Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, May 09, 2024

05/09 Links Pt2: I've Read Student Protesters' Manifestos. This Is Ugly Stuff. Clueless, Too; At 76, Israel’s population stands at 9.9 million

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: Amichai Chikli’s rescue remedy

The current pandemic of vicious antisemitism targeting both Israel and Diaspora Jews has prompted many to wonder what can be done to tackle a deranged prejudice that is frighteningly out of control.

It has also prompted many to wonder yet again why Israel is so ineffective at putting its case across.

I raised this a few days ago with Israel’s Minister of Diaspora Affairs Amichai Chikli. A combative member of the Likud Party, Chikli has socially conservative views that have caused Diaspora hackles to rise. This reaction is myopic. His thinking is sharp, coherent and insightful.

What did he make of the antisemitism and incitement in the anti-Israel encampments on campuses in America and Britain and at the massive street demonstrations over the Gaza war?

While acknowledging the involvement of the hard-left and several revolutionary anti-West and pro-Palestinian funders, Chikli stressed the role played by Islamic radicals.

Unlike Muslims who don’t have imperialist aspirations, Islamists treat Islam as a political movement whose aim is to impose Islamic rule across the world. This is the philosophy of the Muslim Brotherhood, which developed in the early decades of the last century and in the late 1980s spawned Hamas.

For Chikli, this is the link not just between Gaza and the demonstrations and encampments but with the progressive Islamization of the West.

The Brotherhood, he said, is a diffused, decentralized movement. It’s not controlled by one body. It operates through mosques, community centers, charities and welfare services. Its subversive agenda is therefore difficult to pin down. But it certainly exists.

Documents from Israel’s civil command of Gaza in the late 1980s, said Chikli, observed that the greatest threat came from these Brotherhood groups, but they were small and difficult to erase because they were spreading throughout society. Today, the Brotherhood links Gaza to Minnesota and Michigan, London and Leeds.

We learn this, said Chikli, from their identical language, ideology and texts. The spiritual guru of Hamas, Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, was based in Qatar, which today remains Hamas’s patron and funder. It was Qaradawi who said Muslims don’t need to fight to dominate Europe because Sharia law would come to dominate British society in any case.

Seth Mandel: The Post-Biden Flood Is Already Here

It’s true that Biden is the last Democrat of his kind and therefore this moment always seemed close at hand. But every political battle that Biden won against his party had a measurable effect on the power balance between the radicals and the moderates. To abandon that fight is to surrender to the barbarians at the gate, ensuring the post-Biden transition is not only imminent and irreversible (in the near term, at least) but chaotic, authoritarian, and baldly anti-Semitic.

Even if you believe the battle to be all but lost you still go down fighting. The alternative is to live as a cog or a figurehead without honor. Exhaustion is not a crime. But surrender is a choice.

One of the few beliefs shared across the partisan divide is this: après Biden, le deluge. After Biden, the radicals prophesied and the moderates feared, comes the flood. It is both bitterly appropriate and bone-chilling that this moment would come at a time when the “flood” metaphor is the animating call-to-arms of America’s domestic extremists.

Al-Aqsa Flood was the name of the pogrom that started all this, when Hamas murdered and raped and tortured its way through more than a thousand innocents, including children and the elderly, and then took hundreds hostage.

It was this barbarism that lit a fire under progressive and Islamist demonstrators in the West. Left-wing protest culture had never been so inspired as it was when witnessing the most depraved human behavior possible. Cosplaying trust-fund radicals got high from seeing civilization at its low. The post-October 7 protest movement that sprang forth from hell named itself after the Hamas operation: “Flood [x] For Gaza” became the template for the months of protests, in major cities and across college campuses, in celebration of the Hamas attacks. The conscious decision to name themselves after a campaign of child murder and sexual torture was the first but by no means the last indication that what we were seeing was not an antiwar movement but the wildfire spread of homegrown extremism.

And this is who Biden has surrendered his policy to. The argument in Biden’s favor was always that as long as he was in office, at least, he could stem the tide. But now the difference between Biden being president and some other Democrat being president is negligible. We are, functionally, after Biden. And the flood is here.

Bret Stephens: A Thank-You Note to the Campus Protesters

Dear anti-Israel campus protesters: Supporters of Israel like me have reasons to give thanks to militant anti-Zionists like you, who demonized anyone who supports Israel's right to exist - which includes a vast majority of Jews - as modern-day Nazis?

For every student who became ardently pro-Palestinian during the protests, another one, perhaps a Jewish student with previously indifferent feelings about Israel, finally saw the connection between antisemitism and anti-Zionism. For every professor who lent support, you've lost a fair-minded liberal with your Maoist-style sloganeering and your arrogant disdain for the genuine fears of some of your Jewish peers.

And for every commencement ceremony whose cancellation you've effectively forced, or which you intend to spoil, thousands of apolitical students have taken an intense and permanent distaste to you and everything you stand for. In short, the game you're playing is paying bigger dividends for my side than it is for yours.

I am a Zionist for the most personal of reasons: because I see Israel as an insurance policy for every Jewish family, including mine, which has endured persecution and exile in the past and understands that we may not be safe forever in our host countries. That kind of insurance is one Jews can't afford to lose. What happened on Oct. 8 - the moment your protests began - gave me a glimpse into what America might yet become for Jews if people like you were to gain real power.

I get that many if not most of you see yourselves as dedicated idealists who want to end suffering for Palestinians. There are ways you could do that without making common cause with people who hate Jews, want to kill us and often do. You are my daily reminder of what my Zionism is for, about and against.

Expanding Definition Of 'Al Aqsa' On Track To Include Entire Levant By 2034 (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Check out their Facebook page.

Jerusalem, May 9 - Experts have calculated the rate at which pro-Palestinian activists have applied to an increasing area a term that once referred to a specific building, and concluded that it will take only ten years for the inflation to swallow all of Israel, the Palestinian Territories, Lebanon, Syria, and parts of Turkey.

Al-Aqsa, literally "the farthest," Mosque, began its rhetorical life in a Qur'an passage describing a journey Mohammad undertook; while scholars debate whether that passage, 1400 years ago, refers to the current Islamic house of worship at the southern end of the Temple Mount, or to a location in Arabia, in practice the Islamic world at large applies the nomenclature to the site in Jerusalem. However, over the last century, agitators expanded the term beyond its strict sense, and now call the entire Temple Mount compound - Haram al-Sharif, or "noble sanctuary" in Islamic terms.

More recently, many of those antisemitic partisans have begun to refer to the Western Wall Plaza, below the western side of the plateau, as the "courtyard of Al Aqsa." With the inflation of the term accelerating, now including areas long considered entirely separate neighborhoods from the core locale, mathematic models now predict that certain Muslim countries and organization will label the whole region "Al Aqsa" by 2034.

"The model makes certain assumptions," cautioned researcher Darrell Harb. "It's impossible to pin down with reliable accuracy whether the expansion will take place uniformly in all directions, or whether it will vary in ways we cannot foresee. Initially, the expansion went primarily north, but also slightly east and west. Now it seems to have moved west, but only along the few hundred meters of the southern end of the compound's western edge. But several important factors weighed in following this model."

