Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, August 15, 2023

Amnesty's position on "freedom of expression" in films is curiously one-sided

Today, Amnesty International tweeted this:

Amnesty is saying that banning a movie is a violation of freedom of expression. Amnesty is against all forms of censorship - the allegation that the movie promotes homosexuality does not seem to be the issue at all, just freedom of expression.

However, when Lebanon bans movies for having Israeli actors or producers, Amnesty has not said a word. Isn't that the exact same violation of freedom of expression?

Perhaps not according to Amnesty. Because they do support some boycotts - boycotts against Israel.

Amnesty says, "Advocating for boycotts, divestment and sanctions is a form of non-violent advocacy and of free expression that must be protected."

BDS advocates boycotting the free speech of Israelis on college campuses, and its boycotters do all they can to get venues outside Israel to cancel any talk by an Israeli. Similarly, they threaten artists not to play in Israel , which is another violation of freedom of expression.

How, exactly, is Algeria and Kuwait's boycotts of a movie for religious reasons (whether or not their objections are accurate) a violation of free speech, while Israel-haters' boycotts of movies with Israelis are an example of free speech?

In both cases, the boycotters are the ones that are trying to shut down free speech. You cannot have it both ways.

The analogy isn't perfect - government censorship is different than people deciding to boycott on their own, which of course is their right. But Amnesty has condemned a number of countries for censoring films with LGBTQ themes, and not one word for censoring films with Israeli links.

They are both equally guilty of violating freedom of expression, but only one upsets Amnesty.

It sure sounds like Amnesty's concern for freedom of expression only extends to expression that they agree with.

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!

Mohamed Salama is a regular columnist in Jordan's Ad-Dustour, a fairly well-known mainstream news site.

Lately he has been on an antisemitic kick.

On Sunday he wrote a column entitled "The Jews: .a wicked race." He doesn't even pretend to be talking about "Zionists."

In that article he writes:

The Protestant thinker Martin Luther described the Jews as a vicious race, persecuting people with usury, plunder and robbery, while the overall view of them was negative in Europe. And in the United States of America, President George Washington, the first American president, described them (i.e. the Jews) as the most dangerous external enemy against his country.. Were they right and why?!.

Luther..is not the only one who believed that the Jews had a malicious role in the wars of Europe, in overthrowing its hegemony and in dividing it and dragging it into deep-rooted enmities. There are thinkers who believe that the first and second world wars had the Jews playing a major role in them. Palestine, and after the end of WWII they announced the establishment of their state on the land of Palestine, and the malice in both cases is related to money and their control over the financial system, which was the main center of Britain before Germany competed with it, and then France to a lesser extent. It alone is unique in its hegemony over the two parties rolling for power in the United States, which are..the Republican Party and its Democratic rival, and from within it is monopolizing the decisions that concern the entire Middle East in the hands of the Jews today..America today, like Europe almost a hundred years ago, cannot refuse to implement the interests of the Jews. .This is what the most controversial US President, Donald Trump, said a few weeks ago..and he added...that their loyalty (i.e. the Jews) is not to America but to Israel, and described them as full of treachery and betrayal..and he is now facing charges of corruption, theft, assault on the Capitol building, etc.

...Were Luther and Washington right in calling [Jews] malicious and dangerous?!
The answer is simply yes..Malice leads to bloody endings and danger threatens everyone in the Middle East..As long as Israel is in this geographical area, the cycles of open wars, violence and terrorism in all forms will not stop except with the demise of Israel once and for all.

"Anti-Zionism" and Jew-hatred, all tie up in bow.

But as powerful as the Jews are in Sundays' column, today Salama added in a new column that the Jews were about to be toppled:

The Jews of the world have reached a crushing height and immoral corruption, in which they stole the wealth of the world. Their global financial system has come to control America, and has spread corruption on the ground, so they have become, through their political, social and financial organizations, tools of sabotage and destruction..Do you see that we are witnessing their descent from the throne of economy and money, and thus from politics?!.

...The Jews of the world have reached a crushing height and immoral corruption..and the end of Israel will be with the removal of the global Jewish cover from it..in any case, the government of Netanyahu and his extremist coalition is behind the height and corruption..and will be behind its demise once and for all.

When Jordanians read these sort of insane antisemitic rants, with not a word published in any Arabic media disagreeing with the hate, how can anyone be surprised that Jordan is one of the most antisemitic countries in the world?

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!

08/15 Links Pt1: PA PM Shtayyeh's Straight-Faced Lies to US Delegations; Israel fears UNSC may limit UNIFIL’s power to monitor Hezbollah’s hostility

From Ian:

Palestinians: Prime Minister Shtayyeh's Straight-Faced Lies to Official US Delegations

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh has shown that he can include two lies in one short sentence.

During the meeting [with a US Democratic delegation], Shtayyeh blamed Israel for the fact that the Palestinians have not held general elections for nearly two decades. He also accused Israel of "attempting to combat the Palestinian democracy." Shtayyeh's remarks, reported by the Palestinians' official news agency Wafa, show that Palestinian leaders apparently think that many foreigners, especially Americans, are stupid enough to believe anything that comes out of their mouths.

Shtayyeh lied both when he claimed that Israel was responsible for obstructing Palestinian elections and that Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip enjoy democracy.

"The truth is Abbas canceled the elections because all credible public opinion polls showed that this month's legislative vote would have decimated the ruling clique of his Fatah party and ushered in a whole new politician configuration. This would have seen Abbas's rivals Marwan Barghouti and Nasser Al-Qidwah emerge as the new leaders of Fatah. If this scenario were to occur, a whole class of millionaires who turned the Palestinian struggle into a lucrative industry, generously funded by 'donor countries,' was at risk of losing everything. .... There is nothing that Abbas can say or do at this point to restore the people's confidence in his authority. Arguably, he never had their confidence in the first place. By canceling the elections, he has crossed a red line, thus placing himself and a few others around him as enemies of the Palestinian people, their democratic aspirations, and their hope for a better future." — Ramzy Baroud, editor of The Palestine Chronicle and author of five books,, arabnews.com, May 3, 2021.

