Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, June 09, 2023

Jordan is officially antisemitic, confiscating any Jewish objects at the borders with Israel

Members of an Israeli delegation were denied entry into Jordan Tuesday, after border guards refused to allow those wearing Jewish garb from entering the country.

The incident occurred at the Rabin border crossing in Eilat, on the border with the Jordanian port city of Aqaba, when a delegation of Israeli municipal leaders tried to enter the Hashemite kingdom for an educational tour.

Jordanian border officials ordered the delegation members to lift up their shirts, so that the guards could see if they were wearing any religious Jewish garments underneath.

Tour participants who were not wearing identifiably Jewish garb, such as kippot (yarmulkes) or tzitzit (a four-cornered, fringed traditional Jewish garment) were permitted to cross the border, while those who were wearing religious garments were refused entry.

One participant told Israel Hayom that a Jordanian border guard took his kippah and threw it in the trash.

These are not the actions of an overzealous security guard. Stories like this pop up every few months. Official Jordanian policy is to confiscate any object that is remotely Jewish at the border with Israel, even if they are hidden within luggage.

Even non-Jews who cross from Israel to Jordan have their Jewish-themed souvenirs confiscated.

The official reason? This is done for the visitors' own safety.

That excuse is itself fascinating. Jews have traveled to other Muslim-majority countries, even those with no diplomatic relations with Israel, with their kipot and tallitot and tefillin with no issues. Only Jordan claims that the mere whiff of Judaism could whip its citizens into a murderous frenzy. And only Jordan blames the Jews for upsetting their Muslim residents by merely existing as Jews.

The blatantly antisemitic policy has been in place since at least 2015. Jordanians have complained bitterly when they see photos of religious Jews praying at the "Tomb of Aaron":

However, it appears that some Hasidic groups have managed to arrange trips specifically to visit and pray at that spot - on the Breslov Hasidic website they have a poster for a planned three day trip last summer, and they claim they have visited every year without incident, although they admit to having had to curtail some of their activities due to Jordanian concerns. But their annual trip originates from Israel.

So there is a little more to this story; perhaps organized tour groups arranged through some Jordanian travel agents are allowed.

Also, I have not seen anyone mention that Jews flying to Amman being harassed for wearing kipot or tzitzit.

But the official stated policy remains one of explicit antisemitism.

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Israeli Arab news site Arab48 has an article that discusses the plight of Palestinians in Lebanon and why they risk their lives to take dangerous boat trips to Europe.

Outside of rare NGO articles and articles by Palestinians in some maverick Lebanese outlets, it is the first Arabic article I've seen that calls out Lebanon's bigotry against Palestinians instead of pretending that they are friends.

The Palestinian camps in Lebanon have been witnessing a continuous and silent migration for decades, which intensified in the last decade.

Since 1948, the Palestinians of the camps in Lebanon have been suffering from a policy of isolation and deprivation, due to the racism of the sectarian political system, whose refusal to “settle” the Palestinians ...means keeping them in isolation and deprivation, blocking them from practicing any profession or activity in the country, until the Palestinians find another place to turn to other than Lebanon. In other words, the refusal to settle the Palestinians in Lebanon does not correspond to their right of return to Palestine, but rather a lack of welcome.

It is true that the position on the issue of Palestine and the Palestinians is divergent and contradictory between the Lebanese political forces. The position of Hezbollah and the left cannot be compared to the position of the Lebanese Forces and the right, for example. However, both of them are partners in producing the same system, and the same "sectarian political" system, which sees any attempt to integrate the Palestinians into Lebanese public affairs as a breach of what Lebanon ridiculously calls its "delicate balance." Considering that the settlement of the Palestinians may make a certain Lebanese sect prevail over the rest of the other sects in terms of influence and number. Lebanon settled some Palestinians immediately after they fled to it in 1948, but it was a limited settlement, limited to Christian Palestinians, mostly because of their wealth, while the vast majority of refugees succumbed to isolation and deprivation.

Lebanon did not ratify the 1951 Geneva Convention on Refugees, nor its 1967 Protocol, which explains its refusal to grant refugee status or permanent residency to refugees. Although this does not apply to Palestinian refugees due to the specificity of their status, the Lebanese state has accepted Palestinian refugees and called them "displaced", in order to evade its responsibilities towards them.

In general, the conditions of the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon has remained dire, even in light of the periods of Lebanon's stability and prosperity. Emigration was taking place in full swing, since after the Nakba. This is not to mention the periods of civil-sectarian strife in Lebanon, and the Israeli invasion of it in 1982, during which the Palestinians paid a heavy price in terms of massacres, displacement, deportation and uprooting. What do we think of Lebanon today, as a collapsed and plundered country at the level of the state and the regime? Who cares about the Palestinians and their tragedy, if Lebanon does not care about the Lebanese themselves?

So, the catastrophe of asylum in itself, and then the tragedy of the Palestinian camp with the sectarianism of the Lebanese regime, and the racism of its society, with its decades of isolation and deprivation, is from the Lebanese side. On the other hand, the Palestinian leadership and the PLO abandoned the refugees, for whom the Palestinian cause is no longer concerned or intended, even though the refugees are the first line of definition of the Palestinian cause. In addition to this, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees UNRWA has gradually retreated in the last two decades from providing support, aid, and funding to refugee camps.

The overwhelming majority of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon possess only a Lebanese travel document, and only a few of them obtained a passport issued by the Palestinian Authority. This closes the doors of regular immigration to refugees, leaving their only hope at sea! Is there hope in the sea?

The rest of the article describes the dangers of taking a sea voyage, and how even landing in Cyprus or Greece doesn't mean their asylum would be accepted - because Lebanon is considered a "safe 'country and Palestinians are not officially persecuted there.

Notice also that the article blames the Palestinian leadership for abandoning Lebanon. They could provide passports to ease their exodus. But they refuse to.

