Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, March 05, 2024

03/05 Links Pt2: Dawkins: Some fears about Islam are entirely rational; The Deadly Manipulations of the Anti-Israel Mob; To the Squad, Jews Are Second-Class Constituents

From Ian:

Richard Dawkins: Some fears about Islam are entirely rational

In Britain, phobia is hardly the right word for any fear Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses, might feel. Sir Iqbal Sacranie, the former secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said: ‘Death, perhaps, is a bit too easy for him. His mind must be tormented for the rest of his life unless he asks for forgiveness to Almighty Allah.’ A Muslim who is losing his faith would have good reason to fear the penalty for apostasy, which is death. When I taxed Sir Iqbal with this on television, he said, ‘It’s very rarely enforced’. That’s good to hear. But a would-be apostate doesn’t have to be ‘phobic’ to still feel a reasonable fear.

The All Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims’ definition of Islamophobia, which was published in 2018, begins with the statement that it’s a form of racism. In a new paper for the Free Speech Union, Tim Dieppe makes the obvious point that Islam is not a race, and he very well develops the inconsistencies that this remarkable solecism leads to.

I would make one further observation. A religion is something you can convert to, or opt out of. Your race isn’t like that. You can’t convert to a race or leave it. The fact that you can’t leave your race means that, if Islam is indeed a race, apostasy is literally impossible. Yet apostasy has to be possible in Islam or it couldn’t be punishable by death. So the statement that Islamophobia is a form of racism is more than just incorrect. It contradicts a fundamental, and incidentally obnoxious, tenet of Islam.

Here I have not considered the issue of freedom of speech. Tim Dieppe covers it so well that I have nothing to add, except this final thought. If ‘Islamophobia’ becomes punishable by law, will it be illegal to even state, as a matter of fact, that a woman in some Islamic countries can be stoned to death for the crime of speaking to a man other than her husband? Will I be arrested for stating the undenied fact that apostasy carries the death penalty?

If so, bring it on. I look forward to defending myself in court.

Seth Mandel: The Deadly Manipulations of the Anti-Israel Mob

Bushnell felt that complicity, a writer for n+1 magazine theorized, working for “the US Air Force, the mightiest incendiary device that humans have ever constructed.”

He desperately needed people close to him to tell him they wanted him alive not dead. But if there were any such voices, they were clearly drowned out by the activist class falsely accusing him of complicity in genocide. In that way, Bushnell is less a conscientious objector than he is like Conrad Roy, the teenager who hesitated in taking his own life and was told by his girlfriend over the phone to get back in his truck as it was filling with carbon monoxide.

Bushnell represented something evil to these activists: the United States armed forces. Thus to them he was expendable. They came to bury him first, then to praise him. But oh, did they praise him. “Let us never forget the extraordinary courage and commitment of brother Aaron Bushnell who died for truth and justice!” tweeted professor and presidential candidate Cornel West. The suicide was, according to a writer for Current Affairs, “an act of courage and honor.” A professor at Gonzaga lamented he’d never “be able to muster up the courage of someone like Aaron Bushnell.”

Yet it’s hard to escape the conclusion that what they were attracted to wasn’t Bushnell’s courage but his vulnerability. A Veterans Affairs suicide prevention psychologist found in a 2017 study that guilt “had direct effects on” suicide ideation in military veterans. A 2021 study found that “[w]hen examined concurrently, guilt—but not shame—remained significantly associated with suicidal ideation, after accounting for effects of depressive symptoms and past suicide attempt.” According to an Ohio State Medical Center researcher, “literature has consistently implicated guilt in suicidality.” Those studies focused on the U.S. and UK. In similar research in Australia, “guilt was significantly associated with PTSD severity, anger, alcohol use, attempted suicide and being a contemporary veteran.”

I mention all of those simply to show that guilt, the category of emotion into which complicity falls, is nearly a universal marker of the chances of attempting suicide among military and veterans. It is emotional cyanide. The activists disrupting everyday life with cries of “genocide!” are feeding the population a steady dose of rat poison.

Redemption politics have always been a mainstay of extreme political movements—the Soviet gulags themselves were seen as purifying by their sociopathic wardens. And that concept is clearly driving the campaign of human sacrifice that has claimed real victims and whose ringleaders seem to be taking only encouragement from that fact.

Jewish Londoners ‘make plans to flee capital’ amid huge antisemitism wave

Growing numbers of Jewish families are considering fleeing London for abroad because of rising antisemitism in the capital, campaigners warned on Tuesday as they demanded tougher action to combat intimidation and hate.

The Campaign Against Antisemitism said some Jewish residents had already left because of fears for their safety.

But it added that the number of those considering leaving London was increasing daily in response to hostility being displayed towards them.

The campaign group has exposed a series of antisemitic attacks in London amid reports of increasing nervousness among Jewish people about their safety.

Gideon Falter, chief executive of the Campaign Against Antisemitism, said an earlier opinion survey had already shown that about half of Jewish people were considering moving abroad and that the trend was growing because of continuing hostility from sections of the community.

He said examples ranged from threats made to MPs and outside Parliament to antisemitism in universities and attacks on the streets, as well as

the impact of Gaza protest marches involving incidents of antisemitism and support for Hamas terrorism.

“We are aware of people now who have left the country. It’s the biggest untold story, the effect it’s having on Jewish families of mass intimidation. The cumulative effect is pretty devastating,” he said.

Yesterday, Hezbollah shot several anti-tank missiles at targets in Israel, killing a Thai worker and injuring seven others.

Hezbollah's weapons are usually laser guided, meaning that they cannot easily miss. Those workers were the targets.

But Hezbollah celebrated the attacks with a video:

انه البركان يا اولاد موردخاي #كاراكوز_حلل
نار وغصب pic.twitter.com/DOLZUxfqkQ
— حسين مرتضى Hussein Mortada (@HoseinMortada) March 4, 2024

It turns out that the song playing in this celebration of murder is a 2009 classic, "Death to Israel." There are lots of people who took this song and made their own music videos out of it.

Here is a mostly machine-generated translation:

I write with bleeding blood...death, death to Israel,
and I create with bleeding flesh...death,death,death to Israel

From the wounds of Al-Durrah, Al-Ayyash, and Izz Al-Din...create the days of victory.
Challenge the angry occupiers from the land of Jerusalem...expel a usurping occupier...Get that one out of your house...That humiliated Zionist

I write with bleeding blood..death.Death to Israel.
And I do with bleeding flesh..death.death.Death to Israel.

