Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, August 24, 2023

08/24 Links Pt2: How to make the case for Israel; Antisemitism of top European Court judge exposed; CUNY Hires Extremist Anti-Israel Professor; Where Is the Outrage?

From Ian:

Jake Wallis Simons: There's a word for how the world judges the Jewish state: Israelophobia

Ze’ev Jabotinsky, one of the most significant figures in the drive to create modern Israel, wrote in 1911: “We are a people as all other peoples; we do not have any intentions to be better than the rest. As one of the first conditions for equality we demand the right to have our own villains, exactly as other people have them.”

Today, not only is Israel unable to have its own villains, it is also deprived of its saints. Many people are unable to view the country reasonably, which means seeing its sins and good qualities in proportion.

When some police officers are overly brutal, it is taken to prove that the country is an “apartheid state”; when its vineyards produce wonderful Merlot, it is derided as “winewashing”.

People simply cannot judge the Jewish state as they would judge any other. Let us begin, therefore, with some facts.

Geographically, Israel is about the size of El Salvador, Slovenia or Wales, with a population the size of New Jersey and an economy the size of Nigeria. It is blessed with an extremely low crime rate, ranking 104th in the world. Britain, by comparison, comes 64th, the United States 56th, France 44th and South Africa 3rd (worst in the world is Venezuela).

Contrary to common perception, in 2022 an American insurance firm named Israel the fifth-safest tourist destination on Earth, behind only Singapore, Denmark, the Netherlands and Switzerland.

Its history may be bloody, but there are at least 27 live conflicts in the world, affecting two billion people; and while the US-led invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and the Syrian civil war killed hundreds of thousands apiece — and the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947 claimed at least a million lives — the cumulative number of Arabs who have perished in all wars with Israel numbers about 86,000. That’s over a period of 75 years.

For all its problems, Israel protects the rights of women and minorities, as well as freedoms of religion, expression, assembly and so forth.

In January 2023, a study by the Index on Censorship ranked the Jewish state above Britain and the United States in terms of freedom of expression. Tel Aviv is one of the gay capitals of the world.

Antisemitism of top European Court judge exposed

The European Court of Human Rights is facing calls to re-examine cases involving Jews after its longest-serving judge was exposed for sharing extreme antisemitic content on social media.

Bostjan Zupancic, who worked at the court for 17 years until 2016, has shared claims that Jews are “the central enemies of Western civilization”, as well as the hook-nosed caricatures commonly seen in neo-Nazi propaganda.

The former ECHR judge adjudicated in numerous hearings that directly affected Jewish communities, including cases involving kosher abattoirs and the restitution of property owned by German Jews.

Zupancic, who has also been Vice President of the UN Committee Against Torture, posted the claim that Jews “introduced… sexual perversions of all sorts… sadism, masochism, lots of homosexuality” before the Nazis came to power and a link to a YouTube video that supposedly revealed the “rise of the Rothschild banking mafia”.

He also shared an assertion that the “Jewish war on white is behind the arson of the West, and unless Jewish power is named as the cancer, there is not hope for the white race”.

Lord Carlile KC, the former independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, said: “It’s a matter of great regret that this judge should have abandoned the human rights principles he must have regarded as important.

“I would call upon the current court and its member states such as the UK to disavow Zupancic’s statements, and I would suggest there should be an examination of the cases on which he sat to ensure that the views he is now expressing did not affect his judgments.”

The remarks were echoed by Jonathan Turner, Chief Executive of UK Lawyers for Israel, who said his organisation was looking into “whether any judgments of the European Court of Human Rights in which Bostjan Zupancic participated should be reconsidered”.

After leaving the ECHR in 2016, Zupancic joined the European Centre of Law and Justice (ECLJ), an influential, conservative human rights think tank. It enjoys a special status that enables it to make reports to the UN. It also makes submissions to the ECHR.

This week, the ECLJ said it was removing him from his role in the wake of the revelations.

I spend a lot of time reading reports and news articles about how terribly Palestinians are treated in Lebanon - they cannot become citizens, they cannot access many jobs, there are many laws discriminating against them, they may not build in the camps, they cannot own land outside the camps. It is official, widespread and sanctioned discrimination that is far closer to apartheid than anything Israel has ever done.

But sometimes I still learn something.

UN Habitat wrote a long report on the State of Lebanese cities in 2021. On page 134, I saw something that surprised even me:

Water access standards is one of a range of determinants of slum living conditions. By definition, there are substantial differences between slum and non-slum households in terms of access to water and sanitation. The non-inclusion of slum settlements from service provision is often directly related to the legal tenure of the land in question. The UNESCO World Water Assessment Programme promotes the ‘need to enact laws and policies to dissociate the tenure status from service provision’ (WWAP, 2019:105). Palestinian camps, officially not connected to the public network, are relevant urbansited instances

I may be the first person on the planet to read page 134 of this report.

By and large, Palestinian camps in Lebanon are located in the middle of urban areas. The existing water infrastructure might not be ideal but it exists.

Lebanon decided long ago to deny Palestinian access to municipal water.

One would think that some NGO might have written about this over the past 75 years. But it is really hard to find anyone even elliptically talking about this.

Interpal says, "Palestinian refugees are forced to buy unregulated drinking water from local vendors." The World Health Organization says, "In Shatila, drilled wells within the camp provide water for drinking and other domestic purposes. These wells are managed by entrepreneurs who sell the water to residents, and distribute it as drinking water to households."

No one seems to ask why Lebanon never extended their water supply that already surrounds the camps into the camps themselves. And the people who clearly know about this don't seem to be very bothered by it.

There is a massive amount of anti-Israel reports published by NGOs and the media. New ones appear literally every day - the UN has a weekly newsletter listing them. Hardly any of them even mention human rights abuses against Palestinians outside those that are blamed on Israel.

Interestingly, whenever I mention a problem like this on Twitter, the Israel haters are so offended that they try to change the subject back to how Israel is the worst violator of human rights in the history of mankind.

This bias hurts Palestinians because they cannot even get basic media coverage of their very real suffering in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt and elsewhere. No one is interested in these issues because the giant NGO industry is fueled by antisemitism, and they actively discourage highlighting any problem that doesn't blame Israel.

No Jews, no news.

(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!

Bibi Foes, Supporters Doing Bang-Up Job Of Religion/Ideology Use As Pretext For Power (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Check out their Facebook page.

Tel Aviv, August 24 - Heavenly sources remarked today that the current issue most at the forefront of Israeli politics provides an excellent example of the exploitation of faith and principles either to seize or to maintain control, a phenomenon against which the ancient prophets railed at every turn.

