Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, May 22, 2023

05/22 Links Pt1: The Real Threat to Al-Aqsa Mosque is From Muslims, Not Jews; Do the Europeans know or care where their aid to the PA goes?; Iran infiltrated the Arab League

From Ian:

Bassam Tawil: The Real Threat to Al-Aqsa Mosque is From Muslims, Not Jews

If anyone has been desecrating al-Aqsa Mosque, it is Muslims who have been rioting and using rocks and fireworks to attack police officers and Jewish visitors. Muslim rioters -- not peaceful Jewish visitors -- are the real threat to the sanctity of the mosque.

Israeli authorities have clarified that the route of the "flag parade" absolutely does not include entry into any mosque.

Assurances by the Israeli authorities, however, have not stopped Palestinians and other Muslims from spreading fake news and libels against Jews.

Iran's terror proxies Hezbollah, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad have also used the celebrations in Jerusalem to spread the libel that Jews are planning to "desecrate" al-Aqsa Mosque.

As far as Hamas and other Palestinians are concerned, the very presence of Jews at their holy site and in Israel is supposedly a "provocation."

Hamas and several terror groups in the Gaza Strip, including Palestinian Islamic Jihad, also repeated the lie that "al-Aqsa Mosque is in danger."

When the terror groups talk about "resistance," they are referring to the need for terrorism against Israel, including firing rockets from the Gaza Strip, and attacks by stabbing, shooting and car-ramming.

"The people of Palestine have no historical rights to Palestine. They have no right that dates back 2,000, 3,000, or 4,000 years. The right of the Canaanites to Palestine is equal to the pharaohs' right to Egypt. Is it conceivable that any Muslim in Egypt would say: 'I am Pharaonic and proud of it?' Well, it is the same if a Muslim in Palestine said, 'I am a Canaanite and proud of it.' To hell with your Canaanite identity and to his Pharaonic identity. People, our history is simple and it is not ancient. It must not be said that the Palestinians have Canaanite roots. Our history dates back only 1,440 years.... The only thing you are allowed to say is: Oh Palestinians, you are Muslims." — Issam Amira, Palestinian Islamic scholar, al-Aqsa Mosque, April14, 2023

The Honest Truth about Hazards to Holy Sites

All too often, critics have charged the Jewish state with limiting Palestinians’ freedom of worship, specifically at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque. However, an honest examination of the facts and relevant international law reveals that the Palestinians are guilty of the very thing they accuse Israel of.

In this piece, we will examine some of the restrictions and threats facing Jewish worship at holy sites and archeological digs in Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Temple Mount (Jerusalem)
The Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City is Judaism’s holiest site — a fact that is beyond dispute. According to oral tradition, as well as mystical sources, the Mount contains the Foundation Stone from where God created the world. The Midrash and Jerusalem Talmud furthermore state that Adam, the first man, was formed from the dust of the plateau. Then Cain, Abel and Noah brought offerings on the same mountain. In Genesis 22, the Jewish patriarch Abraham is commanded to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice on Mount Moriah, identified as another name for the site.

Later, King David purchased the threshing floor from Araunah the Jebusite (II Samuel 24:24, I Chronicles 21:22-30) in order to construct an altar. His son Solomon established the First Temple, the focal point of Jewish worship, around 950 BCE, with the Holy of Holies and its Ark of the Covenant placed on the Foundation Stone. Although the Temple is now in ruins, the religious status of Judaism’s holiest place never changed. The Jewish sage Maimonides (1138-1204), in his magnum opus Mishneh Torah, concludes that “a person must hold [the site] in awe, as one would regard it when it [the Temple] was standing.”

Nowadays, Jewish tours of the Temple Mount are subject to many constraints. The current state of affairs governing the compound goes back to 1967, when Israel captured eastern Jerusalem from Jordan. Days after the war, defense minister Moshe Dayan met with Islamic leaders in the city. Under informal agreements that are enforced to this day, non-Muslims are only allowed to visit the Temple Mount during certain hours of the day, walk along a narrow police-enforced path, and may not pray there. Furthermore, due to incessant Palestinian violence, Israel is often forced to close the Temple Mount for Jews during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

PMW: Do the Europeans know or care where their aid to the PA goes?

According to a recent European Union report, “Since 2008, the European Union, Norway, and Switzerland have provided over 14 billion dollars in official development assistance to the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinians.”