So, evidently Abbas's decision to call off the elections really did have nothing to do with Israel. It was mainly the result of Abbas's totally justified fear that his divided Fatah faction would once again be trounced by Hamas.

Yet, Shtayyeh seems unwilling to allow the facts to get in the way of his straight-faced lies. In the past two years, Shtayyeh has been repeating his lie, that the elections were canceled because of Israel, on almost a weekly basis. He has repeated this lie to virtually every foreign dignitary or delegation he meets with, including, recently, the US Democratic Congressional delegation.

Conflicting Polls Show Arab Youth Want More Traditional Values, But Also Reform

A just-published survey suggests that Arab youth are returning to traditional values. The survey contrasts starkly with another — only partially released — poll, in which a growing number favor religious reform.

The conservative trend in the just released 15th Arab Youth Survey 2023 conducted by a Dubai-based public relations company reflects an earlier Arab Barometer poll. At the same time, those polled in the youth survey offered seemingly contradictory responses to questions.

If accurate, the trend casts a shadow over social reforms enacted by leaders such as Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) and United Arab Emirates President Mohammed bin Zayed, which have enhanced women’s rights and professional and leisure opportunities, and created Western-style entertainment industries.

Bin Zayed has gone further than MBS by reducing, if not removing, restrictions on alcohol consumption and cohabitation. The Saudi crown prince is believed to want to follow suit.

Earlier this year, the Saudi Tourism Authority surprised many by announcing that LGBTQ tourists would be welcome in the kingdom.

Similarly, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, alongside Bahrain, recently released the “Barbie” movie, in contrast with Kuwait and Lebanon, which banned the movie because it violated religious and social norms.

It’s not clear how the release of “Barbie” and the welcoming of LGBTQ tourists sit with 54 percent of those polled in the Arab Youth survey, who emphasized the importance of religion, tradition, and family in their personal and public lives.

In a similar vein, 76 percent were concerned about the loss of traditional values and culture. Sixty-five percent overall and 72 percent in the Gulf prioritized preserving religion and tradition instead of creating a tolerant, liberal, and globalized society.

Seventy-three percent disagreed that religious values held the Arab world back. More than sixty percent wanted their country’s laws to be based on Sharia.

Israel fears UNSC may limit UNIFIL’s power to monitor Hezbollah’s hostility

Israel fears the United Nations Security Council may limit the power of its peacekeeping force to monitor Hezbollah’s military activity against Israel on the northern border with Lebanon.

The 15-member security council is slated to approve at the end of the month an annual resolution that extends the ability of its peacekeeping unit, known as the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, to operate.

In advance of that meeting, Israeli and Lebanese delegations are expected to attend the UN this week to discuss the mandate’s renewal with UNSC members.

The UNSC is slated on Tuesday to meet with representatives from the 48 member states that contribute to the 10,500-member force.

Last year, the security council included a paragraph that bolstered UNIFIL’s independence, insisting that the peacekeeping force should have freedom of movement to such an extent that it did not need to coordinate its activity with the Lebanese army.

In paragraph 16, last year’s resolution stated that “UNIFIL does not require prior authorization or permission to undertake its mandated tasks.” It added that “UNIFIL is authorized to conduct its operation independently.”

That was followed by paragraph 17, which stated that UNIFIL could conduct “unannounced patrols.”

Lebanon pushing to require UNIFIL to coordinate its movement with Lebanese Army
Lebanon, according to diplomatic sources, is pushing for the UNSC to rescind that language in favor of text that would require UNIFIL to coordinate its movements with the Lebanese army.

Israel fears that such coordination would allow Hezbollah to know of UNIFIL’s movement in advance. It’s a situation that would hamper its ability to monitor Hezbollah’s military action against Israel and could endanger its troops.

A Lebanese military tribunal in June formally accused five members of Hezbollah and the allied Amal Movement of killing an Irish UN peacekeeper in December 2022.

The mandate is expected to be renewed. The debate is focused on whether or not UNIFIL will be given enough power to effectively operate.

Arabic media are publishing a supposed list of four Saudi demands in order for the kingdom to start negotiations to recognize Israel.

Private sources reported that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia desires strong political, economic, security and social relations with Israel that include all kinds of cooperation with friendly countries and the establishment of an unprecedented partnership in all fields.

For this, the Kingdom needs security and political guarantees before starting serious negotiations on the form of the relationship. Therefore, the Saudi National Security Council set four conditions for starting real negotiations under the auspices of the United States of America, which are:

1- The United States agrees to sell the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia 50 F-35 aircraft, without banning any of the types of advanced capabilities it has, like Israel.

2- The United States of America agrees to complete the sale and construction of 5 nuclear reactors for peaceful purposes.

3- Israel's agreement to subject its nuclear reactors to be under the supervision of the Atomic Energy Commission, and agreement of a Middle East region free of nuclear weapons.

4- Israel should stop weakening the Palestinian National Authority and return to the negotiating table in order to achieve peace and stability in the region.

The only places these were published were Palestinian media, so the list is a little suspect.

Beyond that, these are pre-conditions before any negotiations, and from that perspective they seem absurd - the US giving advanced weapons in exchange for talks that could go nowhere? Israel being forced to make major concessions before any negotiations even start?

And one more thing: The Saudi National Security Council was dissolved in 2015.

