Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, June 12, 2023

Palestinians keep freaking over possibility of Israel dividing up the Temple Mount

For decades, every since Israel divided up the Tomb of the Patriarchs into Muslim and Jewish sections to avoid bloodshed, Palestinians have been warning that Israel plans to do the same with the Temple Mount, dividing it up "temporally and spatially."

Last week, an obscure Likud MP named Amit Halevi gave them lots of ammunition.

A Likud lawmaker is proposing a plan to divide Jerusalem’s Temple Mount between Muslims and Jews and to remove Jordan’s custodial status over the holy site.

Speaking to the Zman Yisrael Hebrew news site, Knesset member Amit Halevi outlined a plan whereby Muslims would control the southern end of the 37-acre complex which contains the Al-Aqsa mosque, while Jews would receive the central and northern area, where the Dome of the Rock sits.

It would also allow Jews to enter from any gate, and it would get rid of the Waqf as custodian of the site.

Palestinian sites are reporting this as a "draft law" (it isn't) and they are certain that the current Israeli government is planning to do this.

In his weekly cabinet meeting, Palestinian prime minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said "taking this step would cause overwhelming anger whose results cannot be controlled, because of the sanctity and religious value that Al-Aqsa Mosque constitutes for the Palestinian people and for Arabs and Muslims."

President of the Palestinian National Council, Ruhi Fattouh, called it "a fascist step by the racist settlement government to impose its control over the city of Jerusalem and its religious and historical places, especially the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque." He also called this a prelude to a religious war that will ignite the region.

Hamas media today quotes an analyst who says that this plan proves that they were right all along about Israel planning to divide up the area. And there have been daily articles across all Palestinian media railing against this idea.

The chances of such a plan becoming law is just about zero. It probably won't even be drafted.

Not that it is a bad idea. It would be more fair than the absurd situation now. But there is no way it would ever happen. Halevi is a marginal figure in Likud, and I haven't seen any grassroots support for the plan by anyone.

It is to Palestinians what the "Palestine is Jordan" plan is to Jordan - something they are intensely worried about but for which there is no realistic path. But it gives them endless nourishment for outlandish conspiracy theories.

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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

I'm in the middle of reading "Betrayal: The Failure of American Jewish Leadership," collection of essays edited by Charles Jacobs and Avi Goldwasser:

This book—perhaps the first devoted to this topic—documents the devastating failure of the Jewish establishment, including its leaders and major donors, to defend and protect American Jews as anti-Semitism surges across the country....Betrayed by their leaders, the essayists argue, American Jews require new, strong leadership.

While it is not an American Jewish organization, the World Jewish Congress - led by Ronald Lauder - may be a perfect example of this problem.

The World Jewish Congress issued this statement this morning:

World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder issued the following statement praising the return of the United States to UNESCO:

“The World Jewish Congress welcomes the decision by the United States to rejoin UNESCO after a five-year absence.

“Under the leadership of Director-General Audrey Azoulay, UNESCO has made an immeasurable impact on the world stage by safeguarding history amid tumultuous and complex global events, so that current and future generations can be exposed to and better understand the lessons of the past.

“WJC, a longtime UNESCO partner on Holocaust remembrance and interfaith initiatives, is hopeful that the agency will now be able to share its critical work with even broader audiences.”

One of the themes of this site is Jewish unity, and infighting among Jews is one of the organized Jewish community's worst problems. I do not like to attack Jewish organizations. But this statement is outrageous.

The entire reason the US left UNESCO in 2017 was because if its anti-Israel and anti-Jewish bias. That bias was consistent for years, with UNESCO regularly issuing biased reports and statements:

Denying any Jewish connection to the Temple Mount and even the Western Wall

Deploring Jews visiting the Temple Mount

Ignored Israeli casualties in the May 2019 Gaza war

Complimenting Jordan's plan for rebuilding the public ramp to the Temple Mount while condemning Israel's

Calling Maimonides a Muslim named Moussa ibn Maïmoun and refusing to apologize

I'm not saying that there might not be good reasons for the US to rejoin UNESCO. After months of lobbying by current UNESCO director-general Audrey Azoulay where she tried to reassure Israel she won’t allow anti-Israeli bias in the organization, Israel told the Biden administration last year that it wouldn't oppose the US re-joining. The US is concerned that China is now leading UNESCO in ways against US interests.

All this may be true, but:

The WJC claims that it "protects Jews everywhere and constantly defends the State of Israel against these threats." But Jews and Israel are missing in this press release. Instead, it is cheerleading an organization with a history of horrifying antisemitism and anti-Zionism.

How could it welcome the US decision, and praise UNESCO, without saying a word about UNESCO's antisemitic history? This is not the time for celebratory press release, but for a warning that UNESCO will be watched closely to see if there has been any significant change in its anti-Israel, antisemitic bias.

But the WJC is not saying that UNESCO is on its radar. On the contrary, WJC is giving UNESCO a kosher certification.

It is true that UNESCO has become less noxious under the leadership of Azoulay, but it has hardly ended its bias. Every year UNESCO reaffirms all previous resolutions minimizing the Jewish connection to Jewish holy sites (although it has returned to including the non-Muslim names of the Temple Mount, Tomb of the Patriarchs and Rachel's Tomb) as it condemns every Israeli move at all those sites. All the bias and hate are still there, but "softer."

This is hardly reason for celebration.

This is not Jewish leadership. This is capitulation. This is giving the message to world Jewry that their self-appointed leaders care more about access to powerful people than actually fighting for Jewish interests.

Real leaders tell the truth even if that will upset the powers that be. Ronald Lauder is a billionaire - he can say what he wants without any fear of personal consequences. This episode shows that he is no Jewish leader.

(Graphic courtesy of @iTil972)

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!

06/12 Links Pt1: Israel shouldn’t make concessions to Biden for Saudi normalization; UN Targets 35 U.S. States over Laws Banning Anti-Israel Bias; UN postpones conference on antisemitism

From Ian:

Jonathan Tobin: Israel shouldn’t make concessions to Biden for Saudi normalization

The truth is that the obstacles to Saudi normalization are entirely American.

