Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, July 18, 2023

07/18 Links Pt2: David Collier: Sowing the seeds of support for terrorists; Jenin operation exposed growing radicalization in the West against Israel

From Ian:

The long arm of American law does not seem to reach as far as Jordan

Arutz Sheva has taken the initiative in reminding the public of an indefensibly ongoing saga - the efforts to bring to justice the murderess responsible for the deaths of 16 innocent people in a Jerusalem Sbarro pizza restaurant twenty two years ago.

In the most recent development, a full ten years after her conviction in the USA, former Congressman Ted Deutsch, head of the American Jewish Committee, wrote a letter to the Attorney General of the United States, Merrick B. Garland, calling on the Department of Justice “to intensify its pursuit of the extradition from the Kingdom of Jordan of Ahlam Aref Ahmad Al-Tamimi, the Jordanian terrorist whose 16 murder victims in the 2001 Sbarro restaurant bombing in Jerusalem included three U.S. citizens."

"They were," he wrote, "Shoshana Yehudit Greenbaum, 31 years old and five months pregnant; the 15-year-old American-Israeli Malka Chana Roth; and Chana Finer Nachenberg, also an American-Israeli, who suffered catastrophic injuries that left her in a vegetative coma and who died on May 30, 2023, without ever regaining consciousness.”

Tried in an Israeli courtroom, Tamimi proudly confessed to all charges brought against her and was convicted for her central role in the atrocity.

So what is she doing in Jordan?

Deutsch's letter explains: "Tamimi... received 16 life sentences, served eight years in prison before being released in a 2011 exchange [of 1027 terrorists convicted by Israel] for Hamas captive Gilad Shalit, and has since resided in Jordan, her homeland."

Upon her return to Amman, Tamimi received a tumultuous reception which was given wide media coverage and, Deutsch wrote, "unrepentant, she has enjoyed celebrity status since returning to Jordan, glorifying and inciting terrorism and for five years hosting a program on the Hamas-affiliated Al-Quds TV, beamed throughout the Arabic-speaking world."

Not a few of the terrorists released in the Shalit exchange deal returned to terrorism, but Ahlam Aref Ahmad Al-Tamimi alone actually became a terror-glorifying celebrity..

She has since regaled in speaking about the finer details of her murderous atrocities, referring to the innocents murdered by the human bomb she planted at the crowded central-Jerusalem eatery as “Zionists," (i.e. expendable) and describing her role in the murders as “a crown on my head”.

Yoseph Haddad: Jenin operation exposed growing radicalization in the West against Israel

Tucked away between the headlines about Israel’s recent operation to weed out Palestinian terrorism in Jenin was a troubling phenomenon that went virtually unnoticed. Prominent media outlets and “human rights organizations” went from simply delegitimizing Israel to openly supporting terrorism and promoting blood libel.

On July 4th, former Israeli PM Naftali Bennett was interviewed by the BBC’s Anjana Gadgil. Instead of asking about the increasingly common Iran-backed Palestinian terrorism infesting Jenin and endangering civilians, Gadgil took a page right out of antizionist propaganda and claimed that "Israeli forces are happy to kill children."

To suggest such a thing is truly horrific and dishonest, especially since there were zero civilian casualties during the operation, and any minors that were killed were directly taking part in terror activities. Although the BBC “apologized,” and Gadgil shut down her Twitter account, it is unlikely that the outlet’s coverage of Israel will change any time soon.

Another British outlet, The Economist, published an article on July 7th glorifying the Lions’ Den, a new Hamas-funded terror group with members from both Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Since its establishment less than a year ago, the Lions’ Den has claimed over 100 shooting attacks targeting Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers. Yet the article fawns over the social media expertise and the brand it created as “the face of Gen Z Palestinian resistance,” raving about how Palestinian “souvenir shops sell Lions’ Den mugs, necklaces, trinkets and flags emblazoned with the group’s logo.”

In addition to the vile behavior from these media outlets, organizations dedicated to delegitimizing Israel escalated their tactics to include support for terror.

For example, once the operation in Jenin ended, the Washington, DC chapter of the BDS group Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) shared a video of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorists with machine guns and body armor in Jenin, handing toys and candy to children “in celebration of the failure of Israeli occupation forces invasion to assassinate them.” PIJ is a designated terror group.

This isn’t the first time JVP, which claims to be for "peace," as its name suggests, has posted pro-terror content; however, it is a step up, showing that the group is becoming more radical.

David Collier: Sowing the seeds of support for terrorists

Why do those who support and celebrate the murder of Jews always have a queue of people who want to give them money and shake their hands? The Seeds for Development and Culture

‘Seeds for Development and Culture’ (SFDC) is an NGO operating out of Nablus. The Facebook page suggests it has been around since 2012.

They claim that SFDC ‘aims to create a positive impact on the Palestinian youth’ and they appear to be a popular destination for western politicians. Here is a 2017 photo of the group at a ’round table’ with British politicians – Ruth Cadbury, Sarah Champion, Helen Goodman, Philip Hollobone, Rupa Huq, Stephen Metcalfe, and Martin Linton:

Seeds For Development and Culture
The purpose of the MPs visit was a ‘fact finding mission’ – and it was paid for by the Britain-Palestine Communications Centre. These are hand held propaganda tours, during which MPs are fed little but a mountain of lies. Upon their return the MPs become naive accomplices to a sinister and antisemitic industry, spreading the lies that they were told.

In a speech in Parliament a month later, Ruth Cadbury said this about her January visit:
“Every Palestinian we met—Palestinian Authority members, elected city leaders, political activists and young people—subscribed to the two-state solution and wanted help in ensuring that it is achieved.”

If she truly believes those words then she is a fool. Does it even enter her head that she may only have been told the lies that they wanted her to spread?

Colonisers introduce:

🇵🇸 Foreign languages: Arabic
🇵🇸 Foreign religions: Islam

Indigenous people preserve:

🇮🇱 Indigenous languages: Hebrew
🇮🇱 Indigenous religions: Judaism

Just sayin' 🤷‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/FlJiax9Oom
— Israel Advocacy Movement (@israel_advocacy) July 18, 2023

Seven EoZ cartoons!