This looks like a Palestinian psy-ops attempt to pressure the Saudis to demand more concessions from Israel on the Palestinian issue, as there is a real (and founded) fear among Palestinians that they will be only an incidental part of any normalization plan.

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!

Last week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken gave out the first annual Secretary’s Global Anti-Racism Champions Awards.  

One of the awardees is Saadia Mosbah of Tunisia:

Saadia Mosbah is a Tunisian activist who has dedicated her life to fighting racial discrimination and prejudice, as well as defending the rights of Black Tunisians.  In 2013, after several unsuccessful attempts to launch an association that fights racial discrimination during President Ben Ali’s rule, she finally established Mnemty, “My Dream,” an association that endeavors to raise awareness about the value of diversity and importance of equality, to denounce racism in public spaces, ensure legal protection for all, elevate the profile of the Black population in the cultural sphere, and promote socio-economic development in predominantly black communities.  Saadia’s activism, alongside that of several human rights activists, contributed to the adoption of the law in Tunisia criminalizing racial discrimination on October 9, 2018.   For Mosbah, the law is an achievement, but incomplete, as it lacks a universal declaration that denounces all forms of discrimination irrespective of religion, language, or skin color.

In their Arabic social media posts, the US Embassy in Tunis described the award this way:

Congratulations Saadia Mesbah for winning the Secretary of State's 2023 International Anti-Racism Champions Award. The Tunisian activist has dedicated her life to fighting racial discrimination and intolerance and defending the rights of black Tunisians. This award is in recognition of her exceptional courage, leadership and commitment to advancing the human rights of members of marginalized racial, ethnic and indigenous communities. Let's continue to fight against systemic racism, and promote positive change in both the United States and the world.

Tunisian racists freaked out at the term "indigenous communities" - because that implies that Black people whose cause Mesbah champions are indigenous to the region.

Last month, Al Jazeera reported:

Tunis, Tunisia – In February, Tunisian President Kais Saied warned his country of a plan to change Tunisia’s “demographic make-up”, to turn it into “just another African country that doesn’t belong to the Arab and Islamic nations any more”.

As part of this plan, “hordes of irregular migrants from sub-Saharan Africa” had travelled to Tunisia, bringing “all the violence, crime, and unacceptable practices that entails”.

The dubious warning, which has been widely criticised and dubbed racist by human rights groups as well as by regional and international bodies, gave official approval to a mentality that has been spreading through the North African country over recent years.

It led to round-ups of Black sub-Saharan Africans, their eviction from rented properties, and African countries mobilising to repatriate their citizens.

And now, with reports of mobs forcing their way into the homes of Black migrants and refugees, attacking occupants with fists, clubs and machetes, Tunisia’s own native black population, long used to the bigotry that exists in many parts of their own society, are braced for the assault.

The US Embassy use of the word "indigenous communities" fueled the racist fears that there was some sort of plot to flood Tunisia with Black Africans and to declare them to be indigenous to the area.

So the US Embassy caved and removed the phrase. It re-posted the item, now saying "This award recognizes her exceptional courage, leadership, and commitment to advancing human rights for marginalized communities worldwide. "

Yet this is the exact time to call out Tunisia's racism and recognize Mesbah's work to eliminate it, not to water it down.

Even more bizarrely, the US Embassy in Tunisia page has apparently removed the entire paragraph describing her getting the award - the headline of the page includes her name along with the photo shown above, but it only lists the other awardees with the reasons for their awards, and not Mesbah. Her paragraph must have been part of that page originally, since it was copied and pasted from the State Department page.

The US Embassy in Tunisia removed the description of the Tunisian awardee!

Does the State Department consider Black Africans to be indigenous to the region? Or are the seventh century Arab invaders the only "indigenous" people of Tunisia?

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!

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah threatened Israel on Monday evening in an address marking the 17th anniversary of the 2006 Lebanon war.

During the speech, he said that Hezbollah needed "a few precision missiles" to destroy a list of targets in Israel that included civilian airports, electricity generation and distribution stations, water distribution, main communication centers, infrastructure, oil and gasoline refineries, ammonia depots and the Dimona nuclear reactor.

His mention of the ammonia plants echo a 2016 threat he made where he said that a rocket strike on Haifa's ammonia storage tanks would cause tens of thousands of deaths. “This would be exactly as a nuclear bomb, and we can say that Lebanon today has a nuclear bomb, seeing as any rocket that might hit these tanks is capable of creating a nuclear bomb effect,” Nasrallah said then.

Think about this for a moment. A person who has some 150,000 missiles, including thousands of precision missiles, and who answers to Iran, is directly threatening to attack Israeli civilians and civilian infrastructure and murdering tens of thousands. His threats check all the boxes of what terrorism is.

Yet (as of this writing) there has not been a word of condemnation from human rights groups over a direct, credible threat to millions of Israeli civilians. And when Nasrallah threatened Haifa with tens of thousands of casualties in 2016, neither Human Rights Watch nor Amnesty International even mentioned it in their press releases.

Their interest in human rights always ends when the humans are Jewish.

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!

08/14 Links Pt2: The Jews in Defiance of History; Obama’s Calculated Tolerance of Black Anti-Semitism; Antisemitism Still Haunts the European Left

From Ian:

Meir Y. Soloveichik: Not Everything Is Tisha B’Av

It is with this in mind that we must approach the reaction of many when the Knesset, three days before Tisha B’Av, approved limitations on the Israeli Supreme Court. The Times of Israel immediately presented us with the remarkable headline: “Judicial overhaul opponents see parallel to Tisha B’Av, saddest day in Hebrew year.” Indeed, comparisons to the destruction of the Temple abounded. A meme with the words shisha b’av, “the sixth of Av,” was circulated on the Internet, with the comparison to Tisha B’Av being made even by prominent Israeli writers. Some Israelis announced that though they did not usually fast on the Ninth of Av, they would do so this year to mourn what the Knesset had wrought.