As The Wall Street Journal reported back in March, the Saudis made clear what they need in exchange for normalization with Israel. They want the United States to formally commit to guarantee their security. And, in addition to more arms sales, they want aid for a civilian nuclear program, though that is widely interpreted as the beginning of a Saudi quest for a bomb with which they can deter Iran. Conspicuous by its absence from the list of Saudi demands was any assurance from the United States or Israel about creating an independent Palestinian state.

Most of all, they don’t want the Americans concluding a new weak Iran deal that will, despite their recent pact with Tehran, pose a direct threat to the existence of the Saudi monarchy. Yet as reports continue to indicate, and despite official denials of an imminent agreement, the Americans are pressing ahead with efforts to achieve a new accord with the Iranians.

Even if no nuclear deal emerges, Biden is unlikely to give the Saudis what they want.

No American administration wants to give them nuclear capability of any kind. But the Chinese will, especially if a new Iran pact guarantees, as Obama’s did, that Tehran will eventually get a bomb.

Just as much of an obstacle is the fact that his own party is unlikely to go along with arms sales or other concessions to the Saudis. The liberal corporate press has been working hard to demonize the Saudis for years, portraying MBS as a monster. The Saudis’ unpopularity was on display this week after the announced merger of the massively funded Saudi-sponsored upstart LIV Golf tour this week with the long-established PGA tour.

Even Americans who don’t care about golf seemed to be dismayed that Saudi oil billionaires successfully bought effective control of the sport. Liberal journalists have been raising the specter of that country’s responsibility for the 9/11 attacks to bash the deal, in spite of the fact that the whole point of the changes MBS has been pushing forward is to demonstrate that the desert kingdom wants to turn away from its past as a funder of fundamentalist Islam and terrorism.

In this atmosphere, most Democrats are not going to vote to give anything to the Saudis.

There has always been a school of thought that believed the Saudis will never jeopardize their standing as the guardians of Islam’s holy places by formalizing their strategic alliance with Israel. But even if they have decided, as they should, that the economic, diplomatic and military benefits of normalization far outweigh the damage it will do to their reputation among Muslims, the inducements that will convince them to do so can only come from the United States, not Israel.

Beleaguered as he is by the anti-judicial reform demonstrations, Netanyahu is, if anything, even more in need of a diplomatic triumph and a distraction from his political woes than Biden. Still, he should be smart enough to know that giving the Americans any concessions—no matter how valuable—will not guarantee Saudi normalization, stop a new Iran deal or secure Washington’s acquiescence for a strike on Tehran’s nuclear facilities if it comes to that. As he has in the past, Netanyahu must say “no” to Washington’s latest diktats.

Bassam Tawil: The United Nations' Jihad Against Israel

The UN, ostensibly dedicated to protecting human rights, and has, in fact, devolved into hurling bogus, tabloid-style allegations as it joins other blood-libel false charges by considering the addition of Israel to its list of blacklisted entities in its 2023 Children and Armed Conflict (CAAC) Report.

The UN resolution draft bizarrely, with no evidence, "accuses Israel of recruiting three Palestinian minors as human shields and combatants," among other offenses....

One of the leaders, in the zeal unjustly to add Israel to the UN blacklist, is World Vision International. It circulated an open letter -- with 18 co-signatory NGOs -- addressed to UN Secretary General António Guterres, repeating the phony and libelous charges against Israel regarding child recruitment.

In addition to this evangelical missionary organization's own anti-Israel history -- which features comparing Israel to Hitler's army and falsely accuses it of funding Hamas -- World Vision International's list of co-signers features a "Who's Who" of anti-Israel organizations, including Human Rights Watch, authors of the notorious report accusing Israel of "apartheid" and "crimes against humanity".

Importantly, Israel is recommended for blacklisting while Palestinian and Iranian armed groups are distinctly not.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) disassociates itself, when it is convenient, from its armed wing, Fatah, and other terror groups while "unofficially" inciting them to violence and even genocide. This is the PA we are talking about -- dominated by the ruling Fatah faction headed by Mahmoud Abbas -- not Hamas or Islamic Jihad,

"In response to threat that this posed to IDF forces, the IDF repeatedly conveyed warnings to the hospital staff, Palestinian officials, and international aid organizations, including the World Health Organization, requesting that they act in order to stop the hospital from being used for military purposes." — Mission of Israel to the UN in Geneva, July 27, 2104.

UN Report Targets 35 U.S. States over Laws Banning Anti-Israel Bias

The UN Commission of Inquiry (COI) on Thursday issued a new report that attacked rights of U.S. states to pass legislation banning discrimination against Israel via boycotts and whitewashed the antisemitism of Palestinian political organizations, said Israel's UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan.

"Yet again, the biased COI has released another sham report about Israel. This illegitimate committee, composed of three antisemites, is incapable of writing an impartial report on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The proof is their inability to include any references to Palestinian antisemitism in their latest attack on the Jewish state despite the Palestinian Authority which continually incites Jew-hatred and Hamas which seeks the destruction of Israel."

In what critics see as UN interference in domestic U.S. politics, the COI singled out states that bar anti-Israel boycott measures, including Florida, New York, New Jersey, Illinois and Texas.

A Florida history professor outs himself as incompetent about history - and as an antisemite

Yesterday, I tweeted my post about the hypocrisy about how the media and NGOs ignore the deliberate murder of a Gaza child by his stepmother while dozens of articles were written about Israel's accidental killing of a similar child.

One of the responses was most illuminating, but not in the way that the tweeter intended.

The surest way to know I've hit a nerve with the anti-Israel crowd is when they respond with anti-Israel tweets that have nothing to do with the original tweet. They are so incensed that anyone could give a perspective on the conflict that doesn't make Israel into an ogre that they want to ensure that their lying narrative of unrelenting Israeli evil overwhelms any other perspective.

In this case the tweeter clearly didn't even read the Haaretz article he was referring to. It is a very interesting account about how many Nazis were employed by everyone after the war - the US, England, the Soviets, and a significant number made their way to Syria and Egypt to continue their unfinished war against Jews. One who was expelled from Syria was then convinced to give the Mossad intelligence about Syria, intel that would save the lives of Jews. Another was recruited to help Israel hurt Egyptian plans for rockets that would be used against Jews in Israel. In that case, the ex-Nazi asked to be immune from any future Israeli reprisals for his activity during the war, and the Mossad refused to give that to him.

