Friday, June 30, 2023

The second and third ones really, really upset the Israel haters on Twitter. 

The fourth was one of the most popular memes I ever posted on Instagram.





By the way, this is Byzantine-era. Jews continued to build towns after 70 CE. There are lots of Talmudic-era  synagogues discovered  in the Galilee, Judea and Samaria. 













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What do you do when your hate becomes socially unacceptable?

Find an alternative that people won't blame you for!

From TheJC:

Textbooks in German schools display a strong political bias against Israel, according to a new report.

It reveals a disturbing trend of blaming Israel for the conflict with the Palestinians.
And it says teachers in German schools tend to shy away from discussing Israel in class because of fears of sparking unmanageable debates.

The report, conducted by the Amadeu Antonio Foundation and the Mideast Freedom Forum, focused on 16 history and politics textbooks used in secondary schools in Berlin and Brandenburg.

The Amadeu Antonio Foundation described textbooks as “inadequate, often one-sided and tendentious” in their depiction of Israel.
It said there is a “different weighting of the victims on the Palestinian and Israeli sides.

“A mostly paraphrased David versus Goliath narrative is dominant. Terrorist attacks and other acts of violence are sometimes played down or ignored.

“Most of the textbooks portray Israel as a war-mongering crisis state and the sole aggressor in the conflict.

“Uprisings and violent attacks on Jewish civilians are given a kind of legitimacy because of the dominant image of Israel.

“The focus of knowledge transfer at school is on the Six Day War, which is also often presented in a distorted way.”

The report says the Second Intifada is “largely ignored in educational material” and there is an “uncritical representation of Hamas” while the failure of the peace process is often blamed on Israel.

Israeli settlement building, construction of the security wall and Israeli rejection of the Palestinian right of return are presented as obstacles to peace.

But Palestinian terror against the Israeli civilian population is not, says the report.  
I'm sure it isn't only Germany.




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From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: It’s time to dismantle the United Nations
In May the U.N. commemorated “Nakba Day,” the propaganda term the Palestinian Arabs have given to the date on which the State of Israel was founded. It invited the head of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas to address it.

He used that platform to repeat the P.A.’s murderous lie that Britain and the U.S. had decided “for their own colonialist purposes” to establish “another entity in our historical homeland” because they “wanted to get rid of the Jews and enjoy having them in Palestine—two birds with one stone.”

As for the WHO, Neuer observed that every year its annual assembly deviates from surveying global public health to hold a special debate singling out Israel. There is no such focus on Syria, where hospitals are repeatedly bombed by Syrian and Russian forces; nor on North Korea, which has one of the worst health systems in the world. On the contrary, the WHO recently elected North Korea to its executive board.

As ever, the deranged onslaught upon Israel stands proxy for the endangerment of the world itself.

A WHO mission to study the Covid pandemic’s origins in China announced in February that the possibility that the virus had escaped from a laboratory needed no further investigation. The mission had been put under pressure to reach that conclusion by Chinese scientists who made up half the team.

The United Nations has been impotent over China’s systemic abuses of its population and over Russia’s war against Ukraine. Who can be surprised? Both China and Russia have places on the U.N. Security Council with veto power. The United Nations places foxes in charge of its hen house.

In a similar vein, Iran, which is racing towards developing nuclear weapons to further its war on the U.S. and its intention to wipe Israel off the map, has been made vice president of the General Assembly.

Even more grotesquely, Iran has been made rapporteur of the General Assembly’s Disarmament and Non-Proliferation Committee. This is despite its persistent violations of the Security Council resolution banning its ballistic-missile program and its refusal to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The United Nations isn’t just anti-Israel. It is morally corrupt at its very core. As a result, it doesn’t just victimize Israel and empower its attackers. It doesn’t just betray its charter commitments by endangering the wider world.

By supposedly promoting global peace and justice but actually promoting those dedicated to war, terror and tyranny while demonizing their victims, the world body has also knocked the free world off its moral compass.

That world will only stand a chance of regaining its balance if it walks away from the United Nations and creates an alliance of democracies instead.
UN pares down list of firms doing business with Israeli settlements
The United Nations rights office has updated a list of companies doing business with Israeli settlements, removing 15 companies from the database that were no longer involved, a spokesperson said on Friday.

The long-awaited update was limited in scope due to budget restrictions and was only able to review the original list of 112 companies, UN human rights spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani told a press briefing.

There was no immediate comment from Israel. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the previous version, as did Washington which has long protested the "disproportionate attention" given to Israel by the Geneva-based council.

The database was mandated by the UN Human Rights Council in 2016 but was not released until 2020. Most of the firms it named were domiciled in Israel but it also included international firms listed in the United States, Britain and France, among others.

Most of the firms named in the database when it was set up were domiciled in Israel but it also included international firms listed in the United States, Britain, and France, among others.

Packaged food maker General Mills was one of only two international firms removed from the list. Among those that remained were online travel sites Booking.com BKNG.O and Expedia EXPE.O and home-rental company Airbnb ABNB.O.


Exclusive: US Iran Envoy Malley On Leave, Facing Investigation
Iran International has learned that US special envoy for Iran Robert Malley is under investigation and his deputy has assumed his duties at the State Department.

After multiple inquiries, State Department Spokesperson Matt Miller said Thursday afternoon in a statement that "Rob Malley is on leave and Abram Paley is serving as acting Special Envoy for Iran and leading the Department’s work in this area."

Multiple sources told us that Malley is under investigation for yet unknown reasons and one source said that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is also involved.

According to our sources, Malley has been absent for a considerable period prompting speculation about potential conduct-related issues, which could affect his security clearance.