I do not wish to discuss the merits or flaws of the government proposal. Rather I want to make one point only: One cannot compare the tragedies of the Jewish past to a democratic vote by the Israeli Knesset, however mistaken one might believe that vote to be. To make this comparison is to recommit the sin of the spies and their audience among the Hebrews, and to repeat the error of our ancestors in the desert millennia ago. Sharing a meme with the words shisha b’av dangerously demonizes a vast part of the Israeli electorate by comparing voters to the Romans who destroyed Jerusalem. And one can react only with horror to the statement by a Jew that a vote by the Knesset is more worthy of mourning than the deaths of Jews throughout history.

In arguing that the memories of Tisha B’Av obligated him to protect the physical well-being of the Jewish state, what Begin was also implying was that in the story of Israel, some—though not all—of what the Romans had wrought had been undone by the rise of the State of Israel and the miracles that followed. The Temple is not yet rebuilt, and hatred of the Jews still festers, but a rebuilt, united Jerusalem stands under Jewish sovereignty. If those who suffered in the events marked on the Ninth of Av would have been shown images of our own age—a united Jerusalem featuring a Jewish government, a Judean desert in bloom, and Jewish homes rebuilt throughout the Holy Land—they would have rejoiced at this vindication of Jewish yearnings. And if they would have been told that during all this, the parliament of the Jewish state would then vote to limit the ability of a Supreme Court to pronounce administrative decisions as “unreasonable,” their awe would not be diminished by an iota, no matter the flaws or virtues of this vote.

And so it must be stressed—though as I type these words, I still cannot believe that it must be stressed—that however much one might disagree with the Israeli coalition’s agenda, it is not Tisha B’Av. It is not the Holocaust. It is not the destruction of the Temple. It is not the expulsion from England, or Spain. It is not the auto-da-fé. It is not the massacres of the Crusades. To argue otherwise is to desecrate the memory of the martyred and the murdered, the exiled and the expelled, those who died with faith in the future of Jerusalem on their lips, and who would react with wonder at the miracles of our age.

Obama’s Calculated Tolerance of Black Anti-Semitism

I believe Sheila Miyoshi Jager’s account; she has nothing to gain by such a story, while the calculating Obama, determined to leave her because he was sure that as a white woman, she would be a political liability as his wife, made sure in his own memoir, Dreams of My Father, to leave out the Cokely episode, including his failure to condemn Cokely for his charge that “Jewish doctors” were deliberately committing “genocide” on “black babies.” This variant on the medieval blood libel about Jews killing Christian children so as to use their blood in making matzos, was a charge so explosive that it could well have resulted in murderous attacks by credulous African-Americans on Jewish doctors. When Sheila Miyoshi tried to convince Obama to denounce Cokely, he refused. He had decided that if he condemned Cokely, he would lose more support among black antisemites than he would gain in Jewish support. Clearly, Obama did not share the anguish of Jews at such charges, an updated version of the medieval blood libels. He was perfectly willing to pass over in silence Cokely’s disgusting and absurd charge of “genocide” by “Jewish doctors” of “black babies.” Sheila Miyoshi was appalled at Obama’s indecent political calculus, and told David Garrow so; that, she said, was her reason for the breakup. Obama, ever the calculating arriviste, determined to rise high, felt no need to reassure Jews that he stood with them. Instead, his silence about Steve Cokely’s charge suggested he had no interest in condemning even the worst antisemitic charges if to do so might hurt him with a black electorate that was also predominantly antisemitic.

Obama’s betrayal of a longstanding American commitment to veto all anti-Israel resolutions at the UN Security Council, when instead of a veto he had Samantha Power abstain from voting on UN Security Council Resolution 2334, that declared Israeli settlements in the West Bank, where a half-million Israelis lived, to constitute a violation of international law, was bad. An American veto would have killed the resolution. With the Americans not vetoing it, UNSC 2334 passed by a vote of 14-0. But Obama had done worse than that, when as a thrusting young Chicago politician he refused to do the right thing; he never denounced Steve Cokely for his extreme antisemitism, reflected in his charge that “Jewish doctors” practiced “genocide” on “black babies.” Obama’s tolerance of the worst kind of antisemitism was then, and remains, a form of antisemitism.

Antisemitism Still Haunts the European Left

Why the double standard? Why identify and condemn antisemitism from the right but not from within the left’s own ranks?

A large part of the answer sheds light upon a problem for the left not just in France, but in Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom—the other countries covered by the ADL report—as well. In essence, antisemitism is not seen as a pernicious ideology targeting Jews as the root of the world’s ills, but rather as an instrument to be deployed in political conflicts. If antisemitism comes from a source that you would have no truck with anyway—in this case, an organization that believes fervently that Catholic doctrine should lie at the foundations of law and public policy—then there is no hesitation in condemning it, particularly when, as was true with the Civitas episode, there is no mention of Zionism or the State of Israel. But if antisemitism comes from an ally, like Corbyn, then you are duty-bound to deny it and dismiss it as a smear. In such an environment, any analytical consistency and certainly any attempt to point out the glaring overlap between far-left and extreme-right antisemitic tropes—dual loyalty, financial clout, disproportionate political and cultural influence—becomes impossible.