At any rate, one recruits spies from one's enemies. That's how spycraft works.

(The article also shows how the same Mossad that sometimes decided that an ex-Nazi might help save Jewish lives also went after Nazis, sending letter bombs in attempted assassinations, for example. )

What do you call it when Jews are expected to adhere to imaginary moral standards that the rest of the world is not expected to? Yes, that is antisemitism. Of course, so is any claim that Israel has nothing to do with Jews - no one can disagree that a Hebrew speaking state with a Jewish majority on the historic land of the Jews has something to do with Jews.

Normally I would ignore this stupidity, but the PhD in his name made me look at his profile.

This moron is a professor?

Sure enough, he is a part-time professor at American Military University and full-time professor at Indian River State College in Florida.

I looked up some of his publications, and didn't see anything particularly offensive. However, Shelby recently wrote a book about US policy in the Middle East during the Johnson administration and it took me seconds to find both his bias and his sloppiness with facts when it comes to Israel:

The 1947 partition plan gave the Negev to the Jewish state, not the Arabs. And the Arabs didn't reject partition because of the distribution of land - they rejected the idea of a Jewish state on any borders, as they made quite clear in all their public statements at the time.

This is propaganda to minimize Arab intolerance, not history.

So we know that Alex Shelby, who is of Palestinian ancestry, is a poor researcher and that his tweet to me showed he has an antisemitic double standard. But is he really an antisemite?

This pair of tweets, from April 2022 and April 2023, show clearly Shelby's blatant disregard for honesty and consistency as well as his antisemitism.

The first tweet is just sloppy - Byzantines built a church on the site.

But Shelby changes his theory about the Temples that he admits existed in 2022 and then in 2023 claims not only that there is no evidence that they existed, and that Jews "abandoned" it for "over 3000 years."

A history professor claims, against all evidence from the Bible to Josephus to hundreds of First and Second Temple artifacts found there to the different sections of the Temple Mount itself that testify to the dates of its building and expansions, that there is "no empirical evidence" that is ever existed?

That's merely enough to entirely discredit any credentials he has as a historian. But he goes beyond that, claiming that Jews "abandoned" their holiest spot, when for 2000 (not 3000) years we have been praying three times daily towards that exact spot for the restoral of the Temple

No, these are not simple mistakes. This is not a simple example of lying about history This is an attack on Jews today, meant to offend Jews today, about our history and prayers, our art and poetry, all centered on Jerusalem, Zion and the restoration of the Temple. And the earlier tweet about the Temple proves that Shelby knows he is lying but his desire to attack Jews overwhelms his desire to write anything accurate about history.

This is what makes him an antisemite. And Indian River State College as well as American Military University should carefully consider whether they want to employ someone who is so filled with hate that he is willing to lie about history just to offend Jews.

They should at least wonder what other lies he is telling his students.

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!

Armenian Quarter parking lot

Last week, AP wrote a long article about a planned land sale in the Armenian Quarter of Jerusalem to become a luxury hotel that is sending residents into a panic:

A real estate deal in Jerusalem's Old City, the latest epicenter over the battle over the Judaization of the city, has sent the historic Armenian community there into a panic as residents search for answers about the feared loss of their homes to a mysterious investor.

The 99-year lease of some 25 percent of the Old City's Armenian Quarter has touched sensitive nerves in the Holy Land and sparked a controversy extending far beyond the Old City walls. The fallout has forced the highest authority of the Armenian Orthodox Church to cloister himself in a convent and prompted a disgraced priest who is allegedly behind the deal to flee to a Los Angeles suburb.

...Alarm over the lease spread in April, following a surprise visit by Israeli land surveyors. Word got around that an Australian-Israeli investor, whose company sign appeared on the site, planned to transform the parking lot and limestone fortress of Armenian apartments and shops into an ultra-luxury hotel.

As anger, confusion and fears of possible evictions mounted, the Armenian patriarchate — the body managing the community’s civil and religious affairs — acknowledged that the church had signed away the patch of land.

The entire article goes on and on about the fear of residents of being displaced, before paragraph 21:

Renowned Israeli architect Moshe Safdie told the AP that Rothman would fund the project and that he would design it. Construction, he said, would start following excavations at the parking lot. It is unclear whether residents will be evicted, but the patriarchate has promised to assist any residents who are displaced.

As far as anyone knows, nothing was sold beyond the parking lot, which is a significant part of the Armenian Quarter. As Media Line reported last month:

A large portion of the Armenian Quarter in Jerusalem’s Old City has been sold to a Jewish developer in a move that could erase the centuries-old Armenian presence in the city and further squeeze the Christian minority in Israel.

Though details of the deal remain unclear, the Armenian Quarter parking lot was taken over two weeks ago by a private company, Xana Capital.

The parking lot is a significant portion of the Armenian Quarter, on the southwest corner of the Old City:

There is no evidence at all in any of the articles about this sale that any land beyond the parking lot was purchased or that a single person will be displaced. Rumors about sale (actually, lease) to someone Jewish (even though the property will be managed by a Dubai-based group) have spun into a huge conspiracy to evict Jerusalem Armenians.

As bad as the AP story is, Haaretz made it even worse. Haaretz' subhead for this story doesn't even include the very few caveats that AP wrote:

Haaretz falsely claims, as fact, that the community's "apartments and shops" will be torn down and turned into an "ultra luxury hotel." You have to read the entire article very carefully to realize that all the hubbub is about the sale of a parking lot.

Even then you wouldn't know that the parking lot takes up a lot of the sparse open Old City space, and is probably the largest section of the Old City that has not been developed outside of the Temple Mount.. It is even larger than the Western Wall plaza.

The parking lot has plenty of room for a hotel without any need for any other land or buildings. Why would an investor even want to have the headache and PR problems of evicting businesses and families when the parking lot itself is very large? The entire story is based on rumors that have no basis.

Instead of emphasizing the facts and providing context, AP and especially Haaretz are making up a story about evil, shadowy Jews slyly buying land to Judaize Jerusalem and make innocent non-Jews homeless. That is the narrative that the world believes about Israel and it is the only narrative that is acceptable to be reported in international media.