"For one thing," he continued, "Al Aqsa only seems to expand in directions associated with the presence of Jews. That observation guided us. We realized that the path of expansion will therefore move exclusively west, through the mostly-Jewish parts of Jerusalem, and then expand north and south, as well - more or less from the river to the sea. But since the Palestinian cause has a way of swallowing every other cause in its path, we also determined that the Al Aqsa nomenclature expansion will follow the same path, as the other elements of the Palestinian cause have also wrought havoc in the neighboring countries and worsened the ethnic tensions in those places. In fact that process moves eight times faster than the one associated with Jews."

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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

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05/09 Links Pt1: Murray: I witnessed Israel choosing life as it fights against a 'death cult'; Biden Withholds Bombs to Spare Hamas in Rafah

From Ian:

Douglas Murray: I witnessed Israel choosing life as it fights against a 'death cult'

Adapted from Douglas Murray‘s speech Monday as The Post columnist accepted the Manhattan Institute’s Alexander Hamilton Award.

I think, finally, of the extraordinary evening in November last year.

I was at the Schneider Children’s Hospital when the helicopters came returning the first hostages, the first children who Hamas had stolen from their homes in the south.

But when the helicopters emerged in the night sky, the people of Tel Aviv realized what was happening, and every car stopped.

And I noticed there was applause from the citizens, the Tel Avivians, and then there was singing, all the way through the streets of Tel Aviv.

They were singing “Haveynu shalom aleichem”: We brought you peace.

Now there’s millions of stories like this across Israel.

The country rings with them, it resounds with them.

The thing is, perhaps it does require life to become serious again.

Perhaps the students that we see at these destroyed universities, perhaps they just need a dose of reality someday.

I always pray that that day never comes to them because it’ll be the biggest wake-up call anyone has ever had.

But all I would say is that any country should be so lucky as to have a young generation like that in Israel.

They were weighed in the balance since October the 7th, and they’ve been found to be magnificent.

What Israel has been up against is not just a people of death, but a cult of death, a cult, which wishes to annihilate an entire race, and which after dealing with that race has made very clear what it wants to do with Christians, everyone in Britain, everyone in America.

I want to dedicate my acceptance of this award to the people of Israel who in the face of death, choose life.

John Podhoretz: Biden’s Shameful Betrayal

Joe Biden deserves nothing but condemnation, censure, and withering contempt for his announcement tonight that he will withhold significant amounts of the recently approved aid to Israel should the government begin a full-on siege of the last Hamas redoubt in, around, and under Rafah.

For seven months now, I have defended Joe Biden. On our podcast and on this website, I have repeatedly said that while the president may have felt—wrongly, in my view—that he needed to maintain some rhetorical space from Israel because of the imagined need to keep young people and Arab-Americans in his electoral camp, the actual policies and support he was offering and providing the Jewish state were consistent and solid. For months, for example, he pushed for a significant aid package even as he criticized tactics and strategies employed by the IDF to fight in Gaza. And he supplied important logistical support to protect Israel—first by deploying ships to the Lebanese coast to deter Hezbollah and then in the air campaign that rendered the direct Iranian attack all but harmless.

That was then, this is now. That aid package he fought for? He’s now blocking much of it himself—and is promising to do worse in days to come. That support for Israel? He is now pursuing policies that are designed to keep Hamas alive. This long-time friend of Israel? At an incredibly critical moment, he is giving Barack Obama a run for his money as a singularly destructive American “ally.” We’re told the decision to act this way came last week but that Biden wanted to keep it quiet until he delivered his speech commemorating the Holocaust.

That disgraceful and two-faced effort to earn emotional plaudits from speaking strongly about the greatest historical tragedy of the Jewish people even as he was working to cripple the Jewish state suggests Biden possesses a level of chutzpah that would make even the man who kills his parents and then throws himself on the mercy of the court for being an orphan say “Now you’ve gone too far.”

WSJ Editorial: Biden Withholds Bombs to Spare Hamas in Rafah

The Biden Administration confirmed this week it is blocking the delivery of weapons to its main ally in the Middle East.

The message from the White House is that Israel shouldn't have large bombs or small bombs, dumb bombs or smart bombs, and let it do without tank shells and artillery shells too.

Now isn't a good time to send the weapons, you see, because Israel would use them.

U.S. officials explain that the goal of the embargo is to prevent a wider Israeli attack on the Hamas stronghold of Rafah, home to Hamas leaders, hostages and four military battalions.

If Israel can't complete its invasion of Rafah, Hamas wins.

No matter how fiercely the President trumpets his "ironclad" support for Israel, his denial of weapons now puts the Jewish state in danger.

Israel is at war, assaulted on multiple fronts. Denying it U.S. arms is an invitation to its enemies to take advantage, in hostage talks and on the battlefield.

It hasn't been four weeks since Iran attacked Israel directly, in the largest drone attack in history, plus 150 ballistic and cruise missiles, while Hizbullah fires dozens of rockets each day, depopulating the north of Israel for seven months and counting.

Israel needs to be ready now, and its enemies need to know the U.S. stands behind it. That's why Congress approved military aid to Israel in April, 79-18 in the Senate and 366-58 in the House.

The 74th FIFA Congress be held in Bangkok, Thailand, on May 17, and the Palestinian team is trying to get Israel banned from the organization.

The campaign to have Israel thrown out of FIFA over the Gaza crisis will be stepped up at the world governing body’s annual congress next month.

The Palestine Football Association is urging FIFA’s 211 member federations, when they meet in Thailand, to impose “appropriate sanctions, with immediate effect, against Israeli teams” on the grounds of human rights and humanitarian law violations.

“All the football infrastructure in Gaza has been either destroyed or seriously damaged, including the historic stadium of Al-Yarmuk,” the Palestinian FA motion says.

Article 4 of the FIFA statutes strictly prohibits “discrimination of any kind against a country … or group of people” on any grounds, and says any breach of this non-discrimination obligation is punishable by “suspension or expulsion”.

The chances of success are slim, but that isn't the point. The Palestinian football federation, headed by Jibril Rajoub, has made no secret of using sports as a means to demonize Israel.

After an important win in January by the Palestinian team, Al Jazeera asked Rajoub what the victory meant. His answer explains how everything is about demonizing Israel politically, and not to teach about sportsmanship, or giving people something to root for, or brotherhood:

Al Jazeera: What does the success of the Palestinian team mean to the people in Gaza?

Jibril Rajoub: We, the Palestinian football family, believe that the sport can be a good tool to expose the suffering of the Palestinian people and to highlight their determination and commitment to achieving their goals.

Rajoub told Wafa things like this:

The draft resolution also includes a demand for Israel to stop the genocide it is committing against the Palestinian people, which includes sports and athletes, as 256 sports martyrs have been counted, including 5 in the West Bank, players, administrators and technicians, whom Israel has killed so far, in addition to dozens of people missing under the rubble. "We have not been able to count them yet, hundreds of detainees, destroying all sports facilities, and converting some stadiums and facilities into interrogation centers similar to Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib .”

While Rajoub has attempted to push similar resolutions for more than a decade, the only action FIFA took was against...him.

