Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, April 04, 2024

04/04 Links Pt2: The ICJ is waging lawfare on Israel; How Much Is a Dead Jew Worth?; The Appalling Tactics of the "Free Palestine" Movement

From Ian:

WSJ: The International Court of Justice is waging lawfare on Israel

The party with clear genocidal intent here is Hamas, which, because it’s not a state, is conveniently not subject to the jurisdiction of the ICJ. Just take a look at the Hamas founding charter, which outlines “our struggle against the Jews.” After the, yes, genocidal Oct. 7 attack, a senior Hamas official declared the terrorist group’s intention to repeat the murderous feat and announced that “Israel is a country that has no place on our land.”

As to Israel, yes, there are painful and difficult questions about the civilian casualties and suffering it has inflicted in Gaza — casualties that are the result of not only the Hamas attack but also the organization’s cruel and cynical decision to reap benefit from embedding its operations deep in the civilian population and using the ensuing civilian casualties in its war for public support.

But the matter of Israel’s complicity in the suffering is an issue of international humanitarian law entirely separate from the unfounded allegations of genocide. “Israel, its officials and/or agents, have acted with the intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza,” South Africa claimed.

No. Israel’s intent — its legitimate intent, under international law — is to defend itself and destroy Hamas. The Genocide Convention requires proof of intent “to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.” A country with genocidal intent does not warn the civilian population it is supposedly seeking to destroy to leave an area it plans to bomb. It does not deliver incubators and baby formula to their hospitals.

None of this stopped the International Court of Justice. Responding to another prod from South Africa, it said Israel had to do more to ensure humanitarian aid to civilians — and, alarmingly, seven judges on the 15-member court said they would order Israel to stop the fighting.

To be clear: Israel has erred, badly, on the issue of humanitarian relief, which is a moral and strategic imperative as well as a legal one. The tragic killing of seven aid workers for World Central Kitchen only adds to the understandable pressure on Israel to ease the humanitarian crisis — and to its potential legal exposure on that score. But, and here I need to make a maddeningly legalistic point, the ICJ has jurisdiction to decide only the genocide question. It doesn’t have the authority to determine whether Israel has violated the broader requirements of international humanitarian law.

Add to that the structural imbalance because of the ICJ having no power over Hamas. As Judge Aharon Barak, Israel’s representative on the ICJ, wrote, “The Court has accepted South Africa’s invitation to become the micromanager of an armed conflict,” a “dangerous endeavor” when only one party, Israel, is bound by its decisions.

What’s going on here isn’t law; it’s lawfare, an effort to hijack what should be the somber mechanisms of international justice to the political ends of tarring Israel with the calumny of genocide. South Africa, with close ties to Hamas and its sponsor, Iran, is deploying the Genocide Convention to dirty Israel in the public eye.

Years from now, when the genocide claim is ultimately resolved, it’s not likely Israel will be found to have committed this most terrible of crimes. But that’s not the goal. The goal is in the here and now, to turn public opinion even further against the Jewish state.

The ICJ is enabling it. As Barak put it, the ICJ’s “approach to this case is steadily leaving the land of law and entering the land of politics. The ideas of a judge as a human being should not determine the opinions of a human being when he or she acts as a judge.” The court’s new president, or chief justice, Nawaf Salam, is a former ambassador to the United Nations from Lebanon, where another front could erupt into war at any moment. In 2015, he wrote, “Unhappy birthday to you, 48 years of occupation.” Doesn’t exactly sound impartial.

Melanie Phillips: Lawyers for blood libels

The 600 British lawyers who have signed a letter to the Prime Minister denouncing Israel for breaking international law and potentially committing genocide deserve nothing but contempt.

Not only have they parroted the falsehoods and distortions with which Israel is being demonised and delegitimised across the world. They have also shockingly misrepresented January’s ruling by the International Court of Justice in the case brought against Israel by South Africa.

The letter, which is signed by 60 KCs and three former Supreme Court judges, says that the ICJ “concluded that there was a plausible risk of genocide in Gaza”.

This is a wicked lie. The court said nothing of the kind. Here’s what the legal commentator Joshua Rozenberg (in whom I declare an interest) has written on his Substack:
In its third paragraph, the letter says that on 26 January 2024 the International Court of Justice “concluded that there was a plausible risk of genocide in Gaza”. This error is repeated by the Guardian in its report of the letter. There are several further references in the lawyers’ letter to “the ICJ’s finding of plausible risk”.

The words “plausible risk” appear nowhere in the court’s order. They are a misrepresentation of what the court concluded in paragraph 54 of its judgment:

“In the court’s view, the facts and circumstances mentioned above are sufficient to conclude that at least some of the rights claimed by South Africa and for which it is seeking protection are plausible. This is the case with respect to the right of the Palestinians in Gaza to be protected from acts of genocide and related prohibited acts identified in article III [of the Genocide Convention], and the right of South Africa to seek Israel’s compliance with the latter’s obligations under the convention.”