Speaking to Iran International on the condition of anonymity, a source familiar with the case confirmed Mr. Malley's absence, saying, "He has completely vanished. No calls, no meetings."

Considering Mr. Malley's essential role in formulating US policy towards Iran, his abrupt and prolonged absence raised considerable questions. Iran International sought clarification earlier on Friday from the State Department regarding the nature of his leave and security clearance status.

In response, the State Department replied by email, "The Department of State, the Special Envoy for Iran, and his team remain deeply engaged on the formulation and implementation of US Iran Policy."

The Department's spokesperson reiterated the same during his daily briefing on Friday before spokesperson Miller confirmed that Malley is on leave.

The initial email did not clarify who is holding the position of ‘Special Envoy for Iran’. In further correspondence, we asked: "Can you please confirm whether Abram Paley is currently Acting Interim Special Envoy for Iran?" The state department's answer was short: "Hello, we decline to comment."

Journalist Barak Ravid tweeted after Iran International's exclusive report first appeared that Malley told him: "I have been informed that my security clearance is under review. I have not been provided any further information, but I expect the investigation to be resolved favorably and soon. In the meantime, I am on leave."



From The Cradle:
Washington is urging the Lebanese government to pressure Hezbollah into removing an outpost erected in the occupied Shebaa Farms, Israeli media reported on 29 June.

Walla news outlet cited anonymous Israeli and US officials as saying that the outpost represents a “miscalculation on Hezbollah’s part, which does not take into account the potential Israeli response. Therefore, this incident has the potential for serious escalation.”

“Our goal is for the outpost not to be there. We prefer Hezbollah evacuate its people itself over us bombing them. We have made this clear to the US, and the Americans made it clear to the Lebanese,” the report cites an Israeli official as saying.

According to Walla, Hezbollah began erecting the first tent in April. The Israeli army reportedly did not realize this until a second tent had been set up.

Israel tried to handle the situation “under the radar in quiet talks” with UNIFIL for weeks.

Other Israeli media outlets say Tel Aviv set a deadline to remove the tents, and that it would deal with the resistance group “on its own,” sparking fears of a wider confrontation.

Beirut has acknowledged that the outpost is south of the UN-recognized Blue Line, separating Lebanese and Israeli territories.

Last week I wrote, "Israeli territory is being stolen by a terrorist group. It seems unbelievable that Israel would outsource the solution to the impotent UN."

It appears that Israel is treading carefully, not wanting to start a war over this but not willing to back down. 

It first gave UNIFIL a chance to get involved and do its job to ensure that all of Southern Lebanon, let alone Israeli territory, is not occupied by an Iranian militia. Israel informed UNIFIL of the tents in April, but they have proven to be worthless:

According to Kan news, which originally reported on the Iranian proxy’s armed presence inside Israel proper, the IDF approached UNIFIL regarding the matter some time ago, but the watchdog only came to the site following diplomatic pressure from Israel at UN Headquarters.

Upon inspection, UNIFIL confirmed that tents set up and manned by Hezbollah have indeed been established on the Israeli side of the internationally recognized Blue Line in the contested Mount Dov region, an area claimed by Israel, Lebanon and Syria and also known as the Shebaa Farms.

In a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the UN Security Council, Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan wrote that Hezbollah’s actions constitute a violation of UN Resolution 1701, enacted following the end of the Second Lebanon War in 2006 and ratified by both countries. The resolution calls for armed groups besides the official Lebanese military and UNIFIL to remain north of the country’s Litani River.

The letter also contained photographs of the Lebanese position in Israel.

Furthermore, the former public security minister noted that Hezbollah has built 27 outposts along the Blue Line over the past year, and that he expects the UN to take action on the matter, as these positions also violate Resolution 1701.

So now Israel is asking France and the US demand that the Lebanese government get involved.

Israel is trying to allow Hezbollah to "climb down the tree" quietly without being shamed, but patience is running out:

“Our goal is for the outpost not to be there,” an Israeli official was quoted as saying. “We prefer Hezbollah evacuate its people itself over us bombing them. We have made this clear to the US and the Americans made it clear to the Lebanese.”
According to the Ynet news site, Israeli officials believe UN peacekeepers will not be able to act against the post and are looking to the US and France instead. The outlet claimed Israeli officials had set a deadline for the position to be removed, after which it will get rid of the tents itself, a move that could spark a wider conflagration.

Alma Research, which watches Hezbollah closely, believes that the terror group wants a war.

  In our assessment, Hezbollah intends to reach an escalation that will lead to a broad military conflict with Israel, out of an internal interest in strengthening its power in Lebanon. Hezbollah is trying to escalate with a defiant presence on the border, the Megiddo attack, firing rockets, and now the placing of tents on Israeli territory. Israel for the time being is not dragged in. Last summer, Nasrallah gave ideological and religious approval for a military conflict and as far as Hezbollah is concerned, he has carried out significant power-building in recent years and is ready for a conflict. Continued provocations or a broad conflict is a win-win for Hezbollah.

The strategy is Iranian, not Lebanese 

I believe that Israel's best card to play is the Lebanese people itself. While they hate Israel, they hate Hezbollah and Iran as well, and they do not want to be dragged into a new conflict that only benefits Iran. 

The Lebanese media has been muted in this issue. I believe that unless Hezbollah dismantles the tents quickly, Israel should publicly say - but with the intent that the Lebanese hear - that the situation is intolerable and that Israel will bomb the tents on Israeli territory.

Israel should make a public deadline, announce the date that the tents would be bombed, emphasize that these are on Israeli territory, and then bomb them if they are not removed.

