Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, February 22, 2024

02/22 Links Pt2: The Ivy League Doesn’t Want To Be Saved; UNRWA Is the Tip of the Iceberg at the UN; Albanese Claims Israelis Are ‘Colonialists’ with ‘Fake Identities’

From Ian:

Seth Mandel: A Test of Jewish Civil Rights in America

“Our German laws and our ethical outlook admit Jewish equality,” the German economist Werner Sombart advised a century ago, “but if you Jews want to preserve it, do not take it too seriously. Always stick to the second place.”

Sombart did not say this menacingly. It was more like a friendly reminder that equal rights in law and equal rights in practice are two very different animals.

The great Zionist thinker and minority-rights champion Vladimir Jabotinsky quotes this Sombart line in a disquisition on assimilation. Jabotinsky notes that in reality, you can’t ask humans to succeed less than they are capable of doing. And when the Jews are successful, “equality” begins to mean “proportionality,” which inevitably gives way to the quota system. Jabotinsky says he’d heard Westerners defend this from the standpoint of “social congeniality,” when in fact it should really be called what it is: “racial purity.” Writes Jabotinsky: “The harm of such phraseological disguises is in their insidious plausibility: they lend themselves gracefully to inclusion in a system in full accordance with liberal treaties and democratic constitutions.”

Sound familiar? It should, because when Jewish history doesn’t repeat, it at least rhymes.

The laws of civil rights and the rules and norms of educational institutions are well known and all-inclusive—as written. But the major problem for Jews is that, in our time as in Jabotinsky’s, it varies as to whether these laws and rules are worth the paper on which they are written.

But here’s an important test. A century ago, insisting on the rights Jews are nominally provided (in Europe primarily) would invite state-sanctioned violence and mass exodus. What would happen today if the Jews of America stand our ground on the legal claim that we are equal citizens?

That is the idea behind numerous private civil-rights lawsuits against universities, such as the one against Columbia that I mentioned yesterday. But there’s another angle to this: When it comes to the denial of equal rights, the federal government has a responsibility to act. And it might actually be doing so.

Seth Mandel: The Ivy League Doesn’t Want To Be Saved

Coincidentally, this appears to be an accepted faculty attitude at Columbia as well. Mackenzie Forrest, an Orthodox Jew who faced religious discrimination at Columbia, including being removed from her academic program, is suing the school. After the October 7 attacks, Columbia became, like plenty of other schools but especially those in the Ivy League, one big hate rally. Harassment of Jews on campus was rampant. The school sent an email to all students offering “special accommodations” to deal with the chaos on campus, and Forrest decided to take them up on it, requesting to finish her semester over Zoom, as other students have done at the school. Forrest, though, was denied permission to do so and told that she “is the only person feeling unsafe.”

Her attorney told National Review that the faculty retaliated for her complaints by threatening to fail her if she didn’t leave the program. Earlier in the year, the administration had responded to her request for seeking a Sabbath exemption by encouraging her to ask her rabbi for permission to break the Sabbath instead.

Columbia’s contempt for Jewish students is a pattern. On February 12, Rep. Virginia Foxx, chair of the House education committee, sent a letter to Columbia’s president and trustees as part of its investigation into campus anti-Semitism. The letter makes for bracing reading: it recounts two decades of incidents at the school, very much including harassment and intimidation by faculty, and the administration’s unwillingness to take action. It is a fairly shocking document.

The committee letter then requests from Columbia all manner of documentation from the past three years—anti-Semitism complaints and responses, disciplinary action, internal investigative documents, foreign funding, changes in recruiting and enrollment of Jewish students, plus everything it can find related to October 7 and its aftermath.

I look forward to seeing what they find, but I know what they won’t find: the slightest bit of effort to make Jews feel anything but unwelcome on campus. You would think, in the wake of October 7 and the spectacularly embarrassing congressional testimony of some elite school presidents, these institutions would at least go through the motions to appear to act consistent with their professed rules, norms, and values.

But they cannot be bothered. And you can’t save an institution that doesn’t want to be saved.

UNRWA Is the Tip of the Iceberg at the UN

Since freezing UNRWA funding in January, after evidence emerged that the agency’s employees participated in the murder and kidnapping of Israeli civilians in the Oct. 7 massacre, the United States said it will instead send money to other U.N. bodies and nongovernmental organizations in Gaza.

This is premature, ignoring the fact that the serious problems with terror support, incitement and antisemitism at the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees are replicated throughout the entire ecosystem of U.N. agencies and NGOs active in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. While freezing funding was a laudable first step, stronger, broader, long-term action is needed before continuing to fund any organizations in Gaza or restoring funding to UNRWA.

At the heart of the problem is that, in addition to providing health care, education and other humanitarian assistance for Palestinians, UNRWA engages in advocacy in response to what it calls “the needs of Palestinian refugees affected by the Israeli occupation.”

This political advocacy work, which is often based on the delegitimization of Israel and questioning the Jewish state’s right to exist, is carried out in partnership with NGOs and other U.N. agencies.

A primary anti-Israel channel is via “clusters” of NGOs and U.N. agencies that work together on various issues. Inevitably, each cluster has an advocacy component.

For example, UNRWA partnered with Palestinian NGOs, including Al-Haq and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, or PCHR, to carry out a project of “advocacy, monitoring and documentation of HR and IHL violations” in Gaza and the West Bank. In other words, UNRWA and the NGOs level accusations of “war crimes” and “violations of human rights” and seek condemnations of Israel from international bodies and governments.

The involvement of these particular NGOs is deeply problematic in two ways. First, they are the leaders of anti-Israel legal warfare, or “lawfare,” seeking to exploit international courts with baseless allegations of Israeli wrongdoing. The biased reports and claims from UNRWA and its NGO partners are often cited among the “evidence” in U.N. investigations of Israel, lawfare cases around the world, and empty accusations of “genocide” and “war crimes.”