Such an honest Arabic article could only be written in Israel. Arab media outlets would never want to antagonize a fellow Arab state and upset the narrative of eventual Palestinian "return" from Lebanon. Palestinians in Europe or North America are too invested in ensuring that everything they publish blames Israel exclusively for all their problems.

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Iran announces HUGE technical breakthroughs. Usually fictional, but HUGE!

Last week, Iran announced it had designed a "quantum processor."

This is Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari, the Coordinating Deputy of the Islamic Republic’s Army, holding a so-called ‘quantum processor’ that he claimed Iran developed, showing it off during a ceremony at the mam Khomeini Maritime University in Noshahr.

Only one problem. You can buy that same board on Amazon for $589.

Iran International, which covered this story, reminds us that Iran claimed in 2020 to have developed a "breakthrough" super-device that could detect people infected with coronavirus from a football field away. IRGC Commander-in-chief Hossein Salami unveiled the device and claimed Iran would mass produce it.

Previously, Iran also announced they built a stealth fighter jet, which couldn't possibly fly. And also a home-built fighter aircraft that was a 1970s-era US-made F-5F Tiger with paint.

But what about Iran's other announcement this week?

Earlier this week, Iran announced that they had produced a hypersonic missile that could evade all known defenses.

It claimed that the missile, the Fattah, could travel at Mach 15 and could maneuver to avoid anti-missile defenses.

Is this legit?

Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the head of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard’s aerospace program, said that they had performed a ground test of the engine. Which means they didn't actually test the missile: it has not flown a meter and no one knows if it could really maneuver itself or fly as fsst as they claim if it gets built.

No country has publicly revealed a missile that surpasses Mach-8, so Mach-15 - over 11,000 miles per hour - sounds like a fantasy. (Such a missile would reach Israel from Iran in about three minutes.)

In May, Russian Kinzhal missiles, which was also claimed to be hypersonic and impossible to defend against, were downed by US-made Patriot anti-missile systems in Ukraine.

But at least one Israeli expert says that the missile looks like it could be built, although he doesn't agree that it cannot be defended against.

Tal Inbar, a senior research fellow at the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance, a nonprofit organization that promotes public support for missile defense systems, told JNS on Wednesday that the claims being made by Iran about the missile’s features, range and precision appear to be true.

The missile, he said, is a “new product, that has no equivalent in the world. It can open, for Iran, a new operational door.”

I'm not quite as convinced; this would be significantly better than anything developed by any major power. Iran has some very talented engineers, and the missiles they do have are a real danger to the world. They have learned North Korean missile technology. But I'm skeptical that their engineers are the best in the world.

Either way, the other stories like the ones about the processor and Covid detector and stealth aircraft prove that you cannot trust a word that Iran says.

One open question is how exactly these obvious deceptions occur. The leaders making the announcements are typically not engineers and they are parroting what they are told by the engineers who report to them. I cannot believe that they are in on the deception, which means that their underlings are terrified to tell them the truth that the pet project that they promised is impossible, and they built these fake devices for them to embarrass themselves with in front of the world.

If the chain of command in Iran is so dysfunctional, that might be very good news for any future conflict.

(h/t EBoZ)

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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

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Rabbinate: Wedding Without Chocolate Potentially Invalid (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

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Jerusalem, June 8 - The Religious Council notified a local couple today that they might be required to undergo their marriage ceremony a second time to ensure its propriety, the bride and groom reported today, because at the gatherings before and following the original ceremony, not a single chocolate items appeared, not even at dessert, rendering the entire event moot.

Tehilla and Yosef Birnbaum held their wedding at the Ramat Rachel complex last week, with more than two hundred family and friends in attendance. The officiating Rabbi took pains beforehand to explain to each half of the couple the various elements of the proceedings and the requirements for ensuring they have force according to Jewish law: the value of the ring; the groom's ownership of the ring; each party's affirmation of understanding the contents of the marriage contract; the validity of the witnesses to the contract and to the ceremony itself; and numerous other details. He did not, however, stress the importance of chocolate in providing full validity to the marriage ceremony, operating under the assumption that anyone with a functioning brain knows how automatic the association between chocolate and celebration is.

A Rabbinate spokesman acknowledged that this case lacks precedent. "We've never encountered anything like this in institutional memory," stated Rabbi Hersh Iczaklatt. "While it's possible that chocolateless weddings have taken place under the auspices of the Chief Rabbinate, whether under Israeli, British, or possibly Ottoman rule, we have no explicit attestations to them, and cannot therefore assume their validity."

"Earlier sources are less than illuminating, but for different reasons," he continued. "We know chocolate only left the Americas and spread to the rest of the world about five centuries ago. Until chocolate became a standard confection or dessert item, and not merely the province of the wealthy, a wedding without chocolate posed no problem. But Jewish law is a practical system, a system of the experiential and the expectations that common experience produces. Once chocolate evolved into its ubiquitous role in celebration, it attained a status on par with all the other implied or expected elements of a transaction that go without saying: if they are lacking, we are concerned that one or both of the parties will feel defrauded, and the transaction is void."

"The initiation of the first stage of a Jewish marriage involves a transaction," he explained further, "in which the groom, through the medium of giving the bride an item of value - traditionally, a plain gold ring - assumes responsibility for her welfare, sustenance, and security. But both groom and bride must consent to the transaction for it to have validity, and thus, if there is an implied availability of chocolate associated with the wedding, an expectation created through several generations of chocolate's place of pride among standard celebration elements, then we might be required to assume its absence violates an implied condition of the transaction's - and thus the marriage's - validity."

Rabbi Iczaklatt lamented that, presumably owing to the shame of not wanting to provide chocolate, neither the caterer nor the couple will admit to failing to include chocolate, complicating the task of determining whether there could have been an element of consent to the standards violation.