Israel must emphasize that it has no intention of attacking Lebanon - unless attacked first. If Hezbollah responds with rockets, the gloves will come off.

The UN agrees where the Blue Line is so Hezbollah's claim that the territory is Lebanese will not impress more residents.  

If the Lebanese people publicly call for Hezbollah to withdraw, it would have a hard time pretending that it is defending Lebanese interests. 

The entire Shebaa Farms issue is just an excuse by Hezbollah to maintain its massive arsenal for the pretense of "defending Lebanon." Everyone knows it is a joke. But Lebanese lives are in the balance, and it must be made clear to the world that Iran and its Hezbollah proxy are trying to start a war that would only hurt the Lebanese people. 

It is clear that Israel cannot allow an enemy to wantonly grab its land. No state would. Israel's patience so far has been somewhere between heroic and foolhardy.

 



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On Wednesday, an Iraqi immigrant to Sweden tore up and burned a Quran after receiving permission to do so as an act of protest, A Swedish court ruled that burning the Quran was a legal expression of free speech and the police gave a permit for the action.

In response, the Muslim world is seething. Many Muslim-majority countries lodged protests against Sweden, and there were riots in Iraq as protesters attempted to break into the Swedish embassy.

In 1976, on Yom Kippur eve, a group of Arab youths - fueled by a false rumor that Jews had torn Qurans - stormed through the synagogue at the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron and tore up numerous Hebrew holy books as well as several handwritten Torahs which were ripped to shreds.




The desecration of the Torah is much, much worse than tearing or ripping a printed Quran. The best analogy to a ripped Quran would be to a torn up Chumash, a mass printed version of the Torah; tearing up a Torah is more like tearing up a handwritten Quran manuscript.

And Jewish prayer books, chumashim and other holy books are desecrated by Palestinian Arabs much more often than you know. 

In 2007, I visited Samuel's Tomb in Israel, unaware that Arabs had rampaged through there the previous Friday night, tearing prayer books, heavily damaging the Torah ark and stealing a Torah. 

Nearly all Israeli media ignored this incident. Because Arabs desecrating Jewish holy books and sites is simply not worth mentioning. 

It was hardly a unique occurrence. 

Also in 2007, Arabs burned down a synagogue near Doled, destroying Torah scrolls. 

In 2009, Arabs raided a yeshiva in Homesh and destroyed many volumes of Chumash and Talmud. 

In 2012, Arab youths were caught trying to burn books of Psalms at the Mount of Olives. 

Holy books at the Tomb of Joseph have been destroyed by Arabs more than once. 

Prayer books were burned in an attack at a Gush Etzion synagogue in 2016.


In 2022, Arabs burned a Jewish center in Harasha and destroyed many holy books. 

When has the Muslim world condemned these incidents against holy Jewish books - equivalent or far worse than the desecration of one of hundreds of millions of printed Qurans?

They haven't, and this weakens their pretense of outrage. If you demand that people respect your holy objects, then at a minimum you should do the same. 

The Muslim outrage over Sweden is not about their disgust at a holy book being desecrated. It is an expression of Islamic supremacy. 

They want the entire world to adhere to Muslim laws against blasphemy and that everyone should enshrine Islamic laws against destroying the Quran. These protests are just as much political as they are expressions of popular anger: they send a message that unless the West acts as Muslims demand, they can expect violence. 

Any attempts to impose Muslim mores or beliefs on the world must be opposed wholeheartedly. It is an attack on everyone's freedom.

_____________________________________

That being said, Sweden's legal ruling allowing the burning was wrong. 

From the narrow perspective of freedom of expression, yes, burning a Quran - just like burning a flag - is valid and should not be illegal. But there is another, far more important issue here.

The deliberate burning of the Quran is a hate crime. It was meant not as a message of freedom but as a direct attack on the sensibilities of Muslims worldwide. It was not an expression of criticism of Islam but an expression of hate against Islam and Muslims, by an apparent ex-Muslim. 

And Sweden does have hate crime laws.

The Swedish Penal Code, chapter 16, section 8, says:
A person who, in a disseminated statement or communication, threatens or expresses contempt for a national, ethnic or other such group of persons with allusion to race, colour, national or ethnic origin or religious belief shall, be sentenced for agitation against a national or ethnic group to imprisonment for at most two years or, if the crime is petty, to a fine. (Law 1988:835)   
The deliberate burning of a Quran is an expression of contempt for believing Muslims. As such, it should be illegal - and so should the deliberate burning of Jewish holy books.

The protester could make the same point by burning a photo of a Quran. Destroying symbols of a religion or other protected group is criticism; destroying actual objects of importance to those groups is hate. 

That is where the line should be drawn between freedom of expression and purposeful hate.




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  • Friday, June 30, 2023
  • Elder of Ziyon
In May 1933, some American newspapers published a letter, ostensibly from a patriotic German citizen upset at how the media was covering Germany's oppression of Jews:

 As a resident in Germany one is at a loss to understand, how it is possible that in America and England a crop of lies about alleged Jew baiting in Germany can spring up without the slightest foundation of truth. Worse still, such atrocity tales about our pretended maltreatment of Jews, as reported in some American newspapers, actually are believed by their readers....
When a change of government in the United States takes place, we understand, many appointees of the outgoing administration have to make room for partisans of the new government. ...Among the suspected German officials of the former administration —justly suspected, as has been proved—were a number of Jews who now must -go with the other dismissals. With the tenacity of their race, however, these Jews have left no stone unturned to wreak their vengeance upon our new government. hoping. thus to regain their influence and jobs. Because Germany under its present national government sternly discourages such designs, those malcontents have instigated in the United States and in England a slanderous propaganda campaign about alleged pogroms, tortures or other pretended maltreatment of Jews in this country. 