It's been a busy past few days for the EoZ cartoonists, busily working hard to entertain our readers!

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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

From Israel Today:

Backgammon (“Shesh-Besh” in this part of the world) is thousands of years old and remains a popular pastime among Arabs and Jews. There is even a tournament held annually in Jerusalem’s Old City. Held for the first time in 2016, the “Jerusalem Double” event aims to “tear down walls.”

Shesh-Besh is just the right tool for this purpose, as the game has been played in the Middle East for as long as there have been humans. Neither Jews nor Arabs can claim it as the game seems to predate both cultures.

The enthusiasm of the participants, who come from all parts of Israeli society, is correspondingly high. There are walls not only between Jews and Arabs, but also between the secular and the religious, between the young and the old, and between the citizens of the capital and rural areas. All of these communities are represented at the Jerusalem Double, traveling from across the country to take home 25,000 shekels as the winner.

This game, which can last anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours, really breaks down walls as you can’t help but exchange a few words while pondering your next move and sipping your Turkish coffee.

In Shesh-Besh, maneuvering pieces across the board is all about strategy, but since dice are involved, there’s also a good deal of luck. That doesn’t bother the players in this religious region. It may even be that there is more prayer at this tournament than in some synagogues or mosques.

A tournament where people come together and shake hands after playing is a symbolism that is urgently needed in today’s rushed world.

Who can possibly have a problem with Jews and Arabs playing a board game together at the entrance to the Old City?

Jordan's Ammon [Amman] News:

The "Eye on Jerusalem" program, which was shown by Jordanian TV, yesterday, Monday, monitored the "Shesh Besh" festival, which is being held by the Israeli occupation municipality in the Bab Al-Jadid area.

In its weekly report, filmed in Jerusalem, the program showed scenes from the festival held by the occupation municipality in Bab Al-Jadid, located in the far west of the Old City in Al-Quds Al-Sharif, as part of the occupation municipality's procedures to Judaize it.

He explained that this festival is now imposing itself annually, as it includes a tournament in the dice game, and musical activities for Jewish settlers, which are held in front of Arab shops and the ancient walls of Jerusalem.

The video clips also showed that the Jewish settlers behave in the neighborhood as if its people did not exist, ignoring that they are attacking the sanctity of an authentic Arab neighborhood in Jerusalem, despite the objection of the heads of churches and residents to these Judaization measures.

A resident of the Christian Quarter in ancient Jerusalem, Nabil Abdullah, said that what is happening in Bab al-Jadid is an advanced attempt to change the features of this place, because it has an Arab-Palestinian Christian character for thousands of years, adding that holding these activities there falls under the heading of "facts on the ground.".

The report indicated that the occupation municipality has allocated a huge budget for this Judaizing activity, in an effort to create a new reality in that area, to be part of the Jewish narrative amid a complete absence of the narrative of the people of the city...

In turn, the Jerusalem Director of Church Relations, Youssef Al-Zaher, said in a video call from Jerusalem that the event and its accompanying activities are considered alien to the neighborhood, and constitute a cultural occupation of it.

Look at the photo above and see how much this is "Judaizing" the neighborhood!

The report makes it clear: the existence of Jews is what they object to.

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!

07/18 Links Pt1: ‘Gone Off a Cliff’: Dems Grapple with Anti-Semitism Ahead of Israeli President’s Visit; Over 3,600 Palestinian terror attacks in first half of 2023

From Ian:

National Review Editorial: Boycott-Israel Movement Comes to Congress

The left-wing Netroots Nation conference, which ran from last Thursday to Saturday, became a forum for Israel-bashing. Omar declared, “We definitely need people who know what it’s like to experience occupation, whether it is in Ukraine or Palestinian people who have now experienced occupation and displacement for 75 years.” Given that Omar traced the Israeli “occupation” all the way back to its founding, rather than to the territories captured during 1967’s Six Day War, it leaves little doubt that she considers the mere existence of Israel to be illegitimate.

At the same conference, the leader of the House progressives, Representative Pramila Jayapal, sought to appease a group of anti-Israel hecklers, reassuring them, “We have been fighting to make it clear that Israel is a racist state.”

After Democratic leadership sought to defuse the backlash, Jayapal released a half-hearted apology, trying to frame her comments as really meant for Netanyahu. “At a conference, I attempted to defuse a tense situation during a panel where fellow members of Congress were being protested,” she said. “I do not believe the idea of Israel as a nation is racist. I do, however, believe that Netanyahu’s extreme right-wing government has engaged in discriminatory and outright racist policies and that there are extreme racists driving that policy within the leadership of the current government.” In other words, the “idea” of Israel isn’t racist in theory, but it is in practice.

Democrats will continue to downplay these developments, as President Biden will do when he meets with Herzog this week. (Biden dragged his feet for months in issuing an invitation to Netanyahu, and only yesterday agreed to a meeting at an uncertain date.) But it’s becoming more challenging to put the genie back in the bottle. Gallup has for decades been asking the straightforward question: “In the Middle East situation, are your sympathies more with the Israelis or more with the Palestinians?” In 2013, Democrats said they sympathized more with Israelis 55 percent to 19 percent. When the question was asked this year, 49 percent of Democrats said they sympathized with the Palestinians, compared with just 38 percent who said Israelis. That’s a net decline of 47 points in support for Israelis among Democrats in just ten years.

Though Democratic leaders will sweep Jayapal’s comments under the rug and dismiss the Squad as a small and insignificant group within the House, it’s hard to ignore the broader anti-Israel trend within the party.

‘Gone Off a Cliff’: Dems Grapple with Anti-Semitism Ahead of Israeli President’s Visit

Democratic leaders are rushing to combat accusations of anti-Semitism after a slew of anti-Israel comments from members of the party raised the stakes on a planned Democratic boycott of Israeli president Isaac Herzog’s address to Congress.