I hit them with stones, with a slingshot and with a knife... I chase them day and night, for my resolve is strong

Be a volcano of fire, be a sijjil stone
In the language of your Jihad repeat: “Death to Israel”

... Do not consider that his equipment and the weapons of the soldiers are dangerous

I write in bleeding blood...death, death to Israel
And do to the bleeding body...death, death, death to Israel

Be a red death, do not have mercy on the aggression army... whoever wears the uniform of soldiering and settlement
From the land of angry Jerusalem... expel the usurping occupier... remove that humiliated Zionist from your home...

I write in bleeding blood...death, death to Israel
And do with the bleeding body...death,death,death to Israel...death to Israel

It doesn't seem like they are singing for Palestinian liberation, are they?

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

Those Who Deny Victimhood Of Jews Try To Claim It For Themselves (Daled Amos)

By Daled Amos

If you are in the business of looking for examples of media bias, one endless source is Donald Trump.
Another is Israel.

That is what Newsbusters has found. They are part of the Media Research Center (MRC):

The mission of the Media Research Center is to document and combat the falsehoods and censorship of the news media, entertainment media and Big Tech in order to defend and preserve America's founding principles and Judeo-Christian values.

They even have a section on their site dedicated to Israel/Palestine.

In a recent article, they cover the problem of bias in the media coverage of Israel following the Hamas massacre on October 7 -- namely, the pro-Israel bias of CNN.

That is what Christiane Amanpour and her fellow Arab journalists claim. According to The Intercept, CNN has a double standard when it comes to Israel, and there is an anti-Arab climate at the media institution:

In the hourlong meeting at CNN’s London Bureau on February 13, staffers took turns questioning a panel of executives about CNN’s protocols for covering the war in Gaza and what they describe as a hostile climate for Arab reporters. Several junior and senior CNN employees described feeling devalued, embarrassed, and disgraced by CNN’s war coverage.

I never would have thought of CNN harboring a pro-Israel bias.
Nor would I have thought of CNN having an anti-Arab bias.

Yet that is what CNN journalists claim:

“I was in southern Lebanon during October and November,” one journalist said. “And it was more distressing for me to turn on CNN, than the bombs falling nearby.”

...Instead of finding solace in CNN’s coverage of the war, the staffer continued, “I find that my colleagues, my family, are platforming people over and over again, that are either calling for my death, or using very dehumanizing language against me … and people that look like me. And obviously, this has a huge impact in our credibility in the region.”

The journalist posed a question to the executives: “I want to ask as well, what have you done, and what are you doing to address the hate speech that fills our air and informed our coverage, especially in the first few months of the war?”

...Another staffer disputed that characterization and noted that Arab and Muslim journalists walk a difficult line between feeling proud of working for CNN while facing pressure from their families and communities over working for a network with a pronounced pro-Israel bias.

What is the anti-Arab bias this journalist is talking about?
The Intercept helpfully fills in the blanks:

Another newsroom staffer chimed in to object to the network’s uncritical coverage of statements by Israeli officials, including Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. “I think a lot of us felt very strongly about the fact that there were very senior anchors not challenging people like, comments like, the defense minister using what is considered under international law, genocidal language, ‘human animals,’ all of those things that made up the first seven pages of the South African legal case at the ICJ,” referring to the International Court of Justice.

...The staffer went on to say that Muslim or Arab journalists at CNN were made to feel that they must denounce Hamas to clear their names and be taken seriously as journalists. “I’ve heard this, where a number of younger colleagues now feel that they didn’t want to put their hands up to speak up even in the kind of the local Bureau meeting,” the staffer said. “People were taking their names off bylines.”

What The Intercept thought was the icing on the cake reveals what is really going on. Criticism and objections aimed at Hamas are being interpreted as attacks on Palestinian Arabs and on Arabs in general.

One issue is the alleged verbal threats. As far as the allegedly genocidal comments by Israeli officials go, Yair Rosenberg at The Atlantic has an article, What Did Top Israeli War Officials Really Say About Gaza? that addresses this. He goes point by point, quote by quote, and demonstrates that quotes directed at Hamas are being twisted to make it seem they are directed at Gazans and Palestinian Arabs in general. That Arab journalists would be expected to denounce Hamas terrorists for the massacre and rape of Israeli civilians is hardly extreme. But the claim by these journalists that such an expectation was unreasonable and unexpected is.

Another issue is that some of the claims by CNN journalists of their reaction to alleged anti-Arab prejudice sound similar to what Jews have long suffered, first on college campuses and now on the streets around the world. We hear about Jews being told they need to condemn Israel or Zionism. For years, the media has reported that Jews are afraid to do anything or wear anything that reveals their Jewish identity. Now, Arab journalists claim they are intimidated by the idea they should condemn Hamas or afraid to raise their hand at a meeting.

This is reminiscent of CAIR's claims about rising Islamophobia.

Investor's Business Daily had an article in 2006 describing CAIR's exaggerated claims about attacks against Muslims:

New FBI data on hate crimes reveal Muslim groups are crying wolf about exploding anti-Muslim abuses. They're actually shrinking, belying claims of mass Islamophobia.

The article went on to point out that the data indicated that 66% of religiously motivated attacks targeted Jews, but 11% were carried out against Muslims.

FBI data showed that hate crimes against Muslims, while a reality, were clearly declining.

But that did not stop CAIR from issuing its 2006 report where it said it hopes "the Department of Homeland Security, Department of Justice and Congress will come to understand the full scope of anti-Muslim discrimination and rising Islamophobia in our nation today."

Fortunately, CAIR is not the only source for hate crimes against Muslims:

The FBI report gives lie to CAIR's alarmist narrative of "Islamophobic" lynch mobs marching on mosques across America. In reality, Americans have been remarkably, and admirably, tolerant and respectful of Muslims and their institutions since 9/11.

The latest FBI report on hate crimes is from 2022:

There were 2,042 reported incidents based on religion. More than half of these (1,122) were driven by anti-Jewish bias. Incidents involving anti-Muslim (158) and anti-Sikh (181) sentiments remained at similar levels compared to 2021.

It's fair to ask if CAIR is still exaggerating reports of Muslim hate crimes.

This issue of antisemitism vs Islamophobia can also be flipped around. We hear the accusation that Jews weaponize antisemitism to deflect criticism of Israel. Rarely is the accusation supported with examples. Some criticize the IHRA definition of antisemitism for the same deflection, even though that definition explicitly says not all criticism of Israel is antisemitism.

Compare that with what some have been saying about Islamophobia for years:

Western Islamists utilize Islamophobia as a label for any criticism not just of Islam and Muslims but also of themselves. Any scrutiny of Islamist ideology and actors can be easily labelled as racist, an attempt by people with privilege to silence marginalized voices of color. This charge is made also against critics of Islamism with a Muslim background, as they too are not rarely accused of being Islamophobes.