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

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06/08 Links Pt2: The hole in Biden’s antisemitism plan; Dershowitz Parts with Israeli Left for Using 'Extortion'; Meet Israel's Unofficial Arabic Language Spokesperson

From Ian:

The hole in Biden’s antisemitism plan

On May 25, the Biden administration published its much anticipated U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism.

It was much anticipated, in large part because of the alarming and well-documented rise in antisemitic attacks against American Jews and Jewish institutions. To the administration’s credit, this rise in antisemitic attacks led to the White House investing considerable resources to shape and create its 60-page National Strategy.

Before the plan was released, practically every mainstream Jewish organization had urged the White House to use the most accepted definition of antisemitism, adopted by numerous democratic governments and Jewish institutions around the world—the IHRA definition.

After all, it’s common sense that before one can solve a problem, one has to define it. Albert Einstein supposedly once said that if he were given an hour to solve a problem, he would spend 55 minutes defining the problem and then five minutes solving it.

The reason the IHRA definition is so important is that it captures how antisemitism has evolved over the last 100 years to include not only irrational xenophobic hatred for the Jew as an individual, but also for the Jews as a nation—that is, hatred of Israel and Zionism.

The late U.K. Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks defined antisemitism as “Denying the right of Jews to exist collectively as Jews with the same rights as everyone else. It takes different forms in different ages. In the Middle Ages, Jews were hated because of their religion. In the 19th and early 20th century they were hated because of their race. Today, they are hated because of their nation state, the State of Israel. It takes different forms but it remains the same thing: The view that Jews have no right to exist as free and equal human beings.”

More importantly, Rabbi Sacks noted how the 21st century version of antisemitism has mutated in a way that allows haters to deny the hate: “The new antisemitism has mutated so that any practitioner of it can deny that he or she is an antisemite. After all, they’ll say, I’m not a racist. I have no problem with Jews or Judaism. I only have a problem with the State of Israel. But in a world of 56 Muslim nations and 103 Christian ones, there is only one Jewish state, Israel, which constitutes one-quarter of one per cent of the land mass of the Middle East. Israel is the only one of the 193 member nations of the United Nations that has its right to exist regularly challenged, with one state, Iran, and many, many other groups, committed to its destruction.”

America’s Most Israeli Politician

[Ted] Cruz’s political faith was forged at the knee of his father, Rafael. The elder Cruz was born in Matanzas, a shore town about 50 miles east of Havana. The name means “massacre,” a testament to a 1510 rebellion involving local fishermen drowning Spanish conquistadors in the bay, and the spirit of uprising was alive and well in Cruz senior. As a teenaged boy in the late 1950s, he was militating against the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. He was a follower of Fidel Castro along with Che Guevara— the future dorm room icon of the third worldist politics that Ted Cruz would spend his days skewering on Twitter, the elitist social media website to which the senator is firmly addicted.

After a brief stint in jail, Rafael Cruz managed to obtain a student visa to study at the University of Texas. He came to America with $100 sewn into his underwear. He learned English from going to movies, which he could afford only by taking a string of dishwashing jobs. He also spoke passionately at every Rotary and Kiwanis club that would have him, convincing his new friends and neighbors to lend their ears and dollars to the Revolución. Later, he would make a point of revisiting all these same venues and apologizing, admitting that Castro’s regime was a hideous tyranny. The only way to oppose it, he now preached, was through faith and freedom, the twin pillars on which the United States of America was erected.

And not just the United States. Ted Cruz says he was kneeling in front of his TV set at the age of 5 when he saw the first reports of a daring raid halfway across the world: Israeli commandos had landed in Entebbe, Uganda, rescued 102 out of 106 civilians taken hostage by Palestinian and German terrorists, and eliminated all seven hijackers as well as more than 100 Ugandan soldiers assisting them before safely returning to Israel. The memory of the news bulletins he saw that day would stay with him for the rest of his life.

“To me, and this is a 5-year-old looking at it, what the Entebbe raid told me about Israel was that you may take Israeli citizens hostage, and if you do, those Israelis may lose their lives, but you’re gonna die,” the senator told me as we rolled down the highway together in the back of a pickup truck on a recent Sunday in his home state. “And to me, that was a very Texas foreign policy.”

As he grew up, Cruz maintained his passion for policy, conviction, and the ways they interact. He graduated from Princeton and Harvard Law School—both times magna cum laude—and took off a few clerkship positions, including with Chief Justice William Rehnquist. In private practice, he was involved in preparing the case for Bill Clinton’s impeachment, and in the aftermath of the shambolic 2000 election, he helped assemble the Republican team to argue Bush v. Gore, for which he was rewarded with a handful of administration positions. In 2003, he became Texas’ solicitor general, and made national headlines for appearing before the Supreme Court and successfully defending the constitutionality of a monument depicting the Ten Commandments on the grounds of the state capitol.

Manipulating Israeli Public Opinion

The results of the survey indicate that the Israeli public has far greater trust in the Knesset -- by dozens of percentage points -- than it does in Israel's judiciary, from the Supreme Court down to the legal advisors and counselors who answer to the Supreme Court.

As almost always, the different answers are the result of differences built into the questions. The wording of the question posed in the Israel Democracy Institute survey referred to the "level of trust in the Knesset" while the "Direct Polls Trust Index" survey examined trust "in the members of the Knesset you elected."

[T]he purposefully phrased IDI survey was crafted to justify weakening the powers of the legislative branch and granting excessive powers to the judicial branch.

The way [the IDI's] question was worded regarding the public's trust in the Knesset ensured that the results would create the totally false impression that the public does not trust the members of the Knesset and favors the judges of the Supreme Court.

The relevant question, which is more closely reflected in the wording of the Direct Polls survey, is the level of the public's trust in the members of the Knesset chosen by them, and the results show that an absolute majority of the public trusts its elected representatives -- a fact that points to an extremely healthy parliamentary democracy.