Gadi Taub: How Much Is a Dead Jew Worth?

The Palestinian Authority compensates the families of terrorists in proportion to the amount of harm they inflict on Jews. Killing Jews is not just a religious calling that can grant you the status of "martyr" and guarantee you a place in heaven with 72 virgins. It is also a way to make a living. If you're sentenced to 10 years, you make four times the minimum wage and twice the average wage in the PA. The PA spends 7% of its budget on the pay-for-slay scheme.

This program is just one thread in the whole fabric of Palestinian national culture that has woven the idea of jihad against the Jews into all aspects of life. Terrorists dominate the gallery of national heroes. They are essentially the only role model for Palestinian youth. Regardless of how much well-meaning Israelis tried desperately to imagine otherwise over the years, the Palestinian national ethos is built around a genocidal war to ethnically cleanse Palestine, from the river to the sea, of Jewish presence.

Itamar Marcus, founder of Palestinian Media Watch, said Oct. 7 was not the result of Hamas indoctrination, but the product of PA indoctrination, which has been around for three decades. Both in Gaza and the West Bank, Palestinian children are still being instructed in books produced by the PA that ceaselessly pump into young minds the poison of the death cult - of suicide and genocide.

Lt.-Col. (res.) Maurice Hirsch of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs concurs that PA indoctrination is a greater source than Hamas of this genocidal hate. The idea that the way forward in Gaza is for Hamas to be replaced by the PA is therefore a risible exercise in wishful thinking, since the PA, in reality, glorifies and incentivizes terrorism.

By now, we know that PA security forces personnel are directly involved in terror attacks. The police forces Israel armed and the U.S. military trains are active participants in the terror they were supposed to stop. Using the guns we gave them to stop terror, they instead kill Jews - in the process securing the livelihoods of their families.

Bret Stephens: The Appalling Tactics of the "Free Palestine" Movement

Protest movements have an honorable place in American history. But not all of them. Not the neo-Nazis who marched in Chicago in 1978. Not the white supremacists in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017. And not too much of what passes for a pro-Palestinian movement but is really pro-Hamas, with its open celebration of the murder of Israel's people and its efforts to mock, minimize or deny the suffering of Israelis, which so quickly descend into antisemitism.

It wasn't a response to the human suffering in Gaza. Pro-Hamas demonstrations broke out worldwide on Oct. 8, before any Israeli response. Nor is it a matter of seeking a Palestinian state. Among the popular chants at many protests is "We don't want no two states! We want all of '48!" - all of what had been Mandatory Palestine. In other words, the central, animating sentiment behind much of the protest movement is neither humanitarian nor liberationist. It's eliminationist.

Tactics like the routine removal or defacement of posters of Israelis kidnapped to Gaza; or holding a loud and aggressive demonstration outside of New York's Memorial Sloan Kettering cancer hospital; or shouting down Rep. Jamie Raskin at the University of Maryland for being "complicit in genocide" reveals the bullying mentality at the heart of the pro-Hamas movement.

It isn't enough for them to speak out; they must shut other voices down. They aim to instill a palpable sense of fear in their opponents. American civil libertarians once understood that inherent in the right to protest was the obligation to respect the right of people with differing views to protest as well.

Friday is "Quds Day." Will Iran start a war?

Iran has vowed to retaliate against the assassination of major Revolutionary Guards generals in Damascus, and they will be buried on Friday.

Which is "Quds Day," the holiday to "liberate Jerusalem" that the late Ayatollah Khomeini declared for the last Friday of every Ramadan.

The current Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei, isn't shy about his penchant for promoting violence. As Tehran Times reports in English,

Central to the Leader’s vision for Quds Day is the promotion of Jihad and self-reliance in the struggle for Palestinian liberation. He has called for a referendum in Palestine to determine its future, emphasizing the restoration of Palestinian rights and the rejection of Zionism.

He's not referring to any "personal jihad." As Iran's president Raisi said Thursday night, "the Islamic Republic of Iran considers defense as the legitimate right of all resistance groups and loudly supports the movement of resistance in Palestine, Lebanon, Yemen and all Islamic countries."

Funny how he classifies what these groups are doing as "defense."

But he also makes it clear that this is a war between all of Iran's satellites and Israel, not just Israel and Hamas. eave it to the Iranians to frame things properly while most of the Western media still gets it so wrong.

Iranian news site articles are nearly all about Israel.

But they are not beating the drumbeats of preparing their people for war, from what I can tell.

I don't think Iran will start shooting rockets at Israel tomorrow or anytime soon. They still prefer proxy wars to direct wars, and the bigger question is whether Hezbollah would risk escalating. My guess is that we will see an increase of rockets and drones from Yemen, Syria and Iraq, though. And Islamic Jihad will try to dig up some hidden short range rockets to shoot towards nearby Jewish communities to make it appear that Israel has not finished the job.