This reminds me of a report in 2011 when French President Sarkozy's advisor said Muslims should wear a "green star" to protest against a debate on secularism and Islam.

Abderrahmane Dahmane, former diversity adviser of French President

Nicolas Sarkozy points to a green star during a news conference

in front of the Grande Mosque of Paris on March 29, 2011.

Then, too, Muslims claimed to suffer discrimination that rivaled, if not surpassed, the suffering of the Jews.

The irony then was that the yellow star originated not with the Nazis but with the Muslims themselves.
Just as the current upsurge of hostility against Jews and Muslims originates in no small part from the Hamas massacre.

Hate crimes exist, and there is more than enough hate to go around.

Before accusing Jews of weaponizing Jew hatred, perhaps those accusers should look in their own backyard.

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!

03/05 Links Pt1: UN report accepts Hamas attack included rape and abuse of corpses; Israeli envoy: ‘UNRWA must be defunded, dismantled’

From Ian:

Ben-Dror Yemini: The Demand for a Ceasefire Is a Demand for the Annihilation of Israel

When the Americans and British bombed Tokyo, Dresden, Hamburg, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, hundreds of thousands of innocent people were killed. But it was not a crime. This was a necessity in order to defeat the Nazi axis of evil. When the U.S. bombed Fallujah, Mosul and Raqqa to defeat al-Qaeda or ISIS, thousands were killed. This was not a war crime. It was a necessity, even though there was no existential threat to the West.

When Hamas leaders repeatedly declare their intent to exterminate the Jews, and embark on a campaign to murder innocents, Israel is forced to defeat Hamas. As Razi Hamad, a senior Hamas official, declared: "October 7 was only the first time. There will be a second and third and fourth time." So it is not only Israel's right to defeat Hamas. It is Israel's duty.

A demand for a ceasefire is tantamount to supporting the resumption of Hamas' extermination efforts. Anyone who would have proposed a ceasefire with Germany without the complete surrender of the Nazis would have been considered insane.

WSJ Editorial: Playing Hamas' Game on Aid to Gaza

After the tragic stampede at a Gaza aid convoy on Thursday, President Biden decided to airdrop some aid to the strip and increase his pressure on Israel. The onus on Israel plays into Hamas' strategy: Place civilians in maximum danger and trust the international community to set up Israel to take the blame.

In war, civilians flee to safety. Only in Gaza has the world decided that all civilians must stay trapped in the war zone, in danger and harder to reach with aid. One would expect Egypt to face great pressure to save lives. The opposite occurred. Rather than demand that Egypt follow its obligation under international law to accept refugees from the fighting next door, the U.S., UN and aid organizations took up Egypt's position and admonished Israel not to "displace" civilians from Gaza.

Only when it can damage Israel does it become the liberal position to close the borders and keep refugees penned in a war zone. Instead of civilians fleeing the fighting, receiving aid in freer conditions and then returning after the war, they have been kept in Gaza to serve as "Israel's problem." Rather than get Gazans to safety, the world's humanitarian organs have demanded that Israel cease fire, leaving Hamas in power with hostages in tow. Gazans need aid, and they also need the world to stop playing Hamas' game.

Why aren’t the perpetrators of the Oct. 7 attack designated as terrorist organizations?

On Oct. 7, a horrific act of terrorism claimed the lives of 1,200 people in Southern Israel, with over 240 others taken hostage into the Gaza Strip. Among those killed were at least 32 Americans, with multiple others still held captive in Gaza.

While the primary terrorist organization leading the massacre was Hamas, six other Iranian-backed terror groups participated in the carnage as well. Despite the American blood on their hands, some of these groups are still not designated as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO) by the U.S. State Department, which provides them with an unacceptable level of operational freedom.

This should be rectified forthwith. Not only would an FTO designation ensure that these groups, their members and their allies face the most crippling and wide-ranging sanctions possible, it would also serve as a powerful declaration that the United States stands firm in its resolve that those responsible for Oct. 7 will not escape justice.

Among the groups involved in this appalling act that are already classified as FTOs are Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades. That leaves three groups — the Popular Resistance Committees, the Palestinian Mujahideen Movement, and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) — undesignated.

All three groups clearly meet the criteria for an FTO designation, namely Section 212(a)(3)(B) of the Immigration and Nationality Act and Section 140(d)(2) of the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 1988 and 1989.

In fact, some of these organizations have for years faced calls to be designated as FTOs, such as the Popular Resistance Committees, the third-largest terror group in Gaza. One of the group’s notable attacks came in 2003 when it detonated a 200-pound bomb beside a convoy in Gaza that killed three American security guards and injured a U.S. diplomat. On multiple occasions, spokesmen for the organization explicitly acknowledged that it receives financial and military support from Tehran and Hezbollah.

Israel Demands UN Security Council Declare Hamas a Terror Organization

Israel demanded Tuesday that the United Nations (UN) Security Council convene to recognize Hamas as a terror organization, in the wake of a UN report confirming Hamas committed rape against Israelis in the October 7 attack.

As Breitbart News reported Monday, the UN issued a report largely confirming Israel’s accusations, noting that Hamas terrorists had committed gang rapes on October 7, and was also committing sexual violence against Israeli hostages.

“Israel calls for the immediate convening of the UN Security Council with the aim of declaring Hamas a terrorist organization,” Avi Hyman, an Israeli government spokesperson, said. “Now, even the UN recognizes Hamas’s horrific sexual crimes.”

Though Hamas is clearly a terrorist organization, the UN has refused to recognize it as one. As the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD) has noted:
The UN does not recognize Hamas as a terrorist group despite decades of suicide bombings, thousands of rockets launched indiscriminately at Israeli cities, and the barbaric actions of October 7. In addition, the UN body formerly known as the 1267 Committee, now known as the ISIL (Dae’sh) and Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee, does not view Hamas (or any other Iranian proxy) as a terrorist group.

The UN’s refusal to recognize Hamas as a terrorist organization is the result of the influence of Islamic nations, as well as Russia and China, which adopt a generally anti-Western stance.

In that regard, the UN report Monday was unusual.

The UN report on sexual violence by Gazans on October 7 says:

In Kibbutz Be’eri, the mission team determined that at least two allegations of sexual violence, which had been widely reported in the media, were unfounded. These included the graphically publicized case of a pregnant woman whose womb had reportedly been torn open, before she was killed, and her fetus stabbed while still inside her.