The malcontents, by instigation of a world boycott of German goods, hope to increase unemployment in our Fatherland, thereby fostering. discontent and sedition in order to pave the way for their confederates in Moscow. This Jewish press campaign is a menace, which not only concerns Germany, but.in its ulti-mate issue bears upon the destinies of every civilized nation. Should it succeed; Moscow may yet rule the world. 

Not if the German government .can prevent it! Therefore Germany considers herself justified in resorting to retaliatory -measures. against certain Jews in this country, if their anti-German campaign and threatened economic boycott is not stopped. Already motor lorries and auto buses are carrying inflammatory posters proclaiming: "Judea declares war on Germany." Can you blame us for hitting back? 

• HEINRICH WEITZEL, HAMBURG, GERMANY 
 The letter segues from "We don't mistreat Jews" to "Jews are a real menace to the world" to "Can you blame us if we attack Jews?" 

A couple of newspaper editors dug a little deeper into this letter. It had been sent out by a New York advertising agency. 

In other words, it was a propaganda ploy by Nazi Germany, at the same time it was denying attacking Jews in other venues - and while it was, in fact, attacking Jews. For all we know, Heinrich Weitzel never existed, although no doubt there were Nazi loyalists who would have been happy to be the face of this campaign. 

The Nazis knew that there was a strong undercurrent of antisemitism in America in the 1930s, and they were not ready to confront the Western powers yet. So they used antisemitism to deny antisemitism, knowing that no matter how absurd the claims are, many people predisposed to hate Jews will happily swallow any falsehood that could justify their hate.

Which we see today with the anti-Israel crowd, all the time. Facts are optional - as long as the story fits with the hate of the target audience, it will be believed and repeated. Give bigots something to grab onto (the Khazar theory, or that Neturei Karta represents Jews) and they will adopt the lies with the passion of religious faith. That is what was happening here. 

The most chilling part of this letter is part that I did not reproduce above. It said that the Nazi government, by getting rid of Jewish/Bolshevik government officials, saved Europe from a....holocaust.




 




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Thursday, June 29, 2023

From Ian:

Eugene Volokh: The Constitutionality of Anti-BDS Laws
Anti-BDS laws, which bar government contractors from boycotting Israel, are generally constitutional - for the same reason that anti-discrimination laws are generally constitutional. Decisions not to buy or sell goods or services are generally not protected by the First Amendment.

A store has no First Amendment right to refuse to sell to Catholics, even if it describes this as a boycott. An employer has no First Amendment right to refuse to hire Democrats, even if such discrimination is described as a boycott. A cab driver who is required to serve all passengers has no First Amendment right to refuse to take people who are visibly carrying Israeli merchandise.

All these people would have every right to speak out against Catholicism, the Democratic Party, and Israel. That would be speech, which is indeed protected by the First Amendment. However, commercial conduct is different from advocacy. For this reason, properly crafted anti-BDS statutes are constitutional.


The Country That Shall Not Be Named: Biden Admin Omits Mention of Israel in Rollout of Anti-Semitism Strategy
Biden administration officials did not mention Israel a single time in a Tuesday anti-Semitism strategy discussion at the Aspen Ideas Festival, the latest sign that the White House is attempting to downplay connections between anti-Zionism and attacks on Jews.

During the hour-long panel discussion, Vice President Kamala Harris's husband, Doug Emhoff, and White House homeland security adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall highlighted incidents of anti-Semitism involving neo-Nazis and far-right nationalists, but failed to mention anti-Zionist attacks against Jews, according to Jewish Insider.

A senior White House official also declined to comment during an interview on the administration's plans to deal with anti-Zionism as part of its anti-Semitism strategy, Jewish Insider reported.

The failure to mention anti-Zionism could add to concerns that the Biden administration is attempting to water down the definition of anti-Semitism to exclude anti-Israel extremism. The White House in May rolled out its long-awaited national strategy to combat anti-Semitism, a document that barely mentioned Israel. In the strategy, the White House also declined to officially endorse the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition of anti-Semitism, which includes certain extreme anti-Israel views.

The White House recently tapped CUNY professor Ramzi Kassem as an immigration adviser. Kassem has accused Israel of "ethnic cleansing" and "systematic genocide," the Washington Free Beacon reported on Tuesday.
Arab leaders and pundits habitually warn, in English, that Israel is threatening to threatening to turn the conflict into a religious war. 

A recent example comes from Ramzy Baroud in Arab News, saying, 

What is currently taking place in Palestine is not a religious war, but some Israeli officials and political parties are keen on turning it into one. 

Though warnings against “religious wars” in Palestine — in fact, the entire region — have been mostly linked to Israel’s current “most rightwing government in history,” religious discourses have been the most dominant since the establishment of Israel’s founding ideology, Zionism, in the late-19th century. 
This is absurd to the extreme. 

This has been a religious war for decades, and it has been Palestinians making it one.

From their first leader, the Mufti of Jerusalem, their claims have been based primarily on religious themes and arguments. Religion suffuses everything they do - their words, their actions, their thinking - all the way back to the Mufti's claim that "Al Aqsa is in danger!" from Jews.

The Palestinian Arab armed forces in both the 1936 riots and the 1948 war were called the "Army of the Holy War."

The Palestinian constitution says, "Islam is the official religion in Palestine. ...  The principles of Islamic Shari’a shall be a principal source of legislation."

The Palestinian Authority has a Ministry of Religious Endowments.

Members of the PLO executive Committee marked Eid yesterday by laying a wreath on the grave of Yasir Arafat. 