These campaigns to undemocratically overturn the result of a free and fair election would surely have caught the eye of George Orwell -- especially as they were all conducted under the rallying cry of "protecting democracy."

The former head of the Egyptian army's reconnaissance service and strategic expert, Maj. Gen. Samir Farag, confirmed that "what the Egyptian soldier Mohamed Salah did is the biggest blow dealt to Israel since 1973."

Speaking to RT, the retired general said that "Egyptian soldier Mohamed Salah dealt the biggest security blow to Israel since 1973, when he attacked the Israeli army forces and shot down 3 soldiers with a rifle that contained only 100 rounds."

Major General Al-Masry stated, "Israel is trying to justify the biggest blow it has suffered since Egypt's victory in the October War, by saying that what happened was not a security breach, and that it was only smuggling."

Faraj added, "The Egyptian youth, Mohamed Salah, attacked the smugglers crossing the Egyptian border, and entered the occupied borders with a rifle and 100 bullets. It is certain that the 'Israeli' leaders are involved with the drug smugglers."

Throughout the interview, he spoke as if Israel was Egypt's enemy. But in reality the murders are the equivalent of someone dressing up as a medic and then using that as a way to shoot people, or pretending to surrender and shooting behind a white flag.

Looking at Farag's resume, one can see that he is not a fringe character. He was the governor of Luxor and is the former Assistant of Ministry of Defense for Egypt.

And from 1993-1999, Farag was head of the Army Moral Affairs Department.

So this person praising a murderer is an expert on Egyptian morality.

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The world says no to UNRWA's demanding money, yet no one is discussing the obvious solutions

Last Friday, UNRWA held a donor's conference at the UN headquarters in New York. The agency's head laid out its financial problems in his opening remarks.

Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) sounded the alarm about the Agency’s deepening funding crisis. Addressing this year’s Pledging Conference for UNRWA convened by the President of the General Assembly, Commissioner-General Lazzarini warned of the risk of the Agency’s collapse.

“While we are grateful for the pledges announced, they are below the funds that the Agency needs to keep over 700 UNRWA schools and 140 clinics open from September onwards,” said Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini.

Some of the Agency’s most committed donors have indicated they will substantially decrease their contributions in 2023.

Today, according to reports, UNRWA announced how many new pledges it received.

The answer is - close to zero.

Sama News reports:

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees UNRWA announced shocking data today, noting that it received $13 million in new pledges during the donors' conference held in New York last Friday.

UNRWA said in a statement today, "Most of the pledges referred to in the conference were merely confirmation of the amounts already received and spent in the first five months of 2023. As expected, donors are using the pledging conference to publicly confirm the support they have already provided to UNRWA this year."

Some of the announced donations, according to the UNRWA statement, were "a public confirmation of the amounts previously discussed and agreed upon with UNRWA. This money has not yet been received, but will be transferred to the agency in the coming months. We've already factored these funds into our financial projections for the rest of the year. This money has already been calculated, and the issue of receiving it will not change our financial situation, as some of the financing pledges referred to are for the year 2024 and beyond. "

UNRWA stressed, "In short, and unfortunately, only about 13 million US dollars have been announced...This funding will help reduce the expected deficit this year. Since we need about 70 million US dollars per month to cover our basic costs, this amount will not be enough to sustain the services after September.”

I could not find this announcement on the UNRWA platforms as of this writing, but it rings true. Donors have been getting tired of forever increasing demands by UNRWA - and since UNRWA has no mechanism to take people off of their rolls, it will keep increasing forever.

We've discussed before what must be done. Some 2 million "refugees" live in Jordan as Jordanian citizens. They should not be getting a dime. Jordan is a sovereign nation and provides education and health care to its citizens; nearly all of the UNRWA recipients there are full citizens, and there is no reason for the world to pay for their shelter, doctors and schooling.

Jordan instead keeps the Palestinian and non-Palestinian citizens in separate schools, separate medical facilities and to an extent separate living areas.

Sounds like apartheid, doesn't it? But this apartheid is funded by the entire world!

There is similarly little reason for UNRWA in the West Bank. The Palestinian Authority has its own schools and fairly good medical facilities, Palestinian "refugees" should be allowed to use them like every Palestinian. UNRWA funds could be redirected to the PA for a couple of years to take care of the logistics of combining the two systems, but there is no reason for the world to fund Palestinian "refugees" who live within the borders of British Mandate Palestine - they are not refugees under any reasonable definition.

Of course, nearly all UNRWA aid recipients are not refugees. But before dismantling UNRWA altogether, lets solve its financial problems in a reasonable way without causing undue hardship on those who really are dependent on UNRWA services, in Lebanon, parts of Syria and Gaza.

No one is asking these questions, at least not out loud. But without asking these questions and making the decisions to treat Palestinians just like anyone else in need, using the same criteria and the same eligibility, then things would become far worse for the Palestinians that UNRWA is supposed to be supporting.

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

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06/08 Links Pt1: State Dept. courting Palestinians, as Ramallah insults US; Iran’s ‘suicide drones’ are being developed at British universities

From Ian:

State Dept. courting Palestinians, as Ramallah insults US

In a recording that leaked last year, Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas told a group of Palestinian Americans that he called U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken a “little boy.” In October 2022, Abbas told Russian President Vladimir Putin, “We don’t trust America,” and he and other Palestinian leaders often attack the Biden administration for what they claim is a failure to live up to promises.

Despite Palestinian leaders frequently trashing the Biden administration and the United States, U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Israeli-Palestinian Affairs Andrew Miller told JNS on June 5 that Washington has demonstrated that it wants to build a relationship with Ramallah.

“Since the beginning of the Biden administration, we’ve been clear that we wanted to rebuild the relationship with both the Palestinian leadership and with the Palestinian people,” Miller said. “I think we’ve demonstrated that not just in word but in deed.”

