Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, July 14, 2023

UN-OCHA moving the goalposts to make Israel look bad

The UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs of the Palestinian territories comes out with a report every month about imports, exports, entrances and exits from Gaza.

In its report on June, it says:

In June, the Israeli authorities allowed 42,220 exits of people from Gaza (in most cases, travelers exited multiple times). This is 13 per cent higher than the exits in May, and 19 per cent higher than the monthly average in 2022. However, it is 92 per cent lower than the monthly average in 2000, before the imposition of category-based restrictions by the Israeli authorities.

They are comparing the number of exits with 2000 - when thousands of Israelis still lived in Gaza and traveled freely in and out every day? Before the second intifada when checkpoints needed to be enforced? Of course the number of exits will never be nearly as high as in 2000; the borders were porous then.

If they were to compare with any previous year, they should - and normally do - compare it to the time between Israel's withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, and when Israel started restrictions on Gaza after Hamas violently took over the territory in 2007. Otherwise it is comparing apples to oranges.

So let's look at previous UN charts.

Here's a UN chart from 2016 that was already deceptive: starting in 2004 when Israelis left Gaza so part of the year there were many, many more exits; and showing that in March 2006 Israel started its restrictions on Gaza workers. So if there is any year that the UN should compare against, it is 2005.

In 2005, the monthly average of exits was 31,424. Today, it is significantly higher - as mentioned, over 42,000 last month, and in fact earlier this year it surpassed 50,000 some months.

The headline should be that Israel now allows more freedom of movement for Gazans than at any time since Israel's withdrawal from Gaza in 2005. But the UN cannot have a headline that makes Israel look good, can it? So instead of comparing to 2004 or 2005, as it always did before now, it makes up a new benchmark: 2000, a completely artificial and irrelevant date.

Here is UN-OCHA's new chart where they, for the first time, added the year 2000 with its "0.5 million" figure - just to minimize how much Israel is doing to make Gazan's lives easier.

This is lying with statistics.

(correction on years h/t Irene)

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Arutz-7 published a d'var Torah this week by prominent Religious Zionist Rabbi Melamed, where he encourages Israeli Jews to have more children and for diaspora Jews to move to Israel, because he says the more Jews in the land, the more peace there will be.

In one part of the essay that mentions this week's Torah portion he says,

Why were the borders of the land reduced in Parashat Masei?

The borders of the Land of Israel are from the [Nile] River to the Euphrates River. However, in practice, in Parashat Masei, when God commanded Israel to occupy the land and settle it, he commanded to conquer only the western side of the Jordan. Because the mitzvot of settling the land must be fulfilled according to the ability of the people of Israel. And since the number of Israel was not sufficient to settle the whole Land of Israel, the mitzvah was to first conquer the more sacred part, to the west of thee Jordan. And only after they multiply, they would be able to gradually expand towards the eastern Jordan and all the territories of the Promised Land of Israel (Ramban Bamidbar 21:21; Malbim ibid.).

Therefore, from the beginning, Israel did not intend to conquer the land of Sihon and Og, and only after they did not accept the peace offer and went to war against Israel, the people of Israel conquered their land. And there was still no intention to settle there, so when the sons of Reuven and Gad asked to cross the Jordan, Moses was very careful about them, but in retrospect he granted their request after they promised to be pioneers in conquering most of the land. In practice, there were not enough Jews to enter the Western Jordan, and it remained sovereign enclaves of Gentiles there, who caused great trouble to Israel for about four hundred years, as recounted in the Book of Judges.

Rabbi Melamed is saying that God Himself commanded the Israelites to only conquer the land to the west of the Jordan, and not the entire expansive borders, because there simply weren't enough of them to effectively rule a larger area - and even the parts of Transjordan that they settled was a cause of problems since they didn't have enough people. Certainly it is not desirable today to conquer much of the Arab world.

Arab media is looking at this article and saying,

Rabbi to the Jews: They multiplied so that we fight Egypt and Iraq and control the Nile and the Euphrates

The extremist Jewish rabbi , Eliezer Melamed, claimed that the borders of the Israeli occupation should extend from the Nile River in Egypt to the Euphrates in Iraq, to repeat the occupation narratives that prove Tel Aviv's desire to dominate the Arab region .

Which he is hardly saying - he is complaining that we do not have enough Jews to even control the entire area west of the Jordan properly! Nowhere does he call for a war with Egypt and Iraq!

Now, other Arab sites are chiming in about the "racist" rabbi who merely quoted the Torah about the ideal borders of Israel that no one is calling for today.

Usually, when these kinds of things happen -and they happen pretty often - it is a secular Israeli newspaper that misinterprets the words of some rabbi to make him sound racist. Here, apparently the Arab media themselves decided to interpret the d'var Torah in an entirely wrong way - because they know no one will fact check them.

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

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07/14 Links Pt1: WSJ: Biden Treats Israel Worse than He Does Iran; Just say no to ‘Palestine’; Israel protests as Sweden allows Torah burning outside embassy on Saturday

From Ian:

WSJ: Biden Treats Israel Worse than He Does Iran

The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board on Thursday night published a scathing attack on President Biden’s Israel police, especially the way he’s been mistreating PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

To remind you, last Tuesday, NY Times pundit Tom Friedman wrote (White House Urging Israelis to Play Nice, Tom Friedman Says US to Reassess Relationship with Israel): “US diplomats … find it hard to believe that Bibi would allow himself to be led around by the nose by people like Ben-Gvir, would be ready to risk Israel’s relations with America and with global investors, and WOULD BE READY TO RISK A CIVIL WAR IN ISRAEL (sic.) just to stay in power with a group of ciphers and ultranationalists.”

In its response to that and similar brazen attacks fueled by the administration, the WSJ editorial board (What Does Biden Have Against Israel? – The President treats the governing coalition in Jerusalem worse than he does Iran) asked: “Why does President Biden go out of his way to snub, criticize and give marching orders to the government of Israel? At least rhetorically, the President and his Administration treat Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his governing coalition worse than they do the ruling mullahs in Iran.”

The WSJ is critical of Biden’s repeated declaration that he will not invite the Israeli PM to the White House, while US Ambassador to Jerusalem Tom Nides has been warning that Israel is “going off the rails,” and both men know that their statements provide shameless support to Netanyahu’s enemies.