At least four members of the Democratic Party’s progressive "Squad" announced they would boycott Herzog’s address to Congress this Wednesday. The group includes Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.), Jamaal Bowman (D., N.Y.), Cori Bush (D., Mo.), and Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.). Omar and fellow progressive Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D., Wash.) drew widespread scrutiny over the weekend for criticizing Israel, which Jayapal slammed as a "racist state."

Herzog’s visit comes days after President Joe Biden denounced Israel’s governing coalition as "extremist." Until Monday, when Biden spoke to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu by phone and made plans to meet with him in person, the two had not talked in months, and Biden's invitation to Herzog, who has been a critic of Israeli judicial reforms backed by Netanyahu, was viewed as a rebuke. It was also a move that some Jewish community leaders say has emboldened Israel-bashing within the Democratic Party.

"The Biden administration has created an atmosphere that is literally anti-Israel, that doesn’t respect democracy," former Democratic New York assemblyman Dov Hikind told the Washington Free Beacon. "When the prime minister is not invited to the White House, which is a tradition going back decades and decades and decades, what message does that send? That gave a green light to these [anti-Israel] radicals."

Speaking at the left-wing Netroots Nation conference Saturday, Omar called for voters to elect to Congress "Palestinian people who have now experienced occupation and displacement for 75 years." At the same event, Jayapal, the chairwoman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said she was "fighting to make it clear that Israel is a racist state."

Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was also accused of anti-Semitism over the weekend after he said there was "an argument that [COVID-19] is ethnically targeted" to have a greater impact on white and black people and a lower impact on Chinese and Jewish people.

The American Jewish Committee said Kennedy’s claim "reflects some of the most abhorrent antisemitic conspiracy theories throughout history and contributes to today’s dangerous rise of antisemitism."

Why Israel Approved Development of the Gaza Marine Gas Field

While Israel has begun to tap into its offshore natural-gas fields, the reserve off the coast of the Gaza Strip remains unexplored, due to a 1999 agreement that puts it under the control of the Palestinian Authority (PA)—with the stipulation that it cannot be developed without Jerusalem’s permission. The Israeli government granted that permission last month. Elai Rettig and Benny Spanier examine the decision:
When Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007, Israel didn’t want revenue from the field to fall into its hands, so it blocked further progress. New negotiations began over a year ago through Egypt, and a breakthrough occurred last week. Egypt wants to sponsor the project, and most of the gas will be sold to Egypt’s energy sector, and perhaps also exported to Europe [in liquid form].

There are various reasons why Israel might have approved a deal that will most likely benefit Hamas. . . . One possibility . . . is that this is part of a larger Egyptian/Israeli effort to calm the political situation in Gaza between its warring factions (Hamas vs. Islamic Jihad). There’s also a plan to build a new harbor in Egypt to bring more goods into Gaza and help its economy. Although, officially, only the PA in the West Bank will receive the gas revenue, there’s no denying that Hamas will get some of it too. If that were not the case, it would not allow the field to be developed. Israel’s approval might be a reward from Jerusalem to Hamas for helping it oppose Islamic Jihad militants during the last round of violence in Gaza in May 2023.

A [further] reason for Israel’s approval could be incentives provided by other parties in the region. They may have conditioned impending political or economic agreements with Israel on concessions to the Palestinians like this one. Motivations could include a normalization deal with Saudi Arabia or an energy trade deal of some kind with Turkey.

Antisemitism as philosemitism: The New York Times describes the Jews of Europe, 1873

This is from the top headline article in the New York Times of July 5, 1873, 150 years ago, in a dispatch from Vienna from a nameless "special correspondent."

The Press is much controlled by the Jews, who are wealthy, intelligent, and ambitious.

They have not invented anything. I speak, certainly, without reference to the very old times when they may have invented a great deal. It is incontestable, however, that they exhibit extraordinary aptitude in utilizing the inventions of others. In some places in this slow old Europe of ours, they have run at a belle idée as a pike rushes.at a spinning minnow and carries it clear off to gorge at discretion all alone.

The telegraph, for instance. Baron Reuter furnishes the news of the world to all the English papers and to many of the foreign journals. Wolff provides the news of Central Europe. These are quite of Israel. Then there is the Agence Havas, which may be considered as much inspired, if not owned, by the same great people. Europe is under these thumbs.

And in these days news is money. And now money often means news—in war it is indeed almost identical, and no people understand that better than the parsimonious Prussians who lavished gold for intelligence.

Here in Vienna, as in other places, the Press is largely worked, owned, written, and largely influenced by Jews. They have appreciated the importance of holding the end of such a lever in their hands, :and have not neglected its use.

Their general sympathies are opposed to Roman Catholicism which is aggressive, bat they do not love the Greek Church. They are distracted somewhat between their democratic and liberal principles and the effect which would be produced on ancient States by a vigorous application of them.

Certainly they have reason to be proud of their race, which, despite the heavenly malediction and the hate of Christendom, has now taken possession of so much of the goods of this world without striking a blow in battle, or sustaining the burdens of national life.

In music, in money-making, in politics they play a great part. A Jew owns the purest vintages, the best cigars, and some of the finest horses in the world, not to speak of paintings, statuary, jewels, and china, and as the civilization of the world advances so does the Jew come to the front, not of the combat, but of the gleaners who gather the fruits of victory.

In Vienna there are more Jews than crossed the Jordan with Joshua to smite the tribes of Canaan. In the Austrian Empire there are as many Jews as there were in Judea in the time of Titus—far more than there were in the captivity.

While the reporter is bending over backwards to praise Jews, his praise is indistinguishable from the slanders of the antisemites. The Jews are parasites who do not directly contribute to society; they are opportunistic money makers, they control the news media and tilt reporting to be favorable and profitable to them, they all have the same opinions and act as a bloc for their own welfare. They are rich, and their influence is only growing.

Notably, Baron Paul Reuter was born Jewish and converted to Christianity. In this article, he is still "of Israel" and considered a Jew with the same opinions as all other Jews.

This section on Jews was reproduced in a number of other newspapers in the following weeks as stand-alone articles.