We'll see.

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!

So Cute: You Think Violent Pro-Palestine Activism Aims To Generate Sympathy (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Check out their Facebook page.

So Cute: You Think Violent Pro-Palestine Activism Aims To Generate Sympathy

by Aisaq Samqaq, Students for Justice in Palestine, Vanderbilt University Chapter

Nashville, April 4 - It's been months since October 7 and my gleeful reaction to it, but it's also been years and years that we in the pro-Palestine movement have made intimidation our methodology for policy change, and well-meaning, but I must say, naive AF, allies in progressive circles admonish us that glorying in the death and suffering of Jews, and threatening more of it for anyone who gets in the way, will only alienate the American public, and drive them away from solidarity with the oppressed people of Palestine. These well-meaning allied fail to appreciate that the purpose of my activism, and of the larger pro-Palestine movement, is not to generate sympathy or solidarity, but to cow opponents into inaction and compliance.

The Islamist cause embraced and took over the Palestine cause long ago; Islamism, wherever possible, seeks not to portray Muslims as helpless victims, but as triumphant victors over the infidels. Yes, we welcome your efforts to portray Palestinians as victims of Israeli brutality, but only insofar as those efforts help us subdue all of western society. Note how quickly "Free Palestine!" devolves into antisemitic chants, graffiti, vandalism, and violence. And then it goes beyond the Jews to target anyone and anything we believe stands in the way of Islamic dominance, such as the American or British flags. It's adorable, the way you insist on seeing us as in need of your benevolent empowerment and protection.

Look at the Palestinian and ISIS flags all over London. Look at how Muslims attack Jews everywhere, and not the other other way around. Look at how our activists shut down Jewish - not just Zionist - events with shouting and threats. The evidence surrounds you; you practically drown in it. Yet somehow, you have convinced yourselves that you know us better than we know ourselves. It's charming, in a quaint way that invites condescension commensurate with the condescension implicit in your assumptions about Palestinians.

I used to think you acted like this out of fear, of wanting to be left alone while we targeting more prominent and obvious foes. That was fine with me; fear is the point. But of late, I harbor concerns that you do so out of empathetic cluelessness, and I confess that while the result, in the end, will be the same domination we exert over you when we do triumph, I still have nagging doubts that you will still think you're doing us a favor.

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!

04/04 Links Pt1: The global onslaught against Israel; Al-Shifa Hospital and the crisis of the West; Israel Takes Responsibility. Who Else Does?

From Ian:

Biden is dreaming it’s like 1918, but Israel is fighting like it’s 1945

Washington is dreaming like it’s 1918, but Jerusalem is fighting like it’s 1945.

President Biden is approaching the conflict in Gaza with the mindset that ended World War I, while the Israelis are fighting with the spirit that transformed Germany 27 years later.

In 1918, the United States and its allies sought a German surrender that would neutralize its war-making capabilities without having to transform its state and society.

Leaving Germany unoccupied and its latent capacity for war intact, the armistice failed to establish a stable European order.

A true solution to what contemporaries called the “German question” came only after World War II, when America and its allies demanded unconditional surrender from Hitler, occupied Germany and de-Nazified its institutions.

The Israelis believe, correctly, that only Hamas’ unconditional surrender, the dismantling of its military capabilities and the de-Hamasification of Gazan institutions will deliver a stable order.

But Biden has been significantly distancing America from these aims.

Hamas, Biden said in his State of the Union, could end the war “by releasing the hostages, laying down arms and surrendering those responsible for October 7th.”

The president was effectively calling for a World War I-style armistice, one that would allow armed Hamas cadres not just to survive in Gaza but to shape its political future.

The president’s decision last week to abstain from voting on a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire — not predicated on the release of Israeli hostages — is the armistice plan in action.

Biden’s intentions became clear just two days after the State of the Union, when he warned that an Israeli campaign to take Rafah, Hamas’ last stronghold in Gaza, would cross an American “red line,” possibly prompting the United States to withhold military assistance.

Netanyahu responded directly and bluntly.

“I have a red line,” he said. “You know what [my] red line is? That October 7 doesn’t happen again.”

Melanie Phillips: The global onslaught against Israel

The U.S. and the U.K. have already abandoned Israel at the U.N. Security Council over its resolution last month calling for an immediate ceasefire, which would entail surrender to Hamas.

Britain and America behave in this malevolent way towards no other country on earth.

Israel is on the front line of the battle against Iran and radical Islam, which have declared war on the West. Israel is doing the West’s dirty work for it—and suffering grievous losses as a result—because America, Britain and the rest of the West aren’t prepared to fight to defend their civilization.

America and Britain refuse to face up to the Islamic war against the free world of which the Palestinian Arabs are the shock troops and whose cause is a key strategy to render the West powerless in the face of the Islamic jihad.

