Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, February 15, 2024

02/15 Links Pt2: The antisemitism crisis is out of control; Australia’s Descent Into Jew-Baiting Chaos; Tlaib Votes ‘Present’ on Condemnation of Hamas’ Sexual Violence

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: The antisemitism crisis is out of control

The Labour leader either loses the support of the Muslims or the Jews. But he can’t afford to lose either, the first on grounds of electoral math and the second on grounds of the party’s foundational claim to moral decency.

The Conservative government is also in a mess over this problem. It has expressed horror at the rise in British antisemitism and called it “utterly deplorable.” Ministers cannot begin to address it, however, unless they call out not just support for Hamas but support for the Palestinian cause itself.

They have not done so. Instead, the accepted line is that Hamas is bad but the Palestinian cause is fine.

Worse still, Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron, like his counterpart in the United States, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, has repeatedly demanded the establishment of a Palestinian state after the end of the war in Gaza.

Not only would this pose an insupportable danger to Israel from Palestinian Arabs no less committed than Hamas to the genocide of the Jews, but through such rhetoric, Cameron and Blinken are tacitly endorsing the antisemitism being inescapably promoted through the Palestinian cause.

In America, under the pressure of the presidential election later this year, the Biden administration is desperately trying to pacify the Democrats’ interrelated pro-Palestinian and Muslim constituencies.

It is doing so through an increasingly harsh attitude towards embattled Israel, with Blinken ramping up demands amounting to surrender to Hamas and the State Department sanctioning four Jewish “settlers” while defaming all Jewish residents of the disputed territories of Judea and Samaria.

Last week, a delegation of senior officials was dispatched to the key Democratic stronghold of Dearborn, Mich., to grovel to the Muslim community there. The principal deputy national security director, Jon Finer, actually apologized for the White House statement marking 100 days after Oct. 7, which focused on the tragic plight of the hostages and the brutality of Hamas, and expressed contrition for “missteps” in America’s support for Israel.

In both Britain and America, the Muslim vote is increasingly distorting politics. The consequences are potentially devastating.

The UNRWA Obstacle

This current problem is the result of the original sin, the original problem. As UNRWA became entrenched, its mission was no longer to settle the refugees and their sons, grandsons, great-grandsons, great-great-grandsons, but rather to keep their dream of “going home” alive. That is, to keep a sinister and disruptive vision for the Palestinians, one in which Israel somehow ceases to exist as the millions of supposed exiled Palestinians go back to places that were resettled decades ago by other people.

Such a vision should not come as great surprise, because UNRWA is an international organization by name and funding only. It gets its allocations from a naïve, or baleful, world, it draws its legitimacy from being an agent of the international community. But in fact, it is a Palestinian organization funded by outsiders. Other than a few foreigners in managerial positions, almost all UNRWA employees are Palestinians. In Gaza, they are Gazans, and, in most cases, supporters of Hamas. They get their salaries from you — Americans, or Canadians, or Norwegians — and they work for Yahya Sinwar, a coldblooded killer and a master of violence. They work for him in two ways: as perpetrators of terrorism, or perpetrators of hate.

Note this: When UNRWA takes care of schools and medicine in Gaza, all expenses are paid by you. It’s not because there’s no money in Gaza to fund these activities; it is because Hamas takes that money and uses it for other purposes, such as arming itself, digging tunnels, firing rockets. UNRWA is an agency whose work gets Hamas off the hook of having to provide for the population of Gaza. Hamas is engaged in violence, while UNRWA keeps the people of Gaza fed, clothed and schooled. That’s a convenient arrangement for all parties involved. Hamas has free hands to do what it wants to do, UNRWA has a mission that keeps it viable. All this is well known and documented. You can read all about it in the above-mentioned book. There’s no news – except for the fact that we were suddenly made to realize that UNRWA is not a nuisance, it is a threat that must be dealt with. It is a threat that should be eliminated along with Hamas rule. There are less corrupt and less political aid agencies that can replace UNRWA, such as USAID, the World Food Program, and other groups that already have functioning operations in certain Palestinian areas.

The most eager supporters of this decision – to eliminate UNRWA – ought to be those who want to someday see a cure for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The cure will not come when the world funds an organization whose main activity is to keep a wound open, to preach the gospel of victimhood, to educate the next generation of people with no dream other than the destruction of other people’s homes and country. That this organization is also swarmed with terrorist supportive employees is not a bug, but a feature. You can’t run an army by staffing it with pacificists, you can’t run a school by staffing it with illiterates, you can’t run an orchestra by staffing it with only deaf persons – and you can’t run an UNRWA believing that its workers will be a peace-loving, solution-seeking, peace-promoting bunch.

So, as they say, don’t let a crisis go to waste. Winning the war and keeping UNRWA would be a wasteful thing to do.

Why the UN Hates this Man

The United Nations, I think it’s safe to say, has moved beyond parody to farce.

Created in the wake of the Holocaust with the primary goal of preventing future world wars and genocides, its number one target of condemnation since 1967 has been the only Jewish state.

Russia and China are permanent members of the Security Council, tasked with “the maintenance of international peace and security.” Current members of the Human Rights Council include China, Qatar, Cuba, and Sudan. The Commission on the Status of Women finally unloaded Iran, but still includes Afghanistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and China.

Since 2015, the General Assembly has condemned Israel 140 times; the total against all other countries combined: 65.

Still, the U.N.’s treatment of Israel remains its most barbaric affectation. In 1975, the U.N. declared that Zionism is racism. Since 2006, more than half of all condemnatory resolutions in the Human Rights Council have targeted Israel. Since 2015, the General Assembly has condemned Israel 140 times; the total against all other countries combined: 65. Israel has been made to face the International Criminal Court, because in the morally corrupt human rights industry, Israel’s self-defense amounts to a war crime.

And then there’s UNRWA, whose tight alliance with Hamas no doubt makes ISIS jealous.

Much of the above came to light when in 2004 a Canadian named Hillel Neuer became executive director of UN Watch, a human rights NGO in Geneva, Switzerland. Under his leadership, UN Watch has become the leading force against what he calls the “U.N.’s pathological discrimination and delegitimization of Israel.” He regularly calls out countries and their leaders on human rights abuses, which is what the U.N. would be doing if its mission hadn’t become politicized.

None of this makes him very popular at the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva. “When I walk into the room at the U.N., if looks could kill, I’d be dead by a thousand blows,” Neuer told the Jerusalem Post.

On Feb. 7, a bipartisan group of 12 U.S. legislators sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken urging him to demand that U.N. Secretary General António Guterres and the head of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, resign over the revelation that a dozen members of UNRWA staff were involved in the Oct. 7th massacre: seven staffers infiltrated Israel; five helped to kidnap Israelis and provide ammunition. In addition, the IDF found that Hamas stored weapons in UNRWA buildings; used UNRWA resources for terrorist activities; and built tunnels under UNRWA facilities. And a recent Wall Street Journal report estimates that roughly 10% of UNRWA employees — 1,200 — are linked to Hamas.