“When Mr. Netanyahu was most vulnerable, in late March, Mr. Biden needlessly decreed that Israel ‘cannot continue down this road’ on judicial reform,” the WSJ editorial continued, noting that “the Prime Minister had already changed course and agreed to moderate the reforms—a domestic Israeli affair in which the US President has no business. Mr. Nides publicly instructed Mr. Netanyahu, as if with his chauffeur, to ‘pump the brakes.’”

“This is no way to treat a democratic ally,” argues the editorial, and suggested “the President’s Israel policy has been counterproductive. US aid to anti-Israel international bodies has resumed, and all of the West Bank and East Jerusalem is treated as ‘occupied territory.’ This is now a liberal article of faith, but how does it advance peace to indulge Palestinians in the belief that Jews are interlopers in Judea and at the Western Wall?”

The WSJ says Biden is undermining Israel’s democratically elected government while “Hamas and other Iranian proxies are gaining power in the West Bank, activating another front against Israel.”

The paper warns: “The new wave of terrorism against Jewish civilians will set back the Palestinian cause but advance Iran’s.”

The editorial also lists Biden’s other failures in the Middle East, including abandoning the Abraham Accords, one of his predecessor’s most brilliant achievements. Biden also failed to keep Saudi Arabia in the Western camp, driving it instead to deepen its relations with China. And the administration’s promises about a better nuclear deal with Iran are all gone.

US, EU, UN pan Israeli eviction of Palestinian family from Jerusalem’s Old City

The United States, the United Nations and the European Union condemned the Tuesday eviction of a Palestinian family from their home in the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City where they had been living since the 1950s.

The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Sub Laban family’s eviction earlier this year, citing a law that allows Jews to reclaim properties in East Jerusalem that were owned by Jews before the formation of the state in 1948. At the same time, Israeli law bars Palestinians from reclaiming property in west Jerusalem from which they were removed as a result of that same war.

Asked to comment on the eviction, a US State Department spokesperson said Wednesday, “We have been clear that it is critical for Israel and the Palestinian Authority to refrain from unilateral steps that exacerbate tensions and undercut efforts to advance a negotiated two-state solution.”

“This certainly includes evictions of families from homes in East Jerusalem in which they have lived for generations,” the spokesperson added.

The EU’s Delegation to the Palestinians tweeted that it “regrets the decision by the Israeli authorities, noting that hundreds of other Palestinian families face similar evictions in East Jerusalem. “We urge the Israeli government to respect international law and let these families live where they have been living for decades.”

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a statement citing UN experts who argued that the eviction “is representative of a widespread and systematic practice by Israel to forcibly evict and displace Palestinians from east Jerusalem and ‘de-palestinize’ the city.”

During British rule over Mandatory Palestine, before the War of Independence over Israel’s creation in 1948, the Sub Laban’s apartment was owned by a trust for Kollel Galicia, a group that collected funds in Eastern Europe for Jewish families in Jerusalem.

The Palestinian family says it moved into the property in the early 1950s and rented it from a “General Custodian” for abandoned properties, first under Jordanian authorities and then under Israel after the Six-Day War in 1967. The case dragged on for decades, as the Israeli custodian and then the Kollel Galicia trust contested the family’s “protected” status.

Just say no to ‘Palestine’

Amid the domestic strife over the government’s proposed judicial reform, Israelis received a stark reminder this week of the danger that a Palestinian state would pose to Israel’s existence.

In a frightening development, Palestinian terrorists near Jenin in northern Samaria fired two rockets at the nearby Jewish community of Shaked. Fortunately, no one was injured, but that in no way diminishes the importance and severity of the incident, which demands an immediate Israeli military response.

Simply put, the Jewish state must take action to prevent Palestinians in Judea and Samaria (aka the West Bank) from developing an effective capability to fire rockets, which would further amplify the threat to Israeli cities throughout the center and north of the country.

Consider the following: The distance from Jenin to Haifa is just 49 kilometers; to Tiberias it is 43 km.; and to Afula, it is less than 17 km. If the Palestinians in Samaria succeed in replicating the technologies developed by their terrorist comrades in Gaza, they could easily turn Israel’s North into a shooting gallery.

And that, it would appear, is precisely what they have in mind.

Indeed, the attack earlier this week was reportedly just the latest in a series of recent attempts by a Hamas-linked group called the Al-Ayyash Battalion. While thus far their efforts have been crowned with failure, there is no reason to assume that will continue.

But Hamas is not the only band of thugs working on perfecting rockets.

On May 17, the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs published a paper by Yoni Ben-Menachem titled “Islamic Jihad Is Trying To Establish a Rocket Force in Judea and Samaria.” It noted that the Palestinian terror group is aiming to create the necessary infrastructure in Judea and Samaria in order to manufacture and fire rockets. The report came just days after Shin Bet director Ronen Bar said at a press conference, “In the last few weeks, we thwarted a squad in the Jenin refugee camp area, which had already started producing rockets and a launcher to fire rockets from Samaria towards Israel.”

Clearly, a concerted effort is underway by various Palestinian factions in Judea and Samaria, one that must be stopped at all costs.

Over the past two decades, we have all seen the havoc, fear, and trauma periodically caused by Palestinian terrorists based in Gaza, whose rockets have reached Tel Aviv. Israel cannot and must not allow Judea and Samaria to turn into another Gaza, which would mean possibly contending with rocket attacks simultaneously from both areas in any future conflict.

It is therefore essential for Israel to nip this threat in the bud.

Left to their own devices, it is only a matter of time before the Palestinians in Judea and Samaria either develop or acquire the technology needed to bombard the Jewish state.

On Wednesday, PA president Mahmoud Abbas visited Jenin for the first time in over a decade.

The visit was widely viewed as a belated attempt to assert that the PA is in control of the area, which no one really believes.

Hamas media says:

During his visit to Jenin in the northern occupied West Bank, the President of the Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, showed disregard for meeting popular figures and representatives of the factions, as his visit was limited to the outer edges of the camp. This sparked anger and resentment among the people.

The official PA news agency Wafa paints an entirely different picture of the visit:

An atmosphere of relief prevailed, after President Mahmoud Abbas' tour in the city of Jenin and its camp today, Wednesday .

His Eminence began his tour in the Jenin camp, by laying a wreath of flowers on the tombs of the martyrs in the new martyrs' cemetery in Jenin camp. His Eminence also inspected the effects of the destruction left by the recent Israeli aggression, and was briefed on the progress of work in its reconstruction .