Instead, America and Britain have largely bought into the Palestinian cause. As a result, they are turning on Israel and making it their scapegoat. In so doing, they are tapping into profound prejudices about supposedly diabolical Jewish power and Jewish bloodlust, thus pouring petrol onto the flames of the Jew-hatred now consuming the West.

It seems as if the world has now turned against the Jewish nation and wants it gone. Yet there are many decent people who very clearly see what is happening and are horrified. And the Gulf states and countless other Muslims who recognize Islamist Nazism for what it is and what it means for them are silently cheering Israel on.

The Jewish people has been through persecution, enslavement, pogroms, inquisitions and genocide at different times and at the hands of disparate groups and states. It has suffered from varying mutations of antisemitism—the desire to wipe out the Jews as a religion, a race and a nation. It has, however, never been subjected to a concerted global onslaught like this.

Brendan O’Neill: Al-Shifa Hospital and the crisis of the West

Those still denying that Hamas uses al-Shifa as a terror base, those depicting the events of the past fortnight as just a genocidal siege by Israel, are, to be blunt, lying. This is not scepticism of ‘Israeli propaganda’. Scepticism is a noble philosophical pursuit where one awaits further evidence before deciding what the truth is. The swirling Israelophobia of Western influencers openly discounts and denies evidence on the basis that we don’t need anything as trifling as facts because the truth has already been revealed to us: Israel is evil. It is cult-like delirium dressed up as anti-war activism.

Even worse than the misinformation is the moral cover these activists provide to Hamas. Their post-truth depiction of the Battle of al-Shifa as a demented Israeli onslaught absolves Hamas of responsibility for these calamitous events. It allows Hamas to pose as the aggrieved party when in truth it was Hamas’s homicidal use of a hospital for the purposes of terror that gave rise to the battle in the first place. Hamas is now calling on the International Criminal Court to investigate Israel’s ‘crimes’ at al-Shifa. I’m struggling to think of anything more repellent than a terror group that commits the war crime of using a hospital as a military base accusing others of war crimes. It is thanks to the wide-eyed, craven apologism of so many in the West that Hamas can get away with such antics.

The Battle of al-Shifa confirms an uncomfortable truth about many Western observers and agitators – they’re in the pockets of Hamas. Wittingly or otherwise, they’re doing the bidding of violent bigots. For if it is widely known that Hamas and the IDF are fighting in al-Shifa, and if you only demand the expulsion of the IDF, then what you’re saying is: give Hamas free rein. This isn’t opposition to Israeli ‘war crimes’ – it is support for Hamas war crimes. It isn’t a principled objection to the use of hospitals for war-like violence – it is an implicit acceptance of Hamas’s right, and Hamas’s right alone, to use hospitals for this purpose. The Israelophobia of Western influencers directly benefits the pogromists of Hamas. It adds a veneer of anti-war radicalism to their anti-Semitic hysteria.

The Battle of al-Shifa is a clarifying moment. Not only for Israel in its war with Hamas, but also for us in the West. For it confirms that many of our young in particular are siding with the forces of darkness, with the violent anti-humanism of a group like Hamas. There’s a backstory to their sympathy for Hamas, their harebrained acceptance of the idea that Israel is solely responsible for the al-Shifa disaster. Namely, their inculcation with anti-Western views. Their exposure to the regressive ideology that says everything ‘white’ and Western is bad, while everything non-white and non-Western is deserving of compassion.

The end result is that even in a clash between a virulently racist movement that uses a hospital to plot war and murder and the army of a democratic state that is hunting down the terrorists that committed a pogrom against its people, they side with the former. It isn’t only al-Shifa that lies in ruins – so do the West’s own future prospects if we fail to have a serious reckoning with the Hamas apologism infecting our youth, our activists and our institutions. That so many of our fellow citizens have sided with barbarism over civilisation demands our urgent and undivided attention.

The IDF must be the only entity in the world that readily admits mistakes, and whose statements are almost always found to be accurate, and yet is also routinely accused of lying.

It took responsibility for the deaths of the World Central Kitchen aid workers. And for the killing of three hostages. It said that it did some limited fire towards Gazans approaching its position during a riot and stampede to get food from aid trucks, but it did not fire into the crowd.

If the IDF routinely lies to the world, why would it ever admit any of these things?

Instead of these admissions being used as proof that the IDF is telling the truth when it denies responsibility for other incidents, Israel haters use them as proof of IDF evil. And when the IDF says it was not responsible for, say, the Al Ahli hospital bombing, the haters claim that it is a lie, even after independent researchers confirm Israel is telling the truth.

A small incident this week proves yet again that the IDF reports things accurately.

When four UNIFIL peacekeepers were injured in a blast in Rmeish in southern Lebanon, the IDF denied any airstrike in the area. Yet the Lebanese Foreign Ministry blamed Israel, saying that the attack violates international law and international humanitarian law, and Israel targeted peace protectors who are United Nations employees.