Who initiated this call for their resignations? Hillel Neuer.

I was lucky to grab some time with @HillelNeuer of @UNWatch to get some insight on the United Nations & the most criminal scandal of our time: the participation of @UNRWA staff in rape, murder & kidnapping - paid for by our taxes

How could this happen?

We discuss#replaceUNRWA pic.twitter.com/V3uaEp1apz
— leekern (@leekern13) February 15, 2024

Egypt building a real open-air prison for Gazans in the Sinai, just in case

The NGO Sinai for Human Rights wrote on X:

Egypt to create a gated high-security area in the reception of Palestinian refugees from Gaza

The Sinai Foundation obtained information through a relevant source that indicates that the construction work currently taking place in eastern Sinai, is intended to create a high-security gated and isolated area near the borders with Gaza strip, in preparation for the reception of Palestinian refugees in the case of the mass exodus of the citizens of Gaza Strip.

The foundation interviewed two local contractors who said that local construction companies had been commissioned this construction work by Ibrahim Al-Arjani - A close businessman to the authorities - Abnaa Sinai For Construction & Building, who had been directly assigned the commission through the Egyptian Armed Forces Engineering Authority. The construction work is intended to build a gated area, surrounded by 7-meter-high walls. After the removal of the rubble of the houses of the indigenous people of Rafah, who were displaced forcibly and their houses demolished during the war against terrorism against ISIS. The area is expected to be levelled and ready in no more than 10 days. They said this information is being circulated in closed circuits to avoid publication, noting that the work is being done under the supervision of the Egyptian Armed Forces Engineering Authority under heavy security presence.

Here's a photo of the construction from their website. (Google autotranslated text.)

And here is a map showing the area being prepared depicted in white. It borders both Gaza and Israel.

That area is empty now.

I don't know if this is being built under pressure from the West, or if it is a "Plan B" in case desperate Gazans somehow manage to breach the existing wall.

Either way, it will be hard for Egypt to claim that it loves Palestinians when it is building a prison with 23-foot high walls.

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!

Madrassa Instructor Caught Pleasuring Himself To Pics Of IDF Troops In Diapers (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Check out their Facebook page.

Jerusalem, February 15 - Scandal rocked a renowned Islamic seminary this week upon the discovery that a beloved instructor there habitually pleasures himself to images of Israeli soldiers who had humorously donned a shipment of absorbent disposable briefs that reached them by accident, sources within the seminary disclosed today.

Two members of that staff, who spoke on condition of anonymity, at the Mutaharish Aitfal Madrassa in Jerusalem's Moslem Quarter of the Old City, told reporters that a senior lecturer, whom they declined to name, was caught twice in the last two months masturbating to photographs of the IDF soldiers. The first time, the sources reported, the incident was dismissed as a one-time aberration or moment of weakness, but following the second time, which, according to information from someone within the madrassa administration, involved the presence of minors, and resulted in the instructor's suspension, at least temporarily.

As Israel began mobilizing and preparing for its current operations in the Gaza Strip, following an October 7 invasion of southern Israel by Hamas that killed 1200 Israelis and involved mass rape and brutality as well as the abduction of Israelis as hostages, Israelis, as well as supporters abroad, contributed tons of supplies, gifts, treats, and equipment to the standing and reserve troops. One such shipment reached a group of soldiers who discovered that a mix-up had caused them to receive not helmets, body armor, snacks, socks, underwear, children's letters, or gift cards, but adult diapers.

The unit in question decided to don the diapers and pose for a photo, which went viral among two separate audiences online: people who appreciated the humor in making light of an awkward situation, and anti-Israel users who enjoy depicting as helpless babies the soldiers who have by now destroyed two thirds of Hamas's fighting capacity in the Gaza Strip - killing, capturing, or incapacitating about 20,000 fighters - for a loss of only several hundred IDF soldiers.

The madrassa instructor's behavior has challenged the institution's administration and the surrounding community, which both take a hard pro-Palestinian stance. "The parents found out and are furious," acknowledged one of the sources. "Less so because of the minors being exposed to the masturbation - they were just the kids of staff, and nobody cares about them - and more because of the shame of this paragon, this mentor, getting aroused by... that stuff."

"I mean, if it were actual kids, or goats, no one would mind."

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!

02/15 Links Pt1: US, Arabs ‘rushing’ plan to establish Palestinian state; Israeli FM slams UN for calling Hamas ‘political movement’

From Ian:

US, Arabs ‘rushing’ plan to establish Palestinian state

The Biden administration is preparing to make a major push for Palestinian statehood if a Gaza ceasefire agreement being negotiated in Cairo this week takes effect.

According to The Washington Post, the United States and its Arab partners are “rushing” to finalize the plan to establish a Palestinian state—a plan that could be announced in the next few weeks with hopes that a deal to release the remaining 134 hostages held by Hamas terrorists in Gaza in exchange for a six-week pause in fighting takes effect before Ramadan, which begins on March 10, give or take a day.

Negotiations in Cairo on a hostage-for-ceasefire deal have been extended until Friday. However, only lower-level officials are participating after Tuesday’s initial summit, which included high-ranking representatives from Egypt, Israel, Qatar and the United States.

There is an urgency to reach an agreement because Jerusalem is readying for a major offensive in Rafah, the last Hamas stronghold in the Gaza Strip. While Israel is working on an evacuation plan for the 1.5 million civilians sheltered in the city ahead of the battle, fears are mounting in Western capitals about the toll the fighting could take on the noncombatant population.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday dismissed reports of progress in the Cairo talks, with his office issuing a statement saying that Jerusalem did not receive any new proposal from Hamas on releasing the hostages and that the premier “insists that Israel will not give in to Hamas’s delusional demands.”

Jerusalem’s goals in the war, which have not changed, are to destroy Hamas in Gaza, free the hostages and ensure that the territory never threatens Israel again. Hamas initiated the war on Oct. 7 when thousands of terrorists broke across the border, murdering 1,200 men, women and children, wounding thousands more and kidnapping 253 people.

Netanyahu emphasized the importance of the Gaza military campaign on Wednesday evening and reiterated Jerusalem’s position on the Cairo talks.

“This week we freed two of our hostages in a brilliant military operation. As of now we have freed 112 of our hostages in a combination of strong military pressure and tough negotiations.This is also the key to freeing more of our hostages: Strong military pressure and very tough negotiations,” the prime minister said.

“Indeed, I insist that Hamas drop its delusional demands. When they do so, we will be able to move forward,” he continued.

In addition to the United States, the participants planning the pathway to a Palestinian state are Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the Palestinians. Notably, Israel is not involved in these discussions, according to the Post.

WaPo: U.S., Arab Nations Plan for Postwar Gaza, Palestinian State

The Biden administration and a group of Arab partners are rushing to complete a detailed, comprehensive plan for long-term peace between Israel and Palestinians, including a firm timeline for the establishment of a Palestinian state, that could be announced in the coming weeks. The planning participants include Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Palestinian representatives, in addition to the U.S.