Proponents and opponents of the judicial reform efforts that the government of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu have pursued this year provide a textbook case, stated Archangel Michael this morning, of people who seek power, or seek to increase or hold on to their power, by invoking the values of a religious tradition or a political ideology - when in fact neither the ideology nor the religion represent what motivates the leadership of any such faction; the "values" serve only as a tool to convince the masses to support the faction's favored policies.

"The notion that even a king must remain subject to higher values already appears in the book of Deuteronomy," Michael observed. "He must write and always carry a Torah scroll, to remind him that he represents something greater, and that his and his dynasty's wearing of the crown is contingent on adherence to that greater system."

"That sensibility continues into the later prophets," continued Michael. "Isaiah and Jeremiah, in particular, spilled much ink calling out the exploitation of civil and religious authority by kings, nobles, false prophets, and the wealthy, even as the latter set kept citing exalted principles to justify the practices and policies that kept them on top, or helped them oust others. Lo and behold, Netanyahu values retaining his premiership over any ideological or religious principles he might invoke to support that; his opposition has attempted for years and years to wield every political issue as a weapon to dislodge him and to supplant him - only to govern more or less as he did when they got the chance."

"It's the claims of 'defending democracy' for me," added Archangel Gabriel. "That's basically the declared religion of so many, but each faction or leader defines the term in a self-serving way, whether it's exploiting populism and 'the will of the people' to attain political ends or appealing to unelected justices' self-arrogated power to undermine the express will of the people. It exactly mirrors idolatry, which is, in practice, the worship of power."

"Humans like to think they've grown past such primitive notions," chuckled Uriel, with a shake of the head. "The classic truths are eternal truths for a reason."

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!

08/24 Links Pt1: Israel’s protesters are the real threat to its democracy now; Askar UNRWA: Cradle of Terror; Was Rabin Fooled by Arafat when They Signed the Oslo Accords?

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: Israel’s protesters are the real threat to its democracy now

Military reservists are blackmailing the government by threatening to refuse their call-up to military service — even if the country is attacked — if the government doesn’t abandon its reforms. As one Ha’aretz article boasted: “A military coup is underway in Israel — and it’s completely justified.”

Then there’s outright thuggery. The Kohelet Policy Forum, a scholarly, conservative think-tank that helped formulate the reform programme, had its offices vandalised and then barricaded with barbed wire and rubbish. Its senior thinkers have been demonised, threatened and abused.

For months, Kohelet’s principal funder, American billionaire Arthur Dantchik, was harassed by Israeli demonstrators outside his Philadelphia house and office and had his character blackened by association with Kohelet. Eventually he cracked under the pressure and ended his funding.

Earlier this month, at a Zoom conference with more than 1,000 participants gloating about the victory over Dantchik and Kohelet, Yaya Fink, a far-left political activist, declared: “The protest isn’t the goal. The protest is a tool for implementing a world view. We’re in the process of building infrastructures for the long haul.”

A video has also surfaced of the Madame Mao of the insurrection, physics professor Shikma Bressler — who has declared that the reform would turn Israel into a “theocratic dictatorship” — drilling ranks of masked men dressed in black T-shirts, standing to attention with legs apart and hands behind their backs like a paramilitary army.

This uprising is being mounted by Ashkenazi elites, seeking to maintain the power they exercise through the court to marginalise socially conservative and lower-class Mizrachi Jews. It’s being supported by liberal diaspora plutocrats who have withdrawn their funding from Israel, thus showing that their professed love of the Jewish state was always paper-thin and conditional.

And it’s being further incited by left-wing writers in both Israel and the diaspora, sobbing into their keyboards about the destruction of Jewish unity while they bully and denounce the Israeli “right” as people with whom they refuse even to identify; and while they implore diaspora Jews to save Israel from its own “non-normative” government, and replace democratic process and the rule of law with control by a judicial oligarchy comprising people in their own image.

They are all helping promote and endorse threats, bullying, intimidation, harassment, character assassination, defamation, thuggery and blackmail. They are doing deliberate and untold harm to Israel’s economy and security in order to get what they want. Moreover, they claim this represents democracy, human rights and, quite obscenely for such traitors to the Jewish people, Jewish values.

For shame.

Bassam Tawil: The Washington Post's 'Good' Terrorists

The attacks by the Fatah-affiliated terrorists came days after The Washington Post published a story from Balata refugee camp, near Nablus, in which its correspondents romanticized members of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, even documenting them as they visit their barber for a haircut.

The "fighters" The Washington Post is referring to are the terrorists responsible for a series of shooting, stabbing and car-ramming attacks against Jewish civilians and soldiers in the Nablus area and Israel over the past few months. Notably, these terrorists do not hide their involvement in the wave of attacks. In fact, they often boast of the attacks and post videos and posters documenting their role.

What the newspaper fails to mention is that this terrorist [who "bought his M16 [rifle] for $20,000 with the money he earned working in construction in Tel Aviv"] is one of tens of thousands of Palestinians who were granted permits (by Israel) to come and work in Israel as part of an effort to boost the Palestinian economy and improve the living conditions of the Palestinians in the West Bank.

The terrorist did not seek work in the Palestinian Authority-controlled territories because he knew he would have earned much less.... The terrorist was able to save $20,000 from his work in Israel, but instead of using the money to build a new house or improve his living condition, we are told that he chose to establish "the Balata cell of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades."

The correspondents are apparently impressed by the fact that another terrorist, Ammar, paid 20 shekels ($6) to buy them coffee. Ammar had been shot multiple times by Israeli soldiers while attempting to murder Jews near Nablus in April. He managed to escape, but two of his fellow gunmen were killed.

The correspondents go on to claim, falsely, that "there are no sports teams" in Balata refugee camp.

The truth is that the camp has a soccer club that was established in 1954. It is called the Balata Youth Center and states that it "aspires to be the main supporter of all sports, cultural, social, and scouting activities... It also aspires to have a special playground for all sports, such as football [soccer], basketball, handball, volleyball, table tennis, and other individual and group games." The local soccer team has even won several championships.

The terrorists could have joined the soccer team, but preferred to form a terror group to attack Jews.

Instead of highlighting that many of the terrorists are involved in intimidation and extortion of the local community, The Washington Post attempts to depict them as honest law-enforcers.

Askar UNRWA: Cradle of Terror - review of a must see 7 minute film

Youtube has blocked my work and thus will not allow the posting of this seven minute movie. Is that because it shows the truth about UNRWA? Do UNRWA donors know where their money is going? Do these donors know they funded the education to violent hatred that encouraged the killers of Lucy Dee and her daughters, the Yaniv brothers and so many other innocent Jews?