Now investigations prove Israel was telling the truth, again.

The Lebanese Army’s investigations determined that the blast that hit a U.N. military observers patrol in Rmeish on Saturday was caused by an explosive device planted underground, al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Israel's military meanwhile said Wednesday it had obtained information that indicated a Hezbollah explosive charge caused the blast.

"According to information available to the (army), the explosion that occurred on March 30... was caused after a UNIFIL patrol drove over a charge that had been previously placed by Hezbollah in the area," it said.

An ongoing investigation by the Lebanese Army has meanwhile found that the three U.N. military observers and the Lebanese interpreter were wounded by a "landmine," a Lebanese judicial official said Wednesday.

"Preliminary results of a Lebanese Army investigation have found that the observers were wounded by a landmine," the official told AFP, adding that the probe was continuing and the source of the mine had yet to be determined.

The media knows that the IDF track record on these kinds of events is far better than those of any of its enemies. It takes hours or days to determine the circumstances of specific incidents in war, and the IDF isn't perfect in this regard, but it is quite close.

Which is why the constant media refrain that it cannot confirm IDF claims while accepting those of the people who want to see every Jew in the region ethnically cleansed or dead is a reflection not of the media's desire for accuracy but the built in bias that Jews cannot be trusted, no matter what they say.

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 Lebanese people are the key to avoid a catastrophic war in Lebanon (@CSIS)

A couple of weeks ago, the Center for Strategic and International Studies issued a detailed report, "The Coming Conflict with Hezbollah." It is comprehensive and describes the current situation, comparative military strengths of both Israel and Hezbollah, possible scenarios and recommendations of what the US could do to try to forestall or avoid a major, devastating conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.

Its main recommendation is for the US to engage in "coercive diplomacy:"

Another approach is to use coercive diplomacy to compel Hezbollah to abide by UNSCR 1701. To this end, the United States, often represented by mediator Amos Hochstein, is using diplomacy to negotiate with Lebanese leaders, and thus indirectly with Hezbollah, while Israel is putting military pressure on the group through a mix of strikes on Hezbollah forces and leaders. The renewed threat of an all-out war gives this pressure additional strength. Hezbollah, however, does not want to be seen as surrendering to Israeli pressure, particularly at a time when Israeli attacks on Palestinians are dominating the headlines.

That last line undermines the approach, but CSIS cannot come up with anything better.

Yet there is an alternative, and the seeds for it can be seen in the same document. It says, "Hezbollah seeks broader popularity in Lebanon, and triggering a destructive war could grievously undermine support, particularly outside its Shiite core constituency."

Hezbollah is not afraid of Israeli escalation, because it positions itself as the resistance against Israel. Its honor/shame mindset would never allow it to back down and appear to kowtow to Israel.

It is not afraid of the Lebanese government or army, which is can bully at will.

But Hezbollah is afraid of Lebanese public opinion.

As I've argued previously, the Lebanese people hold the key to stop a true catastrophe that nobody wants. Only if they rise up and protest Hezbollah's escalations can Hezbollah end its attacks on Israel and maintain its perceived honor, by doing the will of the people it pretends to defend.

The Lebanese people know that Hezbollah is not "defending Lebanon," but rather bringing Lebanon closer to destruction. Most of them oppose Hezbollah and a few are speaking up. They need to be supported by the world community.

In 2020, there were some small protests by Lebanese citizens in Beirut demanding Hezbollah adhere to UNSCR 1701 and Lebanon implement UNSCR 1559 disarming Hezbollah among other demands.

The Lebanese know that Hezbollah is sensitive to their public opinion. During anti-Hezbollah protests in 2019, the terror group got very nervous, and they sent thugs to threaten and attack the demonstrators, as well as the army that tried to separate the two groups. They threw stones and, according to reports, "explosive devices."

Part of the reason that anti-Hezbollah protests are not in the streets in force is that the Lebanese majority does not feel like they have any real political, financial or moral support from the rest of the world. Those protests fizzled just as the anti-Iran protests fizzled - they did not get enough external support, and that support is critical to shore up the bravery necessary to stand up to Iranian intimidation in both countries.

There is no shortage of governments that say they do not want to see a war in Lebanon. There is no shortage of NGOs on Earth that advocate peace. There are plenty of media organizations who write passionate op-eds decrying the devastation of Gaza who would write the same about Lebanon during any war.

Now is the time to act against war, not when it breaks out.

Lebanese anti-Hezbollah groups need to be identified and promoted in the media. Anti-Hezbollah voices need to be highlighted now by NGOs who claim to care about peace and human rights. Governments, especially the US and France, must work to publicly support the Lebanese people against the Iranian proxy that is bringing Lebanon to the brink. This is not a time for wishy-washy "both sides"-ism.