The elephant in the planning room is Israel, and whether its government will acquiesce to much of what is being discussed: the withdrawal of many, if not all, Israeli communities in the West Bank; a Palestinian capital in eastern Jerusalem; the reconstruction of Gaza; and security and governance arrangements for a combined West Bank and Gaza. The hope is that Israel would also be offered specific security guarantees and normalization with Saudi Arabia and other Arab states.

U.S. officials said the menu of actions under consideration include early U.S. recognition of a Palestinian state - even as elements of political reform, security guarantees for both Israel and the Palestinians, normalization and reconstruction are being implemented.

"I'd be stunned if they extended de jure or de facto recognition to the state of Palestine" as an early part of a day-after plan, said Aaron David Miller, a former State Department adviser and coordinator on Arab-Israeli negotiations. He questioned whether the current leadership of either Israel or the Palestinians was capable of or interested in "any transformative solution." "They don't have the leaders in place to pull the wagon."

Americans "think they can come here and play with us like building Lego," said Tawfiq Al-Tirawi, a member of the Central Committee of Fatah, the largest faction in the PLO, which forms the basis of the Palestinian Authority. "If we want to renew our leadership, that's purely our decision." One Arab official said Hamas should be included in the talks, if not in the future government, "to ensure they're on board with this."

Palestinian Authority Security Forces Behind Dozens of Recent Attacks on Israelis, Watchdog Finds

Officially, the Palestinian Authority works with Israel to crack down on terror groups in the West Bank. But off-duty PA security forces have carried out dozens of attacks on Israelis, according to a watchdog group.

An investigation by Palestinian Media Watch, the nonprofit watchdog based in Jerusalem, documented at least 55 attacks by PA security forces against Israeli soldiers or civilians since 2020, including four in the past month alone. In each case, the PA or its ruling Fatah party has eulogized the attacker as one of their own "soldiers."

The findings reveal the extent to which the PA, the internationally recognized Palestinian government in Ramallah, encourages and rewards terrorism against Israel—even in its own ranks. For Israel, such activity proves the folly of the Biden administration’s demand that a "revitalized" PA be allowed to govern Gaza following Israel’s war against Hamas, the rival Palestinian faction that rules the territory.

Itamar Marcus, the director of Palestinian Media Watch, on Monday sent a copy of the report, "Terrorists in Uniform: A study of PA Security Forces involvement in terror," to Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

"The American suggestion to empower these terror forces to rule Gaza after Israel has destroyed the terror infrastructure is inconceivable," Marcus told the Washington Free Beacon. "The PA and its security forces are a fundamental part of the problem; it is absurd to believe they can be part of the solution."

Going further than the Israeli government, Marcus called on the Biden administration to reverse its reinstatement of $45 million a year in funding to the PA security services. He noted that the United States last month froze donations to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency following revelations that staff took part in the Oct. 7 attack.

"This is far worse than UNRWA, where at least the leadership claimed they didn't know," Marcus said. "The PA is saying, ‘We know, and we're happy about it. And that's what makes us heroic.’"

Waiting for War With Hezbollah

United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701 was adopted on Aug. 11, 2006, to end a one-month war sparked by a surprise Hezbollah attack on IDF forces along the border that caused the death and abduction of two soldiers, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev. Using the obsequious language of international diplomacy that fails to mention Hezbollah by name, the resolution “calls for” the establishment between the Blue Line and the Litani River of an area “free of any armed personnel, assets and weapons other than those of the Government of Lebanon and of UNIFIL.” But Hezbollah never withdrew its forces, and the U.N. Security Council has never enforced its 2006 resolution, the implementation of which was dependent on coordination with the Lebanese authorities, who answer to Hezbollah. The UNIFIL soldiers “do absolutely nothing,” said Reuveni.

Most Israeli villages in the north were evacuated after Oct. 7 and its 80,000 residents have not yet returned. Many homes have been damaged and destroyed by mortars and missiles.

Since Oct. 7, a reported 20 civilians have been killed on the Lebanese side, as well as nearly 200 Hezbollah fighters. In Israel, nine soldiers and 10 civilians have been killed by Hezbollah fire.

President Biden has been pursuing a diplomatic effort to ensure Israel does not launch an operation in Lebanon after Gaza. He has sent Special Presidential Coordinator for Global Infrastructure and Energy Security Amos Hochstein to try and broker a deal that will ostensibly move Hezbollah a few kilometers back from the border—far short of what UNSCR 1701 calls for—in return for IDF demobilization on the border, followed by land border negotiations that would pressure Israel to concede border areas claimed by Hezbollah and Lebanon. In 2022, Hochstein had strong-armed the Israelis to accept a lopsided maritime border deal with Lebanon, working hand in glove with Hezbollah and its cut-outs in the Lebanese government.

Reuveni says that based on history and the reality in Lebanon, “I don’t see any reason why any Israeli would trust negotiations or a diplomatic solution.” In December, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant promised the mayors of the northern communities that their residents would not go home until Hezbollah was driven north of the Litani River. “If they want to go north of the Litani River, let them go,” Reuveni said dismissively. But he is not holding his breath.

On Jan. 31, after 119 days of service, Reuveni was furloughed. He climbed back into his car and drove home. He was told he must report back to duty in May.

“I need to process everything that happened,” he wrote to me a few days after getting home. “It still feels like some kind of dream. And now being back is very mentally hard. Everything is confused and I need to put things in order.”

There are some Marxists who fight antisemitism from within

One of the most salient features of modern antisemitism is its utter lack of consistency. It applies standards to Israel that are never applied to Israel's enemies; it demands of Jews things it doesn't demand from anyone else. When the hypocrisy is pointed out, the response is "whataboutism" or the critic is attacked as "Zionist" which ends the discussion right there.

The best way to discredit any form of antisemitism is to argue from within the same ideological framework as the antisemites themselves.

The most devastating and complete takedown I have yet seen of conspiracist and antisemitic former British academic David Miller comes from an unusual source: the

Marxist Workers World Liberty site.

Miller’s claims of a Zionist/Israeli conspiracy to take over the world are 24-carat 21st-century antisemitism: His claims are a revamped version of the world Jewish conspiracy promoted by the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” and the Nazis.

Although Miller talks of Zionists rather than Jews, the actors in his imaginary conspiracy are all Jewish: the Jewish national state, Jewish organisations, and Jewish individuals.

Miller endows them with the attributes of Jews in more traditional antisemitic conspiracy theories. They “penetrate” power structures, they run campaigns of “subversion”, they are unpatriotic cosmopolitans, they take orders from a foreign power, they bring down political leaders, they “dictate” the outcome of elections, they are all-powerful, and they use bogus allegations of antisemitism to silence their opponents.

The site cannot be regarded as Zionist, but it does appear to be consistent in its worldview, and as such it brings up viewpoints that are simply never heard in most places.