We asked Raibbi Leo Dee to view the film and write his impresssions of it.

Review of "Askar UNRWA: Cradle of Terror" by Rabbi Leo Dee:

Viewing Askar UNRWA: Cradle of Terror", the latest short documentary produced by David Bedein and his staff of Jewish and Arab journalists, we see the results of "indiscriminate support" for the Palestinian Authority and UNRWA.

By providing unconditional funding for UNRWA and the Palestinian Authority, rather than support for peaceful Palestinian Arabs whom they abuse, the world funds terror.

This movie shows how UNRWA and the PA educate the next generation of Arab children to hate and murder Jews.

If Israelis and the international community do not wake up to this reality, there will never be peace.

By supporting peaceful Palestinian Arabs to assert control of PLO terrorist organizations, and hate filled UNRWA camps, both Palestinian Arabs and Israeli Jews will stand a chance at a better life together.

Earlier this week I reported on Othman Atef Abu Kharj, a 17 year old who was killed during clashes near Jenin.

Most Palestinian media referred to him as a "child" ruthlessly killed by the IDF. Islamic Jihad, on the other hand, celebrated his ascension to Paradise as "a heroic mujahid knight" - but claimed that he was 18.

Now, Hamas-linked Felesteen writes a more detailed article about Abu Kharj, where we learn more of the truth.

Yes, his family confirms the teen was 17 - and they are proud that he was an expert on building IEDs.

[His brother] Mahmoud, 22, could hardly complete his talk about his younger brother, saying, "Othman was throwing his "elbow" IEDs one after the other towards the armored jeeps.

The young men resort to using various tools to confront the repeated incursions of the occupation forces into the cities and governorates of the West Bank, in whose camps and villages the resistance action is escalating. Among these means are Molotov cocktails, stones, "elbows", igniting tires and closing streets with them.

But Othman had mastered making "elbows" and using them in several confrontations against the occupation soldiers, which they did not like, so they decided to assassinate him.

Wikipedia Arabic describes "elbow bombs":

It consists of a short, serrated tube and is closed at both ends with two metal pieces, one of which contains a hole through which the ignition fuse passes into the interior, which is ignited with sulfur. It is stuffed with gunpowder or black sulfur.

His family knew that he went out if his way to attack soldiers. "They all knew his courage, which always put him at the forefront of confrontations against soldiers heavily armed and fortified with armored vehicles," the article adds.

This was a child soldier and an active militant. Even so, Defense for Children International ignores all the evidence and merely calls him a "Palestinian boy."

In English, he is an innocent child. In Arabic, he is a heroic Islamic Jihad mujahid - and also a child..

And the media doesn't want the truth to be published.

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

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!

Yasir Arafat is often quoted to have said, “I am ready to kill for the sake of my cause; wouldn't I lie for it?”

I couldn't find a reliable source for this quote. However, as I was looking, I did find another where Arafat freely admitted to lying.

It is quoted in a 1998 biography of Arafat by Said Aburish, "Arafat : From Defender to Dictator."

In Tunisia in 1987, [Arafat] both shocked and amused an Iraqi academic who politely suggested that many Arab leaders accused him, Arafat, of lying. The academic, with no axe to grind, was suggesting a change of tactics. Staring at the Iraqi with incredulous, extra-bulging eyes he said, 'Why not? For Palestine, I'd lie all the time.' Momentarily, his guest was at a loss for words. Then he burst out laughing and Arafat joined him with a broad smile which, according to the Iraqi, lightened his face and made him look like a little boy.

In Arabic, I saw the quote slightly differently: "Why shouldn't I lie? For the sake of Palestine, I am willing to lie all the time."

Aburish also described how he himself was in potential danger by his decision to be honest about Arafat in this biography (which included interviews with Arafat himself) rather than be a patriotic Palestinian who accepts his lies:

For example, despite evidence to the contrary, Arafat still insists that he was born in Jerusalem. Accepting his version of the story, to him the duty of all loyal Palestinians, would have cancelled my independence and vitiated my purpose. Rejecting his account of history, either openly or after feigning the opposite, would - according to his logic - have represented a betrayal worthy of punishment. It would have made writing this biography far more dangerous.

This goes beyond lies. This means that Palestinians are expected not only to accept the lies of their leaders, but they will be punished if they tell the truth instead.

This cannot be overstated. We have seen numerous times where Palestinians reflexively lie to adhere to The Narrative of unmitigated Israeli evil and suffering exclusively at the hands of the Jews, rather than admit - for example - that a child was killed by a terror group rocket. And journalists also follow the narrative, careful not to say anything to upset the authorities, whether it is Hamas or the Palestinian Authority, unless they are in a safe territory.

This entire society based on lies was built, in large measure, by Yasir Arafat.

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

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!

There has been a horrific wave of murders in Israel's Arab sector this year, about 150 Arab citizens killed. Israel has been trying different things to fight the phenomenon and nothing has worked so far - in fact, the murder rate is accelerating.

No one disputes that this is a major problem that must be prioritized. But according to Palestinian media, the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor is accusing Israel of being complicit in these murders. (This is not on their webpage as of this writing.)

They don't even pretend to have any proof of this slander. They just say "the recurrence of murders and the analysis of their facts and their unprecedented rise indicate the existence of an Israeli policy that perpetuates impunity and encourages the commission of these crimes."

Their main evidence of this is that Israel manages to determine who is behind terror attacks, so why can't it do the same for Arabs internally? The answer is obvious: it took decades to build an excellent intelligence infrastructure that can now be leveraged. It would take time to do the same for Israeli Arabs, but there are additional obstacles - citizens cannot be treated as presumed enemies. Imagine the backlash if Israeli police put spies in Israeli mosques. It requires a completely different skill set to attack this problem, and Euro-Med almost certainly knows this.

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor doesn't seem to care about human rights of Israeli Arabs nearly as much as they want to use them as yet another excuse to bash 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!

08/23 Links Pt2: David Collier: A point or ten about the Palestinian flag; Exposing Tucker Carlson's dark side; BBC News reports an “attack on a car”

From Ian:

David Collier: A point or ten about the Palestinian flag

I recently spent a night in Belgium doing some research. As soon as I came out of the Brussels Midi Eurostar station I was confronted with a huge image of the Palestinian flag that had been graffitied onto one of the station walls. I took a photo of the flag – and posted it in a tweet – noting my discomfort.