His Excellency stressed, during a speech, in the camp square in the midst of a mass audience, that the heroic Jenin camp is an icon of struggle, steadfastness and challenge, which withstood the aggression and made sacrifices, martyrs, prisoners and wounded for the sake of the homeland .

He said, "We came today to continue rebuilding the camp and the city, so that they are as they were and better, and we have not and will not forget the camps of Nablus, Jabal al-Nar, and all the camps of the homeland, and we will not forget Jerusalem, the eternal capital of the State of Palestine. "

The President's speech was widely welcomed by the people of Jenin and its camp, who affirmed their support for the President's position and his emphasis on the importance of strengthening the steadfastness of citizens .

Same visit, opposite conclusions.

The Hamas site adds some interesting context. It notes that Abbas rarely leaves Ramallah to visit other Palestinian towns altogether, except to visit Bethlehem for Christmas. It also reminds the readers that three major Fatah figures were expelled from a funeral of the camps' "martyrs" due to anger at the PA, which was (as far as I can tell) not reported in official PA media.

In this case, Hamas media is probably closer to the truth.

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From Times of Israel:

Outrage mounted in Israel on Friday after Swedish police accepted a request to allow the burning of a Bible outside of the Israeli embassy in Stockholm on Saturday, just weeks after Quran burnings took place in the city.

Local police confirmed two weeks ago to Sweden’s national public broadcaster that it had received an application from an individual in his 30s to burn a Jewish and a Christian Bible outside Israel’s Embassy in Stockholm on July 15 as “a symbolic gathering for the sake of freedom of speech.”

It was not immediately clear if the person planned to burn a copy of the Bible or a Torah scroll.

The person planning to do the burning appears to be the same Egyptian who threatened to burn a Torah and a Christian Bible in January. He ended up postponing the action but said he planned to do it in the future.

The Quran burning earlier this month was done outside a mosque. But this one is being done outside the Israeli embassy.

In January, the man told Swedish media, "Burning holy books is somewhat disgusting, but I am angry and will do it to have a discussion." He also said that the Islamic Association in Stockholm's mosque urged him not to do it, saying it is against Islam.

Israel has laws that explicitly criminalize burning any holy book, including the Quran, and forbids the insulting of any religion. In its penal code, it says:

170. If a person destroys, damages or desecrates a place of worship or any object which is held sacred by a group of persons, with the intention of to reviling their religion, or in the knowledge that they are liable to deem that act an insult to their religion, then he is liable to three years imprisonment.

173. If a person does any of the following, then he is liable to one year imprisonment: (1) he publishes a publication that is liable crudely to offend the religious faith or sentiment of others; (2) he voices in a public place and in the hearing of another person any word or sound that is liable crudely to offend the religious faith or sentiment of others.

So why would someone who ostensibly wants to protest freedom of expression to insult religious groups choose to protest outside the embassy of a country that protects the rights of religious groups from such insults?

Because this has nothing to do with freedom of expression. As I've mentioned before, if he wants to do something symbolic, he could burn a symbolic Torah or Bible. These aren't acts to protect freedom of expression but to express hate.

In this case, "freedom of expression" is an excuse to perform an antisemitic act - and to the person who plans to burn the Scriptures, he does not distinguish between hating Jews and hating Israel.

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

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If this is what victory looks like....

Hussain Abdul-Hussain, an analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, tweeted a criticism of Arabs who keep declaring "victory" over Israel:

The Arabs have a chronic and permanent feeling that they are on the verge of victory over Israel, and that the passage of time is in their interest. This is how Nasrallah appeared yesterday saying that Israel does not dare to remove his border tent because Israel's deterrence capacity has diminished, and because Israel is no longer as strong as in the past, and Lebanon is also not weak as in the past.

This feeling that Nasrallah transmits regarding the Arab struggle against Israel is improving in favor of the Arabs, is not born yesterday. "Israel is weaker than a spider’s web.”

Like Nasrallah, Arab Americans feel that anti-Israelism in America and the world is expanding, and that times are changing in favor of the Arabs. Of course, these feelings are not based on facts. Rather, they are from the core of the Arab heritage that replaces truth with poetry, empty pride, and bragging about imaginary heroism and victories.

This Arab non-reality is passed down through the generations. For example, in the closing statement of the Arab League summit held in Tunis in 1979, when Nasrallah was still a teenager, it was stated that the conferees expressed their relief that the world had begun to turn against Israel: Noting with satisfaction the increasing isolation of Israel in the world arena, the shrinking of its international relations, and the growing awareness of the justness of the Palestinian cause and all occupied Arab lands among the world public opinion, it warns against all attempts aimed at restoring the relations of some countries with the Zionist enemy or recognizing Jerusalem as its capital, and declares that the Arab countries will take the necessary measures to protect Arab rights.

Decades, even centuries, of Arab statements made of pure excrement. Statements aimed at masking the complete Arab collapse (with a few exceptions in the Gulf), often by attempting to divert Arab attention by blaming Israel. Arabs who live in illusions and feelings, there is no measurement of the truth, no appreciation of reality, no comparison between what was in the past and what is today (performance indicators), nor how the future can be, nor how can we deflect its path to our advantage. Only drums and honking, and woe to whoever comes out with a different point of view because he departs from the consensus, and that is treason.

Unlike Hussain, Saudi analyst Abdullah bin Bakhit hates Israel. But he also criticizes the Palestinians for declaring victory, specifically in Jenin, from a completely different angle (which includes a dose of classic antisemitism):

Well-known Palestinian journalist Abdel Bari Atwan wrote the following text on Twitter: "The resistance battalions did not leave Jenin until after the enemy withdrew in defeat. The battalions are entrenched, preparing for the next round, and celebrating the great victory politically and militarily despite their limited capabilities and the failure of the authority and Arab governments to them.. The march of honor, redemption, and resistance continues."

However, all that we saw, heard, and expected was that the Israelis destroyed, killed, displaced, arrested, and accomplished everything they came for, and that day will not be late when they will return to do it again. When Israel uses the most powerful warplanes to bomb Gaza and destroy the already worn-out infrastructure, we hear Palestinian officials and journalists celebrate the great victory achieved by the resistance.

In fact, this is free propaganda for the Israelis, as all their crimes are blotted out by this false victory in front of the world. Thanks to these celebrations, the Palestinian situation worsens, the Palestinian cause recedes from the forefront, and Israel moves closer to the Arab street.