At the onset of the current war, the site published a backgrounder on Zionism and the history of the conflict that succinctly demolishes most anti-Israel arguments from a progressive, Marxist perspective:

Socialists must side with the oppressed against their oppressors. In general, we side with the Palestinian Arabs against Israeli oppression. However, to side with an oppressed people should not mean that we adopt all the views of every group within it, or even of its majority. Those views may be one-sided or even chauvinist.

...The Jewish state is no longer a scheme for the future. It is a fact over 75 years old. Most Israelis live there because they were born there. The meaning of “Zionism” is not so clear. Usually it is taken to mean any sort of sympathy or identification with Israel, however critical — in other words, the reflex response of most Jews worldwide.

Then “Zionism” is denounced as something akin to racism. This is ideological terrorism, used to prevent any consideration of the issues that does not start with root-and-branch condemnation of Israel.

The “absolute anti-Zionist” demand that “Zionism” should be undone — i.e. that the Israeli Jewish state should cease to exist, and that the Jewish nation should instead dissolve into an Arab state — is not necessarily racist, but it is inescapably antisemitic. It implies hostility to the Israeli Jews, and hostility to that big majority of Jews worldwide, the “Zionists”, who instinctively identify with Israel.

The voices of the sane Left have been shouted down by the antisemitic Left. But they exist.

No Pasaran Media is a publishing house featuring "Left Wing authors in the fight against Left antisemitism, racism and conspiracy theories." The blurb for its latest book is a breath of fresh air from the Left:

Outcast is an explanation of how Jewish people’s experiences of racism have been cast out of the anti-racist imagination, as the very possibility of recognising anti-Jewish racism has been displaced by the commonplace leftist belief that when Jewish people cry ‘antisemitism!’, their surreptitious intent is to cover up the real racism propagated by Israel against the Palestinians.

How this has happened lies both in an academic framework for the study of racism that confines racism to a colonial phenomenon of ‘white over black’ domination, and in the antisemitic idea of ‘the Jewish question’: that something must be done about the harm which Jews pose to humanity. Outcast shows that when both are translated into an understanding of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Zionism and all associated Jews become the representation of racism incarnate demanding the unprecedented wipe out of Israel.

Camila Bassi says “Outcast is the product of my search for the reasons why sections of the Left are so singularly obsessed by Israel and are disposed to cast out those who identify as Jewish as unworthy of solidarity. This book elucidates how Jews have been banished as victims of racism by their demotion as the Left’s racist pariahs, while offering a more comprehensive and inclusive approach to the study of racism and to emancipatory politics”

Too much of the discussion of Israel devolves into a Right vs. Left argument. This turns Israel into a political and ideological football, with actual debate suppressed.

The fact is that Israel upholds the best ideals of both sides and rejects the extremism and bigotry that is sadly seen on both sides as well. Antisemitism poisons the debate and it must be identified, uprooted and shamed.

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!

Another absurd Super Bowl conspiracy theory courtesy of The Nation's Dave Zirin

We've previously looked at Dave Zirin, the "sports writer" for The Nation who openly lies about Israel in his column with the full approval of his editors.

He's at it again, with a bizarre Super Bowl conspiracy theory.

This year’s Super Bowl was a weapon of mass distraction. If there’s any justice, future generations will remember the game not for Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, or Taylor Swift but for the US-funded attacks on Palestinian civilians that occurred while so many Americans were glued to their TVs. During the game, watched by well over 100 million people in the United States, Israel launched a bombing raid of Rafah in the Gaza Strip, the most densely populated area on earth.

Meanwhile, CBS granted the Israeli government space for an ad about the 130 hostages left in Gaza. This ad, meant to build public support and justify the slaughter of nearly 30,000 civilians in Gaza, spurred 10,000 people to register complaints with the FCC, because the commercial did not disclose that a foreign government had paid for it. Coupled with the Rafah raid, this looks more like military synergy than happenstance.

Dave Zirin is a deranged liar.

Here's the ad, which only true antisemites could claim "justifies slaughter."

The "Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee" set up a webpage urging people to complain about the ad. Practically none of them actually saw the ad during the game. That's because the ad was only shown on smart TVs tuned to the game through Paramount+, not CBS, where the vast majority of people watched the game.

It was not a "Super Bowl ad."

No one could possibly think that tens of thousands of people angrily wrote to the FCC because it didn't disclose who paid for it. If anyone complained, it is because they support the war crime of taking hostages - a war crime whether it is done to civilians or soldiers.

Oh, and the ad clearly said it was sponsored by the State of Israel!

But the layers of lies don't end there.

The FCC doesn't regulate streaming or online services like Paramount+, only over the air broadcasts. It makes no sense to complain to the FCC.

The entire point of this campaign is virtue signaling, to show anger that anyone might be sympathetic to Jews.

And what kind of "virtue" are these antisemites signaling?

The ad was against Hamas and only against Hamas. It urged action to bring the hostages home. Anyone complaining about this message is, by definition, pro-Hamas, since Hamas and its allies are the only parties against releasing the hostages unconditionally. Anyone who actually complained (and the 10,000 number is highly suspect) want Hamas to continue to murder and rape Israelis. And they want that so much that they take actions to support Hamas. Not Palestinians - Hamas.

Modern Jew-haters don't just lie. They couch their lies in layers of other lies. This supposed "FCC complaint" has layers of lies behind it. All to support war criminals: terrorists, rapists, murderers and kidnappers.

This strategy of layering lies is effective. CBS News Miami believed the antisemites and falsely reported that this was a $7 million Super Bowl ad. It didn't do any research, and uncritically platformed similar lies by "Jewish Voice for Peace."

Dave Zirin goes even beyond the insanity of effectively supporting Hamas rapists. He is claiming that the ad was timed to air at the very moment of the raid to rescue hostages, because the rescuing hostages itself was really not the point - Israel just wanted to slaughter Palestinians. (Note that he claims that every single Gaza death is a civilian. Not one Hamas terrorist has died!)

According to this conspiracy theory, Israel wrote, produced, directed and paid for a Super Bowl ad - a process that takes weeks at least - because it planned a series of airstrikes on Rafah and wanted to "distract" people.

The Super Bowl isn't enough of a distraction - according to this genius, Israel needed to bring people's attention to Gaza to distract them from things happening in, um, Gaza.

Zirin is not only against this ad. He also wrote a full article criticizing the real Super Bowl ad against antisemitism, claiming that New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft is himself the real antisemite. Before he even saw the ad, he wrote, "The ad’s goal is to create a propaganda campaign to counter the reports and images from Gaza that young people are consuming on social media."

Here's the ad. Spot the reference to Gaza that only exists in the minds of deranged antisemites.

Zirin's ever-growing conspiracy theory culminates with this:

We don’t know if the White House gave the go-ahead for what has now been dubbed “the Super Bowl massacre,” but if you launch an attack during the biggest TV event of the year—blunting an emergency response by US demonstrators and hoping that everyone will be too hung over, drunk on commercialism, and gambling apps to give a damn—it doesn’t take a poli-sci major to see how Biden benefits.