ESPN reported in 2018:

The president of the Palestinian Football Association has been banned from all football activity for the next year after calling on fans to burn jerseys and pictures of Barcelona star Lionel Messi.

Jibril Rajoub made the comments about Messi in advance of the planned friendly match between Argentina and Israel in Jerusalem before this summer's World Cup. The game was ultimately cancelled amid political pressure.

In addition to a 12-month match suspension, Rajoub has also been handed a fine of 20,000 Swiss francs (€17,500) for breaching article 53 of FIFA's disciplinary code.

"The disciplinary committee held that Mr Rajoub's statements incited hatred and violence, and consequently imposed the above-mentioned sanctions," FIFA explained in a statement on Friday.

Rajoub does nothing else but incit hate and violence, including by using FIFA procedures themselves.

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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

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Logical fallacies that Israel haters use, part 5

I gotta say, I'm amazed at how many of these I've seen and heard.

63. The Narrative Fallacy. This one could fill up several posts on its own. "Historic borders of Palestine," "The ancient Palestinian people," "Palestinians welcomed the persecuted Jews," up to "Israeli soldiers sexually abuse Palestinian women in prison." All of them with extended "witness" testimony.

64. No Discussion. Zionists: "Let's discuss your issues with Israel." "Response: "Globalize the Intifada!"

65. Non-recognition: "We do not speak to the Zionist entity."

66. The Non Sequitur: Responding to "Palestinian government is corrupt" with "Occupation!"

67. Nothing New Under the Sun "The Jews cannot be trusted to hold to agreements, as we see in the Quran."

68. Olfactory Rhetoric: “I can sniff you, we can all sniff you...We can smell the Zionist on you.”

69. Othering/Dehumanization:

70. Overgeneralization. "Antisemitism is no different from all other forms of bigotry and does not deserve to be treated uniquely."

71. The Passive Voice Fallacy: "A Jewish settler was killed in the West Bank yesterday."

72. The Plain Truth Fallacy. "I don't want to hear an entire history lesson about the conflict. What's happening in Gaza today is all that matters."

73. Playing on Emotion: "Israel is killing babies! Babies!"

74. Language Control: "Israel Occupation Forces," "Zionist Entity," "Al Quds," "Tal ar-Rabeea" (for Tel Aviv.)

75. The Pollyanna Principle/Projection Bias: "Palestinians don't support terror; they just want freedom. They're just like us!" "Like Americans, the overwhelming number of Palestinians support a state side by side with Israel!"

76. Prosopology/Reciting the Litany: "Remember their names!" (with a list of names of people killed/imprisoned)

77. The Red Herring: "History didn't begin October 7."

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!

From CNN:

President Joe Biden said for the first time Wednesday he would halt some shipments of American weapons to Israel – which he acknowledged have been used to kill civilians in Gaza – if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu orders a major invasion of the city of Rafah.

“Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centers,” Biden told CNN’s Erin Burnett in an exclusive interview on “Erin Burnett OutFront,” referring to 2,000-pound bombs that Biden paused shipments of last week.

“I made it clear that if they go into Rafah – they haven’t gone in Rafah yet – if they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities – that deal with that problem,” Biden said.

The president’s announcement that he was prepared to condition American weaponry on Israel’s actions amounts to a turning point in the seven-month conflict between Israel and Hamas. And his acknowledgement that American bombs had been used to kill civilians in Gaza was a stark recognition of the United States’ role in the war.

He said he had conveyed to Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders that American support for operations in population centers was limited.

“I’ve made it clear to Bibi and the war cabinet: They’re not going to get our support, if in fact they go on these population centers,” he said.

Most people commenting on this are concentrating on the political aspect, as it signals a serious rift in US-Israel relations.

Far more important is that this policy shift, if applied uniformly, would not save lives nearly as much as it further endangers civilians.

The message that Hamas, ISIS and every terror group and autocratic regime like Iran is hearing is that human shields are a legitimate and impregnable defense, one that Western countries cannot counter. As long as terrorists and their enablers place their military assets in the midst of civilian areas, they are untouchable.

This has never been the US position. Nor is it the position of most Western democracies, nor is it the position of international law. Civilians are protected by the principle of distinction between military and civilian objects, and the principle of proportionality to limit damage to civilians and civilian objects as much as possible while attacking valid military objectives. And as we have seen, Israel is more restrictive on calculating proportionality to protect civilians than international law requires.

Every civilian death in Gaza is the result of Hamas choosing to hide behind and underneath civilians. If Hamas separated every military object from civilians as international law requires, there would not be a single civilian death in Gaza. The implication that Israel is not being careful enough in protecting civilian life when Hamas is cynically using them as its own Iron Dome is slanderous.

Destroying Hamas is a valid, moral and necessary military objective. But Biden is proposing an alternative that he claims, without any evidence, would accomplish the same goal: assassinating Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.

“I said to Bibi, ‘Don’t make the same mistake we made in America. We wanted to get bin Laden. We’ll help you get Sinwar,’” he said, referring to the Hamas leader in Gaza. “It made sense to get bin Laden; it made no sense to try and unify Afghanistan. It made no sense in my view to engage in thinking that in Iraq they had a nuclear weapon.”

Yet even though President Obama prioritized killing Osama bin Laden, he didn't abandon the major aim of destroying Al Qaeda altogether. He said in 2009, “Our overarching goal remains the same: to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and to prevent its capacity to threaten America and our allies in the future.” And even after killing Bin Laden, he said, "We must finish the work of defeating al Qaeda and its associated forces." Killing Bin Laden was important but not sufficient to eliminate the threat against US civilians.

Why is the US morally obligated to destroy Al Qaeda but Israel has no right to do what is necessary to destroy Hamas? Why is the US pushing Israel to stop the war and allow Hamas to survive, where it can declare victory, rebuild, attract more members and allies and strengthen Iran's "axis of resistance" that stretches from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean?

Biden's message is that terrorists have a "get out of jail free" card: Surround themselves with civilians and live to kill another day.

With the full support of the United States.

This policy runs counter to the United States' own historic policy towards terror groups. It is paternalistic, telling Israelis who are directly threatened by Islamist terror in their own cities that the US knows what they need to do better than they do. Not only that, but it is not even effective: it endangers the very civilians that Biden is pretending to care about because it encourages other groups like the Houthis and Hezbollah to actively position their missiles and members among and underneath schools and mosques and hospitals even more than they already are.

Encouraging immoral acts in the name of morality is nothing but hypocrisy.

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!

President of SUNY Purchase College caves to antisemitic bullies

Anti-Israel protesters at Purchase College celebrated as they announced that the president of the college, Milagros (Milly) Peña, had caved to every single demand they made.

Over the weekend, it appeared that the college administration was growing a small backbone in the face of disruptive protests:

SUNY Purchase released a statement, saying students participating in protests were reminded over the past several days that they may assemble protests, vigils, rallies and other free speech activities but only up to the start of quiet hours.
In a statement the school said in part, "Quiet hours are especially important during finals as they respect the rights of Purchase students to sleep, prepare for finals, and complete their final projects."
The statement went on to say, "Protestors were also invited multiple times to meet with the president and cabinet members to voice their concerns, as long as campus rules were followed, including dispersing at midnight from the protest last night. The protestors chose not to take the offer."