While the ADL report highlights the differences between the four countries under the microscope, there are also some key commonalities. “In all four countries, the two dominant findings were that antisemitism was used in anti-Israel contexts and in anti-capitalist contexts,” it observed. “In anti-Israel contexts, antisemitic themes included (1) accusations that Jewish cabals control politics and media and prevent either criticism of Israel or support for Palestine; (2) Holocaust trivialization as a means of arguing that Palestinians are no less victims today than Jews were during the Holocaust; (3) equating Israel with the Nazi regime, thus demonizing Israel; (4) accusations of antisemitism are in bad faith and employed to silence criticism of Israel. In anti-capitalist contexts, antisemitic themes included (1) Jewish control of financial markets; (2) Jewish obsession with money; and (3) Jewish exploitation of workers.”

The point, however, is that large swathes of the European left are either incapable of recognizing these themes as antisemitic, or they believe that the upsurge in hatred against Jews is solely a result of Israel’s policies towards the Palestinians. “They have learnt nothing from what happened to them in Europe. Nothing,” ranted Tariq Ali, a British far-left leader, at an anti-Israel rally in May 2021. “Every time they bomb Gaza, every time they attack Jerusalem—that is what creates antisemitism. Stop the occupation, stop the bombing and casual antisemitism will soon disappear.”

Ali did not spell out the lesson that he believes the Jews should have learned from the Nazi era, but the implication of his words is that they are receiving their just desserts for dispossessing the Palestinians. And that their choice now is to either give in—and thereby suddenly and miraculously banish antisemitism from public discourse, or to carry on fighting and accept antisemitism as an inevitable consequence. Until this mode of thinking is banished from the left, Jews will have little reason to trust its representatives, even on those occasions when they do condemn antisemitism.

Yes, there was a Saudi consulate in Jerusalem before 1948

Haaretz reports:

Saudi Arabia’s appointment of its first ambassador to the Palestinian Authority, who will also serve as consul general to Jerusalem, was not coordinated with Israel, and Israeli diplomatic figures are struggling to gauge its implications for the efforts to normalize relations with the kingdom.

Senior Israeli officials said Sunday that Riyadh’s weekend announcement that the Saudi Ambassador to Jordan, Nayef bin Bandar Al-Sudairi, will henceforth also serve as the kingdom’s nonresident ambassador to the Palestinian Authority and consul general in Jerusalem, created facts on the ground for Israel and was not preceded by a dialogue between the countries on the issue.

The only Israeli official to comment Sunday on the Saudi announcement was Foreign Minister Eli Cohen, who stated in an interview with Radio 103FM that Israel “will not allow the opening of any kind of diplomatic mission.”

His remark is based on Israel’s official policy for decades of not permitting the opening of diplomatic missions in Jerusalem, with the exception of those that operated in the city before 1948 in the western part and before 1967 in East Jerusalem. Since Saudi Arabia is not planning at this stage to establish a new diplomatic mission in the city, the appointment does not violate Israeli policy.

So if Saudi Arabia had no consulate before 1948 in Jerusalem, Israel wouldn't allow one now.

However, al-Sudari then tweeted a photo of a Saudi consulate in Jerusalem from 1947! The signs indeed say "Saudi Arabian Consulate of Palestine."

Under the guidance of His Majesty the late King Abdul Aziz bin Abdul Rahman in 1947, Uncle Abdulaziz bin Ahmed Al-Sudairy sponsored the opening of the Saudi Consulate General in Jerusalem (Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood).

Indeed, there was a Saudi consulate in Jerusalem, since about 1940. Here is a Palestine Post article that mentions it and the consul general's name in January 1945.

They aren't asking for a consulate at this point, but if Israel's official policy listed above is accurate, then things might get interesting - and not just vis a vis the Saudis, but also the Biden administration as well that wants to open up a consulate for Palestinians in Jerusalem as well. Even if Israel allows the Saudis to do this in some fashion as part of the deal for normalization, it would have a hard time saying "no" to the US.

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!

For years, I have been following the career of Ghassan Daghlas, a man who has been paid by the Palestinian Authority to make up lies about alleged crimes of Israelis in Judea and Samaria.

Over at least the last dozen years, Daghlas has been quoted hundreds of times in the media as he spun lurid tales of Jews attacking Arabs, virtually always without even a photo to back up his stories.

Just two months ago, Daghlas claimed that there were 310 separate instances of Jews attacking Palestinians in the territories - in a single day. Even though these lies are so translarent, he is still quoted as a reliable official by Western media, even a recently as August 4 by AP.

All his years of deceit have now paid off.

Last week, Mahmoud Abbas fired nearly all of the governors in the West Bank. Daghlas has been chosen as the new governor of the Nablus governorate.

I cannot find any evidence that Daghlas has a shred of experience going any sort of governing or as a manager. Every biography I can find only mentions his role as a monitor of "settlers" in the northern west Bank, nothing else.

It is clear that Abbas wanted to tighten his grip on local governments as well, after already taking over the executive, legislative and judicial systems of the Palestinian Authority, not to mention heading the PLO that the PA reports to.

Daghlas, an incompetent administrator, will do whatever Mahmoud Abbas tells him to do.

Naturally, Daghlas says his top priority is "confronting the attacks of settlers and the occupation army." Not developing the economy, or uprooting corruption, or social programs for the needy - but continuing his career of blaming everything on the Jews.

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!

08/14 Links Pt1: Wresting Land Rights from Israel Using a 'Historic' Arab Village That Never Existed; What happened in Burqa; Israel forces foil Hamas cells plot to kidnap soldier

From Ian:

David Singer: Time for MBS to show courage and think out of the box

The possibility of Israel and Saudi Arabia doing a peace deal rests on the shoulders of one man - Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS).