Huh? Israel haters won't bother protesting on the Monday after the game? Biden is now part of the conspiracy as well? He benefits from dead Palestinians? And all of this is obvious?

As I've noted before, when anti-Israel rhetoric crosses the line into conspiracy theories, that is when you know they are antisemitic. Dave Zirin is a full-blown conspiracy theorist who hides behind his "as-a-Jew" credentials to publish his bizarre theories that could just as easily have been penned by the Goyim Defense League.

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!

That darling of human rights organizations, the PFLP, calls for an armed uprising in the West Bank

I've noted previously that Human Rights Watch has evolved its opinion of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine over the years from being a recognized terror group to a legitimate leftist political party.

And when Israel outlawed several NGOs with links to the PFLP, some even founded by it, Western nations defended those NGOs as if the PFLP is legitimate.

The PFLP praised the October 7 attacks, saying it "restored the dignity of the Arab nation." It called on "everyone who bears arms to engage in the battle of the people of Palestine against their enemy."

On Wednesday, the PFLP reiterated its call for terror, in a statement calling for a violent uprising in the West Bank. It urged the Palestinian Authority to "direct its weapons against the enemy" and said that all Palestinians in the West Bank should create a new military front against Israel, saying "the necessary and urgent task now is to ignite the West Bank front to support the resistance in Gaza."

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!

02/14 Links Pt2: The Jewish state as effigy; Podhoretz: They’re Coming After Us, Part 2; The Israel-Obsessed Art World Devours Itself; The Gold Rush Shul

From Ian:

The Jewish state as effigy

Something similar seems to be happening with current anti-Israel protests. The terms thrown at Israel (Jews) are so inappropriate to the situation in Israel, but redolent of the dark past of Western culture. Israelis are called “colonists,” even though Jews are indigenous to Israel and have no homeland or “metropole” to which they export raw materials and from which they import finished goods as per European colonialism. It is accused of “imperialism” even though the territory it rules is smaller than Wales and it has surrendered far larger and more valuable land (the Sinai Peninsula) for peace. Israel is accused of “white supremacy” and “apartheid” even though most Israeli Jews are not white and non-Jews in Israel, including Arab Israelis, have full civil rights and can, and do, attain high levels of success in all walks of life. Israel is accused of “genocide” even though it takes great care to avoid civilian casualties, as many impartial observers with military experience (not ignorant journalists with an axe to grind) have attested.

Yet colonialism, imperialism, white supremacy, apartheid and genocide are things that have come to the forefront of the Western consciousness in the last ten years as the legacy of Western colonialism and imperialism as well as American slavery has been rediscovered and weaponized by the radical left.

The protestors seem to attack Israel as a way of cleansing their own middle class white guilt. They create an effigy of “Israel” out of their imagination, based on all the worst aspects of European and American history, often making overt comparisons with the ethnic cleansing of the Native Americans, black segregation in the American South and European colonialism in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Then, by “burning” their effigy of Israel, they “prove” to themselves that they would not have collaborated with the sins of their forefathers, cleansing their guilt over the privileged lifestyles that they live compared with both non-Western societies today and societies in earlier eras of history, while handily not having to actually sacrifice anything tangible in the present.

Meanwhile, the Jewish state performs the same function the Jews have served in Western thought for 2,000 years: the symbol of absolute evil, the destruction of which brings the promise of salvation for the rest of mankind.

John Podhoretz: They’re Coming After Us, Part 2

It is, as we go to press, four months since October 7. And the passage of time is not causing the forces arrayed against American Jews to relent or stand down. Supporters of Houthi terrorist attacks from Yemen against Israel (one Houthi drone was shot down just before it would have hit the Israeli city of Eilat) blockaded the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. Every week, one or another American city finds its downtown, or midtown, or commuter routes blockaded by people shouting “from the river to the sea, Palestine shall be free.”

On Mercer Island in Washington at the beginning of February, a synagogue was vandalized. “Stop Killing” was spray-painted in red on the synagogue’s glass wall, as if the people living on an Island in Puget Sound 7,000 miles away from Gaza were killing anyone. Thus, a lawyer commuting on a ferry from his job in Seattle to get home in time for Shabbat is indistinguishable from an Israeli soldier engaged in a war to defend his family against Hamas. And they are indistinguishable in this sense—neither is responsible for the death of a single person in Gaza. The moral and legal responsibility for every one of those deaths falls on Hamas.

In Washington, D.C., a Hasidic rabbi called a ride-share taxi and got into an argument with the driver about how loud the music was. The driver pulled over and demanded the rabbi exit, then jumped out of the cab and beat him up.

At Harvard, the commission to study anti-Semitism originally set up by the now-ousted Claudine Gay was superseded by a new commission on anti-Semitism. Its chair is a professor of Judaic studies named Derek Penslar who signed letters calling Israel an “apartheid state” before the war.

Penslar also told the New York Times’ Emily Bazelon in February—in an ideologically potted oral history of the conflict in Mandatory Palestine before the founding of Israel that could have easily appeared in al-Arabiya—that the argument supporting the Jewish homeland in Palestine was cleverly “retooled” by Zionists after the Holocaust to include not just survivors but Israelites in the Middle East who were feeling threatened. As if the Jews in Arab lands expelled themselves from Iraq, Yemen, and Iran. As if those expulsions weren’t the “retooling” of the argument for Zionism so much as the global reaffirmation of its absolute necessity.

As the Who put it, “meet the new boss, same as the old boss.” The forces that triggered my article are undeterred. And it therefore still behooves every American Jew to understand this tragic but undeniable fact: “Us” means all of us. No effort to separate yourself from the rising anti-Semitism will offer you a second’s protection when it’s you, or your children on campus, or your elderly parents who call the wrong Lyft driver. They’re still coming after us.

Meir Y. Soloveichik: Do Cry for Me, Argentina

The importance of Milei’s visit was not about his economic policies, as significant as they are. The newspaper in which this account appeared, Haaretz, did not quite grasp the meaning of the moment, describing Milei’s approach to the Wall as having “bar mitzvah vibes.” That gets it exactly wrong. As Milei touched the millennia-old stones, he had none of the mien of a 13-year-old boy. He broke down and wept. The Western Wall had, for a moment, become the Wailing Wall again.

Milei’s reaction was all the more remarkable because it contrasted with his usual demeanor. With bushy hair, a propensity for posing with a thumbs-up posture, and long sideburns, he often appears, in Jonathan Schanzer’s felicitous phrase, as “the Argentinian Elvis.” But at the Wall, all coolness had vanished; the photo of the president’s tear-strewn face was a very different look, and one all the more memorable.

In the moment, Milei captured, deliberately or providentially, what the Western Wall is all about. The media described the site of Milei’s visit as “the holiest place where Jews can pray.” This is, in a certain sense true, reminding us of the fact that unfettered prayer is, unjustly, still banned on the Temple Mount, Judaism’s holiest site. But the truth is that in Jewish law, the Western Wall is no holier than any other site in Jerusalem; in the period when the Temple stood, it was a retaining wall. The notion that the site would serve as a sacred place of prayer would have seemed surpassingly strange.