The leading independent researcher on the rapes and sexual abuse by Hamas is Dr. Cochav Elkayam-Levy. In a press conference on November 14, she described the evidence for that exact incident - and it is all on video.

I want to bring one one example we've heard from the in the first week of the war of a pregnant woman found slaughtered. It was broadcast in international media in the second weekend. We were shocked we're like 'could it be that they took a baby out of a woman's womb?'
The second week of the war we've heard about it from the rescue teams; we got a report that the rescue team collected a body of a woman and the baby. And the third week or a few days afterwards we got the information from Shura [military base] from treating the body of of this woman.
And the most terrible thing is that last week we got the video of this woman.
Now I didn't know what really happened to her, we could only imagine, but to see the video - I didn't see it, I had a person next to me describing exactly what it is, I couldn't watch - it was alive. I didn't imagine that she was alive, I don't know, I just imagined that she was dead while they did it, but that she was alive, she had her mouth covered with something, her breasts were cut while she was screaming and tortured, the baby they cut it up, they cut open her belly. I couldn't really understand that this has happened.

Did the UN even speak to Dr. Elkayam-Levy? How could it possibly say that this report was "unfounded?"

Now compare the standards of evidence required by this UN team for Israeli evidence compared to Palestinian allegations of sexual violence by the IDF.

It says:

In other locations, such as kibbutz Kfar Azza, while circumstantial information may indicate some forms of sexual violence, the mission could not verify reported incidents of rape.

Compare to:

The mission team also visited Ramallah in the occupied West Bank to hear the views and concerns of Palestinian officials and civil society representatives in response to allegations of conflict-related sexual violence received by the mandate in the aftermath of the 7 October attacks, allegedly implicating Israeli security forces and settlers. Interlocutors raised concerns about cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of Palestinians in detention, including various forms of sexual violence in the form of invasive body searches, threats of rape, and prolonged forced nudity, as well as sexual harassment and threats of rape, during house raids and at checkpoints. This information will complement information already verified by other UN entities on allegations of CRSV in Gaza and the occupied West Bank for potential inclusion in the annual Report of the Secretary-General on Conflict-Related Sexual Violence.

For Israel, they are quick to deny and reluctant to confirm. Extensive forensic evidence is required to verify the testimony of Jews who cannot be trusted on their own.

For Palestinians, allegations with zero evidence are published in detail and considered important enough to be included in future reports. Not a shred of skepticism is seen with the Palestinian slanders. No hint of corroborating evidence is requested or even expected.

It seems clear that if Palestinians are accused of a crime, then the UN requires "balance" by uncirtically reporting whatever they make up.

This UN investigation does everything it can to minimize Hamas crimes, only publishing what cannot possibly be denied. But when it comes to wild accusations against the IDF, no evidence is sought or required.

(h/t Irene)

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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

Egyptians used to hate Hamas. Now they love them.

The Fikra Forum of the Washington Institute asked Egyptians in November/December what they thought of Hamas after the October 7 massacres.

While we had seen other polls showing broad approval of Hamas' terrorist attacks in the Arab world, this one is especially interesting because it compares Egyptian attitudes of Hamas after October 7 with their historic disapproval of the group.

The turnround in Egyptian attitudes towards Hamas is stunning.

In 2020, 73% of Egyptians viewed Hamas negatively and 23% positively. That has now flipped to 75% who now approve of Hamas compared to only 21% who disapprove.

The poll showed that Hamas' newfound popularity has not bled over to Hamas' allies. Egyptian attitudes towards the Muslim Brotherhood are worse than ever before - an overwhelming 87% disapproval rating. And 79% had a negative opinion of Hezbollah in Lebanon.

How to explain this?

Look at the answers to one other question: Over 70% agreed that "Iran, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and their other militia allies are actually unwilling or unable to help the Palestinians, no matter what they claim."

Egyptians think that Hamas is the only group that actually risks its members to fight Israel; the other groups are just blowhards. There is no bravery in lobbing rockets from a distance. That is why Hamas is so popular: its willingness for martyrdom in its zeal to murder Jews up close.

The poll also found that 94% of Egyptians don't believe that Hamas killed civilians on October 7. This is in line with Palestinian polls that showed that over 90% also don't believe that Hamas committed any war crimes on that date.

These results show the amount of cognitive dissonance necessary in order to maintain an antisemitic attitude. Hamas' own videos show explicit attacks on civilians but people who support Hamas cannot square those atrocities with their beliefs that Hamas is righteous and the only war criminals are Israelis. The only way to make it make sense is to invoke another antisemitic conspiracy theory: all the evidence of Hamas atrocities are Jewish lies.

Jew-hatred is endlessly pliable and can be used to explain anything.

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!

JordanZad, a Jordanian news agency, has trafficked in pure antisemitism for years. has taken the next step.

It is praising Hitler for killing Jews.

The title of column by Dr. Haitham Abdel Karim Ahmed Al-Rababa is, simply, "Heil Hitler."

In light of the aggression, the criminal war, and the escalating events by the Zionist occupation against the Palestinians, especially children, women, and the elderly, some are searching for the most prominent things said by Adolf Hitler, the Nazi German politician. He wanted to exterminate them from the face of the earth, so his view of them was correct that they were the cause of the devastation that was coming upon the world, so he burned them.

The reason for Hitler's hatred of the Jews is because before Hitler took power, the Jews controlled the media and art and spread kitsch and theaters that promoted homosexuality, and this type led to the Germans revolting.

When World War II broke out, he burned the Jews in the famous incident of the Holocaust, where the Jews succeeded in promoting that Hitler burned more than a million Jews, but historians believe that this number is exaggerated, and only 100 to 200 thousand Jews were burned.

...In September 1939, World War II broke out, as Germany invaded Poland. The Jews in Poland were forced to live in specific areas called ghettos, and they were persecuted and many of these pigs were killed. At the end of 1940, the Nazis reached the necessity of having extermination camps to get rid of the Jewish population. In Europe, an extermination camp was established in every country in which hundreds of thousands of Jewish Zionists were killed . Camps were established in Poland, Belarus, Serbia, Ukraine, and Croatia.

I have come to the conclusion that even though 100 years have passed, Israel with this mentality will never be safe in these lands. Because it has built its entire existence on injustice, seizure and genocide.

... In the past, the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas hoped for help from the Islamic world. But everyone now knows that this unity collapsed after the martyrdom of the leader of the nation and the symbol of the Arabs, the martyr Saddam Hussein, and that many of the countries that were founded after that became under the control of global imperialism. Today, Hamas has become more rational and a symbol of jihad and struggle against the usurping Zionists.