A businessman buying a parking lot is not news.

(h/t Tomer Ilan)

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!

From Arab News:

There was uproar in Lebanon on Thursday after Kuwaiti media writer and producer Fajer Al-Saeed was prevented from entering the country.

Al-Saeed was stopped at Beirut’s Rafic Hariri International Airport on Wednesday evening, with Lebanon’s General Security rejecting a request from Kuwaiti Embassy officials to allow her to spend the night there before leaving on the first flight to Kuwait.

Instead, she was deported back to her country on Thursday morning after spending the night at the airport.

Joseph Al-Kosseifi, head of the Lebanese Press Editors’ Syndicate, told Arab News: “We are against obstructing the work of any journalist in Lebanon — whether Lebanese or visiting from abroad.

“What happened requires clarification. Some claim that Al-Saeed was prevented from entering Lebanon due to an Israeli stamp on her passport, while others argue that her bold stance against Hezbollah was the reason...."

Ya Libnan also blamed Hezbollah:

One analyst who did not want to be named for fear on his life told Ya Libnan, "There is always a Hezbollah official at the airport who decides if a person can enter Lebanon or not , because the General Security is controlled by Hezbollah."

Hezbollah itself (via Al Akhbar) claimed that the reason she was barred was because there was an Israeli stamp on her passport.

But Fajer Al-Saeed herself said that was a lie - she has visited the West Bank more than once at the invitation of the PA, but she doesn't have an Israeli stamp. Which is almost certainly true since Israel doesn't generally stamp passports but inserts a piece of paper to allow visitors avoid exactly these sorts of situations.

Al Saeed has also been a guest on Israeli social media and has publicly called for peace between Arab states and Israel.

So there were plenty of reasons that Hezbollah would not want Al-Saeed to enter the country. And apparently they make the real decisions in some aspects of Lebanese life.

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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

Latest EoZ memes, posters, &c. making fun of the anti-Israel idiots

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!

06/11 Links: The EU must stop supporting anti-Israel efforts; Ten ways to ‘work on’ ending the pay-for-slay; PA holds military funeral for terrorist who was also PA officer

From Ian:

Israel acts as UN poised to keep anti-Zionism out of antisemitism definition

Israel is working to thwart an initiative at the United Nations that would not define anti-Zionism as a form of antisemitism.

The initiative was proposed by UN High-Representative for the Alliance of Civilizations Miguel Moratinos, former foreign minister of Spain, who had earlier been appointed the organization's point man on Jew-hatred.

Moratinos was tasked with enhancing a system-wide response, a plan for which he is scheduled to present in Córdoba in about two weeks. However, contrary to Israel's requests, he advocates for the adoption of a more lenient term for antisemitism, which, as mentioned above, would not equate anti-Zionism with Jew-hatred.

Under the IHRA definition of antisemitism, which Israel is trying to get the UN to adopt, any attempt to deny the Jewish people their right to sovereignty is considered antisemitism. The definition has been accepted by several European countries, including Britain and Germany, and other EU bodies, as well as the United States State Department.

Israel's Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan met with Mortinos when the former began his term. At the time, Mortinoc made it seem that he would promote the more accepted version of the definition, however, two years later, his plans have changed, and he has refrained from consulting with Israel and is promoting his plan unilaterally.

The EU must stop supporting anti-Israel efforts

We are currently in the 30th year since the signing of the Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements which formally began the Oslo Process.

These accords were supported and witnessed by many international actors, including the European Union.

Over the years, the Oslo Accords were used against Israel on countless occasions, whether to voice anger over the building of Israeli communities in Area C, something permitted under Oslo, or when Israel demolished illegal Palestinian buildings in the same area, also allowed under the Accords.

Prominent members of the international community constantly rail against Israel for all manner of mostly imagined infractions under the guise of not acting according to its commitments in signed agreements.

Nonetheless, this only appears to be one-way criticism. The Palestinian Authority is rarely criticized for its daily infractions of the Oslo Accords, in spirit and in deed.

Most significantly, one would be hard-pressed to show how the Palestinian position hasn’t regressed and hardened over the last three decades and an end to the conflict is more elusive than ever.

Most Israelis know that the Oslo Accords have been a resounding disaster for Israel. It did not stop the terrorism, nor did it bring the sides closer to peace.

Despite the early optimism which turned sour with unending terrorism and bloodshed, the massive unrequited compromises, the generous peace offers and the disengagement from major swathes of territory, while there is little enthusiasm for Oslo across the Israeli political spectrum, the Jewish State continues to play by the Oslo rules.

Remarkably, the Palestinians’ regular disregard for the Oslo rules has been backed and even buttressed by much of the international community, chiefly the European Union.

Ten ways to ‘work on’ ending the pay-for-slay

No matter how many times the PA-controlled news media slander the United States, no matter how many times PA officials accuse the US of orchestrating the 9/11 attacks or poisoning Arab children, the Biden administration continues to embrace and praise the PA – and pay its bills.

That’s how the administration gets around the Taylor Force Act’s ban on US aid to the PA – the American money goes through non-governmental channels to pay various expenses that the PA would otherwise have to pay. By the end of 2022, Biden had sent the Palestinian Arabs close to $1 billion in this manner.

CLEARLY, THIS approach hasn’t persuaded the PA to end pay-for-slay, as Assistant Secretary Leaf acknowledged. So maybe the administration needs some new ideas. Here are ten: The ten methods

Stop paying the PA’s expenses. Let them pay their own bills.

Suspend US assistance to the Palestinian security forces – and publish a list of the names of the many Palestinian security forces members who have taken part in terrorist attacks.

Publish a list of the names of the imprisoned terrorists and dead terrorists’ families who are receiving PA funds, including the exact amounts they are receiving each month.

Halt all meetings between US representatives and PA officials, including the office of the Special Representative for Palestinian Affairs.

Issue a public warning to American tourists that visiting PA-controlled territory is dangerous, since the PA government finances terrorists.

Offer financial rewards for the capture of fugitive Palestinian Arab terrorists who were involved in the murders of American citizens. Currently the Justice Department’s Rewards for Justice Program offers such rewards in only three of those cases, even though there are many dozens – perhaps hundreds – of such terrorists at large. Order the Justice Department’s Office of Justice for Victims of Overseas Terrorism to publish quarterly reports on the whereabouts of Palestinian killers of Americans and what the US is doing to apprehend them.