As part of the continued aid, the EU recently finalized a new 296 million euro aid package for the PA and the Palestinians for 2023. In the press release following the ceremony announcing the newest EU aid package to the PA, the EU noted:
“To that end 114.2 million EUR will support the Palestinian Authority in the payments of the salaries and pensions of civil servants, the social allowances to vulnerable families and the referrals to the East Jerusalem Hospitals.”

[Website of the Office of the European Union Representative
(West Bank and Gaza Strip, UNRWA), Feb. 2, 2023]

Since a considerable amount of the EU aid to the PA is spent on paying the “salaries and pensions” of the PA civil servants and on the backdrop of the PA teachers strike that has continued on since February 5th, Palestinian Media Watch decided to zoom in on the subject of the PA salaries to its civil servants since 2016.

The results of the examination shows a huge difference between the sum the PA reports to the world that it paid its civil servants and the sum PMW calculated to be the actual PA expenditure based on the PA’s own published labor reports.

PMW’s findings indicate, that in most years, there is a substantial difference between the PA reports - some years over a billion shekels – a sum which is even greater than the aid the PA received from the EU in that year.

For example, in 2022, according to the PA’s budget performance reports, the PA claimed to have paid its civil servants a cumulative sum of 8,114,105,436 shekels. However, according to the PA’s labor reports, the actual sum the PA paid to its civil servants was closer to 6,881,372,495 shekels, leaving a difference of 1,232,732,941 shekels or €302,374,788.

Since the EU is providing substantial aid to the PA, and wants to know exactly where every euro is spent, the question that the EU accountants/economists should be asking themselves is where is that aid money really going?

NGO Monitor: NGO Monitor Letter to the European Parliament's Subcommittee on Human Rights (DROI) Regarding an Event with Al Mezan and Save the Children

Dear Members of the European Parliament’s Subcommittee on Human Rights (DROI),

We write to you to express our concern over DROI’s scheduled May 22 “Exchange of views on the situation of children in Gaza,” featuring Save the Children’s local country director Jason Lee and Al-Mezan Director-General Issam Younis. Based on detailed evidence, committee members should be alarmed by the obvious false claims, omissions and distortions that will likely characterize the presentations. Al-Mezan: Cooperation with Terrorist Organizations

Al-Mezan has collaborated and given platform to EU-designated terrorist organizations, including Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). It also is a leader in the campaign for the indictment of Israelis by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

On March 18, 2023, Nafez al-Madhoun – an Al-Mezan board member participated in “Jurists Confronting the Occupier,” a legal event organized by the Hamas-affiliated International Center for Law Studies. Speakers included Hamas political bureau members Mahmoud Al-Zahar and Musa Abu Marzouq, as well as Hamas Palestinian Legislative Council member Mohammed Faraj Al-Ghoul.

Madhoun served as Director General of the Hamas-controlled Palestinian Legislative Council, from at least 2010 through at least June 2022.
Nafez al-Madhoun (2nd from left) participating in an October 2010 Hamas workshop alongside Hamas spokesperson Taher al-Nunu (far right), Hamas co-founder Mahmoud al-Zahar (2nd from right), and senior Hamas official Mohammad al-Ghoul (center)

Revealing his rejection of Israel’s legitimacy, in an October 2010 workshop, al-Madhoun demanded to “take steps to start discussing what is the legality of this entity [Israel]…pointing to the illegality of the Israeli entity, even in respect to decisions by the UN…This entity, by its nature, is temporary…It does not have a territory nor sovereignty, and its existence is contrary to international law decisions…It is forbidden that anyone forgive even an inch of Palestine to the occupation…”

Similarly, on April 9, 2015 Al-Mezan, hosted a conference in Gaza about the opportunities for prosecuting Israelis presented by Palestinian ascendancy to the ICC. The event featured Hamas, PIJ, and PFLP representatives. Younis addressed the participants.

According to Al-Mezan, the conference dedicated a panel to “The Vision of the Palestinian Factions,” featuring Hamas’ Khalil Al-Hayya, Islamic Jihad’s Khaled Al-Batsh, and the PFLP’s Saleh Nasser. Al-Mezan’s description of the session included these organizational affiliations.

By Daled Amos

Why haven't CNN and Christiane Amanpour apologized for their obvious misstatement of fact from May 11?

A mother and her 2 daughters were gunned down by Palestinian terrorists on April 7. Even granted the squeamishness of the media when it comes to calling out Palestinian terrorism by name, Amanpour's report was outright shocking when she referred to the attack on unarmed women as a "shootout" --

pic.twitter.com/PQUPTfHx5R
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) May 11, 2023

This takes blaming both sides to a whole new level.