Dr. Al-Rababa is a professor of modern comparative linguistics.

Even when Arab media embraces Nazism, the West shuts its eyes.

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!

03/04 Links Pt2: How Much Is a Dead Jew Worth?; UN finds evidence of rape on Oct. 7; Over 450 UNRWA Teachers Participated in Oct. 7 Massacre

From Ian:

How Much Is a Dead Jew Worth?

Lital Shemesh, a host on Israel's Channel 14, has written a new book, How Much Is a Dead Jew Worth? (Hebrew), a detailed look at the Palestinian Authority's "Pay to Slay" policy. The author explained in an interview that throwing a firebomb at a vehicle is worth NIS 4,000 a month to Palestinian terrorists. Stabbing and critically wounding a Jewish youth - NIS 6,000. A key factor in compensation is the amount of time the prisoner serves in jail.

Already by the fifth year, the prisoner earns more than the average Palestinian, and much more than the minimum wage. Abdallah Bargouti, a commander of the Hamas military wing in the West Bank, was sentenced in 2004 to 67 life sentences. Over 20 years he has received more than a million shekels.

The Palestinian Authority also pays compensation to Gaza residents and Israeli Arabs that have attacked Israelis. It even gives a bonus to terrorists who are from eastern Jerusalem or Israeli citizens. And when the terrorist is released from jail, his years of incarceration are counted as part of his seniority for jobs in the PA civil service. In the hostage release in November, one young Palestinian who was due to be released asked not to be freed because he would lose out on a PA bonus.

Lt.-Col. (res.) Maurice Hirsch, former director of the Military Prosecution in Judea and Samaria, described cases where the defense attorneys requested a heavier sentence for their Palestinian clients in order to qualify for bonuses from the PA. A week after the Oct. 7 massacre, the PA announced that it would give grants to all the families of terrorists who participated.

In the month after Oct. 7, the PA distributed close to $3 million to families of the 1,500 Hamas murderers who participated in the attack. Every family of a terrorist who was killed in the invasion of Israel received a grant of NIS 7,400 in honor of his participation in the murders and atrocities - a gift from the Palestinian Authority. Seven percent of the PA budget today goes to families of terrorists. This is money that incentivizes the murder of Jews.

The PA has created a well-oiled murder machine which educates and incentivizes people to go out and kill Jews. Today, the best-paid profession in the Palestinian Authority is to be a murderer. When will the West take a stand and tell the Palestinians: "If you want our money, stop incentivizing terror."

Daniel Gordis: Is this 1948 all over again? Comparisons are often made, which is why some say this should be called "The Second War of Independence"

Last Sunday, on Feb 25th, we posted a column about those in Israel who are urging that Israel “help” Gazans leave Gaza. Depending on what they mean by “help,” that suggestion could range from kind to very not PC. We wrote then, “Some readers will find this shocking. We’ll soon review a well-known conversation that the Israeli press had many, many years ago with one of Israel’s leading historians, Benny Morris, on the question of what was the agenda in 1948, whether ‘transfer’ was the goal and what he thought of that. His responses will likely surprise you.”

Today, we’re following up on that. As he is one of Israel’s leading historians, Benny Morris’ work on 1948 (in books such as Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881-2001 and 1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War) has been widely quoted and discussed. Almost as well known in some circles is an interview with Ari Shavit, then a young journalist, from about twenty years ago, almost to the day.

What Professor Morris says about 1948 is illuminating for today, as well.

As we’ve noted several times, some people in Israel have suggested that this war, which still does not have a name, be called The Second War of Independence. Because the victory will likely not be decisive, just as was the case iin 1948. Because it’s existential, and long, just as in 1948. And because much of the country will have to be built (or in this case, rebuilt), just as in 1948.

There’s yet another similarity—the issue of what to do with large numbers of Palestinians. The video above, in which veterans of 1948 speak to today’s soldiers, doesn’t have the expressly in mind, but for many Israelis, one can’t raise the issue of 1948 and war without also wondering about the parallels with the Palestinians. Hence the long interview with Ari Shavit and Professor Benny Morris, of which we present a small portion below.

Their dovish hopes clipped, some Gaza border residents make peace with becoming hawks

The fact that the Hamas terrorists who invaded her kibbutz on October 7 wanted to murder everyone there came as no surprise to Irit Lahav, a peace activist from Nir Oz, where one in four residents were killed or kidnapped.

Even before the massacre, Lahav had entertained no illusions about Hamas. Like many other kibbutzniks and moshav residents with dovish attitudes near the border with Gaza, she had seen how the group deliberately targeted civilians, including by firing rockets into residential areas at specific times to increase loss of life.

Yet she had always believed that Hamas’s actions were distinct from and unrepresentative of the wishes of the silent majority of Palestinian civil society — ordinary and decent people whom she imagined were concerned primarily with providing for their children and improving their own lives under difficult circumstances.

That belief was shattered on October 7, by what she says were “hundreds of civilians, including women and children, who followed” behind the terrorists, invading Israeli communities to celebrate and join in the pillaging, vandalization and destruction of Israeli communities.

“This wasn’t something I had factored in,” said Lahav.

In the wake of October 7, Lahav and other Israelis who had supported and campaigned for territorial compromises with the Palestinians as a pathway to peace now say they are being forced to reconsider their views.

“I used to think Palestinians were good people, like you and me. That Hamas were thugs who got in the way of the population’s desire for a good life: a pretty home, a good car, a good job, a nice yard; good schools for the children.” Lahav said from the temporary home she shares with her daughter Lotus, a new three-bedroom apartment on the fifth floor of a residential project in Kiryat Gat where many Nir Oz survivors have relocated to.

“After October 7, I realized I was wrong. Just as the Israeli government represents Israelis, Hamas represents the people of Gaza.”

Lahav, a travel agent who used to belong to a group of volunteers who would drive Palestinians in need of medical treatment from Gaza to hospitals in Israel, now believes that “all of the people of Gaza, all of them, hate us to a degree where they would murder babies and pillage our property with zero compunction.”

The Road to Recovery, an Israeli nongovernmental organization that helps Palestinians reach medical treatment in Israel, remains operational, although its volunteers have brought patients only from the West Bank since October 7 because Israel is not issuing entry permits from Gaza. “It’s not simple, but I want to keep feeling human,” Yael Noi, the nonprofit’s director, told (Hebrew) Channel 12 in December.

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From the Washington Post:

Hamas is calling on Palestinians in Israel and the West Bank to rise up against Israel during the upcoming Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Hamas spokesman Osama Hamdan, speaking to reporters in Beirut on Monday, said Palestinians should “make every moment of Ramadan a confrontation.”