Mahmoud Abbas' speeches - even to the UN - all begin with "In the name of God, the most gracious, the most merciful."

Abbas referred to rebuilding Gaza in 2016 as a "jihad."

Every Palestinian media outlet refers to those killed by Israeli forces as "martyrs," not "victims."


The religious aspect is so ingrained that a supposedly secular UNRWA is asking for Muslims to give it "zakat" (religious charity) funds, quoting the Quran. Do any other UN agencies ever quote any other religious texts?  (I found an exception that proves the rule.)

And, of course, Gaza groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad are Islamic extremist groups which use Islam to justify attacking Jews. 

It isn't Israel that seeks a religious war. It is the Palestinians, and their own religious justifications are accepted without any objection by the world.

But whenever Jews assert their own religious desires in the land of the Torah, they are demeaned - not only by Palestinians - for acting in such a primitive, non-enlightened manner.

The Palestinians claim, and much of the world accepts, the idea that only Muslims have an unquestioned religious claim on the land and the holy sites that were all invariably Jewish holy sites 1500 years before Mohammed was born. 

Jewish religious claims are treated with scorn while Muslim religious claims are accepted without question. And part of the reason is exactly because religion is the major component of the Palestinian nationalist philosophy.

Disparaging the Jewish religious claims to the land - especially while not questioning the Palestinian Islamic-based claims - is another manifestation of the antisemitism that is accepted as normal nowadays.. 




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!

 

 

 Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Check out their Facebook page.

 

Jerusalem, June 29 - A local principal made waves in the primary education field last week by leveraging the reluctance and hassle involved in wasting an entire evening on amateurish performances and hackneyed speeches to mark the conclusion of the academic term each June: in lieu of spending time at the two- to-three-hour event on a weeknight, listening to faculty and staff drone on and on and watching the children put on skits or dances that would humiliate beached whales, the institution accepted 300-shekel contributions from each family - and brought in more money than at any other fundraiser in the school's twenty-year existence.

Devorah Friedman, headmaster of Merhavim Elementary School, responded to private feedback from numerous parents by offering the pay-instead-of-attend option for both the celebratory gathering involving grades 1-5 and the more elaborate graduation ceremony for the sixth grade. Friedman reported that near-unanimous parental choice of donating instead of attending resulted in tens of thousands of shekels flowing into the school coffers, the largest total of private donations from any of the school's many efforts to raise money.

"We've had institutional and governmental assistance in larger amounts, certainly," she acknowledged. "But none of our community-based initiatives earned nearly this much. Of the approximately eight hundred families with children at our school, seven hundred sixty decided to donate. The few exceptions were all first-time parents of first-graders. Even the parents of the sixth-graders, every last one, including the two families for whom it's their last child, opted to pay instead of attending."

"We've been able to save more money, beyond that, on the costs of the productions themselves," she elaborated. "All the extracurricular preparation time, the materials, the refreshments, the costumes, et cetera - so we ended up with more than the donation amounts as well."

Parents explained that they had had enough of the end-of-year ceremonies and accompanying plays, dances, songs, and speeches already in previous years, and did not need to blow a valuable, not to mention beautiful, June evening in Jerusalem attending yet another such performance.

"All the schools should do this," gushed Daniel Zvuloni, parent of a sixth-grader and third-grader. "I don't care that it's essentially extortion: give us hundreds of shekels or we'll force you to attend these tedious events. I gave double this year, I was so grateful for the freedom. I even asked if there's a way to prepay not to attend anything for the next three years, and I'm going to suggest the same policy to my older kids' schools."



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

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Read all about it here!

 

 

From Ian:

No sense of security: Settlers have had it with the current situation
Before addressing the key issues, this column must begin with an unequivocal and unwavering clarification: the recent scenes of Jewish protesters running amok and carrying out acts of vigilante retaliation in the Palestinian villages of Umm Safa, Turmus Ayya, and Urif, must be vigorously condemned. Both as they involved random attacks on innocent people and also due to the fact that these random acts of violence only add fuel to the fire rather than preventing it, they undermine national security rather than helping in any way. Those hooligans who entered the villages and burned down houses endanger lives and should be thrown into prison.

In addition, it is also important to state that, further to what was said by the Minister of Settlements and National Missions, Orit Struck, security forces work night and day, regularly putting their life on the line, in order to protect all citizens of the State of Israel, on both sides of the Green Line (Struck, who later apologized, had implied that they were like the Wagner Force for acting on their own). One of the leading figures in the Judea and Samaria leadership spoke to me at the beginning of the week, and the tough message he relayed is a reflection of the immense complexity characterizing the situation in Judea and Samaria in recent times.

People at the grassroots level have simply blown a fuse
"I really am at a loss as to what to say about what happened in the villages. On the one hand, if my son had been one of those to enter there I would have given him a good hard slap across the face; on the other hand, we really are 'sitting ducks'. The security forces are not doing their work and we have been left on our own. What can you say to a woman who travels, day in day out, from Ateret to Ofra or from Elon Moreh to Tapuach Junction? We have been left to fend for ourselves and nobody is prepared to do what is required to eradicate this phenomenon."

This has taken over a year, with considerable patience on the part of the settlers, who have seen their relatives and friends murdered and wounded in front of their very eyes, while actions against the Palestinians have been generally rather restrained, but the horrific terrorist attack at the gas station last week was the tiny straw that broke the camel's back. Just imagine, you are sitting down to eat at a restaurant, when all of a sudden a terrorist starts shooting wildly, butchering anybody in his path. Now, imagine that for the last year, you have been crying out that this is precisely what will happen and nobody is prepared to take the requisite steps to prevent the continued acts of terrorism, and at the end of the day, your 'prophesy' has come true. Imagine that you are taking your kids to their after-school activities and you just don't know if you will return home safely.

