively titled “Israel’s one-state reality.” Its subtitle gives away its real purpose, for it proposes that it’s time to give up on the two-state solution.

For years, Foreign Affairs was the flagship of writing on issues related to US foreign policy. It used to serve as a bellwether for where the US foreign policy establishment was heading. For example, in 1947 it published a long cable by foreign service officer George Kennan, on how America was to respond to the challenge of Soviet expansionism at the dawn of the Cold War.

The latest Foreign Affairs article essentially presents a false choice for Israel: either the Jewish state should openly embrace the two-state solution or just admit that it is heading for a “one state reality,” and may even be there already. The article places those who have reservations about a two-state outcome as “defending colonialist principles in a post-colonial world.” This is name-calling dressed up as an intellectual argument.

Even so, the article’s authors qualified their conclusions about Israel’s apartheid, stating: “Israel’s system may not technically be apartheid.”

US administrations have been correct in denying the attempts by some who are trying to force this choice by designating Israel now as an “apartheid state.” In October 2011, justice Richard Goldstone of South Africa headed a UN commission that examined charges made by the UN Human Rights Council concerning how Israel handled the Gaza War (Operation Cast Lead, December 2008-January 2009).

Goldstone took Israel to task on the questions that the UN raised. But then he withdrew his tough conclusions in an op-ed for The Washington Post that grappled with the question of whether Israel was an apartheid state today. There, he explicitly dropped the apartheid charge, writing that “in Israel, there is no apartheid.” Still, the writers at Foreign Affairs make a nasty assertion by concluding that “Israel is even worse than apartheid.”

Iran is the force behind all of Israel's enemies

Regardless of whether Hamas and Hezbollah were deterred by Israel or simply saw satisfaction in seeing a rival terrorist group clobbered, one thing is clear: Hamas and Hezbollah leadership feared they would face a similar fate as the top three PIJ commanders and thus exposed Iran’s own weakness. It turns out that Hamas and Hezbollah’s leaders, like the ayatollahs themselves, are fearless with the lives of others but are much more concerned with their own lives.

Despite its efforts, Iran’s influence was limited to convincing the Islamic Jihad’s leadership abroad (ensconced in luxury hotels) to turn down Egypt’s initial ceasefire efforts, to prolong the skirmish with Israel by three days, and to lose scores of additional terrorists and facilities in the process.

Israel’s targeted killing policy proved effective and will hopefully deter future escalations. Once again, Israel showed the world it tries its best not to harm Palestinian civilians, while Palestinian terrorists do their best to target Israeli civilians and hide behind their own. That is the reason for the limited calls heard this time in the international community to put an end to the PIJ’s drubbing.

Importantly, key actors and potential peace partners in the region, like Saudi Arabia and others, got reassurance after seeing a glimpse of Israel’s power. They surely have no illusions as to where the future lies.

Israel has grown into a global economic and technological power, with a per-capita GDP that surpasses countries like Italy, France and Germany. As a hub of cutting-edge technology and a gateway to Europe and America, any responsible leader who has his people’s future in mind would seek peace with Israel.

While Tehran and the PIJ lick their wounds, Israel and their potential peace partners, along with their longstanding partners, should bring an end to the Arab-Israeli conflict and stop Iran’s pursuit of nuclear arms.

Biden's weakness has driven Iran & Saudi Arabia to China

President Joe Biden may have come into office as a purported foreign policy expert but according to JNS editor-in-chief Jonathan Tobin he’s maintained his streak of being wrong on every issue for the last half-century.

Tobin is joined by Hudson Institute scholar Michael Doran to talk about the far-reaching consequences of Biden's weakness.

They discuss - Biden's policy in the Middle East leading to China, Saudi Arabia and Iran coming together.
- Erdogan's possible re-election and what the US gets wrong about Turkey
- The waning of US power in the region
- The hope for other nations to join the Abraham Accords

My Twitter followers have been growing steadily, as I have been gaining over a thousand new ones every month.

A lot of the new ones are there not to learn but to attack, or perhaps to see what the "hasbaristas" are doing so they can come up with responses.

I thought it would only be polite to welcome them with a list of the consistent themes of my writings, truth bombs for those who live in an anti-Israel bubble. I added only a small number of representative links.