And it is even more cringe-worthy considering the pat on the back that Amanpour gave herself in 2016:

I learned that as a journalist I could not be morally equivalent and nor could I present false factual equivalence. I insist on being truthful, not neutral.

Truthful, not neutral. pic.twitter.com/gJgNwFyvWf
— Christiane Amanpour (@amanpour) October 13, 2016

The odd thing is that despite this boast, Amanpour did in fact publicly apologize for her bias in November 2020, after she used a reference to the Holocaust to attack Donald Trump. She started off with a reference to the anniversary of Kristallnacht:

It was the Nazis’ warning shot across the bow of our human civilization that led to genocide against a whole identity and, in that tower of burning books, it led to an attack on fact, knowledge, history and proof.

After four years of a modern-day assault on those same values by Donald Trump, the Biden-Harris team pledges a return to norms, including the truth.

But, in this case, the reaction against Amanpour's outrageous comparison led to a public retraction:

We can only hope that the pressure applied again by these organizations and by the Israeli government will again produce an apology by Amanpour.

Why is it taking so long, especially considering the obvious inaccuracy in calling the murder of unarmed women a shootout?

One reason might be that CNN themselves compounded the error and face the possibility of having to retract a second biased report on the cable network.

On April 10, CNN correspondent Frederik Pleitgen described the attack during Isa Soares Tonight in an even more convoluted way :

But earlier in the West Bank, there was a shooting incident where a car received a bullet shot, or gunshots, with the family in it. It was a mother and her two daughters, and the two daughters were killed in that crash. [emphasis added]

Journalism at CNN has deteriorated so badly that beyond blaming guns instead of the terrorists who fire them, now the bullets are blamed. Or perhaps the car that "received" the bullets is at fault? Then the death of the mother and her 2 daughters is blamed on the crash, despite the fact that the terrorists fired into the car after the crash in order to make sure their victims were dead. And of course, there is no mention of Palestinian terrorists.

Still, this would be a good opportunity for CNN to follow through on their declared goal to be less partisan, as reported in June of last year:

CNN's new boss, Chris Licht, is evaluating whether personalities and programming that grew polarizing during the Trump era can adapt to the network's new priority to be less partisan...

Details: Licht wants to give personalities that may appear polarizing a chance to prove they're willing to uphold the network's values so that they don't tarnish CNN's journalism brand.

Of course, Licht has in mind drawing Republicans back to the network. He is not overly concerned with how Israel views CNN. But if the pressure on CNN to fix an undeniable error can be maintained, CNN may see it to its advantage to have Amanpour apologize.

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!

Jewish Voice for Peace writes on their Facebook page:

“The Zionist argument to justify Israel’s present occupation of Palestine has no intelligent or legal basis in history.” - Malcom X [sic]
This weekend, we are happy to celebrate prolific civil rights leader and Anti-Zionist, Malcom X [sic], on what would have been his 98th birthday. His last visit to Palestine in 1964 further highlighted the parallels between the plights of Black Americans and Palestinians, inspiring him to write an impassioned letter to the Egyptian Gazette entitled On Zionist Logic. In it, he declared his staunch support for the Palestinian struggle, equating Zionism with colonialism and urging African leaders to rally in support of Palestinians’ quest for freedom.

The Malcolm X article On Zionist Logic, from September 1964, is a clear example of classic antisemitism.

Its first two sentences prove it:

The Zionist armies that now occupy Palestine claim their ancient Jewish prophets predicted that in the "last days of this world" their own God would raise them up a "messiah" who would lead them to their promised land, and they would set up their own "divine" government in this newly-gained land, this "divine" government would enable them to "rule all other nations with a rod of iron."

If the Israeli Zionists believe their present occupation of Arab Palestine is the fulfillment of predictions made by their Jewish prophets, then they also religiously believe that Israel must fulfill its "divine" mission to rule all other nations with a rod of irons, which only means a different form of iron-like rule, more firmly entrenched even, than that of the former European Colonial Powers.

First of all, Zionists never claimed that the messianic age had begun or that their government was divine. That is an insane interpretation of Zionism that has nothing to do with reality.