This essay was written six years before Wilhelm Marr - who coined the term "anti-semite" - wrote his first antisemitic publication, The Victory of Judaism over Germandom. Amazingly (or not,) Marr's essay not only echoes the same themes as the NYT in 1873, but which also claims seeming admiration for the Jews:

Without a shred of irony, I publicly proclaim the world-historical triumph of Jewry, the news of a lost battle, the victory of the enemy without a single excuse for the stricken army.
I should like to believe that such candor deserves something better than the zealous Jewish accents of the newspapers.
It is no ostentatious prophecy but a deeply felt conviction when I say that no more than four generations shall pass before the Jews usurp absolutely every office of state, including the very highest.
Yes, Jewry shall raise Germany to a world power and make it the New Palestine of Europe.
It won't come about by violent revolution but by the voice of the people itself, as soon as German society has reached that highest level of social bankruptcy and perplexity toward which we are rushing headlong.
Don't blame Jewry for this.
Our Germanic element has shown itself culturally and historically powerless, incapable of achievement, before alien domination. This is a fact, a raw, pitiless fact. State, church, Catholicism, Protestantism, credo, and dogma must bow before the Jewish Areopagus, the daily press.
Dear reader, stop gnashing your teeth in rage! [You have no right to do so.] Alien domination has been forced upon us. For 1800 years the fight against Jewish domination has lasted. The Semitic race has borne indescribable [external] suffering. You have roughly mishandled them, but rarely have you combated them spiritually. From feeble beginnings Jewry has grown beyond you. It has corrupted all society with its views. It has driven out any kind of idealism, possesses the controlling position in commerce, infiltrates increasingly into state offices, rules the theater, constitutes a sociopolitical phalanx, and finally has left you little more than the hard manual labor that it always despised. It has reduced talent to rattling superficial finesse, has made that procuress, advertising, into a goddess of public opinion. In short, Jewry lords it over you today.
Are we capable of sacrifice? Have we even succeeded in creating a single, nonpartisan anti-Jewish newspaper? Are not even our housewife clubs and similar associations under Jewish patrons who combine business with pleasure for their own profit? Does not Jewry flow into all the pores of our life?
You may gnash your teeth about Germanic apathy. I bow down in amazed admiration before this Semitic race that has set its foot upon our necks. Having gathered up the last trace of human energy, I am resigned to enter into Jewish slavery, not to surrender or ask for quarter but only to die as peacefully as possible.

There is little difference in tone nor in substance between the New York Times and Wilhelm Marr, even though one was ostensibly praising Jews and the other warning against them.

Sometimes, philosemitism is just antisemitism seen through a slightly different lens.

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!

Al Quds reports:

The Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs of the United Nations and Specialized Agencies, Omar Awadallah, said that the International Criminal Court has launched an electronic platform to allow Palestinians to file complaints against Israelis who have allegedly committed war crimes.

In an interview with Voice of Palestine radio on Tuesday, Awadallah explained that this platform will allow Palestinians to submit photo and video evidence to the court, and that this should also serve as a deterrent against Israel.

In the same interview, B'Tselem spokesman Karim Jubran stressed the importance of documenting the crimes committed by the occupation forces in the International Criminal Court. He encouraged Palestinians to submit evidence of any incident that they have faced, as there is no statute of limitations.

On his part, the director of Al-Haq Shawan Jabarin said that this process will exert "more pressure on the [Israeli] Public Prosecutor's Office," and force its hand in dealing with the incidents.

Today, anyone can send a complaint to the ICC simply by mailing, faxing or emailing them.

There is nothing wrong with the ICC creating a website to make the complaint process even easier. But there is something very wrong with the ICC creating a website specifically for complaints against a single country.

And according to this UN official, that is exactly what the ICC is doing.

So much for any pretense that the ICC is objective.

Quoting Shawan Jabarin, who is linked to the PFLP terror organization, on any human rights topic is just icing on the cake.

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!

"Save the Children" Gaza report from 2022 seems filled with prompted responses

I just came across the Save the Children report from last year, "Trapped: The impact of 15 years of blockade on the mental health of Gaza’s children."

The methodology of the report was:

• Quantitative surveys were completed by 400 children (aged 12–17 years, 48% girls), and by 160 parents and caregivers (50% females, 50% males).
• Twelve interviews were carried out with eight children and four caregivers.
• Ten focus group discussions were conducted with 80 children between the ages of 12 and 17, 40% of whom were girls.
• Ten key informant interviews were conducted, including with MHPSS specialists, and relevant civil society and international organisations working in the field.

Reading the report, it appears that there was a lot of both self-selecting bias as well as NGO workers prompting children to answer the way that they want them to answer to maximize sympathy.

The actual questions are not made available, as far as I can tell, so we do not know whether they were filled with leading questions. I am fairly certain that the number of children who knew people who were killed in the 2021 Gaza war, or who were injured themselves, or whose houses were destroyed, is far higher than a random sampling of children would yield.

These Gaza children don't have any hate for Israel or Jews, according to the numerous quotes sprinkled throughout the report. Not one mentioned wanting to become a fighter or a martyr. The words "Hamas" and "Jihad" were not reported once.

But the quotes that they do make seem to be straight from central casting.

The entire forward was supposedly written and edited by five children supposedly during the May 2021 Gaza war. See if this passes the smell test:

We are children who live in the Gaza Strip....We want you to know that Gaza, our home, is being destroyed. Even the nice places like schools and hospitals. There isn’t much electricity for hours at a time. We all have to sleep on the floor or in hallways, and it’s really dark at night. Life is scary and our roofs are falling on our heads.

...We know that other children around the world lead quiet and calm lives. While other children dream of having video games, we dream that one day this fighting will end. We hope that one day we can open our books again, write in our notebooks and study, that we can go outside and play with friends. The first thing we wish is that the war would end. All children should be able to live in peace. ...

Above all, we want to live like children in other countries who can play in playgrounds instead of hiding from bombs. We want Gaza to be a safe and beautiful place where we can live in peace. We still have hope. But we want this war to be the last war.
Salma (11), Niveen (9), Zain (12), Samer (13), Khaled (10) and Amal (10) This letter was written by children during the escalation of hostilities in May 2021.