1. Anti-Zionism is thinly veiled antisemitism

2. Arab antisemitism is orders of magnitude worse than reported in the media

3. Too many partisans on the Left and Right use antisemitism and Jews as a political football to demonize their enemies but don't really care about Jews

4. Palestinians overwhelmingly support terror attacks on Jews

5. The media presents a hugely distorted negative picture of Israel

6. NGOs like Amnesty and HRW knowingly distort the truth and often lie to demonize Israel

7. The Jewish national claim to Israel is much, much stronger than that of Palestinians

8. The Jewish claim to Jerusalem is far stronger than that of Muslims, and denying that claim is classically antisemitic

9. Jerusalem under Jewish rule supports the human rights of all religious groups far better than anyone in history

10. Israel is an amazing, liberal state that has been a light unto nations

11. Israel does not violate the Geneva Conventions at all. In recent years, international law (i.e., Rome Statute) has been twisted specifically against Israel.

12. Palestinian laws discriminate against women, gays and Jews

13. The Jewish people have a historic, religious, moral and legal right to Israel

14. Historic newspaper articles and books show a completely different reality than the revisionist history popular today

15. Today's media is more interested in presenting a simplistic narrative than exploring the truth about Israel

16. Israel isn't perfect but its enemies are far more guilty of the crimes they accuse Israel of

17. The media and NGOs treat Palestinians like children who cannot be held responsible for their actions, which is real racism

18. The Arab honor/shame mindset is what drives the conflict, not Israeli actions

19. "Occupation" is an excuse for violence, not the cause. Arab violence to Jews pre-dates 1967, 1948 and 1917.

20. Israeli strength is the only guarantee of peace, or at least détente. Perceived weakness prompts more violence.

21. Demanding perfection from Israel without holding others to the same standards is antisemitism.

22. This isn't an issue of Palestinian human rights. It is an issue of competing Arab and Jewish human rights, and Israel tries to balance the two.

23. Until recently, the Arab world would use the Palestinian issue to keep their own people in line, but in general they don't really care about the Palestinians.

24. Arab discrimination against Palestinians, often enshrined into law, is the real apartheid.

My book deals with many of these issues.

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!

Salah al-Bardawil, a member of Hamas’ political bureau, made a promise on Wednesday on his Twitter account (translations by Abu Ali Express):

The flag march will not take place! Those who dare to knock on the door will receive an answer, and the door of al-Aqsa is not an ordinary door for impure hands to touch. The unruly herd must understand this when the response is heard, and it will come. There is no other option…

Then, after the march that he promised would never take place, he changed his tune, in the very next set of tweets:

The flag march. The nearsighted, impatient, and historically ignorant individuals are the ones who believe that the Zionist enemy emerged victorious due to their Korah-like march (referring to the biblical Korah, who was swallowed by the earth – Abu Ali). They assume our people and resistance were too feeble to curb their arrogance. Everyone needs to understand that the balance of gain and loss runs much deeper than what one perceives… Our people have not surrendered or forsaken their rights, and our enemy will know no rest from the terror. History reveals that the rightful prevail in the end.

Abu Ali notes that Fatah has been making fun of Hamas for its days of threats to stop the march evaporating so quickly.

The typical theme in Arab media this morning is that the large police presence proves that Israel's hold on Jerusalem is weak.

The police presence was there because of the (quite credible) threats of violence.

The terrorist leaders threaten war, Israel takes no chances with the security of its citizens, and then they exult "Look how seriously they took us! We are powerful!"

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 US State Department issued its annual report on world religious freedom for the year 2022.

Its section on Israel and the territories is huge - over 22,000 words, and it might be the largest chapter in the entire report.

It is also highly problematic.

Its methodology is flawed; it appears to rely on English language newspaper articles and anti-Israel NGO reports, and has a laundry list of supposed Israeli crimes in great detail.

But for the Palestinian Authority, while it does mention a number of cases of incitement on Palestinian TV, it too often relies on their official statements and does not look any further into the issues. It follows that there are a lot of omissions and mistakes when it comes to Palestinian violations of freedom of religion.

For example, it says, "PA land laws prohibit Palestinians from selling Palestinian-owned lands to 'any man or judicial body corporation of Israeli citizenship, living in Israel or acting on its behalf.'” The laws might say that officially, but in reality Israeli Arabs buy lots of properties in the West Bank without any issue - the land laws are specifically meant to stop Jews from buying land.