CAIR gives a fairly typical description of Ramadan:

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar and is observed by Muslims worldwide as a month of fasting, prayer, reflection, and community. The spiritual significance of Ramadan lies in its focus on self-discipline, personal growth, and increased devotion to Allah (God). Through acts of worship, charity, and self-control, Muslims strive to grow closer to Allah, purify their hearts, and become more compassionate and mindful individuals.

Anyone see a contradiction here?

In 2020, the Hamas Al Qassam Brigades website published a list of 40 terror attacks that they proudly mounted during Ramadan in years past. These include:

The double suicide bombings on Ben Yehuda Street in 2001, killing 11.

The Haifa Bus 16 suicide attack, killing 15.

The Kiryat Menachem bus bombing in 2002, killing 15.

The 2004 Carmel Market bombing, killing 4.

The Hadera Market bombing in 2005, killing 7.

4 killed in a shooting attack in Kiryat Arba, 2010.

August 20, 2011, one killed Beersheva during a barrage of 70 rockets from Gaza.

Hamas would claim that there is no contradiction - attacking Jewish civilians is also a time honored part of Ramadan.

As the Christian Science Monitor reported back in 2003, in an article that would not be written today:

For Islamic militants, Ramadan allows them not only to reaffirm their religious observance but to strengthen their political ideological convictions as well. "Ramadan is a month of commitment and renewal to their faith and also to their cause, whether by military or nonmilitary jihad," says Prof. Nizar Hamzeh, a specialist on political Islam at the American University of Beirut. "It is a month of martyrdom and commitment to one's Islamic ideology."

Throughout Islamic history, Ramadan has been seen as a time of victory for Muslim armies - and a period when those who are martyred have a greater assurance of a place in paradise.

This is why one rarely sees Muslims condemning Hamas for their Ramadan attacks on innocents. Jihad is a part of Ramadan, too, just not the part that they mention in English.

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03/04 Links Pt1: Longing for Auschwitz; The Golden Age of American Jews Is Ending; IDF accuses additional UNRWA officials of Oct. 7 massacre

From Ian:

Longing for Auschwitz

As a result of their success in invading Israel on October 7th and killing and capturing so many Jews, Hamas has incited the passions of many in the broader Arab and Muslim worlds and, alarmingly, well beyond. In doing so, it has made emphatic the Islamist reading of the Arab-Israeli conflict as essentially a Muslim-Jewish conflict. Most people in the West view the problem as basically political and territorial in nature. That is true, but only in part. As represented by Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, the Houthis in Yemen, and the Islamic Republic of Iran (the sponsor of all the others), it is also religious, and at its heart of hearts there resides an annihilationist fantasy of killing Jews and bringing an end to the Jewish state. Hamas and its allies are not looking for a two-state solution but a repeat of the Final Solution. Their brutally successful killing spree on October 7th was an extravagant rehearsal for that larger goal, a genocidal one.

Where does that leave Israel? Right now, at war with Hamas in Gaza and in a simmering battle with Hezbollah in the north that could rapidly explode into a full-scale and even more fearsome war.What is at stake, as most Israelis understand it, is nothing less than the survival of the state itself. Hamas spokesmen have said as much. On October 24th, Gazi Hamad, speaking as a representative of Hamas to a Lebanese television station, declared that the October 7th attack “is just the first time, and there will be a second, a third, a fourth…until Israel is annihilated.” Iran, long sworn to finish off “the criminal Zionist entity,” has inscribed some of its newest ballistic missiles with the words “Death to Israel” in bold Hebrew letters. The Houthis in Yemen, well-armed with powerful Iranian-supplied missiles, chant “Death to America, Death to Israel, and a curse upon the Jews.” Iran itself, as recent reports indicate, continues its progress toward building nuclear weapons. As far back as 2001, Hashemi Rafsanjani, then president of Iran, boasted that “the use of even one nuclear bomb inside Israel will destroy everything.”

What is new here are not the threats against Israel but the determination to carry them out and the capability of doing so. Hamas’s successful penetration of southern Israel and the extreme violence it displayed has no precedent in Israeli history. The country was traumatized on that day and remains traumatized, making October 7th a date frozen right now on the national calendar. Most of the world has moved on, but to Israelis every day will remain October 7th until all the hostages are returned home from Gaza, Hamas is militarily disarmed, and its aim of obliterating Israel is definitively nullified. Whether Israel can succeed in achieving these goals is an open question. What is clear is that Israelis today feel seriously let down by their national and military leaders, less secure, and far more vulnerable than they did before October 7th.

Every Israeli’s worst nightmares have come true.
Although the existential circumstances of Jews living outside of Israel are much different, on the emotional and psychological levels they, too, have been shaken by recent developments. The anti-Israel passions set loose in street demonstrations and on college campuses and social media have heightened already resurgent displays of open Jew-hatred and rattled a previously assumed sense of security. Academic scholars will continue to debate whether anti-Zionism and antisemitism are similar or separate phenomena, but to most others, the links between hatred of Israel and Jew-hatred are apparent. The reasons are clear: the widespread and unapologetic branding of Israel as an apartheid, genocidal, even Nazi state—defamatory accusations that were in wide circulation well before October 7th—are rapidly becoming normalized. The same is true for both verbal and physical hostility to Jews. As these impassioned animosities coalesce and go mainstream, Jews everywhere are experiencing an unease about their place in society that is new and unnerving for many of them.

Reactions vary: for reasons of self-protection, some feel it’s best to be less visibly Jewish, set aside Jewish markers, and distance themselves from Israel. For reasons of pride and self-affirmation, others refuse to be cowed, step forward as strongly identified Jews, and publicly proclaim themselves in solidarity with Israel and other Jews. October 7th has sharpened both responses, and what lies ahead remains to be seen, but the date’s significance for how Jews see themselves and others see Jews is evident.

Also evident is the following: There will be no Jewish future worthy the name without the State of Israel. At present, something like 47% of world Jewry lives in Israel. That’s almost 1 out of every 2 Jews alive. Were Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, and their allies ever to succeed in liquidating Israel, the loss would be immeasurable and irrecoverable. Most Jews still alive elsewhere would be physically imperiled, psychologically traumatized, and spiritually enervated to the point of collapse. That might have been the Jewish condition after the Holocaust, were it not for Israel’s founding only three years after the liberation of the death camps—an act of collective revival that demonstrated a level of national resilience and spiritual rebirth almost without parallel in history. But far from recognizing the Jewish people’s reestablishment of national independence and political sovereignty in its ancient homeland in positive terms, some of Israel’s neighbors have seen the existence of the Jewish state as an intolerable affront that needs to be reversed.