The proceedings against Israel at The Hague — in the International Court of Justice and International Criminal Court — originate with this type of lobbying.

After every terror attack, Palestinian leaders boast they are naturally violent

This morning there was a terror attack in Ma'ale Adumim, with three gunmen shooting anyone they could find including a pregnant woman.

The response from Hamas was the same as the Palestinian responses to hundreds of previous terror attacks: it was a "natural response" to perceived Israeli crimes.

2012 bus bombing in Tel Aviv:

2006 suicide bombing:

2002 by the PLO's Jibril Rajoub:

1997, referring to a 1989 terror attack:

An Israeli Arab MK in 1992:

There is nothing "natural" about terror attacks for normal human beings. But for Palestinians, literally every such attack - no matter how heinous - is called a "natural response" to Israeli actions.

The narrative is so entrenched that no one even questions the "naturalness" of blowing up Jews. Peopel in sub-Saharan Africa or Myanmar and many othe rplaces live much worse lives than Palestinians have, but no one expects violence from most of them.

Only for Palestinians are terror attacks routinely called "natural."

If I would say that Palestinians are naturally oriented towards violence and terror, people would call me a bigot. But what about when Palestinians themselves consistently say that very thing about each other?

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!

Kids Perform Daring Rescue Of Hostage Snacks From Dad's Closet (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Check out their Facebook page.

Yeroham, February 22 - A group of elite members of the Va'aknin household infiltrated their parents' bedroom while the latter lay sleeping, noiselessly opened the cabinet where candy lay sequestered in punishment for fabricated offenses, liberated the contraband, and emerged from the premises while suffering only minor injuries, family sources reported today.

Adi, Moshe, Yair, and Hodaya Va'aknin, ages 8-15, staged a clandestine operation last night to rescue the chocolate, lollipops, and caramel chews that Mr. Va'aknin had confiscated from them two days ago after believing a false report regarding his children's behavior at school. Adi and Moshe briefed reporters this morning following the success of the extraction and the safe ensconcing of the sweets in a secure location that the senior Va'aknin will never find, the children assured journalists.

"It was imperative that we conduct this operation, and I commend all involved for their courage and professionalism," stated Hodaya. "We have known about the location of the imprisoned snacks almost since the beginning. We had a plan in place for some time already to liberate them - but to work best it required the right set of circumstances. Last night the right set of circumstances fell into place."

According to information the children disclosed, the raid began with a discreet scouting mission at around 10 pm. Parents Adelle and Daniel had sent the younger four - which included a four-year-old and six-year-old not involved in the mission - to bed. The eight-year-old kept his mother distracted with complaints of discomfort while an older sibling occupied their father with questions about ominous noises from one of the toilets. These diversions enabled yet another sibling to scout the master bedroom and confirm the exact location of the mission quarry - and, if time permitted, to attempt an extraction.

However, a lookout posted outside the bathroom alerted the scout of Mr. Va'aknin's imminent return, and the team settled in for Plan B. "Plan A was never considered realistic," acknowledged Moshe. "It wouldn't take long for Abba to determine we were only hearing normal tank-refilling noises."

Thus, the older children pretended to go to bed, when in reality one of them had positioned herself with her bedroom door cracked open, lights off, to monitor her parents' movements and launch the second phase of the mission. At 11 pm, the lights went off in the kitchen, then living room, as Adelle and Daniel readied themselves for bed. Hodaya listened for the sounds of the toilet flushing twice, knowing that indicated both adults would soon lie horizontal. She woke and alerted the other three, who tiptoed to just outside the master bedroom and listened.

Earlier, Yair had switched their parents' dinnertime coffee for decaf.

The team ascertained that their mother's breathing had slowed, and that their father's snores had assumed its deep-sleep rhythm, data gleaned from previous scouting missions. An unfolded, three-step ladder with rubber feet was brought from the kitchen. The team worked slowly but quietly to open the bedroom door.

The children recalled barely breathing as one of them - they declined to disclose which one - made a daring foray into the master bedroom, carrying the ladder and placing it in front of Dad's closet. Bare feet sounded like booms to the anxious observers, but did not noticeably alter the sleep of the recumbent couple just a meter away.

Another two children tiptoed into the room to form a relay team to which the point man handed each item, with extreme care not to crinkle any of the plastic wrapping. Inside of four harrowing minutes, the entire stash of captive treats had exited the room. The stepladder returned to its original location. The treats were taken to the bedroom of the two youngest, uninvolved children, and stowed inconspicuously for subsequent retrieval.

Children everywhere cheered the successful mission and the blow it struck for justice. "This is the moral boost we desperately needed," gushed Tony Gutierrez, a children's rights activist.

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!

02/22 Links Pt1: Joe Biden’s Dueling Personas on Israel; Israeli killed, six wounded in Ma’ale Adumim shooting; Eight UNRWA employees arrested by Israel over Hamas ties

From Ian:

Seth Mandel: Joe Biden’s Dueling Personas on Israel

Late in The Court Jester, the beloved 1955 film parody of the Robinhood tale, Danny Kaye’s traveling jester, Hawkins, is hypnotized into thinking he is a confident, swashbuckling swordsman: the Black Fox. At the sound of fingers snapping, he reverts to his jester persona—though a single snap will put him back in the mind of a hero. He goes back and forth like this several times during a swordfight with one of the movie’s main villains.

I find myself of late listening carefully for any snapping when President Biden or top administration officials are addressing the question of U.S. Mideast policy. Will we be hearing from the Black Fox or from Hawkins?

Luckily, this morning at the UN’s kangaroo Court of Justice, the Black Fox showed up. The “Court” is being asked to “rule” on whether Israel should immediately withdraw from all territories over which the Palestinians may one day establish sovereignty. It is an effort by a large group of nations to enable Hamas to take over the West Bank before the group is defeated completely. The Hamas lifeline would also result in a purge of the Palestinian Authority, several rounds of bloody chaos, and the death of the two-state solution.