The IDF has failed and the settlers have been left with no option but to take action
In Judea and Samaria, people are unashamedly blaming the security forces for the ineptitude that led to the recent violence in the Binyamin region. The Head of the Binyamin Regional Council, Israel Ganz, phoned senior IDF officers on a number of occasions prior to the recent rampage, warning that after riots by the Palestinians on the Trans-Binyamin Highway, they are preparing for serious action and it was important to bring in sizable forces into the area. Even in real-time, during the rioting by the Palestinians, there was only a small military force on site, so consequently the local residents were forced to react against them, and this was later documented and published.

In other words, as the residents of Binyamin say, the IDF failed in its mission and so the settlers were forced to take action. A senior settlement figure recently told me that an extremely important official in the defense establishment expressed some form of support for Palestinians carrying arms. "There is chaos within the Palestinian Authority and they need to protect themselves," he told me. If that is what senior officials have to say, then what can you expect from the settlers?
UN Report Welcomes Input from Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad
The UN Secretary-General’s new report on Children and Armed Conflict (CAAC) welcomed letters and “practical measures” from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).

The annual CAAC report, dated 5 June but first published on Tuesday, accuses Israel of being responsible for thousands of violations against children while only explicitly mentioning Hamas to praise its cooperation with the UN.

“I welcome the letters received from Palestinian Islamic Jihad and from Hamas, the appointment of focal points and the identification of practical measures, including those proposed by the United Nations to end and prevent grave violations against children, including those related to the killing and maiming and the recruitment and use of children,” Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ report said.

The report, which covers violations against children under the age of 18 through 2022, attributes the vast majority of such violations to Israel. Of the 1142 children who were killed, maimed, or required medical assistance after inhaling tear gas, the report says that 975 were caused by the Israeli security forces.

“Most children were maimed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, in the context of Israeli forces’ law enforcement operations (473). The main causes of maiming by Israeli forces were live ammunition (153), rubber-coated metal bullets (136) and strikes in Gaza (44),” the report says.

Despite Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad regularly recruiting teenagers and holding training camps for even younger children, the report does not separate out children who were themselves armed members of militant groups.

Asked at a Tuesday press conference for the report’s release about whether the figures for Palestinian children who were killed, wounded or detained should distinguish teenage militants, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict Virginia Gamba said that it was “regrettable” but immaterial to the report.

“A child is a child is a child, including when they are perpetrators of violence,” Gamba said. “We cannot make a distinction between children that are fighting against armed forces. We think it’s regrettable. We understand the situation. We’ve had this in many situations….A violation will be recorded, even if it’s the killing, maiming or detention of a child that is found guilty of some type of violence or perpetration of an act.”


Associated Press Ignores Barbaric Reality of Palestinian Child Terrorists
The Associated Press recently reported that the death of a 15-year-old girl in the flashpoint West Bank city of Jenin during an anti-terrorism raid by Israeli forces earlier this month had “renewed scrutiny of the [Israeli] military’s record of causing civilian casualties.”

In the article — subsequently reprinted by The Washington Post and ABC News — the AP’s Middle East correspondent Isabel DeBre uses the funeral of Sadeel Naghniyeh, who was “killed by suspected Israeli fire” while reportedly standing in the driveway of her family’s home, as a hook to supposedly highlight the “rising number of children killed in the heightened violence and the extraordinary risks they face.”

DeBre quotes several people in the first half of the piece, including Naghniyeh’s father asserting that his daughter dreamed of being a nurse, and convicted PFLP member Shawan Jabarin, director of the terror-linked NGO Al-Haq, who appears to suggest Israeli forces are indiscriminately killing Palestinian civilians.

While highlighting the gruesome reality of civilian deaths in conflict zones is important, the article glosses over or outright ignores some very relevant details.

First, the piece presents the risks posed to civilians by armed terrorist groups who hide in densely-populated urban areas as merely an allegation made by the Israeli army — as opposed to an incontrovertible fact. This is despite the use of civilians as human shields by Palestinian terrorists being a well-documented occurrence that has been acknowledged and condemned by even the staunchest critics of the Jewish state.

Second, the article totally overlooks the use of children by Palestinian terrorist groups — either as lookouts or actual combatants.

Despite revealing some telling details about Naghniyeh, including that she was sending photographs of Israeli military positions on the encrypted messaging app Telegram (used by terror networks to communicate) when she died and that her Facebook profile picture consisted of “an unidentified girl wearing an abaya and holding up a rifle,” little consideration is given to the probability that she was affiliated with a terrorist organization.
BEIRUT, Lebanon, Sept. 16— Haj Amin el Husseini, the exiled Mufti of Jerusalem, and his Arab Higher Committee have started. a move to create a solid belt of Palestine Arab settlements around Israel and prevent-the moving of refugees away from Israel borders.

This change of front has come with the present evident collapse of the. former insistence by the Arab League, the Arab Higher Committee -and the Arab governments on the return of Palestine Arab refugees to their original homes under the terms of a 1948 United Nations resolution.,

The Arab Higher Committee was the last to demand that the refugees must return to the territory now under Israeli control. This demand not only has been abandoned. for practical, as opposed to political, purposes but the Arab Higher Committee and certain Arab statesmen now are opposed to. any return of Palestine Arabs to Israel territory. This change has been brought about by the fact that Israel will accept only a few Arabs into their old home, and that it is better to avoid the impression that the Palestine case has been settled. by agreement for a few to return.

...Strongly nationalist elements apparently are rallying around the Mufti and the Arab Higher Committee’s program for a belt of thickly settled Palestinians surrounding Israel.