Since assuming office, the Biden administration has provided nearly $1 billion in assistance to Palestinians, including making vaccines available during the pandemic, as well as providing food and educational opportunities for this population, according to Miller.

“Things that are clearly in the best interest of the Palestinian people writ large,” he said.

Miller assumed his current role last November, replacing Hady Amr, who was promoted to a new position: Washington-based special representative for Palestinian affairs. The new role was intended, in part, to show Ramallah that the Biden administration was serious about addressing its concerns.

Asked if it has done anything to improve ties with the P.A., Miller talked instead about Amr, who with his team in Jerusalem is “engaging with a broad swath of Palestinian society.”

“We think that the creation of this position is a crucial tool in our efforts to strengthen our relationship with the Palestinians, both in terms of extending the conversations that we have but also enabling us to have broader outreach to a wider spectrum of Palestinian society than was the case previously,” Miller said.

Iran’s ‘suicide drones’ are being developed at British universities

Scientists at British universities helped the Iranian regime develop technology that can be used in its drone programme and fighter jets, a JC investigation has revealed.

Senior MPs and peers expressed deep concern over the findings, with a government spokesperson saying Britain would “not accept collaborations which compromise our national security”.

At least 11 British universities, including Cambridge and Imperial College London, are involved, with staff producing at least 16 studies with potential Iranian military applications.

The UK bans the export of military and “dual-use” technology to Iran and recently imposed fresh sanctions against Iranian individuals and organisations supplying Russia with kamikaze drones being used in Ukraine.

Iran’s drone and missile arsenal is controlled by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The government is under increasing pressure to proscribe it as a terrorist organisation.

Yet the JC can reveal that in one project researchers in Britain worked to improve drone engines, boosting their altitude, speed and range. It was funded by Tehran.

Another British university worked with Iranian counterparts to test sophisticated new control systems for jet engines, aimed at increasing their “manoeuvrability and response time” in “military applications”.

Other UK-based scientists have worked with Iran to research the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) as mobile base stations to extend the range of communications systems, on special alloys for military aircraft and coatings to upgrade armour plating.

MPs have demanded to know how the research was carried out under the nose of the government’s supposedly tough sanctions regime.

Syrian refugee wounds 5, mostly children, in suspected stabbing attack in France

A man armed with a knife attacked a group of preschool children playing by a lake in the French Alps Thursday, wounding four as well as an adult and sending shockwaves through the country.

The suspect is a Syrian in his early 30s who was granted refugee status in Sweden in April, a police source told AFP.

Witnesses described the suspected knifeman running around in a frenzy, apparently attacking people at random before he was shot by police near the banks of Lake Annecy.

“He wanted to attack everyone. I moved away and he lunged at an old man and woman and stabbed the old man,” former professional footballer Anthony Le Tallec, who was running in the park, told the local Dauphine Libere newspaper.

Another witness, named Malo, told the BFM television channel that the culprit attacked the children before the old man and was “shouting, but it wasn’t really comprehensible.”

Two of the children — believed to be aged around three — and an adult victim were in critical condition and fighting for their lives in a hospital, a security source told AFP.

Hamas mouthpiece Felesteen claims that the Palestinian Authority is using both carrots and sticks to persuade militants to leave the newer terror groups like Lion's Den.

According to the report, the Palestinian Authority's security forces pressure members of the West bank militant groups to turn themselves in.. The pressure reportedly includes threats to their families and the closure of their businesses. But they also try to entice them to leave the groups by promising them money and jobs and claiming that they will get immunity from Israeli raids.

The article quotes sources as saying that the PA security services have intensified their pressure in the past few days on the terrorists in the West Bank and their families to surrender themselves to the PA.

One activist who was interviewed claimed that the Fatah members who join these groups are the ones who make the offers to the other members of jobs and immunity.

This sounds quite possible, as the PA gains more from security cooperation with Israel than from supporting or condoning the terror groups in Jenin and Nablus. It certainly isn't anything that the PA would publicize. Plus there seem to be fewer raids by the IDF recently, which might indicate that the Palestinian security services are doing what they are supposed to under the Oslo agreements. The raids, often deadly, are highly embarrassing for the PA and it makes sense that they would prefer to try to act against these groups behind the scenes rather than look ineffective in stopping the IDF actions.

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

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From Haaretz:

As Critical Medicine Runs Out in West Bank, Palestinian Authority Points at Israel

An acute drug shortage in the West Bank affects Palestinian hospitals and residents with chronic conditions. The Palestinian Authority blames Israel, saying it is not helping it to supply and fund the medicines. The Gaza Strip is in a similar crisis.

Khaled Verdad, a nurse in the state hospital in the northern West Bank city of Tubas, says the crisis has been felt for several weeks. “People come here, from as well, who need medicine for dialysis patients and we have no way of helping them,” he says.

“Anyone with money may be able to buy medicines privately, but most of the residents can’t do that. In some places there aren’t even drugs for diabetes or high blood pressure. People turn to relatives in Israel or to organizations that can help, but even then the quantities are very limited,” he says.

A senior PA official told Haaretz the drug shortage in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip stems mainly from the Ramallah government’s inability to pay suppliers regularly. In addition, pharmacists in medical centers and hospital pharmacies in the West Bank are on strike. On top of that, in recent months the UN Relief and Works Agency has closed its medical centers in refugee camps due to budget shortfalls.

“The PA’s entire budget is based on the taxes Israel collects, and that barely covers the costs of wages, including the Health Ministry’s wages. Because Israel deducts hundreds of millions from the tax money to the PA, it cannot pay for medicines,” the officials [said.]

Physicians for Human Rights – Israel reported a rise of tens of percent in the number of Palestinian patients visiting its mobile clinic in the West Bank and a spike in demand for medicines. Volunteers say many patients forgo medical care and drugs due to Israel’s restrictions on entering and exiting the large cities, where medicines are still available.