The U.S. State Department’s legal adviser, Richard Visek, testified today at the Hague that this would in fact be a bad idea. “Hamas’s attacks, hostage-taking and other atrocities, the ongoing hostilities and the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza and the violence in the West Bank reinforce the United States resolve to urgently achieve a final peace that includes the full realization of Palestinian self-determination,” Visek said.

Visek also, correctly, pointed out that you cannot solve this conflict “through an advisory opinion addressed to questions focusing on the acts of only one party.”

This attempt to sabotage the peaceful resolution of the conflict on behalf of the Palestinians is being supported by dozens of governments around the world. On the pro-peace side is… the U.S.

To Win Votes, President Biden Should Appeal to Israel’s Supporters, Not Its Enemies

The only thing that might stop the IDF from taking Rafah, short of Hamas’s surrender, would be U.S. pressure for a temporary ceasefire. Recently American officials have begun speaking of just that, a shift from the “humanitarian pause” that has until now been the key diplomatic buzzword. The U.S. has even circulated a draft ceasefire resolution at the UN.

Noah Rothman believes such moves are intended to appeal to the Democrats’ progressive, anti-Israel wing, and even more so to Arab-American voters in Michigan. In his view this isn’t just morally and strategically incoherent, but also bad politics:

Though it reads like an act of statecraft, the resolution is intended for the consumption of Biden’s monomaniacally anti-Israel domestic critics. Little else explains the administration’s willingness to sacrifice U.S. national interests but its political investment in self-preservation.

Because none of this makes any sense absent a consideration of the domestic political pressures a wildly unrepresentative class of activists are putting on this presidency, we must conclude that Biden has prioritized his reelection prospects over America’s permanent interests. If the Biden campaign genuinely believes its success hinges on a small number of malcontents in Michigan, it is in deep trouble well beyond the state’s borders. Biden would be better served appealing to the majority of Americans for whom Israel’s cause is a vital extension of American grand strategy abroad. At the very least, his administration would go down without putting American national interests on the chopping block in a cloying effort to appease the unappeasable.

Gadi Taub: U.S. Scheming for a Palestinian State Unwittingly Strengthens Netanyahu

If the news that the U.S. is going to recognize a Palestinian state that doesn’t exist was intended to break up Prime Minister Netanyahu’s wartime coalition, it’s unlikely to work. Contrary to what the Biden administration assumes, the obstacle to the “two-state solution” is Israel’s electorate, not its prime minister. The more the administration tries to ram this misguided plan down the throat of traumatized Israelis who are in no mood to compromise their security, the more the country’s prime minister will recover political support.

The calculation here is not a difficult one to make: Netanyahu’s coalition is united in the belief that promising the Palestinians a state in the middle of a war for national survival would be a declaration by Israel’s government that murdering, raping, and kidnapping Israelis is the way for Palestinians to achieve their national ambitions. Even the prime minister’s rivals in the coalition, Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot, have had to publicly support this consensus.

If this is not clear to the White House, it may be because the administration is clinging religiously to its failed “regional integration” policy—its appeasement of Iran—while relying on a uniformly leftist Israeli press that is eager to tell it what it wants to hear, about a nonexistent moderate electorate that will deliver a moderate two-statist coalition, if only Netanyahu can be removed from office.

One can imagine Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan calculating that by replacing Netanyahu with a leader who is willing to “courageously” agree to the two-state model, however far in the future it may be, the recent disasters of U.S. regional policy will turn out to look like a success: A new Palestinian proto-state backed by the U.S. would not only help to rescue Biden’s reelection prospects in Michigan, but also would prop up the administration’s Iran policy, forcing Israel to “de-escalate,” i.e., accommodate Iran’s wishes. And then, a newly moderate Israel and a revitalized Palestinian Authority would be incorporated into the supposedly stabilizing mission of regional integration, as U.S. allies “learn to share the neighborhood” with Iran and its proxies. Remove Netanyahu, and all will be well.

If that’s the plan, it’s a fantasy from start to finish.

From day one, Israel’s war against Hamas has threatened to discredit the Middle East strategy of three Democratic administrations. It was precisely this strategy, the appeasement and “integration” of Iran, that invited the war in Gaza in the first place and threatens to escalate armed conflict with Iran’s other regional assets—Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, and IRGC-led militias in Syria and Iraq. Had the U.S. not paved the way for Iran’s rising power and regional influence, Iran’s Palestinian proxy would have had neither the confidence nor the means to perpetrate the Oct. 7 massacre.

The longer the Gaza war continues, the greater the chance that it will bring down the failed “regional integration” policy. That is why from day one, the administration’s policy has been to circumscribe the conflict, both geographically and politically. According to the White House, the Oct. 7 attack was just the latest chapter in the long history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, not the Iranian-Israeli war that it really is. In support of this false framing is a false answer: The Israeli-Palestinian problem demands an Israeli-Palestinian solution.

The UN's goal for 40 years has not been a Palestinian state, but the end of Israel

As I was researching my previous article on the myth of "Palestinian territory," I came upon one argument that the territory has been "Palestinian" since the end of the Ottoman Empire.

I found it in a UN document, "The Legal Status of the West Bank and Gaza," written in 1982.

It is quite biased. While it pretends to look at all the legal aspects of who owned the title to Palestine between 1920 and 1948, it doesn't even mention the San Remo Conference, later ratified by the League of Nations, that confirmed the Balfour Declaration and said that the area of Palestine is meant for a Jewish national home.

In fact, the document relies almost exclusively on the legal arguments of a certain Henry Cattan, quoting from a book of his called Sovereignty and Palestine, The Arab-Israeli Conflict.

Henry Cattan was not exactly an impartial international legal expert. A Christian born in Jerusalem in 1906, he was part of the Palestine Arab Higher Committee delegation to the UN discussions in 1947 and 1948. He argued that Jews have no right to immigrate to Palestine at all and, absurdly, that the Palestine Mandate expired with the League of Nations.