Remarkable!

But wait, there's more. A focus group of children 14-17 are quoted: “The blockade affects us in all aspects of our lives. It affects our health, ability to move, the environment. We don’t even have clean water in Gaza. It’s affecting the economic situation. We have so much poverty and we notice increasing child labour as well. It also makes us have smaller ambitions because no matter what we dream of we know there are so many limitations.”

13 year old Ali said, “The blockade limits our dreams. Children don’t dare to even dream.”

14 year old Salem said, “It’s easier to travel to another country than to go to the West Bank. It’s like the West Bank isn’t even an option for children in Gaza.”

These are not words that come spontaneously from children. These words were almost certainly prompted from Save the Children workers, with leading questions.

I can say with certainty that I have never read any quotes that sound remotely like these in Palestinian media.

Perhaps the most obvious example of how a child was prompted to do what the NGO worker wanted was this drawing from "Samar:"

In Gaza, a girl publicly holding hands with a boy before marriage has a good chance of being murdered by her own family. A 14 year old would not draw that primitively and then express sophisticated imagery like a justice scale. The handwriting for the phrase "travel freely" (and "justice") does not look like it is from a 14 year old for whom English is a second language, and even most American teens wouldn't use that adverb correctly.

I'm not saying that children in Gaza do not suffer. But this report had a narrative to tell, and the authors made sure that the actors in the drama knew their lines.

The report also emphasizes that Gaza children are depressed and - according to their caregivers - increasingly turning to self-harm and suicidal thoughts. But not once does Save the Children mention that they are growing up in an environment where they are taught, in schools and mosques and homes and the media, that their highest aspirations are to become martyrs and murder Jews. Hamas and Islamic Jihad summer camps are not mentioned. Gaza kids are nothing more than cannon fodder and they know it. But this is not explored nor even mentioned.

Perhaps Save the Children isn't as interested in saving the children as they are in demonizing Israel.

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!

07/17 Links Pt2: RFK Jr is just the latest conspiracy theorists to turn on the Jews; Swedish Jewish group sees silver lining behind scripture-burning story

From Ian:

Dara Horn: Come Here to Me, You Fortunate Citizen of the World

Upon his arrival in Auschwitz in 1942, the Nazis assigned Zalmen Gradowski to the Sonderkommando (special force), whose task was to direct fellow prisoners to the gas chambers and then to remove and dispose of their corpses. Gradowski kept a Yiddish-language diary, which he carefully hid and which has recently been published in English translation. In her review, Dara Horn compares Gradowski to Shimon bar Kokhba, who led a failed revolt against the Roman occupation of Judea in 135 CE:

Gradowski was both a talented writer and a heroic warrior, whose name should be as well known in Jewish history as Bar Kokhba’s—not least because he and Bar Kokhba were equally doomed. Gradowski was born around 1909 to a religious family in the town of Suwalki in the region known to Jews as Lita or Lithuania; as a young adult, he was politically active in the Revisionist wing of the Zionist movement named for Bar Kokhba’s last stand, Betar. By 1942, he and his wife, Sonja, and most of their large extended families were deported to Auschwitz, where all but Gradowski were gassed and burned on arrival.

This living nightmare ended for him on October 7, 1944, in a revolt he helped organize that lasted one day. Using gunpowder smuggled in tiny amounts over many months by Jewish female prisoners working in the camp’s munitions factory, he and his fellow rebels blew up Crematorium 4, killed three guards, and facilitated the escape of several hundred people. Within hours, Nazi officers recaptured most of the escapees and murdered more than four hundred Sonderkommandos and other prisoners. Gradowski was murdered in the revolt, as he fully anticipated.

Like much of Yiddish literature, Gradowski’s long incantatory introduction is laced with deliberate ironic echoes of biblical and other traditional texts, because that is the discourse in which the overwhelming majority of murdered Jews thought, spoke, and wrote. The fact that many non-Jewish readers will likely find this style alienating is itself revealing, because its off-putting nature for English readers isn’t just about references that might go over a reader’s head. This style is a literary enactment of the deepest element of Jewish life, one that anti-Semites cannot bear: responsibility for both past and future.

Like the classical Jewish texts upon which he drew, Gradowski’s writing openly demands his readers’ participation. He does not allow his readers to be passive observers; he fully implicates them in whatever happens next. This prophetic call to responsibility is precisely the call that the anti-Semitic world has rejected—then and, in endless unspoken ways, now.

IHRA's Definition of Antisemitism adoption set to surpass 2022 numbers

In a promising development, the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism has garnered substantial support worldwide in the first half of 2023.

According to a report by Combat Antisemitism Movement, the adoption and endorsement of this definition, which serves as a comprehensive framework for identifying contemporary forms of Jew-hatred, have reached a total of 78 entities globally.

Key Data regarding the IHRA's Definition of Antisemitism adoptions in 2023, according to CAM:
78 entities globally adopted or endorsed the IHRA Definition of Antisemitism in the first half of 2023.
The total number of adoptions and endorsements worldwide now stands at 1,192.
This represents a diverse range of institutions, organizations, governments, and corporations that have embraced the definition.
The 78 adoptions and endorsements in January-June 2023 accounted for 85.7% of the total adoptions in 2022.
The current trajectory suggests that 2023's total will exceed the previous year's numbers.

Expanding Recognition:
The widespread adoption of the IHRA Definition of Antisemitism challenges the claims made by detractors who suggest a decline in support. Despite protests and alternative proposals, the IHRA's definition has gained universal recognition as the authoritative guideline for identifying and addressing Antisemitism. Its acceptance continues to grow among countries, government bodies, institutions, organizations, and corporations worldwide.

Who adopted the IHRA working definition in 2023?
Several notable adoptions and endorsements of the IHRA Definition of Antisemitism have taken place in 2023, including:
Two countries: Latvia and Croatia.
33 non-national governmental bodies.
Seven educational institutions.
One private organization.
35 public organizations, with Poland leading the way.