The conflict between Palestinians and Israelis is a struggle between absolute power and absolute weakness. The defenseless Palestinian is fighting against all the forces available in the twenty-first century, tanks, planes, intelligence and unlimited global media support. The Palestinian celebration of the delusional victory misleads not only the Palestinians, but also misleads everyone who wants to extend a helping hand to them.

...
The calamity of the Palestinians began when Yasser Arafat stood at the United Nations platform in the 1970s. Instead of explaining to the world the catastrophe of his people and their pain, he began threatening the world, saying, "Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand." The world thought that the man was hiding a mighty force waiting for a signal from him. .

Arafat's speech at the United Nations was the prevailing discourse in the Arab world at the time, and this discourse continued in the conscience of the Palestinian man, who did not want to abandon him. At a time when the Jews continued to weep to this day over the tragedy of their people, and they are the victorious occupiers who own everything in the world of the West. You will hear the representative of Israel at any conference in which he participates, asking those present, with tears welling in his eyes, to pause for the souls of the Jews.

It is clear that the Palestinian mind is still imprisoned in the revolutionary discourse of the sixties, when the process of liberating Palestine was at the door, and it only needed the Nasserite, Baathist and nationalist drums that would accompany the fighters upon entering Haifa, Jaffa and Jerusalem.

While Hussain's criticisms are reality based, Abdullah bin Bakhit still wants to propagate lies, but his preferred lie is the opposite one. Knowing that the West favors the underdog, he wants to paint the Palestinians as the ultimate losers - who need billions of dollars and political aid.

To my mind, the Palestinian desire to always declare victory - whether in Gaza or Jenin - is mostly a result of honor/shame culture. Losing is ignominious. The only losses that the Arab world admits are those that are too obvious to lie about: 1948 and 1967. Otherwise, everything is a victory - and Israel is always on its last legs.

This denial of reality serves another purpose: it helps Palestinians avoid the compromises necessary for any kind of peace. If they only need to wait until Israel implodes in the next few years to get everything they always wanted, the thinking goes, then they won't have to make any hard choices now. This denial of reality helps fuel intransigence and terror.

Yet no Western leader (with the possible exception of Donald Trump) has been willing to say, publicly, that the Palestinians are wrong and have always been wrong, and their decisions and self-deception ultimately hurt their own people more than they hurt Israel. Instead, they play into the lie, which leads directly to more terror attacks and more Palestinian enthusiasm that they are winning - which recruits far more into the terrorist camp than losing does.

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

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07/13 Links Pt2: The Biden Administration Redefines Antisemitism; Nazis and Palestinians are thick as thieves; Jury Finds Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooter Eligible for Death Penalty

From Ian:

Jury Finds Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooter Eligible for Death Penalty

A federal jury on Thursday decided that Robert Bowers was eligible for the death penalty for killing 11 worshippers at Pittsburgh's Tree of Life synagogue in 2018, the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in U.S. history, local media reported.

Last month, the jury found Bowers, 50, guilty of dozens of federal hate crimes in the trial at the U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh in western Pennsylvania. Federal prosecutors had charged Bowers with 63 counts, including 11 counts of obstruction of free exercise of religious beliefs resulting in death.

In the first phase of the sentencing portion of the trial, the jury briefly deliberated on Wednesday afternoon and then again for about two hours on Thursday morning before reaching their decision that Bowers was eligible for the death penalty, KDKA TV, a local CBS affiliate in Pittsburgh, reported.

In the final phase of the sentencing portion of the trial, both prosecutors and defense attorneys will have the chance to make arguments on whether Bowers deserves the death penalty. Victims and families of those killed in the shooting will also have the opportunity to speak to the court. The jury will then deliberate Bowers' fate.

In federal capital cases, a unanimous vote by jurors is required in order to sentence a defendant to death, and the judge is obligated to abide by the jury's decision. If jurors are unable to reach a unanimous decision, the offender is instead sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of release.

On June 16, the jury found him guilty on all counts, after defense lawyers accepted that he planned and carried out the attack. Jurors heard testimony from some of the survivors of the attack and evidence of Bowers's anti-Semitism, including multiple posts attacking Jews made on a far-right website in the months leading up to the attack.

Defense lawyers argued that Bowers suffers from major mental illness, including schizophrenia, and so lacked the necessary level of intent.

In their arguments in support of making Bowers eligible for the death penalty, prosecutors said that he had the necessary intent and premeditation to qualify for the sentence. They presented witnesses and evidence to show he carefully planned the attack and deliberately targeted vulnerable elderly worshipers.

JPost Editorial: Britain's current transparency approach is morally wrong

The attempt to hide the audit may be because the British government wants to avoid a confrontation with British Jewry, supporters of Israel, and other decent Britons who would be appalled to learn that funds to the Palestinians are not being carefully monitored to prevent their use in this way.

London might hide this information from the public due to concerns that it could harm its relationship with the PA. They know that if they raise the issue with the Palestinians, the PA will surely object and will not actually alter its policies.

Ultimately, London’s concealment may stem from the shame and embarrassment of the knowledge that British funds may be used for such reprehensible purposes. The Foreign Office knows the pay-to-slay policy is evil, and perhaps it is simply ashamed of any collusion with it and thus wants to keep it hidden.

The British should – and must – confront the PA on this anyway, because these payments are indeed heinous, and if there is anything over which it is worth confronting the PA, it is precisely this. And it should be transparent with the British people about the steps it is taking to ensure that their tax money isn’t going to fund murder.

The current approach is morally wrong. The PA’s payment of stipends to those who kill Jews is repugnant. The enlightened world, including Israel, must not only express its condemnation verbally but also show its repulsion through policy.

The US did so in 2018 by passing the Taylor Force Act, which stopped certain US aid to the PA until it ceased these stipends.

Britain and other European states should follow suit.

At a time when there is much talk, including in Israel, about the need to strengthen the PA, it is critical that this is done in such a way that ensures money allocated to prop up the PA is properly accounted for, preventing it from being diverted to odious purposes.

There are ways to audit these things. The British government knows how to do it. The British public has a right to see if it is being done.