Behind the scenes, the West can engage in the sorts of covert social media initiatives that are now ubiquitous by Russia, by anti-Israel forces and by political campaigns. Financial incentives to help Lebanon's economy can be conditioned on Hezbollah's withdrawal from the southern border.

There are plenty of things the West can do to weaken Hezbollah, but the main power comes from the Lebanese people, and those people need to be strengthened by everyone who wants to avoid Lebanon's collapse.

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!

At the White House press briefing on Monday, Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked for an official reaction to the news that Israel Knesset passed a law giving the prime minister the power to shutter foreign news networks, specifically aimed at Al Jazeera.

She answered, "If it is true, if it is true, a move like this is concerning. We believe in the freedom of the press. It is critical. It is critically important. And the United States supports the critically important work journalists around the world do. And that includes those who are reporting in the conflict in Gaza. So we believe that work is important, the freedom of the press is important, and if those reports are true, it is concerning to us."

In 2006, the US designated Al Manar TV - a Hezbollah-allied Lebanese TV station - on its terrorist list as a " "Specially Designated Global Terrorist entity." Al Manar TV was banned from being broadcast into the US. The Treasury Department also placed Al Nour Radio and the Lebanese Media Group on the same list as affiliates of Hezbollah.

Al Manar remains on the State Department Terrorist Exclusion list even today.

Two years earlier, Al Manar was placed on the US terrorist watchlist. But it is hardly the only media company on that OFAC Sanctions List. The database shows all these (apparent) media outlets, amd I found several more after making this list:

Name	Address	Program(s)
AL RA'Y SATELLITE TELEVISION STATION	Near Damascus in the Yaafur area	IRAQ3
AL ZAWRAH TELEVISION		IRAQ3
AL-AQSA SATELLITE TELEVISION		SDGT
AL-DONYA TELEVISION CHANNEL	Information Free Zone	SYRIA
AL-DUNYA TELEVISION	Information Free Zone	SYRIA
AL-RA'Y SATELLITE TELEVISION CHANNEL	Near Damascus in the Yaafur area	IRAQ3
AL-ZAWARA SATELLITE TELEVISION STATION		IRAQ3
AL-ZAWRA TELEVISION STATION		IRAQ3
DUNIA TELEVISION	Information Free Zone	SYRIA
GENERAL RADIO AND TELEVISION CORPORATION	Al Oumaween Square; P.O. Box 250	SYRIA
ISLAMIC RADIO AND TELEVISION UNION		ELECTION-EO13848
NATIONAL IRANIAN RADIO AND TELEVISION	Jamejam Street, Valiasr Avenue	IRAN-TRA
RADIO AND TELEVISION CORPORATION	Al Oumaween Square; P.O. Box 250	SYRIA
SATELLITE TELEVISION CHANNEL AL RA'Y	Near Damascus in the Yaafur area	IRAQ3
SBC TELEVISION	Al Sufara' Street in the Ya'fur district	IRAQ3
SYRIAN DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF RADIO & TELEVISION EST	Al Oumaween Square; P.O. Box 250	SYRIA
TELEVISION STATION RUSSIA-1	5th Yamskogo Polya street, 19-21, building 1, Begovoy	RUSSIA-EO14024
THE OPINION SATELLITE TELEVISION CHANNEL	Near Damascus in the Yaafur area	IRAQ3
AL NOUR RADIO	Abed Al Nour Street, PO Box 197/25, Alghobeiri; Haret Hriek	SDGT
AL NUR RADIO	Abed Al Nour Street, PO Box 197/25, Alghobeiri; Haret Hriek	SDGT
LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY RADIO REKLAMA NN	32 Belinskogo Street; Office 301	RUSSIA-EO14024
LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY RADIO REKLAMA VOLOGDA	7 Lesnaya Street; Tverskoy Municipal District	RUSSIA-EO14024
OOO KHOLDING VYBERI RADIO	4 Olkhovskaya Street; Building 2, Floor 5, Suite Part 544; Basmannyy Municipal District	RUSSIA-EO14024
OOO RADIO REKLAMA VOLOGDA	7 Lesnaya Street; Tverskoy Municipal District	RUSSIA-EO14024
RADIO ANNOUR	Abed Al Nour Street, PO Box 197/25, Alghobeiri; Haret Hriek	SDGT
AMAQ NEWS AGENCY		FTO; SDGT
FARS NEWS AGENCY	Number 1, Shahrood Alley, Ferdowsi Square	IFSR; IRAN-HR; IRGC
FEDERAL NEWS AGENCY LLC	d. 18 litera A. pom. 2-N, UL. Vsevoloda Vishnevskogo	CYBER2
NEVSKIY NEWS LLC	d. 11 korp. 2 pom. 327-N, ul. Staroderevenskaya	CYBER2
NEWS AGENCY INFOROS		CAATSA - RUSSIA; CYBER2; NPWMD
ONLY NEWS	Vul. Hotkevicha Gnata 12, Of. 177	ELECTION-EO13848
TASNIM NEWS AGENCY	South Side First Floor, 2 Plaque 12 Pourfallah Street-Shahid Doctor Hassan Azdi St	IFSR; IRAN-HR; IRGC

The EU banned several Russian media companies as well in 2022.