The IHRA Definition of Antisemitism has gained traction at the regional and municipal levels worldwide. Some prominent adoptees include:
The Latin American Parliament.
Region of Piedmont, Italy.
Kansas City, Missouri.
Westchester County, New York.
Florence, Italy.
South Bend, Indiana.
Cincinnati, Ohio.
Boca Raton, Florida.
Dallas, Texas.
Province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.
Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Province of Jujuy, Argentina.
The Supreme Court of Justice of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Swedish Jewish group sees silver lining behind scripture-burning story

Widespread media coverage of these events, and their permissibility under Swedish law, has “hurt Sweden’s image abroad,” according to Aron Verständig, the president of the Council of Swedish Jewish Communities.

Yet to Verständig and many Swedish Jews, the scandals were a testament to the robustness of coexistence in Sweden rather than a display of its breakdown.

“Unfortunately, we’re discussing the burning of scripture in Sweden, but the discussion has had some positive outcomes,” Verständig told The Times of Israel on Sunday.

Behind the scenes, leaders of Muslim faith communities who vocally opposed Alush’s plan to burn a copy of Jewish or Christian scripture had convinced him to drop it, Verständig said.

“It says a lot of good things about Swedish society when you see that virtually no one supports the actions of a handful of extremists,” said Verständig.

“To read the news in Israel, there’s a narrative according to which Sweden is a place where they torch Torah scrolls and Swedish Jews are threatened and intimidated by this. We’re not. We condemned the Quran burning and the leaders of Muslim communities condemned the plan to burn the Bible, as did Christians. There’s solidarity and a recognition that even though something is legal, it’s still inappropriate and objectionable.”

Latest EoZ memes

Cartoons will be a separate post.

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75 years ago: Another Egyptian air raid on Tel Aviv kills 18

From the Palestine Post, July 14, 1948:

By the next day, the death toll reached 18:

This attack is not even mentioned in Wikipedia's list of major attacks on civilians during the war.

Egypt had been bombing civilian areas in Tel Aviv nearly continuously since Israel declared independence on May 14, and the total casualties of innocent Jews was much higher than I had realized. On May 18, Egyptian planes dropped bombs on a crowded Tel Aviv bus station, killing 42 people, including women and children.

These air raids all targeted civilians. They were the 1948 equivalent of Palestinian rocket attacks, with no military goal and only aimed at terrorizing Jews.

The National Library of Israel wrote in 2020 that an estimated 150 were killed in Egyptian air raids and shelling from the sea on Tel Aviv during the War of Independence.

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07/17 Links Pt1: End U.S. Aid to Israel; Morocco says Israel recognizes sovereignty of Western Sahara; Progressive Democrats boycotting Herzog's speech are trying to cancel Israel

From Ian:

End U.S. Aid to Israel

Had this been 1981, say, you could safely argue that Israel hardly has any choice but to depend on the kindness of strangers and disregard any unpleasant blowback. Back then, the Jewish state worked tirelessly behind the scenes to make sure that President Reagan’s sale of the AWACS weapons system to the Saudis came with a consolation prize for Jerusalem as well.

But the Israel of 2023 is immeasurably wealthier and more powerful than the dusty socialist country of 40 years ago, where local electrical grids could be overloaded by American hair dryers.

The growth of Israel’s independent capacities are particularly obvious in the military arena. According to some estimates, Arab states purchased about a quarter of Israel’s $12.5 billion arms exports in 2022, a number that keeps growing. Add to that India, a growing market—and the recent buyer of a $1.1 billion Phalcon advanced early-warning system—and you have a robust nation perfectly capable of striking bilateral deals with partners that aren’t superpowers hellbent on containing and downgrading their allies.

Still, a small but powerful cadre of Israelis seems invested in the idea that nothing has changed. Certain former generals, politicians, investors, and intellectuals in Israel—often graduates of elite American universities who enjoy strong ties to American corporations and NGOs—can’t imagine a scenario other than fealty to the Big Brother across the ocean. They see Washington not only as a crucial ally, but as the center of all power and legitimacy. It is the U.S., after all, that bestows fellowships in prestigious think tanks and sabbaticals at Harvard that have become essential markers of global professional success—and who helps them fight their enemies at home. While this small, American-adjacent clique is increasingly finding themselves on the unkind end of the voters’ ballots (see under: Barak, Ehud), they maintain a powerful ability to stoke fears about how displeasing America could threaten the entire Jewish future.

In this, they are joined by Jewish communal leaders stateside. It is a bitter irony that organized pro-Israel political advocacy in America places “support full security assistance to Israel” at the top of its list of policy objectives. In doing so, these groups are setting a strategic trap in which being “pro-Israel” requires supporting a policy of U.S. soft power projection that conditions Israel to act as a satrap of Washington, and go along with a regional policy that poses a direct threat to the country’s longer-term prosperity and survival.

Indeed, in order to maintain their own power, the entire cosmos of American Jewish organizations, with few exceptions, is now dedicated almost exclusively to maintaining an arrangement that cripples Israel’s capacity for independent action, while locking American Jews into a permanent posture of appearing to suck the U.S. government dry in order to fund their own niche overseas project.

This goes deeper than politics. Instead of looking at the Jewish state through the prism of a commitment that is as old as human civilization itself, and whose stakes include the physical survival of the Jewish people, American Jews have been herded into understanding Israel through the narrow prism of a 60-year-old political deal that has passed its sell-by date.

With Israel and Israelis increasingly a mystery to them, the only issue around which American Jews feel permitted to organize these days is antisemitism—and even then only as defined from above. Hence, we aren’t actually allowed to look at the major sources and manifestations of this phenomenon, which are anti-Zionism and attacks on religious Jews, but instead are urged to sign on to celebrity-driven, Instagram-friendly messaging campaigns whose actual beneficiaries—like those of other viral “justice” crusades—are, at best, unclear.

The whole charade has to end. External hostility has more or less been the Jewish fate since the time of the ancient Greeks. Yet Jews are still here—having somehow survived the previous 3,000 years and revived their historic homeland again without relying on U.S. military aid packages or officially sanctioned declarations against antisemitism that elevate people who hate us.