Nazis and Palestinians are thick as thieves

Under Arafat, the Nazis served as an inspiration for Palestinian terrorists. As Rubin wrote in a study of the PLO, more than 25 activists “chose a nom de guerre such as Hitler or Abu Hitler.” These included Fawzi Salim Ali Mahdi, who served in Force-17, a terrorist group “under Arafat’s direct command.” Ian Michael Davison, another notable Force-17 member, was a British neo-Nazi. In 1985, he helped murder three Israelis while attacking a yacht in Cyprus. The PLO group al-Fatah trained German neo-Nazi groups in Lebanon.

Having moved to Palestine after the Oslo Accords, Arafat took control of the content of Friday sermons at the al-Aqsa mosque, making them a tool of incitement. As Efraim Karsh wrote, the sermons became particularly extreme after the beginning of the second intifada in 2000. For example, in one such sermon the preacher instructed his listeners, “Have no mercy on the Jews, no matter where they are, in any country. Fight them wherever you are. Wherever you meet them, kill them.” The echoes of Husseini’s wartime exhortations were unmistakable.

Rubin and Schwanitz stated, “Organizational links to the Axis-era past continue to the present day. The West Bank is ruled by the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority, created by Arafat, al-Husseini’s heir and a former Muslim Brotherhood activist.”

Gaza is ruled by Hamas, an uncompromising and deeply antisemitic branch of the Muslim Brotherhood “whose worldview is indistinguishable from that of al-Husseini and the Brotherhood in the 1930s and 1940s.” Thus, the radical forces encouraged and funded by the Nazis continue to dominate Palestinian politics.

Even Abbas, a supposed non-violent moderate, has adopted Nazi-inspired propaganda. For example, in his doctoral dissertation, he repeated the Nazi claim that a Jewish “declaration of war” on Germany caused the Holocaust. In a 1983 book based on his dissertation, Abbas claimed that Zionists colluded with the Nazis to promote immigration to Palestine. In 2018, Abbas suggested that Jews brought the Holocaust upon themselves with their “social function,” including “usury and banking and such.” Last year in Berlin, he accused Israel of inflicting “50 Holocausts” on the Palestinians. Thus, much to the embarrassment of his host, Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Abbas engaged in the kind of Holocaust inversion popular on the German far-right.

It wasn’t always this way. As Lewis wrote, “European antisemitism, in both its theological and racist versions, was essentially alien to Islamic traditions, culture and modes of thought. But to an astonishing degree the ideas, the literature, even the crudest inventions of the Nazis and their predecessors have, so to speak, been internalized and Islamized.”

The legacy of this Nazi-style ideology is what Jeffrey Herf called a “tradition of absolute and uncompromising rejection of Zionism and, later, the State of Israel.” Therefore, Herf wrote, “One precondition for a peaceful end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict lies in an Arab and Palestinian rejection of the reactionary Islamist political theology that Husseini did so much to create. A frank and well-grounded coming to terms with the history of his collaboration with Nazi Germany should be part of that reckoning.”

Whoever replaces Mahmoud Abbas might want to think about that.

Those who scream the most about religious hatred are the most guilty of religious hatred

From the Jerusalem Post/Reuters:

Muslim states including Iran and Pakistan on Tuesday said desecration of the Koran amounted to inciting religious hatred and called for accountability, as the UN rights body debated a contentious motion in the wake of a Koran burning in Sweden.

The motion, brought by Pakistan in response to last month's incident, seeks a report from the UN rights chief on the topic and calls on states to review their laws and plug gaps that may "impede the prevention and prosecution of acts and advocacy of religious hatred."

The debate highlighted rifts in the UN Human Rights Council between the OIC, a Muslim grouping, and Western members concerned about the motion's implications for free speech and challenges posed to long-held practices in rights protection.

Yes, Iran and Pakistan - two of the most antisemitic countries out there - are claiming to care so much about "religious hatred."

The country that sponsors the Holocaust Cartoon Contest is telling others that they shouldn't hurt Muslim feelings.

The country whose foreign minister went on CNN in 2021 and said in the context of Israel, "they are very influential people. I mean, they control media" is railing against anyone disrespecting Islam.

And here's a twofer: The Tehran Times, which is either officially or effectively state media, published earlier this year a Holocaust denial article written by a Pakistani political scientist and "pro-Palestine activist" Dr. Sabir Abu Maryam:

The Holocaust refers to those people belonging to the Jewish religion, about whom the Zionists have propagated to the world on the basis of lies and deception that they were brutally murdered by the German Nazis between the years 1933 and 1945.

Zionists called the Nazi killing of Jews a systematic state-sponsored massacre, and hence it is now referred to as the "Holocaust."

The Zionists, who were responsible for starting the First World War in the world, have always made efforts to destabilize governments through riots in different countries around the world. The fall of the Ottoman Caliphate was also an example of the Zionist rebellion.

After the First World War, there was a number of Jews in Germany. In the First World War, Germany had to suffer a lot, which was actually the Zionist movement under the guise of which the First World War was started. In fact, the Zionists wanted to burn the world in the fire of war and implement the plan of occupying Palestine only so that their influence in the future region would be established.

It is said that the German Nazis hated all these Jews and Zionists and this hatred may have been the reason why they asked the Jews to leave Germany.

These people are not in a position to tell anyone else about inciting religious hatred.

I myself do consider the deliberate burning of the Quran specifically to hurt Muslim feelings to be a hate crime. But everything depends on context, and the Muslim desire to make the entire world prohibit such acts is not out of concern for religious hatred but a means to exert control.

Especially when Palestinian Muslims already have a rich history of desecrating Jewish holy books, including handwritten Torahs - and the Muslim world remained silent.

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!

Effort To Drive Jews Into Sea Refocuses On Hacking Waze To Point Toward Mediterranean (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

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Gaza City, July 13 - Gradual abandonment of a hundred years of Arab campaigns to dislodge Jews from their ancestral homeland has produced numerous far-reaching effects, such as stagnation for those who continue to reject the Jewish State, widespread Arab reconciliation with Israel, and promising new vistas of cooperation in regional trade, defense, and scientific endeavors - as well as, at least among hardline Palestinians, the realization that they must adapt their pursuit hitherto of propelling those Jews into the sea as promised in 1948 to more realistic methods, with the latest possibility involving a security breach of a popular driving-directions app to trick Israelis into driving themselves into the sea.

Israel's growing military prowess, coupled with Arab-Palestinian incompetence, corruption, and infighting, long ago rendered toothless the threat from its neighbors to "drive the Jews into the sea," a battle cry that carried more credibility and valence when the nascent Israel found itself outnumbered, out-equipped, and outgunned. Two armed Palestinian uprisings in the last forty years, plus other sporadic waves of terrorism, have similarly failed to make a dent in, let alone reverse, the sturdiness and prosperity of Israel.