That simple statement of fact – that the Palestinian flag can be viewed as a symbol of hate, went viral – receiving over 3.8 million views – and over 3,280 comments. For several days my notification feed was a tsunami of abuse. Some even suggested that my discomfort made me ‘racist’ or ‘Islamophobic’:

Most of the comments were just mocking. After all they said – ‘it is only a flag’. This is a ridiculous position, more so given that I can think of dozens of examples of ‘only a flag’ that most right-minded individuals (left and right) would find threatening or offensive. Like many emblems of hate – the problem lies in what the Palestinian flag represents – and what many of those waving it support. Only a fool would believe that the person who placed that graffiti on the walls of the Brussels Midi station has any good intentions vis-a-vis Jewish people in Israel.

Ignorance on this subject is everywhere, so here are ten points looking at what the Palestinian flag actually means – and why Jewish people have every right to view it as offensive:

1. The truth hidden in plain sight: 1964
Firstly, let me put the record straight. At the start of the 20th century there was no ‘Palestinian flag’ – just as there was no ‘Palestinian people’. Before the national Palestinian identity was created as a weapon with which to fight Zionism, Arabs under the mandate saw themselves as part of the greater Islamic or Arab nations. In August 1929, while Arabs massacred Jews throughout the British Mandate area, the Arabs in Nablus tried to revolt against the British. Briefly declaring independence, they raised the Turkish flag:

This next clarification was made during the Arab revolt in the late 1930s. That the ‘Arab nationalists fly a variety of flags, generally Islamic green’:

Only in May 1964 when the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) was established, did they fully adopt what we now know as the Palestinian flag – as the flag of the Palestinian people (not the flag of ‘Palestine’, that came later). The PLO also created the ‘Palestinian Liberation Army’ to work towards the ‘ultimate goal of liberating the Arab homeland’. The flag was the banner under which they would unite to destroy Israel:

The flag is based on the flag of the Arab revolt (which is why the flags of so many Arab nations are similar). It was part of the pan-Arab cause, and the colours are in remembrance of Islamic conquests.

This point is reinforced by various Fatah spokespeople, such as this example from 1969. This Al-Fatah ‘commander’ did not care what flag he stood under – as long as it was an Arab one:

In 1964 the Arabs were in total control of the West Bank and Gaza, so the *ONLY* land they could ‘liberate’ was Israel behind the 1949 armistice lines. The very origin of the flag is one that sought the destruction of the Jewish state. This was the sole purpose of its adoption.

2. The age of terror
For six decades the PLO adopted ‘Palestinian flag’ has been associated with the slaughter of Jews and the desire to destroy Israel. Such as this threat from Arafat – as he pointed to the Palestinian flag – promising ‘the flag will fly on the road to Haifa‘ and they would keep their guns ‘raised‘ until they took Jerusalem:

And these were not idle threats. Wherever there was terror and the murder of Jews – the Palestinian flag was present:

Rachel Riley: 'I couldn't stay quiet during the Corbyn years'

Riley Riley has spoken about her role in confronting Labour Party antisemitism during the Corbyn years saying “I just saw something bad happening and just couldn’t stay quiet."

Riley, who was recently awarded an MBE in the 2023 New Year’s Honours list for her work raising awareness of the Holocaust and combating antisemitism, also discussed the abuse she received.

Speaking on the Spinning Plates podcast with Sophie Ellis-Bextor, she said: “When they [Labour] were rejected and lost 80 seats [in the 2019 general election], it was a sigh of relief but on the same day, I got a message wishing my daughter stillborn. It [the abuse] took its toll.”

Riley went on to say: "I know there are some brilliant people in Labour now really determined to get rid of these bad actors. So it kind of took the pressure off a lot.”

She also recalled a moment meeting Holocaust survivors and Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis at a charity honours event.

Watchdog launches campaign against alleged Morningstar anti-Israel ratings

A conservative, nonprofit watchdog is keeping up the pressure on Morningstar, despite a reduction in the number of Israel-linked companies on a blacklist maintained by the investment firm and its socially conscious investment ratings arm, Sustainalytics.

Will Hild, executive director of Consumers’ Research, told JNS that the nonprofit launched a new media campaign on Tuesday morning. It planned to send a mobile billboard to Morningstar’s Chicago headquarters and to run digital ads on the website of Crain’s Chicago for a week.

It is also starting what Hild referred to as “targeted digital campaign aimed at consumers and Morningstar employees.”

Morningstar reduced the number of businesses it tags with “controversy ratings” from 26 to 7, following pressure from a coalition of U.S. Jewish and pro-Israel organizations. The “controversy” tag, which can dissuade would-be investors, was applied to companies that operate beyond the 1949 armistice line, often referred to as the “Green Line.” Morningstar is also being investigated in at least 20 states for potential boycott, divestment and sanctions activity against the Jewish state.

Critics have called the “controversy” ratings a boycott due to the company’s use of anti-Israel sources for its ratings and the language it used originally, suggesting that businesses serving Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria should be flagged automatically. Morningstar has said consistently that it does not engage in BDS.

The investment firm agreed to implement changes in how it handles businesses inside what it calls the Israeli-Palestinian conflict area.

Hild told JNS that the reduction isn’t good enough.

On Monday I legally became Varda. It had always been my “Jewish name,” but like many other American Jews at that time, I had two names. There was my regular name, “Barbara Jean” and my Hebrew name “Varda Yonina.” My parents gave me both names, with “Varda” reserved for use by my Hebrew school teachers, and “Varda Yonina” reserved for when my dad got really mad at me, “Varda Yonina, you apologize to your sister this minute.”

I didn’t like my Hebrew name. Probably because of the sibling—ahem—who called me “Farta” to make me cry. But when I came to Israel, it made good sense to use “Varda” and slowly I grew into it. “Varda” now felt more like me than “Barbara,” which had begun to sound foreign to my ears.

I wasn’t about to change my name legally. At the time I made Aliyah, there was no need. For most purposes, doctor appointments and so forth, I could give my usual, Hebrew name, “Varda.” It was only when I needed to do something like sign a contract that I needed my legal name, “Barbara Jean.”

At some point however, all the computers talked to each other and suddenly I was “Barbara” everywhere. At the doctor’s office, at the bank, all over the place. The secretary in my doctor’s office, who had known me as Varda for decades, looked quizzical when she called me in for my appointment, “Barbara?”

It was the same with my friendly neighborhood pharmacist, who gave a start when he saw “Barbara” on my HMO card, and then proceeded to tease me mercilessly for about ten minutes, saying things like, “What Jewish parent names their kid ‘Barbara?’”

Um, that would be my parents. But in truth, it was no different with my friends’ parents. My friends and I all had double names—the “regular” name and the one we used in Hebrew school three times a week. For that hour, my friend Merle, for example, morphed into someone named Masha Freydl who sounded like someone who’d come to class directly from the shtetl in a shawl and babushka. Even though like the rest of us girls, Merle was wearing Landlubber straight-legged jeans.