I couldn't find that book online, but I did find a 1973 book of Cattan's where he gave the same legal arguments that ignored everything the League of Nations did. He conflates the word "Palestine" from before 1948 with the Palestinians of 1973, even though the Arab residents of Palestine showed little interest in a state of their own. An expert that ignores all the counter-arguments is not a real expert but a propagandist.

But what is worse is that Cattan also argued, in 1973, that Israel was an illegitimate state even then. In fact, that is the title of one of his chapters.

Which means that the UN, in 1982, issued a document using the the legal arguments of an antisemite who claimed that most Jews in Israel in 1948 were there illegally and could not be counted as legal residents, and who argued that even the UN was doing something illicit when it recognized Israel, quoted him approvingly about the legal status of the area of the British Mandate.

His arguments that Israel is illegitimate in whole are the arguments that we can expect would be resurrected if the world recognizes a Palestinian state. Such a recognition would not be the end of the conflict, as is fervently hoped by the Western world, but it would be an accelerant.

As soon as the question of "occupation" would be settled, the Israel haters would bring up antisemite Henry Cattan's arguments that Israel itself has no legal basis for existing.

The UN committee that drafted this document of their position of the legal status of the territories certainly also accepted Cattan's more expansive anti-Israel arguments. They just stayed quiet about them because they would not have been accepted in 1982 and in fact would have cast doubt on the rest of the document.

But we can expect that Henry Cattan's anti-Israel opinions will be resurrected very soon.

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 very regions in Belgium that ban kosher slaughter for "moral" reasons allow hunting

YNet reports:

The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France unanimously ruled that the ban on kosher or halal slaughter in the Wallonia and Flanders provinces in Belgium does not violate the European Convention on Human Rights. The decision follows a legal challenge by Belgian citizens and organizations representing Muslim and Jewish communities who argued that the provinces' rules prohibiting the religious slaughter of animals violated their freedom of religion.

The court justified its ruling, saying that "the protection of public morals could not be understood as being intended solely to protect human dignity in the sphere of interpersonal relations," and that the ban is "proportional to the aim pursued, namely the protection of animal welfare as an element of 'public morals.'"

Wallonia and Flanders are the only two regions in Belgium where hunting game is allowed (it is banned in Brussels.)

Even bowhunting is allowed in Wallonia.

Game is considered a delicacy in Belgium. People are encouraged to visit Belgium during hunting season to experience eating animals that were shot.

A high percentage of animals that are hunted do not die immediately, but get injured and suffer tremendously. . No one seems to be too concerned about the pain that animals in Wallonia and Flanders feel when being shot.

The very regions where hunting is celebrated are the ones where kosher slaughter is banned.

Doesn't this seem a bit inconsistent?

Not to mention that animals suffer tremendously in the "humane" Belgian slaughterhouses.

In 2020, the Court of Justice in the EU upheld the ban on kosher slaughter, and justified the incongruity of allowing hunting because painfully killing animals in "cultural or sporting events" is completely different than food production. Even though high end Belgian restaurants are filled with game on their menus during hunting season.

There is no question of "public morals" when it comes to killing animals with bullets from a distance. People who shoot arrows at animals are celebrated for their skill, while Jews who carefully and painlessly slaughter food for their tables are guilty of violating "public morals." And, of course, those who specifically seek out and eat game in expensive Belgian restaurants are considered gourmands, the elite of society, not immoral people who care not one bit about the humanity of the act of eating animals whose deaths were very possibly long and painful.

It is perfect hypocrisy, and it is given a stamp of approval by European justice system.

The only explanation is bigotry against Jews and Muslims. It is officially sanctioned antisemitism.

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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

"The Big Lie" is normally defined as "If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it."

Surprisingly, Joseph Goebbels did not make up the concept of "the Big Lie." Adolf Hitler did, in Mein Kampf, claiming that this was a propaganda method of the Jews:

All this was inspired by the principle--which is quite true in itself--that in the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods. It would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. Even though the facts which prove this to be so may be brought clearly to their minds, they will still doubt and waver and will continue to think that there may be some other explanation. For the grossly impudent lie always leaves traces behind it, even after it has been nailed down, a fact which is known to all expert liars in this world and to all who conspire together in the art of lying. These people know only too well how to use falsehood for the basest purposes.

Hitler, of course, used this method against the Jews. In the very next paragraph, he wrote:

From time immemorial. however, the Jews have known better than any others how falsehood and calumny can be exploited. Is not their very existence founded on one great lie, namely, that they are a religious community, whereas in reality they are a race?

The Holocaust was based on this Big Lie, that Jews are an inferior race.

Israel haters have used The Big Lie method liberally. we are seeing it today with their applying the terms "genocide" and "apartheid" to Israel. They don't even pretend to defend these absurd accusations anymore - they believe that by just repeating them, and "thinking past the sale," they can plant the association between Israel and these crimes against humanity in people's minds, so the lies become accepted as self-evidently true. No one can believe that they are being lied to so brazenly.

But before these libels, there was another lie I have documented previously - the lie that Israel is on "occupied" or ("stolen") "Palestinian Territory." That lie is so entrenched that the very title of the of the current International Court of Justice case against Israel is "Legal Consequences arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem."

Many have discussed Israel's official (and correct) position that the territories aren't "occupied" but "disputed." But not as many have discussed whether the territories are "Palestinian."

Practically no one called them "Palestinian territories" in 1967. Even though Jordan's annexation of the West Bank in 1949 was almost universally not recognized, suddenly in 1967 the West Bank became "Israeli-occupied Jordan."

The UN didn't start using the term "occupied Palestinian territories" in its own reports until 1983. Before then they were "occupied Arab territories."

We know that the land was Ottoman before 1917. We know that the British controlled it but didn't annex it before 1948. We know Jordan controlled it and illegally annexed the west bank before 1967, and maintained it had a legal claim on the territory until 1988.

So when did it become "Palestinian" in the juridical sense?