“The shortage isn’t only the outcome of an internal Palestinian crisis,” the executive director of Physicians for Human Rights – Israel, Dr. Guy Shalev, said. “Beyond Israel’s contribution to the economic crisis in the PA, the roadblocks and policy restricting Palestinians’ movement is making the patients’ lives impossible.”

I cannot find a single article in Palestinian media about a drug shortage in the West Bank from 2023. The Palestinian health ministry adds news articles and reports regularly and they have nothing about this. (Today, Al Quds translated Haaretz' article.)

Sky News Arabia - not a Palestinian news site - wrote about a medicine crisis nine months ago. It did not blame Israel; it said that the health ministry could not pay their debts so suppliers were stopping shipments.

If there is such an acute health crisis, why is this not being mentioned in Palestinian media or by its government websites?

Setting aside that question for now, let's look closer at what the Haaretz article actually says.

While the headline says that the Palestinian Authority is blaming Israel for this shortage, it gives four separate reasons that Palestinians in the West Bank cannot get the medicines they need. The first three are from an anonymous Palestinian official

1. The Palestinian government cannot pay for medicines. Israel's withholding tax revenue is blamed.

2. Pharmacists in the West Bank are on strike.

3. UNRWA has closed down its own medical centers in camps.

There's a pharmacists' strike? UNRWA has closed down medical clinics?

Those seem like pretty big news stories. When has Haaretz reported on them? For that matter, how much has the media altogether reported on them?

There was a pharmacist strike in the territories starting in April, and I don't know if it is still going on.

Also in April, UNRWA's head Philippe Lazzarini spoke about its own budget crisis - but he didn't mention that UNRWA was forced to close medical clinics.One would think he would have highlighted that fact in pressuring the world to pay for UNRWA's budget. I read Palestinian media daily and this is the first I've heard about that, although there have been major strikes by UNRWA workers.

Things are not adding up here.

Now let's look at the fourth reason given that Palestinians cannot get medicines. It comes from an Israeli NGO whose funding is proportional to how much it demonizes Israel:

4. Israeli security blocks Palestinians from reaching large cities where medicines are still available as their own supplies dwindle.

There have been some additional roadblocks in specific instances when Israel is pursuing perpetrators of terror attacks, but it seems highly unlikely that Israel blocks the Palestinian Authority from distributing medicines to the smaller towns, which is the normal procedure. And PHR-I says that the medicines are available in the cities.

This is a logistics issue, not a roadblock issue.

While it is true that Israel is withholding a portion of tax revenue from the PA, that is because the PA spends a significant portion of its budget on paying terrorists and their families, popularly known as "pay for slay." It accounts for some $350 million annually, which would buy a lot of medicine.

Mahmoud Abbas has said multiple times that these payments are the PA's highest priority.

Which means that the medicine crisis is directly a result of the Palestinian Authority preferring to pay terrorists and families of "martyrs" over medicine for its people.

Taken altogether, this is Haaretz manufacturing a blood libel against Israel. Israel is not telling the Palestinian Authority how to spend its money, nor is it blocking any medicine distribution in the West Bank nor in Gaza (which is how these stories are normally framed.)

In past years the Palestinian Authority itself purposefully blocked medicines from reaching Gaza for political purposes, showing how little it cares about health care for its own people. This is part of the same story: the PA has plenty of money to spend on empty museums or fake jobs for released prisoner terrorists, but health care and teachers' salaries are a much lower priority.

But this Haaretz article also proves other dysfunctionality in the PA, in the media and with NGOs.

There is next to no reporting on important stories like the pharmacists' strike, UNRWA (maybe) closing its own medical clinics, Palestinian teachers' strikes and other everyday stories that the media and NGOs ignore or skate over - even though there are more reporters and NGO employees covering the West Bank than anywhere else in the world, except perhaps Washington DC.

The overarching imperative is to manufacture a narrative where Israel is solely to blame for all of the Palestinian ills, and Palestinian leaders have no responsibility to act like real leaders should. Media and NGOs do not put any pressure on the Palestinian leadership to act responsibly and to prioritize normal governance rather than keeping a system that everyone knows is corrupt and wasting international funds.

Beyond that, this story being in Haaretz and not in Palestinian media, yet heavily dependent on an anonymous Palestinian official, indicates that this is the first salvo of a new Palestinian propaganda campaign against Israel, where Haaretz provides the initial legitimacy that can then be built upon. If true, expect international NGOs to join the bandwagon soon.

This article is part of the collective, international blood libel blaming Jews for Palestinian leaders recklessly endangering their own people's lives.

(photo above from Gaza in 2015, I couldn't find any photos showing empty pharmacy shelves in the West Bank)

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75 years ago: Arab leaders considered Palestinian refugees in 1948 to be "fifth columnists"

During the War of Independence in 1948, on a few occasions the Palestine Post could not publish the newspaper properly. The editors nearly always managed to get something out, even if it was typewritten.

That is what happened on June 7, 1948.

But one of the stories includes an important quote that I have not seen elsewhere, possibly because of the newspaper looking the way it did.

"ARAB REFUGEES ARE FIFTH COLUMNISTS"

The Arab radio stations are broadcasting appeals to Arab refugees from Palestine to return to their homes. The Arab authorities are offering financial support to those who come back, while men of military age are promised exemption from duty.

In Cairo, Azzam Pasha [secretary general of the Arab League - EoZ] has stated that the refugees constituted a fifth column in the Arab states, where they are spreading despondency and alarm.

The closest I could find was a second hand quote from Aharon Cohen, in his book "Israel and the Arab World" (1964), where he says that Arab leaders were very critical of "fifth columnists and rumormongers" behind the flight from Israel.

The juxtaposition of the two reports in the newspaper shows the contempt that the Arabs leaders had for Palestinian Arabs and how much they wanted to rid their countries of them.

Which is still true today.