Organize a major conference in Washington, featuring Israelis and Americans who were wounded by Palestinian Arab terrorists, or whose loved ones were murdered in terrorist attacks.

Sponsor public memorial events honoring American victims of Palestinian Arab terrorism.

Instruct the Justice Department to actively support legal efforts by terror victims’ families to seek compensation from the PA.

Considering the bowing-and-scraping tenor of US policy toward the Palestinian Authority in recent years, undertaking even one of these steps would provide quite a shock to the system. Try a few of them, and the PA might even be convinced to end pay-for-slay.

There was a heinous crime in Gaza this weekend.

A two and a half year old child, Mustafa Nahed Muhammad Saqr, was drowned in a barrel of water.

His stepmother admitted to the murder. She was jealous that she couldn't have children of her own so she decided to murder her husband's child to avoid that feeling of shame. It was a twist on honor killing.

There were reports in Gaza media on Friday when it appeared to be an accidental drowning, but now that the mother has confessed, instead of showing more interest in the story, Palestinian media has become mostly silent. I only saw this mentioned in a couple of relatively independent but obscure sites.

Which makes this a double honor crime - one the murder itself, and the other by Palestinian media not wanting to cover a horrific murder because it makes them look bad, and it detracts from the narrative that Israel is the only source of evil in the region.

As of this writing, Defence for Children International Palestine has not mentioned this murder. Chances are they won't. Because they aren't trying to defend Palestinian children's lives - their entire purpose is to demonize Israel.

Western media showed intense interest in the accidental killing of Mohammed Tamimi, who was about the same age as Mustafa when he died last week. Social media erupted with memes and photos of the child, alive and dead. But only the most extreme anti-Israel activists accused Israel of deliberate murder.

Here we have a deliberate murder of a Palestinian child, and Western media will shun the story, a week after they eagerly embraced a story of a Palestinian child tragically but mistakenly killed by Israel.

By any objective standard, the murder of Mustafa is a much more important story.

But there are no objective standards when it comes to media coverage of Palestinians.

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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

A new survey of Jordanians by the Washington Institute reveals that Jordanian hate for Israel reaches the level of self-harm.

The Washington Institute’s Program on Arab Politics/Fikra Forum regularly surveys the Arab world. Its latest poll shows that Jordanians remain implacably anti-Israel and would rather Jordan suffer than allow even the most beneficial ties with the hated Jewish state.

84% of Jordanians across all age groups are opposed to having business deals with Israeli companies even if it would help their economy.

Previous polls do not seem to have asked similar questions in quite the same way; in 2020 89% disagreed that "people who want to have business or sports contacts with Israelis should be allowed to do so." But that question was worded that the only person to lose out would be the would-be businessperson; here they were asked if they themselves would prefer to have a worse economy rather than allowing business deals with Israeli (meaning Jewish-owned Israeli) companies.

The psychosis gets even worse in the answer to the question of whether, in case of a natural disaster like an earthquake, Arab countries should refuse aid from Israel. 76% agreed with that statement, meaning that they are willing to sacrifice their own or other Arab lives rather than even see Israelis helping them.

This is beyond spite. With spite, there is at least the concept that one's pain is worth the satisfaction of hurting the other party. But refusing aid does not hurt Israel in the least - the only victims are the refusers themselves.

This cannot be explained by standard psychological descriptions of racism or hate. Very few racists would walk out of the hospital when they see the doctor about to treat them is of another race. In that case, self-preservation would trump racism; for Jordanians the hate overcomes the bigotry. How can that be?

As with much else in the Middle East, it can be explained by another framework: that of the honor/shame mentality. To allow themselves to be helped by the hated Israelis - again, exclusively meaning Israeli Jews - would be an affront to the Arab honor, because it means that the Jews can provide something they cannot provide adequately themselves. Accepting aid from people they consider inferior dhimmis is shameful, and that shame is more powerful than physical health, or economic gains, or human life itself.

This is a fundamentally different type of antisemitic mindset than the ones we are familiar with in the Western world. And it is one that is barely dealt with in psychological texts, which often try to lump all kinds of bigotry and racism into the same bucket.

The Jordanian response to this poll prove that Arab antisemitism, as expressed today, is different from that of traditional antisemites. Honor/shame is a powerful incentive that goes beyond the idea of self preservation. It cannot be combatted with outreach programs - it requires a fundamental change in the very way much of the Arab world thinks.

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!

He was released from Israeli prison last month. Now he's dead. And Palestinians killed him.

Khalil Mesbah Khalil Ahmed Musa was sentenced in 2003 to 20 years in prison for a terror attack.

He was a leader of the Al Aqsa Brigades in Jenin, and was convicted for shooting, setting explosive devices, and attempted murder.

His 20 year sentence ended in May, and he was released, to a large celebration with his fellow Fatah terrorists.

Now, a month later, justice was served - but in an unexpected way.

43-year old Khalil Musa was killed on Saturday during a family quarrel in Jenin.

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!

06/10 Links: ‘Pathological,’ Hillel Neuer says of UN efforts to discredit Israel; Dore Gold: 'Haaretz' columnist is a strange opponent to Israeli-Saudi peace

From Ian:

‘New heights of obsession’ in UN inquiry report, says NGO Monitor

A new report published by a commission of inquiry of the U.N. Human Rights Council is methodologically flawed and reflects “extreme ideological bias.” That’s according to the pro-Israel organization NGO Monitor.

NGO Monitor analyzed the 56-page report of the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in Israel.

The commission “has reached new heights of obsession,” stated Anne Herzberg, NGO Monitor’s legal advisor and U.N. representative. The report “firmly demonstrates that its work is not that of a legitimate investigatory body but rather one engaged in producing disinformation.”

The report will “bolster BDS and marginalize Jews that speak out against terrorism and antisemitism,” she added.

Arsen Ostrovsky, CEO of the International Legal Form, described the report as “another obscene inversion of reality, without any factual or legal basis and where Israel’s guilt was fixed from the outset.”