Under international law, territory can be legally acquired in a limited number of ways, and Palestinians never acquired any land using any of those methods except by agreement with Israel for Area A in the Oslo Accords and Gaza when Israel withdrew from the sector. Outside of those areas, the Palestinians never had any legal title to any land. They certainly never had title over Area C or "east" Jerusalem, indeed not over any areas that Israel has controlled since 1967.

When Jordan gave up its claim to the West Bank in 1988, it had no right to do so since it never had legal sovereignty over the territory. If you look at their actions in July 1988 closely, you can see that Jordan severed all ties with the West Bank but I do not see any formal, legal transfer of the territory to the PLO. King Hussein's speech on July 31 is not a legal treaty. If anything, the official decision by Jordan to stop its fiction of control over the West Bank made Israel the only legal entity that had any claim on the West Bank before Oslo.

Which means that the very basis of the ICJ discussion is based on a Big Lie - the lie that these territories are Palestinian to begin with. There was never any title or transfer of the title of the land to the Palestinians.

I am afraid that the same method that was used to normalize the Big Lie that there exists "Occupied Palestinian Territory" is fast being used to normalize the "apartheid" and "genocide" lies.

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!

02/21 Links Pt2: Caroline Glick: How the ‘settler violence’ campaign works; Amy Winehouse and the fanaticism of the Israelophobes; The PLO Covenant Was Never Abolished

From Ian:

Seth Mandel: Are American Jews Prepared for the Return of History?

This sentiment has become the norm in the literary world. PEN America (to its great credit) faced down a torrent of protest for inviting Mayim Bialik to speak at an event. The American writer Randa Jarrar had to be removed from the event, so insistent was she on disrupting the Jewish speaker. This is not the first time Bialik’s Judaism has made her a target. In 2021, when Bialik was chosen as one of the two new Jeopardy! hosts, the Daily Beast ran a story taking aim at her “sketchy” support for Israel’s existence. The piece was updated with a note at the bottom that still makes me laugh: “This story has been updated to replace the word genocidal in reference to the IDF.”

According to JTA, two award-winning writers “broke ties” with PEN America in response to Bialik’s appearance and blamed Bialik for “ongoing slaughter” in the Middle East.

There was a similar campaign, JTA reported, to pressure a subscription service into dropping a promotion for a special edition of the novel Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, by Gabrielle Zevin. I enjoyed the book immensely and racked my brain to try to figure out the activists’ beef with Zevin. I assumed it had to be because one of the characters is Israeli. But it appears to have been even dumber than that: Readers objected to, believe it or not, Zevin’s having participated in events with the Jewish group Hadassah.

The New York-based writer Erika Dreifus told the reporter that the organized literary world’s response to the Hamas attacks of October 7 and their aftermath “certainly distances me from any sense of really belonging to a wider literary community.”

I asked Dreifus for the running list she’s been keeping of literary institutions’ responses to Gaza. I noticed some had incorporated them into their writing guidelines. An example from the Feminist Press: “We define our feminism as anti-racist, anti-capitalist, anti-imperial, and decolonial, and we intend to make that explicit with not only our work, but also our practices of solidarity.… In 2023 and beyond, we particularly hope to collaborate with and center Palestinian authors, in light of the ongoing genocide in Gaza and the century of Zionist settler colonialism in Palestine.”

I mention all these to make clear that the problem stretches far beyond academia and journalism and politics and, as I have noted previously, global sports. It’s everywhere. It’ll get worse, and the American Jewish community is going to have to be ready and willing to advocate for itself. It certainly won’t be able to rely on anyone else to do it.

Does Antisemitism Explain Feminists' Failure to Condemn Oct. 7?

The relationship between feminism and antisemitism leaves women in an uneasy alliance with a movement that began with boosting noble conventionalities such as achieving workplace equality yet has now been manipulated by and grouped with a troubling social justice pedagogy.

The reluctance to reckon with intersectional discourse's role in driving gender biases against Jews contributes to the rise in the number of women central to the promulgation of antisemitic trends in American society. First elected in 2018, the congressional "Squad" was initially composed of four women and is still overwhelmingly dominated by female lawmakers.

While running for office, Reps. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, D-N.Y., and Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., invoked themes of overcoming adversity in a male-centered system. During former President Donald Trump's 2020 State of the Union Address, Democratic women doubled down on the atmosphere of empowerment by wearing white and declaring solidarity in achieving "equality for women across the country."

The victories of far-left lawmakers like Ocasio-Cortez and comrade Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., led seasoned female politicians, including Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., anxious to indulge in this unsavory feminist revival by welcoming their entrance into the political arena with a Rolling Stone cover photo depicting the former Democratic House Speaker grinning alongside politicians whose positions would have made them unworthy contenders for a congressional seat decades ago.

As media outlets explore the shift in attitudes among young Americans towards Israel, with a Harvard-Harris poll released last December finding 51% of respondents 18 to 24 years old believing "Israel should be ended and given to Hamas," it may be worth exploring why embedded within a generational change, are gender disparities under which more women are seduced into taking hostile positions against Israel.

It bears mentioning that Within Our Lifetime, the organization responsible for sowing much of the anti-Israel chaos in NYC, is led by pro-Hamas and female activist Nerdeen Kiswani, whose litany of antisemitic invectives did not stop the City University of New York (CUNY) from platforming Kiswani as its 2022 Law School commencement speaker.

Whether at pro-terror protests unfolding across the U.S. or in videos displaying the tearing of Israeli hostage posters, women are a steady and growing presence at the center of these disturbing scenes.

It's a phenomenon advanced by a philosophical sorting that grants progressives the freedom to falsely frame Jews as oppressors while leaving less ideologically inclined liberals ill-equipped to navigate the feminist landscape and confront the distortions that have captured today's contemporary moment.

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

The whole world blames Israel for the loss of life and devastation in Gaza. But the people of Gaza are having none of it. The president of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, went so far as to compare Israel’s actions in Gaza to those of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler against the Jews and the president of Colombia, President Gustavo Petro, agreed with him. And still, the Gazan people know better. They know who bears the fault for laying waste to Gaza, and it's not Israel. The body responsible for destroying Gaza is Hamas.