That's an egregious example of religious discrimination that flew under the State Department radar.

Similarly, while it brings many examples of haredi Jews supposedly attacking Christians, there is not a word about Muslim persecution of Christians in Palestinian controlled areas. Emigration of Christians is explained by Christian groups who are both antisemitic and scared to antagonize their Muslim antagonists:

According to NGOs, community members, and media commentators, factors contributing to Christian emigration included political instability, the inability to obtain residency permits for spouses due to the Law of Citizenship and Entry, limited ability of Christian communities in the Jerusalem area to expand due to building restrictions, difficulties Christian clergy experienced in obtaining Israeli visas and residency permits, loss of confidence in the peace process, and economic hardships created by the establishment of the barrier and the imposition of travel restrictions. The Israeli government previously stated such difficulties stemmed from the “complex political and security reality” and not from any restrictions on the Christian community.

This Christian site, writing in 2022, mentions many of the same factors - but then adds this:

The main factor driving Christian emigration is persecution. In the survey conducted by the Philos Project and the PCPSR, over 40% of Palestinian Christians surveyed indicated that they feel that Muslims do not wish to see them in Palestine. Additionally, 44% feel that there is discrimination against Christians when seeking employment, and 50% describe their economic situation as “bad or very bad.” Nearly 30% have been called a “non-believer” or “crusader” by Muslims.

Palestinian Christians are no strangers to violence. Father Justinus, a monk at Jacob’s Well Monastery on the outskirts of Nablus, a Palestinian city in the West Bank, was beaten in January 2022. The elderly monk has survived 32 life-threatening attacks throughout his time at the monastery.

Even though the report details dozens of specific attacks, the attack on Father Justinius was not mentioned. Neither were those surveys and the fact of Muslim persecution of Christians. They had their narrative and didn't want to look beyond what the anti-Israel NGOs said.

Other parts of the report are just strange. It says, "On April 14, Israeli police arrested six Jewish activists who were planning to sacrifice a goat on the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount ahead of Passover." In the context of this report, they are making it sound like they were violating the religious rights of the Jews - and in a sense, they did - but the report doesn't mention the reason for the arrests, to avoid a huge escalation in tensions on the holy spot is not mentioned.

The sheer size of the report, and its overwhelming emphasis on Israeli violations compared to the PA and Hamas, gives the false impression that there is little religious freedom under Israeli rule compared to other countries. Considering how detailed the report is, it seems unlikely that the omissions were accidental.

(h/t Irene)

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!

05/18 Links Pt2: Israel at 75 Is Threatened but Strong; Joy on Jerusalem Day as tens of thousands march in capital; BBC's 'disinformation' reporter should look at the way they cover Israel

From Ian:

Walter Russell Mead: Israel at 75 Is Threatened but Strong

For the first 25 years of Israel's independence, American presidents were more interested in cultivating Arab leaders than in aligning with Jerusalem. Only after Richard Nixon concluded that an Israeli defeat in the 1973 Yom Kippur War would empower the Soviet Union across the Middle East did Washington move toward a strategic relationship. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Washington saw Jerusalem as a necessary partner in containing Iran and, after 9/11, the war on terror.

American policy toward Israel depends on how a given U.S. president sees American interests world-wide. For the past half-century, American presidents generally believed that the Middle East, thanks to its oil reserves, was a high priority in America's strategy of global engagement and that a close relationship with Israel on balance strengthened America's position in the region and beyond.

The likelihood of a wholesale American withdrawal from the Middle East is likely overestimated. The energy transition will probably take longer and be less total than greens hope. And global geopolitical competition is more likely to buttress American support for limiting Chinese influence in the Middle East. In any case, Israel today is orders of magnitude stronger, wealthier and more influential than it was in 1948.

We Will Not Forget the Importance of Jerusalem

There is much misunderstanding about the centrality of Jerusalem to Judaism. At Jewish weddings, the common practice is for the groom to state: "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill. May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy" (Psalms 137).

Many years ago I interviewed MK Yossi Beilin, an architect of the Oslo Accords with the Palestinians who later became chairman of the Meretz party, on Jerusalem Day. He told me, "Jerusalem is historically the center of the Jewish world. There is no denying that. Promoting a peace accord with the Palestinians...does not contradict that."