What sanctified the Wall was Jewish tears after the Temple’s destruction. Under the Ottomans, who governed the area for centuries, the Wall was the closest site to the Temple Mount where Jews were allowed to pray. And mourn for what they had lost. One hundred and fifty years ago, in another fulfillment of Solomon’s prediction, a former American Secretary of State, William Seward, visited the city and gazed with awe at the Jews at the Wall: They were “reading and reciting the poetic language of the prophet, beating their hands against the wall, and bathing the stones with their kisses and tears,” we are told in a memoir edited by Seward’s son. “It is no mere formal ceremony. During the several hours while we were spectators of it, there was not one act of irreverence or indifference.”

This is the source of the sanctity of these stones. In standing at the Wall, Milei seemed to sense Jewish history itself, realizing that the pain of the current moment merged with the weeping that had gone before. He then gave voice to this insight in reflecting how Israel’s greatness can be understood only through the prism of the past. Visiting Yad Vashem, Milei emphasized the importance of fighting “modern Nazism today disguised as the terror group Hamas.” He then wrote in the visitor’s book:
In this symbolic and transcendent place, where darkness reaches unimaginable extremes of cruelty, it is precisely here that we can see the greatness of a people. The greatness of going through the pain and rising up again even stronger than before. We all bear the duty not to remain silent. Never again is now.

Disclaimer: the views expressed here are solely those of the author, weekly Judean Rose columnist Varda Meyers Epstein.

Joe Biden is on the prowl, looking for “violent settlers” in the “West Bank,” the latter a made-up name comprising part of a city, and two distinct territories lumped together for administrative purposes. Neither the city (Jerusalem), nor the territories (Judea and Samaria) are located on a river bank, while actual “settler violence,” is a rare bird, indeed, and is handled by Israel itself, which has no problem meting out severe punishment when it deems such actions necessary. Not that Joe cares.

For Joe, the geographic distinctions don’t matter a whit. Nor does the fact that “settler violence” is so uncommon as to be almost nonexistent, and that it’s not America’s place to punish the supposed criminals of a sovereign ally, an insult of the highest magnitude.

No, Joe doesn’t care about the facts. He cares only about doing the bidding of the Squad, the anti-Israel protesters, the State Department, the UN, his handlers, and of course, the voters. It is, after all, an election year. And if the people hate Israel, and by extension, the Jews, by gum, Joe is going after them. His excuse? “Violent settlers” or more to the point, violent Israeli settlers (cough cough Jews) threaten the United States.

This is no hyperbole, Biden’s “Executive Order on Imposing Certain Sanctions on Persons Undermining Peace, Security, and Stability in the West Bank” issued February 1, declares “settler violence” a “national emergency.” (emphasis added)

I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of the United States of America, find that the situation in the West Bank — in particular high levels of extremist settler violence, forced displacement of people and villages, and property destruction — has reached intolerable levels and constitutes a serious threat to the peace, security, and stability of the West Bank and Gaza, Israel, and the broader Middle East region. These actions undermine the foreign policy objectives of the United States, including the viability of a two-state solution and ensuring Israelis and Palestinians can attain equal measures of security, prosperity, and freedom. They also undermine the security of Israel and have the potential to lead to broader regional destabilization across the Middle East, threatening United States personnel and interests. For these reasons, these actions constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States. I hereby declare a national emergency to deal with that threat.

How many of the people who read Biden’s executive order were completely unaware of the fact that the “West Bank” includes part of Jerusalem? For that matter, how many people who read Biden’s executive order are cognizant of the fact that not only is “East Jerusalem” not on a river bank, it is also not separate from the rest of Jerusalem.

From Proofread Now:

When words like northern, southern, eastern, and western precede a place name, they are not ordinarily capitalized, because they merely indicate general location within a region. However, when these words are actually part of the place name, they must be capitalized.

The city of Jerusalem is a single, unified city under Israeli sovereignty, and it is Israel’s capital. Hence there is no such thing as “East” Jerusalem. But the Arabs say there is and that it belongs to them, and so it has become another invented paradigm forced down the throat of a sovereign nation and American ally by the enemy who threatens that sovereign nation (Israel) from within and without, with American support.

Here it bears mention that the Western Wall is located in this part of Jerusalem, as is of course, the Temple Mount, the holiest of holy Jewish sites. Just as a dog marks his territory by urinating there, so too the Arabs marked this holy Jewish territory “Muslim,” by building a mosque on a site holy only to the Jewish people. The world is only too happy to fall in with the idea of dispossessing the hated Jews from their holy sites, their holy city, and the Holy Land. So too, the world is content to go along with the fiction of an “East Jerusalem” “occupied” by "European" Jews.

Despite the alarmist rhetoric employed by Biden in his executive order, there are no “high levels of extremist settler violence.” Biden, in fact, could only locate an initial four Jews to punish—that is to say, four Jews that match his personal definition of “violent settlers.” Many Israelis are now wondering if they are next on the chopping block.

What is meant by “forced displacement of people and villages and property destruction?” Does “forced displacement of people and villages” refer to Arabs who fled of their own volition in 1948 or 1967, or perhaps to the Arab squatter evicted by a Jewish landlord for nonpayment of rent? Does the building of the Western Wall plaza or the public restrooms placed there by Israeli authorities for the convenience of visitors of all faiths who come to pray at the Wall, “property destruction?” Or is that it the little corner market in the Jewish Quarter where people buy eggs and milk?

Where are these “high levels of extremist settler violence,” and for that matter, what constitutes “settler violence?” The better question is what doesn’t? For one thing, the Biden administration relies on the UN for its facts and figures in this regard, a body not known for its philosemitism. What sort of facts and figures have been disseminated by this “august” body?

From Amit Segal at Ynet:

[When] the details on settler violence are examined thoroughly it seems like there isn’t much violence, nor much settlers. Dr. Michael Wolfowicz, a criminology researcher at the Hebrew University’s Faculty of Law, received the data from the UN.

At first glance, it's horrifying: between 2016 and 2022, there were no less than 5,656 incidents of settler violence against Palestinians. But delving into the numbers reveals that 1,600 of them took place in Jerusalem, with almost all of them involving Jews entering the Temple Mount or clashes between the police and Muslims who acted violently in the area.

After further filtering, there were 2,500 incidents that describe property damage or assault, but they include, for example, a terror attack in which a Palestinian terrorist attacked Jews and was neutralized. On April 8, 2018, Mahmoud Abedel Karim Marshoud attempted to stab Israeli civilians near Ma’ale Adumim. He was neutralized and succumbed to his injuries the next day. The UN reported two violent incidents following this: on April 8, a shooting at a Palestinian, and on April 9, a killing.