But the other astounding thing about this section is that there is no verse in Hebrew Scripture that remotely claims that the Jews will "rule all other nations with a rod of iron." Malcolm X made that up. He created that quote to claim that the Jews are planning to make everyone in the world their slaves. Yet that fake quote is the key to his criticism! He even ends off the essay with "Where is their Messiah?" as he demolishes his own straw man.

If that isn't antisemitic enough, there's more.

On Zionist Logic creates a number of full-blown antisemitic conspiracy theories, claiming that Israel's offers of economic aid and technical assistance to African nations is simply a new form of imperialism and colonialism of Africa that he calls "dollarism." He further inverts history by saying that Israeli aggression forces Arab nations to spend their money on weapons instead of helping their own people, so Israel can claim that they are backwards nations and offer itself up as a model to Africa.

The number one weapon of 20th century imperialism is zionist dollarism, and one of the main bases for this weapon is Zionist Israel. The ever-scheming European imperialists wisely placed Israel where she could geographically divide the Arab world, infiltrate and sow the seed of dissension among African leaders and also divide the Africans against the Asians.

This is a warmed over version of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion:

We will surround our government by a whole host of economists. That is the reason why science of economy is the principal subject taught to the Jews. We will be surrounded by thousands of bankers, traders, and, what is still more important, by millionaires, because in reality everything will be decided by money.

We set at variance with one another all personal and national interests of the Gentiles, by promulgating religious and tribal prejudices among them, for nearly twenty centuries.

... This policy will also help us to sow dissensions amongst all parties, to dissolve all collective powers, and to discourage all individual initiative, which might in any way hinder our schemes.

According to this paper, Malcolm X was very familiar with the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and was in fact the one who introduced them into the Nation of Islam in the 1950s where it remains an important source of their Jew-hatred.

The underlying theme for these theories is that Zionists/Jews have unlimited funds to implement these plans of dividing and destroying the world, even though Israel in 1964 was not exactly an economic juggernaut.

Malcolm X was lying about the Torah, lying about Zionism, and spinning antisemitic conspiracy theories that come straight out of early 20th century Russia.

Jewish Voice for Peace, by endorsing this article, proves beyond a doubt that it is actively antisemitic.

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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

The Lebanese remain insane about anything remotely Zionist

A funny thing happened in Lebanon.

A large Star of David - with a dove of peace! -was seen in the port in Tyre.

Someone saw it and went insane, ripping it all apart.

But it turns out it was a prop for an anti-Israel event for Lebanon's "Resistance and Liberation Day" held every May 25. Probably Hezbollah or another group planned to use that Star of David as a centerpiece in a huge explosion or something that would symbolize the destruction of Israel and would make Lebanese cheer.

And one guy ruined all the fun!

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 Egyptian handball coach named "Hitler"

Here's an interesting sports story out of Egypt.

The Zamalek handball team won the African Cub, defeating the Al Ahly team. The coach says that he used psychology to defeat the other team, praising how wonderful they were before the match and that his team has many problems.

The coach is now bragging that he tricked them like "the Jews" do all the time.

What is the coach's name?

Ahmed Ramadan Hitler.

His brother, who plays professional handball as well, is Muhammad Ramadan Hitler. Their father was a professor, Ramadan Muhammad Hitler.

Cairo Scene noted in 2014:

In everyday life, the name of the former dictator [Hitler] is adorned everywhere, from store signs to street corners, antisemitism is found on TV channels, in cafes and in even among supposedly educated, liberal Egyptian homes. It doesn't take long on the streets of Cairo to before you find a copy of Mein Kampf - Adolf Hitler's book outlining his ideological framework, which lead to the the slaughter of six million Jews during the second world war.

The vile text is rarely seen in public in other parts of the world. However, Egyptian booksellers, including the Zamalek branch of a well-known bookstore, believe that the text is so popular among Egyptians that it must be kept on prominent display.

The article notes the links between the Muslim Brotherhood and Nazi Germany, and shows how that admiration remains.

Hamas and Al Qaeda have their roots in the Muslim Brotherhood.

Egyptians aren't the only Arabs to have chosen to adopt the name of Nazi leaders. A Palestinian terrorist who went on a hunger strike in 2021 is named Ghadanfar Eichmann Abu Atwan, and his father is Eichmann Abu Atwan.

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

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!

