Monday, June 03, 2024
Elder of Ziyon
Ian seems to be under the weather. Here are some of the articles I've been tweeting and reading today; the linkdump won't be nearly as extensive as his are every day. Ian does an incredible job, day in and day out.
I'll start with one of my memes this weekend:
Here's the roundup:
Israel says it foiled a recent attempt by Hamas to carry out a suicide bombing attack in Israel, directed by members of the terror group in Turkey.The Shin Bet says that as part of the plans ahead of the attack, the would-be suicide bomber filmed a last will, took motorcycle lessons that he would have used in the attack, and received funds and instructions to carry out the bombing, including where to collect the explosive device from a hidden location in the West Bank.The large fragmentation bomb, weighing some 12 kilograms, was seized by the Shin Bet from a spring in the West Bank, the agency says. Next to the bomb, the Shin Bet says, it found written instructions on how to carry out the attack.
7th OCT: Hamas Strategy, Military Drills, Weapons Capability & Infiltration Monograph by Noor Dahri
Entire generations over the last 75 years have been indoctrinated by Palestinian Jihadist organisations in the name of land, race and religion and it will take decades to de-radicalise the young generation. The State of Israel and the regional and international peace-seeking communities should take serious steps to save the entire nation from political and religious extremism that has ruined three generations of Palestinians – from Freedom generation to Intifada generation to a Hamas generation in Gaza and the West Bank. Ultimately, Israel cannot stop the constant domestic and cross-border terrorist attempts against their people from different angles and tactics, and it is only a matter of time until the next one
The British chief prosecutor Karim Khan for the International Criminal Court (ICC) published an academic essay in 2013 that suggested his own current effort to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would be a travesty of justice because the court cannot provide due process to defendants.Khan’s academic paper places big question marks over whether defendants, who are hauled before the world court, can secure a fair trial.In one telling example of the cards allegedly being stacked against the defendant at the ICC, Khan wrote "[ICC procedures] allow[s] the prosecutor to submit and rely on anonymous summaries of witness evidence that may be significantly lacking in substance, coherence, or both..."With respect to heightened publicity and media buzz, Khan argued in his essay that the defendant faces another obstacle to a fair judicial process at the ICC. "In the case of a client suspected or accused of committing international crimes, the public perception of the client's guilt is often further magnified by the assistance of well-financed civil-society groups, nongovernmental organizations, and international media pushing a narrative that becomes accepted as the ‘truth’ even before the client appears in court."
Biden Administration policies have put Israeli soldiers in greater danger.To understand why the White House bears some responsibility, we need only look back upon U.S. Gaza policy over the last three months.On the eve of the month-long Muslim holiday of Ramadan, in March, the White House warned Israel to halt its military advance on Rafah. The Israelis had removed Hamas from the vast majority of the Gaza Strip. The IDF was on the cusp of destroying the terrorist group, defying the predictions of most Middle East experts. The U.S. warned that war during Ramadan could lead to a multi-front conflict the Israelis wanted to avoid. These warnings resonated with the Israelis, who had had first-hand experience with Ramadan-inspired conflicts in recent years. So they agreed to halt for a month.But when that month was over, and the Israelis readied for a renewal of the war, the White House moved the goal posts. The U.S. immediately began to warn of a potential humanitarian disaster in Gaza. The State Department went so far as to suggest that Israel could be guilty of war crimes in Rafah. The White House even threatened to halt the provision of ammunition to Israel, as a result of these purported fears. Never mind that Israel had kept the civilian to militant casualty count lower than any of America’s previous engagements in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Secret plan derailed when Doghmush group’s leader was executed
A secret Israeli plan to persuade a powerful Gazan clan to take power from Hamas was derailed when the terror group executed its leader, The Telegraph can reveal.The plan to install Gaza’s Doghmush clan – the most powerful in the enclave – failed after the group’s leader and several of its allies were assassinated, an Israeli intelligence source with knowledge of the plan said.The intelligence source said an attempt was made two months ago to encourage the notorious Doghmush family to take control when the fighting ends.“We offered the Doghmush control over Gaza,” the source said. “It ended disastrously.”“The short attempt ended with Hamas entering the clan’s compound, beheading its people, and the next day all the clans jointly announced support for Hamas.”
Acre in Firing Line as Hezbollah Targets Northern Israeli Towns
Hezbollah targeted multiple areas along the northern Israeli coast on June 2, setting off sirens and forcing Israeli civilians to seek shelter. Alerts sounded in the cities of Acre and Nahariya and other areas in northern Israel. Acre’s mayor, Amihai Ben Shlush, told Ynet News on June 2, “We’re prepared and have implemented emergency guidelines. Acre is another front in the war, and we need the full cooperation of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Home Front Command.”
On June 1, the Israeli military reported that 15 rockets targeting the Golan Heights were launched from Lebanon. The rockets caused several fires around the Katzrin area. Additionally, two drones crashed into open areas in the Golan Heights and started a fire. “Sirens also sounded in Kiryat Shmona, Metula, Kfar Blum and other northern Israel communities after a suspected hostile aircraft infiltrated Israeli airspace,” Ynet News reported.