In the aftermath of the Six-Day War, there was a surge in Jewish identity and in the feeling that Israel was the place to be. It didn't mean you were an extremist. It meant that you knew you were witnessing a modern-day miracle. You knew that your ancestors could only pray in the direction of Jerusalem and could only put up a picture of the Western Wall on their living room wall to remind them that Jerusalem was in that direction. You, on the other hand, could now put your hands on the stones of the Western Wall. This is Jerusalem Day.

There is now a Morocco-Israel friendship group within the Moroccan House of Representatives, although no official announcement about it has been made.

According to the Parliament’s website, the Morocco-Israel friendship group within the House of Representatives is chaired by Nor-Ddin Elhrouchi of the Democratic and Social constitutional group.

The other members are Nadia Touhami of the Progress and Socialism group, Abdelmajid Ben Kamra of the Haraki group of the Popular Movement, Tarik Kadiri of the Istiqlalien group of unity and egalitarianism of the Istiqlal Party, Abdellatif Zaim of the authenticity and modernity group of the PAM, El Mehdi El Alaoui of the socialist-opposition group ittihadi of the USFP, as well as two deputies who do not belong to any group, in this case Raouf Abdellaoui Maan Chafika Lachraf.

Notably, some of these groups in 2013 proposed bills penalizing any attempt at normalization with Israel, with prison sentences and fines against offenders.

Things can change quickly in the Middle East - even hate for Israel.

There are no members from the opposition Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD) nor from the National Rally of Independents, which is a major bloc.

The Hamas Palestinian Legislative Council denounced the move.

The Moroccan Parliament maintains about a hundreds similar friendship groups to most of the countries they have relations with.

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Raspberries Pointedly Omitted From Biblical List Of Fruits Gracing Promised Land (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

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Plains of Moab, May 18 - In deciding which types of produce to invoke in praising the Land of Canaan before the imminent entry of the Israelites, Moses specifically decided not to mention members of the Rubus Idaeobatus subgenus, which he characterized as repulsive, the prophet acknowledged today.

Part of Moses's farewell address to the people, contained in the developing book of Deuteronomy, touted the land promised to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as "A land of wheat, barley, grapevines, fig trees, and pomegranate trees; a land of the oil-olive tree and of honey," the last term of which referred not to the product of the beehive, but of dates. Pointedly, however, Moses refused to mention raspberries, a fruit he finds unremarkable at best, and nauseating at worst.

"Verily, I left out that abomination," he confirmed in an interview following today's portion of the address. "The accursed raspberry may well grow in the land the Lord vowed to grant to the offspring of the Fathers. As doth the mosquito, but we sing not the praises of that foul beast, for similar reasons."

The Man of God admitted that he had requested of the Almighty approval for a passage, however short, denouncing the execrable raspberry in terms analogous to those barring incest, usury, theft, and judicial corruption, among other offenses. "He turned me down," recalled the greatest prophet. "Not the first time. I beseeched him five hundred fifteen times to be allowed into the land after the incident with the rock and the hitting, to no avail. Have to get used to rejection after almost a hundred twenty years."

"I am not overly sour," he continued, "unlike the foul raspberry, which maketh one recoil from its acridity even as it cloyeth the teeth with its repulsive stickiness. Cleave unto the Lord, but not with this monstrosity's adhesive properties. The Lord created all manner of flora and fauna with purposes other than human consumption, such as the coelacanth and the raspberry. Cursed is the man who treateth the raspberry as food."

The people were no longer present to declare, "Amen," having retired to their tents for the evening.

Moses noted that although the Lord has barred him from explicit invocation of his distaste for raspberries, the Almighty has not, technically, prohibited His prophet from conveying to his successor Joshua, under the Deuteronomical table, an admonition to wipe out all raspberries from the land once the people begin its conquest, not leaving a single bush alive.

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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

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05/18 Links Pt1: Deborah Lipstadt slams Mahmoud Abbas: 'An affront to Holocaust victims'; Israel to complain to CNN about claim that Dee family killed in ‘shootout’

From Ian:

'An affront to Holocaust victims': Deborah Lipstadt slams Mahmoud Abbas

Deborah Lipstadt, the State Department’s top envoy combating antisemitism, condemned Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas for comparing Israel to Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda chief.