The only difference is that soon after 1948, the Arab leaders came up with a better sounding plan. They still wanted to get rid of the refugees whom they considered cowardly and a threat to their own stability - but they started couching their desire to rid themselves of them as being "pro-Palestinian" because they supported "return" and avoided naturalization - ostensibly for the Palestinians' own good.

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06/07 Links Pt2: Andrew Pessin: A new book’s indictment of American Jewish leadership; How antisemitism adopted the Stalinist approach

From Ian:

Andrew Pessin: A new book’s indictment of American Jewish leadership

There could hardly be a timelier book than Betrayal: The Failure of American Jewish Leadership. Though antisemitism springs eternal, it has sprung up with particular force in recent years, especially in the United States.

As editors Charles Jacobs and Avi Goldwasser put it, “American Jewry is under siege, ideologically and physically. In the media, on college campuses, in the streets of major cities, even in high schools and in Congress, Jews and the Jewish state are smeared, hated and attacked. Celebrities spew anti-Jewish ravings … to tens of millions of followers. This is a new time for Jews in America.”

With this assault on American Jews came the debates about how to handle it. Some prefer to ignore it, keep their heads down, not cause trouble and hope it will go away. Some try to handle it discreetly, behind the scenes, by forging alliances and reasoning with reasonable people. Some double down on their Jewish identity and go on the offensive. Some, alas, disavow their Jewish identity and “convert” by joining the enemy.

One thing, however, as the book demonstrates throughout, seems crystal clear: The major establishment Jewish organizations—the American Jewish Committee, the Conference of Presidents, the Union for Reform Judaism, Jewish Community Relations Councils, regional Federations, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA) and most of all the Anti-Defamation League (ADL)—have failed to respond effectively to the eruption of Jew-hatred.

In fact, as more than one of the book’s essays argues, it’s even worse than that: These organizations, for the most part, have joined the enemy. They have done so by adopting and disseminating progressive ideologies that are hostile to Jews and the Jewish state. This in turn has led them into alliances with groups that are openly opposed to and working towards the destruction of the Jewish state and its supporters—that is, the vast majority of American Jews.

How antisemitism adopted the Stalinist approach

"Death solves all problems," Joseph Stalin is quoted as having said, "No man, no problem." A significant number of influential people are now applying the Soviet dictator's logic to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Their formulation is as simple as it is homicidal: "No Israel, no problem."

Iran's rulers express their genocidal intentions forthrightly. "We will not back off from the annihilation of Israel, even one millimeter," Brig.-Gen. Abolfazl Shekarchi, spokesman for the regime's armed forces has vowed.

Hezbollah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, proxies of Tehran, have the same goal, as does Hamas, the terrorist organization that rules Gaza (also supported by the Islamist regime). Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority that governs the West Bank, is cagier. He doesn't call for Israeli Jews to be killed but he does provide financial rewards to Palestinian terrorists and their families.

The featured speaker at the City University of New York's law school graduation last month was Fatima Mousa Mohammed, who called for a "fight against capitalism, racism, imperialism and Zionism around the world."

On social media, she has wished that "every Zionist burn in the hottest pit of hell." To be clear: Before the establishment of Israel in 1948, a Zionist was someone who favored self-determination for Jews in part of their ancient homeland. After 1948, a Zionist became someone who favors Israel's continuing existence.

Anti-Zionism is now common on American campuses. Ms. Mohammed expresses it crudely. Others employ more erudite language.

For example, four well-established professors – Michael Barnett, Nathan Brown, Marc Lynch, and Shibley Telhami – published an essay in the May/June issue of Foreign Affairs, the prestigious journal of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Elliott Abrams, a Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies at CFR, encapsulated its thesis in this headline: "As Israel turns 75, Foreign Affairs publishes a call to eliminate it."

To accomplish that goal, the professors would have the U.S. pressure Israel to grant citizenship to Palestinian Arabs in Gaza and the West Bank. Jews would then become a minority in Israel, presumably living under the rule of Hamas or the PA. What would happen to them after that? The question does not appear to interest the essay's authors.

NY march shows true colors of left-wing media

Forty thousand people took to the streets of Manhattan on Sunday to participate in the Celebrate Israel Parade. Forty thousand marchers, both Jews, and non-Jews, including New York Mayor Eric Adams, expressed their support for the Jewish state.

Wearing colorful clothes and waving Israeli flags, they took time out of their lives to celebrate Israel, whose existence they hold dear. But if you watched Channel 12 News reporting on the event, you would not know any of this.

Although the outlet did cover the parade, the angle it chose to present was very specific. It did not speak about the support and the celebration but rather focused on the anti-judicial reform protest that was held at the same time.

Organizers said that around 1,000 people attended the demonstration, but journalists marching with the parade in Manhattan, who reported in real time, did not even realize that any protests were taking place, because they were swallowed up by the cheering crowd.

Footage of the demonstration showed about a dozen participants and even photographs posted by the organizers themselves, who claimed there were 1,000 attendees, featured maybe half that number.

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Zamalek Sports Club is one of Egypt's most prominent and successful football teams.

The Chairman of the Board of Directors of Zamalek, Mortada Mansour, announced at a noon press conference today that he will name one of the team's facilities “Martyr Mohamed Salah,” after the Egyptian police officer who murdered three IDF soldiers on Saturday.

The honor is meant "to perpetuate his memory and what he gave to the homeland."

"The martyr Muhammad Salah is a hero and a man who played a heroic role in defending his country," Mansour told the media.

Mortada added, "We intend to do something befitting the name of the martyr Mohamed Salah, in the Zamalek club, in order to perpetuate his memory, and I am here speaking as a citizen, and I am not a politician or responsible for a party."

It is difficult to know how many Egyptians support the attack and how many oppose it. But it is clear that there is no stigma whatsoever to wholeheartedly, publicly, support the murder of soldiers from an army Egypt is at peace with.