What is the difference, exactly, between these dozens of media outlets that the US and EU designates as being terrorist and those that would be limited under Israel's new law?

If anything, Al Jazeera is more directly implicated in terrorism than, say, Russia Today. As MEMRI's damning report showing the links between Al Jazeera and Hamas mentions:

Since the October 7 attack, Hamas's leaders have been managing the war from Doha and conveying their messages mostly via Al-Jazeera. The network has been operating as a propaganda outlet in the service of Hamas 24/7, with hardly any coverage of other topics. The channel expresses unreserved support for Hamas, justifying the deadly attack, showing footage of it obtained from the body-cams of the terrorists, and celebrating it as a victory that brought pride and honor to the Islamic nation.

Some Al-Jazeera journalists have recently been "outed" as Hamas and PIJ fighters. A Palestinian journalist working for Al-Jazeera, Muhammad Wishah, appears to have also been a commander in the military wing of Hamas, according to documents on a laptop found by the Israeli army in a Hamas base in northern Gaza. Wishah, from Al-Buriej in the central Gaza Strip, has featured in Al-Jazeera broadcasts in recent months, with the station calling him one of their journalists. According to the Israeli military sources, however, Wishah is a prominent commander in Hamas's anti-tank missile unit, who began, in late 2022, to work in R&D for the terror group's air unit.[68] A photo that emerged of Wishah together with Yahya Sinwar suggests warm relations between the two.

Another Al-Jazeera correspondent, Ismail Abu Omar, who participated in the October 7 attack, documenting it from within the Gaza Envelope, was airlifted to Doha for medical treatment on February 19 after having been wounded in an Israeli airstrike in Rafah a week earlier. He has been identified as a Hamas platoon deputy commander.[69]

Mustafa Thuraya, an independent journalist who worked with Al-Jazeera TV and Agence France-Press, was, according to documents found by the Israeli army in Gaza, an operative in the Al-Qassam Brigades' Gaza City Brigade, and he specialized in developing drones. Hamza Al-Dahdouh, another Al-Jazeera journalist and photojournalist, was a member of the electronic engineering unit of the PIJ's Northern Gaza Brigade.

The "concern" the US is showing over sanctioning Al Jazeera is just as hypocritical as its "outrage" over the accidental killing of civilians, something the US has done many times over the years, and rarely apologized for.

(h/t Avi)

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04/03 Links Pt2: A Day that Will Live On in Infamy; Eve Barlow: Parasites; Protests in Amman are linked to Iranian goal to ‘swallow’ Jordan

From Ian:

A Day that Will Live On in Infamy

Today is a dark day for the Western world; a day that will live on in infamy. The decision by the United Nations Security Council to impose a ceasefire on Israel without condemning Hamas for instigating the current war, or insisting on the immediate return of hostages before a ceasefire begins, is surely one of great injustices imposed on a country since the creation of the United Nations in the wake of the Second World War.

Since its establishment in 1945, the United Nations has ostensibly aimed to be the fulcrum of global peace and security, intervening in conflicts to halt wars and foster negotiations. However, the decision today by the UN Security Council marks a stark departure from historical precedents. It is also galling hypocrisy to use Ramadan as a foil for this resolution, when Hamas deliberately chose a Jewish festival day as the date to launch its violent bloodbath against Jews.

These omissions are not just notable; they are literally unprecedented, except when it comes to Israel. In past interventions when the Jewish state wasn’t involved, the UN has repeatedly taken a more balanced approach, recognizing aggressions and violations of international law by all parties involved. This latest stance, with a resolution that is void of any condemnation of Hamas or demands for the return of hostages for there to be a ceasefire, raises questions about fairness and the underlying principles guiding the UN’s decisions in international conflicts.

Just by way of comparison, in January, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 2722, which called for the maintenance of international peace and security in the face of Houthi attacks on commercial navigation in the Red Sea. The resolution unequivocally condemned the Houthi’s aggressive actions, including the seizure of the ship, Galaxy Leader, and its crew, emphasizing the vital importance of unimpeded maritime commerce and the exercise of navigational rights under international law. The resolution demanded an immediate halt to such attacks and called for the release of the seized vessel and its crew, highlighting the broader implications of these actions on global trade and regional stability.

Stephen Pollard: Only science fiction explains the UN’s parallel universe

See what I mean about parallel universes? Those who cite Hamas’ casualty figures are living in a parallel universe where 2+2 does not equal 4 but whatever Hamas declares it to be.