MBS has to clarify whether any peace deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia is dependent solely on a Palestinian Arab State being created between Israel and Jordan - by answering this one question:

“Will Israel’s agreement to implement the 2022 Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine Solution (HKOPS) - rather than the 2002 Saudi Arabia-Arab Peace Initiative – enable you to commence negotiations with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to conclude a peace deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia?”

If MBS answers “Yes”: An Israel-Saudi Arabia peace deal is highly possible. If MBS answers “No”: Why is HKOPS unacceptable?

HKOPS is the revolutionary and circuit-breaking solution that burst onto the international stage on 8 June 2022. It calls for merger of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Gaza and part of the 'West Bank' into one territorial entity to be named the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine with its capital being located in Amman – not Jerusalem.

Authored by a confidante of MBS – Ali Shihabi – HKOPS was first published in the Saudi Government-controlled Al Arabiya News. The solution was amended shortly thereafter but surprisingly was not republished in Al Arabiya News or any other Saudi news outlet.

Amazingly HKOPS has received virtually:
no mention in the international media
no analysis by international analysts or think tanks and
no acknowledgement at the United Nations as an alternative solution to replace the failed two-state solution adopted by Security Council Resolution 2334 on 23 December 2016

Wresting Land Rights from Israel Using a 'Historic' Arab Village That Never Existed

This is Part 3 of a 10-part series exposing the underreported joint European and Palestinian program to bypass international law and establish a de facto Palestinian state on Israeli land.

The particular case of Khan al Ahmar demonstrates how far the Palestinian Authority and European Union will go in their quest to delegitimize Israel and garner international sympathy.

By the 1970s, many Bedouin Arabs had abandoned their nomadic shepherding traditions, taking advantage of the livelihood the newly established state of Israel afforded them. Advertisement - story continues below

During this time, after a blood feud occurred within the Jahalin Bedouins, an offshoot of a larger tribe, some families were forced out and migrated from southern Israel to Maaleh Adumim, an Israeli settlement in the north between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea.

They set up a cluster of tents, ignoring its hazardous location due to its proximity to a major highway, and began illegally tapping into the municipality’s water and electricity lines.

Knowing full well that their presence was illegal, many of the Bedouins cooperated with Israeli orders to evacuate. Some relocated, while others signed relocation agreements and were preparing to leave.

But instead of allowing this routine zoning enforcement case to be settled like any other real estate dispute involving squatters, the Palestinians and their European backers decided to act as the Jahalin’s representatives and turn this into an international spectacle.

First, they fabricated a name for this lawless encampment to make it appear historic: “Khan al Ahmar.” From there, they complained to the media that this destitute group of Arabs was being threatened with forced removal and ethnic cleansing.

They accompanied their manufactured narrative with images of barefoot Bedouin children and began pumping money into the settlement, even building these “dispossessed” children a school.

Eventually, the Bedouins were convinced that they should stay put, while the PA and EU launched four separate lawsuits starting in 2009 with the Israeli Supreme Court, an activist body consisting of self-selected and largely liberal judges who have crafted a supra-democratic system in which actors with no legal standing are invited to file unlimited petitions against the state.

The Israel Guys: The SECRET Palestinian Takeover of the WEST BANK {Episode 1}

You’ve heard about the illegal settlements located in the occupied territories in the West Bank. You’ve heard of the violent, extremist settlers who have chosen to live and settle in this volatile region of the world.

What you haven’t heard of, is the Philistine settlers that are illegally building houses in the West Bank at the rate of 15 structures every single day. That’s 105 per week, 450 per month, and 5,335 every year.

Welcome to our new series, where we’re going to take you behind the scenes of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, exposing Israel’s enemy from deep within. Buckle up, it’s going to be a wild ride.

75 years ago: Just like today: False accusations of Israeli massacres along with real Arab terrorism

From the Palestine Post, August 12, 1948:

There was a different version of the story reported by wire services:

Jews have burned 28 Arab villagers alive at Eltera, near Haifa, according to a telegram which is reported to have been sent to the UN Security Councll by the Secretary-General of the Arab League (Azzan Pasha).
The telegram declared that during the present cease-fire an eyewitness saw Jews saturate villagers' clothing with petrol and set them alight. The names of 14 of the victims are known.

And the lurid, lying accusations sometimes became headlines with no caveats (Caneberra [AU] Times)

Needless to say, this never happened and it is not even clear that the complaint was really sent to the UN Security Council. The accusation was enough to make it into the newspapers and make people think that Jews are monsters, which was the intent.

Just like today, baldfaced lies are an effective propaganda technique, because people simply do not want to believe that someone has the gall to make up such extravagant lies.

Meanwhile, there was real terrorism done by the Arab side, meant to cut off any supply of water to Jews in Jerusalem (August 13):

Arab accusations of Jewish terror were, then as now, projections of their own terror attempts and desires.

Interestingly, the Jews in Jerusalem had planned for such an event, and had built their own small but important emergency alternative water pipeline to Jerusalem

The Jews could not rely on anyone else (especially the UN) to solve any problems, not only the water problem.

Which is something that Israel needs to keep in mind today as well.

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!

On Friday, UNRWA issued a situation report on the Lebanese Ein el-Hilweh camp where there had been fierce fighting at the start of the month.

While the media has largely lost interest as the cease fire took hold, the camp is still largely controlled by terror groups:

Reports indicate that armed fighters are allegedly still deployed in some areas and continue to be intermittently present in UNRWA schools in the northern schools compound, along with the nearby UNRWA camp services office – a serious violation of the neutrality of UNRWA installations. The reported presence of fighters in areas around the school compound has prevented UNRWA staff from accessing these installations. Reports indicate that the ongoing presence of armed fighters in some areas is also preventing the return of some residents to their homes.