But all of that meant nothing, Pena met with the group, "Raise the Consciousness" - which is not a recognized campus student group - and the group announced last night that "we got every single demand!"

“After five-and-a-half hours of negotiating, after five days of working in an encampment at SUNY Purchase for the freedom of Palestine, we were able to get Mili Pena to agree to all of our demands in some capacity and we were able to get everything we wanted,” the speaker says.

Milly Pena

That was an exaggeration, but not much of one. Pena released a statement describing what the college agreed to with the illegal student group:

A commitment that a committee of students will meet with the relevant board to discuss ethical investing;
A commitment to hold in abeyance any disciplinary consequences for those arrested on 5/2 contingent on the students committing no further actions that go against the student code of conduct or local, state, or campus policies;
A commitment to a full review of the incidents of 5/2 by an entity outside of the campus;
A commitment to transparency regarding the companies that engage in business with Purchase College;
In the coming days I will share my thoughts with the campus community recognizing the loss of all innocent lives and how we can further the cause of lasting peace.

Our progress together must be built on a relationship of trust. As was clear from the email from Faculty Presiding Officer Andrew Salomon below, at no point did the college agree to divest from Israel or take any ‘BDS action, (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) nor did we agree to any proposals beyond those described above.

Why didn't the college agree to boycott Israel?

Not because of academic freedom. Not because BDS is antisemitic.

The reason is because New York State has laws against BDS by publicly funded institutions.

The president caving to the demands of students who treated the college with such disrespect is only the tip of the iceberg of the rot at Purchase College.

The president of Hillel, Esti Heller, wrote a letter to President Pena describing how badly Jews have been treated on campus since October 7. It is a long read but very important.

To President Milagros "Milly" Pena: I have spoken to you many times before. I've met with you. You even came up to congratulate me at my senior showcase. I genuinely believed that we had a good relationship. As a Jewish leader through Hillel, StandWithUs, and the JewishOnCampus student union, I have talked to you countless times about providing a safer community for Jewish students since the first antisemitic incident of this year on September 20, and especially after October 7. Time and again, you assured me you would take action. Time and again, I received no follow up.
I am writing to you now out of sheer disgust and disappointment at your appeasement of Raise the Consciousness (RTC) after the repeated disruptions, vandalism, and conduct violations they have committed throughout the year, while failing to give any measurable credence to the harassment and bullying consistently reported to you and your senior leadership. You have effectively rewarded bad behavior and offered nothing in the form of support or protection to victims under your purview who have repeatedly asked for your help. Despite all of this, while I was disappointed in your lack of action in support of Jewish students, I had been sure that you would not actively create a hostile environment for us. Now I see that I was wrong.
Over the course of this year I have brought specific examples of antisemitism from student groups on campus, abuse of power and discrimination from within the student government, and harassment and demonization of Jewish students at Purchase College. I have informed you and your administrators about the organization Samidoun, which is banned in Germany for hosting anti-Jewish rallies and funding the terrorist organization Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), being invited to our campus. I sat with you as an elected student representative accused my friend and I, Hillel board members, of "controlling the student government;" a classic antisemitic trope which you failed to address in the moment, nor since that March 5 meeting. I have forwarded every recorded reference of "intifada", "from the river to the sea", and "isra-hell has got to go" documented from protests held on our campus. I have urged you to take action, whether by adopting the IHRA definition of antisemitism, providing bias training, or simply establishing a safe, moderated space for students of all backgrounds to respectfully discuss their opposing views. Your response to the vitriol that Jewish and Israeli students have been subjected to was to host a healing circle. Out of the approximately thirty students who showed up, only four were there to attend rather than protest. Those four students were all Hillel members. During this event we were jeered at by our peers, taken photos of, and tossed around like props for your photo opportunity. We received no follow up afterwards, even as we were told that we had blood on our hands by our peers.
President Pena, my senior year should have been spent enjoying my last few moments on the Purchase College campus that I loved. Instead, I spent countless hours responding to antisemitic incidents, comforting Jewish students who were afraid to leave their dorms, and strategically planning a way forward as you refused to do for the affected Jewish students. In the past few days alone I have set aside all of my final exams in order to solely comfort my Jewish and Israeli peers as they navigated this new reality which you enabled; a reality in which their classmates can call for suicide bombings targeting them as well as the death of their ancestral homeland and/or home country with no consequences. I'd like to ask you, President Pena—is this what "think wide open", our school's motto, looks like? Your establishment of "free speech zones" in which these students can protest during finals week, in violation of your own campus policy, has created no go zones for Jewish students. The few of them that are left on campus have been forced to spend hours mapping out their route to class in order to avoid that area due to fear for their safety. Your leadership has caused an exodus of responsible Jewish students who have been unable to exercise their right to education in a safe environment.
As much as I had faith in your leadership, despite many disappointing meetings throughout this year, I must say your decision making during this time has been nothing short of abysmal. The overwhelming and overly hostile force that you sent the encampment's way on Thursday night, leading to seventy arrests (several of whom were not participants in the protest), only led to an increased support for Raise the Consciousness. Your complete lack of response the following day when the encampment returned only emboldened them to become more radical in their actions. And now, your appeasement of their unrealistic, antisemitic, and illegal demands has shown this campus that as long as one is loud, any action is on the table.
On Sunday morning at 4:00 am, after hours of calming Jewish and Israeli students, I sent you one last email urging you to take action. The student government, one you oversee, unanimously had approved a BDS resolution and condemned you for denouncing Hamas following the October 7 massacre. They then immediately began to endorse RTC and promote their events, despite the fact that they have never been a registered student organization. This action on account of the student government was exclusionary, divisive, and removed any pro Israel Jew or Israeli from the campus life at SUNY Purchase. I sent you a detailed account of what Jewish and Israeli students were going through. I called upon our past meetings, email exchanges, and begged you to prove to me that you were still an ally. To this day I have not received a response. Instead, I received an email detailing your negotiations with RTC and your agreements to discuss auditing campus vendors in alignment with their calls to divest.
I have been a Jewish student at SUNY Purchase for four years. I have loved my time on this campus. I was proud of its diversity, commitment to the arts, and the many communities available for students. Now, on this day, I do not recognize it and cannot help but feel a profound sense of disillusionment. My senior year here has been marred by the specter of antisemitism, a scourge that has only grown in strength due to your consistent inaction. I carry with me the heavy weight of disappointment and betrayal, because despite my countless pleas and tireless advocacy, the safety and well-being of Jewish students have been delegitimized. My final days on this campus should have been filled with joy and celebration, but instead, they have been overshadowed by fear and uncertainty. I leave behind a community torn apart by hatred, where we have been forced to flee, to seek refuge elsewhere, because our voices went unheard and our safety was compromised. Until real action is taken to combat antisemitism, my faith in the integrity of this institution remains shattered, and I will continue in my unrelenting fear and concern for the future of Jewish and Israel students at Purchase. Ultimately, you had the power to stop this from happening. I hope you are asking yourself why you did not.
Respectfully, Esti Heller

The letter is chilling.