Despite dogged adherence to the rejectionist approach - to admit error or defeat is to invite unbearable shame - Palestinian strategists have made attempts to adjust their methods: car ramming attacks; stabbing sprees; rockets - but the growth and success of Israel in the face of - and some argue because of - such violence has prompted a reassessment of direct violence as an effective means to achieve driving the Jews into the sea. Instead, those strategists have developed the beginnings of a newer method that leverages Israelis' reliance on Waze to guide them toward their automotive destinations.

Now bought out by tech giant Google, Waze began as an Israeli startup; the poetry of the history is not lost on the proposal's proponents. They hope to engage the assistance and technical knowledge of the Islamic Republic of Iran in bankrolling and developing a hack that will reprogram Israeli Waze users' devices to cause all the vehicle operators to drive into the sea on their own - finally fulfilling the 1948 promise of Arab leaders that they and all of Israel's enemies ever since have repeatedly failed to approach fulfilling.

"We just need to find the right way to fool users," boasted program initiator Fashla Fadiha. "But it shouldn't be a problem. We've been inside Israelis' heads forever, always knowing exactly how they'll react to our moves and our intimidation, which is why we've been so successful at resistance until now."

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!

07/13 Links Pt1: Palestinian cries of Israeli 'occupation' are an oxymoron; EU parliament again denounces PA for incitement; Ilhan Omar Announces Boycott of Israeli President's Address to Congress

From Ian:

Palestinian cries of Israeli 'occupation' are an oxymoron

A major article in The New York Times on July 6, reporting the aftermath of the Jenin conflict, began with this remarkable sentence: “Israel’s military said on Wednesday that it had withdrawn from the occupied West Bank city of Jenin after a large-scale incursion.”

That’s what I would call the very definition of an oxymoron. The Merriam-Webster dictionary says an oxymoron is “a combination of contradictory or incongruous words.”

They might as well add Jenin to that definition. According to The New York Times, Jenin is “occupied” by the Israelis, yet it is also a city into which the Israelis have staged “a large-scale incursion” and from which they have then “withdrawn.”

Apparently, nobody at the Times noticed that if the Israelis are indeed “occupying” the city, they wouldn’t be invading it and withdrawing from it. They would be there all the time. Only, they’re not.

Once upon a time, the Israelis did occupy Jenin. From 1967 to 1995, to be exact. There was an Israeli military governor and a military administration that ruled the city. There were Israeli troops patrolling the streets and keeping order. And then they left.

As part of the Oslo II agreement, of September 1995, the Israelis withdrew all their governors and military administrators, and troops from the cities where 98% of the Palestinian Arabs reside. Including Jenin. The “occupation” came to an end, literally.

But not according to the Times, it didn’t. Three more times in that same July 6 article about Jenin, the daily referred to Israel “occupying” Palestinian areas. One of the references quoted an “ex-militant” (that is, a convicted terrorist) named Nidal Naghniyeh complaining that the Palestinian Authority has failed to “protect us from the occupation.”

Is Naghniyeh hallucinating? Does he think he sees Israeli troops or an Israeli governor in Jenin each morning? Of course not. He lives in Jenin. He knows there are no Israelis occupying the city.

Rabbi Leo Dee to Netanyahu: 'No need to pretend there's a two-state solution'

Rabbi Leo Dee, whose wife and two daughters were murdered by Palestinian terrorists in April, addressed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday regarding the financing of the Palestinian Authority.

"Thanks to your excellent economic policies, you increased the number of daily workers who leave their homes in the West Bank and work in Jerusalem, Beit Shemesh, and Tel Aviv from 50,000 a day to 200,000 a day," Dee said. "And through this, you created a new and promising reality for Palestinians and Israelis." He also stated much of the income in the Palestinian territories comes from Israel.

Dee states that "Oslo and the two-state solution" makes little sense, and that bringing Palestinians into the Israeli workforce "makes them dependent on their trade with us."

"So there are no two countries. There are 10 Palestinian cities - actually 10 separate Palestinian states - that could happily be run by their clans, their tribal leaders. And there is no need to pretend that there is actually another country with its own government in Ramallah and its own Fatah army. Dee: "The two-state solution is completely dead"

"And there is no longer any need to pretend that there is a two-state solution. I spoke with foreign ministers and officials from Britain, Europe, and the United States recently - they all told me privately - the two-state solution is completely dead. Prime Minister, you are the only person in the world who continues to believe in it!"

The prime minister has most recently been opposed to the two-state solution, recently telling the Knesset in a closed-door meeting that Palestinian hopes of establishing a sovereign state “must be eliminated.”

Despite this, Dee addressed Netanyahu, asking "Why do you keep beating a dead horse? Why do you continue to support the Palestinian Authority and Fatah? Today, the Palestinian Authority is responsible for 70% of the terrorist attacks in Israel!"

European parliament again denounces PA for incitement

The European parliament passed resolutions on Wednesday condemning the Palestinian Authority for inciting violence, antisemitism and hate via its school textbooks.

The resolutions demanded the “deletion of all antisemitic references, and removal of examples that incite hatred and violence.”

Unlike previous resolutions, which mentioned incitement to violence without directly calling for the removal of antisemitism, the wording explicitly links E.U.-funded textbooks to “rising involvement of teenagers in terrorist attacks.”

The European parliament insisted that the European Union freeze its funding to the P.A. until its curriculum is aligned with UNESCO standards and called on E.U. authorities to prevent funding “to activities that incite hatred and violence,” in line with the E.U. strategy for combating antisemitism.

The adopted resolutions form part of a report recommending the way in which the European Union should define its relations with the P.A.

This is the second time in two months that the European parliament has voted on resolutions condemning P.A. incitement, the third time since December 2022, and the fourth consecutive year it has done so. The resolutions were supported by members of parliament from across the political spectrum in Brussels.

The Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se), an Israeli nonprofit that monitors school textbooks worldwide, briefed parliament members from across the political spectrum in the lead-up to the vote, showcasing a continued failure by the P.A. to make any changes to its current school curriculum, despite promises of reform.