Hamas set out to reverse it as forcefully as possible on October 7th. Its murderous deeds on that day were meant to debase and kill Jews and rally others to collectively put an end to the Jewish state, a strategic objective that recalls some memorable words of the Hungarian Jewish writer and Holocaust survivor, Imre Kertész: “The antisemite of our age no longer loathes Jews; he wants Auschwitz.” Today’s most passionate antisemites continue to loathe Jews and, for that very reason, want Auschwitz. If Israelis were not fully aware of those hateful passions before October 7th, they surely know them now. They also know that one Holocaust is one too many and are committed to doing whatever they must to make sure there will not be a repeat. They need and deserve all the support we can give them.

The Golden Age of American Jews Is Ending

After each incident, my anxiety about the safety of my own family and synagogue would spike, but I consoled myself with the thought that once Trump disappeared from the scene, the explosion of Jew hatred would recede. America would revert to its essential self: the most comfortable homeland in the Jewish diaspora.

That reassuring thought required downplaying the anti-Semitism that had begun to appear on the left well before October 7—on college campuses, among progressive activists, even on the fringes of the Democratic Party. It required minimizing Representative Ilhan Omar’s insinuation about Jewish control of politics—“It’s all about the Benjamins baby”—as an ignorant gaffe. And it meant dismissing intense outbreaks of anti-Zionist harassment by pro-Palestinian demonstrators, which coincided with tensions in the Middle East, as a passing storm.

Part of the reason I failed to appreciate the extent of the anti-Semitism on the left is that I assumed its criticisms of the Israeli government were, at bottom, a harsher version of my own. I opposed the proliferation of settlements in the West Bank, the callousness that military occupation required, and the religious zealotry that had begun to infuse the country’s right wing, including its current ruling coalition.

Such criticisms were not those of a dissident—the majority of American Jews share them. The Palestinian leadership has a long record of abject obstructionism, historical denialism, and violent irredentism, but American Jews heap blame on recalcitrant right-wing Israeli governments, too. Polling by the Pew Research Center in 2020 found that only one in three American Jews said they felt that the Israeli government was “sincere” in its pursuit of peace. But whatever criticism American Jews leveled against Israel, the anger was born of love. Eight in 10 described Israel as either “essential” or “important” to their Jewish identity. And they still held out hope for peace. In that same poll, 63 percent of American Jews said they considered a two-state solution plausible. Jews were, in fact, more likely than the overall U.S. population to believe in the possibility of peaceful coexistence with an independent Palestine.

Among the brutal epiphanies of October 7 was this: A disconcertingly large number of Israel’s critics on the left did not share that vision of peaceful coexistence, or believe Jews had a right to a nation of their own. After Hamas’s rampage of rape, kidnapping, and murder, a history professor at Cornell named Russell Rickford said Palestinians were understandably “exhilarated by this challenge to the monopoly of violence.” He added, “I was exhilarated.” A student at the same university was arrested and charged with posting online threats about slitting the throats of Jewish males and strafing the kosher dining hall with gunfire. In Philadelphia, a mob descended on a falafel restaurant, chanting about the Israeli American co-owner’s complicity in genocide. Over the three-month period following the Hamas attacks, the Anti-Defamation League recorded 56 episodes of physical violence targeting Jews and 1,347 incidents of harassment. That 13-week span contained more anti-Semitic incidents than the entirety of 2021—at the time the worst year since the ADL had begun keeping count, in 1979.

The New Israel, and the Old

Since the end of the Second Lebanon War (2006), Israel had enjoyed a run of relative safety and stability, unlike any period in its history—perhaps including the early Zionist settlements in Palestine in the 1880s. The suicide terror that had tested the social fabric during the 1990s and especially during the Second Intifada (2000–05), when thousands of Israelis were killed or injured, largely tapered off, despite occasional flare-ups. In the West Bank and, above all, in Gaza, the terror threat seemed to be “in a box,” with violence met by the Israeli strategy of “mowing the grass”—killing a certain number of Hamas fighters and taking out infrastructure while avoiding the risks involved in trying to destroy the Hamas regime.

All through this period, the Israeli economy grew at a seemingly unstoppable rate, typically above 5 percent per year, even in bad years. When Israel turned 75 in 2023, many Israelis agreed with Prime Minister Netanyahu’s claim that the country had become an “indispensable partner” because of its rising power. The Abraham Accords, which saw Israel normalize relations with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan, seemed to confirm Israel’s stature and its acceptance in the Middle East. A recent geopolitical title in Hebrew, How Israel Became an Empire, expressed a popular opinion about the Jewish state’s rising fortunes. We now see such claims as laden with hubris, but they also expressed an undeniable reality: Israeli power had increased dramatically over the last generation.

It was a phenomenon as rapid as it was unexpected. During the Second Intifada, many intelligent observers wondered whether the state could weather overlapping security, demographic, and economic crises. When I came to Jerusalem for my first several-years-long stint, in 2006, a series of national traumas had battered the country. The Oslo Accords and mainstream Israel’s dream of normalcy had crashed in the Intifada, which dealt the Israeli Left a blow from which it has yet to recover. In response to the Intifada, Ariel Sharon led a costly but successful reassertion of Israeli military control over the West Bank. Sharon subsequently enacted the unilateral “disengagement” from Gaza in 2005, calling on Israeli troops to remove some of the 7,000 Jewish settlers there who had refused the order to leave. The following year, Hamas forcibly asserted itself as the government of Gaza, where it has ruled ever since.

The Second Lebanon War was a national trauma all its own. The 32-day conflict saw Israel launch a ground incursion into southern Lebanon in response to Hezbollah’s murder of three soldiers and rocket fire on northern Israel. Judged a “bloody stalemate” by foreign observers, the war was widely regarded as a failure in Israel due to high military casualties (more than 100 killed and more than 1,000 wounded), as well as Hezbollah’s further military and political entrenchment in Lebanon.

Israelis were in a surly mood after that war. War-veteran students from Hebrew University frequently excused themselves from class to join weekly protests against the government, outside the prime minister’s residence. Public anger over the war’s mismanagement melded with a sense that the state had reached a political impasse. The peace process seemed dead, despite one final attempt by Ehud Olmert to conclude a two-state solution in 2008—rebuffed by Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, to no one’s surprise. Where would Israel go from here?