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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

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05/08 Links Pt2: VDH: The End of Old Left-wing Mythologies; BBC (fake) News – written by terrorists; UNRWA caught stealing, selling humanitarian aid

From Ian:

Seth Mandel: Biden’s Missed Opportunity

President Biden spoke late this morning at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum on anti-Semitism, and while he missed the opportunity to deliver a still-needed rebuke to his own party, Biden did manage to avoid repeating the two biggest mistakes he’s made on this issue: the false equivalence and the “legitimate grievance” trap.

Last month, for example, he demonstrated both blunders in the same answer to a question about the anti-Semitic protesters at various U.S. college campuses: “I condemn the anti-semitic protests… I also condemn those who don’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians.”

There, in one breath, the president gave equivalent condemnation of those committing anti-Jewish violence and those who lack sufficient empathy for the violent anti-Semitic protesters. Underlying it all is the idea that the protesters have a legitimate grievance with their victims.

It was the closest the president has come to his own “there are very fine people on both sides” moment.

Fact is, Jews are being openly harassed in the U.S. as retribution for something the protesters are falsely accusing the state of Israel of doing thousands of miles away. That’s it—that’s the whole scene. There is, in other words, no possible justification for the actions of these pro-Hamas extremists. There is no “both sides.”

Similarly, we all know exactly what Gaza has to do with the guy who threw a bottle at a Jewish man’s head at the Columbia gates and told him to “go back to Poland”: Nothing at all.

The examples go on for days, but the point is clear: Anti-Semitic violence as a response to the war in Gaza is indefensible on any level. Linking the two as some sort of cause-effect equation is nothing less than making anti-Semites’ arguments for them.

The Times centers Palestinians in coverage of Biden's Holocaust speech

However, why would Dawber expect the US president, in a speech commemorating the systematic murder of six million Jews by the Nazis, mention Palestinians?

There are many ways to read this, but, given the context, as well as having covered the journalist’s writing over the years, it seems to be a way of legitimising the odious canard that Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza. It also reflects a broader media pattern of centering Palestinians in articles about antisemitism, such as when reports on efforts to promote the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism includes complaints that IHRA will ‘silence’ Palestinian voices. This is particularly absurd narrative given that Palestinians are, based on polling, among most antisemitic people on the globe.

But, in the context of the war, the Times journalist’s framing also likely represents an effort to pushback at Biden’s correct assessment that, on Oct, 7, the Palestinian terror group which runs Gaza carried out the most lethal and barbaric (trigger warning) antisemitic atrocity since the Holocaust.

In fact, Biden’s speech included the observation that “That [ancient antisemitic] hatred was brought to life on October 7th in 2023. On a sacred Jewish holiday, the terrorist group Hamas unleashed the deadliest day of the Jewish people since the Holocaust.” The president also said that “Too many people denying, downplaying, rationalizing, ignoring the horrors of the Holocaust and October 7th, including Hamas’s appalling use of sexual violence to torture and terrorize Jews.”

Dawber’s insistence on downplaying antisemitism is also evident in a sentence further into the article:

Victor Davis Hanson: The End of Old Left-wing Mythologies

The current radical and often violent protests on mostly blue-state, supposedly elite campuses have exposed in toxic fashion what the left has become. And yet, in a paradoxical fashion, the campus insanity has offered the nation some moral clarity.

What’s surprising is not that the demonstrators are violent and nihilist, but that they are, on the one hand, so openly and crudely anti-Semitic, racist, and anti-American, and yet on the other hand, so passive-aggressive, narcissistic, and weepy.

Nevertheless, the antics of the campus cry-bullies have exploded myths that were for so long foisted on the American people by politicos and the media.

#1. Anti-Israel/Anti-Semitic: We have been lectured ad nauseam that hating Israel has nothing to do with anti-Semitism. The last month has blown up that old shibboleth for good. The left makes no distinction in their eliminationist chants between Israel and Jews. “Go back to Poland” is a homonym for “From the River to the Sea.” Both are shorthand for eliminating Jews—aside from the explicit threats to kill Jews and occasional praise for Hitler and the Final Solution.

When pro-Hamas thugs chase Jews into libraries, block their entrances on campus, and scream “beat the Jew” as they hit piñatas, they do not first ask Jews whether they support Israel—because they could care less. For the Islamist Middle Easterner on a student visa or green card and his useful American student, it is enough that their targets are Jewish—period.

Remember, the protests started on October 7, not on October 27, when the IDF went into Gaza. At that point, campus and street protests merely changed from euphoric triumphalism on the news that Hamas had slaughtered, decapitated, mutilated, raped, or kidnapped hundreds of Jews (“exhilarated,” a Cornell professor gushed of the carnage), to furor and violence. So after three weeks of celebrating dead Jews, the street protests grew furious only when the IDF finally began fighting back and destroying Hamas, even as its terrorists cowardly hid beneath mosques, hospitals, and schools to ensure enough collateral damage to incite pro-Hamas Western throngs.

#2. Pro-Palestinian/Pro-Hamas: The left also blew up the ancient pretense that being “pro-Palestine” was not “pro-Hamas.” But the campus and street demonstrations now make no distinction between the two. The calls for the destruction of Israel and “death to America” come right out of the Hamas credo. Hamas (and Hezbollah as well) logos and flags are easy to find among the protestors. Interviews with the protesters repeatedly reveal massive support for Hamas, to the extent of staging lessons in hand-to-hand combat.

Polls in the Middle East still show strong Gazan support for their one-election/one-time Hamas autocracy. Apparently, any anger that Gazans bear toward Hamas for destroying the peace on October 7, wrecking their state, and getting civilians killed by using them as human shields is outweighed by the plus side on their ledger of the murder of 1200 Jewish civilians. In other words, the campus protests promote the fascistic, terrorist Hamas clique because of, not despite, its murder of Jewish civilians.

David Collier: BBC (fake) News – written by terrorists – the proof

This exclusive shows without doubt that the BBC puts out blatant fake news reports, and it also proves that the sources they rely upon for news include Al Jazeera, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad!

Hamas propaganda – the mass graves of Nasser Hospital
As part of the move south, the Israeli forces began to close in on the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis. In mid-January fighting between Israel and the terrorist factions became intense in the *vicinity* of the hospital. Hamas propaganda channels were reporting dozens of casualties by January 22. On the same day, Palestinians began burying the bodies (almost certainly mostly dead terrorists) in the grounds of the hospital:

Videos were released showing them ‘burying their martyrs’. A week later, on the 27th & 28th January – along with undated evidence presented in additional footage – we are told by Hamas channels that more bodies were buried in the grounds of the Nasser Complex. One Hamas (QNN) post claimed an additional 150 bodies were buried (January 27th).

Therefore, Hamas claimed that in the last weeks of January 2024, over 200 bodies were buried by Palestinians in the courtyard of Nasser Medical Complex. Most of them almost certainly dead terrorists.

The creation and spread of fake news
On the evening of April 20th (close to midnight Gaza time), Hamas propaganda channels (eg QNN) began reporting on a mass grave being found on the grounds of Nasser hospital in Gaza. By the morning, hundreds of bodies were reported to have been found.

At 10:07am (Gaza time) on April 21st Al Jazeera English spread the story around the globe. By 17:30, Al Jazeera was reporting that at least 180 bodies had been found. Al Jazeera showed footage of Palestinians digging up the bodies, and claimed that Israeli forces carried out the massacre.