From Palestine Times:

When you cross the long market street in Balata camp, east of Nablus, you can hardly see the sky, after the resistance fighters, with the help and initiative of the youth of the camp, covered the main streets and alleys with plastic sheets and fabrics. This is done in order to protect the resistance fighters, facilitate their movement, and reduce the possibility of them being monitored by the occupation reconnaissance planes.

The same idea was done by the resistance fighters in the Jenin camp, and it achieved great success, which prompted the "Balata Battalion" to repeat it, due to its success in protecting the resistance fighters and neutralizing the threat of the occupation, its planes and snipers.

Regarding the importance of the step, a fighter from the Balata Brigade told Palestine Today that the introduction of drones by the occupation in its pursuit of the resistance fighters, and later their use in bombing sites, homes and moving vehicles, as happened in Jenin, prompted them to expedite the installation of these barriers.

Who cares that thousands of residents in crowded camps won't see the sky? Terrorists' lives are at stake! And, as always with Palestinians, what the majority wants is not nearly as important as what the self-appointed leaders decide.

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!

In 1889, a notable French artist named Adolphe Willette ran as an explicitly antisemitic candidate in the 9th arrondissement of Paris for legislative elections.

The campaign poster included "The Jews are only powerful because we are on our knees! 30 million French people are their trembling slaves. It is not a question of religion, the Jews are a different race, hostile to our own... Judaism, there is the enemy!"

Notice how these antisemites were careful not to appear to be bigoted - their problem, they claimed, was not with Judaism as a religion, but Jews as a race, dedicated to destroying France.

Of course, the broken "Talmud" tablets on the ground show that they hated Jews as a religion too, but even these avowed antisemites didn't want to appear to be bigoted. They came up with a convoluted distinction between "good Jews" and "bad Jews" and claimed they only hated the Jewish race.

It seems strange today to see a political poster that is so suffused with hate, and a candidate who fully expects that a campaign centered on antisemitism would attract voters. Certainly that belongs to a time long gone, right?

Nope.

Yesterday, a small group of people who are alarmed at the weakening of the Democratic Socialists of America started a new slate of candidates for the DSA National Political Committee - to save the DSA by appealing to antisemitism (which they pretend is anti-Zionism.)

They call themselves the Anti-Zionist Slate of the DSA.

One of the primary issues facing our organization right now is our flagging membership numbers. Our organization's membership numbers have seen a substantial decrease from a high of over 94,000 constitutional members in April 2021 to a little over 78,000 constitutional members today. In reality, the number of members who are currently members in good standing and have paid their dues has decreased to 57,000 members.

This trend is not one to be dismissed or ignored. Rather, it must be accepted as an ongoing problem that needs to be diagnosed and further addressed before DSA finds itself facing a full-blown membership crisis.

So how best to shore up an American socialist group than to appeal to their naked hate of Israel?

Anti-Zionism as an organizing principle

Fighting Alongside Liberation Struggles to Dismantle Zionism & Imperialism: Recognizing that the US is a linchpin of imperialism and racial capitalism globally, we as a slate prioritize solidarity with liberation struggles, including those of indigenous peoples from Turtle Island to Palestine, and strive for an organization that takes material action against imperialism....We must develop relationships of accountability with grassroots formations as the BDS Working Group has done with Palestinian grassroots formations in diaspora and in Palestine. To best do so, we support the proliferation of grassroots BDS campaigns, such as the BDS Working Group’s No Appetite for Apartheid campaign...

The focus on hating Israel as a unifying theme for an American political group reflects the exact same kind of single-minded hate that the antisemitic political parties in Europe tried to take advantage of from the late 1800s through World War II. Just as Jews were regarded as the source of all the people's problems then, the Jewish state is regarded the same way today. They prioritize hating Zionism over workers' rights, or racism, or fighting capitalism - and they are convinced that this is a winning strategy to attract socialists to their platform.

Another DSA group recently released a statement saying that they believe that Israeli Jewish civilians - including children - should be treated as military targets under international law. Essentially they called for an open season on murdering Israeli Jews.

So it appears that there is some support in the DSA for a platform that is based on hating Jews.

Just as with Willette, the "anti-Zionist" candidates would insist that they have no problem with Jews per se. And their justification for their focus on hating Jews living in the Jewish homeland is just as absurd and transparent as Willette's.

History may not always repeat, but it sure plagiarizes a lot.

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!

Roy2a is a Qatar-based website whose audience is mostly Egyptian, Algerian and Saudi.

It says its goal is "to raise the level of Arabic content to a level befitting the Arab user, in order to become an accurate reference for the Arab user to refer to all the fields he needs with accurate information."

It's values statement says it is "committed to ethical and societal values in all of its articles in order to respect all religions, sects and cultures, as it places great emphasis on the need for mutual respect for all different points of view and adherence to information professionalism in order to contribute significantly to the achievement of an informed and educated Arab society.

On Wednesday, it published a selection of suggested supplications for Muslim worshipers to add to theyir prayers.

They are not exactly respectful of Jews.

[Palestinians] pray to God to protect their homeland and their beloved holy relic from the evils and immorality of the Jews:

Oh God, make the Mujahideen among our brothers steadfast in Jerusalem. Oh God, direct their shooting. Oh God, make their feet firm and tie their hearts and strike terror into the hearts of their enemies. Oh God, make Jerusalem a cemetery for the Jews. Oh God, shake the earth from under their feet.
....
O our Lord, open for us the path of jihad and martyrdom....

...Oh God, grant victory to Al-Aqsa Mosque and destroy the criminal usurping Jews. Oh God, protect Al-Aqsa Mosque and return it to the Muslims, and prepare for it your loyal soldiers, ...Oh God, the sons of Zion, disperse their gathering and separate them, and cut off their offspring, and take them, take the Mighty, O God. O God, enable us to secure their necks and shoulders, O God, make them and what they possess spoils in the hands of the mujahideen in your way...

...Oh God, eliminate all your enemies and the enemies of your religion, separate from the people of Palestine the plot of the Jews, remove them from Palestine and prepare it for its people, and do not make the Jews have authority over it or any of your servants. Send down upon the Jews your might, shake all their feet and deflate their knowledge. O Allah Amen.

You know how Palestinians love to warn the West that Israel is trying to make this into a religious war? Not exactly. This has been a Muslim religious war - a jihad - for over a century.

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!