05/21 Links: The ‘Nakba’ narrative is nonsense; Netanyahu calls out Abbas lies about Jewish history in Jerusalem; The whitewashing of Mahmoud Abbas

From Ian:

The ‘Nakba’ narrative is nonsense

In the years since Israel’s rebirth in 1948 a narrative has taken root, a story of well-armed and financed Jewish immigrants overrunning peaceful Palestinian villages, brutally expelling Palestinians from home and country. This narrative is summed up in the Arabic word “nakba,” or catastrophe.

In contrast, Israelis view their War of Independence as a battle of the few against the many, a battle forced on a beleaguered Jewish community by Palestinian militias and five invading Arab armies.

If, as is believed almost uniformly throughout the Arab world, Israel was born in original sin, if the Jews really did ransack placid Palestinian villages, murdering children in front of parents and parents in front of children and expelling whoever was left, then Palestinian hatred for Israel and Jews would be understandable, as would their fundamental refusal to really make peace with Israel.

Though this Palestinian narrative is credulously accepted by many Europeans and an increasing number of “progressive” Americans, it is nonetheless false, and contradicts basic historical facts. Israel was not born in sin—with a few justified exceptions there were no expulsions (for one of the justified expulsions, Lydda and Ramle, see here), nor was there any policy of harming innocents. On the contrary.

Thus, even as early as 1937, Israel’s founding father, David Ben-Gurion, wrote in a letter to his son Amos: “We do not wish and do not need to expel Arabs and take their places. All our aspiration is built on the assumption—proven throughout all our activity … that there is enough room in the country for ourselves and the Arabs.”

Ten years later, despite much violence and conflict, Ben-Gurion’s core beliefs about living in peace with the Arabs had not wavered. In a speech on Dec. 13, 1947, he said: “In our state there will be non-Jews as well—and all of them will be equal citizens; equal in everything without exception … The attitude of the Jewish state to its Arab citizens will be an important factor—though not the only one—in building good neighborly relations with the Arab states.”

Despite the Jewish community’s attempts to live peacefully with their neighbors, the primary leader of the Palestinians, the grand mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, chose to make common cause with the Nazis, declaring through his spokesman that the Arabs’ goal was “the elimination of the Jewish state.”

Netanyahu calls out Abbas lies about Jewish history in Jerusalem

The Jewish people have been in Jerusalem for thousands of years and will remain for thousands more, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday, responding to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s recent claim that Israel is lying about its historic ties to the city.

“Abbas said days ago at the UN that the Jewish people has no connection to the Temple Mount and that east Jerusalem is part of the Palestinian Authority,” Netanyahu said. “Well, it should be brought to his attention that we are holding a special cabinet meeting in honor of Jerusalem at the foot of the Temple Mount that on which King Solomon built the First Temple of the Jewish people, and again, it should be brought to Abbas’s attention, the heart of the historic State of Israel, the City of David, was here 3,000 years ago.”

Netanyahu made the remarks in a cabinet meeting at the Western Wall Tunnels, honoring Jerusalem Day, celebrated last Thursday to mark Israel’s reunification of the city and liberation of the Old City in 1967. The cabinet approved a NIS 60 million budget increase for the Western Wall over the next five years, to upgrade infrastructure and encourage visits to the holy site, as well as archaeology and educational activities.

Abbas claimed at the UN event in honor of “Nakba Day,” marking the “catastrophe” of Israel’s establishment, that Israel “dug under al-Aqsa… they dug everywhere, and they could not find anything.”

“The ownership of al-Buraq Wall [the Western Wall] and al-Haram al-Sharif [Temple Mount] belongs exclusively and only to the Islamic Wakf alone,” he added.

The Temple Mount, is the holiest site in Judaism and the third-holiest to Muslims. Al-Aksa is the mosque on the Mount. The Western Wall is a retaining wall of the Mount, dating to the Second Temple.

The whitewashing of Mahmoud Abbas

Abbas isn’t just corrupt and a dictator, he is also an antisemite. His hatred of Jews stretches back at least to the late 1970s, when he studied for a doctorate at Moscow’s Institute of Oriental Studies. Abbas titled his doctoral thesis “The Connections Between Zionism and Nazism Between the Years 1933–1945.”

The doctorate claimed that Nazism and Zionism had much in common and that Nazis and Zionists collaborated. At the U.N. commemoration of the Nakba, Abbas stated that Jews lie just like Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels. It would have been more accurate for him to say this about himself.

World leaders hoped Abbas was a moderate who would sign a deal with Israel and end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Unfortunately, Abbas has done anything but. Even when he met with Israeli prime ministers, he was not serious about negotiating, and he has spent the last decade refusing to meet Israeli prime ministers at all.