Hamas was now blaming Israel for mass graves which they themselves had reported were dug in January by Palestinians following a battle between Israeli forces and Hamas!

Amateur, blatant, stupid
The fake news story being promoted by Hamas was obvious from the start. Al Jazeera picked it up because it is a Hamas mouthpiece. But to any decent journalist or reporter, the attempt was amateurish, blatant and stupid. All anyone had to do was compare images between the January and April incidents.

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

Photos of Rafah refugees fleeing however they might—by car, on foot, by bundle-laden donkey-driven carts—were everywhere yesterday, the unseasonable rain adding a poignant touch of pathos to their plight. The parents looked grim for the photos, while the children seemed cheerful enough, with smiles on their faces. They were leaving Rafah. It was an adventure.

The much-anticipated IDF operation in Rafah had already begun if you count the evacuation of some 100,000 Rafah civilians to a new humanitarian zone created just for them. For the refugees, it would be no picnic, obviously, but there would be “field hospitals, tents, and increased provisions of food, water, medicine, and other supplies,” said the Jerusalem Post.

Some of the refugees attempted to cross into Egypt, to no avail. They were turned away by the Egyptian military, who had beefed up their presence and level of preparedness along the 12-kilometer border between Gaza and Egypt.

You read that right: Egypt shares a border with Gaza. If you look at a map, you will see it is true.

(Red line: border fence between Rafah and Israel. Brown line: border line between Rafah and Egypt.)

But Egypt will not provide a haven for the desperate-to-leave Gazan civilians. Not unless they pay a fee of anywhere from $5,000-$12,000 a head.

Most refugees don’t have that kind of money.

A touching Ynet piece, 'We hate Hamas like we hate Israel': the Palestinians who managed to flee Gaza, shares the stories of various Gazans forced to relocate—in some cases, more than once—as a result of the war Hamas started on October 7:

The procedure of leaving Gaza went on for days. In the first stage, Dr. Mukhaimer Abu Saada, who lived near the upscale Al Rimal neighborhood, was forced to move with his wife Rosanne and his children to Khan Younis where he found shelter at a relative’s apartment. Two weeks later, IDF forces told the area’s residents to move to Rafah where the man, who until recently was head of the department of political science at Al-Azhar University, huddled with his family in a tent in appalling conditions.

Only then did they receive word and the family reported at the border crossing. They waited in line. Someone had made sure to pay $8,000 per person. Only then were they granted a permit to cross into Egypt. “It was a nightmare,” he says in an interview from his new home in Cairo. “We didn’t know until the last minute whether we’d be able to get out of there.”

Despite the upheaval, Dr. Abu Saada is considered one of the lucky ones. Since the start of the war, very few Gazans have managed to leave the bombed and burning Strip. Some only passed via Egypt en route to Europe or Arab countries that had agreed to take them in. Others have settled in Egypt. The transition cost a great deal – amounts of money most Gazans could only dream of . . .

. . . Since November, when the Rafah crossing opened for around-the-clock activity, 600 Palestinians holding dual nationality have managed to leave the Gaza Strip. Then came the privileged, like Abu Saada, whose people paid for their departure. At the moment, it’s the rich who can get out. At first, they paid $8,000 per person. The price then dropped to $,5000 and it’s now risen to $10,000 (children paying $2500). The permit arrives at night and is only stamped the following day. If you miss that window of opportunity, you have to start the process all over – with increments of thousands of dollars per person. Only a few dozen people have so far managed to get out in this way. . .

. . . Like Abu Saada, M., along with five family members, managed to make it to Cairo. “We were lucky,” she says, “we only paid $5,000 per adult and $2,000 per child. The price is now twice that.” She doesn’t want to disclose her complete name, and definitely not to an Israeli newspaper. “Yes, I’m in Egypt in a safe place, but I have first- and second-degree relatives in Gaza and I need to think of them.”

The Rafah civilians should be safe in the humanitarian zone created for them by Israel—unless Hamas finds a way to use them as human shields. But the homes they left may very well be reduced to dust. Hamas is behind that—behind all of the death and destruction. The rapists have wormed their way through Gaza every which way: from belowground in tunnels, and from aboveground, too, embedding itself in apartment buildings, schools, and hospitals.

Hamas makes extensive use of human shields, putting civilians in harm's way to shield itself. It’s a very effective tactic from the terrorists’ perspective. Hamas hides behind the civilians, and the IDF holds its fire. In this cruel manner, civilians provide the perfect protection for Israel's real nemesis: the Hamas rapist cowards.

When, however, Gaza civilians do get caught in the crossfire and subsequently die, it's a win-win proposition for Hamas. There’s nothing quite like photos of dead Gazans to demonize Israel and further Hamas aims. The photos are framed in such a way as to take the onus off the true culprit, Hamas, for the Gazan death and destruction, while shifting the blame onto Israel.

The AP and Reuters, of course, just lap this stuff up. It’s what their audiences crave most: Israel as murderer without mercy, the Gazans as poor innocent lambs. That’s the media narrative and they're sticking to it. And it is this narrative that continues to empower and embolden Hamas, who holds not only Israelis hostage, but the people of Gaza, too.

One might have thought, if one were inclined to think, that among the 22 Arab nations, there’d be one or two that might take pity on the people of Gaza, and absorb and resettle at least some of them, and on their own dime. They share a common language along with the same culture and religion as the fleeing refugees. Yet, not one of these 22 Arab countries will let them in. That’s a lot of places that might extend a charitable hand to the Gaza refugees, but fail to do so.

Of course, one cold-hearted country stands out from among the rest in regard to its lack of concern over the plight of its Gazan brethren, and that country is Egypt. Egypt shares a border with Gaza. And all Egypt has to do is open its gates and heart to its Arab brothers and sisters—the ones who will die if it doesn’t.

But it won’t.

There are many reasons why Egypt won’t take in its kin—won’t take in its own. But we won’t go into that here. Instead we will talk about the shame of it. How shameful it is that Egypt won’t take in its own people.

Confronted with this truth, those plugging the anti-Israel narrative have a rote response at the ready, "What does Egypt have to do with any of this—this Hamas war with Israel?"

Actually, quite a lot. Beginning with the fact that many if not most Gazans are of Egyptian heritage.

"Masri” is slang for "Egyptian" and according to “Palestinian Tribes, Clans, and Notable Families,” a prominent surname in Gaza:

Notable Families

The third clan-like grouping in Palestine in the urban elite notable family, a social formation typical throughout the Arab lands of the Ottoman Empire. Many of the most well known and prominent Palestinian families come from this notabsle, or a’yan, social class: Husayni, Nashashibi, Dajani, Abd al-Hadi, Tuqan, Nabulsi, Khoury, Tamimi, Khatib, Ja’bari, Masri, Kan’an, Shaq’a, Barghouthi, Shawwa, Rayyes, and others. These are extended families that dominated Palestinian politics until the 1980s, and are still relatively prominent today.