It always gave me a start, a moment of cognitive dissonance. Suddenly your friends aren’t Bob and Susan, but Baruch and Sheindl. Even my own name, “Varda,” felt wrong to me in Hebrew class, because everywhere else I was “Barbara.”

When I got to Israel, the shoe was suddenly on the other foot, and “Barbara” just didn’t feel right, anymore. It got annoying to be called that. First of all, “Barbara” sounds terrible in an Israeli accent—something like a stuttering rat drowning in its own fluids: “Bahrrrrrrrrrr Bahrrrrrrrrrrrr Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrra.”

Then there was the matter of the spelling of my then-legal middle name, “Jean.” Once, after having a baby, my name got added to mailing lists of parenting magazines and baby stores throughout the country. For three years I received mail addressed in Hebrew, to “Barbara Goan.”

On my identity card and just about everywhere else, however, “Jean” was misspelled and mispronounced as “Jane.” There was no reason for this—I had spelled my name correctly with Hebrew letters when I first made Aliyah. It was a random clerk who had bungled the spelling—causing me mild irritation whenever I had to deal with legalese and bureaucracy.

More than once over the years, I had thought about changing my name legally, so as to be done with “Barbara Jean” for good. But it seemed like too much of a hassle. I’d have to change it everywhere. At the bank, on my credit cards, with my HMO, on my American passport.

But more and more, as time went on, the name issue bugged me. My real name, no matter what it says on my birth certificate, is Varda, because that is what my father named me in shul. Like Ben Cohen, (Ha!) I’m a Jew. Case closed.

My friend’s brother would in fact call “Barbara” my “slave name.” Its derivation is Greek and means “foreign,” “strange,” or “barbarian.” That is not a history I want to call my own. Nor is it—it rightfully belongs to others.

Jewish names, on the other hand, tell the story of thousands of years of Jewish journeying in the Diaspora. No doubt my friend Merle/Masha Freydl was named for an ancestor who lived in an Eastern European shtetl. I myself was named after my great grandmother Raizel from Boguslav in the Ukraine, but my mother had an aversion to Yiddish and wanted something more modern, so the rabbi suggested “Varda,” which means the same thing—“Rose.” I guess he figured that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. My mother agreed.

Jewish name stories intrigue, my own included. The differences in regional pronunciations tell us much about the individual’s personal family history. The names Ziskind and Susskind, for example, are really one and the same name with the same meaning, it's just that their owners lived in different parts of Europe. The name “Barbara” hints at my Western upbringing, a Jew who stopped in Pittsburgh on the way home to Israel.

But how long did I need to hold onto a name that, as a Jew, was never really rightfully mine? I was American by birth, but no longer in my everyday life. I had lost touch with the culture. Now, only my Hebrew name felt right. And yet, I continued to procrastinate about changing my name legally. Wouldn’t it be a kind of slap in my late parents’ faces? Is it not the parents’ right to name their children, and ours to bear the sometimes negative consequences of their choices?

I wrestled with the decision to change my name. I really didn’t want to be disrespectful to my late parents, but by now, I really, really hated being legally Barbara. The worst moment was waking up after foot surgery and hearing someone say, “Bahrrrrrrrrrrrrrr Bahrrrrrrrrrrrr Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrra, how do you feel? Would you like some pain medication?”

The thing is, when you’ve put your life in someone’s hands, you don’t want them calling you by a name that no longer feels like you. You want to hear YOUR name from their mouths, not that strange, stuttering guttural that actually NEVER felt like you. This, finally, was what made me take steps to make “Varda” my legal name.

The process of changing my name legally turned out to be straightforward. A clerk at our local National Insurance office told me what to do and even made the appointment for me for the following week. At the Ministry of Interior, they checked my name off a list, and gave me a number. I waited maybe 10 minutes for my turn. The nice clerk (not Jewish, by the way) explained everything, making sure I understood her Hebrew, and offering to speak to me in English, which I politely declined as unnecessary. She wondered aloud why, in 44 years, I had never bothered to change it.

I should have. I really should have. I told her so.

When we completed the process, the clerk handed me papers certifying the name change, smiled, and said, “Mazal tov, Varda!”

Forgive me for getting all emo on you, but the truth is, on the way out of the Interior Ministry office, I felt elated. It was really, truly exciting to at last be legally Varda—to have shed that ghetto name “Barbara,” forever. Deep down, I knew that that nothing had really changed—“Varda” had been my real name all along, still is. But I have to confess that it sure felt good to see it in print,ורדה , all stamped and official-like on an official Hebrew document, with the imprimatur of the one and only Jewish State of Israel.

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

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Terrorist groups have now seized eight UNRWA schools in Lebanon

From Naharnet:

An explosion was heard at dawn inside the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain el-Helweh in the southern city of Sidon, the state-run National News Agency said.

The explosion resulted from “a hand grenade that was hurled near a school belonging to the UNRWA agency in the camp’s al-Fawqani street,” NNA said, adding that the incident caused no casualties.

UNRWA had reported Saturday that another school compound was taken over by armed groups in the camp.

“This brings the total number of schools taken over by armed groups in the camp to eight, risking the start of the school year in time for 5,900 children,” UNRWA warned.

“We are getting credible reports of severe damage to the school buildings and looting of children’s education material and equipment from the schools,” it said.

The Lebanese camp of Ein el-Hilweh gets worse and worse, but since there is no actual shooting and Israel can't be blamed, no one cares too much.

Just like you almost never read about the concrete wall surrounding the camp since 2017.

Yes, Lebanon really keeps Palestinians in an open-air prison. Banksy doesn't seem to care too much.

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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

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08/23 Links Pt1: Rabbi Leo Dee: When will the world stop funding murderers who killed a kindergarten teacher?; Israel must stop Iran in the West Bank like it does in Syria

From Ian:

Rabbi Leo Dee: When will the world stop funding murderers who killed a kindergarten teacher?

I am devastated by the cold-blooded murder of Batsheva Nigri this week. She was the kindergarten teacher of the kids of some of my close friends in Efrat and, according to everyone who knew her, a giving lady with a wonderful heart.

The murder was carried out by Fatah, the army of the Palestinian Authority. The PA is the funder of 70 per cent of terror attacks that go on in Judea and Samaria, including the attack that killed my wife and two daughters four months ago.

World governments are funding the PA to the tune of $1.2 billion per year -- the same PA that educates children to murder Jews through textbooks and terror training summer camps, the same PA that pays more than $300 million annually to families of terrorists to encourage the next round of attacks.

Additionally, the Israeli army protects the PA from its own people, whom it abuses, because Israeli leaders (of both coalition and opposition) claim this leads to “stability and security”.