“PA President Abbas’s equating Israel with the lies of top Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels is an affront to Holocaust victims and survivors,” Lipstadt wrote Wednesday on Twitter. “Especially during a time of rising antisemitic violence throughout the world, such rhetoric about the world’s only Jewish state is entirely unacceptable.”

Abbas spoke Monday at a United Nations event commemorating the 75th anniversary of what Palestinians call the “Nakba,” the word meaning “catastrophe” that denotes the displacement of Palestinians during and after Israel’s establishment. It was the first-ever event at the UN General Assembly commemorating the Nakba.

“Israeli and Zionist claims continue by saying that Israel made the desert bloom. As if Palestine was a desert and they made the desert bloom,” Abbas told the event in New York. “These are lies. They continue to lie, like Goebbels, and they continue to lie until people believe their lies.”

Abbas also said at the event that the United Nations should suspend Israel’s membership at the body until it allows the establishment of a Palestinian state and recognizes a Palestinian right of return.

JPost Editorial: Abbas' Hate Speech at the UN Shows He Is Not Interested in Peace with Israel

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' speech on Monday at the UN commemorating the "catastrophe" of Israel's creation was a text full of hate and lies. There is no proof of Jewish ties to the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem, Abbas claimed, referring to the ancient Temple Mount, where overwhelming archaeological and textual evidence proves that the First and Second Jewish Temples once stood there. He accused the U.S. and UK of being responsible for the displacement of Palestinians during the 1948 War of Independence for "their own colonial goals and objectives."

Abbas also repeated his claim that the Palestinians were descendants of the biblical Canaanites, who lived centuries before the birth of Islam. But they certainly didn't make Jerusalem their capital. Only the Jews have ever made Jerusalem their capital.

"The biggest lie is the claim that Israel is the only democratic state in the Middle East," said Abbas, who has just completed the 18th year of his four-year term. Abbas' reiteration of old lies and libels against Israel and the Jewish people is proof that the head of the PA is simply not interested in peace with Israel.

Jonathan Tobin: Joe Biden’s empty words about antisemitism

Just as important is the fact that far from setting an example of opposing the tropes of left-wing antisemitism, the Biden administration is itself a main supporter of its ideology and core beliefs.

The main source of the left’s delegitimization of Jews is the woke catechism of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), as well as critical race theory (CRT) studies. DEI is a toxic force in contemporary America because by substituting the notion of equity—or equal outcomes—for equality, it maintains that equality and equal opportunity is not just attainable but also undesirable. In this way, race is seen as always trumping merit, something that works to destroy the primary method by which Jews gained acceptance in American society.

Along with the CRT belief that everyone must be primarily classified by race and ethnic group, rather than individuals, that sets up a permanent war of those who are labeled as the oppressed, and those who are designated as oppressors and beneficiaries of “white privilege.” And among those who fall into the latter categories are Jews and the State of Israel. In that way, DEI and CRT act not merely to embitter relations between the races but also grant a permission slip for antisemitism.

An administration that was serious about opposing all forms of antisemitism would have nothing to do with the likes of Omar and fellow “Squad” member Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.). Instead, they have become welcome guests at the White House and were even singled out recently for compliments by Biden.

It would also oppose efforts to impose DEI on the country. Again, Biden has taken up the cause of the woke catechism and made its promotion one of his chief priorities, forcing every government agency and department to submit its own DEI plan. That will substitute racial quotas for merit, something that always bodes ill for Jews.

It also lends legitimacy to those very forces that are pushing the hardest for BDS discrimination against Israel and its Jewish supporters. Indeed, underneath the push for official recognition of Jewish heritage is a desire to get in on the same intersectional victim racket that left-wing antisemites promote.

The sort of lip service given to the threat of antisemitism at the White House party is to be welcomed. But honoring Jewish heritage means nothing if, at the same time, the Biden administration is enabling and empowering the same forces that are seeking to legitimize left-wing antisemitism.

Christiane Amanpour yesterday accepted the Columbia Journalism Award and spoke there as a commencement speaker.

“Be truthful, but not neutral,” Amanpour urged. “Bothsidesism is not always objectivity. It does not get you to the truth. Drawing false moral or factual equivalence is neither objective or truthful. Objectivity is our golden rule and it is in weighing all the sides and hearing all the evidence, but not rushing to equate them when there is no equating.”