But try telling that to the Zionist- Jew-hating, Israel-hating world, and they’ll only double down. UN Relief Chief Martin Griffiths, for example, said that he did not consider Hamas to be a terrorist group. In spite of the clamor from regular Gazans.

Martin Griffiths, @UNReliefChief, denies Hamas is a terrorist organization. No wonder he is abusing his power to save Hamas' skin after the deadliest terror attack since 9/11 instead of demanding its surrender. pic.twitter.com/0FIA3fmtDU
— Eylon Levy (@EylonALevy) February 15, 2024

Michelle O’Neill, the recently elected First Minister of Northern Ireland, also does not care what the people of Gaza think, going so far as to claim that Hamas will come to be regarded as the future partner for peace in the Middle East! The people of Gaza, however, vehemently disagree with this naïve assessment, and now that Hamas is on the way to extinction, have begun to lose their fear of speaking out. They know that Israel not to blame for their suffering, and they’re pointing their collective finger at the real culprit, Hamas.

The IDF, for example, posted a video compilation of Gazans speaking out against Hamas on December 15. One of the most striking moments in this video occurs during a news reporter’s interview of a Gazan man: “And if I told you that Hamas ruined Gaza? What would you respond?”

“Obviously. It’s obvious,” said the interview subject, “The reason of this destruction is Hamas.”

Here’s another IDF clip of a Gazan blaming Hamas for the war.

Hamas’ oppression has started to collapse. Gazan civilians are speaking out against Hamas— watch this: pic.twitter.com/zICKDtakR9
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) November 7, 2023

The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center on December 13, published bulleted lists of Gazans criticizing Hamas in the media and on social networks. Some excerpts:

Criticism of Hamas in the media

·        The Palestinian Authority’s Wafa TV interviewed residents and evacuees from Khan Yunis who left the city for the Rafah area. One of them angrily claimed that they had been forced to evacuate Rafah to a place where there was no water, food or showers. He wondered why “they” [Hamas] were doing it to them. “Hamas, protect the people!” he said. Another resident who was riding in a horse-drawn cart, shouted “May Allah disgrace the honor of Hamas and al-Sinwar” (Wafa YouTube channel, December 6, 2023).

·        Radio Alam, which broadcasts from Hebron, aired an interview with residents of the Gaza Strip who criticized Hamas and its leadership. One of the interviewees cursed Yahya al-Sinwar and claimed, “You destroyed us.” He said, “the Palestinian civilians speak without fear because they now know that death is everywhere, the leaders of Hamas must pay attention to the Gazans to protect what is left of the Gazan people and end the useless war.” He spoke of the civilians’ difficulties after they moved from Khan Yunis to Rafah, and emphasized that the Hamas leadership did not care. Another interviewee appealed to Yahya al-Sinwar in distress, saying there was no food or water and the number of evacuees was increasing, while there are 20,000 people in one school. He called for help for the children and expressed fear of epidemics spreading among the citizens (Assaf Mustafa’s X account, December 6, 2023).
Hamas rats hide in tunnels while Gazan civilians suffer (Issa Alris X account, November 23, 2023)

·        Al-Hadath TV, an Arab channel, played a recording of a Palestinian evacuee, which was originally broadcast on the local radio, who claimed Hamas had destroyed them and that everything happened because of al-Sinwar. He said they had gone from Gaza City to Khan Yunis and from there to Rafah. He said Hamas stole humanitarian aid meant for the Palestinian public, adding that the Hamas leadership, including al-Sinwar and Muhammad Deif, were underground and did not care about what was happening [to the Gazans above ground]. He also appealed to al-Sinwar to release the hostages (al-Hadath TV, December 6, 2023).

·        Ahmed Rifat Muheisen, an evacuee, was interviewed by QudsN channel TV, a Palestinian TV channel, from the tent camp of the evacuees in western Rafah, and complained that at night it rained on them. He complained there was no [central] entity in the Gaza Strip, not even a governmental entity [i.e., the Hamas administration] taking care of them. No one, he said, gave them answers about their situation (QudsN X account, December 6, 2023).

·        The American satellite Alhurra network broadcast a video of a Palestinian sheltering in al-Aqsa hospital in Deir al-Balah, after members of her family were injured in an IDF attack. She shouts [at Hamas] to end the war in Gaza, stating that enough is enough, they do not want more destruction or a prisoner exchange deal (Alhurra TV X account, December 4, 2023).

A Palestinian woman calls for the end of the war in Gaza (Alhurra TV X account, December 4, 2023)

Criticism of Hamas on social networks

·        Kareem Jodha (4,300 followers) posted a quote from senior Hamas terrorist Osama Hamdan, which read, “Gaza was and will continue to be a cemetery for invaders and occupiers.” Jodha replied, “True, it was, but people like you turned it into a cemetery for its residents and genocide” (Kareem Jouda’s Facebook page, December 4, 2023).

·        Ghattas (1,012 followers) wrote, “When the war is futile and the defeats taste like massacres, retreat is courage, admitting defeat is chivalry, and the one who preserves the blood, honor and livelihood of the innocent is the winner. That is of course part of the morality of “the knights,” however, insane al-Sinwar and the other leaders of the tunnels and the Hamas Muslim Brothers who live in fancy hotels are not among them” (@Moraqeb2020 X account, December 4, 2023). He attached a photo of Yahya al-Sinwar.