Instead of putting down Hamas, Abbas has signed multiple deals with the terrorist organization. Most damning, Abbas has continued the P.A.’s “pay-to-slay” program that funds Palestinian terrorists and their families on a sliding scale based on the heinousness of their attacks.

Most surprisingly, instead of being shunned by the world—as a corrupt, antisemitic and terror-supporting dictator should be—Abbas has been embraced by world leaders. American presidents Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden have all met with and honored Abbas. Abbas is regularly given the podium of the U.N. Incredibly, he still receives billions of dollars in foreign aid for him to steal.

“Whitewashing” is a term used to describe glossing over crimes and immoral behavior by focusing on other aspects of the criminal. Ironically, many of Israel’s best policies, including providing medical treatment to people from around the world, sending help to natural disaster zones and providing equal rights to Israel’s most downtrodden citizens, are often besmirched as whitewashing.

This is ironic, because if there is whitewashing going on between the “river and the sea” it isn’t on Israel’s part. It’s the international community granting legitimacy to a corrupt Abbas and his Palestinian Authority when they are nothing but a crime syndicate.

Israel and Zionism stand for justice, pluralism and peace. From its inception, Zionism sought peaceful coexistence with its neighbors and Arabs living in the Jewish people’s homeland. Mahmoud Abbas embodies the exact opposite of every Zionist value.

Abbas’s war of instruction at the UN - opinion

Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels was quoted as saying: “During a war, news should be given out for instruction rather than information.”

It is therefore highly ironic – and not a little instructive – that the President of the Palestinian National Authority Mahmoud Abbas compared Israel and the Jewish people’s history to Goebbels.

Abbas has spent much, if not most of his professional life obsessed with the Nazis as a political and military tool in his aim to end the State of Israel as the national, ancestral and indigenous homeland of the Jewish people.

In his doctoral thesis from Patrice Lumumba Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia in Moscow in 1982, Abbas at the same time claimed that Jews helped perpetrate the Holocaust, and disputed the number of Jews murdered in the Holocaust. Abbas' lifelong Holocaust obsession

He has never walked back these claims, and the thesis has been republished multiple times in various book forms, and still appears under Abbas’ list of publications on the official PA website.

It is this life-long obsession with the Holocaust, that led Abbas to even brazenly claim that Israel committed “50 holocausts” at a news conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin last year.

Abbas’ obsession with the Holocaust is part of a violent strategy to change a narrative and to put in its place a new one.

The first is to seek to change the nature and centrality of an event which he sees as ensuring the world’s sympathy in the late 1940s in favor of a Jewish State.

There is certainly some truth to the fact that coming so soon after the systematic annihilation of six million Jews, many nations felt both guilt and sympathy for helping to perpetrate this atrocity, or simply standing by and letting it happen. Others saw the moral justification of providing or returning national sovereignty to a people who could not defend themselves against genocide.

By belittling the numbers and scale, and claiming that it was somehow conducted with Jewish acquiescence, Abbas has attempted to place the blame on the victims.

When Arabs suggested a population exchange between their Jews and Palestinian Arab refugees

You know how "population transfer" is considered a major war crime nowadays? And how so many try to prove (and fail) that Zionist Jews planned to transfer Arabs from Palestine?

Here's a little piece of history that has been erased:

IRAQ FOR SHIFTING PEOPLE
Would Exchange 100,000 Jews for Palestine Refugees

BEIRUT, Lebanon, Oct. 15 — Nuri as-Said, Iraqi Premier, proposed to the United Nations Economic Mission to the Middle East during its brief visit to Baghdad yesterday that 100,000 Iraqi Jews out of some 160,000 to 180,000 be sent to Israel in exchange for 100,000 Palestine refugees, the mission spokesman revealed.

He indicated the refugees should be capable of performing the work of the Jews they would replace in Iraq society. The Jews would leave their property in Israel and take over the property in Israel of 100,000 Arabs.

Before 1949, mass transfer of populations were considered reasonable solutions to intractable problems between ethnic groups. Only with the Fourth Geneva Convention did involuntary transfers become a war crime.

This proposal was made after the Fourth Geneva Convention became international law. But no one had a problem when Iraq suggested this to the UN.

And it wasn't only Iraq.

Egypt also suggested such a population transfer to the UN Conciliation Commission for Palestine.