“I refuse any more to say or to concede that we live in a post-truth world because that is lazy and it is ultimately a self-fulfilling prophecy,” Amanpour said. “We need to seek to provide and defend the truth.”

And who decides what the truth is? Why, it is Christiane Amanpour, of course!

The same person who said that Lucy Dee and her daughters Maia and Rina were "killed in a shootout" instead of accurately saying they were murdered at point blank range.

The same person who compared the presidency of Donald Trump to Kristallnacht.

The same person who lied about polling of Palestinians, claiming that "recent polls" say that they want a two state solution when every poll says the opposite.

The same person who made an equivalency between Israeli actions and Syria's mass murder of its own citizens.

The same person who falsely claimed the Oslo Accords and Geneva Conventions mandated that Israel provide vaccines to Palestinians - when they say that the Palestinians are the ones responsible.

Are we really supposed to trust Christiane Amanpour's perception of what the truth is when she has such a rich track record of lying and bias?

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!

Earlier this week, Palestinian media published calls to have Jerusalem Arabs enter the Temple Mount early this morning for the explicit purpose of attacking any Jews that want to visit the holy spot on Jerusalem Day. They also urged Jerusalem Arabs to confront and disrupt the Jerusalem Day flag march, especially t Damascus Gate and in the Muslim Quarter.

Because of those reports, the Israeli police ensured that Muslims under 40 could not enter the Temple Mount this morning, and they removed the Muslims from the Qibli prayer hall of Al Aqsa after dawn prayers, knowing that they are likely to do what they did during Ramadan - stockpile stones and fireworks to start a battle. They also closed the shops along the route to minimize any chance of friction.

So now the Muslims are complaining about Israeli restrictions - and using them as incitement.

I don't know if there will be any violence, but when there is, the media starts the story with Israeli restrictions - and not with Palestinian threats that prompt those restrictions.

Did you see a single article about the Palestinian plans to disrupt both any visits to the Temple Mount and the Jerusalem march?

Because the media hardly ever reports the entire story, the Palestinians can claim that their anger is justified by unreasonable Israeli restrictions, and conveniently not mention the explicit incitement and historic violence that prompt those restrictions. Israeli security has to monitor the threats and it has to plan accordingly, but the media doesn't scratch beyond the surface.

Instead of portraying the Israeli security forces as doing everything possible to minimize the chances of violence while ensuring the rights of all to peacefully assemble, they are shown as going way overboard to suppress Palestinians in Jerusalem.

Palestinians take advantage of this. Fatah pre-emptively announced, as they always do, that they hold Israel responsible for any violence - a message to the media to stick with the narrative that Israel is the only party with any responsibility.

And because the media (and NGOs) don't show the entire story, the world thinks that Israel imposes restrictions arbitrarily and out of sheer spite. This in turn encourages Palestinians to more violence knowing that they will never be blamed.

It is a pattern we have seen for years.

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!

Holocaust denial in a Jordanian newspaper (bonus: a famous pre-Holocaust essay)

Al Majd is a Jordanian opposition online news site which espouses a Nasserist philosophy.

On Wednesday it published a Holocaust denial article.

Former PLO official Ghazi Hussein first claims that Zionist Jews were happy with Hitler's rise to power, One of his "proofs" is a claim that Robert Weltsch, who was the editor of Germany's Jüdische Rundschau, said nice things about Hitler in an April 1933 editorial.

The truth is quite the opposite, as we will see below. Hussein twists Weltsch's words that even the most assimilated Jews who turned their backs on everything Jewish in an attempt to avoid antisemitism are still persecuted, so being ashamed of their Jewishness holds no advantage over pride.

Hussein then goes on to claim that the Wannsee Conference, where the Final Solution of the genocide of European Jewry was decided, was really only about deporting Jews to Palestine and elsewhere, and not about killing them:

He then says that Jews have been the ones behind real genocides, like when Joshua Bin Nun exterminated the "Arab Palestinian people."

Finally, he claims that the Mufti begged Hitler to stop sending Jews to Palestine but Hitler refused and kept sending them, because he opposed the Mufti and didn't want to upset Britain and the Zionists.

I don't know what drugs Ghazi Hussein is on, but they are pretty potent.

Jordan is the source of the most virulent antisemitism in the world today. Algeria and Egypt are close behind, but the reach of the Jordanian media that spreads these lies is orders of magnitude higher than that of the far-Right in the Western world.