...‘The shift in. the Mufti’s policy was apparently connected with the enthusiasm which Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Syria displayed for the preservation of the independent Kingdom of Jordan, and their strong opposition to its unification with Iraq. The Palestinian element is becoming increasingly predominant in Jordan in which it constitutes not only some two-thirds of the. population but is an educated and trained element that is pushing the original Jordanians, largely of Bedouin stock, into the background.
At the time, UNRWA was actually trying to solve the problem: it was pushing hard for Palestinian Arabs to be resettled in areas of Syria and Lebanon where they would be given plots of land and could become financially independent. And Israel had agreed to allow tens of thousands of Arabs to return but only in conjunction with the Arab world naturalizing the rest. 

But the Mufti did not care about what was best for the Palestinian Arabs. He wanted to destroy Israel. If he couldn't flood Israel with hundreds of thousands of refugees, he intended to turn Jordan into a temporary Palestinian state whose only purpose would be to destroy Israel - and that included building settlements surrounding Israel where they could be used as a means to attack Israel from a short distance. 

While his entire plan was not realized, during the 1950s and 1960s Israel suffered numerous terror attacks from Palestinian "fedayeen" who lived in nearby communities in Syria, Jordan and Gaza.

The Mufti's plan still lives, though. The PA, with the EU, are building their own settlements non-stop in Area C specifically to block Israel from controlling the land it is supposed to control in the Oslo Accords. Hundreds of illegal structures and ramshackle communities have been built, and Palestinians moved in from Areas A and B, daring Israel to tear them down in front of the cameras. 

It is an updated version of the Mufti's plan for settlements being built in Judea and Samaria not to benefit Palestinian Arabs but to hurt Israel. 

(h/t Charles)



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Palestinian police aren't only abdicating on doing their jobs to stop the growth of terror groups in West Bank towns. 

They are also nowhere to be found when Arabs shoot at other Arabs.

The Safa news agency reports:

About a week ago, the town of Beit Ummar, north of Hebron, witnessed an escalation of security chaos, which claimed the lives of two young men, due to a quarrel between the Khalil and Abu Ayyash families in the town.  

The townspeople complain about the lack of security, the destruction of public property, and the bullets flying between houses, which have been going on for days without interruption.  

Resident Rami Zaazik said in an interview with Safa agency hat he and his family avoid leaving the house for fear of flying bullets, and even inside the house, the danger remains.

He explained that the town's economy and people's livelihoods were affected by the security situation in the town and the curfew, in addition to the security and social harm.

Political activist Fayez Sweiti held the Palestinian Authority responsible for the security chaos in Beit Ummar, explaining that the authority has about 70,000 armed personnel who are unable to protect citizens  and are unable to maintain civil peace.  

Sweiti said, "The corrupt judiciary and weak law contributed to fueling the crisis and reaching a stage of no return."  
The article blames Israel, of course, for Palestinians killing Palestinians, claiming that the IDF wants this infighting. But reading between the lines we see that this current security chaos is a direct result of the PA not taking the rise of local terror groups seriously. It notes that in the last six months of 2022, there was an increase of "resistance" in  Beit Ummar, from which  there were "several shooting operations targeting military points of the occupation army and the settlements surrounding the town. "

The PA turned a blind eye to the proliferation of weapons and armed groups when their targets were the IDF and Jews, and now those weapons are being used by Palestinians against each other. 




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Italy-- home of over 2.5 million Muslims-- is set to pass a controversial law that would ban prayers in public places and unauthorized worship buildings. According to Anadolu News Agency, if passed, the law could shut down thousands of Islamic prayer spaces amid the fact most of the prayers are being held in private spaces. 

The bill, which was drafted by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party, will target prayer spaces that are not in mosques or those that have never received formal approval to be used for worship.

According to a report published by the Union of Islamic Communities and Organizations in Italy (UCOII)in 2017, there were 1,217 Muslim prayer spaces in Italy, of which only six of these were officially mosques.

Approximately 50 others have obtained authorization for religious activities.

The remaining spaces, predominantly situated in garages, warehouses, apartments, and basements, are classified as cultural associations but are also used for prayers.

Proponents of the bill openly acknowledge their aim to prohibit these non-mosque Islamic worship spaces.
I did not read the text of the draft law itself. From the first report, it appears to apply to all religions that hold informal prayer services outside official houses of prayer. But from other media, including the second one quoted here, it appears that the law is deliberately meant to target Muslims, who are by far the largest religious community that regularly engages in ad-hoc prayer groups. 

There is huge opposition when Muslims try to open up a new mosque which is why there are so few mosques in Italy for two and a half million Muslims. The "cultural associations" are the only way they can pray.

There are only about 30,000 Jews in Italy. If this law does not explicitly mention Muslims, that means that Jews who put together a minyan - during a charity dinner, when sitting shiva, at the airport - may also be breaking the law.

If true, this wouldn't be the first time that Jews are caught in the wake of anti-Muslim legislation. Some of the European regulations prohibiting religious slaughter also appear to be primarily aimed at Muslims, and religious Jews get caught in the wake. 

But there is another important  angle to this story.

While "progressives" claim that Israel is engaged in Jewish supremacism, a law like this would never happen in Israel. There are anti-Muslim laws throughout Europe but essentially none in Israel (besides things like anti-polygamy laws.) Israel has no limitations on mosques, although it does limit the volume of the Muslim call to prayer (as do many Muslim countries.) 

Israel is more tolerant of Muslims than France (burkini bans), or Switzerland (minaret bans), or Belgium (halal slaughter bans) and now Italy. But no one complains about "Christian supremacism," when in fact that is often exactly what animates these laws. 