One of the top private schools in the country has “devolved” into a “hotbed of Jew-hate,” parents charge.A Jewish student who graduated from the Ethical Fieldston School in the Bronx was tormented by classmates calling him an “ethnic cleaner” and a “colonizer” and even witnessed a teacher give rabbis the middle finger at an assembly, according to his mom.“Fieldston is a hotbed of Jew-hate and these terror-supporting students are the epitome of the ‘trigger warning’ generation,” Dr. Logan Levkoff said in an Instagram post.
University of Michigan regent’s law office vandalized with pro-Palestinian graffiti
Pro-Palestinian graffiti spray-painted on the exterior of a Michigan law firm is being investigated as a hate crime, police in suburban Detroit said Monday.
University of Michigan regent and attorney Jordan Acker calls the vandalism “antisemitic” and says staff at the Goodman Acker law firm’s Southfield headquarters discovered it this morning.
Splotches of red paint were left on the “Goodman Acker” sign above the building’s doors. “FREE PALESTINE” was spray-painted in black upon the building’s walls, while “DIVEST NOW” and “U-M KILLS” — a reference to the University of Michigan — were spray-painted in red upon at least one window and a sidewalk.
The Israeli women's national soccer team faced surveillance, harassment by hosts and rival players and a threatening atmosphere on the part of pro-Palestinian protesters at the European Championship qualifier between Scotland and Israel on Friday.The Israeli team's 4:1 loss to their superior Scottish rival will likely lose its sports-related significance in light of what the players experienced during their stay in Scotland.When the Israeli players left the airport, a number of cars followed the team's bus, forcing the driver to engage in various maneuvers to try to shake the tail. The effort was unsuccessful, and the location of the team's hotel was ultimately discovered.Dozens of demonstrators arrived to the hotel, some of whom managed to break into the building itself, photographing one of the players – who was forced to flee and hide in a bathroom stall along with one of the female staff members.
After Oct. 7, the first Shabbat-observant president of University of California Santa Barbara received a barrage of threats and intimidation. Armed with Jewish pride, she’s not backing down.Tessa Veksler is the first Shabbat-observant Jewish Student Body President in the history of the University of California Santa Barbara. Before October 7th, she was just another President who happened to be Jewish. After October 7th, everything changed. A day has not gone by without Tessa getting harrowing threats. But she is determined to follow in the footsteps of her ancestors who were also persecuted for being Jewish, and is standing her ground.
The new anti-Zionism among American Jewry explained - opinion
WHAT IS a particular Jewish trait, it would appear, is the extreme necessity of all the non-Zionists and anti-Zionists to constantly and loudly declare their orientations. It is as if they are possessed of a psychological need to declare “I’m not with them.” To parallel Descartes, their life’s principle is nego, sic existo – I deny, therefore I exist. Which recalls one of Pinsker’s complaints in his above-mentioned work: “How pitiful do they appear. Their homeland – the other man’s country; their solidarity – with the battle against us.”
Their acts and words of denial highlight just how deviationist they are. Judaism has known apostates who aided persecutions of the Church as did Johannes Pfefferkorn in his anti-Talmud efforts – or those, like Karl Marx, who adopted the memes of antisemitism. Nevertheless, the adoption of a denial of Jewish ethno-nationalism combined with what I term “transposed inversion” is a unique phenomenon.
The Washington Post Makes Hamas Claims Appear and Disappear
Hamas, like other totalitarian rulers, invests heavily in propaganda. The Gaza-based terrorist group maintains strict control over the flow of information and counts on its propaganda ministry to disseminate its views. But Hamas can rest easy; the Washington Post is on the job.The Post, like far too many other media outlets, has shown a propensity for treating Hamas claims like gospel. For example, the newspaper has frequently repeated casualty statistics supplied by the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry. Hamas has both a clear incentive to lie and a history of doing so. Moreover, Hamas’s own stats don’t include combatants. According to their “Health Ministry” everyone killed is a civilian.Yet, the Post has been undeterred. Not only has the newspaper insisted on treating the terror group as if it were a credible source they have defended doing so. It is clearly an editorial decision.The Post’s faith in Hamas was on full display in a May 27, 2024 article entitled, “Israeli strikes on Rafah safe zone kill at least 35, Gaza officials say.” Those “officials” are Hamas. And unsurprisingly they lied.