The preponderance in Gaza of the surname “Masri” (also “al-Masri” and other variations), betrays the Egyptian origins of a large number of Gazans. They’re the same people of the same stock; they’re Egyptians. But Egypt shares more than blood ties with Gaza. Egypt shares a border with Gaza, something the stupid don’t know when they talk about Gaza being an “open-air prison”

There are TWO ways in and out of Gaza, two shared borders. One with Israel and one with, Egypt, from whence the people of Gaza come. The Egyptians are their family, their kin.

But kids these days. These ignorant protesting dummies on college campuses, so drunk with genocide cool aid, that they haven’t even looked at a map. How could we expect them to do a bit of digging, apply some critical thought to the idea that they're fighting for—to look at the clues contained in the surnames of the people they claim are subject to Israeli genocide? It's their own family who won’t let them in!

Smart people know better than these campus idiots because they bother to look at a map, and investigate the facts. They see how shameful this is, how Egypt, only steps away from Rafah, should be ashamed of itself. That’s what intelligent people know to think when they see photos in the media of the sad and grim refugees set to wandering yet again.

It’s what we should all be thinking and asking out loud: Why won’t Egypt give refuge to its brethren? Why won’t it save its own people? Why has Egypt trapped the people of Gaza in an open-air prison even now, when it counts most, when the homes and lives of the Gazan people of Rafah, lie in the balance?

History will not be kind to Egypt for its despicable behavior toward the people of Rafah. All will be noted and recorded, a new black mark on the reputation of Egypt, the country that once oppressed the Jews and now oppresses its own.

It's a shameful thing, a shonda.

For shame, Egypt.

For shame.

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!

05/08 Links Pt1: Sinister Hamas deal would let it keep most hostages, win the war, inflame the West Bank; Noa Marciano killed by doctor at Shifa Hospital

From Ian:

Sinister Hamas deal would let it keep most hostages, win the war, inflame the West Bank

On Tuesday night, more than a day after Hamas claimed to have approved what it said was the Egyptian and Qatari mediators’ proposal “regarding a ceasefire agreement,” the US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller finally declared publicly, “That is not what they did.”

Rather, said Miller, “They responded with amendments or a counterproposal.” The US, he said, was “working through the details of that now.”

In fact, close examination of the Hamas document, as issued (Arabic) by the terror group itself, shows that far from containing “amendments” or a remotely viable counterproposal, it is constructed with incendiary sophistication to ensure that Hamas survives the war and regains control over the entire Gaza Strip. (Quotations from the Hamas text in this piece are from a translation by the Qatari-owned Al Jazeera website.)

But that’s far from all.

It is also calculated to ensure that Hamas secures further key, immensely far-reaching goals without having to meet the prime Israeli requirement for a deal: the release of all the hostages. In fact, Hamas can abrogate the deal, with all of its key goals achieved and then some, while continuing to hold almost all of the hostages.

Among those goals is one of the most central Hamas objectives since it invaded Israel on October 7 — seeing its declared war of destruction against the Jewish state expand to the West Bank. By extension, the terms of the document are also designed to destroy US President Joe Biden’s grand vision of Saudi normalization and a wider Middle East coalition against Iran.

A stream of ominous changes
Much has been made of the fact that, whereas Israel has repeatedly insisted it will not end the war as a condition for the release of the hostages, Hamas, in the opening paragraphs of its own sinister alternate proposal, specifies that one “aim” of the deal is “a return to a sustainable calm that leads to a permanent ceasefire.” But relatively speaking, that’s splitting hairs: The proposal conveyed by the mediators to Hamas late last month, and described by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken as an “extraordinarily generous” Israeli offer, reportedly provides for an “arrangement to restore sustainable calm” — which sounds like a near-euphemism for a permanent ceasefire.

Much has correctly been made of the fact, however, that, in the Hamas document, Israel is to cease military operations in the first six-week stage of the three-stage deal, in which 33 hostages are to be freed, and that the IDF must “withdraw completely” from Gaza and a “permanent cessation of military operations” must take effect before any more hostages are freed in the second stage.

Less widely appreciated is that the Hamas proposal states that, in the first stage, “internally displaced people in Gaza shall return to their areas of residence” and that “all residents of Gaza shall be allowed freedom of movement in all parts of the Strip,” with all Israeli “aviation (military and reconnaissance)” in Gaza to cease for much of each day.

Combined with a partial withdrawal of IDF troops as further specified for this first stage, the effect of these demands would be to enable Hamas’s gunmen and officials to retake control of the entire Gaza Strip. The Hamas proposal does use the word “unarmed” in one clause to describe the displaced persons who would be allowed to return to their areas of residence, but the accompanying demands and provisions mean that Israel would have no right and no means under the proposal to impose any such limitation.

Even more significant, and largely unrecognized, however, is the radical reconfiguration in the Hamas document of the terms and process for the release of Israeli hostages.

Many of the relatives of the 128 Israelis still held in Gaza since October 7, alive and dead, have pleaded, desperately and understandably, for a deal at any or almost any price, including an end to the war, in return for the release of all, most, or even many of the hostages.

But the Hamas proposal is structured to enable it to release very few of the hostages in return not only for an end to the IDF’s campaign in Gaza and its survival and resumption of full control there, but also for a planned surge in support for Hamas in the West Bank, the further neutering of the Palestinian Authority, and the potential major escalation of violence against Israel in and from the West Bank.

How so?

Gadi Taub: The Gantz Megillah

In the eyes of the Biden administration Hamas is the smaller problem. The bigger problem is Benjamin Netanyahu. The U.S. is willing to live with Iran’s proxies everywhere, as part of its “regional integration” policy—i.e., appeasing Iran. But they are unwilling to live with Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition. The stubborn Netanyahu clearly does not want to learn from his would-be tutors like U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken how to “share the neighborhood” with genocidaires in Gaza, Judea and Samaria, Lebanon, and Tehran, whom his electorate understands to be bent on murdering them.

If the Netanyahu problem is too big to contain, then it follows that it must be solved. And it seems that the Biden administration has zeroed in on what Tony Badran has called a Herodian solution: finding a local proxy who will impose the U.S. agenda on a reluctant Israeli electorate.

King Herod the Great won his throne because the Roman Empire stepped in and helped him defeat his Israelite adversaries. The American empire wants to help install Benny Gantz as Israel’s next prime minister for the same reason: The plan is for the administration to help him defeat Netanyahu, then for him to assemble a dovish coalition that will return Israel to the two-state track negotiations—which, though unlikely to produce two states, would nevertheless help “de-escalate” in Gaza, the last hot spot in the region where Iran’s power is actually challenged.

Since the whole Democratic Party’s Middle East policy is at stake, the pressure on Israel has been relentless. Never before has an American administration worked so systematically to undermine Israeli democracy and sovereignty, an effort that is especially shocking in the context of an existential war for survival following a heinous, large-scale terrorist murder spree. Wars provide opportunities, and it seems clear that the opportunity that the Biden administration saw in the Oct. 7 attacks had less to do with ensuring Israel’s security than it did with stifling any remaining resistance to Washington’s pro-Iran regional integration policy.