At a Thursday press conference, Director of UNRWA affairs in Lebanon Dorothee Klaus added more information, saying that between 200-400 houses were completely destroyed. A UNRWA school complex for over 3,000 children had been “violated" and other schools and a health center were also damaged.

She noted that “it is s not safe for any UN personnel to access (some) areas currently, we’re also not having clearance from the Lebanese military to go inside those areas on the Lebanese military being in control of access to the Ein El-Hilweh camp.”

Far more houses were destroyed by the fighters in Ein el Hilweh than were destroyed by Israel in Gaza in May - but unlike for Gaza, there are no news articles about these destroyed homes with interviews of distraught homeless Palestinians.

Amnesty has not issued a single press release about the fighting and damage. Neither has Human Rights Watch.

If they cared so much about the welfare of Palestinians, then why haven't they condemned the fighting and ongoing militant control of large swaths of the camp?

This is again more proof that human rights is not what drives obsessive NGO and media coverage of Israeli actions, but old fashioned antisemitism.

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!

Here's an interesting coincidence.

The UN in 1994:

An estimate made by Abu Lughod indicated that the average number of indigenous Palestinians was about 420,000 in the West Bank and about 80,000 in the Gaza Strip by the end of 1948.

News wires, March 2004:

Schools and virtually every shop were closed in this city {Gaza City], where 420,000 people live.

Internal Displacement Monitoring Center, 2007:

Estimates of IDPs in Israel vary widely. There is no government or United Nations estimate. Sources for estimates are accademics, Palestinian NGOs and Israeli papers. The lowest estimate is 150,000 and the highest is 420,000, which includes the children and grandchildren of Arab villagers displaced in 1948, as well as Bedouin communities displaced later on.

Human Rights Watch, 2010:

Israel’s differential treatment in law, regulations, and administrative practice directly affect the roughly 490,000 Jewish settlers and 420,000 Palestinians in areas under its exclusive control in the West Bank (including in Area C and East Jerusalem).

Daily Sabah, 2018:

The 420,000 Palestinians who currently reside in East Jerusalem possess permanent residency ID cards and are treated as foreign immigrants by the Israeli government. (The article predicted that Israel would take away the residency permits of all those Palestinians, a prediction that, like all of them, never came close to being true.)

Eurasia Review, 2018, headline:

What’s Behind The ‘Disappearance’ Of 420,000 Palestinians In Lebanon?

WASH Cluster, State of Palestine, 2020:

WEST BANK: 482,509 of people suffering limited access to water; 420,000 persons consume less than 50 l/c/d.

OpenDemocracy, April 2020:

Palestinians in East Jerusalem: living under a deadly virus and a violent occupation: "There is inescapable and particular on-going acute anxiety about the future of these 420,000 Palestinians."

World Food Programme, August 2020:

In support of the MoSD’s response plan, which estimated that 70,000 families (420,000 people) have been affected by the spike in COVID-19 in Gaza...

UNRWA, 2021:

UNRWA is a lifeline to nearly 420,000 of the most vulnerable Palestine refugees in Syria.

Jeff Halper in Arena, June 2021:

Of the 150,000 Palestinians who remained in the country, the war displaced 30,000 to 40,000. Not allowed to return to their homes (which were either demolished or turned over to Jewish Israelis) and wanting to remain sumud (steadfast) near their lands, this population of internally displaced Palestinians has today grown to 420,000.

Middle East Monitor, July 2022:

The Nakba resulted in 750,000 Palestinians being driven from their homes; the 1967 Naksa saw another 420,000 forced to leave.

Al Jazeera, October 2022:

Since the attack, Israeli forces have imposed a continuing blockade on the area around Nablus, restricting the movement of about 420,000 Palestinians, including patients, elderly people and children, who must wait for hours before being able to cross.

UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, July 2023: (Video, 2:04:33)

“This year, actually over, since the beginning of my mandate [May 1, 2022], I have borne witness to a series of deeply distressing events. 420,000 Palestinians, including 91 children, and 56 Israelis, including five children, have been killed. ”

(She later walked this back, saying the number was 426.)

That's 14 separate times, in different contexts, that "expert" quoted a figure of 420,000 Palestinians.

I am not saying this is a conspiracy or anything like that. It is just a very strange coincidence for that number to pop up in such disparate ways.

420,000 seems like a more realistic, solid estimate than "400,000" or "450,000."

(h/t Irene)

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!

Apartheid! Israeli firefighter dies, another seriously injured trying to rescue an illegal Palestinian worker who fell into a pit

Another story of how little Israel cares about Palestinian lives:

Two people were killed and a third was in critical condition after falling into a pit in the northern village of Deir al-Asad on Sunday.

Two of the men were firefighters who fell into the hole during an attempt to extract the third, a Palestinian laborer who had earlier plunged inside and lost consciousness.

The firefighters were pulled from the eight-meter-deep hole by other rescue personnel at the scene, according to a Magen David Ambulance service statement.

Medics tried to revive them while they were being taken to Nahariya’s Galilee Medical Center in critical condition, MDA said.

One of them was later declared dead. He was named as Adnan Assad, 40, from Beit Jann.

Rescue workers at the scene also pulled the Palestinian man, in his 20s, from the hole. He was also taken to the hospital in critical condition and was declared dead several hours later.

According to police, he was a Palestinian laborer staying in the country illegally.

Two firefighters risked their lives - and one paid the ultimate price - to save a Palestinian.

And notice that the Israeli firefighter was an Arab himself - working on helping people alongside his Jewish colleagues. There is no distinction between them.

In other words, reality is completely different from the lies you see in the anti-Israel media.

But anyone who cares to know the truth already was aware of this.

Adnan Assad was a 40 year old father of three, including a two month old baby. May his memory be a blessing.

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!