07/12 Links Pt2: The Democratic Socialists of America just endorsed ethnic murder; Caroline Glick: Meet the Non-Jewish Judge Spearheading the Fight Against BDS in the US

From Ian:

The Democratic Socialists of America just endorsed ethnic murder

The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is the largest left-wing organisation in the United States and a prominent backer of Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. DSA Palestine recently sparked controversy by claiming about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that ‘One could (and should) very well argue that in a settler colonial context there are no such things as “civilians”’ and by endorsing a right of ‘resistance in all forms’. By erasing the distinction between combatants and non-combatants DSA Palestine is defining all Israeli Jews as legitimate targets for murder. Ari Allyn-Feuer calls for the upcoming DSA conference to apologise, explain, and reconsider its recent lurch to crude ‘Smash Israel’ politics.

Introduction: DSA endorsed ethnic murder
Something extremely strange happened last week. Democratic Socialists of America, the largest socialist organisation in the United States, endorsed the idea that there is a particular ethnic group whom one is entitled to murder. Despite this stance being condemned by many, the DSA has not retracted or apologised. It has, rather, reiterated and defended its position that Israeli Jews are legitimate targets for murder.

The matter has gotten much less attention than it deserves, particularly on the left. This article encourages decent people within the organisation to reverse this position at its national convention next month. In the likely event that this does not happen, decent people outside the organisation should recognise the DSA should be shunned.

DSA Palestine
The original statement was posted on the Twitter account of the DSA BDS and Palestine Solidarity Working Group, an official organ of the national DSA organisation, created by a charter from its national convention in 2019, and whose website is a subdomain of the national DSA organisation’s website. Where it is necessary to distinguish between the national organisation and the BDS and Palestine Working Group, I will refer to the latter as ‘DSA Palestine,’ its Twitter handle.

DSA Palestine’s tweet said this: ‘One could (and should) very well argue that in a settler colonial context there are no such things as “civilians”, but disregarding that even, it’s total folly to honestly compare settlers perpetrating pogroms to resistance groups deploying violence to liberate themselves.’

This is a stunning statement. The distinction between civilian and military personnel, non-combatants and combatants, in an armed conflict is the dividing line between those who have the protection of international law, whom it is a war crime to target, and those who may be intentionally killed, legitimately, without limit or sanction, anywhere in the theatre of conflict. Saying that there are no Israeli civilians (not even women, children, or the elderly) is saying that DSA considers it legitimate, as a general rule, to kill any Israeli.

The BDS Campaign Against Israel “De-Localizes” the Palestinian Cause, Focuses on Global Surveillance

Over the past few years, there has been more than one wave of alarming news items about repressive governments in the Middle East using software developed by the Israeli cybersecurity firm NSO to eavesdrop on their domestic opponents. Irina Tsukerman argues that the evidence for the abuse of this technology has always been thin, and bear some familiar marks of other attempts to slander the Jewish state:

On the strength of commercial spyware, Jerusalem has been able to translate security relationships into diplomatic breakthroughs as its more trusted partners were able to address some of their most significant threats coming from terrorist groups, revolutionary opposition, ideological extremists, and organized crime. The media scandal surrounding the now infamous Pegasus software allegedly used by a number of allies and ally-adjacent countries is just one example of how the BDS [boycott, divest, and sanction] movement has succeeded in associating Israel with alleged human-rights abuses.

The politicized human-rights organizations behind this campaign [to demonize NSO]—the Canada-based Citizen Lab, Amnesty International, ACCESS NOW, and Front Line Defenders—have never provided evidence of a Pegasus’s presence for independent verification. These organizations were criticized by several technical experts for their failure to abide by the scientific method and to meet academic standards of transparency, verifiability, and independent peer review. Their response was to dismiss, ignore, or outright smear the experts who took issue with their reports.

No longer focusing exclusively on the Palestinians, this anti-Israel nexus is now focused on tainting Israel’s cybersecurity industry in the eyes of the world as a weapon that supports corrupt regimes against peaceful civilians. These attacks deliberately ignore legitimate threats posed by supposedly peaceful dissidents and journalists who often double as political operatives, spies, and ideological extremists. Thus, the effect is not only the besmirching of Israel’s cybersecurity programs but a tarnishing of associations with Israel.

Companies Morningstar still flags for operating in Judea, Samaria deal in infrastructure

Morningstar trimmed a list of companies it flags for doing business in Israel-controlled territory from 26 to seven, JNS reported exclusively last week. Now, a JNS analysis and conversations with the Chicago-based investment giant shed light on the seven remaining companies, which largely operate in infrastructure projects, potentially affecting land access.

The “controversy ratings,” which Morningstar and its environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) ratings subsidiary Sustainalyics have applied to allegedly-offending companies attach an element of risk, which can sway investors away from those companies.

Morningstar has been under fire for alleged anti-Israel bias in its ratings methods and sources, and at least 20 U.S. states are investigating it for potential violations of anti-BDS (boycott Israel) laws. Morningstar has consistently denied being anti-Israel, and it has worked since October to fulfill an agreement with a coalition of U.S. Jewish and pro-Israel organizations to root out potential bias.

Sarah Wirth, a Morningstar spokeswoman, told JNS that the company trimmed its controversy rating list of companies, which operate beyond the 1949 armistice line, in agreed-upon methodological changes, including eliminating biased and pro-BDS sources. She cited Morningstar’s progress tracker, which she said shows the process is nearly complete.

That includes “identifying ineligible sources, adding a third-party source evaluator, strengthening our criteria for assessing source relevance and timeliness and creating methodology around sourcing to promote consistency,” Wirth told JNS.

“By strengthening source criteria in terms of sources’ relevance and timeliness across the human rights category, we saw a removal of 704 incidents, including 78 incidents related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict area, thereby affecting the controversies,” she added.

The seven companies that Morningstar still flags are B Communications, Bezeq, Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles SA, Elbit Systems, Elco, Electra and Shapir Engineering and Industry.

The Caroline Glick Show: Meet the Non-Jewish Judge Spearheading the Fight Against BDS in the US

Caroline’s guest on the Caroline Glick Show this week has demonstrated that the most unlikely people can make a massive difference. As a South Carolina State Legislator, he passed the first state law banning the South Carolina’s state government from doing business with companies that participate in BDS campaigns against Israel.

Last week, New Hampshire became the 37th state to pass similar legislation.

Judge Clemmons explains how he became involved, what he achieved, and why he was successful in doing more to defeat BDS and to combat anti-Semitism than anyone else in the United States in the past generation.