On July 26, 2018, Yotam Ovadia, 30, was murdered by a 17-year-old Palestinian terrorist who stabbed him. Here too, according to the UN, the fact Ovadia neutralized the terrorists was classified as settler violence. The same goes for a stabbing attack in Mount Hebron, another one in Yitzhar, and an incident where Arab rioters clashed with security forces at Joseph's Tomb.

Even a car accident in which a settler hit a Palestinian was classified as violence. After filtering all of these, we’re left with about 20 violent incidents in a month, most of them being cases of mutual violence, and some reported only by Palestinian sources without being verified.

Even if all of them are accurate, here's a relevant comparison: according to the IDF, in 2019-2022 alone, there were 25,257 incidents of Palestinian attacks against Jewish settlers . . .

. . . The exaggeration of settler violence from a limited phenomenon to a widespread issue is designed to appease the world's conscience, in a strange symmetry, for the assistance it provides Israel in its war against Hamas terrorists.

In Israel, this is intended to serve the goal of expelling Jewish settlers from the West Bank and establishing a Palestinian state.

But there’s worse. It seems that the UN has compiled a list of Jews who have visited the Temple Mount, which as noted above, is located in fictitious “East Jerusalem” within the fictitious “West Bank." The Jewish Press has the report:

Hakol Hayehudi reporter Elchanan Groner on Thursday presented a UN Excel sheet depicting Jewish visits to the Temple Mount as violent incidents.
As can clearly be seen for this batch from 2019, the Incident Description is always, “Israeli settlers and other groups, accompanied by Israeli forces, entered and toured the yards of Al Aqsa Mosque compound.” The source is always “other” or UNRWA, and the region is described as “West Bank.”

הידעתם שכ-1300 מאירועי "אלימות המתנחלים" בדו"ח האו"ם הם עליית יהודים/תיירים להר הבית? הסברתי על עלילת הדם האנטישמית הזו אצל @ErelSegal בערוץ 14. פעם זה היה ילד נוצרי ששחטו למצות, היום זה "אלימות מתנחלים". ממליץ מאוד לצפות בראיון המלא👇 https://t.co/PSdE0fy5ru pic.twitter.com/1ssRDjM9dn
— אלחנן גרונר (@elchangr) February 8, 2024

@elchangr from the Jewish Voice news agency explains the lies behind the UN data on "settler violence," which as @liel exposed yesterday is adopted by LTG Mike Fenzel the US Security Coordinator in Israel and formed the basis of Pres. Biden's bigoted Executive Order last week. pic.twitter.com/y2iuIYoPm5
— Caroline Glick (@CarolineGlick) February 8, 2024

Further down, the Jewish Press elaborates on the Wolfowicz report:

According to the IDF, between 2019 and 2022, there were 25,257 instances of PA Arab assaults on Jewish settlers in Judea and Samaria (without Jerusalem), with more than 20,000 incidents of stone-throwing, about 4,000 Molotov cocktails, about 400 shooting attacks, and more than 50 stabbing attacks. And the annual figure rose much higher in 2023. However, according to the UN reports on the same period, there were only 1,935 Arab-on-Jew assaults in Judea, Samaria, and Jerusalem.
It turns out that many of these Arab-on-Jew attacks were recorded by the UN as… “settler violence” . . .
. . . It can be cautiously estimated that only about 35% of the reported incidents actually describe events in which there are settlers and violence, and they too have not been examined, and include questionable descriptions such as car accidents (a settler ran over a PA Arab child), or Arabs who “ran away from settlers” and fell and hurt themselves while running.

When word of the executive order came out, like many other Israelis, I wondered whether and/or how this might apply to me and to my family members. I’ve written here about my one-time trip to the Temple Mount in 2017, during a brief Arab boycott of the site. The Arabs had attacked and killed two (Bedouin) policemen and wounded a third. Israel installed metal detectors, and the Arabs decided that this was some kind of violation of their “sovereignty” over the Mount.

As a result, I seized the chance to go while there were no Arabs to curse, spit, and throw garbage at me. I took a quick tour—Jews aren’t allowed to linger or pray—and left. But when Jews visit the Mount, they are taken to a waiting area, and are required to turn in their ID booklets. There’s a wait, while security takes down your info and likely runs it through a computer to make sure you’re not a threat. Only then are you allowed up.

Did the UN access this information? Will I now be deemed by the Biden administration, a “violent settler,” my ability to visit relatives in the States, curtailed?

Can my bank accounts be frozen? I’m employed by an Israeli company. But my bank account has branches in the US.

What about mein son the (IDF) officer and my other soldier sons who served in Judea and Samaria?

From a second Jewish Press report:

According to an internal report of Israel’s foreign ministry, the Biden administration is preparing to impose sanctions on IDF officers and soldiers who serve in Judea and Samaria, Kan11 News reported Friday night. The report cites a series of claims that have been submitted to the administration against the conduct of IDF units in the area.

The report cites a US warning that if the military attorney’s office does not submit answers to the administration’s inquiries in less than 60 days, sanctions would be imposed against IDF soldiers, including commanders. In addition, the report shows that the Biden administration warned Israel many times about the lack of enforcement against “settler violence,” and Israel’s answers have been unsatisfactory.

In addition to all my other supposed sins, I live (and work) in Judea. Will my mere presence in the “West Bank” that isn’t even a river bank at some point be deemed “settler violence?” Is residing in my rented apartment considered displacement, dispossession, and destruction?

If you ask the UN, the Red Cross, Hamas, Abbas, Qatar, et al., it most definitely is, which makes me a horrible person just for waking up in my bed, getting dressed, and washing the breakfast dishes at the sink each morning, even though no Arab ever lived here in this home or on the property on which it stands. To the Biden administration, I’m an extremist and violent criminal who should be kept from my own money and isolated from my family abroad.

But on the bright side of things, here's how much I care:

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!

Germany's DW reported:

Swiss police have launched an investigation into reports of antisemitism in the plush alpine ski resort of Davos, after a ski hire shop was allegedly refusing to sell sports equipment to Jews.

Swiss newspaper 20minuten published a picture of a sign in the window of the Bergrestaurant Pischa, a restaurant and ski hire business in the small skiing area of Pischa, just outside Davos, which read in Hebrew, "Due to various unfortunate incidents including the theft of a sled, we no longer rent sports equipment to our Jewish brothers."

20minuten said the station had told them in a written statement that they "no longer want the daily hassle" of Jewish guests leaving sleds on the slopes or equipment not being returned, or "returned defective."

Pan-Arab news site Albawaba slants the story a bit differently:

The restaurant's management posted a large notice on its main gate that read in Hebrew: “We regret to inform you that due to the frequent theft of skis by Jews, we will not sell or rent this equipment to them. This applies to all other equipment such as hoverboards, ski lifts and snowshoes. Thank you for your understanding.” ".

Some Jews claimed that they would file a criminal lawsuit against the restaurant’s management, and described this measure as “racist and anti-Semitic,” which is the only pretext they always hide behind when they are exposed to a negative attitude resulting from their barbaric behavior.