This sort of “unhinged assault on Israel” has become the Human Rights Council’s status quo, according to Ostrovsky, who accused it of “unrelenting Jew-hatred” for its opposition to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism.

Both Ostrovsky and Herzberg called for the commission of inquiry, which the Israel mission has called a “kangaroo court,” to be defunded.

‘Pathological,’ Hillel Neuer says of UN efforts to discredit Israel

Hillel Neuer’s most famous salvo is likely a 2017 speech in which the UN Watch executive director singled out several Arab countries before the United Nations Human Rights Council.

“Where are your Jews?” he asked each.

A recording on YouTube, which more than a million people have viewed, includes a 2018 speech in which Neuer answered his own question—that Jewish refugees from many Arab countries fled to Israel, the United States, Canada, France and others.

“These Jewish refugees from Arab lands—whose suffering and losses the U.N. has never addressed—put their hardship behind them and built great lives for their families,” he said. “Now, let us contrast this with the situation of those descended from Arab refugees, who fled the area of British Mandatory Palestine during the invasion of nascent Israel by Arab armies. What is holding them back?”

Again, Neuer answered his own question. Palestinians are the only population in the world “not eligible for services by the U.N. Refugee Agency,” he said. “Instead, these descendants are governed by UNRWA, which holds generation after generation trapped in refugee camps, denied integration in the Arab countries they were born in and denied resettlement elsewhere.” (UNRWA is the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.)

In a recent phone interview from Geneva, headquarters of the 30-year-old human-rights NGO, Neuer told JNS—as he approaches his 20th anniversary at the helm of UN Watch—that the nonprofit is a leading force against “the pathological discrimination and delegitimization of Israel” at the United Nations.

He and colleagues “give a voice to the voiceless, which is what the U.N. should be doing, living up to its charter,” he told JNS. “They should be spotlighting urgent human-rights violations that too often go ignored.”

Must watch, 4-minute masterclass by PM @netanyahu on Sky News, making the case for the Jewish people’s right to Judea & Samaria (‘West Bank’) and why Israel’s presence there is not an impediment to peace!pic.twitter.com/WpwDRGio2V
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) June 10, 2023

Dore Gold: 'Haaretz' columnist is a strange opponent to Israeli-Saudi peace

Haaretz featured an op-ed this week by one of its chief opinion writers, Rogel Alpher, provocatively titled “I oppose peace with Saudi Arabia.”

In the past, the author was well known for writing highly controversial pieces attacking the ideas of the Israeli mainstream, including the center-Left. Once talk of Israel concluding a peace treaty with Riyadh began to surface, as has been the case over the last year, Saudi Arabia became one of his new targets.

The main issue Saudi critics dealt with during that period were the allegations about the possible role of the Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman (MBS) in authorizing the assassination of Saudi journalist and regime critic, Jamal Khashoggi, in Istanbul five years ago.

But Khashoggi was not even mentioned in the Haaretz piece. Neither was MBS. If Rogel Alpher was opposing an Israeli-Saudi peace, his position had nothing to do with this episode. What he did make clear, however, was that his considerations for the position he was taking primarily emanated from the impact of an Israeli-Saudi peace on Israeli domestic politics in the future, and its role in strengthening the present Israeli government.

06/09 Links Pt2: Melanie Phillips: The Jews’ lesson for the West; The Six Day War: Six fateful days for Israel in 1967; Top UN official defends Roger Waters amid 'antisemitism' row

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: The Jews’ lesson for the West

The greatest single crime against humanity took place at the very apex of Western culture. As a result, the West became profoundly demoralized, with a collapse in cultural self-belief. The resulting vacuum was filled by revolutionaries who seized their chance to remake the world by undermining normative values and the Western nation-state.

They set about replacing the particularistic aspects of Western and national culture with supposedly universal values that would usher in the utopia of the brotherhood of man.

The cultural precepts at the core of Western civilization were fundamentally Jewish values, mediated through Christianity. It was the Jewish people who, under King David, created the paradigmatic nation-state.

Identity politics, which are an outgrowth of universalism, are inimical to the intensely particularistic principles of the Hebrew Bible. From Christianity to Islam, from communism to fascism, Jews have always been in the cross-hairs of universalizing ideologies.

Unfortunately, many progressive Jews have bought heavily into universalism. This is particularly true in America, where the majority of Jews have told themselves that identity politics represent Jewish values, which they do not.

Last month’s NatCon event revealed a fledgling fightback to rescue both conservatism and the Western nation-state from the universalist assault.

Conservatism is the defense of essential values. The nation is crucial to defending those values. In order to put conservatism back into the nation, the nation needs to be put back into conservatism.

Jews helped create universalism. They had the best of intentions, but they were wrong. Far from addressing the limitations of the nation, universalism undermines it and erodes the values of a free and democratic society.

That is the real lesson the Jewish people can teach the West; and if the West chooses to listen, this lesson can save it.

Mark Regev: The Six Day War: Six fateful days for Israel in 1967

A narrative exists that the US-Israel alliance was inaugurated in May 1948, when president Harry Truman became the first world leader to grant de facto recognition to the newborn Jewish state.

But while Israel celebrated Washington’s expeditious recognition, Truman was offering moral support, not an alliance. His administration imposed an arms embargo on Israel and the warring Arab states that, while seemingly evenhanded, reinforced the Arabs’ preexisting quantitative advantage. In the end, it was Czechoslovakian weaponry – not American – that gave the IDF the upper hand in the War of Independence.

Throughout the 1950s, America’s arms embargo remained largely in place. In 1962, president John Kennedy broke with precedent in agreeing to sell Israel defensive weapons – most famously the Hawk anti-aircraft missile. Still, when the IDF went into battle in 1967, its air force consisted of French-made Mirage, Mystère, and Ouragan warplanes.

Israel might have been the only Middle Eastern country with a democratically elected government and an independent judiciary, but prior to the Six Day War, Washington saw its Cold War strategic interests as resting primarily with the Arab side. Only after the IDF proved its battlefield prowess did the US-Israel relationship move into high gear.

Six-Day War: 56 Years on, Israel Forges New Alliances and Confronts Emerging Threats

The Jewish State still faces old threats and news hostile alliances, as its marks the 56th anniversary of the Six-Day War. While five decades of Israeli diplomacy has won over Arab allies in the Gulf, Iran is forging a new axis of terror in a bid to encircle Israel.