The irony is that American history, Jewish history, and the modern State of Israel already share a deeper, richer link than any provided by aid or social media: a belief in divine election, which also guided the Founding Fathers as they struggled to erect the political and moral foundations of the early republic.

If that sounds too lofty, too overblown, too religious, the same point stands on grounds of mere self-preservation, as evidenced by the history of Jews in Egypt, in Spain, and in Vienna whose survival strategy was to seek protection by those who happened to be in power at a given moment. The imperative to transcend such a strategy is not insular or backwards; it’s the powerful realpolitik of Jewish history.

Cut the stranglehold of aid. Let America pursue its interests. Let Israel, too, follow its own interests, which sometimes align with those of Washington and sometimes don’t. If Israelis think it will ensure their security to decapitate the Iranian regime, or give the Golan Heights on a platter to Bashar Assad, or develop their own homemade fighter plane and sell it to India or Saudi Arabia, let them go ahead. And let American Jews who care about being Jewish focus on observance and learning their people’s history, instead of pimping for Lockheed Martin. If the commitment to Israel is deeper than mere political fashion, if it is more than a secularized idolatry, then it’s time to prove it—by smashing the ideological idols of America’s Israel debate.

Palestinians: Victims of Apartheid in Lebanon

"The procedures and restrictions imposed on the entry of building materials into the Palestinian camps in Lebanon are in contradiction with the principles of human rights." — Hassan al-Sayyida, a researcher and human rights activist at the Palestinian Association for Human, palinfo.com, July 10,2023.

This is the second case within a year in which a Palestinian has been arrested on charges of a "construction violation." On July 28, 2022, Lebanese authorities arrested another Palestinian woman, Amal Mousa, also on the pretext of building a house without a permit. Mousa was released only after she was forced to demolish the foundations of her house.

Israel, too, has demolished illegal homes -- but for Arabs and Jews.... Israel is not even doing much about the massive illegal building by Arabs, who have reportedly seized 30% of the land unpoetically called "Area C": land that by mutual agreement in the Oslo Accords belongs wholly to Israel. One can go to the edge of Jerusalem and see literally countless illegal apartment towers built by Arabs, as well as smaller illegal buildings that extend south for miles. "At present [2022]... there are 81,317 illegal Arab-built structures in this area," according to the research group Regavim. Moreover, Israel never arrests or imprisons anyone because of a construction violation.

[T]here is an urgent need to build new houses for Palestinians in Lebanon, "especially since the existing houses are not sufficient and do not meet the demographic increase in the population." Many Palestinians, as in the case of Um Wissam, are forced to build homes on top of the roofs of existing structures. — Palestinian Association for Human Rights, refugeesps.net, July 10, 2023.

"Palestine refugees in Lebanon face substantial challenges to the full enjoyment of their human rights. They are socially marginalized, have very limited civil, social, political, and economic rights, including restricted access to the Government of Lebanon's public health, educational and social services and face significant restrictions on their right to work and right to own property." — UNRWA, reporting that the Palestinians are still prevented from employment in 39 professions such as medicine, law, and engineering.

"Palestine refugees consistently report experiencing discrimination in hiring practices and opportunities for employment. They are faced with informal restrictions on the types of jobs and industries they can be hired for due to additional bureaucracy around contracts and work permits, and discrimination..." – UNRWA.

Bloomberg published an article yesterday, "Israel Quietly Embeds AI Systems in Deadly Military Operations."

While the reporting isn't too bad, it still relies too much on sensationalist science fiction fears of autonomous killer robots rather than what Israel is actually doing.

The Israel Defense Forces have started using artificial intelligence to select targets for airstrikes and organize wartime logistics as tensions escalate in the occupied territories and with arch-rival Iran.

Though the military won’t comment on specific operations, officials say it now uses an AI recommendation system that can crunch huge amounts of data to select targets for airstrikes. Ensuing raids can then be rapidly assembled with another artificial intelligence model called Fire Factory, which uses data about military-approved targets to calculate munition loads, prioritize and assign thousands of targets to aircraft and drones, and propose a schedule.

While both systems are overseen by human operators who vet and approve individual targets and air raid plans, according to an IDF official, the technology is still not subject to any international or state-level regulation. Proponents argue that the advanced algorithms may surpass human capabilities and could help the military minimize casualties, while critics warn of the potentially deadly consequences of relying on increasingly autonomous systems.

“If there is a mistake in the calculation of the AI, and if the AI is not explainable, then who do we blame for the mistake?” said Tal Mimran, a lecturer of international law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and former legal counsel for the army. “You can wipe out an entire family based on a mistake.”

And the entire point of AI is to reduce the chances of such mistakes, because humans are far more error-prone than AI is. This point is made, but downplayed, in articles like this.

"Experts" have been warning about the dangers of automated war systems for a long time. And they get media exposure for their warnings, so they have no incentive to say how such technological advances can actually help save lives. Nowadays, "human rights" experts advance in their organizations based on how much media exposure they get so they sensationalize the negative and ignore the positive.

Choosing targets during wartime depends on intelligence, and intel is rarely perfect. Under international law, a military commander may make a decision on firing at a target based on the best information he or she has. As long as that decision was not reckless in ignoring evidence that the target was not military, or that it would cause a disproportionate amount of damage to civilians, that commander's decisions are legal under the laws of armed conflict.

From everything I have read about Israel's use of AI in choosing targets, it is increasing the amount of information available to the commander by orders of magnitude. It can consider thousands of factors that humans would not even be aware of. It can find patterns that people could not. As with US AI military research, It helps the commander make better decisions. As such, as long as a human is the one who makes the ultimate decision to actually fire a weapon, AI will save lives, not endanger them.

Yes, there could be mistakes - just as there have been rare mistakes with autonomous vehicles. But autonomous vehicles make far fewer mistakes than human drivers do, and far more lives are saved than lost when they are properly deployed.

All public statements by Israeli military officials about their use of AI emphasize that they do not rely on AI to be autonomous and to both decide and act on that decision. There is always a human making life or death decisions. AI makes those decisions easier with fewer mistakes. This should be celebrated.