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06/07 Links Pt1: Is the Biden Admin Interfering in Israeli Politics?; Biden’s Ambassador Funded Grant Delegitimizing Israel; Supreme Court-Bashing Kamala Harris Says Israel Needs 'Independent Judiciary'

From Ian:

Is the Biden Admin Interfering in Israeli Politics?

The Biden administration is picking fights with the Jewish state over its opposition to a controversial new Iran nuclear deal, Israel's efforts to reform its judiciary, and build settlements in the disputed West Bank territory, veteran observers of U.S.-Israel relations told Fox News Digital.

Jason Greenblatt, former White House Envoy to the Middle East and author of the book "In the Path of Abraham," told Fox News Digital that he has concerns, especially when it comes to U.S. interference in domestic Israeli politics.

Two Israeli domestic issues—judicial reform and settlements—have created rifts between the U.S. and Israel. Netanyahu's coalition is working to rope in what, it argues, is the excessive power of the judiciary. Opponents of the judicial reform say Netanyahu's plan will shift too much power to the Knesset (Israel's parliament) and endanger civil rights protections.

Greenblatt said, "The Biden Administration continues to put pressure on the Israeli government to abandon its judicial reform plans. This is blatant interference with another country's internal policies. Israel has a robust democracy. The world has seen this with the massive protests for and against judicial reform. The Biden Administration continues to think that America can dictate what its allies' policies should be. This kind of pressure by the U.S. upon other countries' internal matters failed with Saudi Arabia and it will fail with Israel."

He also noted that, "Israel is a country that will act in accordance with its interests, laws and democratic procedures. Not inviting Prime Minister Netanyahu to the White House in the hopes of putting additional pressure on him is petty and will not yield the desired results. The U.S. has to learn to work with others where it can, and accept that we don't get to boss our friends and allies around."

Greenblatt said the record of the Biden administration on Israel is a mixed bag. "On the positive side, it often says the right things with respect to Israel's non-Iran security challenges and generally has been cooperative regarding those challenges. According to the Prime Minister Netanyahu, the U.S.-Israel alliance remains steadfast and security and intelligence cooperation is at an all time high," but Greenblatt had reservations with the administration's Iran policy.

Middle East expert and author Caroline Glick, told Fox News Digital that U.S. "Secretary of State Anthony Blinken's sudden cancelation of his planned visit to Israel is a clear sign that the Biden administration had committed the United States to a policy of nuclear appeasement towards Iran. Last week we learned that the administration is surreptitiously negotiating a so-called 'interim nuclear deal' with the Iranian regime. The deal reportedly involves the U.S. dropping all of its sanctions against Iran and in exchange Iran will end its uranium enrichment."

Mark Dubowitz, the CEO of the Washington D.C.-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Fox News Digital, "I'm not sure if his cancelation is about internal Israeli issues or Iran issues. I'm more concerned that the Biden administration is secretly pursuing a deal with Iran, and Blinken prefers not to kick up a wave of scrutiny on that by coming to Israel."

Glick claimed that, "From Israel's perspective, the U.S. position means that the U.S. is no longer a credible ally. As such, Israel has no interest in coordinating its Iran policy with Washington. So there is no longer any reason for Secretary of State Blinken to visit Israel. And there is little reason for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to visit the White House."

VP stresses importance of independent judiciary at Israeli embassy independence bash

US Vice President Kamala Harris stressed the importance of an independent judiciary during a speech on Tuesday at an event marking the 75th anniversary of the Jewish state’s independence hosted by the Israeli embassy in Washington.

The not-so-subtle allusion to the Biden administration’s opposition to the efforts by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-right government to radically curb the power of the High Court of Justice was included in a 14-minute speech that was largely effusive in its praise of the Jewish state.

“Under President Joe Biden and our administration, America will continue to stand for the values that have been the bedrock of the US-Israel relationship, which include continuing to strengthen our democracies, which… are both built on strong institutions, checks and balances — and I’ll add an independent judiciary,” Harris said to applause from many of the 2,000 people listening in the auditorium of the National Building Museum, including Shirin Herzog, the wife of Israel’s Ambassador to the US Michael Herzog, who was seated onstage behind the vice president.

There was no applause however from far-right Religious Zionism lawmaker Simcha Rothman, one of the architects of the judicial revamp, who has been in the US for the past several days and was invited to the event.

In his own speech before Harris’s, Ambassador Herzog briefly referenced the controversy surrounding the judicial overhaul and conveyed optimism as to Israel’s democratic character.

“Israel is an imperfect democracy, and we like you have our own set of internal challenges. As a young nation only 75 years old, we are still grappling with important questions relating to our democratic system. But let me assure you, I am confident that Israel will remain a vibrant democracy,” he said to applause.

Israeli FM: Harris couldn’t name one clause on judicial reform

However, they did not go over as well in Jerusalem, with Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen telling Kan Reshet B radio in an interview on Wednesday that Harris “would not be able to quote from a single clause” in any of the judicial reform bills.

Cohen, who is in South Korea after visiting the Philippines, clarified his comments in a Twitter post shortly after the interview:

“I have deep respect for our ally the United States of America and for Vice President Harris, a true friend of Israel,” he wrote.

“Israel’s legal reform is an internal issue that is currently in the process of consolidation and dialogue. The State of Israel will continue to be democratic and liberal, as it has always been.”

The reform of Israel’s legal system initiated by the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stirred a fierce debate in the country, with both sides hitting the streets for mass demonstrations.

Harris’s remarks on Tuesday were not the first time the U.S. administration has jumped into the debate.

In March, U.S. President Joe Biden called on Netanyahu to “walk away” from the initiative.

“Israel is a sovereign country which makes its decisions by the will of its people and not based on pressures from abroad, including from the best of friends,” said Netanyahu in response.

U.S VP Harris slams Israeli judicial reform at event for Israel's 75th independence