In the summer of 1967, Israel confronted the combined forces of three Arab armies — backed by the Soviet Union and several Arab-Muslim states. Arab forces, spearheaded by Egypt, kicked off military hostilities by blockading the Straits of Tiran.

On June 5, Israel responded with surprise air strikes on Egyptian airfields, obliterating the Soviet-supplied air force. The allied Syrian and Jordanian forces met the same fate, and in the ensuing battle, Israel managed to repel ground attacks on all three fronts.

The war ended with a resounding defeat for the Arabs states, giving Israel control over ancestral Jewish land, including the Holy City of Jerusalem as well as the regions of Sinai, Judea, and Samaria. Israel captured the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau used by the Syrians to shell Israeli towns and military positions in the north. The territorial gains gave Israel the strategic depth and high ground needed to withstand future attacks.

Arab Rejectionism and Palestinian Terrorism
Less than three months after their military defeat, the Arab nations met in Sudan and issue their vengeful “3 Nos” enshrined in the notorious Khartoum Resolution: “no peace with Israel, no negotiations with Israel, no recognition of Israel.”

It took more than 50 years for the Arabs to begin the process of reconciliation with Israel. In 2020, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain signed the President Donald Trump-brokered Abraham Accords to normalize diplomatic relations with the Jewish State. The Trump administration brought other Arab and Muslim nations into the fold of the Arab Accords. President Trump also recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and acknowledged the Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Height, a move bitterly opposed by most European governments and Muslim states.

Unable to win on the battlefield, Palestinians — trained, armed, and funded by Arab regimes and the Soviet bloc — doubled down on terrorism as the means to bring Israel to its knees. They murdered innocent civilians, highjacked airliners, and planted bombs at Jewish and Israeli sites. At the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, the Palestinian terrorist group Black September murdered 11 members of the Israeli national team as the world watched in horror. Their Jew hatred continues to create new terrorist outfits to join the alphabet soup of Palestinian groups.

Today's "anti-Zionism:" "Jews cheated to win the 1947 partition vote"

Every day in Arabic media, the claim that antisemitism and anti-Zionism have nothing to do with each other is shown to be a lie, agaim and again.

Today's example comes from Watanserb, where Muhammad Al-Walidi writes:

The division of Palestine by the United Nations in 1947 was the largest operation of deception and forgery in history committed by this international organization and the Jewish masters and their usurers...

What was important to global Zionism was to propose a legal division of Palestine at the United Nations, after which the role of Jewish money would come in bringing votes in favor of them, in another fraud.

Despite all the efforts of the Zionists, America and the West to make the decision to partition Palestine at the United Nations a success , the first vote, which took place on November 25, 1947, failed.

This prompted the intensification of the Jewish pressure for a re-vote and its success.....

There were two partition votes, and when the first one failed, the Jews managed to schedule another round?

Mr. al-Walidi is mixing up the vote by the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) recommending partition and the actual UN General Assembly vote. I doubt this was a mistake.

He gives many examples of pressure by the US and Israel for voting for partition. Some of those are true - but why is lobbying by Jews any less moral than lobbying by everyone else? The Arab nations lobbied intensely as well, and threatened multiple times that partition would lead to a slaughter of all the Jews in the Middle East, as well as threats of an oil embargo or to tilt against the US to the Soviets if the partition vote passed - all to sway delegates to their side.

The representative of Guatemala carried out extensive activity within the corridors of the United Nations in order to advance the partition decision - British documents confirmed that he had received bribes from American Jewish organizations, not to mention his relationship with a Jewish girl.

I cannot find any record of these supposed British documents, but Guatemala representative Jorge García Granados was a committed Zionist, writing an entire book in 1948 detailing the birth of Israel that shows his love of the land and the people. It doesn't sound like the actions of a person who was bribed.

As usual, this piece of "anti-Zionist" writing is pure antisemitism. Jews are a nefarious force who cheat, bribe and steal to get their way. And the only reason is because...that's just how Jews are.

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!

06/09 Links Pt1: Bombshell UN report attacks Israel’s 'supporters' worldwide; Hamas-Affiliated Network in Europe Fails to Gaslight Swedes; Kosovo adopts IHRA antisemitism definition

From Ian:

Anne Bayefsky: Bombshell UN report attacks Israel’s 'supporters' worldwide

The report specifically names Palestinian (and Israeli) victims of alleged Israeli crimes, but doesn’t name a single Israeli victim of a Palestinian crime. The report couldn’t locate a single Palestinian terrorist or terrorist organization. There are only Israelis guilty of wrongly “labeling them as ‘terrorists.’” The only children who count in the report are Palestinian children allegedly harmed by Israelis targeting and arresting their parents – not the acts of their parents in the first place. Not Palestinian children used as human shields and child soldiers. Not Palestinian victims of rocketattacks that miss their Jewish targets. Not Palestinian minors actively engaged in terrorism themselves.

The report says nothing at all about Israeli children
The report finds no Palestinian antisemitism, only alleged Jewish stooges of the Israeli government who have wrongly “reframed antisemitism.” Here were three inquisitors, none of whom is Jewish or a victim of antisemitism, announcing from their UN perch that they know better about what counts as antisemitism than Jewish victims of antisemitism.The report describes boycotts of Israel (BDS) – deeply discriminatory campaigns aimed at the political and economic ruin of the Jewish state – as “legitimate protest.” The inquisitors complain that Israel is engaged in “lawfare,” in a report that culminates with a call to the International Criminal Court to commence an anti-Israel blitzkrieg. The report accuses Israel of a “strategy of delegitimizing and silencing civil society.” Official delegitimizing strategies like promoting antisemitism, Palestinian Authority payments to terrorists and their families, and the Hamas Charter exhorting genocide, were never raised. Nor was the ultimate Palestinian silencing strategy pursued for the last 75 years – murdering Jews.

The inquisitors claim that Palestinians face “a clear attempt to erase their identity, culture and history” after recounting that “history” as the catastrophic creation of a Jewish state by way of the criminal act of “ethnic cleansing.”Actual history – namely, three thousand years of attempted erasure of the Jewish people’s connection to their ancestral homeland, the erasure of Jewish populations from Arab lands, and the ongoing erasure of Jews for attempting to fulfill Jewish self-determination in the land of Israel – is never mentioned.