Recently unearthed documents reveal that leaders of an online news site aimed at Americans have received money from both Russian and Iranian government media outlets, showing how widening geopolitical alliances are making it harder to identify and trace foreign influence operations.Hacked emails and other documents from the Iranian government-funded Press TV show payments of thousands of dollars to a writer who is now a Washington-based editor for Grayzone, whose founder regularly appears on Russian television and once accepted a trip to Moscow for a celebration of Russian state-controlled video network RT that featured Vladimir Putin.The files appear to show that the Iranian broadcaster paid a Washington-based reporter for occasional contributions to its programming in 2020 and 2021 while he was working as a correspondent for Russia’s Sputnik news outlet.That reporter, Wyatt Reed, had nine bylines in the online publication Grayzone in 2019 and 2020, followed by a gap of 2½ years. He has had 24 more Grayzone bylines since mid-2023, when he was identified as managing editor.Grayzone posts content on the web, X and YouTube and has been highly critical of Iran’s regional enemy Israel and its supporters in the United States. Reed did not respond to repeated requests for comment. Grayzone top editor Max Blumenthal did not answer emails seeking comment.
Amazing how they suddenly are against transparency...
Even if one pores over every bit of publicly available data, it is difficult to estimate the true number of deaths in Gaza. The latest update from the Ministry of Health puts the figure at 36,379, of which 10,866 are based on "incomplete data." Unless the ministry can cite more than "reliable media sources" to document these fatalities, neither the U.N. nor the media should include them in their tallies. The ministry claims to have "complete data" for the remaining 25,513 individuals, yet the economist Michael Spagat, an expert on civilian casualties, found that the ministry lacked a valid I.D. number for more than 4,000 of the dead. Furthermore, the ministry says the list of records with complete data includes 3,715 cases where no body was recovered, but relatives reported the death in question.An educated guess of the actual number would reflect that the ministry has documented in the neighborhood of 20,000 deaths, while remaining silent about how many thousands are Hamas fighters.What we know for sure is that the U.N., the media, and the White House should stop treating data from Hamas-controlled sources as credible in the absence of independent verification.
The Anti-Defamation League filed a complaint against Jewish Voice for Peace with the Federal Election Commission on Monday, charging that JVP’s political action committee repeatedly failed to comply with federal elections law.Steven Sheinberg, the ADL’s chief legal officer, said that the U.S. agency had to hold the anti-Israel group accountable for its campaign finance violations.“Simply put, JVP PAC’s numbers do not add up, and despite repeated warnings from the FEC, the PAC has failed to correct the record,” Sheinberg said.
"When it comes to Queers for Palestine, what's richly ironic is that many LGBTQ Palestinians seek asylum in Israel – the same country these stateside protesters are rallying against," noted Billy Binion, associate editor at Reason, where he writes about criminal justice and government accountability."At the heart of this contradiction is the tendency within social justice movements to pick a clear protagonist and antagonist, the oppressed and the oppressor, and to proceed from there in one-size-fits-all fashion. Some progressives decided long ago that Palestine is the former and Israel is the latter, which is the seed from which everything must grow. Palestine, then, stands not only for anti-colonialism but also LGBT rights and reproductive rights, despite that those rights, in any meaningful sense of the word, do not actually exist there..."'Queers for Palestine' is about as convincing as 'minks for fur coats.'"
The inclination toward victimhood, complete dependency on the international community, and evasion of responsibility and self-criticism have supplanted a viable national strategy and replaced a coherent and actionable national strategy. Palestinians describe a tragic historical cycle imposed upon them, yet they avoid acknowledging that this cycle results from strategic choices made by both the public and their leaders. Within this framework, there's a notable refusal to recognize the connection between cause and effect (such as the opposition to the 1947 partition plan and the massacre on October 7 that triggered the current war). Instead, there is a persistent portrayal of Palestinians as eternal victims and Israel as the "absolute evil." This narrative persists while avoiding introspection and adopting passivity and fatalism in the face of disasters resulting from national decisions.
Amazon has come in for criticism since the start of the Swords of Iron war because of its silence over the fact that one of its employees in Israel, Sasha Troufanov, was abducted to the Gaza Strip on October 7. Troufanov works at the Annapurna Labs division of the company, which is responsible for development of the artificial intelligence chips of its cloud servers. Since October 7, apart from internal mail from the head of Amazon Israel to employees in Israel, the company has not officially commented on the abduction and has not publicly called for his release, as, for example, Nvidia did in the case of its abducted engineer Avinatan Or.It now emerges, from correspondence that has reached "Globes", that behind Amazon’s maintenance of a low public profile lies a policy. In the first weeks of the war, members of a Jewish Affinity group of Amazon employees outside of Israel were advised by the group organizers not to hang posters expressing identification with Troufanov, at the request of senior human resources people at Amazon.
He was among Amazon's first 100 employees, and served in senior positions in US tech companies, but the October 7 attack prompted Joshua Burgin to switch to a young Israeli startup.
In the shadow of October 7, the story of Israel’s rapidly growing space industry is easily overlooked. But it holds many of the keys for the nation’s future survival.
This could be the official motto of the anti-Israel movement.
— Avi Mayer אבי מאיר (@AviMayer) June 2, 2024
They should inscribe it on their flags, scrawl it on their posters, etch it on their foreheads.
"I ain't reading all that. Free Palestine."
Activism driven by willful ignorance. How perfect. https://t.co/q7u9nuqmh4