The legal issues of who is held responsible for a self-driving vehicle killing a pedestrian are not the same as the military scenarios described in these articles - because the car is truly autonomous and makes its own decisions, while Israel is careful to ensure that life or death decisions are made by a person. That commander is just as responsible for the decision whether it is made with or without AI. The decisions are likely to be better with AI.

Similarly, the Israeli system to use AI to help calculate munition loads is meant to save lives. The AI would choose the smallest possible munition to accomplish the mission - which means fewer innocent civilians at risk. What could possibly be bad about that?

One legitimate issue is that many AI systems are opaque, and it is often important to know how the AI made a decision. But Israeli military AI is designed to make the process more transparent:

Another worry is that the fast adoption of AI is outpacing research into its inner workings. Many algorithms are developed by private companies and militaries that do not disclose propriety information, and critics have underlined the built-in lack of transparency in how algorithms reach their conclusions. The IDF acknowledged the problem, but said output is carefully reviewed by soldiers and that its military AI systems leave behind technical breadcrumbs, giving human operators the ability to recreate their steps.

In that sense they are ahead of most commercial AI systems used by businesses today.

Curiocial adds an interesting detail:

The IDF's operational use of AI remains shrouded in secrecy, with many details classified. However, hints from military officials indicate that AI has been employed effectively in conflict zones such as Gaza, Syria, and Lebanon.
In these regions, the IDF frequently faces rocket attacks, and AI has enabled rapid and precise responses to these threats. Additionally, AI is utilized to target weapons shipments to Iran-backed militias in Syria and Lebanon, showcasing the IDF's growing prowess in AI warfare.

Again, there is an enormous amount of information to sift through, and AI is simply a tool - like automated algorithms in the past - to quickly sift through huge amounts of video, image and electronic intelligence data and find things that humans would miss.

There are indeed moral and legal implications to the use of AI. As far as I can tell, Israel isn't ignoring those implications - it is way ahead of the rest of the world in making the proper decisions that ultimately save the lives of innocent people while going after the targets that threaten innocent people on their own side.

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As reported yesterday, US Representative Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, described Israel as a “racist state” while trying to calm down pro-Palestinian protesters at the annual progressive Netroots Nation conference in Chicago on Saturday.

“As somebody who’s been in the streets and participated in a lot of demonstrations, I want you to know that we have been fighting to make it clear that Israel is a racist state," she said.

This caused a backlash from many other Democratic Congressional leaders, who (without mentioning Jayapal) issued a statement that flatly said, "Israel is not a racist state."

This prompted Jayapal to issue a clarification that has been reported as an apology or a walk-back of her words.

But it is neither.

Jayapal's statement said, “At a conference, I attempted to defuse a tense situation during a panel where fellow members of Congress were being protested. Words do matter and so it is important that I clarify my statement. I do not believe the idea of Israel as a nation is racist. I do, however, believe that [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s extreme right-wing government has engaged in discriminatory and outright racist policies and that there are extreme racists driving that policy within the leadership of the current government.”

Words do matter, and Pramila Jayapal indeed chose her words carefully.

There is no contradiction between her Saturday statement that "Israel is a racist state" and her Sunday statement that "I do not believe the idea of Israel as a nation is racist."

She is saying that it is theoretically possible that a state called Israel can exist that is not racist - but Israel is racist, today, and she has been fighting to make that clear to the world.

She didn't even say that "the idea of a Jewish state" is not racist, and the libel that a Jewish state is inherently racist (while Christian, Italian, Spanish, Arab and Muslim states are not) is the basic position of the modern antisemites.

It is an antisemitic lie to say that Israel, which has numerous laws to ensure the equality of all citizens, is a racist state. It is antisemitic lie to claim that Israel is racist for treating non-citizens differently than citizens, which every other nation on the planet does - and indeed is obligated to do as part of its job to defend and support its own citizens. It is antisemitic to blame Israel alone for the lack of peace when every rejection of every peace plan that would lead to an independent Palestinian state while keeping Israel as a Jewish state was done by the Palestinian side.

Several pro-Israel Democrats have drafted a letter that says, "We are deeply concerned about Representative Pramila Jayapal’s unacceptable comments about our historic, democratic ally Israel, and we appreciate her retraction....We will never allow anti-Zionist voices that embolden antisemitism to hijack the Democratic Party and country.”

But she didn't retract anything. Jayapal did not say a word that disagrees with her shameful, antisemitic statement to the protesters - protesters who, incidentally, hijacked the entire conference for 16 minutes while the organizers pathetically pleaded with them to allow the proceedings to continue.

Pramila Jayapal had a chance to apologize and retract her disgusting statement. She went out of her way to do neither. And the mainstream Democrats have not done anyone any favors by pretending that everything is all smoothed out now. On the contrary, they have enabled her to double down on Jayapal's bigotry and hate, as well as that of the "progressives" who support her.

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Early Monday morning, the Palestinian Authority arrested some major Islamic Jihad and Al Aqsa Brigades figures from the Jenin area.

Also arrested were two students with ties to Hamas.

This comes on the heels of their arresting several last week, and a number of others during Israel's last incursion into Jenin.

Two of those arrested on July 5 embarked on a hunger strike to protest their arrests.

An Islamic Jihad spokesman condemned the arrests, saying, "The authority today must unleash the sons of the resistance and the Palestinian masses, to overthrow the policies of the Zionist enemy and confront them."

The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades also issued a statement, saying, "We resolutely and categorically reject the arrests carried out by the security services after midnight."

While the PA is publicly taking a strong pro-terror line, it appears to be cooperating with Israeli security as it had in the past, despite denials.

It is unclear is this is because the PA is finally recognizing that if it allows other militias to operate freely, then it has lost what little influence it has, or if there is serious pressure being given to it from Israel, the US or Gulf countries.

The PA must also be thinking about the day after Mahmoud Abbas is gone. If they do not show some strength now, then Fatah infighting will certainly not determine the next West Bank leader - it will belong to Hamas or Islamic Jihad.

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