It is the usual double standard for Israel - and much of it comes from these oh-so-liberal Western democracies that truly do discriminate against Muslims. 

Instead of castigating Israel, they should learn religious tolerance from Israel.





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Wednesday, June 28, 2023

From Ian:

There is no such thing as 'making peace'
To cry peace, peace, when there is no peace, as the Jewish prophet, Jeremiah, taught us long ago, is not an expression of hope but a foolish and dangerous abrogation of reality. It dulls the mind and the aspiration of a people who then become lost and blinded under a veritable veil of deception.

Peace is impossible for a nation like Israel without its own demonstration of unassailable military strength and its utter rejection of concessions to an obdurate enemy. The Muslim world respects strength. It treats concessions with complete and utter scorn. It considers overtures of peace as a sign of weakness and becomes emboldened in its aggression.

When that enemy is an Arab entity unwilling to make any concession whatsoever, and when the world expects Israel always to give and the Arabs always to take, then to continue along that same path to nowhere, becomes an Israeli self-delusion, leading to worse: Self destruction.

It is high time for Israel to be making demands upon the Arabs, starting with territorial concessions from the vast Arab and Islamic world. Based upon prior precedents in Muslim history going back to the time of Mohammed and his dealings with the Quraish tribe in Mecca, the Arabs will never make peace or accept a Jewish sovereign state in territory they have previously conquered in the name of Allah – even though the ancestral and Biblical Jewish homeland predates Islam by thousands of years.

Thus, Israel should now begin reclaiming territory it has foolishly given away since the Oslo "peace" Accords. The Arabs will be forced to accept such demands if they finally realize that the Jewish state is once again so overwhelmingly strong spiritually that they simply cannot destroy it.

There is no hope for the Jewish state surviving in the nastiest neighborhood in the world if it presents itself as inwardly irresolute and unwilling to engage in total war. The Arab and Islamic adversary, excepting those countries that have actually made peace with Israel, should always be fully aware that Israel is resolute, steadfast, indeed more ready to wage total war than ever.

Judea, Samaria along with Gaza must be restored to their Biblical and post-Biblical Jewish roots and G-d given polity. There must no longer be compromise.

If the Arab and Muslim world rejects Israel, it must live with the consequences of its enmity and become the ultimate loser. A Jewish state, which no longer seeks to make peace at any price will prosper and grow. It will also engender respect from both its friends and its enemies.

As W.B Yeats once wrote, "... peace under a semblance of peace ... is but a manifold illusion."


Gil Troy: There’s no such thing as ‘the’ settlements
Looking at the heartbreaking photos of these victims, we see ourselves, our kids, and our friends. We don’t define them by the length of their sidelocks, the size or absence of their kippot, or their home addresses.

Unfortunately, the terrorists feel emboldened by those who revere them and by the slobs who equate terrorists and their victims.

Terrorism is a crime of political exhibitionism. Preying on innocents living their lives, terrorists try to spread fear among civilians, while making a broader political point. Israelis and visitors to Israel fight terrorism best by not letting terrorists disrupt their plans, their routines; the world should assist by condemning these butchers unequivocally.

Alas, while the constant, low-level onslaught desensitizes even many of Israel’s friends, the “s-word,” “settlements,” muddies the world’s perspective. We keep hearing that “the” settlements are “illegal.” Such language suggests that rather than being in the wrong place at the wrong time, the four victims were wrong for being in that place at all.

The word “the” implies a monolithic simplicity in this complicated world. Rather than treating “the” settlements as all alike, consider three different Israeli villages or communities – softer words that don’t conjure up images of illegal armed camps on Palestinian lands, filled with gun-toting, kippah-wearing, Brooklyn-accented fanatics trash-talking the Palestinians on CNN.

IN 1943, idealistic pioneers established Kfar Etzion, 25 kilometers from the Holy City of Jerusalem, on land purchased from local landowners. They built a thriving kibbutz that also defended access to the Jews’ forever capital for 3,000 years since King David. In 1948, on the eve of Israel’s independence, Arabs overran the village. As many as 127 were massacred, some after surrendering.

For nineteen years, the survivors of that siege – and the orphaned children – would stand on a Jerusalem hilltop, straining to catch a glimpse of a towering, lonely, etz alon, a 700-year-old oak tree, which symbolized their loss, their longing – and ours.

In June 1967, after three Arab armies attacked, Israel legitimately won back that territory. That September, survivors, orphans, and others returned to Kfar Etzion and some neighboring villages. Today 1,278 people live in this thriving community.

Given Kfar Etzion’s roots – and proximity to Jerusalem – most peace proposals include it in redrawn maps of Israel. Its situation is far less complicated than the second community, Hebron.
In Arabic video, AJC explains Jewish connection to Israel
Knowledge and compassion are “critical tools to break the cycle of perpetual conflict and mutual demonization,” Benjamin Rogers, director of Middle East and North Africa initiatives at the American Jewish Committee, told JNS.

That’s why AJC released an Arabic-language video, whose title translates to “What Ties Jews to Israel?” The video is the 11th in AJC’s Arabic-language educational video series titled “About the Jews,” which has received more than 45 million views worldwide. They are aimed at raising awareness in the Arab world about Jewish life and history in the backdrop of rising antisemitism worldwide.

Jewish identity is inextricably tied with Israel, and religion, community and land have been defining aspects of Judaism since the time Moses and the ancient Hebrews escaped Egyptian slavery, according to the video.

“Although they lived in exile at times, the Holy Land remains central to Jewish identity as a pillar of their history and collective dreams,” per the video.


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