Well, I have a message to all our politicians: backing the PA is backing the wrong horse. It no more leads to security and stability than backing Iran and other Arab countries to develop nuclear weapons, the current US Administration’s apparent “stabilising” policy for the Middle East.

When my family tragedy occurred, I stated, “I love the Palestinians and I hate the terrorists.” People told me this was an innovation. Usually, they told me, the victims hate all Palestinians, or a small percentage can be seen hugging the mother of their killers, but rarely does one differentiate between Arab and Arab.

This naive policy of painting all Palestinians with one brush has led to Israel and the world backing a hateful terrorist regime, the PA, which terrorises its own people and us, under the misapprehension that the “tough” Palestinians can control the weaker ones. But the weaker ones are our friends.

Rabbi Leo Dee: Grateful killer's home will be demolished, but PA is real enemy'

The IDF today (Wednesday) announced its intentions to demolish the homes of one of the terrorists who murdered four Israelis in a shooting attack at a gas station and restaurant near Eli, and of one of the terrorists who murdered Lucy Dee and her two teenage daughters Rina and Maia.

Rabbi Leo Dee, the husband of Lucy and father of Rina and Maia, reacted to the announcement and told Israel National News - Arutz Sheva: "My kids and I are grateful for the brave actions of the IDF in Nablus. However the Palestinian Authority, that will fund the terrorist's family to rebuild, is the true enemy of our people and we must cease to give it legitimacy. The PA is the main perpetrator of atrocities against Israelis and is actively training and funding the next generation of terrorists. This must stop."

Lucy Dee and her daughters were murdered when terrorists opened fire on their vehicle while the Dees were on their way to visit family for the Passover holiday in April.

Israeli Forces Map Houses of Terrorists Who Killed Schoolteacher

Israeli security forces mapped Wednesday morning the houses of two terrorists who killed Bat-Sheva Nagari and left one man seriously wounded on Monday. A joint operation had also been conducted to arrest 19 wanted persons in the West Bank.

The mapping is done in preparation for the house’s likely demolition. During the activity, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reported that suspects threw Molotov cocktails and stones, and shot fireworks at the soldiers.

The 40-year-old schoolteacher and mother of three, Nagari, was murdered by the Palestinian terrorists near Hebron on Monday. She was sitting in the front passenger-side seat, while her young daughter was in the back and miraculously did not sustain any injuries. There have been conflicting claims of responsibility by Hamas and Fatah’s al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades.

The IDF, the Shin Bet internal intelligence agency, and the Border Police arrested 19 wanted persons, as well as confiscating weapons and military equipment, throughout the West Bank.

On Tuesday, an exhibition called "Inscriptions and Writings of Ancient Palestine" was unveiled at the headquarters of the League of Arab States in Cairo.

The exhibit features photos of Canaanite inscriptions from between the 19th and 7th centuries BCE.

The reasons given for the exhibit are almost completely political.

The exhibition is meant "to purify the history of Palestine and the general culture of myths and legends," meaning to exclude the idea that Jews have a history in the region.

The head of the scientific committee of the exhibition, Durgham Fares, said that the exhibition, which will be shown in various countries, "aims to strengthen international, Arab, and Islamic public opinion in support of the rights of the Palestinian people to freedom, independence, and the establishment of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, by providing a neutral scientific reading of the history of Palestine."

Fares also described "the importance of archaeological inscriptions and writings in understanding the ancient history of Palestine, and in refuting the modern allegations of the Zionist movement and the occupation."

This is propaganda, not a sober description of Canaanite culture. (The claim that Palestinians are descended from Canaanites is also quite shaky. Some almost certainly were, but most prominent Palestinian families proudly trace their lineage to other parts of the world.)

No one contests the idea that the earliest known use of an alphabet was in the region of Canaan, although it appears to have originated in Egypt as a simplified version of hieroglyphics for Semitic languages.

Unlike the curators of this project, the Israel Museum has an entire apolitical exhibit that credits the creation of the alphabet to Canaanite miners who were working for Egyptians in the Sinai, and who converted the thousands of Egyptian pictograms into a simplified, limited set of consonants.

The Israelis don't hijack history, as they are often accused of. They look at archaeology objectively and if a find is important for Muslim or Christian or Canaanite history they publicize it as well as they do for Jewish history. There is a bias, certainly - everyone is more interested in their own ancestors - but they are not dishonest. In fact, some of the most important Muslim archaeological treasures were found - and preserved - by Israelis. .

As this exhibit shows, the only parties that explicitly use archaeology to erase the history of a people are the Palestinians and their allies.

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!

The Jerusalem Post reports:

Lebanon’s National Security Ministry confiscated Israeli goods from store shelves around the country, its National Security Ministry announced, according to Lebanese media reports on Tuesday.

It is unknown how the Israeli goods ended up in commercial centers in Lebanon, as the two countries do not have diplomatic relations and do not engage in trade.

According to the reports, the Lebanese ministry stated that “relevant parties had been summoned for questioning.”

According to Ynet, among the Israeli goods confiscated in Lebanon were kitchen towels from the Netanya-based home goods company, Golf & Co. as well as sealing strips from PROMAX.

This doesn't come close to capturing the absurdity of Lebanon's zealousness at enforcing Article 285 of the Lebanese penal code which prohibits trade with an enemy state.

Lebanese State Security released this video dramatizing how their strangely masked employees received the information of the dangerous goods, then enter a vehicle while heavily armed, where they race down the streets in order to confiscate the contraband that is, shudder, "MADE IN ISRAEL."

It is a clown show, yet they are taking this all so seriously.

The entire country is going to hell, but at least Lebanese citizens can sleep at night knowing that their security forces are protecting them from Zionist kitchen towels.

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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

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The Israeli Gisha NGO concentrates on freedom of movement of people and goods between Israel and the territories, and it issues reports and statistics to that end.

It just released a graphics-heavy online report about the impact of Israel's closure of Gaza on the mental health of Gazans:

In Their Words: Mental Health Professionals in Gaza on Treating the Effects of Closure

“There’s a clear link between the Israeli closure and the grave state of mental health in Gaza. The closure is like a drop of ink in a pool of water, spreading everywhere, touching everything.”
Nedaa Murtaja, psychologist, Gaza

For decades, Israel has enforced restrictions on movement to and from the Gaza Strip, which it tightened to the point of closure in 2007.

....
In late 2021, Gisha and the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme (GCMHP) convened a group of mental health professionals and representatives of organizations working in the field in the Strip. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the effects of Israel’s closure on mental health, as well as the challenges therapists and care specialists face as residents living under closure in Gaza themselves.