·        Ghattas also retweeted a tweet by a Saudi journalist, who wrote, “With all the destruction and killing, where are Yahya al-Sinwar, Mashaal and Haniyeh, where is their offer of protection for their people? Maybe they enjoy the torture and bloodshed, as is the custom of the Muslim Brotherhood? Where is the wisdom of the leader and his compassion for his people? The world will not stand with you, because on October 7 you foolishly gave your enemy the chance to go down in history. So be brave and take action to stop the killing of your children and women Are the lives of some Israelis you bargain for more valuable than the lives of your own civilians?” After that he added, “Hamas is not only an armed movement, but a movement of seats [of power], rule and money. History has taught us that the Muslim Brotherhood does not leave the seat of power unless they and those who rule them are [forcibly removed], and Gaza will be no exception” (@Moraqeb2020’s X account, December 4, 2023).

·        Naama Hassan (7,431 followers) wrote that “Displacement and death will not stop unless the war stopped. The war in Gaza has to stop. The lives of the people of Gaza are more important than all your negotiations and demands. Share our demands, we have the right to choose life” (Naama Hassan’s Facebook page, December 2, 2023).

·        Amjad Abu Kush (6,387 followers) wrote, I hope that in a future prisoner exchange deal we will not see another dog being carried by an Israeli captive. It will hurt our hearts that he and the dogs that protect him are safe underground, while their people are being destroyed now. #Open_the_shelters, #Open_the_tunels, and #lead us to al-Sinwar, take our children somewhere safe, as the released hostage was told” (Abu Kush’ Facebook page, December 1, 2023). He added that whoever wants to create a flood must first build a ship to save his people, and not a submarine to save himself (Amjad Abu Kush’s Facebook page, December 5, 2023).

·        Marwan Abu Sharia wrote: “Protect us! If Hamas sees itself as the ruler, it must protect the homes of the displaced from thieves. The dogs stole from us” (@elthwrah X account, November 27, 2023).

·        Hani al-Hassan posted a video of a man wearing a yellow vest putting a tray of food in front of a child and then walking away with the tray in his hand. Alhassan wrote that Hamas members are seen in a shelter for the displaced, photographing a child they offer a meal to and then take it from him even though he reaches out to take it (@Hanialhasn1999 X account, November 27, 2023).

Hamas operatives beat civilians in the Shejaiya neighborhood and steal their food (IDF spokesperson in Arabic, Dec 9, 2023)

A Wall Street Journal piece from December 21 cites a survey from a Ramallah-based think tank, the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, which found that one in five Gazans blames Hamas for their suffering as a result of the war. The article quotes a 56-year-old Gaza businessman, “People are dying every minute. Hamas is the one that dragged us into this terrible vortex.”

A hairdresser from Gaza City, now taking refuge in Rafah was also quoted, “Damn Hamas. If I see Ismail Haniyeh, I will hit him with my slippers,” she said. In the Arab world, throwing shoes at a person is a serious insult.

The use of civilians as human shields, has not helped to endear Hamas to the people of Gaza. On February 12, for example, Gaza-based journalist Jehad Saftawi said that Hamas had sacrificed his family members and neighbors as cannon fodder in its war against Israel.

"Hamas terrorists used my family and hundreds of our neighbors as human shields. Hamas continues to hold the people of Gaza captive," Saftawi wrote on X. "There should be no reconstruction of my family's home while a stockpile of weapons lies underneath.

"Goals rather than causes are what is behind Hamas's masterminds' wars. The case for removing Hamas is not to fuel escalation but to prevent it, which is why they should never be allowed to retake control of Gaza.”

The journalist also said that this was the first time in over 10 years that he felt “able to speak about this publicly,” adding that it’s "a cry for realignment for our Palestinian society as well as an appeal to the international community."

Saftawi further related that while his family home was being built, there were masked men who built a tunnel below. "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."

Just after October 7, Saftawi and his family evacuated to southern Gaza, and his home and neighborhood are now reduced to rubble. "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.

"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," concluded Saftawi.

The Gazan voices crying out against Hamas injustice grow louder by the day. Only yesterday, on the night of February 20, residents from Jabaliya in northern Gaza, and from Rafah in the south, took to the streets in protest against the leaders of Hamas, in particular calling out the head of Hamas in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, and Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh, who is living in the lap of luxury in Qatar. The people of Gaza protested against these Hamas leaders first and foremost for stealing the humanitarian aid meant for them, "We need food, we need flour, Sinwar and Haniyeh, stay away from us, you thieves.”

The Gazan protesters were also heard to condemn Hamas’ representative in Lebanon, Osama Hamdan, "Hamdan, leave Lebanon; the people are the victims. With spirit and blood, we will redeem you, Gaza."

Rafah now has demonstrations against Hamas pic.twitter.com/FnDqsLwoNZ
— Ph.Gritti (@Philipp27960841) February 20, 2024

شيعة .. شيعة
حرامية .. بدنا اكل وبدنا طحين
يا سنوار يا هنية حلوا عن شعبنا يا حرامية

هتافات شعبنا الآن في شمال غزة وعناصر حركة حماس تطلق النار تجاه المتظاهرين وسط جباليا https://t.co/RNLJpeXYxX pic.twitter.com/n91PIuY0VY
— Mohammed Emad 𓂆 (@moh_re21) February 20, 2024

Even as the voices of the people of Gaza swell to ear-piercing decibels, the academics in their ivory towers continue to stick their fingers in the ears. They want to put the onus on Israel and the ~~Zionists~~ Jews for the leveling of Gaza. This is because like Hamas, these antisemites are two-legged beasts with black hearts of stone.

Someday the people of Gaza will curse not only Hamas, but these Jew-haters too, for misleading the world and pointing it in the wrong direction as so many Gazans lost their homes and died.

Not because of the Jews. But because of Hamas. Something the world would rather not know.

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!

A recent survey of Muslims in France point to some very disturbing findings.

17% of French Muslims admit that they hate Jews. 39% say they have a bad, or very bad, opinion of Judaism.

45% of French Muslims say they want the total destruction of Israel. An equivalent number of French Muslims define the massacre rape, torture, beheadings and burning alive of Jews by Hamas terrorists in Israel on October 7, 2023, as an "act of resistance".

19% of French Muslims say they have sympathy for Hamas.