Stereotyping all Jews based on the actions of a few isn't antisemitic, according to Albawaba. It is how one is supposed to behave. The only people who complain about it are Jews, which proves that point. a

And saying that treating Jews differently from everyone else is antisemitic? That's another Jewish trick!

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!

02/14 Links Pt1: The UN is siding with terrorists; How Hamas’s Western Supporters Sacrifice Palestinians; Hezbollah rocket kills one, wounds 8 in Safed

From Ian:

Gil Troy: Israel's Gaza war is self-defense, no apologies needed

Every day, Israel takes unprecedented measures to minimize civilian harm in Gaza. It uses less firepower than is optimal, distributes maps revealing its strategies, warns civilians to flee potential targets, and pauses occasionally so civilians (and Hamasniks in street clothes) can escape. Such self-imposed ethical constraints sacrifice surprise, risking Israeli soldiers’ lives.

“No military has ever implemented any of these practices in war before,” West Point’s urban warfare expert, John Spencer, explained in Newsweek.

“No military in modern history has faced over 30,000 urban defenders in more than seven cities using human shields and hiding in hundreds of miles of underground networks purposely built under civilian sites, while holding hundreds of hostages. The sole reason for civilian deaths in Gaza is Hamas. For Israel’s part, it’s taken more care to prevent them than any other army in human history.”

Apparently, I missed the graduate school lectures describing the times America stopped short of winning to please an ally or provided humanitarian aid during wartime – for the enemy to steal.

When rampaging through the Supernova music festival, Hamas kidnapped 22-year-old Omer Weinkert, who suffers from colitis. Shai, his father, wonders why his own Israeli government supplies 100 trucks’ worth of aid daily to Omer’s captors and the so-called “innocents” who would rip his son to shreds – while Omer suffers.

“If we continue to feed the lion, what’s the reason for it to stop?” Shai asks. “Release the hostages and receive the aid; otherwise, it should stop.”

ONLY HILLARY CLINTON has taken responsibility for America’s role in the Hamas buildup and the American “concept” that Hamas is pragmatic. She admitted that on October 6 there was yet another internationally imposed ceasefire – and Hamas broke it, again. Her honesty acknowledges the impossible choices Israel faces.

During the 2014 Israel-Gaza war, the great peacenik, Amos Oz, asked a skeptic: “What would you do if your neighbor across the street sat down on the balcony, put his little boy on his lap, and started shooting machine-gun fire into your nursery?”

In America, I met many smart, caring people. No one effectively answered Oz’s now updated question, “What else would you have Israel do after October 7?” Nor could they convince me why Israel shouldn’t crush Hamas in Rafah. And no well-meaning peaceniks, who had long demanded Israeli ceasefires, apologies, and concessions, acknowledged their faith in the “concept” that prompted this massacre.

Why aren’t they – and the guilty Palestinians – apologizing?

Jehad al-Saftawi: Hamas Built Tunnels Beneath My Family’s Home in Gaza. Now It Lies in Ruin

Meeting masked men is something we are used to in different aspects of Gazan life. We argued. I told him my uncle, who was a member of Hamas and prosecutor in its government, would stop them from building a tunnel. The masked man insisted they would continue as they pleased. He said I should not be afraid and that this would just be a small closed room to remain buried underground. No one can enter or exit. He said that only in the case of an Israeli ground invasion in this area and the displacement of residents would these rooms be used to supply weapons.

“We don’t want to live above a stockpile of weapons,” I told him, just before he forced me to leave.

Construction continued, and Um Yazid continued to report to us about late-night activity. Hamza and I visited every few weeks, always finding the same gate, never sure what we could do, or what was really happening behind it. Our uncle assured us we had nothing to fear.

In February 2014, I got married and left my family’s house. The same year, my mother, Hamza, and my two young sisters moved to the newly-finished house. Before they did, Hamza and I dug again and this time found nothing but sand for 3 ft., then a large cement slab. We covered it over, believing Hamas had finally closed off the “room” at our uncle’s insistence.

In the years since, my family or their neighbors heard sounds or movements from time to time. They wondered sometimes if there really were tunnels, if they were active. My family was too afraid to speak about this with anyone, so it was our secret. It felt shameful even though we knew we were deeply opposed to whatever Hamas had done on the other side of that cement slab.

When something goes unspoken for so long, it begins to feel impossible that the truth will ever be known. I always looked forward to a time in the future when my family and others like us would be allowed to speak about these tunnels, about the perilous life Hamas has forced upon Gazans. Now that I am determined to speak openly about it, I don’t know if it even matters.

My family evacuated to the south shortly after Oct. 7. Months after, we received photos of our house and neighborhood, both of which are in ruins. I may never know if the house was destroyed by Israeli strikes or fighting between Hamas and Israel. But the result is the same. Our home, and far too many in our community, were flattened alongside priceless history and memories.

And this is the legacy of Hamas. They began destroying my family home in 2013 when they built tunnels beneath it. They continued to threaten our safety for a decade—we always knew we might have to vacate at a moment’s notice. We always feared violence. Gazans deserve a true Palestinian government, which supports its citizens’ interests, not terrorists carrying out their own plans. Hamas is not fighting Israel. They’re destroying Gaza.

Seth Mandel: How Hamas’s Western Supporters Sacrifice Palestinians

One line in Saftawi’s piece jumped out at me: “Now that I am determined to speak openly about it, I don’t know if it even matters.”

There are a number of ways that can be interpreted, and I won’t speak for Saftawi. But it must be distressing for people like him to see that even as it loses to Israel on the battlefield, Hamas is winning the battle to define what is regarded as “pro-Palestinian” in the West. Saftawi wants peace and self-determination for the Palestinians to be the ultimate goal. American progressive activists, professors, students, and even members of Congress don’t want that for Saftawi’s family. The war on Israel is useful for them. AOC doesn’t have to sacrifice her home; she just has to be willing to sacrifice Saftawi’s, which she’s happy to do. Tenured professors on six-figure salaries and gold-plated health-insurance plans don’t have to worry about the dangers posed by a weapons stockpile under their children’s bedrooms. To them, the forever war against the Jews is highly sustainable.

The most important thing to understand about the “decolonization” lie is that it is incompatible with a Palestinian state and an extended peace in the region. It is a return to making the existence of Israel the problem.

This is not a mere interpretation: Protesters gleefully chant, “We don’t want no two states, we want ’48.” That’s the irony of President Biden taking action against Jewish settlers in the West Bank, with UK Foreign Minister David Cameron now following his lead and doing the same: They are making a distinction that their pro-Palestinian constituents don’t recognize.

Biden and Cameron don’t think a Jew living in Tel Aviv is an obstacle to peace. The anti-Zionist activists scaring them into enacting these sanctions disagree. But Saftawi, a Palestinian from Gaza, sides with Biden and Cameron. It’s his family’s home that’s lying in rubble, and the people supposedly advocating for him want it to stay that way.