What follows is a summary of the observations made by participants in the discussion.

The number of Palestinians in need of psychological care or assistance in Gaza has climbed dramatically in recent years. According to various studies, between 15% and 30% of individuals living in Gaza develop post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD).

“This means there are at least 300,000 people in Gaza living with PTSD, and likely many more,” says Qusai Abuodah, director of resource development and public relations at GCMHP.

A central outcome of the closure enforced by Israel has been a high prevalence of poverty and unemployment in the Strip. Economic hardship elevates stress levels among the general population.

Khitam Abu Shwareb, a social worker at GCMHP, emphasizes the inextricable link between people’s economic reality and their mental health. “Restrictions imposed by Israel on entry of goods and raw materials into Gaza not only disrupt entire economic sectors, they also lead to price hikes inside the Strip, with direct impact on our mental stability.”

“Long-term mental stress leads to severe anxiety disorders and further undermines quality of life, which, in Gaza, is already far from meeting accepted international standards,” Osama Frina, a psychologist at GCMHP, explains. “Anxiety sometimes transforms into physical pain and suffering. The physical suffering, added to frustration and despair, often leads people to experience deep depression, which, unfortunately, also manifests in an increasing suicide rate.”

“The depression experienced by residents of Gaza is not depression in its classic, conventional sense,” says Hassan Zeyada, a psychologist at GCMHP.

“Palestinian depression is different. Gaza’s entire society is in a constant state of high level of chronic stress and ongoing trauma. The Israeli closure and travel restrictions on Gaza affect everyone, without exception. The prevailing feeling among Gaza’s population is one of helplessness and hopelessness. This situation did not appear out of thin air: It is the result of a deliberate process designed to induce a state of helplessness to weaken the resilience of both individuals and society in Gaza.”

Where is the bias in this report?

Everywhere.

The "research" was not meant to determine why Gazan mental health is poor. It determined at the outset, before a word was written, that it is all Israel's fault. Then the mental health professionals in Gaza were asked to confirm and support that lie.

Israel doesn't limit goods and travel in Gaza to "induce a state of helplessness to weaken the resilience of both individuals and society in Gaza." It does it to save the lives of Israeli citizens. In any other context, this is called human rights. Israel allows exports; it allows unlimited medicine and food and fuel; it allows thousands of workers to enter Israel every day and is trying to increase that amount.

I'm not saying that bombings and the restrictions on goods and travel do not affect Gazans - of course they do. But the story doesn't come close to ending there.

The Gisha report does not mention Egypt's own strict restrictions on Gazans being able to cross their border, or Egypt's own severe limitations on imports and exports - all of which have nothing to do with Israel.

But that is only a small part of the bias. This report, and hundreds like it, actually hurt Gazans far more than it helps them. And it does it for reasons that can only be described as antisemitic.

By blaming all of Gaza's woes on Israel alone, it gives a free pass to the many other factors that can and do cause severe mental health problems in Gaza - problems that have little or nothing to do with Israel.

By far, the biggest mental health risk in Gaza (and the West Bank) is from men who abuse their wives and children:

In the West Bank and Gaza Strip, one in three women who have ever been married are subjected to physical violence by their husbands and one in seven of never married women by a household member.

UNICEF adds:

Domestic violence levels are also high in 2014 MICSs (PCBS) study, confirming that 93 per cent of children aged 2 to 14 years experienced violent disciplining at home, and 23 per cent of children experienced severe physical punishment. Pervasive and harmful social norms including child marriage, child labour, sexual violence and gender-based violence are issues of great concern.

The Israel-hating crowd loves to claim that the Gaza closure is the reason for these statistics, but the numbers are similar in the West Bank, where there is no closure.

Meaning that domestic violence is widespread among Palestinians and it has nothing to do with Israel. The only people responsible for beating their wives and children are the husbands. Women in Gaza fear for their lives - not from Israeli missiles but from their husbands. The victims have to live with this abuse, with fear and mistrust of the people who should unconditionally love them, every day of their lives.

It is interesting to note that there are lots of articles and academic papers about how the "patriarchy" damages the mental health of women and children in the West - and even about how it damages men's mental health as well.. Yet there are practically no scholarly reports about the psychological effects and dangers of living in the highly patriarchal Palestinian society.

Palestinian laws explicitly discriminate against women. Abortion is illegal except in extreme cases. A high percentage of women are pressured into marrying while still children. Polygamy is allowed. Access to contraception is limited by the husbands in Gaza, and Palestinian women are taught that the should never abort because having children is a form of "resistance."

Palestinian children are also scarred by Gaza social mores. They are indoctrinated at birth into a culture of violence and celebrating death. They are taught to cheer when Israeli civilians are killed - but also to celebrate the "ascension to Paradise" of terrorists killed by Israel. Tens of thousands attend summer camps where they are taught nothing but hate and militancy.

Children in Gaza in particular are taught in their classrooms to seek martyrdom - including in UNRWA schools. The adults in their lives are teaching them that their greatest value to the nation is is to be killed.

Do you think that being told that they are nothing more than cannon fodder might affect the mental health of children?

There are other factors that affect the Palestinian psyche. The registered UNRWA "refugees" have been taught for generations that they deserve to have have free housing and schooling paid for by the world, and even the Palestinian government relies on the EU and Arab world to do the work that they should have been doing in funding and building their own institutions. It is a welfare state and they have convinced themselves - and much of the world - that this is normal, that Palestinians do not have to compromise for peace, that they are eternal victims and should sit back and wait for the world to give them everything they demand.

Put it all together and you have a recipe for a society that is deeply dysfunctional.

But NGOs like Gisha don't want you to know this. They are part of the problem. They want to hide the real problems in Gaza and blame only Israel. This helps their bottom line - funders want them to blame Israel for everything - but these kinds of superficial, one-sided analyses end up hurting the Palestinians they pretend to care about because it solidifies the idea that they are not responsible for any of their own problems. .

In the end, blaming all of the mental health issues of Gazans on Israel alone is not serious analysis. It is whitewashing the real issue because of an overriding desire to blame Jews, and Jews alone, for any and every problem. It is a much more sophisticated form of antisemitism than the Protocols of the Elders of Zion or Mein Kampf or the medieval lie that Jews poison wells - but in the end, just like the classic cases, it is still using Jews as the scapegoat for every problem.

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!