The inquisitors attack critics as engaging in a “well-organized smear campaign,” while engaging in a well-organized smear campaign to slander individuals and organizations who don’t dutifully “criticize Israeli policy” or “support Palestinian rights.” By which they mean anyone who challenges the “Palestinian narrative” – laced with falsehoods and lethal incitement. The report accuses Israel of seeking “permanent occupation.” Except that Israeldemonstrably left Sinai and Gaza, and permanent non-negotiation is a Palestinian trademark. Deceitfully, this inquisition styles itself a purveyor of “legitimate criticism of Israelipolicies and actions.”

In reality, “Pillay’s pogrom” is one of the most antisemitic and dangerous assaults on the homeland of the Jewish people in UN history.

The UN inquisition to vilify Israel

The third installment of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) appointed Inquisition to vilify Israel and the Jews is out, and it is safe to say that even Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels himself would be proud of the product. Using selective evidence, selected witnesses, manipulative techniques, sleight of hand, invented methodology, and standards, all mixed with a huge dollop of bias and classic antisemitism, Navi Pillay and her co-conspirators have produced another travesty of fact, justice, and morality. Considering the nature, scope, modus operandi, inherent bias, and the identity of its members, the “Commission of Inquiry” is more akin to a Middle Ages Inquisition to persecute Jews, than a legitimate UN human rights endeavor.

In May 2021, the UNHRC, well known for its pathological hatred of Israel, appointed yet another “Commission of Inquiry” to investigate Israel. While UN commissions of this nature are not new, this one was unique in the breadth of its scope, the enormity of its budget, and the absence of any end date.

While cloaking their report in the halo of “human rights”, Pillay’s Inquisition has already decided that the Jews and Israel are guilty, and having already fired the proverbial arrow, are now simply engaged in drawing the target around the guilt of the Jews.

In its newest “report”, which pays special attention to the alleged “shrinking space for civil society in the Occupied Palestinian Territory including East Jerusalem and in Israel,” Pillay’s Inquisition weaves a not-so-careful web of deception.

In the Inquisition’s alternate reality, Palestinians are paragons of virtue who bear no ill feeling or ill intent towards Israel, Israelis, or Jews. No Palestinian terrorist organizations exist, no Palestinian terrorists exist, and no Palestinians have ever raised their hands against innocent victims. The Palestinian leadership does not incite terror on a daily basis, and even the Palestinian Authority’s nefarious ‘Pay-for-Slay’ terror reward policy does not exist.

US Left aims to sabotage Saudi-Israeli peace for Palestinian statehood

The New York Times columnist Tom Friedman and others on the hard Left are seeking to scuttle normalization between Riyadh and Jerusalem. They will not tolerate any breakthrough in ties between Saudi Arabia and Israel during the tenure of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and certainly not until they get their long-groused-about Palestinian state.

In a nasty 6,000-word essay this week, Friedman compared the forward-looking bent of Saudi Arabia under its young leader Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, with the backwardness of Israel under the nationalist-haredi coalition headed by Netanyahu.

Friedman called upon the Biden administration to play hardball with Israel and “only invite Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the Oval Office if he will answer two questions: One, are you occupying the West Bank and committed to resolving its permanent status through negotiations with the Palestinians, or do you see Israel’s current control of the Palestinians as the permanent status, never to be changed? We need to know once and for all.”

“And two, are you committed to ensuring that any major changes to Israel’s court system will be implemented with broad public support to ensure political stability, because the US has a huge interest in its most important military ally in the region not descending into civil war over judicial reform?”

Friedman barked that “For the last 75 years Israel has been a trusted and vital strategic partner of the United States, but that was always based on shared interests and shared values. If those values aren’t shared any longer, we need to know that. We need to get behind those Israelis who want to preserve Israel as a democracy – and keep locking the White House gates to anyone who doesn’t.”

Picking up on the radical rhetoric of parts of the Israeli opposition, Friedman is thrilled to insinuate that Israel is no longer a democracy that shares America’s values. In fact, reading between the lines of his previous columns you can feel Friedman’s elation at Israel’s supposed moral fall. You can sense the relief he feels from the need to support Israel any longer.

Hamas-Affiliated Network in Europe Fails to Gaslight Swedes - Opinion

On May 27th, the annual European Palestinians Conference (EPC) took place in Malmo, Sweden, the sole aim of which was to unjustly demonize the State of Israel. Attendance, however, was less than the EPC anticipated, after news spread about the conference’s links to the EU-designated Hamas terrorist organization, causing several Swedish parliamentarians to quickly withdraw their attendance, rightfully hesitant to tarnish their reputations by sharing a stage with terror-linked individuals.

After years of casually spreading Hamas-laden propaganda throughout Europe, perhaps finally, the danger that EPC poses will be taken seriously. But in order for that to happen, the truth about the EPC must be exposed.

The most troubling aspect of the EPC is that its President, Amin Abou Rashed, is a former member of the Al-Aqsa Foundation Netherlands, a Hamas network led by the Muslim Brotherhood’s spiritual leader Yusuf Qardawi before his death. The foundation was designated by the US Department of Treasury as part of a coalition of organizations fundraising on behalf of Hamas. Perhaps it’s no surprise then that Abou Rashed has been repeatedly photographed embracing Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh at Hamas events.

For this and other reasons, Israel’s Defense Ministry designated Abou Rashed as a terrorist in 2013. The Ministry also designated EPC Secretary General, Dr. Mazen Kahel, as a terrorist due to his Hamas affiliation.

The EPC’s issues also extend to the groups that comprise it. Since its first annual conference in 2003, the EPC has repeatedly been organized by the UK-based Palestine Return Centre (PRC), a staunch advocate of the so-called Palestinian “right of return,” which would effectively lead to the dissolution of Israel as a Jewish state. Zaher Birawi, the former head of the Centre, was designated by Israel as a terrorist for his involvement with Hamas, as was its former general director, Majed Khalil Musa Al Zeer. In 2010, PRC was outlawed by Israel for acting as an organizational and coordinating arm of Hamas in Europe.