UNRWA violating its mandate again to attack Israel

The New York Times reports:

An unpublished investigation by the main United Nations agency for Palestinian affairs accuses Israel of abusing hundreds of Gazans captured during the war with Hamas, according to a copy of the report reviewed by The New York Times.
The report was compiled by UNRWA, the U.N. agency that is itself at the center of an investigation after accusations that at least 30 of its 13,000 employees participated in the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7. The authors of the report allege that the detainees, including at least 1,000 civilians later released without charge, were held at three military sites inside Israel.
The report said the detainees included males and females whose ages ranged from 6 to 82. Some, the report said, died in detention.
The document includes accounts from detainees who said they were beaten, stripped, robbed, blindfolded, sexually abused and denied access to lawyers and doctors, often for more than a month.

I cannot comment on the report itself without seeing it. It appears to rely almost exclusively on witness testimony, which even Amnesty has admitted is often unreliable. It requires real expertise to weed out facts from suppositions and assumptions in from supposed witnesses, expertise that UNRWA is not known to have.

However, we do know UNRWA's mandate. And this report is certainly not within that mandate.

UNRWA's mandate is based on UN General Assembly resolutions:

UNRWA has a humanitarian and development mandate to provide assistance and protection to Palestine refugees pending a just and lasting solution to their plight. ...

The Agency’s mandate has evolved over the years, as set out in various General Assembly resolutions, to extend to the provision of emergency services to persons in its area of operations who are currently displaced and in serious need of continued assistance as a result of the 1967 and subsequent hostilities. ...

UNRWA provides humanitarian assistance and contributes to protection of refugees through essential service delivery, primarily in the areas of basic education, primary health care and mental health care, relief and social services, microcredit, and emergency assistance, including in situations of armed conflict, to millions of registered Palestine refugees located within its five fields of operations (Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza).The Agency does not have a mandate to engage in political negotiations or durable solutions.

But it appears to be more than willing to spend its funding on items that fall quite a bit outside its mandate.

UNRWA's job does not include researching and writing reports on alleged human rights violations by Israel. It has neither the mandate nor the expertise to write such a report. (Neither do Amnesty and HRW, by the way, as they regularly violate every formal anti-bias standard required for objectivity.)

Given that UNRWA has been under financial pressure, why is it spending so much time and money on something that has nothing to do with its mandate?

It appears that UNRWA is playing the "offense is the best defense" game. As it itself is under investigation for its employees being linked to terrorism, it wants to change the conversation to say that Israel is the only violator of human rights in the region.

UNRWA would never even consider writing a report about Hamas human rights abuses of the people the organization is pledged to protect. That in itself shows how biased UNRWA is.

No matter what the report says, and no matter how professional or amateur it is, the report itself shows that UNRWA violates not only its own mandate but also its own vaunted dedication to neutrality.

Nations who fund UNRWA should be asking themselves - is this a humanitarian aid organization or an anti-Israel propaganda outfit? Which part of UNRWA's supposedly transparent budget is being used for reports like this? And what other activities does UNRWA do outside its mandate that it hides inside its budget?

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Russia is fomenting both Left and Right wing antisemitism

It is well-known that Max Blumenthal's fringe far-left website The Grayzone is an apologist for Russia and Russian state interests. As Bruce Bawer wrote in 2019:

Much of the journalism [Blumenthal] produced during the [early years of the Syrian civil war] conveyed a strongly anti-Assad message. In 2013, he reported for the Nation from a refugee camp in Jordan, where, he wrote, every single Syrian he interviewed supported a U.S. military strike on their homeland.

But then something happened. We don’t know exactly what it was. All we know for certain is that in December 2015, Blumenthal traveled to Moscow—all expenses paid by the Kremlin—to attend a gala dinner, hosted by Vladimir Putin himself, to celebrate the tenth anniversary of RT, the international TV network owned by the Russian government. When he returned to the U.S., his position on Bashar al-Assad—and on U.S. intervention in Syria—had turned around completely.

Only a month after the RT bash, Blumenthal founded something called “The Grayzone Project,” which describes itself as “a news and politics website dedicated to original investigative journalism and analysis on war and empire.” Basically, however, Grayzone is a one-stop propaganda shop, devoted largely to pushing a pro-Assad line on Syria, a pro-regime line on Venezuela, a pro-Putin line on Russia, and a pro-Hamas line on Israel.

The connection between Russia and today's antisemitism has been more and more publicized recently. Long-time observers note the nearly identical antisemitic arguments of the Soviet Union and today's Leftist "anti-Zionism," especially by Izabella Tabarovsky. The Grayzone site has been in the forefront of anti-Israel and pro-Hamas propaganda, denying that there were any rapes by Hamas on October 7.

But it appears that Vladimir Putin is interested in fomenting antisemitism in the West not only via the far-Left, but also via the far-Right.

Here is a fairly well-designed, seemingly well-funded video from a far-right studio that popped up on X yesterday and already has tens of thousands of views. It espouses the long-discredited Khazar conspiracy theory, claiming that all Ashkenazic Jews today are really descended from the Khazars. Just like left-wing anti-Zionism, it pretends that it is not antisemitic at all - just that nearly all Jews today - including, of course, the Rothschilds - are really the descendants of a Babylonian Talmudic cult based on worship of Moloch that murders and eats children.

This is well-worn territory for right-wing antisemites. The Khazar theory is popular among Arabs as well.

But this video has much higher production values than most other far-right propaganda. And it also has a decidedly pro-Putin message (3:30):

"America has been infiltrated by traitors, murderers, pedophiles and thieves. And lucky for us, no coincidence, that Russia's Vladimir the Great has got our back again," it says, as a picture of Vladimir the Great morphs into one of Vladimir Putin.

The video then goes into a history of the Khazar kingdom, where the heroes are the Russians who defeated the baby-eaters. But the Khazar/Jews had a "well developed spy network" which then infiltrated into Europe "and Slavic nations" where they took their gold and silver. "Ever since, the Khazars have plotted their revenge against the Russians."

(I was mildly curious what it says on the "Khazar" tallit. It is a mirror image of backwards Hebrew that says "Kings and Generals.")

This is a pro-Russia video as much as it is an antisemitic one.

The filmmaker, one Nick Alvear, has made many "red pill" documentaries previously through his "Good Lion TV' site. Just as with Blumenthal, it appears that the Russian propagandists chose to influence him to use his video skills in to their own benefit, and antisemitism has been identified as an effective way to destroy the West by marginalizing and demonizing the Jews who have contributed to its success.

The West tends to put all right-wing antisemitism into a box, assuming that it is all of Nazi origin. The Khazar theories being bandied about the Internet nowadays are just as likely to come from Arab or Russian sources as from neo-Nazis. And this stuff looks like it is being funded by Russia itself.

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