08/22 Links Pt2: The Zionist Left’s 100-Year War Against the Zionist Right; New York City Mayor: Israel is my second home; Putin’s Aliyah Is in Danger

From Ian:

Yisrael Medad: The Zionist Left’s 100-Year War Against the Zionist Right

In according with the Basic Law: Government, the 37th Government of Israel was formed on December 29, 2022 having presented itself before the Knesset, announcing its guidelines of its policy, its make-up, and the distribution of functions among the Ministers, and merited an expression of confidence. Parliamentary democracy, following multiple elections and inter-party negotiations, won out. A coalition with a clear majority assumed power. But, then, something happened.

The government decided to proceed with its policy goals that were presented to the electorate during the election campaign.

Almost immediately, the arena for civic debate moved from the plenum hall and committee rooms to the streets. Ministers of the government, and most specifically, the Prime Minister, now serving for the third time in that position, were labeled “fascists”, “Hitler”, “traitor”, “dictatorship”, “destroying democracy”, “regime changers”, practicing a “coup” and so forth. The discourse became poisoned. Hi-tech company owners began moving their funds abroad as if they were pro-Palestinian BDS supporters. Highways and streets were, and continue to be, blockaded and closed down to traffic as demonstrators invaded. Strikes were initiated of various professions. Colleagues in industry, professional unions and academia found themselves bullied and threatened if they did not join in.

In the Constitution and Law Committee room, we were treated to Members of Knesset leaping over the table and approaching the chairman, MK Simcha Rothman, in a threatening manner, screaming and squawking a most raucous noise. Posters at rallies were decorated with S.S. lightning rods and even a few swastikas were observed. And the guillotines and hanging ropes returned from the Balfour Street protests.

Former and current politicians and senior army officers employed an extreme menacing vocabulary including using arms, breaking through barricades, war (“What is needed is to move to the next stage, the stage of war, and war is not waged with speeches. War is waged in a face-to-face battle, head-to-head and hand-to-hand, and that is what will happen here,” said Ehud Olmert) and the inevitable comparison since Yair Golan’s infamous 2016 “Processes” speech to Nazi Germany 1933 (“There were Dichters and Gallants and Barkats and Yuli Edelsteins there too. Good people. But there was one man – Hitler and next to him disturbed fanatics like Goebbels and Gering,” said former IDF Chief Education Officer Nechemia Dagan) and more.

For those a bit new to Zionist politics or to those for whom history is perhaps too boring, permit me a compact and concise review of the 100-year war the Zionist Left has been waging against the Zionist Right. That struggle is not as much over values, goals, beliefs and p[olicies but rather who will control the institutions of power. The issues prior to 1948 were who will supervise the defense policy, who will be allowed to immigrate, who will be employed, who will receive land for settlement and who will be represent the Yishuv in various international forums. These face-offs continued into the first two decades of the existence of the state.

The divide, I would suggest, began during World War One.

Legal Questions Raised About NGO Funding Judicial Reform Protests

Nonprofit organization Blue and White Future hauled in over 27 million NIS to fund protests against the Netanyahu government’s judicial reform legislation. This organization was established in 2009, many years before judicial reform was on the legislative agenda. The stated goals of this organization are to promote a two-state solution or a one-sided separation from the Palestinians. But as protests against the judicial reform continue, Blue and White Future is doing all it can to hide its original goals. Furthermore, its massive fundraising of protests against judicial reform legislation is raising questions about whether it has violated its legal status as a nonprofit organization.

The fundraising engine behind the judicial reform protests
Anyone interested in contributing to the protest against the judicial reform has been directed in recent months to donate through an organization called ‘Blue and White Future‘. This nonprofit organization provides the financial and organizational infrastructure for various protest groups such as ‘Brothers in Arms’. It is responsible for the “must resist” campaign that has been splashed on billboards across the country for the past few weeks. It is also behind the financing of a significant part of the protest’s field activities, transportation, and advertising, as well as supplying protest equipment and paraphernalia.

According to the crowdfunding campaign of ‘Free in our country‘, the organization’s conduit for raising funds, it is the “exclusive and official body that includes and finances about 150 different protest centers throughout the country” and supports “about 200 protest groups,” among others “doctors, architects, lawyers, economists, the high-tech industry, veterans of the defense establishment, students, military training schools and more.”

The budgets collected by the NGO is intended for “buses, stages, signs, flags, amplification equipment and screens, safety and authority approvals, branded clothing and more”, for “special projects – demonstrations in front of the houses of members of the Knesset, marches and the Democracy Outpost in Jerusalem, the shutdown of the economy”, and to “put banners balconies, bridges and billboards across the country”. For these purposes, the association has raised more than NIS 27 million in recent months.

Blue and White Future hides its real purpose
On various fundraising pages, Blue and White Future is described as an NGO “established with the aim of promoting democratic values in Israel” and that the current battle is to stop Israel from becoming a dictatorship, as a result of the judicial reform. This portrayal of the organization is actually false..

Blue and White Future NGO was founded well before judicial reform became a prominent topic of discussion. Its establishment took place in November 2009, a few months subsequent to the Likud’s electoral triumph and Netanyahu’s return to power.

The goals of the NGO, as stated in the organization’s documents from its inception until today, were completely different: “To strengthen and highlight the public support for the two-state solution for two peoples, Israel as a national home for the Jewish people and Palestine as the state of the Palestinian nation in order to preserve the nature of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.” That is, the NGO was established in order to promote a political agenda, and specifically the idea of two states for two peoples. A close look at the organization’s activities over the years, including on its website and now on its Facebook page, will see that this is indeed the central issue it has engaged in.

Noa Tishby: Modern antisemitism on the rise | GZERO World with Ian Bremmer

Antisemitism feels like an ugly trend is back in fashion. And the numbers back that up.

Antisemitism is nothing new. An ancient Greek historian in the second century BCE railed against the “ridiculous practices” of the Jews and the “absurdity of their law.”

But lately, it feels like an ugly trend is back in fashion. And the numbers back that up. The Anti-Defamation League found 3,700 instances of antisemitic harassment, vandalism, or assault around the country last year, the highest number in its 43 years of tracking. And then there was the horrific attack at Pittsburg’s Tree of Life synagogue in 2018, which killed 11 people and remains the deadliest attack on the Jewish community in the United States.

At what point do extremist politics—whether on the Right OR Left—become hate? And where do you draw the line between criticizing Israeli policies and being antisemitic? To help me wade through these difficult questions is the Israeli actress, writer, and activist Noa Tishby. She served as Israel’s Special Envoy for Combating Antisemitism before Prime Minister Netanyahu dismissed her for speaking out against his controversial judicial reform agenda.

And later, an early look at a new film about one of Israel’s most controversial leaders (present Prime Minister excluded). Golda Meir, Israel's first and still only female prime minister, was beloved until her handling of the Yom Kippur War of 1973. Now a new film starring Helen Mirren tries to reframe her tarnished legacy.