Egypt’s position on the refugee question was the one described in I.B.2 (b): They also did not seem to favour the absorption of the refugees by Transjordan and seemed to object to any attempt by Transjordan to assume the championship of Arab Palestinians. ... They mentioned the possibility of an exchange of Jews and Arabs.

In the end, there was such an exchange, albeit unofficial. A million Jews fled Arab countries where persecution became unbearable, and some 600,000 Palestinian Arabs ended up settling in Arab countries. But unlike the Jews who immediately became full citizens of Israel, the descendants of the Palestinian Arabs continue to remain stateless.

The only exception was Jordan, and as we see in the UN document referenced above, the other Arab nations opposed Jordan's naturalizing Palestinians as citizens. So much for being champions of the Palestinian Arabs!

Iraq did end up accommodating over 30,000 Palestinians who came in waves after 1948 and 1967. By most reports the Palestinians were treated well with the exception of not allowing them to become citizens, before the fall of Saddam Hussein.

Now the Palestinians are despised throughout Iraq, and most fled.

By any metric, the Arab world has treated Palestinians worse than Israel treated the Jewish refugees. Not only that, they have treated Palestinians worse that Israel has treated Palestinians.

And that's another piece of history that has been erased.

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!

This is Maria al-Hasani, whose father Eyad al-Hasani was head of Operations in the military wing of the Islamic Jihad before he was killed by Israel during Operation Shield and Arrow.

In the video, she says she is happy her father is a martyr, and says that the Jews will melt in hellfire, and Palestinians will kill them all.

I am Maria, and I am the daughter of Eyad al-Hasani, I love him very much, and I am very strong, more than all the Jews. The Jews are happy because they killed my father. They think that they are very pleased, but my father wanted (to die a martyr) and he got what he wanted. Now he is very happy in Paradise, and when you (Jews) will go to hell, you will melt (in the flames.) I don't fear you because you are cowards. If it wasn't for your advanced weapons it all would have been over with because you are a bunch of lowlifes. You don't even know the meaning of "Allah." We will pray in Al Aqsa, and my father is now a martyr. We will grow stronger and we will pray in Jerusalem. We will continue to bomb you and fight you until we liberate our lands, because this is our land and we must hold it. You will not stay here, and if you touch a single rock we will kill you!

Maria said very similar things in what appears to be an earlier, shorter video on TikTok where her handlers appear to prod her to hone her message.

She says again that she is proud of her father because he fought the Jews, he's in heaven while they are going to hell.

The person with the camera asks her if she wants him to upload the video and make her famous.

(h/t Abu Ali Express, Imshin)

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!

Newest Palestinian lie: The Jews created the quarters of Jerusalem's Old City, it is all really Muslim

The Safa news agency has a news flash:

"The Muslim Quarter, the Christian Quarter, the Jewish Quarter, and the Armenian Quarter” are all Hebrew names concocted by the Israeli occupation in the Old City of occupied Jerusalem, claiming that there is a “Jewish heritage” in that holy spot, despite the fact that all its buildings and landmarks testify to its Arabism and Islamism.

Wow! Before 1967 there was no separate quarters in Jerusalem! This would be big news to Edward Robinson, who wrote in1841:

The inhabitants of Jerusalem dwell in separate quarters according to their religion,-Christian, Jewish, and Muhammedan. The Christian quarter extends along the upper or western part of the city, between the Latin convent at the N. W. corner, and the great Armenian convent in the S. W. including also the church of the Holy Sepulchre. The Jewish quarter occupies the northeastern part of Zion, and extends upwards so as to include the greater portion of the hill lying within the walls. The Muhammedans are in the middle and lower parts of the city.

And the all the landmarks of Jerusalem being Muslim and Arab would certainly surprise not only the Jews who lived there 2000 years ago, but also the Byzantine creator of the 6th century Madaba mosaic map which included depictions of various gates of the city as well as the Tower of David and Christian landmarks.

I found mention of the Jewish quarter in an article from the Times of London, October 26, 1818, that described how badly the Jews of Jerusalem were treated - demolishing the other popular Palestinian lie of how Jews were treated so well in Palestine before Zionism:

The Perthshire Advertiser, 12 Feb 1835, goes into more detail as to how miserably the Jews of Jerusalem were treated.

But even with all these deprivations, everyone knew that Jerusalem is still a Jewish city. The Kent and Essex Mercury (London), August 09, 1825, refers to Jerusalem as the Jews' capital.

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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?”

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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)

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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