49% of French Muslims want Catholics to convert to Islam, and that 36% percent want churches to be transformed into mosques.

37% of Muslims express sympathy for the Muslim Brotherhood; 57% among the young and 54% among the most religious.

42% of French Muslims respect Islamic Sharia law above respect for the laws of the French republic. Among young Muslim adults below 25, the percentage rises to 57%.

23% want a total or partial application of sharia in France: 35% among 18-25 year olds and 48% among the most religious.

Jews in the US have a crystal ball of what life will be like for them in America in the next decade or two. It's called "Europe." All the hate we are starting to see now in the US was normalized in western Europe years ago.

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!

02/21 Links Pt1: Hamas’s ‘sadistic sex crimes’ on October 7 revealed; The West is about to hand victory to Hamas; Melanie Phillips: The Duke of Gaza

From Ian:

Hamas’s ‘sadistic sex crimes’ on October 7 revealed in new report

The systematic nature of the “sadistic sex crimes” committed during the Hamas-led invasion of Israel on Oct. 7 has been revealed for the first time, in a report published by the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel.

Furthermore, the document has been translated into English and sent to decision-makers in the United Nations to leave “no room for denial or disregard.”

The report, authored by Dr. Carmit Keller-Halamish and Nega Berger, analyses public and confidential testimonies about the sexual violence, eyewitness accounts and interviews with victims and first responders.

“The terrorist organization Hamas has chosen to injure the State of Israel with two clear strategies—taking civilians captive, and sadistic sex crimes,” said Orit Soliciano, CEO of the Association of Rape Crisis Centers.

“It is no longer possible to remain silent—we expect the international organizations to take a clear position, it is impossible to stand on the sidelines. Standing on the other side will be remembered as a historic stain on all those who chose to remain silent and deny the sexual crimes committed by Hamas,” Soliciano added.

The first official report on the sexual element of the atrocities highlights the systematic and deliberate manner in which the sexual violence took place. Over a thousand people were murdered, thousands more wounded and 253 kidnapped during the Hamas-led attack.

According to the report, sexual violence took place everywhere the terrorists invaded, including at the Supernova music festival, kibbutzim, cities, towns and IDF bases. The hostages in Gaza continue to be victimised.

Examples of the sexual crimes committed include violent acts of rape, with weapons pointed at the victims, in some cases aimed at wounded women. Many mass rapes occurred. Often, the rapes were intentionally committed in front of husbands, partners and family members to maximize the pain and helplessness felt and increase the terror.

Hamas terrorists carried out a hunting expedition to catch young men and women who attempted to escape the carnage at the music festival, dragging them by the hair screaming. The sexual violence targeted men, women and girls and included binding their bodies, mutilating genitals and the bodies of both males and females with knives and in some cases inserting weapons inside the genitals.

In most cases, the victims were executed either during the rape or after.

'Many victims' bodies found mutilated and bound, some discovered deliberately booby-trapped'

The report presents several testimonies from massacre survivors who witnessed incidents of gang rape, where women were passed between terrorists who beat, injured, and ultimately murdered them.

Testimonies from first responders and corpse-handling personnel in southern kibbutzim and communities indicate that many homes showed signs of rapes committed close to the time of murder, with a significant number of these incidents occurring in the presence or vicinity of family members.

“Many cases involve heinous attacks on women and girls, including a case of hiding a knife in a genital organ,” the report reads. “Additional information was received by the ARCCI but cannot be disclosed due to privacy concerns.”

The report includes several testimonies, among them that of Noam Mark, a member of the alert squad at Kibbutz Re'im, who found the bodies of three young women from the nova rave in one of the kibbutz homes. The bodies were found naked, with clear signs of severe sexual violence.

According to the report, these violations also occurred at IDF bases. Bodies of female soldiers that arrived at Camp Shura for forensic identification bore unmistakable signs of sexual violence.

“Information regarding sexual assaults in captivity has been published following the testimonies of those who returned from captivity. These testimonies include various cases, including those of captives who are still alive.”

The report indicates that sexual crimes were systematically and deliberately committed during and after the October 7 terror attack, characterized by multiple assailants, assaults in front of family members, executions and accompanied by unique sadistic practices.

"The brutal practices used on October 7, such as genital mutilation of girls, women, and men, shooting, and weapon insertion, were designed to destroy and inflict sadistic terror,” the report authors stated.

According to the authors, the manner in which the assaults were carried out and the actions that accompanied them were intended to maximize the impact on the victims and their communities, which were unable to prevent the attacks.

“As the scars in our hearts refuse to heal, and the souls of our sisters and brothers cry out to us from the depths of the earth, a significant portion of those we considered partners responded in silence and denial of these horrors. We call on you to raise your voices and not allow the cries of these victims to fade away,” they say.

This report, the first official study since October 7, aggregates testimonies and provides conclusions, demonstrating that the incidents were not anomalies or isolated occurrences but rather part of a deliberate and systematic strategy of extremely cruel sexual abuse, establishing an initial evidentiary basis for the widespread perpetration of sexual crimes. "The report, submitted to decision-makers at the UN, leaves no room for denial or disregard,” said Orit Sulitzeanu, CEO of the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel.

“The terrorist organization Hamas chose to harm Israel strategically in two clear ways – kidnapping citizens and committing sadistic sexual crimes. Silence is no longer an option. We expect international organizations to take a clear stance; we cannot stand on the sidelines. Silence will be remembered as a historical stain on those who chose to remain silent and deny the sexual crimes committed by Hamas.”

Families were reportedly coerced by Hamas to witness the rapes of victims on October 7th

Orit Sulitzeanu, Executive Director, The Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel, and Miriam Schler, Executive Director, The Tel Aviv Crisis Center for Sexual Assault discuss

Hamas reportedly forced families to witness rapes of October 7 victims

Miriam Schler, executive director of the Tel Aviv Crisis Center for Sexual Assault, breaks down the harrowing report that describes terrorists forcing Israelis to watch as they raped and killed their family members and neighbors.