In the Arab world, there is no visible pushback or controversy when the most disgusting lies about Jews are published in the media. Google News does not publish any caveats when it indexes articles like these. It is just the way things are and the daily hate is swept under the rug and brushed off as valid anti-Zionist opinion.

Because this article smeared Robert Weltsch, I thought it would be appropriate to reproduce Weltsch's editorial in the wake of the first Nazi boycott of Jewish stores on April 1, 1933. This is one of his most famous essays.

Wear it with pride, the Yellow badge!

The first of April, 1933, will remain an important date in the history of German Jewry – indeed, in the history of the entire Jewish people. The events of that day have aspects that are not only political and economic, but moral and spiritual as well. The political and economic implications have been widely discussed in the press, though of course the need for agitation has frequently obscured objective understanding. To speak of the moral aspect, that is our task. For however much the Jewish question is now debated, nobody except ourselves can express what is to be said on these events from the Jewish point of view, what is happening in the soul of the German Jew. Today the Jews cannot speak except as Jews. Anything else is utterly senseless... Gone is the fatal misapprehension of many Jews that Jewish interests can be pressed under some other cover. On April 1 the German Jews learned a lesson which penetrates far more deeply than even their embittered and now triumphant opponents could assume….

We live in a new period, the national revolution of the German people is a signal that is visible from afar, indicating that the world of our previous concepts has collapsed. That may be painful for many, but in this world only those will be able to survive who are able to look reality in the eye. We stand in the midst of tremendous changes in intellectual, political, social and economic life. It is for us to see how the Jews will react.

April 1, 1933, can become the day of Jewish awakening and Jewish rebirth.

If the Jews will it. If the Jews are mature and have greatness in them. If the Jews are not as they are represented to be by their opponents. The Jews, under attack, must learn to acknowledge themselves. Even in these days of most profound disturbance, when the stormiest of emotions have visited our hearts in face of the unprecedented display of the universal slander of the entire Jewish population of a great and cultural country, we must first of all maintain composure. Even if we stand shattered by the events of these days we must not lose heart and must examine the situation without any attempt to deceive ourselves. One would like to recommend in these days that the document that stood at the cradle of Zionism, Theodor Herzl's "Jewish State," be distributed in hundreds of thousands of copies among Jews and non-Jews….

They accuse us today of treason against the German people: The National-Socialist Press calls us the "enemy of the Nation," and leaves us defenseless.

It is not true that the Jews betrayed Germany. If they betrayed anyone, it was themselves, the Jews. Because the Jew did not display his Judaism with pride, because he tried to avoid the Jewish issue, he must bear part of the blame for the degradation of the Jews.

Despite all the bitterness that we must feel in full measure when we read the National Socialist boycott proclamations and unjust accusations, there is one point for which we may be grateful to the boycott Committee. Para. 3 of the directives reads: "The reference is...of course to businesses owned by members of the Jewish race. Religion plays no part here. Businessmen who were baptized Catholic or Protestant, or Jews who left their Community remain Jews for the purpose of this Order." This is a [painful] reminder for all those who betrayed their Judaism. Those who steal away from the Community in order to benefit their personal position should not collect the wages of their betrayal. In taking up this position against the renegades there is the beginning of a clarification. The Jew who denies his Judaism is no better a citizen than his fellow who avows it openly. It is shameful to be a renegade, but as long as the world around us rewarded it, it appeared an advantage. Now even that is no longer an advantage. The Jew is marked as a Jew. He gets the yellow badge.

A powerful symbol is to be found in the fact that the boycott leadership gave orders that a sign "with a yellow badge on a black background" was to be pasted on the boycotted shops. This regulation is intended as a brand, a sign of contempt. We will take it up and make of it a badge of honor.

Many Jews suffered a crushing experience on Saturday. Suddenly they were revealed as Jews, not as a matter of inner avowal, not in loyalty to their own community, not in pride in a great past and great achievements, but by the impress of a red placard with a yellow patch. The patrols moved from house to house, stuck their placards on shops and signboards, daubed the windows, and for 24 hours the German Jews were exhibited in the stocks, so to speak. In addition to other signs and inscriptions one often saw windows bearing a large Magen David, the Shield of David the King. It was intended as dishonor. Jews, take it up, the Shield of David, and wear it with pride …!