The U.S. is holding Israel on a leash by rationing the American-made ammunition on which the war effort depends; it has forced us to supply our enemies with “humanitarian aid” which Hamas controls and which sustains its ability to fight; the U.S. is building a port to subvert our control of the flow of goods into Gaza; it refrained from vetoing an anti-Israel decision at the U.N. Security Council at the end of March; it leaked its intention to recognize a Palestinian state unilaterally; it allowed Iran to attack us directly with a barrage of over 300 rockets and drones without paying any price whatsoever; and then told us that Israel’s successful defense against that strike (which was mostly stopped by a combination of superior Israeli tech and faulty Iranian missiles that crashed all over the Middle East, and to some extent by U.S. interceptors) should be considered “victory”; it consistently protects Hezbollah from a full-fledged Israeli attack; it did all it can to prevent the ground invasion of Rafah, which is necessary for winning the war; it is trying to stop the war with a hostage deal that would ensure Hamas’ survival.

The U.S. is not protecting Israel from the kangaroo courts in The Hague which now threaten to issue arrest warrants against Netanyahu and others. Instead, it is goosing those warrants, in part by itself threatening to impose sanctions on a unit of the IDF, thus subverting the chain of command and pressuring IDF units to comply with American demands rather than with orders from their superiors. At one point, Secretary of State Blinken outrageously asked for a one-on-one meeting with IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi (he was refused), treating the commander of Israel’s armed forces as if he was answerable to a delegate of a foreign power.

Meanwhile, the entire Democratic Party apparatus from Joe Biden on down has continued directly attacking Netanyahu in the harshest, most personal and demeaning terms, publicly proclaiming their contempt for Israel’s wartime leader. Biden called Israel’s elected prime minister “a bad fucking guy,” while Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer went so far as to explain to Israelis they made the wrong choice in their elections. Senior Democratic Congressman Jerrold Nadler went Schumer one step better, proclaiming Netanyahu to be the worst Jewish leader in “2,000 years”—i.e., in the period since Herod.

Jonathan Tobin: Biden’s double game on Hamas should fool no one

Preserving Hamas in Rafah
But once the IDF had backed Hamas into the last enclave it held in Gaza, Biden stopped talking out of both sides of his mouth and made it clear that he opposed Israel going into Rafah and destroying the last operational Hamas military forces that had retreated there.

He’s gone to great lengths and expense to support humanitarian aid for civilians in Hamas-held portions of the Strip and blamed Israel for interrupting the flow of supplies there, including the building of a U.S. floating harbor to assist in the distribution of food and fuel. That has happened even though it’s long been obvious that if there is any real privation there, it is solely because Hamas is stealing the aid that arrives and reserving it for its own use.

Just as troubling, he’s put the full force of American influence behind an effort to broker a ceasefire deal with Hamas that will essentially hand the terror group a victory in the war it started.

The terms of the proposed deals that Washington has backed are appalling. They call for the release of some hostages, but only a percentage of those Hamas is still holding under who knows what horrible conditions. And the pressure that Washington has exerted on Netanyahu to take a deal on virtually any terms and conditions—along with the way it has coordinated this with Hamas’s ally, Qatar—has given the terrorists all the leverage. That’s why Hamas continues to turn down even the most lopsided of agreements; its leaders are convinced that Biden will not let them be defeated. That means they think they can hold out for a deal that will end the war and return the situation to the pre-Oct. 7 status quo in Gaza and still not give up all the hostages, let alone be held accountable for mass murder.

Even when it comes to the surge in antisemitism in the United States, the gap between Biden’s Holocaust speech rhetoric and the reality of his policies grows wider every day. He may have chided the pro-Hamas protests for their violence, rule-breaking and antisemitism. But the only people trying to hold the universities accountable are his Republican opponents. There is no sign that the administration is willing to take any action to withhold funds from these schools.

Moreover, even though the protesters won’t forgive him for his pro-Israel statements and have labeled him “genocide Joe,” Biden has refused to break with openly antisemitic members of his party like Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.). Just as telling was his administration’s invitation to the anti-Zionist IfNotNow group that has spread antisemitic blood libels to a meeting about antisemitism and its inclusion of the pro-Hamas Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) among those who were allowed to give input on an antisemitism initiative that was nothing but virtue-signaling anyway.

Actions speak louder
So, while Biden’s Holocaust speech soothed the feelings of American Jews who are reeling from an unprecedented spike in antisemitism, especially at educational institutions where Jews have thought they were welcome, his actions speak much louder than those words.

An administration that is using every tactic it can think of to prevent Israel from eliminating Hamas can’t claim that it has not forgotten Oct. 7. Stopping Israel from going into Rafah isn’t about saving Palestinian lives; Hamas is all too happy to sacrifice as many of its people as necessary if that advances their goal of isolating and smearing Israel. It’s about an effort to convince American leftists and Hamas supporters that Biden isn’t as pro-Israel as he sometimes wants to pretend to be.

Having allegedly run for president in 2020 because of his supposed concerns about the hate on display from neo-Nazis at the August 2017 “Unite the Right” neo-Nazi march in

Charlottesville, Va., he is now trying to hold onto office by intermittently appeasing left-wing antisemites and undermining Netanyahu’s efforts to prevent Hamas from committing more atrocities on Israeli soil. The only calculus to judge Biden’s touting of the Holocaust or Oct. 7—or to determine if he truly cares about preserving Israel’s security—is whether he will let Hamas be destroyed. If not, all of his rhetoric about those subjects is nothing more than hypocrisy and hot air.

Continuing the series of logical fallacies that Israel haters - including academics who should know better - use when making their anti-Israel arguments.

46. The Half-Truth: "Israel had Baruch Goldstein, Palestinians have suicide bombers. What's the difference?"

47. Hero-Busting: "The Megillah itself describes a genocide by Jews planned by Mordechai!"

48. Identity Fallacy: "Israelis have stolen the Palestinian dishes of hummus and falafel!"

49. Infotainment: Every Pallywood picture and video.

50.The Job's Comforter Fallacy: "Allah turned Jewish sinners into apes and pigs."

51. "Just Do It": "Israel must be destroyed by any means necessary (even if that means murder, rape &c.)"

52: The Law of Unintended Consequences: "Since Israel cannot predict what will happen in Gaza, it is best that they don't do anything militarily."

53: Lying with Statistics: "Israel has 51 laws discriminating against Palestinians."

54. The Tiny Percentage Fallacy: "The number of Palestinians who actually try to murder Jews is quite small, don't exaggerate their importance."

55. Mala Fides (Arguing in Bad Faith): "Zionists partnered with Nazi executioners of Jews with the Haavara Agreement."

56. Measurability: "Antisemitism is a thing of the past; when you ask people if they hate Jews for no reason nearly all say they don't."

57. Mind-reading: "No matter what they say, Israel intends to kill innocent Palestinian civilians."

58. Moral Licensing: "Hamas supports a lot of poor people in Gaza; they are allowed to defend them by shooting rockets at Jews."

59. Moral Superiority: "Since Muslims are so much more moral than Jews, they can do whatever is necessary to destroy the evil"

60. Moving the Goalposts: "Okay, so there are witnesses to rape on October 7 who have come forward, but they are all unreliable."

61. "Mind Your Own Business": "I don't have to justify my tweets glorifying Hamas on October 7. Blocked."

62. Name calling: "Never read her column. She's an Islamophobic racist."

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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.