It's the same phenomenon over aid and the supposed famine that is engulfing Gaza as a result of Israel – in this other parallel universe – refusing to allow enough food or medical supplies in. (You hardly need me to tell you that the UN operates in a parallel universe. The UN Human Rights Council, after all, exists not so much in a parallel universe as in a deranged antisemitic fantasy world.)

The recent report by the UN’s Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) Famine Review Committee (FRC) said that famine was likely by May in northern Gaza, and by July in other parts of the Strip. Last week, however, COGAT, the Israeli Defense Ministry body responsible for civilian affairs in the Palestinian territories (COGAT stands for Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories) demolished the “multiple factual and methodological flaws” in the IPC’s report, which was – of course – based on Hamas supplied figures.

For one thing, the IPC simply repeated as fact the Hamas health ministry’s assertion that less than one litre of water per person was available per day, when the actual figure is 20. COGAT has provided incontrovertible photographic and other evidence of between 150 and 200 aid trucks entering daily – what is actually an 80 per cent increase in food supplies since before October 7. The problem, as anyone who lives in our actual universe rather than the parallel one in which the Jews are trying to starve the Gazans, is that the UN’s own agencies in Gaza, and some of the aid organisations, have been unable to distribute supplies which are waiting on the Gazan side of the Kerem Shalom crossing for UN distribution by aid workers – in large part because of Hamas, which is deliberately pushing the narrative of starvation by the Israelis. And the UN, of course, repeats it as fact.

This week a series of pictures has emerged on social and Palestinian media showing markets in Gaza full of food – indeed there is now so much available that, as one vendor told reporters, "an average family can now buy products for a hearty meal with 100 shekels, compared to 200 shekels required for such a meal just a few days ago."

As 3 Body Problem shows, there are an infinite number of these parallel universes. The accusation, for example, that Israel is engaged in genocide, rather than in an astonishingly precise and carefully planned attempt to destroy a terrorist organisation, is patently the product of a parallel universe. You can, I am afraid, take your pick from many more.

Col Kemp: Civilian casualties aplenty inside war's foggy lens

The implication of that is whoever ordered and conducted the strikes believed the vehicles that were hit contained terrorists, suggesting incorrect intelligence or failure of surveillance, possibly compounded by human error. There are many variables. We don’t yet know whether those who conducted the strikes were acting according to IDF rules of engagement or were negligent. Sometimes soldiers and commanders behave recklessly or irresponsibly in all armies including the IDF.

Nor do we know whether accurate information on their movements was passed by the WCK staff or whether it was correctly understood by the IDF or shared with the strike commander. We do, however, know that differentiating between enemy forces and uninvolved civilians is made much more challenging by Hamas terrorists’ use of human shields, always moving and fighting in civilian clothes and sometimes using civilian vehicles such as ambulances and aid trucks.

Unfortunately, nightmares like this occur frequently in the fog of war, with its confusion, chaos, danger, death, destruction, mental overload, human pressure, and technical failure. For example, during President Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021, a US drone strike in Kabul mistakenly killed an aid worker and nine members of his family including seven children. General Mark Milley, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff explained: “In a dynamic high-threat environment, the commanders on the ground had appropriate authority and had reasonable certainty that the target was valid. But after deeper post strike analysis we conclude that innocent civilians were killed.” This strike also occurred as a result of a misidentified vehicle.

Another tragedy occurred in October 2015 when a US gunship attacked a hospital in Kunduz operated by Doctors Without Borders in which 42 staff and patients were killed and many wounded. The US attributed the incident to “avoidable human error compounded by process and equipment failures”, with the aircrew misidentifying the hospital as a Taliban-controlled building.

I have not had personal experience of the killing of innocent civilians but during different campaigns, I was involved with so-called “blue-on-blue” or “friendly fire” incidents, which are not dissimilar. They often occur in conditions of poor visibility or on difficult ground such as urban or wooded areas, when I know firsthand that it is all too easy to misidentify your own troops. Three soldiers from my own regiment were killed by a US air strike in Afghanistan in August 2007 due to human error by both the American strike commander and the British ground controller. The challenges of inherent battlefield chaos and consequent errors — which applies also to civilian casualties - is illustrated by estimates that suggest up to 25% of US casualties in war have been due to friendly fire.

I have no doubt the independent investigation will reveal the full facts and be made public. If there is intentional malice, breaches of IDF rules of engagement, or reckless behavior, individuals will be held accountable under military justice. Lessons will also be learned by the IDF to help them avoid repetition, although the unfortunate reality of war is that other tragic incidents will re-occur during this and other conflicts around the world, especially where terrorists use human shields. In this war in Gaza, there are two fail-safe means of preventing further major violence against civilians as well as soldiers. The first is for Hamas to surrender and release all the hostages. The second is the destruction of Hamas by the IDF.