08/13 Links: Performative Palestinian advocacy helps no one; Civilian Casualties in the I/P Conflict Compared to Western Forces; Should Israel refer to Australia as occupied Aboriginal territory?

From Ian:

Performative Palestinian advocacy helps no one

Today, most pro-Palestinian advocacy causes more harm than good. BDS founder Omar Barghouti labels the rupture of Israeli-Palestinian partnerships such as at the Mishor Adumim SodaStream factory – where 500 Palestinians were stripped of their jobs – as successes.

Similarly, BDS proponents seek to shut down Israeli industrial initiatives that provide Palestinians with the opportunity to make NIS 500 (around $140) daily versus NIS 30 (around $8) by crossing into Israel for work,” in the words of a Nir Am resident.

Their strategy and rhetoric are preposterous. Furthermore, they betray Palestinian interests and the very values of equality and justice they claim to champion.

Social justice advocates have a duty to live up to their titles and propose practical solutions for alleviating the Palestinian plight and reducing the influence of Hamas, other militant factions, and Iran. The current landscape, marked by the PA’s fragility, the resurgence of young militants, and the Hamas-Fatah divide, presents an opportunity for global audiences to champion true Palestinian freedom, from their authorities, and the freedom to normalize relations with the Jewish world.

To redirect Palestinian activism, we can raise awareness in social justice circles and online about events such as the Gaza protests, and spearhead initiatives targeting Hamas.

We can repost narratives from Whispered in Gaza – a collection of 25 animated videos of Gazans’ personal stories – alongside vivid images with captions, asking: “Is Israel doing this?” that demonstrate it’s Hamas, not Israel, who must be held to account first.

Massified efforts against Hamas and corrupt Palestinian leaders can influence foreign entities to rethink their engagement with Palestinians. They may pressure international bodies to reform UNRWA (the refugee agency dedicated entirely to Palestinian refugees), which perpetuates Palestinian refugee status and indoctrinates children with antisemitic materials aimed at Israel’s eradication.

In contemporary discourse, a straightforward yet impactful action would be rephrasing our language – differentiating between moderate Palestinian supporters, such as Bassem Eid or Ghaith al-Omari, and those solely pursuing an anti-Israel agenda to the detriment of Palestinian rights.

Refraining from labeling those with double standards in Palestinian advocacy as “pro-Palestinian,” and lifting up those voices that are genuinely dedicated to Palestinian self-determination can contribute significantly to their cause.

Civilian Casualties in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Compared to Other Conflicts Involving Western Forces

Since its creation, Israelis have suffered tens of thousands of attacks by Palestinian terrorists. Thousands of people, mostly civilians who were intentionally targeted, have been murdered.

The Palestinian terrorists are not part of an established army and do not respect International Humanitarian Law (IHL) or the Laws of War.

On most occasions, they intentionally abuse their urban surroundings as cover for their operations. This it allows them to blend into the civil population and blur the ability of Israel to identify and distinguish them as combatants.

The terrorists often use the surrounding Palestinian civilians as “human shields” to defend against Israeli counter-terror measures. This allows the terrorists and their supporters to use every civilian death as a means to promote a propaganda assault on Israel for the alleged intentional killing of civilians.

Most conflicts involving Western militaries today occur far from the homefront, and their civilian population is not under direct threat or attack. In Israel, however, its population is under constant attack. In such a context, if targets are not attacked quickly, this can directly harm Israeli civilians.

This report compares the Palestinian death toll in Israeli operations to civilian casualties in Western military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Should Israel refer to Australia as occupied Aboriginal territory?

IF YOU WANT to find some genuinely occupied territory, look no further than the country of Australia. And I don’t mean just some small part of it. I mean the whole thing.

The indigenous inhabitants of Australia, known as Aboriginals, had been living there for more than 60,000 years when the English explorer, Lt. James Cook, suddenly arrived in 1770 and “claimed” the country for Great Britain. He didn’t ask the Aboriginals what they thought about the idea of being occupied by a foreign power. Racist European colonists regarded indigenous peoples as inferior and considered their wishes unworthy of consideration.

The British occupation of Australia got underway in 1788 with the creation of a penal colony there. Those British criminals were soon followed by illegal British settlers, who seized the Aboriginals’ territory and expelled or murdered the residents when they got in the way.

The occupiers also introduced various new diseases – smallpox, measles, tuberculosis – that took the lives of many locals. By 1900, the indigenous aboriginal population of 750,000 had been reduced to 93,000.

As the years went by, the extent of the occupation widened. Australia is a huge country – nearly 3 million square miles. The occupiers gradually occupied all of it.

The occupation and mistreatment of the Aboriginals continue to this day. Amnesty International reports that current Australian government policies still “take away indigenous peoples’ basic rights [and] force indigenous people to abandon their homes and communities.”

The younger generations of Aboriginals share “their relatives’ deep trauma and anger from losing their lands, culture, and families,” Amnesty notes, and “Australia’s indigenous kids are 24 times more likely to be locked up than their non-indigenous classmates.” Indigenous Australians are just 3% of the national population, yet they comprise 29% of the country’s adult prison population.

“Occupied Territories?” “Illegal settlers?” Australia’s Labor Party government ought to take a look in the mirror before hurling false and insulting accusations at Israel.

LABOR'S ANTI-ISRAEL SHIFT - FM Penny Wong on Hamas poster exposed by AJA on national TV

AJA President Dr David Adler appeared on the Outsiders Program on Sky News today (13 Aug).
Topics discussed include.
- Former Greens indigenous Senator Lidia Thorpe's latest anti-Israel… pic.twitter.com/VrW1UZ6sOV
— Australian Jewish Association (@AustralianJA) August 13, 2023